Photos you might miss

just a few photos that I love and wanted to share:

The melt

I believe a good percentage of the population is employed in snow removal. This is a common sight all winter long...workers clearing snow from rooftops and ice from gutters. Yikes!

The good news? There are puddles in Helsinki! The bad news? There are puddles in Helsinki!

The cold snap has snapped...I can only hope for good. The -26c was a little too much for me. It made it tough to bring Marieka outside and play. However, it was sunny and clear and the snow was dry.

Today was 4c, so snow is melting, puddles are forming, and snow is sliding off of roofs all over town (you need to pay attention to the yellow tape on the sidewalks...it means "watch out above!") Clearly, it is the wet season here. Rain boots are for sale everywhere, as if you remind you that the wet is arriving. Finns are big on safety vests and suits. Toddlers wear vests in preschool when they go out, adults wear bright yellow suits when they do snow removal, Rob wore a special suit while chopping down a tree...anything really. It is really safe. What they say is true.

It was a tough transition from beautiful and small Mikkeli and Niislia to Helsinki. It isn't noisy here...it is eerily quiet at times. It is a city, though. The skiing isn't right next door. The frozen water already has footsteps spoiling the pristine snow...and our "Finland Family" isn't here. Saija, Mikko, Kate, Ella, Assi, Binh, Eija, Matti and Elsa. They were always up for fun, fun stuff in the deep, deep snow. And then food was provided afterwards. Even better!

We have met an Italian family in our building, who have a 2 year old daughter Viola. I love Viola, because she can hold her own with Marieka, even though they speak different languages. Marieka was sharing Moomin cookies with her, and when she wanted more, she was very clear "Marieka...(insert really sweet baby Italian here)" It is great to have a fellow mom here. We have already done a walk, and plan to swim this weekend (though they may have to postpone due to a protest against Berluschoni, their president, who is in town on Friday. There are many Italians really disgusted by him in Helsinki. We may join in. Why not?)

I am visiting the Helsinki Normal School this week. I have had the opportunity to talk to many students about their research habits. I find that students feel good about their research skills, they like wikipedia (though their teachers tell them how bad it is all of the time!) and they use the public library pretty regularly. I am starting to get a picture of how it is done in Finland.

You think YOUR checkout system needs to be upgraded...here, students fill out paper slips for materials they want to check out. There is no record for other patrons as to if the item is in or out...it is not very user friendly!

No call numbers. It is a mystery to me how they find materials.

More taxidermy in school. I am a bit obsessed.

More importantly, Marieka cannot WAIT to skype with Gwen on Friday! Yahoo!

The Finland I was looking for

Mikko next to his school's library.

\For the past 5 days, we have been in Eastern Finland, in the Savo region, visiting our friend Mikko and his family Saiya, Assi and Ella. They live in Mikkeli. He was in the US in the fall, doing the same program that I am now.

The three DAT Americans in Finland, myself, Binh and Kate, as well as Eija, the other Finnish Fulbrighter last fall, were invited to visit schools in Mikkeli and do "Finnish Wintertime Activities." Mikko, his entire family and his community have been so welcoming, so gracious, so amazingly generous with their time, their houses, their ideas, their students, their food...I can't quite describe how fun it has been.

Marieka got to go to Ella and Assi's daycare, where they welcomed her with open arms, even though she doesn't speak a lick of Finnish and just wanted to play by herself with the Moomin characters; we were invited to a very elegant dinner at an historic farm, and served caviar and deer;Historic house and dinner. There is a lot of taxidermy in this country. Perhaps that should be my research?

and every school we were at spent lots of time explaining their approach to teaching and learning, allowed us to talk and interact with students and poke our noses into any nook and cranny we wanted to see or ask about. Library at the Vocational School
Boys learn to sew in Finland
I even got to help the LPN students in the Vocational Training School learn how to hold open the mouth of a person in a coma. I was a fabulous model.

