This past weekend I travelled with my younger sister, Juulia, to
Jyväskylä. Jyväskylä is Finland's seventh largest city (around 133,000 inhabitants) and is home to many university
students. Our trip was to spend time with our eldest sister, Reeta, and her husband, Antti who live and study there.
We went by train on Friday morning and spent
through to Sunday afternoon with them. It was about a 5 and a half hour trip by train as it meanders a little out of the way. The way back we took the bus which took only 4 hours or so. We walked in the evenings around the river and the city, we made Anzac biscuits (a traditional Aussie biscuit that we sent overseas to serving ANZACs due to how well they kept) and we spent a day taking advantage of the city's numerous shops. Basically it was just a relaxing weekend of hanging out with family. Oulainen is quite a small town and not so close to big cities so it was a lovely little holiday and a great chance to spend a little time in a city and for me to see a new place!
Enjoy some photos from my weekend!
Taking photos in front of a random sign by the river... stick it into the translator and find out it's the sewer! Lovely!
Left: Princess Emmy! Can't do up my shoes with my cast on so the lovely Reeta helped me out! Made the sales assistant laugh! Right: So many bikes! Very normal to ride everywhere
My sister, Juulia, wanted to write all over my cast. "Juulia on kaunis kuningatar" translates to "Juulia is a beautiful queen"... Nice try kid, nice try ;)
So this is super difficult but I am typing this post with only one hand! Why, you ask? Because I am a ridiculous person who managed to survive months of cross country skiing and a week of downhill skiing with mere bruises but couldn't manage to walk to the bus stop without slipping over and fracturing my wrist... Yes, you heard right! On Friday I obviously wasn't paying enough attention and I just completely went bottom up on the icy step outside our house and fractured my wrist in the process of trying to save myself... Good one Emmy! It's not a huge problem though; painful and frustrating as I have a cast on it :'( but I'll live! I went in for more x-rays today (almost a week later) and I'm hoping to get the all clear from the doctor to have this cast taken off! Maybe so soon is a little unrealistic but I'm praying! It's such a pain when you're trying to get dressed or slice cheese or basically do anything! Plus, next week I am going on one of my Rotary trips! This one is a few days in Saint Petersburg, Russia! I've been looking forward to this for a long time now! Should be an awesome trip and I'd rather not have this cast on for it... so everyone cross your fingers for me that the verdict is good and I get this silly thing off beforehand! I'll keep you guys updated!
Last week one afternoon we went out onto the river and had a little fire. We had juice and grilled makkara (sausages).
Friday night through to Saturday morning was 'Yösäbä'. It's the annual floorball tournament that Oulainen holds where teams enter and compete against each other for the title! The tournament has grown over the years since it started and now there are many teams that enter from well outside of Oulainen and travel to take part in the competition. The tournament kicked off at 7pm with a game of Oulainen town council members against a mixed team of kids that had organised the event for the year. All of the games were great to watch. My sister, Riina, played in a team and they ended up winning the tournament! Woohoo!! It was a great night and the atmosphere was awesome! It was just held in the school gym but so many people came to watch and cheer everyone on. Especially towards the finals, the matches were very competitive and there were no dull moments! We left straight after the final and still we got home just before 6am on Saturday morning. I didn't even play and I was knackered! I had been up for almost 24 hours! It was worth the sleep deprivation though!
