I recently picked up my Vanhat Tanssit (old dances) DVD from school. Here I have posted 3 of the dances from the first performance (for parents/family in our school's upper gym).
There were two groups of dancers, and we were in the second group. So, there are twice as many dancers as you see in this video! During the dance, we are arranged in 2 circles. I am dancing with my partner, Tiina Lehti, in the inner circle. She's wearing a light purple dress, and I'm relatively tall, so see if you can spot us! Unfortunately there are not many good shots of us since we are a little insulated by the outer circle.
My favourite dance: Salty Dog Rag
Pas de Quatre
Cicapo (sorry it cuts off, but it takes forever to rip/trim these clips for some reason :/)
Learning and performing these dances was awesome. It's a fantastic Finnish tradition, and I felt I fit in perfectly. So, when I danced, I WAS Finnish, and that's what Exchange is all about.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Lahti Pelicans and More Vanhat Tanssit Pictures
Finland is a hockey-crazy country. It's not their national sport, (which is Finnish Baseball, a truly unique sport) but the Finnish dedication to hockey rivals our own in Canada!
The highest, or most prestigious league in Finland is called "SM-Liiga" with SM standing for Suomen (Finland's) and Liiga meaning League. It presently includes 14 teams from the major cities in Finland. My city, Lahti, is home to the Lahti Pelicans.
Hockey excitement is at an all time high here since the first round of the playoffs started a couple weeks ago! The Pelicans managed to grab the 7th of 8 seeds as a wildcard (they had to beat another team in a mini-series in order to earn a spot in the playoffs) They aren't expected to advance past the first round, since we are playing against the Espoo Blues in the second seed slot. However, we are winning 3-2 games in the best of 7 series!! The next game is Monday in Lahti.
My friends here in Lahti are huge Pelicans fans and have attended all of their playoff games. I've already been to 4 regular-season games in Lahti but recently I have been joining my friends/their family to watch the away games in Espoo (only 1 hour drive from Lahti)
Below is a picture of us at the Espoo arena on Saturday, March 21st. From left: The father of Juha and Taru Leppänen, Myself, Petteri Lehti, Taru Leppänen, Juha Leppänen, Tiina Lehti, Vili (Tiina's little brother), Santeri Toivanen, Petra Toivanen.
A shot of the Espoo arena early in the game.
Drama on the ice.
Something REALLY cool is the news broadcast about the first game we attended in Espoo last Tuesday, March 17th. Here is a link to the video:
CLICK HERE
At 2:23, the video pans the Lahti Pelicans fan section. You'll see my friend Juha wearing his bright green jacket and waving a blue scarf over his head. I'm standing to his left, so I appear right of him on the video. I'm wearing a black jacket and clapping my hands. I guess this is my debut on Finnish television! :)
We'll see if Lahti can win on Monday... but if not, it's back to Espoo for us on Tuesday for game 7!
Now I have a few more pictures to post from the Vanhat Tanssit (old dances) that took place in Mid-February. See this post for more details and photos. I recently received more great photos from my friend, Sini Nelimarkka, thanks Sini!
First is a great shot of my friend Tatu Tamminen and me. I am holding the city "Visitation" by Pekka Pohjola, a Finnish progressive rock artist. Tatu gave it to me as a gift from one musician to another (he plays guitar). I promised to send him a YYZ luggage tag from Pearson Airport in Toronto as a collector's item... he really likes Rush!
The next 3 are from the dancing at the "Lahti Suurhalli". This dancing took place the day after the official Vanhojen Päivä (old's day, as in graduating) and all of the dancers from all of the school's in Lahti were there to perform together for the city!
I'm wearing black (that helps... :P) but I'm dancing with the girl in the golden dress in the center of the picture. Her name is Laura Vuorelma and I was dancing with her at the Suurhalli because my regular partner, Tiina, went on the graduating class cruise to Stockholm.
In this photo we're on the left side, in the foreground.
This was during a line-up before the dancing I believe. I'm looking at the camera :) The guy right in front of me in the line is Juha Leppänen!
Those dances were a lot of fun. I really felt like a Finn among Finns... although dancing isn't exactly something the Finns are known for, it's a very strong tradition throughout the country for high school, or "lukio" students.
That's all for now! My birthday is coming up in 15 days, although I'm still unsure how to celebrate it! This Friday I'm planning to go to Helsinki for a big footbag session. My family is planning to spend Easter weekend at a nearby cottage with some friends. And Spring has arrived - the snow is almost gone.
I'll be updating this post to let you know if the Pelicans win the series on Monday or Tuesday! GO PELICANS! :) PS - fun fact, the trophy for the SM-Liiga is called the "Canadian Cup"!! I guess it's because some Finns living in Canada donated it to the league.
