It’s not that I have had enough things to work on already … so I had to add a few more classes to my busy schedule: Introduction to Finnish History and a Project Management workshop. Yeah, I was really surprised with the Finnish history class, since I have never seen such a bland and dumbed down introduction to any nation’s history, ever. At best it’s a high school approach to teaching history at the university: these lecturers are taking generalization and simplification of historical facts to such an extent that you begin to wonder what is wrong with them. I don’t want to bore you to death here, so I’ll just give one example: I’ve just learnt that paying taxes in medieval Finland was a privilege. ‘Nuff said, seriously.

Now the other class, the Project Management workshop, has been fantastic (so 50% payoff on adding new classes to my schedule). The class is taught by a visiting lecturer Laurence Short who used to be an artist, but has been working for the last 25 years or so organizing, curating and planning art events. What shall I say, one can easily tell that he’s a very pragmatical fellow and has a very open approach to novelty. Thus it comes as no surprise that his lectures are done in the same way: a vague structure, with lots of discussions and brainstorming. And he’s got so much experience that it’s actually quite enjoyable to listen to him speak about how he’s been executing various art projects. Then again, the main aim of the workshop is to teach us how to prepare and think about an exhibition project from the concept to the exhibition. Hey, it really is a workshop. We’ve been divided into three groups and each group was assigned a task of preparing an exhibition. Out of all ideas, we’ll all choose one and then actually set up an exhibition in the following months. It’s every bit as exciting as it sounds. I’ll keep you posted on this one as the ideas and projects evolve.

Addition of these two classes (with lively social life, of course) almost spells insomnia. But hey, as long as I can take it and have fun while doing it, I ain’t going to wonder why, but rather why not!

Learning Finnish actually turned out to be a quite hard nut to crack. Not so much because of the language itself, but rather because of the lack of exposure to it. “What the … but you’re in Finland?” you might say. Well, I’m sitting 10 hours a day in the lecture rooms and am addressed in English and have to communicate in English all the time. So when I step out of the classroom in the evening, that’s when I have to make a switch to Finnish and even then people around me speak the wrong language, again. But I ain’t giving up. I’m writing my shopping lists in Finnish, try to get all my SMSs and emails done in Finnish (although at least one of my friends admitted that my Finnish is cryptic - a nice way of saying: “I have no idea what you are trying to say, pal.”) and I try to communicate in verbally as well. This last one has proven out to be the hardest of all as it’s almost like it’s written on my forehead with all caps: FOREIGNER. But I do manage to acomplish some of the day-to-day tasks in Finnish, which means progress.

However, I do find the language to be both amazing and amusing. The amazing part comes from various peculiarities on how it is structured. For instance Finnish language does not have a future tense (now also means in the future), there’s no word for please (which I find really perplexing, as I do like that word in any language; and on top of that my Suomi yksi teacher has been repeating that Finns are rude people and thus don’t need that word), linguistically speaking there is no difference between masculine and feminine (that’s why you often here Finns refering to women as he and him and vice versa), it has letters in the alphabet that are hardly ever or even never used (for instance, one rarely encounters letters C and W in any of the words). These are just some of the peculiarities. Other than that, I have to say that it is a very logical language, almost akin to a bit twisted programming language. And one thing I like very much is that you can say a lot with just a single word, and I mean a lot. Which is a result of something that in my opinion resembles German way of creating compound words, but Finnish takes it a step further by completely eliminating prepositions. I’m telling you, it’s fun.

Now, the amusing part really is something. It surely is tightly connected to cultural nuances and peculiarities (which, of course, can be found in every single culture). It’s the language that speaks about culture more than people are willing to admit if you ask them directly. But once I get them to talk about it in concrete ways (i.e. using the language itself) then a whole new avenue to both the language and the Finnish culture opens up in front of me. For instance, just yesterday I was at a party where a few tipsy Finns were telling me that there are more than hundred different ways to say drunk in Finnish. Sure, I believed it, as it is an integral part of their culture. Anyways, the host of the party picked on me asking in rhetorical way if I am trying to make fun out of their culture. Nope, not at all, since it was not me who brought up that linguistical aspect in the first place. And yes, in the next 15 minutes or so they did come up with 26 different ways of expressing drunkness. I am positive that they’d come up with a lot more if they were not so eager at hugging their beer bottles and sipping homemade wine - which again says a lot about how much they care about the subject matter we talked about.

