Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää!

Or Happy Independence Day! Who is exhausted at just looking at those words? This language is still a daily challenge!

Back to Independence Day: in Finland it is celebrated on December 6th when they gained their independence from Russia in 1917. Finland had not been free before, but there were native people with a Finnish identity. The Swedes ruled from the 12th century until 1809 when the land was handed over to Russia and Finland became a Grand Duchy of Russia. The Russian Empire collapsed after the February and October Revolutions in 1917 and led to the collapse of the Grand Duchy of Finland. It gets complicated, but there was a power struggle in the Finnish government between the socialists and the non-socialists, independence was declared on December 6, 1917, and a brief civil war ensued that involved the Russians and the Germans. I think this will require another post in the future as my Finnish history is not strong and I think the story is long.

Independence Day is a national holiday and a flag day, so most people have the day off (public transit runs a limited route), the shops are closed, and the flags are flown. There is a military parade that rotates among the large cities of Finland (not in Helsinki this year), which is different from US parades: no floats and no candy. In the afternoon, a group of selected students form a torch-lit processional from the grave of the unknown soldiers to the President's House while singing. And at 6:00, people light two candles in their windows. 

A popular Independence Day past time is watching the President's Ball. The President holds a ball each year for about 2000 guests which include Knights of the Mannerheim Cross (a military decoration), members of government and parliament, judges, ambassadors, and other dignitaries, some people of the President's choosing (celebrities, activists, and this year common working people: a scientist in our department was invited), and finally former Presidents. The entire ball is broadcast on national TV and the most popular part to watch is the grand entrance where each guest shakes hands with the president and his/her spouse. The running joke is that it is an evening when 2.5 million people watch 2000 people shake hands. The germaphobe in me wondered whether there was a giant bottle of hand sanitizer for the guests out of view of the camera! People are dressed in formal attire and those with the flashiest dresses or shoes or hats capture the attention of the camera crews, sometimes at the expense of the next person in line. Depending on your feelings about being on camera, you would either love or hate being behind the woman with the most beautiful dress. After all of the people have filed in and the last hand has been shaken, there is a dinner and a dance, again all broadcast on TV. The cameras provide shots of the food, the people loading up their plates in the line, and up-close-and-personal shots of people dancing. During the broadcast, the TV journalists interview some of the guests, asking such questions as, "What does Finnish independence mean to you?" People poke fun at this TV event, but half of the country watches it anyhow and it is the topic of conversation on December 7th at work and in the newspapers, on the internet and on talkshows. 

How did I spend Finnish Independence Day? I blended some Finnish favorites: eating brunch and watching the handshake parade, with some of my favorite American downtime activities: reading and watching movies. It was a treat to have a day to relax!

Christmas cards

As we have received our first holiday cards of the season (thanks for the extra effort, friends and family!), and my coworkers have been talking a lot about writing their Christmas cards, I thought I'd post about it. I say Christmas cards because in Finnish, there is not a politically correct phrase for 'Happy Holidays' or 'Holiday cards'. Finland is 90% Lutheran, 5% Orthodox, and 5% other, which has to include the other major religions and non-religions. This is the only thing in Finland that I've encountered that is not PC. Everyone I've talked to here celebrates Christmas and they don't think a thing of saying 'Hyvää Joulua' (WHO-va YO-loo-ah). Even December is called Joulukuu, or Christmas month.

Christmas cards here are different from the traditional American cards. It would be rare for someone to send a family picture, and instead the cards are often holiday-themed postcards. The mail service, Posti, runs an offer on cheaper postage for Christmas cards. If you don't have a 'No ads please' sign on your door, you receive a red envelope from the post carrier that you fill with your Christmas cards and if you give it back to the post carrier by December 13th, and you pay only € 0.60 per stamp. If you get it to them by December 17th, it is € 0.70 per stamp. Stamps are normally € 1, so it may well be worth your efforts to finish your cards early. And with the special Christmas card offer from Posti, they deliver the cards just in time for Christmas.

Sauna ilta

I've finally made it to a sauna in Finland. I was beginning to feel bad about naming my blog 'Saunas and Santa Claus' and not yet coming across either.

