Blogs from Jyväskylä, Central Finland, Finland, Europe - page 2

Day three and four Saturday and Sunday July 23rd and 24th, 2011 near Jyvaskyla Family gathering. Almost all of my Mother’s 11 Sisters and Brothers, Their spouses and some of my cousins arrived for lunch. They made me feel very welcome and it was a beautiful if very noisy gathering. The sun was shining, the weather warm and food plentiful and good. I was able to meet and talk with all of the family who arrived, and everyone invited me to visit. It’s something we will attempt to do in the next week. There’s a lot of coffee drinking in my future – I can tell. Sunday . A day to rest. The morning came, drizzly and cool, Only two laps of the lake before running to the cabin for warmth. The waking times are getting ... read more

Like I already told you before, I'm currently staying now in Finland and no big and magnificent trips are in sight. However, since I found this blogging thing pretty relaxing in Asia and I'm taking the photos anyway I don't see any reason why I couldn't post some of them here every now and then. Another thing is who even wants to see photos from "cold and boring" Finland - the land of polar bears and icebergs..? But I guess that's the thing I may can have an effect in the long term, or maybe I'm too optimistic. I just wanted to show you some quite nice winter pictures of last weekend in Kynsivesi's Pirttijärvi (Lake Pirttijärvi). My boyfriend's parents have a beautiful summer cottage there ( see the joke here ;), which is a really ... read more

If you live a country like Finland, there is almost no option do you appreciate spring or not. Except those who suffer from allergies almost all the finns are great fans of spring and many things related to that. The Sun is finally shining and I could not be more happy about that. Especially after my time in Singapore spring feels great, it's like I'm getting my energy back. Growing flowers and grass, Eastern, birds, refheshing rain, umbrellas and the smell on spring inspires me the most. Although I don't draw and paint anymore (...) all the colors of spring kind of wake me up again. Onw thing I also like is the high heels and what would be more better reason to find my old loves again (and buy some new ones as well) than ... read more

After work I hopped in the hotrod, aka Prius, with Sami and Emil (work friends) and headed to Jyväskylä. It's not the most exciting destination in Finland, and really not all that much different from Tampere, but it's something new. I'm starting my venturing out n' about in Finland with baby steps. We rolled into Jyväskylä, dumped our stuff at the hotel, grabbed a tourist map and proceded to wander about town. After a good walk around town, seeing some amazing lakeside views and being jealous of the homeowners there, we started scouting out a place for dinner. Since Jyväskylä is a bit smaller than Tampere, and none of us were familiar with the town, we stuck to what seemed to be the main drag. This was mostly bars, so we ended up at the restaurant ... read more

Hey; On a sky blue clear Sunday morning I stood on a wooden dock with a bright sun shining down on the still water of “Oh my God it’s cold” lake just outside of Jyvaskyla. I know it’s cold because last night, along with most of our team, I leaped into the frigid depths, without hesitation, to cool down from the sauna. It’s a Finnish tradition, but I don’t think it’s going to catch on in America. Too much shrinkage. I felt like George in a classic Seinfeld episode. After a Saturday double practice session we had a team ‘boys’ night out in a church camp, not unlike those you see in central Oregon. In fact with the abundance of pine trees it could have been somewhere outside Prineville, maybe on lake Paulina. The camp was ... read more