Talking about being drunk, I think there’s one more thing I should add. When people are drunk here, they do behave a lot different as to what I’ve been used to seeing in other cultures. They somehow seem to enjoy pronouncing their lack of sobriety with passers rather loudly in pissed Finnish and when they notice that you do not speak Finnish, then they are more than glad to switch to English and say the same thing again. Which can be fun to watch and listen to, only to a certain extent of course. Although I have not had any trouble with drunk people they can get annoying sometimes by thinking that you enjoy their company while the case is exactly the opposite. But then again, there’s nothing special about that, as it seems that it’s the inherent effect of alcohol on all human beings: it breaks all social barriers.

Here’s to all of you strangers and friends: kippis.

Mladen

Ooha, just got back from the sauna. I don’t see how a day could have ended better than it did. It began with a morning run, then studying for Suomi class, then lectures, lectures, lectures and finally a two-hour documentary session for one of the classes. So my 12 hour day ended with a sauna. I guess I deserved it.

Last week was just as interesting as any other, but the culminating point was definitely the excursion to Saarijärvi Stone Age village on Saturday. It is a site by the Summasjärvi lake where they have built a reconstruction of a Late Stone Age village. Saarijärvi is a village located about 60 km north of Jyväskylä. The excursion was organized for students attending Nordic history lectures, but as a Digital Culture student I could come along. The excursion was led by professor Brian Magnusson who is visiting Jyväskylä but is otherwise professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.

Of course, if it wasn’t for him, the trip wouldn’t have been as interesting as it was. It is amazing how genuine and knowledgeable he is and how many things he explains just by the way. For instance, as we stood by a museum building at the site he noted that the house was a typical Finnish building and outlined major characteristics of a typical Finnish building: saddle roof, eyebrow windows, symmetry, built out of beams, position of chimney in the center of the building, the completely covered porch, the lifted entrance, and of course the characteristic yellow ocher color (or red) to name just a few. And that was just about architecture, thus you can imagine what all we heard about the archeological findings and reconstruction at the same site.

After the Stone Age village we went to the actual Saarijärvi village where one of the largest wooden churches in Finland is erected. The church itself was established here in 1628, but was renovated and enlarged several times. It is just amazing to see a wooden cupola measuring 18 m in diameter. Yes, the church is made completely out of wood. There are a few things that I really found interesting. One is definitely that the church (like almost all churches in Finland) is a central building and thus although it’s a protestant church really resembles an orthodox church. And it was the Russian Orthodox church architecture that influenced this change. Another characteristic that was immediately obvious is the scant decoration which gives one the sense of overall austerity. It was also interesting to see that stone is not used whatsoever, but rather, columns in the church are painted to imitate stone. And on top of that, there are no bells in the church building itself, but rather in a campanile located some 100 m away from the church.

I could go on an on about this … so to make long story short, definitely make sure to check the gallery for some of the images from this trip.

Last week I bought my first National Geographic … in Finnish of course. Yeah, I cannot really read it, but nevertheless I could not resist the temptation to get a copy and give it a try. It’s challenging, but I should probably remind myself how long it took me to be able to fluently read that magazine in English. I have long ways to go, or to put it into the right perspective: my Suomi journey has just begun. Besides the Geographic I have also been trying to read some daily papers and am slowly beginning to enjoy content on Finnish web sites. Hey, if anyone wants to see what I am watching every night, and give it a shot at understanding here’s a sample. Have fun and do make sure you let me know how it went or how you liked it.

