Sauna and Ice Swimming

It begins like this: Change into your swim suit (or take off your clothes--Finns actually do this naked).

Enter the sauna (pronounced sow-na--it's through that door on the left in the picture above). Take a deep breath and feel the 80° C air on your skin.

Relax. Just like any other sauna you can imagine, sit there and stew in the heat. Occasionally, splash some water on the stones, which sends steam and an intense blast of heat over you.

When you are feeling overwhelmed by the heat and your body is covered in sweat, work up the courage to go outside. Make sure you have good friends with you to encourage each other.

Run outside and scamper down the ladder and onto the frozen sea. Marvel in the fact that you are covered in sweat, standing outside where it is below freezing, and for some reason you feel great.

Look down at the hole cut in the ice and wonder why in the world you are about to do this. And then, jump! 

Feel the squishy bottom of the lake, feel the cold around you, and most importantly feel the life coursing through you. Have those good friends who encouraged you to take a dip also help you out of the water because it's quite hard to maneuver bare skin on that ice.

Head back into the sauna and repeat the process two or three times. When you're done, feel the benefits of the crazy thing you just did. It's like you can suddenly feel every cell functioning in your body. It's indescribable and invigorating.

Some notes about this experience:

The EPS instructor invited everyone in the EPS to his home to enjoy his traditional sauna. This one was in a cottage separate from the main house and also right next to the water. Given that it's a traditional sauna, it's heated by a stove--that's why you see the fireplace one side. Modern saunas are electric. Roger, my instructor, drilled the hole in the ice with his chainsaw. At first he actually ran into some trouble trouble because the ice was thicker than the length of his chainsaw! Ice swimming sounds crazy, but hundreds of thousands of Finns do it at least once a year. Some doctors even recommend it to help increase circulation. And finally, the photos with the Z in the corner were taken by my friend Lukas, a much better photographer than I. :)

Where the Magic Happens

I found myself thinking about that image above last night while I was riding my bike through Vaasa. I was riding alongside a new friend that I barely knew to a place I've never been in a foreign country whose inhabitants speak two languages that are not my own. I was taking in all of the new things I'm doing in Finland, and realizing that, wow, this is amazing.

In the U.S., I probably wouldn't . . .

. . . sled down an icy hill on a bed frame with skis nailed to the bottom holding onto six other people, shrieking with adrenaline and praying that the sled doesn't slide onto the harbor.

. . . spend a Friday night sewing until 2 am.

. . . ride my bike on icy and slushy roads. Or in the winter at all actually. Or ride 10 km on a Saturday night in general.

. . . pay so much attention to the differences in the people I meet. There is so much to learn from the people here, especially in the ways they differ from me.

. . . go out on a Tuesday night. I haven't seen a stressed-out student here yet.

. . . dance on an almost-empty dance floor and not care who's watching.

. . . enjoy the sauna so much and want to incorporate sweating in a 180 degree F room into my weekly routine.

. . . play soccer with a group of international students who are way better at it than I am and want to do it again.

. . . appreciate my accent, even it means that some words in Swedish sound silly when I say them.

. . . live alone and kind of like it.

It is so wonderful to be in this new place experiencing all of these new things. I really believe that spending time abroad is all about putting yourself in these new situations, making the best of them, and then watching yourself grow from them. I have a feeling that Vaasa is going to feel like home by the time I have to leave it in June, and I am so happy that I am here. In the meantime, I'm going to keep seeking those magical moments.

Showing off the fruits of our labor after the sewing night

Finnish Food 101

The table is ready for feasting!

Last night the international student tutors put on an international dinner for the exchange students at Novia. They provided a variety of Finnish food and encouraged people to bring food typical to their home countries. Then they gave all the international students a quiz about Finland to see who knew the most about their new home. I guess I should admit that I only got half of the questions right!

Want to learn about some Finnish foods? I'll explain a few of the dishes I sampled last night, with pictures pulled up from the internet.

Leipäjuusto, which means "bread cheese" is oven-cooked cheese served with cloudberry jam. It kinda squeaks.

Mustikkapirraka - blueberry pie. This is one is not nearly as sweet as the American version, but very good.

Karjalanpiirakat, or Karelian pie. These are pastries of rice porridge in a rye crust. Usually served with eggs and butter.

Mämmi (memma in Swedish) - baked rye porridge dessert. This is typically eaten at Easter with lots of milk and sugar. It has a strong molasses flavor and tastes like a dessert version of rye bread.

