Jyväskylä, Finnish Easter and Circus

taking a photo of taking a photo

Haven't posted in awhile because have been quite busy. Along with the usual study, job search, work, school, etc. Niko and I have had many adventures. First off, earlier in the week we visited Jyväskylä. Jyväskylä is a city in central Finland, about 2-3 hours from Kouvola. It is one of the larger cities in Finland, not as big as Helsinki but still quite large. We drove and walked around the city a bit, had some food at a pizza buffet, then continued our journey. It was raining (and yes, even had small snow at points), but that didn't stop the checkers from finding someone parked in a pay spot with their ticket expired. The checker left them a ticket a minute later.

This past Sunday was Easter. I already posted previously about the children witches and their magical wands and how they get giant chocolate eggs with toys. But I HAD to try the traditional Finnish Easter food of Mämmi. This strange food is a dessert made out of rye, sort of porridge like and can be eaten with sugar and cream or ice cream. It has been around for centuries in Finland. It is sold in almost every store or you can make it yourself. But it also has the worst reputation of any Finnish food, because of it's horrible appearance. It is the source of endless jokes and horror for those who don't have knowledge of it or understand it. And not only that but many Finns can't stand it. In fact, I don't think even Gordon Ramsey would eat this stuff. It's one of those foods that if you ask ,What does it taste like, there is no real answer, but to me, the closest thing I could come up with was that it reminded me of raw gingerbread dough. So I think I'll pass eating it in the future, but it was fun to try.

There is another holiday in Finland, starting in May (or April, or last week, depending on where you live) called Vappu. It's a festival mostly for those around student age, lots of parties and the students get to wear their graduation caps and pants that show what they study and like many holidays it has it's own food and drink including Sima. It can be either alcoholic or non, the version we got was store bought and more of a soda type drink. But it's a fun time for students to take it easy before and after exams and it's a big deal in Helsinki, especially.

The last adventure of the week was going to Sirkus Finlandia (Circus Finland). It was fun. There were acrobats, horses, dogs (watch the video!), clowns and all the music was from a live band.

The weather here has gotten much warmer. The snow is completely gone from the roads and walkways, only the big piles that the plow and machines piled up are left. I have put my woolen coat away, though I did wear it on the trip to Jyväskylä, the snow boots are gone, no more hat or scarf or gloves and I even wore shorts today. I have made quite a few treks (walks) to the city center, which is about a 20-30 minute walk and it is much nicer to do so now than trudging through snow. As you can see in the photo, Finland now has blue skies and grass and even flowers begin to show. It's so warm here (60-65F btw, 20C today) that everyone says ,Kesä tulee kohta, (it will soon be summer), which I find absurd, but still enjoy the nice weather and sunshine. On the other hand, it also means the day is longer. The sunrises around 5:30am now and doesn't "set" until after 8:30pm, but it doesn't get dark anymore. The nights are now a shade of dark blue and as the days progress, it will get lighter and lighter longer and longer. It means you can stay out, go out, do things later than one might normally in USA, and since it never gets dark, the weather doesn't drop much, so it doesn't get that much cooler in the evenings than during the day.

Hope you enjoy reading.  Have some Sweet and Sour chips...


Vocabulary (links to come when forvo returns)
city in central Finland : Jyväskylä
Happy Easter : Hyvää pääsiäistä
Easter food porridge dessert thing : Mämmi
holiday in April/May : Vappu
Vappu drink : Sima
circus : sirkus

Häät keväällä

Haven't posted in awhile, haven't taken many photos because I've been so busy since I...got married! That's right, Niko and I went to maistraatti Friday morning (8th), had a nice short and sweet ceremony and so now everything is official. We had a fantastic meal at Rosso's and had some profi photos taken at the lake where Niko proposed to me and relaxing sauna in the evening.

Since then, life has been a flurry of forms, deadlines, trying to figure out what needs to be done before form a can be filled out and whether form b needs copies at the same time as form a or if we should wait until form a gets approved, and then there's form c which needs to be filled out together, etc, etc, etc. There have been many walks to the library to make copies and print-outs.We also put in our bids for apartments in August-should be interesting!

The most interesting forms so far have been the residence permit ones. Finland requires that both Niko and I have separate forms to fill out and our answers should match (well, why wouldn't they). Even though he fills his out in Finnish and I am filling mine in English. It asks the basic information: name, address, background, how long have you been here, but then there are questions about how Niko and I met, when I have visited, in which languages we communicate in. And in the end I get to write my own essay to convince them I am a good candidate for resident permit. It's possible they just approve me based on the paperwork or there's a chance that we will be required to go in for an in person interview. If approved, I get a permit for one year and then can renew it every year thereafter. Wish us luck!

In weather news, it is much warmer here and the snow is melting! I actually went outdoors for the first time without my heavy woolen coat and the walking paths (well 85% of them) are free of snow so soon I can actually retire my snow boots and wear...sneakers!

For a bit of entertainment, enjoy this video of my cell phone service provider, Saunalahti.
It's astounding the number of Finns who think this is a real advertisement until the end...

Mistä minä saan oman laamaessun? ... Where can I get my own llama apron???

spring: kevät
wedding: häät
married: naimisissa
lake: järvi
where from: mistä
to get: saada
llama: laama

t. Kati

Spring, Lappeenranta and Battle Swiss Roll

snowfall

Since the first day of spring it has snowed many times, as you can see by the photo. Some were light snows, some were quite heavy and windy. So here it is April, and the ground is still covered in snow. I didn't find it so strange until I found out that even in Canada, the snow is gone.