As you all see I am having a great time here. OK, school is fine and things are finally picking up the pace so I’ve got quite a few articles/books to read and essays to write. But so far it’s really been fun as everything is very dynamic.

Just before I finish off this entry there’s one more thing I should say. One of the friends who is studying sports sciences (biomechanics to be more precise) at the University has made arrangements within his department to perform a few tests on me. Don’t worry mom, no matter how taxing these test are, they are not harmful. If everything goes according to plan we’ll do a VO²Max test next week (which we’ll repeat every month or so to measure changes) and later we might do a gait analysis, LT test or anaerobic threshold test and so on. For those who have not figured out yet, yes I am basically talking about my running here. This is all exciting news for me as I have not imagined that I would actually have a chance of doing these tests ever. I’ll let you know how things went.

Later.

Mladen

Another fantastic weekend went by. Naturally, the weekend already begun on Friday when after morning lectures and short snooze in the main library I met with my DGL and NACS friends. We went to the movie theater to see Jali ja suklaatehdas. I can’t really say I liked the movie, but it was the camaraderie that made me happy. Movie theater entrance fees around here are akin to those in New York, so one does shell out 9E for a movie. I know, it’s obnoxious. But, let’s say I was happy enough that as a student I saved 2E by buying student ticket from one of then well hidden elokuva lipput shops on one of the university campuses (I better not say which one, because then it wouldn’t be hidden anymore).

And yes, it was my first real Finnish movie experience (OK, I’ve seen the actual Finnish movie - Nosukausi - in early September. This was organized as a part of the orientation week activities in Kampus Kino). And it was the experience itself that mattered more than the content. Since I don’t have a TV, it was really interesting to see some of the pre-movie commercials as well. Then there was a real pleasant surprise: the movie subtitles were both in Finnish and Swedish (as Swedish is the other official language in Finland). The audience was also quite amusing to observe as they were laughing at stuff that wasn’t really funny - or maybe it’s just me that didn’t get most of the 5-year-olds’ jokes (There were mostly children in the audience).

And at first it seemed like that was it for the evening, but oh no, the movie was just the matinee, the prelude into the evening festivities. The group went to the local alternative music and culture bar Vakiopaine. I have to say that so far this is the coolest place to hang around in Jyväskylä. Not only is music normal and enjoyable, but they also stage all kinds of non-mainstream cultural: from poetry readings, comedy shows, plays, to concerts. And we just happened to drop in when a concert was about to begin. I have no idea what the name of the band was, but make sure you check the images in the gallery. The performers were a duo brought to the Vakiopaine by a time machine: it was glitter rock with factory preprogrammed synth rhythms on steroids. Believe me, the performance was one of a kind and we have on several occasion questioned ourselves how the hell does the duo keep straight faces during their rehearsals. Anyhow, the audience was all fired up so they actually did two anchors. It was cool and that night I ended up getting home quite early … in the morning.

Then on Saturday in the early afternoon I went on a pleasant bike trip around Tuomiojärvi and Jyväsjärvi (with a short stop over at the Vesillina tower cafe on the hill in the city center). The weather was absolutely fantastic. After that ride a friend of mine introduced me to some Finnish music and I guess it was pure coincidence that one of the bands I was listening to was playing in town that night. So naturally we went to the concert. The name of the band is YUP and they played in the old factory turned into concert venue Lutakko. It’s The concert place in town to go. I like the setting in that place and will definitely be coming back for more gigs.

When I come to think about it, the concert was really enjoyable and I really liked the show YUP staged. Now, I found it really surprising that the entrance fee was actually only 10E (after being charged 4.5E for a goddamn beer, admit it, 10E really isn’t that much for concert). Later I heard that internationally acclaimed band The Rasmus played nearby and they charged 25E for the show. So I guess, concerts can are the only reasonably priced entertainment in Finland. Which is great news for me as I love going to concerts.