We have just had another week of exams as another set of subjects ended. Due to only having 3 subjects, I scored a couple of days free from school! Monday was one of those days, however I used it to visit the little primary school in the village of Matkaniva (where my current family lives, about 8kms from Oulainen's centre). My little brother, Sami, goes there and under 40 other students from grade 1-6. It is a very small school but quite nice just tucked into the countryside 10kms from town. At the school I did a little presentation about myself and about Australia to the students and the teachers. I had learnt a bit of Finnish and did the first part in it (introducing myself, where I'm from, my town and describing my family) to which they applauded! Whilst very basic stuff I was pretty happy with my effort; it's a good start! It all went well besides the point where one of the little boys in the front row turned around and there was a little fuss... There was a picture of a Redback Spider on one of the animal slides! I had put it in and wondered if it was a good idea or not, thinking that maybe I might scare some if the girls, I hadn't expected to scare the boys though! Turns out two of them had spider phobias... Whoops! When the English teacher explained it to me I felt so bad! I quickly downplayed them and move on as fast as possible to the dolphins and pelicans! Happy happy! Please don't cry... To my relief they recovered pretty quickly when the boomerangs were being passed around and they saw our colourful money and crazy 50 cent coin! Phew! I swear just over night everything has melted! One day there was ice and snow everywhere and now, in the place of all of the piles of snow, are just massive amounts of huge puddles which are seriously more like lakes! This must be a difficult time for Finnish parents trying to keep their kids out of the water! Everyone loves a good jump in a puddle, especially kids, but seriously, if you jumped in these ones you'd have to swim back up to the surface!... Ok, that may be a little bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea...
This is an example of what a 'puddle' looks like and this is just flat ground! There's water everywhere!
I have rediscovered grass and actual ground! After months of walking on either snow or ice, I have never appreciated asphalt and grass more! (Although grass isn't as nice to walk on at this point because it's so so wet but it's nice to see it again at least!) It has now stopped snowing and begun raining too (also not helping the puddle situation). The river that runs through Oulainen is flowing again and basically melted also, just some loose slabs of ice left on the banks. Each day is around 5˚C (give or take a few degrees) so it is warming up! Winter is over and Summer is coming! Well kind of.. this feels more like the dead of a really wet and cold winter back home. Whereas here, since it snug above the 0˚C mark everyone has started whipping out the summer jackets and said goodbye to the snuggly winter ones (I'm still using my winter one because I don't have another at this point... and also because I'm not used to this and 5˚C is still ridiculously cold! I want that big coat thanks!) I'm sure I'll get used to it though and even though Summer is much cooler here than Australia, it will probably be warm for me too after experiencing this winter!
Everything is wet and bit drab at the moment but I can imagine that once this passes and the water soaks away, this is going to be a very green and lush place! Summer will be beautiful!
View from my bedroom window; winter and then today (early spring). Not looking so nice now but soon enough it'll be green and beautiful!
So! It’s just been Easter and what an Easter it was! Very
different to what I have grown up with but it was a lot of fun! The Finnish
Easter is filled with many different little traditions and customs dating back
to who knows when!
Good Friday I spent the day with who will be my third family. Lamb is a centrepiece
to the Finnish Easter and that is what we had for lunch! We had a lovely
afternoon with lots of food, talking, and tobogganing. I took some spectacular spills
but it was a bit of a laugh and a nice day ended by seeing the Northern Lights for the second time!
Saturday was where the traditions really came out on show though! The day was
our usual Saturday which we spent cross country skiing. Just my host mum and
two of my sisters came out and we finished the whole 10.5km track! I was pretty
chuffed with my efforts considering I have only recently gotten the hang of it
and I haven’t before skied over 7kms in one go! I still took some spectacular
tumbles that I wish we’d caught on camera! I was in stitches of laughter at how
ridiculous they were! I have gotten the hang of going downhill now, my stopping
and turning were still an issue though and so when it came to a corner I was still gaining speed and just kept
going straight! I went straight into a huge pile of snow! I managed to
basically bury myself and I had to fight to roll out onto the track and try
and get up! If that’s not bad enough I managed to faceplant from a stationery
position soon after! I had recovered from the laughter at the first fall and moved
on. I was with my host mum and we were just coming up to another slight slope.
At this point I had basically completely stopped and she called out to me to go
faster so I could get some speed on the hill! I don’t know if I just
anticipated the next fall and decided to get it over and done with there and
then or what but I managed to just fall to the side and sort of lay my head in
the snow… I can’t even begin explain it… I was still standing; just I was
tipped to the side with half my face buried in the snow! I have no idea how or
why but it happened! Possibly the most ridiculous thing ever! I was in shock
and was quiet for a minute just leant over with half my head and face in the
snow as I came to terms with what had just happened! Once I had processed
what had happened I then had to take a few minutes to laugh at myself before I could calm down
and balance long enough to pull my face out of the snow and get going again!
