Blogs from Joensuu, North Karelia, Finland, Europe

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Europe » Finland » North Karelia » Joensuu May 26th 2017

Before I left for Finland, I attended the Plumville Fire hall's Firemen’s breakfast. Plumville is the very, very small town (pop. 307 according to the 2010 census) where I grew up. Considering that the Stenman clan make up over 10% of the population there (kidding, sort of), my family is known by everyone in the community, and the fire halls really double as social halls. My dad grew up with 8 siblings and mostly everyone and their children still live within two adjacent counties, sprinkled in small towns across Western Pennsylvania. My grandfather was a farmer, and so were his parents, and his mother’s Swedish and Finnish immigrant parents were farmers too, so having such a large brood really came in handy to ensure all the work got done. Now, I mention Plumville and the Firemen's’ ... read more
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Europe » Finland » North Karelia » Joensuu May 20th 2017

...And that day is here! There is so much to report since I arrived at my first host family's farm, called Pikkunuppu, or little flower bud, exactly one week ago. The TL;DR version is that I feel like I am living in a fairy tale, having been humbled by the picturesque land, fields and idyllic Finnish style structures scattered on the property (particularly the sauna). When I arrived, Pjotr, who has ran the farm since the 1980's, and Niina, jumping in to help run the operation in 2010, gave me a tour of the grounds. They live very simply and in tandem with the gifts from the land (this was all a bit worrisome to me when they showed the cellar and I only remembered seeing were root vegetables--potatoes, beets, parsnip, carrots--and wondering what I was ... read more
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Europe » Finland » North Karelia » Joensuu September 4th 2008

Hello everyone! It seems like everyone has some sort of "year abroad" blog, so I figured that I should get one as well. As you most likely already know, I arrived in Finland last Thursday on the 28th of August. I flew from Berlin to Helsinki via AirBerlin (which I would highly recommend for flights to Finland) and spent the evening at a Finnish friend's house in Helsinki. I got to see a little bit of the city such as the Tuomiokirkko (the national Cathedral), Finlandia Hall and the Baltic Sea, but I am planning on going back to spend more time sightseeing at some point. Friday morning I took the train to Joensuu, where I have been since. Joensuu is about the size of Bloomington and is known as being a "University Town". It is ... read more




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