Owls, Studios and Pizza

I have just finished washing every bit of cutlery and crockery we have in the house. We invited Markus and Milla for supper last night, and also had Pilvi and Tomi - friends from church. We had a lovely time together, and made pizzas with 1.5 kg of cheese that we got from church. It was close to its due date, and had to be finished. They were yummy, and we introduced the Finns to the idea of banana on a pizza, which they had never heard of.
Last week we had the oddest bird-watching experience I have ever had. We were invited by the local Arocha branch to go owl-finding in Nuuksio, a nearby national park. So we met them at 10 in the evening at the agreed spot and drove off. When we arrived at the parking place, I was quite ready to head off and find the things, but everyone just stood in one spot, dead quiet. Remember that there is snow all around and the temparature is about -5. Standing still is not neccessarily what comes to mind in those circumstances. We managed to locate about three different owls calling in the surrounds, and drove to another spot where we did the same. It was a beautiful evening, with stars visible, but I think we were under-prepared for how cold it would get. South African socks and shoes are not sufficient protection against the cold. Seems you have to be really passionate about your birds here in order to find them...
Last Monday the Education Department at Siba had a cleanup day. It involved lots of clearing out of various rooms, and general cleaning that the cleaners don't get around to. At the end of the day there was an auction of unwanted goods. A large amount of equipent had gathered itself in the foyer. If I had money, and motivation to build a studio, I would have had most things I would need. DAT machines, MIDI routers, Delays, Keyboards, Effects, Sound Modules, Computers, amps, speakers, mixers - and the most expensive price anyone paid was 100€, but mostly around 20€. There is clearly a large amount of investment, as all those things are in working condition, although a bit old. I also got to see more of the department. They have two recording studios, fully equipped with Spirit desks, Macs, fancy keyboards - the envy of any self respecting studio in SA. And this is just for the MusEd department, all the other departments have their own studios, and there are more and more specialised studios belonging to the Academy in other places.
Tracy has finished her Finnish course, and can sort of have a conversation, if it stays with the basics. She can read some newspaper articles, or at least get the gist. She did very well, ending up teaching some of the people around her while the teacher was helping others, and getting 58/60 for the first test. She wrote her final test on Friday and we will hear the results next Friday. She has also started a new painting, the first of a triptych of photos she took on our Wild Coast Hike.
I dropped my laptop last Friday, very stupidly. It seemed to work ok for the next day, but then the hard drive started to make scratcy noises, which a hard drive is never supposed to make. So I phoned Dell, as it was still under warrantee, but had to tell them how the damage happened. They wanted to charge me €300 to look at the machine, and when the parts get added to this, it is more than I paid for it in the first place. So it is now with another company, and the the computer guy at Siba has thankfully agreed to help me get the data off, and reprogram the new drive. I had most of the things backed up, except the most recent work I have been doing, so it is not a huge loss. I was a bit despondent though, and missed having connectivity. I didn't realise how much I was relying on the computer. So in the end it was a good thing, to get my reliance off things and back onto our Father.

Ski, Skate and Schustermann

We finally managed to borrow some cross-country skis, from a friend who has been coming to our cell. She and her boyfriend are avid skiers, and their shoe sizes are similar to ours. We had a great time going round a little track near their house, with some instructions from her. Afterwards we ate some real Hong Kong(ian?) and Korean food that she had prepared for us. A very special afternoon and evening.

We went on Saturday to go ice-skating on the sea. Helsinki is full of inlets and islands around the city, and on one of these the municipality clears the snow off a track that is about 2km long. The ice is just frozen sea, and is quite bumpy in places, with cracks running along and across the track. There was a tractor clearing snow just as we arrived, so we felt quite sure that the cracks would not widen just because of our weight...

Milla and Markus have moved into a new house, about 30 minutes walk from our place, and had a housewarming and birthday party at their place on Saturday night. We had helped them to rip the wallpaper of some of their lounge wall, so it was good to see the finished product. So after our skating (about 5-6 km) and walking to their place and back about (8 km), I think we have had enough excercise for a while.

I have been playing lots at church, basically every Sunday, and mostly playing guitar, as there are some competent pianists around. This is nice because it gives me an opportunity to see the congregation, something you cannot always do from behind a piano. It has been very good to get involved. The philosophy of music is quite different here compared to PCF, but there is a lot of discussion about change, and we have a meeting at the end of the month to discuss where the music ministry is headed. I hope some fruit will come from the discussion, and that it will lead to more people worshipping more freely.

Tracy wrote her first Finnish test on Friday and was quite nervous, but refused to make bets with me about her marks. Guess she has lost those bets too many times before by overachieving. It was hard going for her this week, and she was quite tired by the end of it. So we are having a restful Sunday at home.

I have been preparing a paper comparing the Finnish and South African music education scene, and have been reading and thinking about it, but need to get something on paper this week. I have a vague idea, but these things change as soon as you see them in black and white. I also attended our regular Friday afternoon seminar, which was on Schustermann's pragmatist aesthetics (aarh...!). I am having to read quite a lot to keep up on those kinds of topics, which I have never had to deal with before. I started practicing again, plaing some old pieces and starting to learn Beethoven Op. 110. The plan is to play all three the last sonatas at some stage, if someone will give me a concert. Maybe in Slovenia, as I have a contact there, we'll see.

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.

Our Apartment

Our first purchase - a DIY double bed from IKEA - this is the whole thing!

Our living space is pretty comfy, and slowly getting filled up with secondhand goods. Tracy's got some sofa covering to do.

Brrr...

SNOW! It's been snowing pretty much all the time. You can see that it's better to use the train than to have to dig your car out - if you had one, which we don't...