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.