Things that make you say "hmm"

Well it's been a busy week with exams and essays so no exciting adventures to report. I've decided to write this post about a few of the things that have made me say "hmm". Most are just general everyday observations that are probably normal for a Finn, but to someone new in the country have required a second glance.

-Calendars. The days of the week are listed Monday to Sunday. None of this confusing "the week starts on Sunday" stuff.

-Time. A.M.? P.M.? What are those? Say hello to the 24 hour clock.

-The Academic Quarter. For every one hour of scheduled class, there is only instruction for 45 minutes. If your class is listed as starting at 14:00, class will not actually commence until 14:15 (like my use of the 24 hour clock?!)

-Food Packaging. I would like to take 2 of my favourite foods as examples. Peanut butter and ketchup. Now, think about the steps necessary to open a new bottle of either. You have to take off the seal right? Wrong (Okay, right in Canada, wrong in Finland.) If food is in a bottle, there isn't an additional seal.

-Beep. Pedestrian crossings are accompanied by a beeping noise. When you are able to cross to beeping becomes faster.

-Seeing double. In public washrooms there is often a sink and soap dispenser within the stalls (I can only say that this is true for women's washrooms.) There is then a sink outside of the stall as well. Do you wash your hands twice? We haven't quite figured this out yet.

-Soup. No creative title here. The other day I went to the store to buy some tomato soup. Well, lets just say I was shocked by the price. And remember, we're talking Euros here.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week :)

The City of Light!

So last night I decided it was about time that I ventured out to see this "City of Light" that I have been living in for a month and a half! One of Jyväskylä's marketing ploys is lighting up some of the local monuments. Some of the city turned out to be quite beautiful. Here's a summary of the adventure in picture form...

Ylistö Bridge

Me with Art on Campus

L-Building (where most of my classes are)

City Church of Jyväskylä

Kuokkala bridge

Picture Post!

Here's the promised Thanksgiving pictures and a few more from my adventures around town. :)

The "table" and decorations

Lots of food!

A lookout tower with Jyväskylä in the background

The city centre from the lookout tower

Top of a beautiful stone staircase near the city centre

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's that time of year! Turkey Day! Well, at least in Canada.
So studying abroad certainly makes the celebration of a Canadian holiday a bit more interesting. At the beginning of the week I sent out a quick email to some of my Canadian friends here in Finland to see if they'd be up for having a Thanksgiving dinner. Well, the simple plans in the initial email quickly grew.
Five nationalities were represented at our dinner last night! 10 of the 15 people present celebrated their first Thanksgiving. With the Canadians doing the majority of the cooking, we were able to create a pretty stereotypical Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. I must say that I was quite impressed with how well the meal turned out considering it was a bunch of students who cooked it!
Sadly, my weekend came to an abrupt end. No holiday Monday here. My week began with an 8am exam. So I hope you were all able to enjoy the extra day off!!

Stay tuned, I'll post some pictures tomorrow hopefully!

It's Officially Cold in Finland!

This morning I woke up and turned on my computer. The weather gadget on my desktop sadly informed me that it was -6 degrees. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal so I added a scarf to my outfit. Today is one of those deceiving days. For once it was a bright morning, so you get the impression that it will be warm... well, its not. I went outside to get my bike and -6 turned into a big deal. All of the bikes are covered in a thick layer of frost. So my journey to school began by scraping the frost off of my bike seat. As I was scraping it occurred to me how much worse it is to scrape frost off of a bike than it is a car. At least with a car you know you can turn on the heat and it will be warm in a matter of minutes. With a bike, that's not quite the case... you're going to get colder as the wind hits you.
Hmm, I may need to go back to my original opinion on biking in winter...

Helsinki!

Well folks, I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in Helsinki! It was a whirlwind trip, but excellent none the less!

Our trip began early Saturday morning with a 3.5hour train ride from Jyväskylä to Helsinki. It was a great chance to see some of Finland...in between naps. I must say though, if I hadn't known I was in Finland I would have assumed I was still in Canada, the scenery is very similar!

After arriving in Helsinki, we checked into our hostel then wandered around the city. I should take a moment to tell you about the hostel. It is located in the Olympic Stadium from when Helsinki hosted the 1952 Olympics. For a sports nerd like me, it was the perfect place to stay! I didn't get a chance to climb the tower or go to the museum in another part of the stadium on this trip, but they top the list for my next trip!

Olympic Stadium

The city is very cool. Lots of modern buildings mixed in between older very ``European`` looking buildings. There was also a nice market at the marina but sadly we stumbled across it just as it was closing for the day.



Now before I start this next story, I should say that part of the reason I wanted to go to Helsinki was that the NHL was in town. How could I miss being in the same random foreign city as the NHL?! I unfortunately didn't have tickets to the games, but just being in Helsinki was going to be enough... or so i thought!!! While shopping in a souvenir shop, 2 men came in wearing suits. Immediately I knew "they're here for the NHL", who else would wear a suit on Saturday? As I walked past them my intuition was confirmed by the NHLPA pins on their lapels. After leaving the store I wished I had talked to them, who knows, maybe they could have gotten me my dream job in the NHL. But no need to worry about that. Instead I proceeded to tell the girls I was travelling with about my first NHL encounter in Helsinki. They unfortunately didn't share my excitement since neither is a hockey fan.

We continued walking throughout the city. Lots of great sights, the Parliament Buildings, the Helsinki Cathedral, a sauna supplies store and the marina . Sadly the Cathedral's main dome was under construction but it is still a very impressive building.

Parliament Buildings

Helsinki Cathedral

As we started walking back to the hostel, my second NHL encounter occurred! Two men (again wearing suits) walked past us. Their North American English gave them away. In a rash decision we decided to follow them... no, I'm not a stalker, let's get that clear! After walking a short distance they turned onto a side street. And where did they lead us... right to the hotel that the Chicago Blackhawks were going to be departing from momentarily!

A small crowd of fans had gathered to see the team, we of course waited too. It wasn't long before the Hawks slowly started to leave the hotel and get on the bus. It was almost surreal to be standing maybe 15 feet away from the bus door. I've spent years watching players like Toews and Kane play in international tournaments and then the NHL. Who knew I would see them in Finland?! It was also really cool for Sport Management major like myself to see who was travelling with the team, how security was handled, etc. As the bus pulled away, I got a smile and wave from Duncan Keith who had been sitting on the bus parallel to where we were standing.

NHL and Emily in HELSINKI!

Toews!

So needless to say, that chance sighting of the team was the highlight of my trip! Sunday it was a very windy and rainy day and most of the stores were closed as is common here on Sundays. We again wandered around for a bit then stopped to get some lunch. We ended up in what I thought was a mall food court. Well, in this food court you order you food and sit down. Your food is brought to your table and your dishes cleared when you're done. So basically it's half food court half restaurant. After lunch we got onto a city streetcar/tram so that we could tour the city without having to be in the rain. It was a great way to see some of the city that we otherwise wouldn't have seen.


Well, sorry for the novel but I didn't want to leave out any exciting details!