The Erkamo Family

I arrived in my 3rd host family on Saturday and everything is going very well! I've posted some photos taken during the past 3 months while living with my second host family, The Erkamo's. Credit to my host mom Tuuli Erkamo for all photos except the first one!

Let's start off with the group family shot, taken last Friday at my goodbye dinner. This is what I know as the 'Erkamo' family, and all members live within walking distance in Mäkelä, Finland.

From left: Heikki Erkamo (host dad), myself, Hannu (Tuuli's step dad), Heikki's father, Heikki's mother, Vilja Erkamo (host sister), Eila (Tuuli's mother), Tuuli Erkamo (host mother), Meri Erkamo (host sister). Photo credit to anonymous waitress!

My goodbye dinner was at a local sports center/country club near Lahti. The sports center is actually an internationally known location and they had a Canadian flag on hand to place on our table during dinner! Tuuli's step-father Hannu seems surprised in this photo, with Heikki's mother on the left.

This photo is from Dec. 6th. Here we are in Sibeliustalo (Sibelius Hall) in Lahti just prior to the Finnish Independence Day Concert by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra.

From left: Vilja Erkamo (host sister. 12), Hannu (step-father of Tuuli), Meri Erkamo (host sister, 14), Heikki Erkamo (host father), myself.

On Dec. 14th, the family celebrated Meri's 14th birthday. Here we are in the Erkamo's kitchen singing "Happy Birthday" or "Paljon Onnea" in Finnish. I'm in the blue shirt! The pink shirts are the outfits my 2 host sisters wear at choir practice, along with their friends.

I entertained the party guests (mostly family) with "Finlandia" as well as a spontaneous performance of Canada's national anthem.

Despite living at the Erkamo's home for only 3 months, I got many chances to spend time with the entire family. Christmas wasn't just one day, it was 3 days of family visits, eating and staying up late together. Often Tuuli, the girls and I would visit Hannu and Eila just for dinner and spending time together. And I have to say that I was sad to leave the family... they all gave me parting gifts and that really touched me! I know I'll be visiting them again, since they only live 20 minutes outside of Lahti.

My third family has been great so far. They live in Lahti but I still ride the bus for 10 minutes to get to the center of town. Because the father works in Oulu and one of my host sister, Henni, goes to school in Oulu (Oulu = Finnish city 8 hours north of Lahti), I'll be spending most of my time with my host mother and younger host sister, Susanne (15). They have 2 dogs and a cat so I've already been busy walking, feeding and cleaning organisms other than myself.

Another update: our Shad Project won the "Innovation Award" of $1000 from the 2009 Queen's Entrepreneurship Cup last Saturday! This project has gone a long way: best overall and best application of scientific principles at the Shad RBC Cup 2007, Innovation Award at QEC 09, and it also netted me a grade 12 science credit and business credit from my school! Anyway, this 'win' has brought back memories of writing the plan with the other Shads from Shad MUN 2007 and it feels great.

That's all for now! Stay tuned, I have a few more pictures, and the "vanhojen tanssit" are coming up Feb. 12/13th (those are the 'old dances' where I'll be dancing old fashioned dances with a partner with all the other students in my school and in Lahti!)
Expect some fantastic shots from that event!

Pyhäntäkä

On my way to the bus stop last Friday, I grabbed some nice pictures around my host familiy's neighbourhood. The small forested area, called Pyhäntäkä, includes at least 15 houses and is situated on a minor highway from Lahti to the town of Heinola.

Our house overlooks a small hill on the opposite side of this photo.

This picture shows most of the yard in front of the house. Since I came in late October, most plants were already fading away although I'm sure it's beautiful in the summer.

A picture taken in the opposite direction. The small white house is older than ours and is not being used at the moment. The red shed is where my host dad, Heikki, maintains his antique cars.

This road runs in front of the yard and continues to the highway.

This one was taken from my bus stop looking back in the direction of my house.

Here is the highway where I wait for the bus to Lahti almost everyday.

As you can see, there are lots of trees and snow: a typical winter scene in Finland. Behind the houses there is a large lake. My family has a summer cottage on the lake as well and they spend time there at various times in the year.

I'll be changing families on Saturday!

Playing THE Piano

Despite the fact that last Saturday was a school day (yes, Finns go to school on two saturdays every school year!), my family brought me to Järvenpää, a small city 30 minutes from Helsinki. There is a small lake called 'Tuusulanjärvi' or Lake Tuusula, located just outside of Järvenpää. There are various areas around the lake of historical significance in Finland, making it a hot spot for whatever tourists come to Finland.