Mustamakkara, or blood sausage. I'm not a hug fan of this one. It's sausage made from pork or beef, pig blood, rye seeds and flour.

Lihapullat - Finnish meatballs. These are very similar to Swedish meatballs (you're probably thinking Ikea food), but these are made with kermaviili, which is like curd cream.

Other Finnish foods that do not need photos: boiled potatoes, rye bread, salty licorice, grilled sausages (they taste just like good-quality hot dogs). Then you can't forget the seafood like Baltic herring and smoked salmon, but maybe that's for another post. :) I love experiencing a new culture with all of my senses, and this was a perfect evening for doing just that!

Fastlaskiainen

For Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday, Finland celebrates laskiainen, which I mentioned it in my last post. The word, to my knowledge, means "to slide down", so it's pretty much a day to 

put on your student overalls, nail some skis to a bed frame or other large object, and spend the day sliding down snowy hills with hundreds of college students. That's how it's done in Vaasa anyway, and we call is Fastlaskiainen.

For some interesting history and to learn about the prevalence of the Finnish tradition in the U.S., click here.

Yesterday morning, my team for the sled races gathered to carry our masterpiece to the sledding destination: Kalasatama harbor. We had to carry essentially a bed frame with skis across the city center, which is very busy considering the not-huge population in Vaasa. You better believe that we got some strange looks from almost everyone we passed! It was really funny because normally Finns don't acknowledge strangers on the street or say hi in passing or anything. But when a group of college kids walks through the city with a ridiculous looking handmade sled, people will look up and just laugh. It was a fun walk.

 

At the harbor, a ton of students were hanging out, either to race their own sleds or just to witness the fun event. Some of the sleds were definitely a lot more professional looking than ours, but everyone got a good laugh out of our team name. A number of students told me that this is the first year in anyone's memory that there's been a team of international students participating in Fastlaskiainen. I'm glad we did participate!

It was a blast. Check out the video below for how we did, and don't laugh too hard if you can hear me screaming! For a moment we all thought our sled was going straight for the sea, but we turned it in plenty of time.

I'm sure you noticed that everyone in that picture above is wearing different colors of baggy pants with patches all over them. Those are the student overalls. A tradition in Finland, each academic department at each university has a different color of overall. The idea is to wear your overalls to student union events and parties and to sew on patches from those events. Instead of getting the typical yellow pair like the other engineering students, some of the exchange students at Novia opted for a brand new color exclusive to international students: mint green. We got our overalls just in time to wear them to the Fastlaskiainen after party. We got so many questions about where we were from, since people are used to glancing at the overalls and immediately knowing someone's university and department. By the end of the semester I hope to have a nifty collection of patches and memories associated with my overalls. A very fun tradition to take part in for sure. :)

Novia overalls exchange student style!

Building a sledge on Valentines Day

 Hyvää Ystävänpäivää / Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day from Finland! The Finns actually celebrate the 14th of February differently than Americans do--here it's called Ystävänpäivää, or Friendship Day. It's common for friends to give each other flowers and candy, but not romantic partners. Finland has only celebrated this holiday since the 1980s, and I really like how they do it.

Given the nature of Finnish valentines day, it was the perfect day to spend with my friends working on a project for the next "holiday" in Finland: Laskiainen, or Fat Tuesday. Here it's typical on Fat Tuesday to play in the snow in anticipation of the coming spring and to eat pea soup and buns filled with jam or almond paste.

The universities put a fun spin on it though. Together all of the students unions are organizing Fastlaskiainen, where teams race handmade sleds. But here's the catch--each team has 7 people and everyone has to fit on the sled!


One of my Finnish friends helped us register the two teams of EPS students--"Team Cindy" and "Sledge-Pussies". Don't ask. We spent the day thrift shopping, brainstorming, and hammering until finally we had what resembled something on which we could slide down a snowy hill.

Trying to fit the bed in the car

Our basic concept? A wood bed frame with cross country skis nailed to the bottom. We also added those turquoise circular plastic sleds for backup.

It might not be a perfect design, but it will be fun to see how well it works on Tuesday when we race! While building, we all joked about how it's a good thing that the city gave us Finnish identification numbers when we registered our residence here--if anyone needs medical treatment it'll be much easier to get with a registered identity! Not that we are hoping to need medical treatment from racing our sleds . . .

All in all, it was the perfect way to spend Ystävänpäivää: with my friends. :)

Finntastic fails and a Finntastic Tuesday

Winter in Finland is magical to a winter lover like me, but there's got to be a catch right? It's just magic until the city turns into an ice rink--then it's still pretty magical but just a lot more comical.