Let's start with the Finnish word sauna. In English, most people would pronounce it as 'saw-na'. It is a borrowed word from the Finnish language where the correct pronunciation is 'SAOW-na' -- the first syllable rhymes with cow. Now that we have that out of the way, onto the more interesting stuff.

You will find saunas everywhere you go in Finland as it is a way of life for the Finns: every apartment building has either a common one if the building is recently remodeled it is likely to have a sauna in each unit. Houses will have one either built in or as a stand-alone building just a few steps from the door. There is a sauna in the gym locker rooms and there are rumors of a sauna in my building at work, but I haven't seen it nor have I heard of anyone using it. Saunas are heated either by a wood burning stove in which the smoke is either allowed inside the sauna or is vented out through a chimney, or they are heated by an electric stove. The smoke saunas are the original and are making a comeback, but they are not as common as the electric stove saunas. The temperature reaches somewhere between 80 and 110°C or 176-230°F -- warm enough to slow cook food, and it was certainly used in the past and is used occasionally for cooking today. No matter the method of heating, there are stones on the oven on which water is thrown to produce some humidity. When the water is thrown, the steam rises making the top of the room very warm: if it is too warm, you simply move to a lower bench or step outside to cool off.

The dress code for the Finnish sauna is your birthday suit. That's right -- no clothing allowed. I would also recommend removing all jewelry as it gets hot! If you live in an apartment with a communal sauna you simply reserve a time and you go with your family. There are also public saunas and they are designed so that there are separate men's and women's saunas. But what about sitting my behind down where someone else was sitting? No worries: you shower before you enter the sauna and after and you take with you a small towel or disposable seat cover on which to sit.

Now to the fun part: it's another option for entertainment. I went with some coworkers to a Helsinki sauna institution for a girl's night out and we made an evening of it, the sauna ilta. We sat in the sauna for some time, maybe 10 minutes or so and then cooled off by either sitting in the dressing room or going outside. Some people come prepared for this cooling off part! A group of 'grannies', as they introduced themselves to us, were set up with their knitting, sparkling wine, and fruit, cheese, and crackers. This cycle of heating and cooling is repeated a number of times. There is also another way to cool off during the winter: jump into a snow bank or an icy lake! Finland is the true land of a thousand lakes, clocking in at 187,888 (sorry, Minnesota!), and these are popular places to build summer cottages and of course a sauna. When the lakes freeze, people cut holes in them for fishing and for cooling off from the sauna. This certainly isn't for the faint of heart. 

I came home feeling refreshed and relaxed -- was it the sauna or some girl time? I'm not sure but I now know the appeal of being warmed through on a chilly day. There is also the added bonus of a more youthful appearance. Maybe the Finns have discovered the fountain of youth?

Helsinki in 48 Hours

We were recently put to the challenge of playing tour guide in our new city. A dear friend, Jenny, from 'The States' came to visit for the weekend en route to a business meeting. It was November when the days were becoming noticeably shorter, some of the tourist type attractions were closed, and the weather wasn't optimal for lounging at the outdoor cafes. A challenge indeed, but we were never bored and even had to scale the tour back a bit.

Since she just arrived, what better to do than eat? We had Finnish cold-smoked salmon for supper and then went out for some fresh air. In the city center, one of the hotels has a bar (Torni) with a great view of Helsinki from their top floor: the 14th.

The next day we took advantage of the grey skies and toured the city. We took in the major churches before lunch: The Church in the Rock, the Lutheran Cathedral, and the Orthodox Cathedral.

We lunched at the indoor harbor market and found this guy!

After checking out both the indoor and outdoor markets at the harbor, we had afternoon coffee to refuel and plot our next move. We decided on a little shopping and some resting before supper. There are endless restaurants in which to dine in Helsinki and choosing one is difficult, but we did manage to find one that served some Finland originals: reindeer and barley risotto with beet sauce.

 




















The next day was Sunday, and Father's Day, so we had a lighter itinerary. We did make it to the contemporary art museum, Kiasma. Their ongoing exhibit is entitled The Book of Life and featured Finnish artists Osmo Rauhala and Tosi Kyseessä as well as Toby Ziegler. After that it was time for a quick lunch and to get Jenny back to the airport. The weekend flew by and we had a great time catching up. And we were grateful to our gracious tourist in trying out our Helsinki tour! A big thanks to Jenny for the use of her pictures!

