Skating, Seminars and Suomea

We went out and bought some ice-skates. Tracy found some old figure skates at a secondhand shop and had them sharpened, and I found some hockey skates at a sports shop on discount sale. It seems everyone here thinks winter is over - all winter stuff is on massive discounts (which doesn't make it affordable yet!). So we have been skating at a rink near to our flat. The municipality pours water on a flat surface and sweeps it now and then to keep the snow off, and voila, a skating rink. No handrails and no music - but also no crowds. What a pleasure to go skating when you have the ice all to yourself. Tracy is trying hard to do swizzles and spins, I am trying hard to go in a straight line, suppose that is the difference between our personalities...

We also borrowed some plastic sleds from two chinese students we met skating, and slid down the hill next to the skating rink - what fun!

My presentation of the proposal went well two weeks ago, some insightful questions gave me plenty to think of, and pointed out weaknesses that need to be rectified, but in all there are no huge problems (I hope...). I presented a talk on music education in South Africa last Friday that was very well recieved. Unfortunately the problems in South Africa make for interesting talks. There are virtually no problems to speak of in Finnish education when you compare it to SA.

Tracy started with an intensive Finnish course today and is sitting on the couch talking rubbish (to my ears anyway). I was also meant to go, but have some work to do still before the proposal is ready, and this course runs for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week - with homework. So that did not really work for me. Hopefully Tracy can teach some of what she learns, so that my speaking can improve.

Birthdays, Sauna, Speaking Finnish

I had my birthday on 7 Feb (shame on you for not calling! ;-), and as a birthday suprise Tracy's brother Shawn came to visit. He had some work nearby and managed to find his way here. It was so good to see someone from home, and we had a great time exploring the city. He also brought lots of goodies from the parentals - we are munching away on biltong, rusks, chocolate, nuts etc.

The pics are of us taking a ferry, and yes we sailed through the ice!

As part of a birthday treat, Shawn and I went to a sauna in town. It is one of the oldest woodfired public saunas in Helsinki, and maybe Finland. After undressing in the cloakroom, you have a shower (no cubicles) and then proceed to the sauna room. Of course the men go separately from the women...

The room is like a fair size lounge, but has concrete steps that go all the way round, and to the top. Here are arrayed men of all shapes and sizes - au naturel. When it gets to hot, you go and buy a beer and stand outside, covered by your towel. Shawn and I even dared rolling in the snow. Some poms lauged at this and said they would never do that - it's too cold. A hardened local then responded by saying "O we do that lots, just not here because of the dogshit..."

Learning Finnish is taking a while, the other day someone phoned me from a company and started speaking Finnish. So thinking I would be clever I said in my best Finnish, "Sorry, I don't speak any English". This was met by a stunned silence, and she promptly switched to English! So I guess I got the message across, although not as elegantly as I would have hoped.

I have been working flatout to get my proposal ready, which is why the posts are few and far apart. I had to present it at a seminar on Friday, which went well, but also pointed out some weaknesses that need to be addressed. Two weeks before it's due - so still some time.

Tracy has been working hard to get her CV out, with no success yet, but we are not in a hurry and am still feeling hopeful. She has also been scrubbing the walls, which were filthy - and are now much cleaner. The line on the picture is clean on the right and dirty on the left.

We also led worship at a womans meeting on Saturday, which was recieved very well, and played in church this morning. We are hoping to be able to transform the worship here, which has been a bit staid - and make it a bit more interesting.

About washing windows

Yesterday we had some sunshine for the first time since the day we arrived. We woke up to clear skies and a light breeze. It was very cold, -17 according to the web, the icon used was a sun with an igloo - not one you would get in SA!

The clear sun made us see how dirty the windows really were, and I set about cleaning them. With the inside clean I realised how dirty the outside is, and as we only have one window that opens, I decided to clean that one. I realised my mistake as soon as I put the damp cloth onto the window. At -17 water freezes pretty quickly, so in the wake of my cloth I found ice particles rather than clean window. In fact, I definitely made the matter worse rather than better. That window will have to wait a couple of months before we can see out of it properly again.

We went for a walk because it was such a beautiful day, and came across the City Winter Garden. It is a greenhouse with "exotic" plants. We recognised at least half of them as plants you would find in any self-respecting SA garden. They had a magnificent Aloe Arborescens - and some yellowwoods - so when we are feeling homesick we have a place to go. The air in there is also humid, something you don't get here. All the humidity in the air just freezes...

We found a lovely little cafe at the yacht club (which is completely frozen over). It was called Regatta and was about the size of a small kitchen. It was really cozy and we had a lovely cup of coffee/hot chocolate together with a Runeberg cake. It is the Finnish national poet's day next week and everyone hoists flags and eats cake to remember him by.