Short and Super Sweet

Since venturing north through Norway last November on my way to the Arctic Ocean, I have had a hankering to see a bit more of this Nordic country.  After crossing the border, I remember the landscape changing dramatically into rocky mountains dotted with wonderfully simple and colorful houses.  Therefore, upon finding 7€ tickets online, it was a no-brainer to once again return to this country over the Easter holiday and explore its southern latitudes.  Not only was I excited to have the opportunity to return to Norway, but I was also thrilled that my Finnish flatmate, Maria, could join me!  For pictures from the trip, you can visit my Picasa site here.

Our adventure started in Tampere, Finland.  We had a free afternoon in Tampere before our flights left, so Maria and I wandered over to the Moomin museum.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Moomins, they are a very popular hippo-like character developed by Tove Jansson, a Finnish author.  At the museum, we got to see original drawings from various scenes in the Moomin books.  We also partook in some children's games and acquainted ourselves with the dress-up closet.


Maria and I enjoyed a game of
'Ring the Hattivattit.'

From Tampere, Maria and I traveled west to Oslo by plane.  There, we were met with beautiful weather and many glorious signs of spring—flowering trees, vibrant green grass, and tiny leaves lacing deciduous branches.  We spent the afternoon enjoying the city bells while meandering through the streets.  Some of the highlights of the afternoon included the king's palace, Slottsparken (palace park), Akershus fortress, the Edward Munch cemetery, bustling harbor and botanic garden.

Maria stands in front of the Oslo Palace.

This was one of my favorite scenes in Oslo.
A small boy rides his training-wheel-equipped bike
up and down the cemetery sidewalks while ringing his
bell and sporting an over-sized cowboy hat.  Lovely.

The next day, Maria and I left Oslo traveling five hours by train west to the fjords.  We arrived in the snow-covered town of Myrdal at an elevation of 867m.  From there, we took the acclaimed Flåmsbana train partway down the valley, hiking the rest of the way to Flåm.  This small town sits at the base of the world's longest and deepest fjord, Sognefjord.  The hike was absolutely beautiful.  En route, we witnessed deep ravines, cascading waterfalls, lush mountain farms and quaint Norwegian establishments.

Maria and I enjoyed seeing all the waterfalls.

The hike took us down through this magnificent valley.

We spent the following morning wandering around the town of Flåm.  The water on the fjord was still, allowing for really nice reflections.  Maria and I also came across some ridiculously adorable baby goats, and had the opportunity to send off a few postcards.

Gotta do it.  A good ol' air guitar.

The baby goats were eager for attention.

In the afternoon, we took the Flåmsbana train back up the valley.  I fully understand why this train has been rated as being one of the world's ten best train rides.  Not only is the scenery gorgeous, but the engineering feat of winding the train through 20 tunnels so that it can rise 800m along a 20km track is impressive.

Maria enjoys the views from the Flåmsbana.

With a series of train, bus and plane rides, Maria and I eventually made our way back to Oslo, then Tampere and finally Joensuu.  Having the opportunity to once again see Norway's spectacular scenery was amazing—and getting to do it with Maria made it that much better.  I think it would suffice to say the trip was short and super sweet.

Coloring the Whites

With Easter just around the corner, it was time to once again share holiday traditions.  The Easter culture exchange started with my sampling some Finnish Easter pudding—mämmi.  With a flavor and texture resembling soggy rye bread, this dark brown 'pudding' is typically eaten with cream and sprinkled with sugar.  (You can read more about it here: mämmi.)  While the treat is not inedible, I can't say I enjoyed it much either.

Mämmi—Finnish Easter pudding

To return the cultural favor, I invited a few Finns to partake in traditional American egg dyeing.  While Finnish children typically use watercolor paints to color eggs around Easter, my friends had never used the small vats of dye I am accustomed to.  Therefore, the egg dyeing adventure began Thursday morning with an all-American PAAS coloring kit (my dad brought to me in Italy).  For a few hours, my friend, Henna, and I used the colors of the rainbow to liven up the white shells of our hard-boiled eggs.  My flatmate, Maria, and I continued with the fun the following day, dyeing another dozen eggs.  The smiles and laughs shared during this cultural exchange compensates for the fact that a few too many hard boiled eggs now sit in our frig.

Henna colored one egg with the
classic cracked-egg-with-eyes design.

I met Henna in my Chinese course, so we continued
to practice the language while dyeing eggs.

As a forestry major, Maria was keen on making a
pine fir spruce tree egg.  (Let's just say I got a short
tree lesson during the creation of this egg...)

It takes a bit of concentration to only dye half an egg.

In the spirit of Finland, I made a 'koivun muna'—birch tree egg.

How many puput (bunnies) can you spot?

Hyvää Pääsiäitä Suomesta!
Happy Easter from Finland!

Kemiaa Kaikille!

Every April, Joensuu holds an event called SciFest.  As the name suggests, it is a science festival of sorts.  Filling the arena with hundreds of science-related booths, this festival aims to "bring science, technology and the environment closer to young people in challenging and interesting ways."  It is geared for students from preschool to high school, and has booths that offer an array of activities to engage students and stimulate their interest in various scientific and mathematical fields. 

Every detail of SciFest is geared towards getting
students interested in science—even the 'street' signs!

As it is the International Year of Chemistry (as determined by UNESCO), the theme for this year's SciFest was "Kemiaa Kaikille'—Chemistry for All!  While booths ranged in topics from archeology to triangle geometry, there were a substantial number of chemistry booths too.  Honestly, I do not think they could have chosen a more perfect theme (...just a chemistry major's bias).


While each station had its own perks, they all
strived to be hands-on.  Here, some elementary
students mix chemicals to make bouncy balls.