When in Wien

A few weeks ago (already!) we took a trip to Vienna, or Wien, Austria. Despite the clouds, some light fog and occasional mist, the early November weather was perfect for sight-seeing. We spent the weekend enjoying the beautiful properties and manses that the 6-century ruling Habsburgs built, the art of Gustav Klimt, and Sachre torte. 

Here is St. Stephen's Cathedral, which was covered so that they could give it a good scrubbing. The difference between the cleaned and not-yet-cleaned spots was drastic! St. Stephen's is more or less in the center of the 'inner ring' now, but when construction began in the 12th century, it was outside of the city walls. Interestingly, it has since been discovered that the cathedral was built upon old sites of religious sites (graves, churches) that date to the Roman times in the 4th century. Inside the catacombs (closed to tours while we were there) contain many notable Austrians, including bishops, dukes, and parts of the Habsburgs bodies. Apparently when members of this family died, they left instructions to be dissected and their body parts buried all over town.

These pictures are only part of the Habsburg city residence, the Hofburg Kaiserappartements. It was immense. We didn't tour it due to the short time we spent in Vienna, but it contains a few museums and all of their silver collection. Today, parts of it now have civic use, such as the National Library.

The sun came out as we walked through the Hofburg complex to see the National Library...

...and City Hall in the distance was also beautifully highlighted in the late afternoon sun.

 Our tour of the Habsburg's residences continued with the Schloss Belvedere, or Belvedere Palace, built in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The complex was the summer residence of Prince Eugene and was comprised of two buildings, the Upper and the Lower Belvedere, an orangery and stables, all of which were separated by immaculate gardens. This castle has been turned into an art museum where a large collection of Austrian paintings are on display, including Gustav Klimt (the highlight of the trip for me). Shown is a view of the garden from the Upper Belvedere, and the Upper Belvedere.

We spent the next day at the Versailles of Vienna: Schloss Schönbrunn, yet another Habsburg residence. This particular one was their hunting residence. Some shack it was. You start to get the feeling that each successive ruler needed to out-build the last. Anyway, this complex was quite a distance from the city, and the main residence contained over 1400 rooms: only 40 are on display to the public. The following two pictures are the view of the entrance and the rear of the residence.

From the rear of the residence, the gardens were in view, as was the Gloriette. This was built to be the focal point of the gardens and contained a dining hall that was sometimes used for breakfast. I guess one tires of seeing the same old 1400+ rooms and must go somewhere else for breakfast. Today it holds a cafe. The gardens here were vast and very ornate. I did not post pictures because I didn't manage to take any that did justice to their beauty.

Aside from these beautifully preserved remnants of the Habsburg, Vienna has something for all tourists. If shopping is your thing, the pedestrian mall in the Inner Ring is rather gentrified and you will find H&M, Tiffany's, Fossil, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and many many more. There are also some shops selling tchotchkes for tourists, bakeries and flower shops with their goods spilling out of the doors.

We also paid a visit to the Vienna institution, the Hotel Sachre, for a piece of their world-famous cake, the Sachre torte. The first time we walked by, there was a line nearly 100 people deep. So we did the rational thing and came back to have chocolate cake for breakfast the next day. The cake was a bit dry, but I don't think that this is unusual after hearing reviews from others. There was a layer of apricot jam in the middle and it was covered in a chocolate ganache.

While in Vienna we had to try out their other famous dishes. Below is a shot of leberkäse, which I would guess to be the inspiration for Spam, but I don't know for certain. Your guess is as good as mine as to what is actually in this, but traditionally it contains bits of onion, pork and beef and some spices, all ground very finely and baked together in a loaf pan. Brent enjoyed it, and I tried a few bites. It was ok (delicious in Brent's view), and likely shaved a few years from our lives. 

