Merry Christmas!

We're heading to Burkina now, but Christmas in Nakkila was great.
Perfect snow:


Sledding time:


Elmo helping Joulupukki hand out gifts:

Istanbul

I finally put up my istanbul photos!

Some highlights -- the Hagia Sophia:

brunch on the black sea on the asian side:

getting freshly squeezed pomegranate juice from a vendor:

cats everywhere! here is one black cat on the palace grounds:

Christmas-looking tree at Karaportti

weather report

It's -16 degrees Celsius in Espoo this morning.  That's just over 3 degrees Fahrenheit. I think it's been cold-ish since October, but this is the first time this winter that the Finns are saying it's cold.

exciting times in pikkuhuopalahti

Vienna

We went to Vienna in September, and I only just uploaded my photos to Picasa.

I like this one of Kimmo and Sami listening intently to our tour guide:


We went to the Prater amusement park, and we saw this classy arcade:


It's a lovely city:

Google Suggest

As pointed out by Alex Balk, 'you is my hot rabbit' is the highlight here, but it's really interesting:

http://www.slate.com/id/2234019/

L.A. County Library updates

Seems that Angela Carpenter in L.A. has stepped up her reading a bit.  It's nice to see!

 1  call number:158.1082                                  ID:0111817794394
    Nice girls don't get the corner office : 101 unconscious mistakes women
    make that sabotage their careers / Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D.
    Frankel, Lois P., 1953-
    due:11/6/2009,23:59

 2  call number:883.01                                    ID:0111977682892
    The Odyssey / Homer ; translated by Robert Fagles ; introduction and
    notes by Bernard Knox.
    Homer.
    due:11/6/2009,23:59

thanks for your condolences!

this week kimmo was out of town, and one of the items on my chore list was to buy thank-you notes (a coworker left Finland and gave us a bunch of unused food and wine).  i went to tiimari, a local craft store, in search of one of those little packs of 8 thank-you notes.  they had a narrow selection, and most were actually packs of party invitations.  i was able to piece together that 'kutsu' means 'invitation', so I avoided those.  'kiitos' is 'thank you' in finnish, and i found only a couple of options for that.  they had one that had a big red rose on it that said 'kiitos' in elegant script.  they had another with a big gold rose on it that said 'kiitos' in elegant script.  then i saw a couple with some other version of thank you.  'kiitti' is 'thanks', so i got the one you see here that says 'osanotosta kiittäen'.  i assumed that it was a fancy way of saying thank you, and to me a lily is nicer-looking than a rose.  however, today kimmo informed me that it actually means something like 'thank you for your condolences', and is what you would send to someone after they come to the funeral of your spouse or mother or whatever.  of course, since i will likely have american recipients of any thank-you notes i write, i have no intention of returning them and getting something more appropriate. 

Pelmeni

At a restaurant called Kuukuu, I recently had pelmeni, which is dish of Russian dumplings. They were delicious!

Autumn in Helsinki

Autumn in Helsinki is generally grey and chilly. Here are some photos from the walk to the local grocery store (Munkkiniemi is the Finnish name of the area, Munksnäs is the Swedish version):



And here are the tracks by the train station in Pasila (one stop north of Helsinki main station):

the cats seem hungry

Snow!

It's not supposed to stay on the ground, but it's snowing today.

LA County Public Library

Angela Marie Carpenter of Los Angeles has mistakenly given my gmail address instead of her own to the Los Angeles County Public Library.  

In July, she started with some pirate history:

 1  call number:972.904                                   ID:0111960655004
    Empire of blue water : Captain Morgan's great pirate army, the epic
    battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe that ended the outlaws'
    bloody reign / Stephan Talty.
    Talty, Stephan.
    due:7/17/2009,23:59

Then apparently there was a self-improvement kick:

 1   The smart approach to window decor / Lynn Elliot and Lisa Lent.
     Elliott, Lynn.
     call number:747.3 ELLIOTT                               copy:1
       Pickup by:7/22/2009

 1   Getting things done : the art of stress-free productivity / David Allen.
     Allen, David, 1945 Dec. 28-
     call number:646.7                                       copy:1
       Pickup by:7/24/2009

I think this one was picked up at the same time:

 1  call number:539.7258                                  ID:0111681464504
    The elegant universe : superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the quest for
    the ultimate theory / Brian Greene.
    Greene, B. (Brian), 1963-
    due:8/6/2009,23:59

