Oulun Jäähalli -- Ice Hockey Time -- 9 Helmikuu 2006

(Yeah, sorry it has taken me so long to get this entry online . . . Taken from my journal entry on 2/9/06)

Tonight was Ice Hockey night! Jeeze, I love hanging out with some of the exchange students. We have good clean fun, and do so many different activities, that I never get bored (well except on the Rovaniemi trip, but that was a special case). Anyhow, back to the ice hockey . . . the first ice hockey game I ever went to was my sophomore year of high school. Don’t remember the names of the teams that played, but they played in Knoxville. I think it was Knoxville’s hockey team. I wonder if they still have a hockey team. I wonder if I am just making up that Knoxville has even had or has a hockey team. Well, tonight the two ice hockey teams playing were Kärpät (Oulu’s team) and HIFK (Helsinki’s team). It was so much fun. I didn’t expect it to be so entertaining. What made the night so interesting and entertaining were the Finns. Why? Well, the common stereotype of a Finn is blond, blue eyed, quite and reserved (until alcohol enters the picture), and only get excited on special occasions. Obviously, stereotypes can be misleading, but they also can be quite true.

About the whole blond hair, blue eyed Finn sure there were some, but there were also many other colors of people (skin, hair, eyes). Now here comes the interesting part . . . Thankfully we had rather good seats, not only because of the view but also because we were beside the pep section (much like the student sections at (American) football games).

This section of Finns did not fit the stereotype of quite and reserved. However, they did not even come close to the fervor of American football pep sections. In fact, when you looked around the arena . . . everybody except for our section was sitting down. Random bits of claps here and there. But when a goal was made for the Oulu team an unexpected uproar and hooping and hollering followed the point made. However, Finns as they are, they sat down in a matter of about 30 seconds. During half time, the arena almost cleared out completely leaving me wondering if they would even return. Well, they did and the same scene as depicted above was seen again. When it came to the end of the 3rd round it was tied and thus only four players and a goalie from each team could enter the ice arena. The first team to get a goal won. To Oulu’s luck they got the goal in first and won the game. For a second time in the whole hour and 30 mins or so the Oulu Fans (not in the “spirit section”) celebrated by standing out of their chairs to congratulate their team and then again about 30 seconds later cleared the stands and left.