We also tried out wienerschnitzel and goulash with spaetzel. In some parts of the US, wienerschnitzel was adapted to be made with pork and called a tenderloin. I am now convinced to not mess around with pork and that veal is the way to go with this dish. The goulash was also very good with large chunks of beef cooked in a spiced tomato sauce. Finally, we wandered through the Naschmarkt and found permanent market stalls where people sold fresh produce and other food products such as coffee, wine (they are known for their white wines), fish, and meat and some hand-made goods such as soaps and woolen goods. Its popularity was apparent as it was packed with shoppers. The city was also preparing for the Christmas season by setting up stalls for the Christmas market in front of the city hall:

The city was beautiful, packed full of something for everybody. It is very easy to navigate and most of the major attractions are within walking distance of everything. If you tire of walking, there is an extensive metro system as well as a number of tram and bus routes around town. I highly recommend going and I look forward to a return trip sometime in the future.

Bits and Pieces

Happy Thanksgiving to my readers in the US! I hope that you all had a nice holiday. We celebrated with a few other American ex-pats over the weekend and with a little creativity we were able to put together a meal that was recognizable as a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. While hunting for ingredients for these dishes, I kept thinking of the differences between the US and Finland. There have been a number of things that I've noticed about life in Finland and with no place to fit them nicely, I thought that I would throw a few together in one post.

Thanksgiving:
There is no Thanksgiving holiday in Finland. However, in Finland there is no shortage of celebrations as there are a number of holidays and flag days. To celebrate holidays, the Finnish flag is flown and all of the shops are closed. Flag days are only marked by flying the flag. Recent holidays, All Saints Day and Fathers Day, were marked by flying flags and closed shops. Finland also held a municipal election recently and it was only marked with flying flags. Lucky for me, my coworkers realize that coming from the US, I don't know all of these holidays and that likely I am accustomed to stores being open at all times, and they warn me a few days ahead of the holiday so that I can be sure to do my shopping beforehand. On these days, we have seen a lot of people carrying take-out pizza.

Elections:
There was a municipal election here at the end of October. There were no ads on the TVs, but they were rampant on the buses, metros, and trams. There were also special stands set out to advertise all of the candidates. The election was held on a Sunday in order to make voting available to as many people as possible. There is no early voting of which I am aware. Shockingly, voter turnout was at 58%! That was a surprise for me and the Finns: I was amazed that it was so high for a municipal election, and they were disappointed that it was so low. By comparison, the voter turnout for the recent US presidential election is thought to be around 57%.

Daylight:
It is getting darker here. The length of the day is now 6 hours and 46 minutes. So that means that sunrise is at 8:44 and sunset is at 3:30. Most all of the Finns that I talk to are grumbling about how dark it is. While true that it is dark, it has not yet affected my mood. Bright light lamps, called Nordic Lamps, are widely available in the stores and there are people who swear by them. The only tough part for me is thinking that I should be wrapping things up at work for the day when it gets dark, only to realize that it is not even 4:00 yet. Just another month to go of the encroaching darkness before the days start to get longer!

Safety in the dark:
Since it is so dark, there is a law on the books in Finland that pedestrians and bikers must wear some sort of reflective gear. While no one would actually be cited for not having reflective gear, judging by the number of people who follow this law, personal safety is held in high regard. I see adults wearing reflective bands around the cuffs of their coats (they look like the straps used to hold pant legs tight while biking), or dangling snowflake-shaped reflectors from their zippers. Children's coats have reflective features built in. People even go so far as to outfit their dogs with reflective coats and coin-sized flashing lights hanging from their collars.

These are just a few of the differences that I've noticed. I'll post more as I encounter them.

My day job...

Some of you may think that all I do is hang out and live the life in Helsinki. Not so. I am here because of work. Today's post is about my work: what I spend my 9-5 (and more) thinking about.

When you see yourself in the mirror, what do you see? Likely your eyes first, and then maybe your other facial features: nose, mouth, teeth if you’re smiling, maybe your ears, and most likely your hair: eyelashes, eyebrows, and that which may or may not be growing on top of your head. What you can’t help but see is your skin: look at you – it’s everywhere! It covers your face all the way down to your toes. It is our largest organ and despite our abuses, it remains in place to protect us from the outside world. You may be thinking, “…but what is really out there that I need to be protected against?” Plenty. Mechanical abrasion, ie anything that rubs on your skin from clothes to the door your hold open with your arm. Tiny microbes that could make you very very sick, and even the weather: our skin helps to keep our insides warm and hydrated on the coldest of days. So, quit abusing your skin!