Maybe she does windows for a living, because here is yet another window-decoration book:

 1   Beautiful windows : the ultimate window treatment design book / Woman's
     Day Special Interest Publications.
     call number:747.5                                       copy:1
       Pickup by:8/6/2009

And these were the most recent:

 1  call number:818.5402                                  ID:0111614507585
    Dave Barry turns 40.
    Barry, Dave.
    due:9/15/2009,23:59

 2  call number:92 V9489                                  ID:0111633308924
    Fates worse than death : an autobiographical collage of the 1980s / Kurt
    Vonnegut.
    Vonnegut, Kurt.
    due:9/15/2009,23:59

The Dave Barry choice surprised me, but what do I know about my name buddy (or my homo, as the French say)?  Nothing much, except the window thing.  I will say that it has been fun to watch someone else's reading habits.

An Afternoon at Pub Frendi

Saturday morning was errand- and chore-filled. There are two gyms not too far from my apartment but also on the way to work and they have comparable prices, so I wanted to go check them out and see which one seemed like a better deal. First I did my homework for my Finnish class, then I had to do the gym browsing, then some grocery shopping. It was a bit chilly (yes, we've already got the autumn crispness here), but sunny, so I suggested that Kimmo go with me and then we could walk to the fancier grocery store together (Kimmo's mom sent gooseberries, and I made a pie with them!). To sweeten the deal (as Kimmo has no interest in ever entering a gym), I suggested we stop by Pub Frendi between the gym and the grocery store for an afternoon beer or cider. We had seen it before when walking around the neighborhood, and I was intrigued (it has a happy hour from 9am - 11am, which means it's either the best or the strangest bar in town). We certainly foresaw the likable-neighborhood-bar find, but we had no idea that we were in for a surprise concert.

So there we were, sitting down with our ciders, enjoying the quaintness and marveling at the unusually friendly service (for Finland), when another customer started playing an acoustic guitar. We thought he was quite good and the group he was with seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. It turns out that he was a famous rock star! His name is Kim Brown and he played in a british band called The Renegades, which was popular (especially in Finland and Scandinavia) in the 1960s. Their big hit was called "Cadillac" (youtube video below). It seems to be rock 'n' roll with heavy blues influences.


Apparently Kim Brown settled in Finland, but lost his voice to throat cancer in the 90s. Fortunately, he still has his abilities on the guitar. He played request after request for the crowd. And, like any decent beer-drinking crowd will do, people sang along as they could. When he played 'Johnny Be Good', a little old man piped up "Never did learn to read or write so well...he could play the guitar just like a bell." When he played 'Imagine', people closed their eyes and sang "But I'm not the only one..." Keep in mind that these are *Finnish* bar-goers, who most likely don't use english every day, but they still know about as many words to these songs as your average American. Here is a clip from when Brown was playing 'Imagine'. Notice how one dude sort of knows the words, but everyone joins in on that high 'yah-aa-aa-ah'.


It was great. Here is another short clip. The woman behind the bar is the very friendly bartender (who claimed that I can order a beer in *any* language at Pub Frendi, which prompted Kimmo to urge me to try it in Fulfulde), and the gray-haired bearded man who enters the scene and sits down is the one who knew the Johnny Be Good lyric I mentioned. The woman on the right who is mostly out of the frame was the most enthusiastic fan. She got up later to dance, and she was the one who came over to inform Kimmo and me that we were in the presence of a star.

Flooding in Ouagadougou

This is from an email from the Peace Corps Burkina Faso country director to volunteers:

150,000 people lost their homes in Ouaga during the floods. It can be tough to wrap your head around such large numbers. For perspective, Tempe, Tallahessee, Chattanooga, Fort Lauderdale are US cities with 150,000 people. Imagine if everyone there were homeless. You've doubtless seen video of the Katrina aftermath. Well, Katrina left 60,000 homeless. Total rainfall Sept 1st was 10.5 inches. Katrina dropped 6-9 inches of rain on the gulf coast. More rain fell by noon Sept 1st, than fell in any month this year. The city simply couldn't cope.

It seems that pretty much all NGOs in Ouaga are doing their part, but I can't find where to donate specifically for this disaster, except on the Catholic Relief Services site: http://crs.org/burkina-faso/ouagadougou-floods/.  From what I saw when I was living in Baraboulé, CRS does great work.

