Day 3: The language course starts for real! (Midsummer's Eve)

(Fri 22/6/2012)

Finland and Finnish people REALLY enjoy their Juhannus, aka Midsummer's celebration (Oh yes! We're REALLY into these pagan rituals!;) and this is my third summer studying - while other Finns are at their cottages, having grilled sausages, drinking beer (and Koskenkorva (keeping up the stereotypes, huh?);), bathing in the sauna and swimming in small lakes, sleeping late and being hung over three days in a row…

Well, not me! This was my schedule on Juhannus:

- lesson in GRL language, dictation practice (did quite well, I must say!)

- lesson in GRL literature

- lesson in GRL media: radio, tv, internet

Interesting stories about "pirate tv" in GRL: 

Greenlanders residing in Denmark taped tv-programmes and sent them over to Greenland on VHS tapes. This process was very much influenced by human factors. F.e. some tv-series were incomplete and had only a few episodes, or the persons responsible for the taping could sometimes fall asleep during the taping. There was also a case when TV viewers had been upset that many of the good movies ended abruptly in the middle. When they had done more research, they found that the person in charge for taping the movies always went to bed at 10 P.M.!:)

We also went to see a literature/writers' evening at the city library: two fiction writers Kim Leine and Iben Mondrup with connections to GRL were invited to come to Nuuk city library and present their recent books. The library was quite full, but i noticed that the people there seemed very Nordic, well educated and to some extent "academic". The discourse was also quite academic and analytic when talking about passages in the novels and writing methods (I'm glad one of the writers read a few lines describing a man going to the toilet - talking about taking a dump always makes a session feel less academic;). I've noticed that the people here are in a sense a creole mix of Danish and ethnic GRL, but still I felt that the segregation was obvious - and when I talked with my course mates, they felt the same. This is probably a topic I'll be coming back to.

Afterwards we went to a bar called "Daddy's" and had some drinks, a GRL guy (with his friends celebrating a bachelor's last night out) offered to buy us (me & Oda) drinks. But, shy as we are, we gals left and went to bed;)

OR SO WE THOUGHT. When we got back to Hotel Nuuk, we met our friends coming out of the building screaming "Iceberg! Iceberg in Kolonihavnen!" So we went to see stranded blocks of ice (at this point we were all still excited at the sight of ice:). The big block of ice was already gone, but we found a smaller one.

It was midnight.

Thick fog had invaded the town.

The air was fresh, moist and sea scented.

Links:
Kim Leine
Iben Mondrup

Midsummer

Nuuk City library (GRL National Library)

There is a graveyard right outside the university, on the other side of the road.

View in the evening, thick fog floating into town over the hills.

Kim & Iben at the library.

Pub "Daddy's" :)

Block of ice in Kolonihavnen.

Photos of ice block.

Kolonihavnen in the background.

Pirates of the Archipelago :)

Here are some photos that were taken on my small sailing trip with the Swedish brig "Tre Kronor". Princess Victoria of Sweden and her spouse prince Daniel were in Turku for an official meet n' greet in September. They faked their "sailing" to Turku, but I guess it was a fancier way to arrive... Read more about it in my previous post.

So, me and my colleague took the opportunity to sail on Princess Victoria's ship. It was the last perfect day of autumn, take a look!

We were met with a happy Swedish flag!

BW photo of Turku's most important industry: ship building.

Wärtsilä is a big Finnish company. They build ships and engines and stuff:)

Ship's bell, detail. Learn more about it here.

It was cold outside so it was nice to have hot coffee and treats.
(Princess crown was napkin accessory on the table;)

One photoshopped test photo.

Hard working sailors!

This is what they're supposed to look like.

Photo-au-naturel aka no editing.

Sneak photo. I like it a lot! Man and daughter looking at cruise ship going to Turku harbor.

Me and some of the crew. Can't remember the boys' names, but the girl was Amanda.

Detail.

Ruissalo (where they have Finland's oldest music festival) looked like it was on fire!

The sky is hostile. The geese flee.

An old ship, now transformed to a hostel. Bore.
Love the nostalgic, vintage soft lines of the ship!

The pride of the Finnish Navy, Swan of Finland (Suomen Joutsen). 

Summer adventures vol.3: Hanko (Finland)

A few days after I got home from Estonia I had to gather all my energy to go to the town of Hanko (Hangö in Swedish), the southernmost place in Finland. The town is known to be a summer town and very popular among people who like to sail. There's a strong majority of Swedish speaking Finns in Hanko.

This time the "hankoish" summer weather was not present (it was raining) and towards the evening I was getting nervous whether we would actually get the chance to attend the kayaking course we had signed up for...

We stayed at Hotelboat Hanko. The kayaking course was (Saturday & Sunday) quite heavy but a lot of fun! Two of us girls took part in it, and a few other friends came with us just to see the town of Hanko and attend "The opening of Hanko Casino", dresscode: coctail dresses mandatory;) So on Saturday evening we had dinner at Origo and then checked out the local night club, the Casino.

Here are a few photos of that adventure (the kayaking photos are in my mobile phone, and I hope to upload them later - naturally I couldn't take my big camera with me in the kayak!).

Hotelboat Hanko room.

Rain, rain and more rain!

Getting cosy: hot tea, my National Geographic and some chocolate:)

Girls enjoying their FABULOUS dinner at Origo.

Hanko guest harbor.

Hanko beach around midnight.

Parkside at the Casino.

The girls having fun at the Casino!

IT'S PARTY TIME!

The coolest DJ ever:)

MOBILE PHONE PHOTOS:

Looking at different types of kayaks.

Me in kayaking gear:)

Our trainers from the Hanko sailingclub (Hangö udds segelsällskap),
Peter and Timo.

Hiking in Turku

A few years ago we went to Copenhagen with a couple of friends. We are members of TOPN - Turun opiskelijoiden Pohjola-Norden association, which is a Nordic association interested in, well, all things Nordic! So we went to Copenhagen and had a lovely time with our Norden friends. I think this was in 2007.

A blast from the past came when a girl, Trine, from Copenhagen contacted me and asked for tips on traveling in Finland. I of course invited her to come and stay with me - and she came.

Despite the rainy weather we saw a lot of fun stuff in Turku: The Dome church, the city library, Turku Design week. In the evening (Saturday) we went out on the town and checked out Koulu = "The School" , which is a local restaurant and brewery. They had a huge screen and were showing the Eurovision Song Contest. The atmosphere was nice, so we stayed a while. After a few pints we went salsa dancing to Bryssel, a quite new and nice bar in the city center. After that it was bed time!

On Sunday we got up early to go for a hike. We took the bus to the city center, where we met with the Norden Association (TOPN)  girls. The hike was in Katariinanlaakso and is called "Pyhän Katariinan reitistö".
My thoughts on the hike: the path is easy, it's easy to do the different paths with the help of a map and the marked routes. You don't have to be "super fit" to make it, our hike took about four-five hours (+bus home). You can enjoy many different types of forests along the path. There is also a look-out tower with a nice view!

Here are a few photos of our hike!