mmmmm sauna...

So once I finally got up and moving Sunday (up a bit before 1, moving towards 2:30, out of the hotel closer to 3 or 3:30), we were picked up by Saapi and taken to Tuukka's family's summer house and sauna, about 35 minutes outside Jyväskylä. Their house is next to their cousins' house (the twins I sat next to at dinner) and another local friend's. In all cases, the houses were built by hand by the grandfathers in the early 20th century.

Everything about the places is very traditional Finnish, though they do have the aid of modern electricity (though still no running water and one still uses a wood-burning stove). The rugs in the houses are all traditional rag rugs--woven out of discarded and worn out clothing torn into strips. All the decor is traditional and has been there forever. As they have added family members, they have built new small buildings around the main houses. They spend much of their time on their summer weekends at these houses doing repairs and building new things (the big project this year is to level the sauna, which has begun to tilt towards the water).

There is a true sense of tradition and family about the group of summer houses and saunas that is unmatched in the US. I am forever grateful that the families were so welcoming of us into their community and traditions.

After our tours of the houses and different kinds of saunas, we went back to Tuukka's family's house for many leftovers from the wedding (the soup was again a favorite). We ate and drank until it was time for sauna (ladies first).

The sauna gets up to over 100 degrees celcius (really freakin hot). The sauna we went in involved a wood-burning stove beneath the rocks on top. You heat the sauna for 3 hours (depending on the type of sauna), then strip and go in. In the sauna, you pour water on the rocks to create humidity and make the body sweat, purging you of all dirt both inside and outside of your body. In the traditional sauna, they also have a bundle of birch branches and leaves that you thwap yourself and each other with to get the circulation flowing even more. They say that in the sauna, without clothes on and subject to grueling heat, everyone is equal.

After a few minutes in the sauna, and a few spoonfulls of water on the rocks, you run down to the lake (very cold at 14 degrees) and jump in. If you were to hit the water without the sauna, it would be unbearably cold; however, with the sauna, the cold feels incredibly refreshing and makes your blood really pump. After a quick dip (before you come to your sense about how freaking cold the water is), you head back to the porch of the sauna to dry off and have a cold (ideally, though most here is warm) beer. Rinse and repeat as desired (up to 5 or so times at the lake).

The feeling you experience after you come out of the lake is ubelievable. It is the single biggest high I have ever experienced. You feel refreshed, clean, and you've completely forgotten about all your worries in the world. The beer feels like ice running through your veins, and the world around you is beautiful. You go from the hottest heat of hell to the cold of the polar icecaps in a matter of seconds, and your body feels as satisfied as if it had just experienced every sensation there is in life.

After we journeyed from sauna to lake and back 3 times, we went back to the house to enjoy homemade Finnish desserts (Finnish pancake with jelly, chocolate cake, lemon cake, and gingerbread and cheeses). After that, I sat motionless in a hanging chair for quite a while, content with everything in life and enjoying the melody of my own thoughts.

After a bit of time, we had some sausages and mustard (very different from Milwaukee style, though) and hit the road. I mentioned it before, but I can't help but repeat how overwhelmed I was at the priorities of the Finns: family, friends, and tradition before all else. In conversation at the wedding, despite not knowing me, few ran out of topics enough to ask me my age or profession. To them, the more important things in who I am are where I'm from and what I like. To me, that's beautiful.

My new goals in life are to emulate those priorities....and own a sauna retreat on a lake.

A real Finnish wedding!

Now comes the fun part. We slept in quite a bit, got an expensive (about €7 apiece) breakfast of coffee or smoothie and croissant at a local starbucks equivalent (though they serve beer and cider, which many were enjoying on a cool Saturday morning), and got ready for the big wedding.

Much like the preparation, the wedding ceremony itself was relatively casual and short by American standards, though it was in a beautiful old church in the very center of the city. The ceremony was similar to a basic American wedding (just enough to be classy without any overkill on religiosity and hymns and prayer and such), though Uuso (guitar) and Rasmus (snare) were kind enough to help play the recessional. The married couple made their getaway in an old green Fiat (similar to a VW Beatle) and the rest of us boarded the busses to the reception.

The reception was at a beautiful old farmstead (though I suppose there was far far more woodland than farmland) about 20 minutes outside downtown (which means way out in the country). We were first invited into a very old, historic wood building to drop off presents, greet the newlyweds and families, and make a traditional toast with sparkling red wine.

Then, at about 3pm, we were ushered into a slightly newer, but similarly designed building about 50m away for dinner. We started with some delicious black root soup with croutons, then moved onto a buffet of pasta salad, potatoes, smoked salmon, and roasted and smoked moose (which Tuukka's father had killed and prepared). I have to admit, I was very surprised to find that I loved smoked moose! After some time and plenty of wine at our tables, we enjoyed some wedding cheesecake and coffee with either Bailey's or cognac. I was seated at a table with Wilma, Uuso, Tuukka's twin cousins (5 weeks older than Tuukka), all their significant others, and Tuukka's French friend JB. They all were very good at translating for me and teaching me what to expect from Finnish weddings: people get very drunk, dance a lot, and become more and more willing and excited to speaking English with you. Man, were they ever right.

