The first week was the manufacturing training course. More than anything this course reminded me how much I don't miss sitting in lectures all day! But it was a very educational and useful course. They even took us out for dinner one night and I decided to try Reindeer! It was quite delicious.... but it tasted a lot like beef with a stronger flavour.
(Trying a traditional Finnish dish - Reindeer!! Hopefully it wasn't Rudolph)
On Friday night, my local Vaasa team was having their Christmas dinner so they invited me to come along with them. Although a little awkward because most people spoke Finnish all evening, it was still lots of fun. I attempted to Waltz with one of my coworkers (I only know latin dances, so I think I made a fairly large fool of myself) and ate a traditional Christmas dinner (ham... good, but not as delicious as turkey I must say). There were also LOTS of different types of fish and such, which makes sense considering Vaasa is on the coast. :)
Over the weekend I was actually able to enjoy the minimal hours of daylight that Vaasa gets! I went for a four hour walk along the coastline on Saturday. It was really pretty and helped me work off all the company bought food I had been eating! Afterwards, I got together with some couch surfing friends that I had contacted asking if they wanted to show me around over the weekend. One of the girls, Malin, took me to an Asian buffet, she introduced me to some traditional Xmas desserts and took me to the Xmas Market. At the Christmas market, we tried the rice porridge. At Christmas time it traditional to eat this rice porridge and hide an almond in it. The person who finds the almond is said to have good luck! Unfortnately I didn't find any almond though. :(
(Eating traditional Finnish Xmas porridge)I went to visit another couch surfing friend at her residence at the University. We had some Glüggi and Gingerbread cookies. Glüggi is a very traditional Scandinavian winter drink. It is similar to Switzerland's and Germany's Gluwein (warmed red wine) but it doesn't have as much of a wine taste to it. It's more of a spiced red punch, warmed and then they put almonds and raisins in it. SOOO good! While at her place, we also went to the sauna! Sauna's are very famous in Finland, and apparently they have more sauna's than they do cars. I was quite happy I got to experience it. :)
After a great weekend, I had to go back to work for the week. I was excited though because I finally was going to get to meet my team. Our Design to Cost Team is about 15 people situated in Vaasa (Finland), Trieste (Italy), Drunnen (Netherlands) and Winterthur with me. So twice a year, we have a global team meeting. I had been talking to lots of these people over email, so it was great to finally meet them. It was also really neat to see what everyone else is up to in the different areas of Design to Cost.
(Outside my company office in Finland!!)On the last day of the meeting, I had to do a presentation and training of my own. I was absolutely terrifed. I had to make a 30 minute presentation and then train everyone on the program for the next 2 hours. Luckily, the presentation went fairly well. I think anyway. I was told afterwards that I looked very confident considering it was my first big presentation. I guess it's all about the image, cause I definitely didn't feel confident. As my dad says, "Once you can fake you, you've made it!"
So that ends the work part of my Finland adventure. I then I took a 3 day vacation in Northern Finland!! Rovaniemi is a famous town as it sits right on the arctic circle. It is also said to be the home of Santa Claus, or as they call him, Joulupukkia! So they have made the "Santa Claus Village" 10 km from the city. Although mainly an overdone tourist attraction, it was still a must see. So, on my first day I took "Santa's Express" up to see Santa Claus!
There were of course lots of other things happening at village, and though a lot of the activities were quite pricey. The one thing that I did fork up the money to pay for was a visit into the Husky Park. I couldn't resist... it was worth the 6 EUR to spend some time with the dogs. :) And the guy gave me a tour around, telling me about the dogs and about sled racing. It was really neat. And I of course couldn't get enough of the dogs. Made me very happy. :):)
(Me with one of the husky puppies, Hugo)Then it was time to go see the famous Santa Claus! His house was ... very different than I was expecting. As you walked up to him, it felt more like you were walking through a haunted house. It was very dark, and there was this eerie music playing in the background. Serisouly, if I visited that when I was a kid I think I would have been terrified. But finally I did make it to Santa, got my picture taken with him but was unwilling to pay the 30 EUR for it. So it will just have to be a memory. A great story to tell my kids one day I guess. :P
(Proof that I was at the arctic circle!!)
