i have put MORE PHOTOS on flickr.com. the link is on the sidebar of this blog. some of the pictures are redundant with the blog, but many of them aren't. as with this blog, i put pictures up whenever i get around to it (not that often). but, i'll continue taking pictures and posting them on flickr

i'm back in class again. it's another class of 16 people (me, a german, a swede, a salvadorena and 13 russians) and we have 4 hours of class a day 5 days a week. i have the same teacher as last time (she's really good, tough but well liked) but at the moment we're stuck in review (i want to move on!). in addition to that, i have spanish class on wednesdays, a spanish-speaking group once a month, ultimate frisbee on mondays, snow football occasionally, the gym whenever i manage to get motivated (not too often lately) and i've just recently signed up for a football (soccer) group (a bunch of us foreigners getting together to play on tuesdays).

oh, one kinda big event is that i've applied for grad school at the university of jyväskylä. i'm trying to get into a intercultural communications program. it looks really interesting and it would probably help me get a job in an international huminatarian aid organization (my goal at this point). i spent a couple of months researching and writing a master's thesis proposal that was required as part of the application. yeah, a thesis proposal BEFORE i study anything. i had to read up on a lot of bachground material, theory and methodology since i have NO academic experience in communications. i wrote my thesis on the importance and influence of social status hierarchies in the communication of kyrgyzstani villagers in their communication with people perceived as outsiders. wordy, but i think it's a good paper. the uni will tell me before march 19th if they want to interview me. from a group of 30-40 interviewees they will select 15 people to be in the program next year. so, it is fairly competitive. i do, however, feel relatively confident about my chances of getting in (let's hope i'm not far off the mark here). i feels nice to have written the proposal and sent out my application, but the waiting weighs down on me

we've managed to continue being social and hosting as many get togethers as possible. having a big place right in the town center has made our place the default spot to be. i don't mind that, but it's kind of a hassle cleaning up every now and then. overall, we like hosting and people generally have a good time here. here's adam and i and a few other friends just hanging out. we don't have any large events planned in the near future, but i'm sure we'll manage to think of something

snow football! some of my friends wanted to play snow football and we were lucky enough to round up 8-10 people for the last couple of weekends. the good thing is that we've had a good mix of people so far - americans, amerifinns, finns, boys and girls. here are a couple of shots. one action shot and another of me looking dejected after my request to allow one blitz per five downs was rejected (i like rushing). matti wasn't able to play at the second game because he fell off his bike and managed to strain a shoulder ligament. he's out of commission for three weeks or so... anyway, tackling in the snow isn't that rough so we've kept our injuries down to one (besides the usual small bruises and such). i almost broke my nose last weekend by running headfirst into my teammate's head (we were both tackling the same guy). i managed to bleed from my nose for almost two hours straight but there's no lasting damage (though due to my obsessive worry at why it's still sore i've managed to convince myself that the cartilage is 'loose'). enough of the drama, football is fun and it's another sporting event that keeps me on the track of being somewhat active

it's been quite a while, yeah i've been lazy in addition to being busy. so. first things first, mom and dad came over here for christmas (it was really wonderful to see them) and then matti and i were sleddog dog handlers and occasional drivers. we worked for the company that petteri, one of matti's friends from the army, runs with his dad. petteri's dad was in charge and we helped out. working tassu taival was a lot of fun. we woke up early in the morning, fed the dogs and then got ready to go to where busloads of russian tourists were literally shipped in to us. then we gave rides (about 400m rides) and they paid 20eur each... talk about spending money liberally. the job included room and board and we got along really well with petteri, pekka (the dad) and yevgeny (the russian helped guy). we tried to have runs at two separate sites but the weather was poor overall so after a while we concentrated on one spot where we could take snow from the piles in the parking lot and shovel where we wanted to go... talk about a sad winter in finland

hmm, here's a novelty. a purely written post. the weather in finland has been decidedly horrible the past month or two. winter was off to a promising start with the first snow on october 21st followed by a few weeks of good snow coverage. then, in mid-november, something changed and everything melted and we were cursed with about 5 weeks of cold, grey raining weather that never went below freezing. the sky is always overcast, a good day is when the sky has a muddled blue/grey overcast sheen instead of pure off-white/depressing grey. oh, the sun rises around 9:00 and sets at about 2pm. very uplifting

i like winter and i like snow, but i absolutely hate RAIN in DECEMBER. it just feels perverse. but, a couple nights ago we had some snow and today is one of the first days it's been below zero (celsius) in a while. so, if we're lucky the snow will stay around here and we'll have a white christmas. for christmas matti, kaitlin and i are taking the train down to vantaa (suburb of helsinki) where minna and big matti (aunt and uncle) live. mom and dad will arrive in vantaa around midnight on christmas eve and then we'll get to have christmas together. matti and i, unfortunately, will only get to see mom and dad for a couple of days because on the 27th we take the train to kuopio where we will have a JOB (gasp!). i know, you think it's not possible, but we will actually work for two weeks even though we are free loading half-breed foreigners. we'll be working at a husky farm taking care of sled dogs that russian tourists fork over money to see... i just hope there's no baby-talking to dogs involved (i can't stand that). but yeah, matti got us this job through his army doggie connections so we can make some money during the finnish winter.
so, i hope all's well with you as this christmas season continues

note: if all you atheists, agnostics, muslims, jews, buddhists, animists, and other non-christmas celebrating people are offended by my numerous references to christmas i guess you're going to have live with it. i claim no responsibility for any emotional suffering, depression or overall feelings of marginalization or oppression that may be triggered by the word 'christmas.' i'm just happy that i don't live in the states where i might have to face penalties for my WASPy bias