We went back and forth between the two houses over the next few hours for various games and traditions (having games is a tradition, though the specific games are up to the bridesmaids). The games included the bride and groom picking out which pile of random objects the other one bought them at a flea market. The traditions included a long speech from the father of the bride, which Tuukka's father decided to follow with his own speech about Tuukka. Oh, and did I mention all activities involved more eating and more drinking?

After some slideshows and mingling and such, the night turned into drinking and dancing in the older house, with music provided by Uuso, Rasmus, and some of their friends. It was fun to watch my parents relive their younger years, cutting a rug to The Beatles and many other favorites from their hayday (perhaps helped by my mom's insistance that it was impossible for her to to get drunk off Finnish beer, and subsequent efforts at it).

After a few drinks, though, I couldn't believe the friendliness of the Finns. Countless people would just come up to me, introduce themselves, and start talking about whatever it is they felt like talking about. I was blown away by the friendliness, and their English abilities! I met a former World Cup skiier, an advertising executive, a former head of the last surviving Finnish shipping company, and a marketing executive for a software company (among many many others). Saaku (Nana's husband) was even so kind to lift me up on his shoulders (beer in hand) so I could get a clear view of the traditional first dance--a Finnish waltz. They were all so happy and amazed that we made the trip all the way from America to Jyväskylä. I was just happy and amazed at their abilities and friendliness!

After the wedding (the busses left at around 1am), dozens of friends I had just made (mostly in their late 20s and 30s) insisted that I come to the club with them. Oh, did I mention it's okay to have open containers in vehicles over here, as long as it's not the driver drinking? Anyway, I sent my parents to bed (though they said they struggled to sleep thinking about what I was getting myself into in this foreign land) and hit the club. Juha (the advertiser) brought me in, bought me a shot and a beer, and gave me the tour of the place (introducing me to as many girls as he could as "coming all the way from America").

The club had four areas (far bigger than any bar I had ever been to): a main bar by the front door, a euro-pop/rock dance club, a "suomi-pop" (Finnish pop) bar area, and a discoteque (with both european and american classics and current pop) upstairs. After the tour, we wound up spending most of our time upstairs, and after a couple more drinks I wowed a few of the fellow wedding-goers with my American white-boy moves (you've never seen a more intense rendition of "YMCA"). Among others, I met the back-up goalie for the Finnish national hockey team (who had just won silver at the World Cup) and a Spanish girl with her upper-gum pierced.

Rasmus (who I hadn't seen much at all, but who is nearly my age) apparently had some drinks and then told a friend (or maybe Uuso) "Okay, now I am ready to use my English." He found me in the upstairs club and we hung out for quite a while. His English was incredible, especially since, as he said, he's never had a chance to use it (except a very little at my brother Jed's wedding). He's a very very cool and nice guy, a drummer in the Finnish army at the moment, and insisted that he show me a real Finnish time (this was after 2:30am). We went back to the front bar area (a little quieter) where he bought me a Jaeggermeister shot and a "long drink" (a delicious sort of grapefruity drink), the combination of which he insisted was most Finnish.

When the club closed at 4am, we went with his bassist to a friend's nearby apartment to hang out more and have a bit of a snack (which I didn't need or want, but Rasmus insisted "you must eat like a Finn!"). We finally left around 4:45, making it back to my hotel around 5am, sun fully shining. I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyable days and nights of my life, even though I couldn't understand 98% of the words I heard throughout the day. The Finns are so friendly people, and strikingly similar to Milwaukeeans (perhaps why Finns that move the US tend to congregate around the Great Lakes).

The anticipation is killing me...

Welcome one and all to my new blog about (at least initially) my post-graduation trip to Finland, Sweeden, and Estonia. I graduated from Davidson College yesterday, and tomorrow (hopefully) I leave for Europe with my parents. We are visiting my mom's former foreign exchange student from her high school years and her family, both for vacation and to attend the youngest daughter's wedding.
As it stands, it is currently about 24 hours before the last check-in time for my flight from Chicago to Stockholm and I am sitting outside a friend's house in Davidson, NC without a passport. Problem? I think so. I had applied 3 months ago (thank you President Bush for increasing security measures but decreasing funding for passport services) and have called many times to help expedite the process and have received promises that they would bump me to the top of the list and overnight it to me, only to call back the next day and find no such thing happened, nor can they give me more information (damn you, Patriot Act).
So it looks like I might have to change my flight to Chicago to tonight, find a place to crash, and get to the passport services office in Chicago at the crack of dawn in the hopes that they will, for whatever fee it takes, process my application and get me a passport in time to catch a train to O'Hare and check in by 3:30. FUN!
If that doesn't work, this blog will promptly shift topics, as I will be sitting on my butt in Milwaukee (as a transfer of international tickets costs as much as we paid for our tickets, not to mention I'd miss the boat from Stockholm to Helsinki and have to purchase another not-cheap ticket).
Let us hope and pray that my passport comes in the mail today or tomorrow, or that the folks at passport services are more helpful in person...