i got to do my laundry...

woohoo!!!

sorry for my week-long silence, i've been planning my excursions. the majority of the first two weeks of april, i'll be exploring copenhagen, oslo, northern finland, & stockholm. originally, i was going to include copenhagen, oslo & stockholm into one trip, but i screwed up on my flight to copenhagen & decided i didn't want to try to squeeze in all three cities in 5 days. so, i've included stockholm in w/ my trip to northern finland.

april 2nd, i fly to copenhagen & stay there for a couple days. on the 4th, i'll be taking a ferry to oslo & staying there a couple of days (well, more like a day & a half). i'll be taking a bus back to copenhagen, arriving 50 min. before i fly back to helsinki on the 7th (hopefully, i won't miss my flight & that the bus station isn't too far from the airport....). on the 8th, after my finnish music class, i'll be taking a train to tampere, which is only about 100m north of helsinki, where a friend of mine & a cousin lives. i'll be there for just under a day before i take a train to kontiomäki where i will take a bus to paltamo (where the reinikka family - aka my grandpa - hails). i'll be staying overnight in kontiomäki since there's only one bus/day to paltamo in the morning, but if i took the next later train out of tampere, i'd miss it. after i spend a few hours in paltamo, i'll take a bus to taivolkoski, which is about 15km north of kurtti (where the kurtti family - aka my grandmother - hails) - i still don't know how i will traverse those km's. again, there is only one bus/day out of paltamo to taivolkoski & there isn't one that goes into kurtti (at least not w/ this particular company). since it'll be night when i get to kurtti, i'll be staying there overnight so i can actually see it during daylight. next, i'll be taking a bus out of taivolkoski to oulu just after noon, then a train to kemi. kemi is where the snow castle is located, but i won't get in early enough to see it. so, i'm staying overnight in kemi just so i can check it out, then i'll be taking a bus up into rovaniemi so i can be close to the reindeer & hopefully get see some live ones!!! i'm staying there for a full day just to improve my chances, then i'll take a bus to haparanda, which is on the swedish side of the border. from there, i'll take a couple of buses to boden, where i will catch a train down to stockholm. i'll be spending basically two days (one night) there before taking a ferry to turku. i arrive in turku in the morning (the ferry ride is 12 hrs.) & after spending a few hours there, i'll be taking a train back into helsinki. ending my journey in the evening of the 16th (my 30th birthday!!).

my cousin reijo, who lives in tampere, said he may take some time off work to travel through finland w/ me. he has also mentioned he might be able to pick me up on the helsinki - tampere route & tampere - kontiomäki (he's an engineer for the vr train company) & that way i'll be able to see the finnish railways....either possibility will be awesome. he also said he'd try to find someone in kurtti who could help me (i looked on couchsurfing.com & there aren't any members in kurtti or nearby). reijo has already given me a link for a phone #/name search, so i can enter a name & area & see if there are any listings. i've already tried "reinikka" in paltamo, but it didn't turn up anything. so, he suggested i try "reinikka" in puolanka & i'm going to try "kurtti" in kurtti as well.....

last sat., i went to a kalevalan singing class (the kalevala is the finnish national epic). the instructor talked about the history of the kalevala, finnish folk poetry, rune singing, etc....of course, in finnish, so i have no idea what he said (he did give me the name of a book in english, finnish folk poetry, that has a good forward in it). then, we sang. he had some poetry in a handout that we all sang one line solo where the rest of the group came in on the last two syllables & then repeated the line. after he talked a bit more, he had a version of the kalevala that we all sang out of in the same manner, but instead of just one line, we sang 4+ lines. the melody itself was simple & some of the more advanced/creative people improvised on it. thankfully, i wasn't the only one who stumbled on the pronunciations, i just consistently stumbled.... :P after the class, i talked to the instructor & was basically saying that i didn't know what he said 'cause i don't speak finnish & he thought i was apologizing for my stumblings (which, since i was not the only one, was not). he told me my singing was very nice! or pleasant or pretty - i forget which adjective specifically, only that it was good & made me smile. :D

then, i made my way to church in a very unpleasant-psuedo lost sorta way ('cause the school isn't very near downtown helsinki); but i made it - late.