(The hallway leading up to Santa Claus!)
The next 2 days that I spent in northern Finland I went to another couch surfer's house, but she lived about 50km out of the city. Rovaniemi itself didn't have much snow, but rather was really icy. However, as I left the city I entered a beautiful winter wonderland. Taina, my host for the next 2 days, is definitely one of the most amazing ladies I have ever met. She is a mother of 10 children. She also particpiates in a community program taking care of a few kids on the weekend who live in some sort of disfunctional family. On top of all that, she does couch surfing and she never says no to anyone. There are almost always couch surfers around, and her record is 11 couch surfers on one night (though I was the only surfer over the 2 days I was there). All of these people live in a small one floor, 4 bedroom house, with a kitchen that fits only 8 people. It was amazing to see the efficiency of her household. Dinner was made in mass quantities, and then it was served in rotation, usually the younger ones eating first. They didn't have a dishwasher, so next came the dishes, which happened surprisingly fast. The most amazing thing about Taina's house was the fact that is was not chaotic. Sure there was always chatter and activities happening, but it was such a loving and warm atmosphere.
The next thing to note about Rovaniemi is the sun. Since it lies on the arctic circle, during the month of December there is very minimal sunlight. Only about 4-5 hours in the middle of the day. However, the progression of the sun was quite amazing to watch. Since the sun barely pokes above the horizon each step lasts much longer than usual. There is the so called "blue moment" as the sunlight beings to spread lasting about half an hour. And then the sun rises, with beautiful orange colours lasting over an hour. There was probably about 1-2 hours of pure sunlight and then the sunset lasted an hour and the "blue" again for another half hour.
(The "blue moment" after the sun had set at the arctic circle)I went for a couple walks in the forest around Taina's house during the daylight hours. I was so happy... I was surrounded by a true winter wonderland, right at the arctic circle!! As I was walking down the path, I saw a reindeer up ahead, though it quickly ran into the forest. As I approached the area, I looked to my left and I noticed it was in fact an entire field of reindeer! There must have been at least 20 of them! Must have been Santa's training grounds. :P
(Lost in a winter wonderland!!! =D)I slept on the couch in the living room, and in the morning the young boys would wake up, go to the kitchen and play cards while waiting for me to wake up. I usually heard them right away, but enjoyed the warmth of my bed a little longer before getting up. It was funny though, because the second I got up, they would abandon the cards and run to the living room to watch TV. I guess they have been trained well.
The youngest boy must have been about 3 years old really enjoyed played with me. He would drag me off into his room to play Lego, or play with pillows in the living room. It took him a little while to figure out that I didn't understand Finnish, but once he figured it out he started signing to me instead. It was really cute. :D
So that was my Finnish adventure. It was different than most of my other trips because it wasn't about touring around a city and seeing the famous sites. It spent a lot of time with locals, really getting to know the culture and I learned a lot about the holiday traditions. It is by far my favourite adventure thus far, and I could honestly see myself living there one day. Or perhaps at least doing another work term there. It would be nice to go back during the summer to experience the 24 hours of daylight instead of darkness :P
(Btw, I only got a small glimpse of the Northern Lights on my last morning there. It was cloudy so I couldn't see much, but a small area of the clouds was lit up. Still counts I guess!)
Up next: I am heading over to the UK for Christmas! I will be visiting with some family that I have in Cambridge! I am there for 9 days, so I think I will spend about 5 days with family, a couple days in London and a couple days in Bath/Stonehenge area. :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all!
Frohe Weihnachten! (how the Swiss German say it)
Hyvää Joulua! (how the Finnish say it)
(Enjoying Glüggi in the cold of Rovaniemi)