The highest, or most prestigious league in Finland is called "SM-Liiga" with SM standing for Suomen (Finland's) and Liiga meaning League. It presently includes 14 teams from the major cities in Finland. My city, Lahti, is home to the Lahti Pelicans.
Hockey excitement is at an all time high here since the first round of the playoffs started a couple weeks ago! The Pelicans managed to grab the 7th of 8 seeds as a wildcard (they had to beat another team in a mini-series in order to earn a spot in the playoffs) They aren't expected to advance past the first round, since we are playing against the Espoo Blues in the second seed slot. However, we are winning 3-2 games in the best of 7 series!! The next game is Monday in Lahti.
My friends here in Lahti are huge Pelicans fans and have attended all of their playoff games. I've already been to 4 regular-season games in Lahti but recently I have been joining my friends/their family to watch the away games in Espoo (only 1 hour drive from Lahti)
Below is a picture of us at the Espoo arena on Saturday, March 21st. From left: The father of Juha and Taru Leppänen, Myself, Petteri Lehti, Taru Leppänen, Juha Leppänen, Tiina Lehti, Vili (Tiina's little brother), Santeri Toivanen, Petra Toivanen.
A shot of the Espoo arena early in the game.
Drama on the ice.
Something REALLY cool is the news broadcast about the first game we attended in Espoo last Tuesday, March 17th. Here is a link to the video:
CLICK HERE
At 2:23, the video pans the Lahti Pelicans fan section. You'll see my friend Juha wearing his bright green jacket and waving a blue scarf over his head. I'm standing to his left, so I appear right of him on the video. I'm wearing a black jacket and clapping my hands. I guess this is my debut on Finnish television! :)
We'll see if Lahti can win on Monday... but if not, it's back to Espoo for us on Tuesday for game 7!
Now I have a few more pictures to post from the Vanhat Tanssit (old dances) that took place in Mid-February. See this post for more details and photos. I recently received more great photos from my friend, Sini Nelimarkka, thanks Sini!
First is a great shot of my friend Tatu Tamminen and me. I am holding the city "Visitation" by Pekka Pohjola, a Finnish progressive rock artist. Tatu gave it to me as a gift from one musician to another (he plays guitar). I promised to send him a YYZ luggage tag from Pearson Airport in Toronto as a collector's item... he really likes Rush!
The next 3 are from the dancing at the "Lahti Suurhalli". This dancing took place the day after the official Vanhojen Päivä (old's day, as in graduating) and all of the dancers from all of the school's in Lahti were there to perform together for the city!
I'm wearing black (that helps... :P) but I'm dancing with the girl in the golden dress in the center of the picture. Her name is Laura Vuorelma and I was dancing with her at the Suurhalli because my regular partner, Tiina, went on the graduating class cruise to Stockholm.
In this photo we're on the left side, in the foreground.
This was during a line-up before the dancing I believe. I'm looking at the camera :) The guy right in front of me in the line is Juha Leppänen!
Those dances were a lot of fun. I really felt like a Finn among Finns... although dancing isn't exactly something the Finns are known for, it's a very strong tradition throughout the country for high school, or "lukio" students.
That's all for now! My birthday is coming up in 15 days, although I'm still unsure how to celebrate it! This Friday I'm planning to go to Helsinki for a big footbag session. My family is planning to spend Easter weekend at a nearby cottage with some friends. And Spring has arrived - the snow is almost gone.
I'll be updating this post to let you know if the Pelicans win the series on Monday or Tuesday! GO PELICANS! :) PS - fun fact, the trophy for the SM-Liiga is called the "Canadian Cup"!! I guess it's because some Finns living in Canada donated it to the league.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Ice Fishing
Today a member of my Rotary club here in Finland took me ice fishing on the lake next to our city! We fished from 10AM to 4PM (with a long lunch break). It was pretty snowy weather but the lake was still busy with other fishers, skiers and snowmobilers.
The lake is named lake Vesijärvi which translates to "water lake". My city, Lahti, is situated right on the lake, but most people fish a few kilometres away from the city shoreline.
I can say now, that ice fishing is not easy! First you must drill a hole in the ice (which was about half a metre thick).
Scooping the ice out of the hole makes it easier to hold the fishing line steady.
Then, you wait! Actually, you should give the line a small vertical jerk about every 5 seconds, so you can't just sleep until you feel a fish.
The Rotarian I was with, Heikki Niemi, caught about 10 small perches (ahven in Finnish) but it took me until 4PM to catch my first fish! I guess I'm just unlucky! Anyway, we were the last people on the lake while I desperately tried to hook a fish. When I finally got one, it turns out the fish hadn't even bitten the lure! I simply hooked into the side of it as I pulled upwards. Oh well.
Here you can see that it wasn't exactly a clean catch but I think that makes it even more special. Heikki and I had a good laugh about it anyway.