Maybe I am not so good at skiing still but what I can say is that I am becoming
quite the professional at getting back up again!
After this mayhem of a skiing adventure we headed home and
out came old random clothes and head scarves and we dressed up as witches! We
had the ashes and soot from the fireplace dotted onto our faces to represent
disease and had sticks decorated with colourful bits and bobs in hand and off
we went! It is an old Finnish Easter tradition for the children to dress up as
witches and knock at the doors of neighbours where they will do a small chant
of good blessings and hand over one of their decorated sticks to the owner who
will reward them with lollies, chocolates and small change. It reminded me of Halloween.
Although, in Australia we don’t really get so involved in Halloween I think it’s
more an American thing, it seemed similar to the concept of ‘trick or treat’.
Except this had more meaning and tradition to it I think. We live in a sort of
spread out village so we don’t really have neighbours nearby but we do however,
have the grandparents’ house just at the other end of the driveway! In order to
maximise our goodies though we first of all went outside and turned around and
rang our own doorbell! Soile opened the door and feigned surprise at us being
there and we began the chant and the whole little gift giving exchange took place. We then went on our little journey to the end of the driveway and visited Mummo
and Papa (Grandma and Grandpa). It was all just a little bit of fun, dressing
up with all of my sisters and mucking around. The idea of the tradition though
is a mixture of a few things. The blessing with the branches have to do with Palm Sunday and the Christian faith and then it also mixes with the old tale that the day before Easter witches would come and do mischief and evil.
This little belief followed through til the night where it is traditional to light bonfires and the idea is that the fires scares the witches away. My host mum and my little sister and I went for a drive to see all of the bonfires dotted around the countryside and we stopped at a school where there was a large one and a community gathering. Nowadays, even though people may not believe these old tales, the traditions are continued and it makes for a really unique and exciting Easter!
I must be one very lucky exchange student because that day ended in seeing the Northern Lights too! So that made it up to three times in two weeks with two of those times being two nights in a row! Happy Easter to me! :D
Easter Sunday was very relaxed. It was also the day that the clocks changed here for the Summer. I don't really know why they change their clocks for the seasons. In Australia we have 'daylight savings' where we change our clocks an hour so that in the Summer we have an extra hour of light in the evenings and then we change them back for the winter. In Finland though in the winter there is basically darkness all of the day and night and in the Summer it is light almost all of the night as well as the day... What is the purpose of changing the clocks then? I don't really know but oh well! The sun is now setting around 9pm! Easter Sunday I went out with my sisters and my eldest sister's husband, Antti. We went to Ylivieska (a town about 30kms from Oulainen) and we went bowling in the afternoon!
Monday through until Thursday night I went on a holiday with who will be my parents in my third family. We went to Vuokatti in Sotkamo, about 200kms east of Oulainen. We went crosscountry skiing on lakes, I had a lesson in downhill skiing and spent 2 days practicing that, I tried savusauna (smoke sauna), went to my first real public sauna (not as weird as one might think! I think this Finnish sauna culture is really awesome!) and among other things we went swimming in hands down the coolest swimming hall ever! It was in the Holiday Club where there are all different things like sporting courts, restaurants, etc. There was glass around it so from each floor of the building you could see in and from upstairs in the restaurant you could look over it! It was like a little indoor Bali or something! Pretty cool with Palm trees, bridges and bamboo huts dotted around the place. It wasn't one singular pool but a series of spas, a bar you could swim up to and sit and eat and drink and lots of different things! There was a waterfall, and places where jets of water were coming from the ground and floor and pipes and everywhere! There was even a pool that lead you outside where you could swim! It was pretty cool!
Coolest swimming hall ever!
Took a dip in the cold pool and boy was it cold!! Close to the ice hole but not quite as cold I don't think...