Our skin has developed some pretty handy additions to help it out and to help us. Scientifically, they are ectodermal appendages and they include teeth, nails, hair, sweat glands and sebaceous glands, to name a few. While they seem rather innocuous, they are actually quite important. Your teeth are critical for obvious reasons, but your sweat glands help to regulate your body temperature, as does your hair. Hair is also really cool because the follicles from which they grow also contribute cells to aide in wound healing. These appendages begin to form during skin development. More or less, your skin started out as a blank canvas and these appendages began to form half-way through. Interestingly, the very first couple of steps in building teeth, hair and the rest have a lot in common in that they use many of the same genes, types of cells, and intermediate structures before taking on their characteristic forms by using genes in the next steps that are different. So by studying early development of one appendage, we can sometimes learn about the rest.

When development of these appendages goes wrong, there can be serious consequences. This is a rare occurrence, but the most famous is that of actor Michael Berryman. Unfortunately, most of his on-screen appearances are as monsters, most notably in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Hills Have Eyes. His skin began to develop normally, but when it came time to make hair and teeth, those pathways failed, which left him with sparse hair, a few misshapen teeth, and no sweat glands or nails. The biggest risk for people like Michael with hypohydrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED) is overheating as they have no way to cool themselves since they have no sweat glands. There is no cure for HED, only cosmetic fixes (ie dentures and wigs) and close monitoring of body temperature in extreme conditions.

Now that you know the background and if you are still reading, here is where my work comes in. I am studying hair development. I glossed over what goes wrong in HED, but in brief, there is a mutation in any one of the genes that contribute to the development of all skin appendages. Thus, all appendages are affected by a mutation of one of these genes in the early steps of the appendage building pathway. Why care at all about this stuff? In the bigger scheme of things, studying how appendages are built may help to develop regenerative therapies. And in hair and tooth loss, once it is gone, there is no getting it back. Some of you may know that my previous work also involved skin: wound healing. Check out your scars: they have no hair in them, do they? They are also lacking sweat glands. If you’re lucky, you likely only have a couple of large scars, and maybe a few small ones. Truth is, these will never have hair follicles or sweat glands in them. Imagine patients with very large wounds such as burn victims. These patients, like those with HED, have large parts of their body that are forever without the benefit of hair follicles and sweat glands (ie temperature regulation and assistance in healing). This is aside from the psycho-social issues that may arise due to ‘looking different’.

So, take a close look at your skin, which is in my opinion, the coolest organ. And take care of it! There are people who are not so lucky to have been born with it properly made, or have lost some of it to accident. If you have questions, or want to know more, please let me know!

What is blog?

Today's post title is part of the only pop reference to Estonia that I can remember. Quick! Without a map, where is Estonia? Answer: just across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki. 

We woke very early on a Saturday not long ago and took a 2-hour ferry ride across this 50-mile (84 km) stretch of the Baltic to reach Tallinn, the capitol of Estonia. The ferry was a rather large boat with 9 decks. The bottom 5 or so carried cars and semis, and the top 4 or so were for people and filled mostly with restaurants, bars, and duty-free shops.

We lucked out and had a beautiful fall day for walking through all of the Old Town part of Tallinn. The city's founding is a little murky, but the city has medieval roots with the city wall dating to the 11th century, and it's first appearance on a map in the 12th century. The intervening time has seen rule by the Danes, the Hanseatic League, Sweden, Russia, a period of brief independence, the Soviet Union, and finally independence in 1991. 

Tallinn finally received UNESCO World Heritage Site Status in 1997. Some of the buildings look great while others are in disrepair. Perhaps this is to be expected of centuries-old structures that saw so many different rulers.

As we walked up to the top of the old city, known as Toompea, we saw evidence first of the coming fall in the lovely trees. Further in this photograph is the looming Orthodox Cathedral that the Russians planted smack-dab in front of the Estonian parliament building as a reminder of who was in charge.