After wandering through most of the booths, I must say that one of my favorites was CSP: Crime Scene Physics.  This station was developed by a group of aspiring physics teachers.  Students were introduced to the crime with a video.  Then, after breaking into small groups of four to five, they got to analyze different aspects of the crime using some really high-tech equipment.  Just to list a few, they had a glossmeter for fingerprint matching, infrared spectrometer for substance identification, specialized scanner coupled with a MatLab program to recover a message, high-powered microscope to uncover secret information on silicon disks, and heat-camera to predict time of death.  Wow.  To say I was impressed with their set-up would be a mild understatement.

CSP: Crime Scene Physics. 
Check out this video to get a glimpse into this station.

I do not know how many years this festival has been going on, but I think it is a fantastic idea.  People from all over the community volunteer their time and resources to give students a unique experience.  Not only were there some very cool stations, but many of them showed real-life applications to science.  Furthermore, I was appreciative of the time people took to find English-speaking individuals to give my friend and I mini-tours of their stations.  Reflecting on the event, my friend made the comment, "I think if I had gone to something like this when I was younger, I would have pursued a career in science."  Enough said.

One Row at a Time

This past week, AnKa and I had the opportunity to try our hand at a traditional Finnish craft—carpet weaving.  Upon entering the art center, we were met with a room full of floor-standing looms.  The sun shone through large windows, illuminating the colorful fabric strips which lined the walls.  After discussing which patterns we would each like to attempt, the kind women running the shop brought us over to the looms.  We were given a brief demonstration how to use the wooden apparatuses, and away we went.  Press the first pedal with your left foot.  Guide the fabric strip through the complex array of strings.  Press the second pedal with your right foot.  And pull a large wooden board towards you to secure the new row.  Working for a good portion of the day, we were both able to walk away with a rug.  While AnKa's was a nice array of earth tones, I went for classic Jenny style—bright, bold colors.  While the weaving was quite enjoyable, I must admit that I also appreciated the atmosphere in the place.  Quite like the quilt shops back at home, older women came and went throughout the day, forming small chatter clusters while their husbands waited quietly in the corner.

AnKa pulls the board towards herself to secure a new row.

You can see my carpet design on the
loom—green, red and blue stripes.

You use foot pedals to control the carpet's design.

Prego!

Several months back, the wind whistled over the frozen ground with temperatures hovering around -30˚C. Cheeks were rosy.  Fingers were bundled in two layers of mittens.  And the sun could not be coerced to stay in the sky for more than a few hours a day.  It was during this time that travel plans were arranged for warmer and greener lands.  Dad and I skyped back and forth until an itinerary was set and plane tickets were purchased.

Fast-forward two months, and you'll find that Dad and I just recently returned from this long-awaited holiday.  Destination?  41˚N, 12˚E.  Italy.

Rendezvousing at the "Meeting Pole" in the Fiumicino airport, Dad and I jumped into our small, black vehicle and drove off into the sunset an hour north of Rome.  It was during this drive that I learned Dad has a stowaway in his luggage.  With innocent yellow eyes, an oversized head and delicious ears, this stowaway was to become a sort of mascot for our Italian adventures.  This mascot was a chocolate bunny which had the opportunity to see many of Italy's greatest sights despite its proclivity to melt.

(I should probably pause now to let you know that more official trip photos are posted on my Picasa site.  However, if you are interested in hearing more about Bunny's adventures, read on.)

After spending the night in a lovely B&B, Bunny, Dad and I continued north through the Tuscan countryside.  Littered with quaint houses, spring flowers and meticulously prepared vineyards, I think I understand why the rolling green hills of this land may have inspired someone to discover the moons of Jupiter or sculpt a timeless masterpiece of David.  The landscape is beautiful.


Around lunchtime, Bunny suggested that we make a sight-seeing and gelato stop in the town of Siena.  Sitting out on the 'living room floor' that is the town's plaza, it was fun to imagine the annual horserace that occurs in this space. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent taking in a few more sights around Lilliano, Chianti and San Gimignano.  The day was wrapped up with a classic stop at the Leaning Tower.  Boy is that tower leaning.

The following day, Bunny continued to tag along with Dad and I as we made our way east to Venice.  The afternoon was spent getting lost among the canals while photographing the day-to-day life of this island.

We woke up bright and early on the third day to explore the land surrounding Venice.  First stop was at the University of Padova where Galileo and the man who discovered Fallopian tubes taught.  We even got to stand at the base of an anatomy theater where students used to observe human dissections.  Feeling scholarly, we moved on to more cultural sites around some of Venice's neighboring islands.  Murano specializes in glassblowing, while Burano is home to lace-makers and wildly colorful buildings.

On day four, Dad and I drove south to Florence.  Here we saw several amazing things including Michelangelo's David, Bernini's gold doors, Galileo's last two remaining telescopes and the resting places of some of history's greats.  The afternoon was finished off with a panoramic view of the city before heading further south to Assisi.



Day five seemed to come all too fast, but Dad and I were happy about all we were able to see and do.  It was on this last day that we finally made it around to touring Rome.  We started out in the Vatican, joining masses of other people in the Sistine chapel.  While Bunny enjoyed seeing St. Peter's Basilica, the sun proved to be a bit much for him as he slowly melted while hopping from the Pantheon to the Roman ruins and finally the Colosseum. 

Happy but exhausted, Dad and I parted ways on the sixth day.  He flew back to Minneapolis while I journeyed back to Joensuu.  All in all, it was amazing to see so much history in such a short amount of time.  Plus, the vibrant green fields and deep blue skies were a welcomed reminder that summer is just around the corner.

(Again, let me remind you that some bunny-less photos were taken.  They are here.)