PIKKU JOULU GALA - that's right, last friday we had a large pikkujoulu (lit. 'little christmas') party. pikkujoulus are very popular in finland (as christmas parties are in the states). ours was a 'formal' gala. we continued a tradition started by a couple of our friends a few years ago, apparently this was the fourth or fifth gala. we prepared for the party by having fish filets, cheese and crackers, chips, ginger bread, glogi (traditional nordic mulled wine), and homebrew (of course). we also went to the library and picked up a lot of older finnish music to provide a proper atmosphere. we had finnish tango (think argentine, but depressed and slower), waltz, and then some american swing music. after all 16 guests had arrived (yeah, apparently we've made some friends) there was a lot of eating, drinking and dancing. not many of my pictures turned out because of our lighting situation. we had no bright lights, all was light yellow or red tinted (via candles and lampshades). overall the ambience was very nice and adam and paul were pleased that we kept up the tradition. dressing up is a lot of fun in my opinion, i was able to rustle up a 3-piece grey pinstriped suit and a nice hat to go along with it. thrift stores are great...

thanksgiving was quite an affair here. matti, kaitlin, kochun, jenni and i made our own thanksgiving feast. we made our own turkey (brined it overnight and then popped it in the oven, done to perfection!), cornbread, stuffing, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple crisp and we had red wine and homebrew. it was a wonderful meal and especially fulfilling because we made EVERYTHING from scratch. i was particularly excited about making our own cranberry sauce (a little sweet but with a great tart taste as well).
we had round one, rested a bit, played some cards and then had round two and finished off with dessert. too bad we missed the football game... (i lost a lot of sleep over that)

i haven't written in a little while. it's not that i've been busy, i've just been a bit lazy. so, here are a few quick updates of some fairly notable events in the last month or so.....

last week we had the "second annual pekkala halloween party." the party was at paivi's house (in the neighborhood called pekkala) and we managed to have a pretty good time. everybody had good costumes and as usual there was drinking, dancing and lots of loud talking. i had fun working on my costume of death (with horns!). matti was pan, we had another death, a catalogued butterfly, a transvestite superman, thor, dracula and various others. wearing a mask all night long is pretty hot but my main triumph was that i was still able to drink in character. for some reason death isn't as scary when he's drinking with a straw...

since kochun has been so helpful in teaching us to make good beer (yes, it's good. even other people say so) we decided to culture him a little bit. kochun, because he's from seattle, doesn't have any experience with a good minnesotan HOTDISH. i know, you think 'how can he live without hotdish?' well, while we were brewing beer we also made him the king of all hotdishes (as all midwestern kids should know)... tater-tot hotdish. what's better than sampling your beer as you brew and having tater-tot hotdish? i don't know either

have you ever had finnish beer? don't worry if you haven't because you aren't missing much. kaitlin, matti and i have taken matters into our own hands with help from our friend kochun. he's from seattle and after being here a little while he decided that he needed to brew his own beer if he wanted to drink any at all. so, he's provided expertise and we've so far produced 19 liters of american pale ale (all of which disappeared on the night of our housewarming party), 22 liters of a honey wheat beer and we have another 22 liters of that will be ready in a week or so.

last day of the army was a great day for all of us. the guys all looked pretty strange to me when we were back in our civilain clothes. it made me think about how you automatically make some kind of categorization of people depending on what kind of clothes they wear. our last night the guys in my tupa and i goofed off a bit... and on the last day our alikersantti korhonen showed us a title from the newspaper, the translation is "Bravo saved the EU." So yes, we are defenders of the free world

gun checks were one of the tasks i excelled at. i tend to be obsessively neat (as you may know). i actually surprised some officers who said they've never seem a gun so clean. so, we had gun checks after everytime we went shooting. if you pass the first round you add a bit of oil to your gun, put it on the rack and then go about your business. if not, you have to clean it again (as my friend katro is doing in the photo)

well, here are a few group pictures. i thought you'd like to see who's responsible for the defense of finland. the first picture is from the last weekend before we were done. i always had to wait a few hours at the train station for the bus to the base, so i'd often have a beer or two with some of the NCOs. this is a picture of a few alikersantti's and a kersantti who were my 'role models.' the say the army turns boys into men; i'm not sure how true that is

the largest group is my bravo team. we were a collection of guys who got booted out of the antitank forces or the recon team. we were kicked out for various reasons; attitude problems, inability to do basic tasks, various other disciplinary problems, failing tests, whatever. i was told that i was kicked out because i didn't speak finnish (they ignored all my attempts at finnish) even though i performed better than most on the physical and skills tests. the smaller is the group of guys i lived with during basic training. we had a lot of fun together and remained friends for the entire time (even though we were in different units later on)

here are a few basic army glamor shots taken at various times. it was kinda fun carrying my assault rifle (sako RK-7.62) everywhere. let's see, in one picture i wanted to just show off my beret and our cool pin. i kept the pin but am not such a fan of the beret. the sienna shot is up in the north (rovajarvi, near rovaniemi) and you can see our tents in the background. the third is taken while i was guarding the road and warning civilians about tanks driving up and down the road

hey, i thought it'd be nice to post some pictures from my life here. this is my first blog and i've found it to be VERY frustrating so far so i had to strip my first attempt. so, let's how this works out