Parts of the old city walls do remain, and the views from the tops were breath-taking.

We tried some 'traditional' Estonian food, served in a medieval-themed restaurant. Sorry, no pictures of that, but I had salmon, and Brent had lamb. If that's really what they ate, then the people were doing really well: we suspect that there were some modern updates to the dishes we had.

All in all, it was a great trip, and I highly recommend a jaunt over to Tallinn if you find yourself in Helsinki.

Pulla Päivää

Today is a day of celebration in Sweden; an entire day dedicated to celebrating bolle (Swedish), pulla ( POOL-uh Finnish), or as most of you know it, the cinnamon roll. The Nordic penchant for sweets has translated into National Cinnamon Bun Day in Sweden. Given the long history between Sweden and Finland (Sweden ruled Finland ~500 years), and their continued close relationship today, the Finns naturally feel that they should take part in such a celebration of the delectable delight, pulla. I'm generalizing a bit here, as the Finns make a general bread dough and shape into different things, including cinnamon rolls. These aren't the typical cinnamon rolls that one would find in the US. They put cardamom in the dough (delicious!), and they turn the individual rolls on their sides to bake. And it is all topped with large grains of sugar that are more refreshing than sweet. I haven't yet gotten a picture of them, so I'm posting a link to another blog that has a picture and a recipe: 

http://thynameiscake.blogspot.com/2011/02/art-of-making-pulla.html.

Pulla is a big part of the culture here in Finland. As the highest consumers per capita of coffee (kahvi) in the world, naturally you must have something sweet to accompany the bitter caffeine vehicle. My work day includes a daily 'morning coffee' where we are all strongly encouraged to gather into the break room/kitchen to bond over our caffeine habits. Coffee is supplied if you wish to partake: you put 10 or 20 euros into the pot depending on whether you take 1 or 2 cups a day, and coffee is purchased until the fund runs dry when another collection is taken. Personally, I find the coffee very bitter, though not particularly strong, so I bring my own instant. I would normally thumb my nose at instant coffee, but it is actually pretty good here, and much more palatable than the communal coffee. In fact, it is expected that the foreigners bring their own coffee or tea, so I am in line with the proper social graces with my coffee preferences. Conversation over coffee is a mix of personal and professional, and pulla. Whether or not we are currently eating pulla and holding animated debates about who should bring pulla next and why. It's presence is a magnet to morning coffee and it is served at our weekly journal club (which happens to be today, and was cancelled!), perhaps to encourage attendance??? 

The English language weekly newspaper in Finland (The Helsinki Times) ran an article this week or last, talking about the ill-health (ie insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes) that may result from this pulla-kahvi habit the Finns have. By chance, I had shared this issue with my coworkers as they were curious as to 'what was out there about the Finns in English', and based on this article, the newspaper was deemed to be rubbish. It is thus no surprise that this Swedish holiday is catching on in Finland. Did I get a chance to partake? Yes! Journal Club was cancelled in time for me to make good use of my free hour today, but not in time to cancel the pulla order. Lucky us!

Finnish: More difficult than you'd think

Hi all! After a short hiatus to focus on grant-writing, I am back. Since I last wrote, we've both had a number of Finnish lessons. I am enrolled in a weekly course that meets on campus, quite close to my lab and Brent is in a more intensive course that meets twice weekly at a community college around the corner from our apartment. Though we are not likely to encounter Finnish anywhere else in the world and everyone we have interacted with speaks English (children are required to learn both English and Swedish in school), the classes were very cheap, and the street signs are all in Finnish (and Swedish, but more on that later). Grocery shopping was (and sometimes still is) a challenge. When nutmeg = muskottipähkinä, you certainly have to go with a list translated by Google. Though sometimes helpful, Google translate definitely has limits. 

The language is related to practically nothing. I say practically because it is in the small family of Finno-Urgic languages that came from over the Ural mountains and through present-day northern Finland where the Sami people live. Included in the family are also Hungarian and Estonian. Finnish was a spoken language until sometime in the 16th century when a bishop (Agricola) wanted to translate the bible into Finnish. In order to do this, the language first needed to be codified. Thus the language was preserved.