One thing that really surprised me is how alcohol consumers are treated in public venues when entrance is not restricted to 18+ years. In Lutakko where YUP played, there was a special fence, or almost a kind of a cage, and it was only within that confined space that the audience was allowed to drink alcoholic beverages. Yeah, I’m used to holding my beer can/bottle in the first row and I couldn’t do it here. Oh well, I’ll get used to the idea. But I do like their relaxed attitude regarding the show timing: the actual beginning time is not announced, they just let their audience know that their shows never start before 1100pm.

Make sure you visit the gallery to check out some of the images I took over the weekend.

Mladen

One can feel that daylight is becoming a precious resource as the amount of time the sun is above the horizon is slowly diminishing. However the activities are still pretty much on the red side of the scale despite the fact that being here for almost five weeks now means that quite a few activities have become a daily routine. And I have recently realized that where-is-this and how-do-I-do-this-here thinking has mostly become second nature by now. Which is good, because I can concentrate on other matters which have now become more interesting, thus replacing the initial euphoria moments with new ones.

At the beginning of the week I have joined a Buddy group programme the purpose of which it is to make Finnish and international students mingle and eventually become friends. By a series of fortunate events I became a member of two buddy groups that evening. It is exciting enough that in my original group there are people from Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Finland. But no, I suppose that wasn’t enough for me, so after a few beers (for them) and a single tea (for me, the reason for which I’ll explain later) in a local pub, another group of buddies made me their adoptee. Not only did I end up getting home at 0200am on the launching day, but have already met my buddies the second time this week two nights ago. We are a diverse and thus quite interesting group and judging by laugh-o-meter it looks like we’re becoming friends. Let’s hope this continues as well as it has started.

I know that at least some of you are wondering why in the world have I had tea the other night when everyone was drinking booze? I didn’t see it coming, but I could have, I guess, because it looks like I began paying the interest for awake time borrowed from Mr. Sleep. But I ain’t paying much since I only got a mild form of influenza which has not had a big impact on my day-to-day activities but has kept me away from my running shoes and outside the pool that I have enjoyed so much lately. And it looks like whatever it is, it won’t last long in my body, especially after several therapeutic sauna-12°C lake cycles yesterday. It was an experiment for me, and it looks like it actually worked. And even though I haven’t been sleeping much I have actually managed to pull it off and am now back where I was before I contracted the disease.

Yes, the Digital Culture program people have been really making sure that we enjoy our studies here as we have had a five hour sauna party at a nearby Vuorilampi lake on Thursday. The actual time we spent in sauna was probably around one to two hours and the rest has been pleasant discussion and socializing. And yes, in between sauna sessions we did go for a swim in the already quite cold lake. The water is cold enough that one cannot really soak in it, but still warm enough for a nice swim, nice if you run straight back to sauna, that is. After the sauna we enjoyed some roasted Finnish sausages we made over an open fire and Chinese dumplings made by a Chinese student in our group. It goes beyond saying that it was fun and as you can imagine I am looking forward to more of these DGL “meetings.”

This week also lectures which I have been attending finally got a bit more active and interesting as we got our first assignments and readings to do. This doesn’t mean that Suomi yksi isn’t fun anymore, but it has definitely made important contribution to the morphing of Finnish from merely interesting or amusing to what is now a utility function of the language. It is slowly seeping into my gray matter which means that every single day I use it more in simple everyday interaction with people, myself and computers. I am eagerly awaiting the moment when I’ll be able to move away from the what’s-up-with-the-weather conversations and could engage in a real discussion about politics.

There’s one more celestial observation I should mention here. I believe that so far I have not mentioned anything about the Finnish twilight zone. When I arrived to Finland one of the first things that I have immediately noticed was the length of the twilight time: it was much, much longer than what I am used to at around 45° latitudes. After the sunset the sky was really bright for about at least an hour, however not bright enough to illuminate the forest ground, for instance. It really was quite a sight. But now as the days are getting shorter, even the twilight zone has become much less pronounced. After seeing these changes, I really became interested in experiencing the long Finnish nights. Bring ‘em on.

Mladen