Vuokatti! Downhill skiing! Top Right: Me all decked out in my gear! Top Left: View from the top, Bottom Left: Ski school Bottom Right: ... Yea I stacked it :(
I was out on the slopes practicing downhill skiing that I’d
just learnt the day before. Still well and truly an amateur with the potential
to kill myself on the kiddy slope I made the only logical decision and took the
lift right to the top! Standing at the top I looked down the slope. I knew in
that moment that maybe it wasn’t such a wise choice but there was no way down
other than skiing so taking a few deep breaths I came to terms with my certain
death… I stacked it so spectacularly that my skis actually came undone in my
rolling and some whopper bruises have come up on my butt, thigh and legs! Of
course I realised that it was rather stupid of me to have done that so what did
I do next? That’s right, I went up again!! Didn’t break any bones so it mustn’t
have been so bad...? Again I stood at the top looking out over everything. I stood
there and took a moment to seriously question my sanity and address the
question- “do I have a death wish?”. Oh well! Again, there was no other way
down than to ski so off I went! I was fine for a total of probably 2 seconds
and then I was, yet again, tumbling and stacking it right down the side of the steep drop
off! When I finally came to a stop with my skis wedged into the snow, propping
myself halfway up the slope I felt so absolutely ridiculous! That was until I
saw a man of around 40 stacking it right after me! YAY! I wasn’t alone! I laughed so
hard! How stupid the pair of us must’ve looked to all of those little kids on the jumps not
far from us! The man stopped not far from me and joined in in my laughter. He
said something to me that I immediately recognised as Finnish and without
thinking I asked ‘mitä?’ (what?). Oh ohhh! At home even when we are speaking English
I use ‘mitä?’ and other random words amongst my sentences. This has now become
a habit and without thinking I said it to this Finnish man on the hill! He
repeated for me what he had said and I just laughed awkwardly and did this weird noncommittal shoulder shrug and head shake that you wouldn't know was a yes or a no. Obviously even repeating
it wasn’t going to help me but he was under the impression now that I spoke
Finnish! He gave me the weirdest look and stared at me like he was waiting for an
answer. I got up as quick as I could and continued the rest of the way down the
slope! Too bad we were both on the same slope the whole afternoon! We kept bumping
into each other at the lifts, on the top of the hill, etc. He kept saying
things to me and I kept trying to muster up the courage to tell him I didn’t actually
understand but the longer I put it off the more awkward it got to admit to the
poor man that I didn’t actually speak Finnish! He was probably so confused by
me! I was very friendly to him, I laughed and smiled and listened to him but
just didn’t answer his questions or respond with any words at all… He must’ve been genuinely confused by me and thought I was an absolute nutter! I wasn’t being a
snob but I wasn’t exactly being polite by ignoring everything he said! Maybe he
thought that I’d taken my parents ‘don’t talk to strangers’ warning as a child
very seriously! Who knows! Oh well, our little encounter has become a little
bit of a funny story for me to tell and I’m sure I have become the same for
him! I’d like to hear his side of the story of the events of that afternoon! Would be a good
laugh I’m sure!
A view from the top! A little clip I took from the slope I almost died on... Ok, so it doesn't look so big in this but I promise it was really steep!!
Hey Guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I have done a vlog this time! Have a look at some pictures from this last month and check out the video via the link posted below!
Muumi Sculpting! Snow day at school. Beginning of Winter Holiday
Winter Holiday- Making Pulla (Finnish sweet buns) with my little sister, Emilia, and Host Mum, Soile.
Winter Holiday- Skiing on the river
Winter Holiday- Skating! No helmet and no chair! Training wheels are off! :D
Skiing through the forest on Saturday with my Host Mum and little sister. This was the day I finally got the hang of it! We skied 5kms!
So happy to have the hang of it I was back out the next day! Skied 7kms!
Around Oulainen
Some cool novelties! Top Left: Completely normal mode of transport in the winter- a sledge! Pictured outside the local supermarket (pronounced Ass-market) Top Right: Bottle depot machine in the supermarket Bottom Left: The pokies... In the Supermarket!! Bottom Right: ANGRY BIRDS! These little critters are everywhere you look! (Notice in the top right of the picture there are even Star Wars Angry Birds!)
My backyard on a really clear and sunny day! But don't let the sunshine fool you- it was -18˚C outside at the time! Brrr!!
