Sadly, my time in Finland is coming to an end. Despite the cold temperatures and the huge amounts of snow, we've done well with keeping ourselves busy. James and his sister have many friends here and so not only have we had free accommodation the whole time but we've had instant friends to meet up with and go out with. On Saturday night we went with a couple friends to a tango club. This was my first experience with tango (James started dancing tango last August) and I'm told I did alright. My feet got mixed up quite often and James did a lot of improvisation followed by a “that'll do.” Since it was the day before Valentine's Day, the tango bar/restaurant was packed with couples and around 11pm there was a tango lesson on the dance floor. James and I couldn't stop laughing during the lesson (in Finnish of course) because it reminded us far too much of the tacky video we watched months ago on Finnish disco dancing. Click here to see the video on YouTube: Finnish Disco Dancing Lesson. The bartender at the club was also Canadian – he has been living here for 10 years! I couldn't understand why he'd move to small Helsinki until he told me where he's from: Winnipeg.
Sunday was a special Finnish traditional day called 'Laskianen.' The tradition involves sledding down a big hill and then eating a special cake at the bottom. In the spirit of Laskianen, James and I headed to a big hill in the city and watched hundreds of people toboggan down. We talked to a lovely Finnish woman who said that her family was using the day as a reunion. They were all from different parts of Finland and had come together in the city to celebrate the snow. It's apparently been 5 years since Finland has had this much snow (that hasn't melted quickly after) and 20 years since Helsinki itself has been this white. James and I have great timing! The special cakes were delicious – a bun pastry filled with jam and cream. Needless to say, we did a lot more eating of buns than sledding.
I've had 2 trips to the sauna so far and hopefully one more tonight – my last night in Finland! In Helsinki, people generally seem to live in flats and use a common sauna in the basement. You book it out and then get charged a nominal fee like 3 Euro at the end of the month. Naked sweating time sounds far too personal to use a communal sauna – but everyone takes such good care of the thing that it's not dirty or anything. I hear that out in the suburbs and small towns families have their own family saunas. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the traditional way of using the sauna (guys first, then girls after – no clothes) but everyone is so relaxed about the whole naked thing that it would be awkward if one was wearing clothes.
I haven't been able to get to know that many Finns, but the ones that I have spent time with are so genuine and warm. They seems to have a rough exterior and are kind of hard to approach – but being the awkward foreigner always helps with this. Absolutely everyone speaks English here (and very well too!) so it's really easy to travel around even when the signs are in Finnish and Swedish only. One thing that I find surprising is the fact that Finland has only 12 or so days in the whole year where you are permitted to fly your Finnish flag ('flag days' – i.e., a poet's day, Finland Day, etc..) Someone told me about a share house filled with mostly foreigners who were actually asked to take down the Finnish flag they were flying. I suppose this instills pride in the flag itself and prevents trashy, ripped flags from being flown from every window.
Before I go, I've decided to give a coffee update from each place I visit. Since I spend most of my money on coffee anyways, I think this will make a good edition to the blog.
Finland Coffee Update: Finns mostly drink drip coffee (up to 2 Euros/cup) but espresso drinks are also available at most places (3 to 5 Euros/cup). Drip is drip. Lattes, cappuccinos, etc... they all depend on the places you're getting them at. It seems that the best latte I've had here came from a chain coffee place. One great thing is that most places carry soy milk (my favorite milk in a latte), which is more than I can say for London (“Soy milk? Why would you want that?”)
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