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!