UPDATE: this site, www.africanfamily.org, is another option. they're buying local supplies, which i like.

Helsinki City Triathlon

yesterday i participated in the helsinki city triathlon. the distances were very short, and when i saw the sign for it a few months ago i thought "well, if i'm ever going to do one, surely i can handle these distances." the swim was 300 meters, the bike was 10K, and the run was 3K. all were easily manageable by themselves, so the challenge was doing them all together.

fortunately, it was pretty well organized. unfortunately for me, all the information was in finnish. it's a funny thing -- i've been here for a year and i've taken a class, and in theory this is a 'language immersion' situation. the thing is that it's really not. firstly, most places (especially websites) have english translations. secondly (and maybe this is the most important), almost every sign in helsinki has swedish translations too. the finnish law on this is interesting: finnish and swedish are both official languages of finland. if a language represents at least 8% (or at least 3000 speakers) of the population of a city, official signs must have that language on the signs. this means that everything (street signs, names of government offices, bus instructions, maps, etc) is in both finnish and swedish in helsinki. i personally find it quite annoying, because it means that signs and labels are quite long, and also maps are much harder to read because of this. and for some reason google maps is mostly in swedish. however, swedish is *much* easier than finnish for an english-speaker to piece together and figure out. i believe it is germanic, so you can see a lot of the english roots. this means that i have unwittingly relied on it as a crutch. for example, to open a tram door, you press a button that has two words on it: avaa and öppna. which one looks more like 'open' to you? and here are the finnish and swedish words for 'stop': pysähtyy and stannar. the thing is that you can think "hmmm...i'm on a bus, and before each stop the light that says stannar lights up, and since stannar looks kind of like stop, that probably means stop." however, let's say you're just confronted with pysähtyy. yes, you might be able to figure it out given the context, but the word itself isn't much help. and at first i couldn't even understand how to pronounce that, even with a sort of english-ing of it, so i couldn't repeat the word in my head, and it turns out that this say-in-head thing is important for me for remembering a word.

anyway, back to the triathlon! it was entirely in finnish: the website, the signs at the race, the pre-race instructions. i'm grateful for this because i don't really experience it that often, but it certainly added to the confusion of the day. and it turns out that triathlons require a lot of coordination.

first, you have to separate your stuff. you have to have your stuff for swimming with you, then a little bag of stuff you'll need for the bike ride, then another little bag of stuff you'll need for the run. i don't know if this is standard, since this was my first one, but it seems to make sense. i got there really early so as not to add a time crunch to the stress of figuring out these logistics in finnish. that was fortunate, because i was able to see a few heats of the men's race and figure out what was going on.

here's a shot of the pre-swim line-up. each group lined up by heats in the locker room, then headed out by the pool. from what i understand, most triathlons in the u.s. have the swim in a lake or bay or even the ocean, but this swim was in the helsinki swimming stadium. it's a beautiful place that was built for the 1952 olympics. i swam here a few times during my training, and it was spectacular to watch the sun rise over the trees while doing the backstroke.


then everyone got in the pool for an in-water start. i was happy i didn't have to dive in, because it was crowded enough and that seems like it would add another element of danger. the pool was set up with 2 long floaties. basically half the heat circled around each, for 3 circles (it's a 50 meter pool). i think this made it a bit shorter than 300 meters, since we didn't actually go all the way to the wall, but it seemed to keep it not-too-chaotic. during the swim i was scratched, kicked, and hit, but just because we were all swimming so close. lots of finns don't swim freestyle well (if at all), so a lot of people swim with the breast stroke with their head above water. not only is this slow, but it takes up more space with that frog kick. most of the kicks were from when i was passing someone doing the breast stroke. another level of organization: note that each heat even has the same color of swim cap!

one of the officials was this scuba diver. i don't know what he does, but he was in the water the whole time watching us. the girl next to me suggested that he was looking for lost earrings. :)

after 3 laps, you go from the pool over to your bike. earlier, each participant had to take their bike for inspection (checking brakes, and labeling with a sticker with your race number), then had to place it at a pre-labeled corral, along with anything they might need for cycling: shoes, socks, biking outfit, helmet, race number. my bag had a helmet, a ponytail holder, barrettes, a long-sleeve shirt, socks and shoes. last year i bought triathlon shorts and shirt, and it was a great investment. the shorts have butt-padding for cycling, but not so much that you can't run and swim in them. and the shirt has enough boob-support for the run, but doesn't hold water like a normal sports bra. i added the long-sleeve shirt in my bag because i thought i might be chilly during the bike, but the sun was out by the time i got out of the pool so i just left it in the bag.