Like all lakes nearby cities, Lake Tuusula is very busy throughout the winter. Finns are always ice-fishing, cross-country skiing and "ice surfing" all across the frozen area. I'm hoping to go ice-fishing with a Rotarian next month!

Around the lake are some 'beaches', churches and cottages, but the main attraction is the home of Jean Sibelius and his family which is now a museum. The Sibelius family lived in a large wood house named 'Ainola' in 1904 and Sibelius remained there with his wife, Aino, until his death in 1957. For those who don't know, Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer who wrote many piano pieces that were important in retaining the Finnish morale in times of war throughout the 20th century. Because of this, he is now recognized as an important historical figure and his music is known to everyone in Finland.

Unfortunately, Ainola was closed for the winter! It opens again in May but it was disappointing. Instead we travelled a short distance to another popular attraction, the house of Pekka Halonen, a Finnish painter who was friends with Sibelius and his family. Apparently may Finnish artists lived around Lake Tuusula in the early 20th century, and the Halonen house, named Halosenniemi, was built between 1899 and 1902 and is almost entirely made of wood.

The house of Pekka Halonen and family in the early 1900's: (from left Me, Tuuli (host mom), Meri (14), Vilja (12). Photo taken by my host dad, Heikki)

The house was quite large, with a beautiful view of the lake. Some of the Halonen's possessions were still in place, including a very old upright piano. In the information sheet about Halosenniemi, it says the piano was given to Pekka's wife, Maija Halonen, as a gift from the composer Robert Kajanus. Because the Halonen's and the Sibelius' were good friends, they would visit each other and play music. Maija Halonen and Aino Sibelius would play duets together often. It's safe to assume that Sibelius also played this piano.

I asked the curators if I could play, since there were no other tourists there and they agreed! So, here I am playing "Finlandia" on a piano that Sibelius has played:

The piano was definitely old but sounded fine, although soft 'piano' notes were hard to play. On the piano was a music book that Jean Sibelius had given to Maija Halonen in 1910.

This was a great experience :) I have also heard that Sibelius' personal grand piano is still in Ainola. I hope to return in May to Ainola when it has re-opened and perhaps I'll get the chance to play there as well. That would be unbelievably great, since that is the piano where most of his material was created!

After visiting Halosenniemi, we continued on to Helsinki where we met Tuuli's brother and girlfriend for dinner at an authentic Lapland ("Lappish") restaurant. I had a nice big plate of reindeer!

Well today is Thursday, and tomorrow I am grabbing a bus to Jyväskylä (city 3 hours north of Lahti) where I'll meet a group of Finnish footbag players (mostly those I already know from Helsinki) for the 7th Annual New Year's Footbag Jam. There will be a competition on Saturday but I'm just going to play, not compete (as are others).

After that, the next event is a family change on the following Saturday, Jan. 24th. That's all for now, I hope 2009 is off to a good start for everyone!

Lahti in Winter

Christmas is a very important holiday in Finland. In my city, Lahti, there is a huge Christmas tree in the kauppatori (store square) and many elaborate lights decorating the main streets. I have a few pictures here from downtown Lahti. In Stratford, Canada, there is also a tree and some lights along the roads but I don't think it can compare to this!

The massive tree in the middle of the square is lit up all the time. These pictures were taken on the first Wednesday of January, so there is a large market covering the entire square and surrounding area. It includes many vendors with mobile kiosks and tents who travel around Finland together. They always come to Lahti on the first Wednesday of every month.

This is the main street in Lahti, Aleksanterinkatu (Alexander's street). The lights are hanging above the road.

At night... (I have moved in front of the lights in the forefront of the last picture)

Now that 2009 is here, I am speaking only Finnish with my family and most of my friends. I'm making great progress, I can easily tell them what I'm doing, where I am, what I want etc. Carrying on a conversation can get difficult. Although my vocabulary is good, the difference between spoken and written language is great, so I don't always recognize words. Finnish grammar also necessitates many odd changes to words in various contexts, adding to the difficulty. However, I'm determined to speak it fluently by the time I leave! I have a Finnish lesson every Wednesday.

I hope that new year is going great for everyone so far! I might be posting some pictures of Helsinki soon since I'm going there with Tuuli, my host mom on Saturday to visit a few places. There's also a possibility that I'll be back in Helsinki on Monday morning to say goodbye at the airport to the Australian/New Zealand/South African exchange students, who come and go in January :( I will miss them, but there's a whole new pack of inbounds inbound!

I'm also heading to Jyväskylä (another large city 3 hours from Lahti) for a footbag jam weekend from the 16th-18th so I'll post pictures from that afterwards.