Ice fishing is truly a Finnish tradition and I had a great time on the lake today. It really was a lot more fun than I was expecting! I will post a picture of Heikki and me later on.
Things are going very well right now, my Finnish language skills are at an all-time high! I can speak quite comfortably and make myself understood almost always. I still use English with friends, since truly expressing myself in Finnish remains difficult. I receive compliments on my Finnish from almost every Finn I meet, since they are used to foreigners speaking only English. Most people who come to Finland have lived here for years without having to speak Finnish, since almost every person here can function in English.
My 18th birthday is coming up in a couple weeks (April 6th), making me a legal adult in Finland. I'm still not sure how I will celebrate but my friends have suggestions although I'm not really thinking about it right now. I'm focusing on attending school, practicing footbag, playing music and learning Finnish.
The lake is named lake Vesijärvi which translates to "water lake". My city, Lahti, is situated right on the lake, but most people fish a few kilometres away from the city shoreline.
I can say now, that ice fishing is not easy! First you must drill a hole in the ice (which was about half a metre thick).
Scooping the ice out of the hole makes it easier to hold the fishing line steady.
Then, you wait! Actually, you should give the line a small vertical jerk about every 5 seconds, so you can't just sleep until you feel a fish.
The Rotarian I was with, Heikki Niemi, caught about 10 small perches (ahven in Finnish) but it took me until 4PM to catch my first fish! I guess I'm just unlucky! Anyway, we were the last people on the lake while I desperately tried to hook a fish. When I finally got one, it turns out the fish hadn't even bitten the lure! I simply hooked into the side of it as I pulled upwards. Oh well.
Here you can see that it wasn't exactly a clean catch but I think that makes it even more special. Heikki and I had a good laugh about it anyway.
Ice fishing is truly a Finnish tradition and I had a great time on the lake today. It really was a lot more fun than I was expecting! I will post a picture of Heikki and me later on.
Things are going very well right now, my Finnish language skills are at an all-time high! I can speak quite comfortably and make myself understood almost always. I still use English with friends, since truly expressing myself in Finnish remains difficult. I receive compliments on my Finnish from almost every Finn I meet, since they are used to foreigners speaking only English. Most people who come to Finland have lived here for years without having to speak Finnish, since almost every person here can function in English.
My 18th birthday is coming up in a couple weeks (April 6th), making me a legal adult in Finland. I'm still not sure how I will celebrate but my friends have suggestions although I'm not really thinking about it right now. I'm focusing on attending school, practicing footbag, playing music and learning Finnish.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Skiing World Cup
This weekend I attended the Skiing World Cup that took place in my city of Lahti. This 3-day event was the real deal, all sorts of athletes from all over the world competing in nordic skiing (sprinting/distance) and ski jumping from Lahti's famous ski jumps (below).
These jumps are huge!
The nordic sprints were thrilling in particular. I'm not sure about the results in each event, but Finland finished third in Women's sprint.
A great action shot.
Despite being a "World Cup", this was a distinctly Finnish event. All sorts of vendors were selling the traditional Finnish sausage ("makkara") and the cheers for the Finnish athletes were sometimes overwhelming! There were many foreign spectators, especially from Poland but even some from Japan. Oh, and the few Canadian skiers didn't even qualify for the final rounds... not that they stand much of a chance against these Scandinavians, Austrians, Germans, Swiss and most... other countries.
I don't have any great photos from the ski jumps since the skiers are almost too small to notice. On the Saturday I went with my host family to watch but today (Sunday) I met 3 German Rotary friends and a Brazilian friend to spend the day with. I will post some pictures of us later.
Another week of school ahead. Spring is already here in Finland, as the snow is melting quite quickly. I hope it doesn't come back, I've had enough of this dark, cold Finnish winter.
These jumps are huge!
The nordic sprints were thrilling in particular. I'm not sure about the results in each event, but Finland finished third in Women's sprint.
A great action shot.
Despite being a "World Cup", this was a distinctly Finnish event. All sorts of vendors were selling the traditional Finnish sausage ("makkara") and the cheers for the Finnish athletes were sometimes overwhelming! There were many foreign spectators, especially from Poland but even some from Japan. Oh, and the few Canadian skiers didn't even qualify for the final rounds... not that they stand much of a chance against these Scandinavians, Austrians, Germans, Swiss and most... other countries.
I don't have any great photos from the ski jumps since the skiers are almost too small to notice. On the Saturday I went with my host family to watch but today (Sunday) I met 3 German Rotary friends and a Brazilian friend to spend the day with. I will post some pictures of us later.
Another week of school ahead. Spring is already here in Finland, as the snow is melting quite quickly. I hope it doesn't come back, I've had enough of this dark, cold Finnish winter.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Family Trip To Levi
We arrived home last night from our week-long vacation at the Levi ski resort in Lapland. We stayed in a cabin near the hill, along with thousands (literally) of other tourists during southern Finland's winter break from school. The trip was fantastic and I went downhill skiing almost everyday and also got a bit of cross-country in as well.
