Another adventure begins

See our blog for our next adventures together!

Sweet Ending

I can’t believe how fast the past few weeks have gone - summer school is now officially over and everyone has gone their separate ways. I have had such an amazing experience here in Jyväskylä and have met some really fantastic people from around the world! Everything from discovering a new city and country to hearing a different and very unique language and having one-of-a kind experiences has been really wonderful! I have learned so much in the last month, not only through classes (a primary purpose of being in summer school of course) but through the friendships I have made here! The whole experience has been so wonderfully enriching and exciting and will forever last in my memories of my adventures in Finland as much as I hope the friendships will endure. Thank you everyone who made this experience so memorable!!

Lanscapes of Finland

Took a cruise last week from 7:00-10:00 (bear this in mind when you see how light it is in the photos even with clouds!) - similar to those in Vermont for those of you who know the cruises on Lake Champlain in Burlington. We had some dinner and drinks and just spent lots of time on the deck, slightly cold, but it was beautiful! And speaking of Vermont, Finland reminds me of it SO much I can't believe it sometimes!

More photos on my other website here (password moimoi)

What Finnish Sounds Like

"All around me I was hearing the Finnish language (suomea) for the first time – a gripping experience for a sound-hungry linguist. Its abundance of vowels and flowing liquidity at first remind one of Italian or Polynesian, but, as one listens, one detects underlying, vibrant sinews unheard in southern tongues, yet quite unlike tough, thrusting Germanic. The impressive length of its regimented nouns and adjectives, the musicality of its coordinated case endings, the rippling sonority of its convoluted sentences, all hint at the artistic, tenacious soul of a people come from afar. The language has in it is swishing coniferous forests and boisterous Arctic streams that we hear in the music of Sibelius, the loneliness and cold melancholy of the northern lakes, the unlimited, invigorating roaming of the Central Asian steppes, the vitality and perseverance of adventurous, hardened, migrant explorers. I sat and listened in awe, understanding not a word, but completely captivated by the unfaltering harmonics of this nimble Asian tongue. For me it was more entertaining than any symphony."

Quoted in Finland, Cultural Lone Wolf by Richard Lewis (2005)

Springtime in Finland - in June!

Had a great day out today riding around on our bikes to a wonderful garden centre about 30 minutes away. On the way home we stopped for a picnic by the lake where we met a beautiful family of ducks! They were so trusting, the ducklings even climbed into our hands to have a few crumbs! It was such a beautiful site to see, and feel as they nibbled away on the crumbs and our skin!

Canoe Trip

Saturday we went on a fabulous canoe outing with a group of 11 people... we took the canoes from in front of campus by the lake and paddled for about 2 1/2 hours to a small island called Kalasaari in the second largest lake in Finland. When we arrived we had to cut some logs into pieces to then be chopped for firewood and sauna. On the island there was a small sauna heated by a wood fire with windows looking right out on the lake and a dock with a ladder conveniently located for a dip into the water for the bravest of souls (since I remind you that there still was ice and snow in these here parts about a month ago)! A small veranda style building was nearby where there was a wonderful fire pit that we sat around as we ate a warm lunch and roasted bananas with chocolate.

The weather started off pretty poor - with scatters of rain and cold wind - but by the afternoon the sun came out and warmed everything up tremendously. After basking in the sun by the water, around 5pm we packed up the canoes and began our journey home. This time it was much more difficult of course having come one way already, chopped wood, eaten and taken a wonderful sauna - though extremely invigorated at the same time with the brief swimming sessions in the middle. The whole experience was just wonderful - a sure memory that will last me a lifetime!


More pictures can be found on my pbase site here

Essential Finnish

For those of you who are interested in learning a bit of Finnish (as per Meredith's request :-), here is the list Marika, our tutor, gave us before coming here... if you can manage the pronunciation, soon you'll be speaking Finnish in no time and have no problem telling people 'sinulla on kauniit silmät' or more practically I guess, 'olen eksyksissä' , for instance! Happy learning!

Hey = moi

bye bye = moi moi

good morning = hyvää huomenta

good afternoon = hyvää päivää

good evening = hyvää iltaa

good night = hyvää yötä

thank you = kiitos

sorry / excuse me / pardon = anteeksi

here you are = ole hyvä

my name is… = minun nimeni on…

what is your name? = mikä sinun nimesi on?

I live in cambridge england = asun cambridgessä englannissa

i’m english = olen englantilainen

i’m french = olen ranskalainen

i’m half american half english = olen puoliksi englantilainen puoliksi amerikkalainen =)

nice to meet you = hauska tutustua

a beautiful weather today = kaunis ilma tänään

a terrible weather today = kauhea ilma tänään

welcome = tervetuloa

help! = apua!

do you speak english? = puhutko englantia?

Damn / f**k! = hitto / perkele!

i don’t understand = en ymmärrä

I’m lost = olen eksyksissä

one beer, please = yksi olut, kiitos

you have beautiful eyes = sinulla on kauniit silmät

oh, what a hunk! = oi mikä uros!

you look good… = näytät hyvältä…

my place or your place = meille vai teille? ;)

hope to see you again soon = toivottavasti nähdään taas pian!