after church, i met up w/ riina - a girl i met through one of my petsitting clients. one of her friends was having a birthday party that night & riina asked me if i wanted to go, so i did. it was quite a bit of fun. johanna, riina's friend, is studying jazz voice in amsterdam? - i forget, but it's in that general direction. her boyfriend, a jazz bass player, & her friends bought her a trip back to helsinki for her birthday. so, there were quite a few musicians @ the party & it was fun to talk to them. one of the couples there was matti & his wife (i forget her name as well). matti has actually been to portland - when he was like 8. he was visiting relatives who lived there (hmm, finns in portland? whodda thunk?) & they took an rv down into northern california (one rv, two families). the only things he really remembers are the redwood forests &....the paul bunyan & blue statues!...he didn't know the name, he just remembered a really tall statue of a man & blue oxen. his wife had no idea what he was talking about. i, of course, knew exactly what he was talking about & gave them a brief introduction to the american paul bunyon folk lore. i stayed much longer than i should have, but the only reason i left was so i could make sure that i made it home that night - well, morning.

while i was waiting for my night bus, i noticed banners on one of the buildings next to the railway stations advertising kalevalan art....ateneum, the art museum, has an exhibit of kalevalan art through aug. 9. so, i plan on taking that all in; i also want to check out the national museum & was told last night at the cs (couchsurfing) meeting that i need to visit the national library as well.

on wed., i took some time after my class to look in the souvenir shops that line the street on the way to class (by which i mean, the street the tram runs on). i've already done most of my souvenir shopping for folks @ home in stockmann's, but was wondering what these shops had to offer. most of it was the same or similar, just more. the first shop had a whole lot of fur clothing offerings & all very expensive. the second shop (it's actually the third in line coming from sibelius, but the 2nd was closed), had food items that i'm thinking of going back & getting some of later. in the third shop, the lady attending shop asked if she could help me (rather harshly) & when i said i was just looking, she shewed me out of the store!..saying she had a lot of things to do & didn't have time for "just lookers". too bad, too, 'cause there were some interesting looking things on the other side of the shop that i might have come back & bought later, but not now. nope, she won't get my business.

today, i saw probably the strangest thing since coming here. an older woman just up & peed at the tram stop outside the railway station! she lifted up her skirt, pulled down her drawers (well, she wasn't wearing any, just nylons...) & released right next to the bench. she wasn't in any hurry after she was done to pull up her nylons & let her skirt back down either; she was just mooning everyone @ the stop for a good couple of min.'s. one man, talking on his cell, was walking towards her, noticed what she was doing & stopped briefly before walking past her...thankfully, she was on the opposite side of the stop as i was....

on a completely different note...i was offered a fight in japan for next week, but the promoter didn't want to pay the air fare, so it fell through. :{ ...i didn't mention this before because of the high probability that it wouldn't happen...so, next week, i am only going to go to the gym if outi wants me there for her final week of preparation for her fight. instead, my focus will be entirely music. i will start my music lessons @ kansanmusiikiopisto (folk music school - all smashed into one word; can you tell where the words "separate"? do you remember my finnish lesson from before?): violin on mon., singing on wed. tues., i will go "shopping" again & look for more possible sources of traditional finnish costumes. other than practicing @ the church, the rest of the time will be spent working on original compositions. pastor john gave me a key to the church on wed. that lets me into the finnish sanctuary to practice on that piano. it is a nicer piano than the one in the seed cafe (where the russian & international congregations worship) w/ a clearer sound & cleaner action, but it's sound is a lot harsher than i like. so, i won't be recording any new piano performances while i'm here. however, i could not open the front door to the church this morning, so i'll have to talk to john about that tomorrow....after next week, i think i'll only go to the gym three days/wk, so i have more time to focus on my music. i don't think i've been spending too much time @ the gym, but the commute takes so long. i end up not doing much when i get back home & if i sleep in a little later than i "should", i don't start working on anything either, 'cause i'll have to leave an hour & a half before i want to get to the gym. which, tends to be just an hour or so after i finish eating & getting dressed....

tata for now. i've got to take a shower & eat.....