Here are some pictures from my camera. There will probably be more later from my friend's camera as well.
I have countless beautiful landscape shots from the hill, but here are two of my favourites.
Levi is actually a world-class downhill skiing location, and there are world-level competitions held there every year. I skiied down the official "World Cup run", which has a gondola lift of course. The run is renowned for being difficult but I mastered it before the week was up!
There are many lifts at Levi, and it's possible to ski for hours without going up the same lift twice. I hardly ever skiied down the same run twice in one day, and I went skiing for 6 hours at a time! For a map of the runs at Levi, check out this link.
http://www.panoraama.com/levi/
This is a shot of the Levi center at night from the main run.
There were two other exchange students in Levi for the week as well: Juan from Mexico and Kathleen from America. We all shared a cool 'Mexican night' with Juan and his family in their cabin and I spent a lot of time on the slopes with Kathleen, who was snowboarding.
Here I am with Kathleen outside one of the cafes on the hill.
This is me posing on the hill. At Levi I met a girl named Heini as well, who is from my school in Lahti. The guy in the photo is her brother but I'm afraid I can't remember his name!
Below is a shot from the back porch of our cabin. Here you can see all the other cabins packed in around the hill. They are organized into neighbourhoods and there are ski buses running to the lifts for free.
A regular task in my current host family is walking our 2 dogs. I took them for a walk in Levi and got a cute picture of them. On the left is Buddy and on the right is Elvis. It looks like Buddy isn't much bigger than Elvis, but he is A LOT bigger. It looks like something caught their attention!
This trip to Lapland was a very memorable one. While the skiing was amazing, I also got the chance to meet my host grandparents, who all live near Levi in Lapland. My host mother, Sonja, brought us to her parents place. Her mother made me some mittens and socks and served us a moose that her husband had killed earlier. We also spent time at their cabin... which they built themselves! My host dad, Olli, has parents who grow/harvest most of their food themselves! (This is true Lappish living!) I also performed Finlandia multiple times for all the grandparents and some family friends.
Now I'm preparing for school tomorrow while students in northern Finland enjoy their winter break off school. I can't believe it is already March, only another month until my 18th birthday! Then I will be a legal adult in Finland... not sure what I will do to celebrate yet though!
Keep watching this blog for some more Levi photos as well as footage from the vanhat tanssit! I will post that as soon as I acquire the dvd.
Here are some pictures from my camera. There will probably be more later from my friend's camera as well.
I have countless beautiful landscape shots from the hill, but here are two of my favourites.
Levi is actually a world-class downhill skiing location, and there are world-level competitions held there every year. I skiied down the official "World Cup run", which has a gondola lift of course. The run is renowned for being difficult but I mastered it before the week was up!
There are many lifts at Levi, and it's possible to ski for hours without going up the same lift twice. I hardly ever skiied down the same run twice in one day, and I went skiing for 6 hours at a time! For a map of the runs at Levi, check out this link.
http://www.panoraama.com/levi/
This is a shot of the Levi center at night from the main run.
There were two other exchange students in Levi for the week as well: Juan from Mexico and Kathleen from America. We all shared a cool 'Mexican night' with Juan and his family in their cabin and I spent a lot of time on the slopes with Kathleen, who was snowboarding.
Here I am with Kathleen outside one of the cafes on the hill.
This is me posing on the hill. At Levi I met a girl named Heini as well, who is from my school in Lahti. The guy in the photo is her brother but I'm afraid I can't remember his name!
Below is a shot from the back porch of our cabin. Here you can see all the other cabins packed in around the hill. They are organized into neighbourhoods and there are ski buses running to the lifts for free.
A regular task in my current host family is walking our 2 dogs. I took them for a walk in Levi and got a cute picture of them. On the left is Buddy and on the right is Elvis. It looks like Buddy isn't much bigger than Elvis, but he is A LOT bigger. It looks like something caught their attention!
This trip to Lapland was a very memorable one. While the skiing was amazing, I also got the chance to meet my host grandparents, who all live near Levi in Lapland. My host mother, Sonja, brought us to her parents place. Her mother made me some mittens and socks and served us a moose that her husband had killed earlier. We also spent time at their cabin... which they built themselves! My host dad, Olli, has parents who grow/harvest most of their food themselves! (This is true Lappish living!) I also performed Finlandia multiple times for all the grandparents and some family friends.
Now I'm preparing for school tomorrow while students in northern Finland enjoy their winter break off school. I can't believe it is already March, only another month until my 18th birthday! Then I will be a legal adult in Finland... not sure what I will do to celebrate yet though!
Keep watching this blog for some more Levi photos as well as footage from the vanhat tanssit! I will post that as soon as I acquire the dvd.
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