Frigid Finnish Follies

Yet another beautiful finnish sunrise!!

So it's been a bit chilly this past week...today is the first day over -20, which is a bit of a relief.  This weekend it didn't really get above -27, but it was sunny!!  Now it's windy, but the temperature went up 15 degrees overnight so it feels warm...at -14.  After riding my bike around a bit today (to and from school), I have decided that -30, sunny, and calm is without a doubt much warmer than -15, cloudy, and windy.  I was certainly cursing the weather under my breath as I tried to pedal my bicycle up the bridge "hill" on my way home from school.  My sweet little uni-gear bike gets very stiff and hard to pedal when the weather is below -10; I wouldn't be able to tell you one specific reason why, but it probably doesn't help that the tires are always flat.  I have been pumping up the tires almost every day to try to retain some sort of tire pressure, but I think the tires/rims/valves don't take kindly to being hauled between +20 (bike room) and -25 twice a day.  In addition to my bike being a little stubborn, there was a stiff headwind coming right down the bridge at me, bringing with it clouds of ice shards that pelt any exposed skin; this is exacerbated when a truck or bus passes you.  The wind also causes those ice shards to form drifts on the bike lane/sidewalk that are more than happy to suck you in as you try to grunt your way up the hill.  In the end it's usually a battle that leaves you with numb fingers, nose, and cheeks, but an absolutely sweaty layer of long johns. But...it gets you there!

Hoar on the lake

Last weekend I went to a hockey game in Joensuu where the local team (Jokipojat, literally "river boys") was playing another team from south of here (I can't remember the name, but I do remember that the train stops there).  It provided everything you hope for in a hockey game...clean goals, sneaky goals, a hometeam comeback, a fight, overtime, and finally a shootout that Jokipojat won the game with.  There were of course a few differences between this hockey game and others I have watched.  The most noticeable difference was that one player on each team had a golden helmet...like super-shiny-bling-gold. Apparently this is worn by the points leader on each team.  It certainly draws your attention when they're on the ice.  Another difference I noticed was that there was a lot more playing time in the game....lots of passing, lots of skating, and very few penalties or other reasons to stop the game and drop the puck back in.  Speaking of penalties, fighting is straight-up illegal in this league and the two players who took part in the brief fight (about 1 swing each before the refs came in) were both expelled for the remainder of the game.  Another thing that doesn't happen is drinking: beer is not sold or consumed (legitimately at least) in the hockey stadium and I saw no trace of it while I was there.  It was neat to go to the game and I look forward to maybe watching another game while I am here!

Sunset at Siilinjärvi

Last week there was a skiing "race" that I took part in at school.  I use the term race loosely because it wasn't exactly serious in nature.  The basic idea was that students (or instructors, or whoever) would form teams (I'm not sure if there was a team membership limit) and then have 12 hours to complete as many loops of a 1.6km track as they could in any ski style they chose.  This is where the interesting bit came in...some teams were a bit more serious (such as the team "spandex") and stuck purely to skate-skiing and sleek attire.  Other teams were more casual (whatever skis or skill were welcome), and other teams went to the effort of constructing their own modes of transportation for completing the circuit.  These included ski-thrones, group skis, tandem skis, mono-skis and...well, that's about it.  Many people took to wearing costumes, which ranged from a "Traditional Finn" look (Marttiini, rucksack, black leather 3-pin boots, hand knitted attire or old-school army issue attire) to spandex (in standard colours and styles) to fluorescent funfur capes to Moomin characters.  Generally there were no scanty costumes as it was -25 while the sun was up (7/12 hours).

Summer cottage (kesämökki) all bundled up for the winter

Overall our team had 10 skiers of varying levels (second time on skis to former racers) on whatever skis they could get ahold of.  Personally, I'm not Finn, but I have spent a fair amount of time in my life on skis, but nothing quite like the skis I was equipped with this time.  They were a free loan and free is good...right? well, until you looked at the bases.  It looked like someone had gone scree-skiing in them...ugh.  Not to mention they were classic skis (some people may know what I have to say about classic skiing in general)...and WAXABLE classic skis. not that I'm complaining...they were free, right?  Well...I do have kick wax, but it was -7 to -12 wax and the air temp was -25, so my kick wax situation was questionable. Anyways, I donned my sweet green unisuit (thank you Emily!) and some hot pink long johns (actually that was just the top layer...there were more below that) and set out for the 2 hours of skiing I had promised to complete.  If I learned nothing else in Biathlon, it was how to look ridiculously fashionable in choosing fine skiing attire. I wish I had a photo.  Around...and Around...and Around....And around the 1.6km loop.  I managed to get 6 loops done before I wore off all of the kick-wax and was left with my fine technique to get me around the course. In total, I managed to complete 10 laps (16 km) in 2 hours on my sweet, free skis.  I am pretty proud of myself for accomplishing that, however, I have to admit I felt some pretty strong envy when people in nice, properly-waxed skate skis would just effortlessly glide by...  

I love going to a school where we can have ski races within 50m of our faculty!

lakeside reeds

In other news...I'm in some classes that I'm enjoying...Advanced Remote Sensing and Forest Zoology.  Remote sensing is pretty cool, but it makes me feel like a pretty huge geek...which may just be true.  Forest Zoology should actually be called "Forest Pests: Insects and other arborivores."  Ok, so I made that word up, but it is fitting.  And Insects....well, they're pretty interesting and important little creatures, plus they're everywhere!  So, I look forward to doing more with both of these topics.

Frozen forests

...Aaand a few Fun Finnish Facts:
- they don't seem to use salt on their roads or highways (or anywhere really) to melt ice.  Just gravel is added for additional traction.
- roadsigns are listed in reverse order from those in Canada (i.e. the farthest destination is at the top of the sign and the closest is at the bottom)
- the Canadian Beaver, Kanadanmajava (Castor canadensis) is an invasive alien species here.  It is hunted and can be used for making beaver sausages and other tasty processed meat products. mmmm...no I haven't tried eating it. don't laugh. (that link really is an interesting article if you bother to translate the Finnish)

ice fishing hole (for putting nets under the ice). 2 holes are created several metres apart and the net is strung from one hole across to the other under the ice.  the fisherman then goes inside where it is dry and warm (probably even a sauna) and collects the net's contents the next day (or so).  A superior form of ice fishing in my humble human opinion

coooow paaaarsnip!!    ...of sorts