the inspection tent:


getting out of the pool:


one dude took off his bathing suit at the transition (instead of just putting bike shorts over it). sorry, no pic. but here are some guys running from the pool to their bikes:


this next part surprised me. you have to take your bike to the start of the bike area and it's not just a few meters. so you have throw your bike stuff on and you grab your bike and start running. you run around the pool, in front of the bleachers, then out the other side, then all the way to the road. this is just the around-the-pool part:


the next part wasn't so spectator-friendly. the bike route was sort of around the stadium. it felt good, though. i bought a bike from the finnish ebay this summer and i like it a lot. it's somewhere between a mountain bike and a road bike, and it's pretty fast.

and then came the run. i had been thinking that when i got to this part, it would be fine. i ran cross-country and track in high school, and i've done a number of road races. i had never raced with a bike nor in a swimming event, but i feel totally comfortable with road race protocol, and i thought that after the bike and swim the run would be cake and i could go into autopilot (plus, 3K? even though some of my bike training sessions were about the race distance (i have a 10K commute to work) and my swim sessions were also mostly around 400 or 500 meters, my shortest training run was 5K). anyway, i was very very wrong. the swim was okay because i had lots of adrenalin and i was keyed up about finally doing the race i had been training for, and the bike ride felt great -- recovery from the swim, and yet i was still passing a lot of people, but the run hit me like a wall. my legs felt heavy, and my shoes and socks were still wet from all the water dripping off me from the swim. and the finns were not so supportive during the run. it's very american of me to want a cheering crowd, and also i have very supportive parents who *always* came to support me at races and *always* cheered loudly. my dad was even famous for going to a little place in the woods at our usual cross-country course to cheer for the kids and make sure they kept up the pace in the back stretch. but even though the running route goes sort of around the pool and it's right next to spectators, no one cared! i had experienced this sort of finnish we're-not-cheering-for-anyone-except-maybe-this-one-guy-we-know quiet for the helsinki city run back in may, but i was pleasantly surprised at how the crowd had responded to the swim, and the run-with-bike. however, now i think that finns just think running is boring, which is funny due to finland's olympic distance-running medal count. in this picture, the guy in the black shorts and white t-shirt is racing. notice the people a couple of feet away from him don't care a bit.


anyway, the run was 2 small loops, and the second loop was much better (i guess i had to get into it a bit). i think i was pretty fast for my heat, because one of the officials thought i was only on my first loop when i was heading toward the finish. i had to pause and have a discussion about how i had already done both loops, which was annoying. after the finish, i went to gather my stuff (all the pre-labeled bags, plus my bike that someone had moved from the bike-run exchange to the bike parking lot).

i finished strong, and i had a lot of fun. i even met a friend! her name is alva, and she helped translate some of the swimming information for me. i am definitely going to try to do another triathlon in the future. and next time i'm going to remember that if i have to put my shoes at the bike exchange point, that means that i won't have any shoes to wear for an hour or so. here are my bare feet on the stadium bleachers, waiting for my heat:


UPDATE: i was disqualified. this is where the no-finnish-skills gets me. you had to do 2 loops on the bike, but i didn't know. maybe there was a sign, but i didn't see it. and since there were so many heats, i 'finished' the biking with a lot of girls in the heat in front of me, so no one really noticed and pointed the other way. i'm upset and embarrassed about this, because i really trained and i could have done the whole bike easily. it's only now that this got posted on the triathlon site.

Strongman Contest

One of my coworkers is a strongman competitor. You may have seen this kind of competition on ESPN. Recently, there was a 'Record Breakers' under-105kg strongman event in Hamina, Finland, so I went to see it in person and to cheer on my coworker, Risto.

It was a 2-day competition, and I was there only on the first day. I saw four different events: the medley (sack carry + farmer's walk + tire flip), the log lift, the farmer's walk, and the truck pull. The tire flip and truck pull were certainly the most spectator-friendly events, as you could get a good feel for how heavy the object was. The other thing worth noting is that though the 'World's Strongest Man' events on TV always have very brightly colored weights and other visual aids, this was held in a sandy lot, with industrial-looking equipment. The shiny red truck was the only exception.