Funny story! Wednesday I finished school early and so had to
catch the bus home. While waiting for the bus I decided to go to the
supermarket to look around. I was waiting at the checkout with only some pens
for school. There was only one register open and there were 2 people in front
of me. The guy in front of me sort of turned a few times and looked at me, I
looked away not quite sure what he was doing. He started talking to me in
Finnish and of course I had no idea what he was saying! As he was babbling about
who knows what, he sort of motioned in front of him and stepped back a little.
From the body cues I gathered he was letting me in front because he had a full
trolley yet to go through. Everyone around was watching the whole thing and so
to avoid explaining to him that I didn’t speak Finnish I just went out on a
whim and stepped in front of him and said “kiitos” (thankyou), hoping that was
what he had said to me! Luckily it seemed it was! He, the checkout chick and
the other customer already being served started talking and I just stood there
and tried not to make too much eye contact, hoping they wouldn’t try to involve
my in their conversation. I said ‘hei’ when it was my turn, was served,
motioned that I would use my card to pay and then said ‘kiitos’ and ‘hei hei’
(bye). This is what I call my ‘Survival Finnish’, it works at checkouts
perfectly fine as long as they don’t ask me any questions or try and start a
conversation!
Last week was the third year’s final week of school. The
second year students had organised a night at the middle school in the music
room. It was decked out in cool lights and they were dressed in cargo as it had
like an army theme. They had the third year students dress in cargo also and
made them commando crawl in under some desks! They had made a parody of a
popular song dedicated to them and they sang it and played a video clip they’d
also made. They had organised a bunch of activities for the third year’s to do.
Including, making a select few girls and boys go out and swap clothes and had them
imitate the guy or girl whose clothes they were wearing. I thought the guys’
impressions of the girls were quite hilarious! Obviously I had no idea what they
were saying but I was sitting there watching guys dressed in girls clothes
speak in a foreign language with girls voices which was enough to make it funny
for me! Another favourite of mine was when they strapped heart rate monitors to
some of the girls and challenged some boys to see who could raise the girl’s
heart rate the most within a certain time limit. So funny! These things and
many more happened and all of the younger students could come and just watch.
Going with the theme throughout these activities some people would pull out the
participants and make them do push ups for punishment for some reason or
another. It was a rather entertaining night!
The next day was Penkkarit… I had been warned but nothing
could’ve prepared me for what I walked into when I walked through those doors
into school the next morning! It is like the muck up day some schools in
Australia have except with like no rules and the vandalising of people is
accepted and even one of the major parts of it! It’s the day where the third
year students dress up and attack both the school and the younger students
because they are the eldest and they have finished! When we got to school that
morning all the windows and doors where covered so you couldn’t see what was
waiting for you on the other side. Riina and I managed to sneak up the stairs
and hide out for a while. We dropped our coats down onto the coat rack from the
balcony and listened to the screams of the students now arriving at school and
the laughs of the third years’.
We did well but it was inevitable… we were
caught and I was duct taped and glad wrapped to a pole in the cafeteria, drawn
all over with lipstick and squirted with water! The day was crazy! Every time I
managed to escape from the tape, I was bound again and again! I had so much
water tipped over me and sprayed in my face, lipstick drawn on me and lollies
stuck down my jumper! It was so funny though!
When I got the chance I walked around and had a look in all of the classrooms.
Each of them was completely turned upside down! Although, it wasn’t just like
they had vandalised it all, they had changed each of them and they each had a
kind of theme or décor. For example, they’d pitched a tent in one room with
litter and empty bottles strewn around as if it was an aftermath of some crazy
night, made a giant chess set in another, they had a teddy bear’s picnic, a room
dedicated to ‘Robin’ (the Finnish equivalent of Justin Bieber) where they had pictures
of him, his music playing and glow sticks, etc.
Even during lunch people were being snuck up on and taped to their chairs! After
lunch they went over to the middle school and took some of the madness out on
the younger kids too and then they were back over for their last part in the
school. It is tradition that the younger year levels in the Lukio ‘kick them
out’. We carried each of the third years out to a truck outside where everyone
in the town and all of the kids from all of the other schools were waiting and
watching.