We finished the week with avanto, which, for those of you who don't know Finnish, means "ice hole." And, we went in one. In swim suits. Outside. Pictures to come. Rob won the hard man award for actually backfloating in the water. Very impressive. We also went skiing on the amazing publicly maintained and lighted ski trails (in the dark, -20F...), walked on the frozen pond, ate reindeer at a local cafe (ok, I didn't, but everyone else did) and spent the weekend at Mikko's parent's house, 3 hours north of Mikkeli, next to a frozen lake. We snowshoed "over the hill" to his grandmother's house and had a sausage cookout on the outside fireplace. His grandmother, 92 years old, still lives in her own house overlooking acres of former strawberry fields. It was pretty magical.Maccarra *sausage* cookout at Mikko's grandmother's house.
Saiya on our snowshoe walk. The trees looked like they had been sprayed with snow.
View towards lake from Mikko's parents house.

We tried icefishing (I drilled the hole...avanto again...but no luck) and Rob went with Mikko and Binh to chop down a tree. There is 80cm of snow on the ground, and I can attest to it, after falling in to my waist a few times. The birch and pine trees are covered in thick layers of snow, and I think we saw a bear's nest.
We will sauna and ski tomorrow before heading "home" to Helsinki. Rotating restaurant we ate at at top. Just above ski jump site in Kuopio. Pretty amazing.

As I said, this is the Finland I have been looking for.

I promise pictures.

How the Scandinavian parents stay sane

We woke up today to -27C. What does that mean...besides really cold? -15 F. Still cold. In Olympia we would be playing outside, riding bikes, running, walking around downtown. In Finland, you play and run inside as much as possible.

Yesterday, we checked out the Kiasma Museum of Modern Art. It is just 10 mins from our house, a very cool building built to resemble the Greek letter 'chi'. While we couldn't really experience that from the street, it was still pretty cool to look at.

Inside was less impressive. Only 2 exhibits were open..so we spent about 10 minutes walking through some pretty experimental art...for 16euros. Hmm. Luckily, they said there was a kid art session happening on the 5th floor. Whew! We took the elevator up and found a wonderful creative playground for kids- painting, building and lots of fun stuff. It was packed. Clearly other parents felt it was worth paying the entry fee for a warm place for their kids to play. Marieka thought it was pretty fun.
Like everywhere in Finland, as soon as you enter, you take off your shoes and jacket and hang your stuff up. Parents put covers over their shoes to keep everything clean, kids run around in socks. Or even adults cruise around in socks. It is a good habit, and one that helps public and private places stay nice and clean.

After the museum, I broke down and bought a dvd player. I wanted to watch movies on a screen bigger than my little netbook. And with the rental place just 3 blocks away, I was looking to watch some cheesy movies, starting with "Eat Pray Love." I wanted to watch a movie in warm climes. It hit the spot. And Marieka got to watch Curious George. Everyone was happy.

Sunday, we had a date with Svetlana and Daniel for the 9am playgym at a public gym near her house, a few metro stops away. Rob was going to get off a little earlier and ski to us. At least that was the plan.

As soon as I stepped off the metro, Svetlana called with the sad news that the kids gym time had been cancelled. There were tons of families wandering around, wondering what to do. Many like us, went to the huge mall next door. Nothing was open, but it was warm. We wandered around (and discovered another amazing thing...the comfortable bathroom at the mall! It had changing tables, a nursing area with soft chairs, and bathrooms equipped with mini-toilets for kids. I am constantly amazed with the kid-friendly-ness of this country.) After some running at the huge empty mall, it was off to "HopLop" http://www.hoplop.fi/
a play gym about 15 mins away. Even though Daniel doesn't speak English, he was pretty clear about his excitement for the "shooting game." I hoped there was more than just that!
Holy Moly! Was there ever more than the shooting game! It was a huge webbed tunnel, slide, obstacle course for kids. There were cars you could ride and cars that drove. Air hockey. A play house with plastic food. A bouncy house. Slides, jump ropes, everything you could imagine. While Daniel took off up the climbing structure, Marieka took her time...driving a plastic car around the cafe area that all the parents were sitting at. "Thats my girl!" I thought, until I heard "Momma, help" (and being the only English only speaker there)I looked up to find her a bit over her head...luckily, the structure is made for parents too, so I wound my way up to her and we chased each other around for awhile. We spent over 2 hours there (which was a good thing, since unlike the public gym, this cost over 10euros) but it was completely worth it. Check out the fun to be had:
Marieka driving Daniel around in the motorized car. This lasted about 1 minute.

