Ensimmainen viikko (the first week)

The Cross-check crossing the Arctic Circle

I've wrapped up my first official week in Finland by settling in the town of Savonlinna for the next 3 weeks. Prior to arriving in Savonlinna I toured almost the entire country of Finland. The highlights of my trip included meeting with a fiber guy at the University of Kuopio, meeting Santa Claus, crossing the Arctic Circle, and taking advantage of Everyman's Right outside the city of Oulu. Almost all of Finland is exactly like Northern MN and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan: trees, lakes, rocks, rivers, bugs, and animals. Its no wonder so many Finns live in the Upper Midwest; its just like home!

Some of my low-lights of the trip were missing busses, missing trains, dragging my 15 lb Pelican case with my laptop all around Finland only to find out that I don't have internet access in Savonlinna, paying for the bathroom in train stations, lack of good beer, and cigarettes (smoked by others, not me). All of which have only given my trip character and things to talk about; none of them have been detrimental.

I started my Finnish language course on Tuesday. Thirty-five other college-aged students from around the world- well Europe, Japan, China, and the US- are living in dorms at the University of Joensuu at Savonlinna so they can learn about Finnish language and culture for free. The course highlights this week were a champaigne reception at the Savonlinna City Museum and an evening at sauna.

Its great not being in the US for many reasons:
10. Unlimited whole grain rye bread
9. Coffee, coffee, coffee (Finland consumes the most coffee per capita in the entire world)
8. Great weather
7. Metric everything
6. No fat people
5. Delicious chocolate
4. Unlimited daylight
3. Mass transit
2. Bikes and bike paths, everywhere
1. Amazing trust

Let me explain the amazing trust, and the reason I can blog:

This afternoon, I decided my lack of internet was going to be a problem. I promised myself (and Joanne) that I would work on my dissertation while I was away, which is primarily an journal database searching job. My dorm room has internet service, but its a european DSL connection that requires an adapter. There is ONE adapter for all 35 of us Finnish language students in the dorms to share. I knew the alotted adapter time was limited, so I needed to secure my own. The salesman at the computer store downtown didn't speak any English, so in my broken Finnish, I managed to find a device that might work. I wasn't sure what type of internet jack was in the room, so I offered to return in the morning knowing my correct internet jack type and purchase the right connectors. He rattled off something in Finnish that I couldn't understand, so after a few minutes (and me looking really helpless), he was able to say it in English:

I could take the adapter, a selection of cords, and a selection of plugs; see which configuration (if any) connected me to the rest of the world; and return in the morning with the unused items.

Ok, I thought, fair enough, I can buy all this crap and return the extra stuff tomorrow. OH NO! I wasn't supposed to pay for it yet. I was supposed to just give the salesman my name, email address, and street address now. I could pay for everything I was going to buy in the morning when I returned the rest of the cords and plugs. This would never happen in the US.

This is for real, its a photo I took myself, beauty.