Anyway, I was witness to 3 new world records in the farmer's walk, which was cool. Here is Sergei (the overall winner) making his world record:


Here is Risto in the sack carry part of the medley:


I was sad to miss the Atlas Stones (my favorite event to watch), but here they are ready for Saturday's competition (plus the car for the dead lift on the right):

the living is easy

not much to report this week.  i'm working a lot, and training for the mini-triathlon next weekend.  the summer is pretty much over (i had to wear 2 layers + jacket + a light scarf last night) and helsinki's gray and rainy autumn has begun.  

small excitement: i had a drink at the best bar in the world on friday night, and we're cooking with kantarelli mushrooms tonight.

it's just a lazy cat-dangling afternoon

here are the kitties napping on the balcony table.  i had to take this through the blinds, as every time i come out there they get up to say hi.

cats!

we adopted a couple (literally a couple -- they were described as 'husband and wife') of cats from the local animal shelter. apparently they had been living in a house with 25 other cats. they're both very sweet-natured.

currently their names are kinkku (the finnish word for ham) and ruben (maybe the sandwich, but more likely just the name), but we want to change them. this is me petting the boy (who was advertised as the curious one, but has proved to be the most shy so far) on the balcony.

art

i saw this unmarked statue (sculpture?) in front of a building in
helsinki. what does it mean? does it commemorate waving at friends?
keeping the sun out of your eyes? protecting yourself from being hit
by a tall person?

metallica concert in pori

i was in pori a few weekends ago, on the same saturday night as the metallica concert. even though pori's population is about 75,000, there were about 60,000 people at the concert, since almost every finn under 50 loves metallica.

we were staying with kimmo's friend sami, lives in pori. his sister had tickets to the show, so we went over to the island where the venue is and met her for pre-show drinks.

here's the bridge to the island:

i think this guy here on the left is proof of metallica's widespread popularity in finland. i just don't think you could find a guy in a powder blue polo with a sweater knotted around his shoulders heading to a metallica concert in the u.s.:

here's sami's sister generous sharing her wine:

some interestingly dressed concert-goers:


and the entrance -- look how orderly and calm everyone is!

wood-burning car

i saw this car parked on a helsinki street.

it seems to be an audi, modified to be a wood-burning car!

i guess that this is where the magic happens, and then it's piped forward into the engine.


some extra fuel in the back seat:

tar-flavored ice cream

finns love tar. it's a traditional taste around here. i have tasted
tar-flavored vodka. i have seen tar-scented shampoo. i hear there is
tar-flavored licorice available. but this is a choice on the menu at
the little ice cream stands that pepper helsinki's landscape in the
summer: tar-flavored ice cream.

careful -- it's hot!

this is a sign for a handicapped persons' union near where i live, but the sign seems to indicate that you can also get free bacon.

my darling nephew and niece

sophie is a lot of fun, and samari is a lot of rolls.

my madmen avatar

Ludwig von Tökkentäkker's Finnish stronghold

These cookies are sold in most Finnish grocery stores, and they always remind me of the arcade game CarnEvil.

Helsinki City Run (after the fact)

Well, I ran it. I learned a few things:

1. Finland is cold. I should know this by now, but I am continually surprised. Even in mid-May, you cannot expect that shorts and a long-sleeve shirt will be warm enough for a half marathon.
2. I really should train for this type of event. I was quite sore afterward.
3. Finns are not good at cheering for people, and you can expect silent, unsmiling spectators at a road race in Finland.
4. The gummy-bear-at-each-distance-marker is not fun in Finland because the kilometers go past much more quickly than miles, and also the gummy candies are way too large and dense for that. Towards the end, I started just tossing a piece of candy to the side each time.
5. Peeled, pre-cut-into-thirds bananas at a water station? Genius. It was a little gross to put my sweaty hand into the box where everyone else's sweaty hands had gone to grab a slippery chunk of banana and then toss it into my mouth, but it was a perfectly timed, seemingly healthy and natural energy boost.

This is in the neighborhood of Pikkuhuopalahti. If it looks rainy and miserable, then Kimmo has done his job as a photographer.

The finish line was in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium (from when Helsinki hosted the summer olympics in 1952), which was pretty cool. 'Maali' is what they yell when Finland scores a goal in soccer, too.