A "bag swing" perhaps my favorite thing at Hop Lop!

Just like Ikea...which is the next place Svetlana wants to take us to play. We drove by it...it looks twice as big as the one in Renton.
Seems like HopLop is just a franchise waiting to happen in the Northwest!

Just in case you are worried that we aren't doing the regular tourist thing as well, here are some pictures from our walk home the other day. About 8 blocks from our house:

Probably the most famous site in Helsinki, the "Big White Church" aka Tuomiokirkko The white neoclassical Lutheran Cathedral of HelsinkiThe view from the church over Senate Square. The big boats can be seen over the buildings.

Tomorrow, I meet with one of the 3 people in Finland doing research about school libraries in Finland. I am very excited about getting some insight from her. Then Tuesday, it is off to Eastern Finland and a visit for the US Fulbrighters in Finland to fell Finnish Fulbrighter Mikko! We are excited to see Mikkeli schools, meet his family, and do "typical Finnish winter activities..."

Swimming in Finland

When Rob and I coached girl's high school swimming a few years ago at River Ridge, we had an exchange student from Germany. The first week, I always ran them through all the strokes to get an idea of where they were at. The first day, she started doing length after length of breaststroke. I said "I want to see crawlstroke please." She said "We only swim breaststroke in the town I am from." I thought, sure, only breaststroke. I let her know in Lacey, we did all the strokes, and she quickly fell in line.

However, I have been to 2 swimming pools in Finland, and yep, just like this mysterious German town, they all do breaststroke! Lap after lap of breaststroke. Even the strong swimmers! The outside lanes are waterwalking (and there is lots of that going on) and the inside lanes are breaststroke. I saw a couple people doing crawlstroke and backstroke, quite well, I might add, so it isn't for lack of physical ability. I think there is something to this "we only do breaststroke" thing this girl told me 10 years ago. Perhaps its a "Northern Europe" thing. I will say, I got a few sideways looks at my crawlstroking...

Breaststroking and water walking. Note the piles of snow outside the window.
It was a beautiful view!

The pool we went to today had a lap pool, a gradually deeper "learner's pool," a warm and shallow kids pool (temp listed: 32c...yumm!), a warm and slightly mysterious pool with a section that had lots of jets from all sides, and another wall with water dumping down from large spigots...then...the "freezalators" as Marieka named them...2 side by side pools with clear walls (enabling everyone to see what is going on underneath...) that were 10C and yes...0C. We were all interested in these pools and watched them for a long time, trying to decide if they were serious. Did people actually get in them or were they just for show?

note 'jacuzzi' pool in the background.and water feature in middle. not sure what that was for.

Rika and I put our hands in...brr. Rob did a whole dunk, in and out. He reported that it took his breath away pretty darn quickly. However, we watched some more experienced Finnish women dunk themselves right in, sit there for a few moments, and get out, like it was no big deal...something to try...sometime. I will need to try a "freezelator" sometime, I guess.

Post swimming snack. Cafeteria above pool as well as parking for strollers.

On not speaking the language

Much of our time is spent planning our method of going somewhere, figuring it all out before we go. Finnish is a tough, tough language that doesn't look anything like English. At Hesburger the other day (a Finnish hamburger chain), I wanted to get french fries (decadent, I know) and I couldn't figure out what they were...there were so few pictures of the food available. I settled for "wrap" figuring I knew what that was. As usual, the nice young man behind the counter new English, so we were ok. (I later learned that many of the young people working in restaurants are college students studying for their entrance exams, a "gap year" before entering the University. Entrance is very rigorous and competitive. Thus, many people in service jobs are well educated and know English. Which we are grateful for.) The wrap was a little odd, with too much mayonnaise for my taste, and some randomly placed sliced jalapenos...probably should go for the fries next time.

