Today and February 27th

Well, a few comments about today and the past week in archaeological field school . . . Last week was simple beautiful every single day and warm . . . However this week has started out cold, is suppose to rain tomorrow and the next day, I will wear my down coat tomorrow, and hard pan (a iron rich substance, rock like material) seems to be the only thing I can find while we unearth our site. Nevertheless, I did find a quartz scraper! Picture of that later. We are also finding a great amount of decaying ceramics (I may have accidentally chopped right through some in my annoyance with all of the hard pan . . . all I can say is oops). Anyhow, we also have found an interesting layer on several pieces of ceramics. It looks like glazed material. However, five-thousand or so years ago it was thought that they didn't have kilns. There is an area in the east part of our trench that MAY have a POSSIBLE kiln. More later . . .

Now, this next entry actually happened February 27th. Yes, I know quite the delay in posting, but here it is now :) Enjoy . . .

Obviously back in February there was quite a bit more snow and it was on the chilly side of the temperature scale. Nevertheless, I and my roommate Eva decided to attempt a daily activity for some of the Finnish peoples . . . Ice Hole Swimming!! Yes, I know crazy as it sounds, me, Betsy Caldwell, went into freez’n cold water in -7˚C (20˚F) weather! The day couldn’t have been more perfect! It had been down to around -18˚C (0˚F) or thereabouts. Thus, -7˚C (20˚F) wasn’t all that bad. The sun is what really helped out. At first thought, one might think I was actually swimming in a “hole.” Well, I think they call it “ice hole swimming,” because it originally did have a hole that you would swim around in. However, where I went was an area of the river that is kept unfrozen by H2O pumps that help circulate the H2O so that it doesn’t freeze. I think the place is at Tuira up from the hydroelectric plant. There are dressing rooms for men and women. Thankfully, they are warm ones (Well, I was told that the men’s dressing area is warm; haven’t actually been there).

First thing I noticed about my surroundings in the changing room was that most of the women there were most likely 60 and up (probably even close to 70; of course I may be pushing that guesstimate). They come to ice hole swimming practically every day! They spend about a minute or 2 breast stroking around in the freez’n cold H2O. Oh, even the men that were there were most likely in later 60s. There were 3 guys our age, but they were practicing for the Oulu Ice Hole Swimming Championship.

The girl who took mine and Eva’s pictures did a wonderful job by taking them in sequences – from beginning to end –. Eva and I braving the cold (left). Me getting ready to take the plung! (Right)















Yep, in the water. Thumbs up; I am done and outta here ;).