The thing is, the southern half of Finland (or at least the part that is south of the Arctic Circle) isn't really that cold. Or at least it's not as cold as everyone thinks it is. The temperature usually hovers around zero degrees Celsius, so it'll snow, melt, and refreeze. (what's nice is that the snow sticks around for much longer than it does in Rapid City, SD). This leaves ice over everything, making my daily walks much more interesting for me and probably much more entertaining for passersby.

I first encountered ice-rink-Vaasa last weekend when I wanted to do some exploring around the city. I wasn't expecting that my exploring would include me trying not to look like a newborn giraffe when I walked, but alas, it did. Don't even get me started about encountering a slope in the sidewalk. That left me in full-panic baby giraffe mode. Keep your cool, Gina, I would think to myself as a Finn would casually pass me, walking like they were born with the sole purpose of showing off how good they are at walking on ice. The Finns are, well, really good at being Finns.

Left: a super-slick sidewalk leading to downtown Vaasa
Right: my super-slick driveway

Since the Finns are really good at strolling on the somewhat treacherous winter sidewalks, it is something I'm working on improving for two reasons--the first, to get the most out of my experience in Finland, and second, to not fall during my daily commute.  I only actually fell once during my exploring (Finntastic fail number one), and since then I have gotten much more used to the icy city.

Another thing that needs work is my bicycle riding skills. Almost everyone here has a bicycle, and it is the main mode of transportation for many people. Even on these icy sidewalks, people cruise by all the time. It's cool to see!

On Sunday, I went to Palosaari Church, and I happened to meet an American who's working on a Master's degree another university in Vaasa. Much to my surprise, he offered me his extra bicycle when he saw me walking home! I obliged, thinking it would be a great way to experience Vaasa like a Finn. Yep, get ready for Finntastic fail number two.

My bike--the black one with the seat cover

I hopped on the bike, eager to try out a faster way to get around than just my feet. It was a sunny day and some of the ice had been melting, so I decided that the grip was going to be pretty good. I rode to the city center, feeling rather exhilarated that I could get there so quickly (it's about 2.5 km from my apartment--a 25 minute walk).

And now the moment you've all been waiting for: I fell off my bike in front of a bunch of ten year-olds. After I curved a little bit to the right to get around them, by bike just kept on going to the right, skidding on the slippery spot I had just encountered. All of a sudden, I was down, still in bike-riding position but lying horizontally. Finntastic fail number two. The kids noticed and started talking to me in Finnish. I said, "I'm ok." Realizing that I don't speak Finnish, they made sure I was ok in English and then carried on with their conversation. I laughed at myself as I got up and walked my bike the remainder of the way to the city center.

It looks like I'll need some more practice before I can become a Finn. 

Thankfully I'm having some Finntastic victories to balance out my little fails (ok yes, I enjoy making puns about Funland, I mean Finland). I've discovered this pub called Oliver's Inn, which is a local favorite for college students. Everyone who's described it to me compares it to a living room because you can be whoever you want to be and wear whatever you want when you're there. It's becoming one of the favorite hang out spots for the EPS students. It's amazing to me how many people go out on Tuesday nights, or any night of the week for that matter! When in Rome, right?

One of the best parts about living someplace new is the new friends made along the way. I'd say I've been pretty lucky so far in that area. :) So, if you don't mind me using this pun one last time, I had a Finntastic Tuesday night.

In Finland everyone can walk on water

So my campus is right on the sea . . . does that make it the Pepperdine of Finland?

Let's have a look and see.

Campus & some of Vaasa (thanks Google)

Pepperdine (again, thanks Google)

Yep. I think where I live is equally as beautiful in the summer AND I get the added bonus of the winter. I don't think many people would find winter an added bonus, but why else did I come to Finland? :P

Not only does Vaasa have the summer sea activities, but it remains a place of activity in the winter as well. When the Gulf of Bothnia freezes over every year, people take advantage of the snowy space and use it for ice fishing, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling. You heard that right, people do all of these things on top of the frozen sea.

Selfie on the sea!! Photobomb courtesy of Simon from Belgium.

On Friday (6 February) after Winter Sports Day, some of the EPS students and I took a walk on the gulf. It transitioned seamlessly from solid ground to solid water, and pretty soon we were looking back on campus and trying to fathom how in the world we could be so confidently prancing on top of the Gulf of Bothnia.

The view of Vaasa and campus from the sea

This is one of the many things I am finding that I love about Finland. What a unique and beautiful place!

This is my paradise.