But even more striking was an experience we had on the metro the other night. We were heading out to Russian Drawing Class at the Swedish school in a local suburb...I know...it's complicated...anyway, as we were getting on the elevator to get on the Metro, a young man, who looked a bit disheveled, but not much more than many of my students, started talking to us in Finnish. We tried to look disinterested and really busy waiting for the elevator to arrive, but he kept going. We finally just said "We speak English." So, he quickly launched into perfect English...asking for some money or help with something or another...luckily, the elevator came, and we ducked away with a quick "Sorry." But what a deal. Even the people struggling in a country know more languages than I do.

Finnish is the official language, but so is Swedish. It is very funny to me when we find ourselves looking to the Swedish on signs (most signs are in 2 languages, sometimes 3, the 3rd being Russian!) for clues as to what is going on. Last night, I listened to Rob read Marieka a Moomin story in Swedish. It made some sense. In Finnish, I wouldn't have understood a thing. The anonymity of not knowing a language is at times freeing (I have never been one to be oblivious so practicing not getting it is a new experience!) and at other times restricting (what kind of milk am I really buying??)

Off to more new things...a new swim pool- hey- at least it is warm in there!

Meeting people

Here is a picture of Marieka and Rob at breakfast this morning. Please note the characters that are eating with Marieka. She is pretty obsessed with these characters...we need to find her some friends!

Yesterday, after a failed attempt to attend class at the University (prof didn't show up, apparently there was a reschedule that no one knew about...) I met up with Svetlana, the international staff coordinator for University staff and researchers. We had hoped that Marieka would be attending preschool (or "kindergarten" as they call it here) however, the public kindergartens have a huge waiting list, and the private ones cost upwards of 26euro an hour!

Yikes!

Never fear, though...Svetlana had a plan! Whew! She has a 4 year old with a schedule that would rival my aunt Marylou's! Ice skating, downhill skiing, swimming, playgym, art classes-I got tired just hearing about Daniel's schedule!! And, a nanny who is able to watch Marieka for much less than the kindergarten costs. So, tonight, we are going to Russian art class for 3 and 4 year olds (yes, in Russian. Its going to be amazing!) Tomorrow, we meet Genja, from Estonia, who doesn't speak a lot of English, but has a 5 year old of her own and is "very gentle and kind" with kids, and Sunday, off to the playgym, for running and tennis, and trampoline and all sorts of parent and kid activities. We are really looking forward to seeing this other side of Helsinki...the side beyond survival of groceries, buses and map reading. Svetlana is excited to find an English speaking friend for Daniel (he knows Russian and Finnish, you know...)

This morning, I took a long run along the frozen Baltic. I saw the big boats from Stockholm and Tallin arrive through the partially frozen bay. Didn't get pictures myself, but here are some stock photos...they are HUGE!
From my house, I ran downtown, and found a beautiful trail right along the water. To one side, apartments reminiscent of those along Central Park, the other side, frozen snow covered water as far as you can see, with small little islands breaking up the view. We hope to visit an island this weekend.

Research is coming along. I have developed a research question I think, along with a series of sub questions. I am meeting with Eija, a Fulbrighter this year who works at the National Board of Education and hope to meet with the "library person" there as well tomorrow. Next week, we visit Mikko, another Fulbrighter, in his town of Mikkeli for the week. He sent us an email in Finnish yesterday, the first sentence said "you have been here long enough" and proceeded to explain our schedule in Finnish. Ah, he is a funny guy! And he has 2 kids Marieka's age...yay...along with plans for us to meet with teachers and principals in his area and do "typical Finnish winter activities"...bring 'em on!