We have both taken language courses in the past: I learned Spanish and Brent took French. Our experiences were similar in that we began by learning the alphabet, sounds the letters make, a few basic greetings, and a lot of vocabulary. Here we didn't encounter the alphabet or have formal instruction on the sounds until much later. Brent can conjugate any verb or noun you like and I can carry on a greeting conversation repeatedly. We compared notes on greeting exchanges, and we came up with some differences. It turns out that there is a formal, written form of Finnish and an informal, spoken form of Finnish. Brent is learning the formal while I'm learning the informal. These aren't just contractions as in English, most words have a shortened form. Some words are easy: I'm sorry/excuse me = anteeksi (AHN-texi, formal) or anteeks (AHN-tex, informal). However, when they begin shortening conjugated words, it becomes more of a challenge for us non-native speakers to follow. For example, nouns can have up to 15 different conjugations (i.e. your house, my house, of the house, to the house, at the house, etc. you get the idea), and start shortening all of those, and we have a lot of words to learn.

Another thing to be worried about is pronunciation. Just a change of one vowel, or addition of one can lead to very different meanings. For example:
Minä näin sinut = I saw you
Minä nain sinut = I will marry you
You can see why I was concerned about learning the sounds that the letters make. Especially since Finns take promises seriously. Another potentially embarrassing exchange occurred with my boss. After a few days of listening to my coworkers greet each other and the boss in the mornings with a cheerful, 'Huomenta!', I decided to try it out, too. My boss came in to the lab and I said what I'd heard, 'Huomenta', and she said ,'What?'. Oh no, what did I just say?! 'Umm, good morning!' She went on to explain that her hearing isn't the best anymore, and she wasn't expecting to hear Finnish out of me. Whew. And as best as I can tell, I didn't say anything that sounded offensive. 

So, though we express some displeasure at Agricola from time to time, the little bit of Finnish that we have learned thus far has been beneficial. It may be some time before we can carry on useful exchanges in Finnish, but learning a new language is always fun and is a critical part of integrating into a culture.

Faux-Pax and Design

Another week has gone by and we are still learning things about Finland. Brent started Finnish language courses at the nearby community college. It is rather unconventional compared to language classes that we've taken -- they skipped learning the alphabet and any sounds and jumped right into verb conjugation. I will start a class this week that is held on my campus. Hopefully between the two of us, we will soon be able to read signs and understand any announcements made on the trams about a mid-route change in lines... However, not knowing Finnish hasn't inhibited our managing life in Helsinki.

This weekend, we were able to put our hard-learned culture skills to work. Where did we learn them? From several books and TV shows, compiled by expert travelers. Anyway, one of my coworkers moved to an apartment that is around the corner from where we live, and she invited us to her house-warming party. We read that it is rude to be fashionably late in Finland, and so we showed up at 6 on the dot for her party. As you may have guessed, we were the first ones to arrive, by at least 30 minutes! It was as embarrassing in person as it is for you to read about it. We kept her company while she finished making appetizers and discussed a few other inaccuracies in our culture knowledge. Fortunately, she and my other coworkers that arrived at much more socially-acceptable times, thought our faux-pas to be cute. I wonder how much longer any gaffs will be thusly considered???

We spent our sunny Sunday acting as tourists again, and covered quite a bit of ground. Our first stop was the library in our new neighborhood. It is a beautiful building, built in 1912, and best of all, it is open on Sundays. Only about half of the businesses are open on Sundays, so it is exciting to find your cafe/restaurant/clothing store of choice open on a Sunday. Legislation was passed sometime within the last 10 years, allowing shops to be open on Sundays, but only if they desire. Here, all people are entitled to a weekend, and it is taken very seriously.

It's been Helsinki Design Week here for the last 10 days or so, and we thought we'd go see part of it on its last day. On our way, we came across a street performer who played bottles. He obviously had quite a lot of experience and had this whole set up. He also had a stereo with a rhythm line to accompany him. This picture may not accurately show it, but he had attracted a rather large audience.