Welcome to Finland.

walking path

The other day I walked to S-Supermarket in Lehtomäki in search of Nutella. Since it snowed again, the walking paths were covered in snow again. S-Supermarket is the furthest market, with Siwa being about 5-10 minutes away and K-Supermarket being about 15-20. But it was a nice walk and I bought some snacks for the road for our trip to...Lappeenranta.

you are here

LUT logo

click photo to read sign. note the swedish also

Niko had to get a stamp for his ID card and get some books from the university library so we took a day trip to Lappeenranta. We took care of the stamp and books and then had some lunch at the university cafeteria. After that we drove closer in to the city, as the university is actually on the outskirts, and just wandered around, visited a cafe and then headed back. It was warm outside as you can see on the sign. +4C (39F). On the way back we stopped by an ABC (gas station with market inside) and we considered going on the swingset outside but decided there was too much snow.

i promise there are swings under the snow

In other news I decided to announce Iron Chef Finland (sorry, no such thing) and declare Battle Swiss Roll and try my own attempt at a swiss roll, but this time with Nutella, strawberry jam and bananas. I think it turned out ok. It was definitely fun.

In side news I made a donation to Doctors Without Borders and just wanted to mention them and their site for anyone that isn't familiar with them and their work. I'm also posting a link on the side of the blog if I can figure out how.

Vocabulary
tuuli  tuulee : the wind blows
Lehtomäki : the area of town S Market is (could only find person with last name in forvo)
Lappeenranta : city where LUT, Niko's university is
ilma : weather
tie : road

...and for your viewing entertainment: America's Worst Driver

t.Kati

Spring, Swiss Roll, Donuts

The first day of spring came and went in Finland. As you can see, the snow is melting. You can begin to see some green from the trees. And you can even tell what color the cars are under the snow. When walking to the market or to class, pavement peeks through. The top layer of packed snow melts which reveals a layer of ice underneath with some more snow underneath that. The snow piled up on the side of the roads has melted some so you can actually see the cars in the street as you walk past.

And then it snows again.

We actually had some warm days here in Kouvola. The sun shone brightly and the temperatures reached +7 (40s F). And for one day the ice on the walking paths melted even more so there were places big enough to put your shoe in without snow. The snow melted into small rivers at points which flowed into the walking tunnels that are built under roads to get pedestrians across the street without having to cross traffic. The tunnels are decorated too; there is one I walk through to get to school nicknamed the Dolphin Tunnel due to the dolphin art inside. And the snow melted enough that we were able to discover that that car on the right... is white. I was betting orange, Niko bet red. And at the moment there is little to no snow on the trees. But it's a warm day today, +2 (low 30s), though tomorrow and the Friday it will fall back down again to -4 (low 20s).

But enough about the weather and eternal snow of Finland. It's more fun to write about food. Like Swiss Roll. And bagels. And donuts.

Last night after class/work Niko made us Swiss Roll. Unlike the Hostess/Little Debbie version, there is no chocolate, but it consists of dough, whipped cream, jam and fruits. Last night's version used strawberries and banana slices. It was very tasty and we plan to make many more versions in the future.

This morning, after running an errand, Niko and I walked to the shopping center and stopped by Arnolds, a wonderful little bakery/coffee shop with donuts, coffee, muffins, cinnamon roll (Spinny) and...bagels. Real bagels. I had a delicious veggie bagel (with artichoke-so hard to find here!) and they had a special deal where if you buy a bagel you can get drink and donut for cheap as a sort of combo so I got a hazelnut donut and Niko got a fudge one. After the bagel sandwiches (which taste just like American bagels btw), we decided to save the donuts for tonight, which is the only way I could have managed to take a photo of them. Donuts in Finland (at least the ones I have tried) are more cake-y compared to a Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme but they are still definitely delicious. Plus the flavors are completely different here, like white chocolate and licorice and the mysterious pomade-is it strawberry? cherry? apple? no idea...)

Life is always an adventure here.

Vocabulary
kevät : spring
kääretorttu : swiss roll
ostoskeskus : shopping cente
donitsi : donut
sataa lunta : it's snowing (literally: it's raining snow)
mansikka : strawberry
banaani : banana

Helsinki and Jytky Day

We went to Helsinki yesterday and there's really not much to report. It was my first time in the city and I can't say I was much impressed. Lots of construction, lots of car, taxi, bus, trolley traffic, lots of people, lots of English, lots of noise.That being said, the variety of restaurants are massive and all the food looks and smells good. Before I went to the Embassy we stopped by Wayne's Coffee where we ate muffins and drinks. The muffins were way sweeter than the standard muffin from America but it was still very tasty.

After getting out of Helsinki as soon as possible (wouldn't want to live there, wouldn't want to visit there), we went to IKEA. Which is extremely similar to the IKEAs from USA and Germany I have been to as they sell the same products and everything is still in Swedish. I did like the kitchens though, with the different stoves and ovens. We went to the cafe there and had some very good food for an even better price. I ate some spinach crepes. The Swedish market itself was small, but I suppose that's because it's not like you have to look further than the supermarket to find Swedish food here.

 

But when we got back from our trip we got a fantastic surprise! Our neighbor's name is Matti and he has this huge wonderful dog named Jytky. Always happy, and have I mentioned huge? When the dog walks in the elevator only one other person can stand in it too. I have run across Matti and Jytky many times when they go on their walks but I have never had my camera handy but I had it in the car from the Helsinki trip so I took advantage of the opportunity. So I present to you, Jytky.

Vocabulary:
päivä : day
muffini : muffin
iso koira : big dog
hissi : elevator


T. Kati