Some have Spring break, we have Ski break. Both occur in March and are all about taking a little time from school to enjoy the outdoors. Other than that, they have nothing in common. Spring break is swimming pools, swim suits and sun. Ski break is snow ball fights, snow shoeing and of course, skiing.
As the days go by, I learn more and more about the Finnish culture. I know that we've lived here for almost 6 months now, but it continues to fascinate me. For one, Finns come alive in the winter. It's like someone flipped a switch and everyone suddenly sprang to life. When the days get down to 20 or below, you can see the smiles on their faces and hear the excitement in their voices. Finally, they say, a proper winter! They use words like fresh to describe freezing temperatures. I guess when winter takes up a majority of the year, you learn to embrace it. No, they don't embrace it, they thrive off it. All year they are waiting until the conditions are right for skiing, ice hockey, skating, ice fishing and all their other favorite winter activities. They will tell you that the best sauna is the one when you can take a break from the heat to roll around in the snow (with no clothes on). Now, I don't want to make any over-generalizations about the entire population. I have met a Finn that wasn't a fan of winter, but I'd say those are few and far between. Most of the time, you will find them enjoying the outdoors during these snow-covered days.
We are in the thick of winter over here. Maybe that's why I haven't posted in a while. Not because we've been in hibernation (as I predicted in my last post), it has been quite the opposite actually, I think it's because we're really getting settled in now. We have routines, schedules, and everything feels so normal now. Like this is our home.
When I go back and look at pictures or posts from, say, October or November, I laugh at the fact that I thought it was cold then. What a joke! But I do think I finally realize what everyone meant when they said it was going to get much, much colder. They meant that your breath would freeze your hair to your scarf, your fingers would burn, your nose would run to the extent that you could no longer feel it. They meant that all you would crave is a hearty soup and some hot tea. They meant that when you are forced to wear three layers (pants and jackets) to walk five minutes to the grocery store and when sleeping at school sounds like a better alternative than riding your bike home...that's when you know it's cold. So in case you're wondering, we will be in full hibernation mode for the next month and a half.
Leading up to and following New Year's Eve we spent some time visiting two other cities in Lapland. Tornio is a small town that shares a border with the Swedish town of Haparanda. There wasn't much to do in this small town, but it was kind of fun to walk right over to Sweden. Oh and a bonus to that is we went to a Swedish IKEA (score). Most of the time IKEA is a nightmare because you generally go to buy one thing and you end up spending your entire day there due to the endless maze of a store. However, when you are in Tornio and you are wandering around trying to find something to do, preferably indoors, walking slowly through an IKEA isn't half bad. (Plus we just wanted to say we'd been to an IKEA where it all began).