Onto Design Week. In honor of being selected the World Design Capital of 2012, Helsinki put together a city-wide festival of design-themed exhibits and events.

Unfortunately, we only made it to one event of everything that was going on (http://www.helsinkidesignweek.com/), and that was the Finnish Design Shop, held in the Old Customs Warehouse next to the South Harbor where many of the cruise ships stop and the kauppatori (market) is held.

Inside there were aisles and aisles and rooms filled with things made by Finnish designers, both famous and obscure and up-and-coming. There were things there made for every room of your home, including the closets. 

Afterward, we wandered around the small island of Katajanokka to look at the old remnants of the shipping industry. Where these things occur now, I am not sure. However, all of the old brick buildings were left behind and they have fortunately been repurposed rather than destroyed. We then took the tram to the peninsula where the largest park in Helsinki is located: Kaivopuisto. This neighborhood also holds the American Embassy. We thought we'd return some other time to locate the embassy and walked through the large park instead. As I wrote a few posts ago, the Finns are hyperaware that winter is approaching, and I hear about it at work daily. The park was mostly green, but contained a few sure signs that summer has ended. We look forward to the next few weeks of beautiful color that await us before the snow sets in.

Kallio stars

We've lived in our new neighborhood, Kallio, for a week now: the word translates into The Rock. The location is nice with numerous mass transit stops within 2 minutes of our door, and a handful of grocery stores within 3 minutes in any direction you can go. And there is a soccer field across the street, which is flooded in the winter and thus converted into a skating rink. Maybe this will happen next week. ;)

With the pending cold that all of the Finns I know are talking of, we decided to take advantage of the sunny, cool weekend. On Saturday we want exploring the surrounding neighborhoods, admiring the design of some of the buildings. Surprisingly, we ran into a tiny restaurant which serves Danish food. Of course we had to stop in:

It was really the size of a closet, and a woman was the only employee: waitress, chef, and cashier. She took your order, turned back into the kitchen and returned with boxed sandwiches about 10 minutes later. I am not sure how she keeps up with a lunch crowd on weekdays. But the food was tasty. I can't comment on their authenticity, as I really don't remember eating these things in Denmark, but we tried a roast beef sandwich:

And a Dansk-boeuf (meatloaf, more or less) sandwich:

Danish or not, these were tasty and quite fulfilling. Unfortunately, the blue skies turned grey very quickly and the rain chased us home for the afternoon. We were motivated to venture out again later to meet up with a fellow American ex-pat who is working at the same university that I am. We met at St. Urho's Pub, which was a take on a British pub. It was a nice restaurant/bar, but I did not take my camera along. We would definitely return. 

This weekend at home was the annual Iowa State vs. Iowa football game. The 2:30 game time meant 10:30 here, so we had to wait until Sunday morning for the result. Let me just say, that Iowa is a Cyclone state! The outcome of the game is never certain, even if one team is far more talented. This year it appears as though there was no talent on either team, just a little luck for the good guys. :)

We decided to spend today in the city center. There is an exhibit at one of the art museums, The Ateneum (http://www.ateneum.fi/en), of one of Finland's most famous painter, Helene Schjerfbeck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Schjerfbeck). The building is gorgeous, inside and out. 

My co-workers have been haggling me to go, asking every Monday whether or not I had been to the exhibit. Indeed, the Finns are proud of her: the first floor contained the exhibit and was packed. The second floor held other Nordic artists, including a few more Schjerfbeck pieces, and was deserted. She was a prolific painter, and quirky. A number of her paintings were not hung on the wall, but displayed in order to walk around. If Ms. Schjerfbeck did not like a painting, she simply flipped the piece of canvas over and painted something else. The big revelation this week was the discovery of another painting, concealed beneath a second piece of canvas in a frame. This was very big news in Helsinki, and we could hardly get to the newest painting on display.

In other news, we were finally granted our identification numbers this week. This means that we can obtain permanent bus passes, apply for health insurance, sign up for a cell phone plan, and register for permanent library cards. In addition, our U.S. marriage is now recognized in Finland on the arrival of our Apostille forms. We begin our Finnish language lessons soon. For now, I will sign off with the 20% of Finnish that I know: hei hei!