It is tradition for them to then ride around the town in the truck
and throw out lollies and chant or sing or whatever they want. People walked to
the centre of the town and there we met the truck again and all of the third
years’ piled out and stood atop a pile of snow. There they all threw out more
lollies, yelled about how they had no mornings left at school and they set fire
to a school desk! They came down from the snow and continued their giving out
of lollies, drawing on the kids with lipstick and duct taping kids together! I
have never experienced anything so crazy before in my life! It was definitely a
new experience! It was so much fun to watch and also to take part in!
The next day was the Wanhat dance which marks the day that
the second year students become the oldest at the school. The closest thing I
can compare it to at home is our Formal, however it is actually really not much
alike that at all! Unlike our Formals where we go to dinner and dance just for
fun it’s more of a performance that they dance for people. These girls and guys
in the second year that wish to take part in it take it as a class in the
months leading up to the day where they learn the dance steps to a variety of
songs and even choreograph their own special dance that they present at the
end. They do have a special lunch at the school before the dance. They dance multiple
times; I watched the one that was on during the school day where all of the
students can come and watch. The girls aren’t just dressed just in nice dresses
like we do, but in ball gowns! They all looked like princesses! It was really
cool to watch!
After watching the Wanhat Dance Riina and I went to
Ylivieska, a town about 30km from Oulainen. There is only one clothes shop in
Oulainen so we went there for a little more variety! We wondered around, bought
a few things and all of that. All was good until it came to the cash register
at the big mall. Riina went through first and then I went through with my
things. First mistake: I walked up and said “Hei hei” meaning “bye”! The
checkout chick looked at me funny but ignored it. Then she started talking to
me… oh no! I just stood there while she looked at me, clearly expecting some
kind of answer to what she’d just said/asked… I just turned and called out to
Riina who looked up and said to me (the English speaker) “Mitä?” and then
turned to the Finnish checkout chick and asked “what?”. The chick, I think a
bit bewildered, repeated the question she’d asked me and then Riina turned to
me and began to explain to me… In Finnish! She realised and swapped to English…
All of the fuss was over if I needed a plastic bag or not! I said no and then I
proceeded to pay. I stuffed up my pin twice before I realised I was using a
different card and then I accidentally cancelled the whole transaction! The
poor girl on checkout put it back through and I put in my right pin! I think
she was glad to see the back of us! What an event! Definitely gave us a laugh
as we recapped in the car on the way home!
This Sunday for lunch my family went out to the primary
school. There they had a village meal hosted in the school’s gym. Everyone in
our village could come there and eat a meal of elk that locals had hunted and
prepared. We lined up and had a proper feeding, it was really good! I think it tasted
similar to lamb.
The night before last I went ice skating! Beforehand my host mum and I
popped into the local library and picked out some things to help me learn
Finnish and I even picked out some simple picture books to start learning
simple sentence structures. I picked up a form and I’m going to get my own
library card too!
We headed out to the ice rink afterwards. I have skated maybe
twice before in Adelaide but it was years ago, indoor and I held onto the walls
the whole time! So this was my first attempt at real skating! My host mum got
me to wear an ice hockey helmet the whole time which was probably a good call! Even
before I stepped onto the ice I was holding onto things and people! I discovered
how bad my balance really is! I could not have gotten to the chair fast enough!
All of the little kids stopped and stared at me leaning on this little chair and
wobbling along with my big helmet on! I think they were a little confused as to
why I didn’t know how to skate when they were like five and were flying around
on their skates and even going with only one foot! I heard my host mum explain
to one man that I was from Australia, immediately I could see his expression
change from confusion and curiosity to understanding and maybe a little
sympathy for my horrible skating abilities!
It was so much fun though and I only fell over once which was because Juulia thought it would be a good idea to get me to grab hold of her hockey stick and pull me along at a speed I was not ready for! I stacked it and could not get up! She had to fetch me my chair… It was a good night none the less! At the end I even managed to skate (quite badly but by myself none the less!) without the chair but not for very long or far… I think everyone out there had a good hearted laugh at the crazy Australian trying to learn to skate that night!
Incredible sunset and fog from my house- 5pm 20th February
