Garden Plot: Sinking our Fingers into the Earth!

We have signed up for a garden plot hosted by the university student committee. A free garden plot--awesome! I have always wanted to participate in a community garden, why not do it in Finland? The coordinator of the student garden plots gave us a few tips: turn the soil, build beds, and buy top soil and garden fabric. Easy, right?!

Top soil transported by bike!

So, we spent a few evenings in the garden, prepping and turning the (clay like) soil, and raising the beds. It is a great way to spend the evenings and who knows we might actually grow some yummy fruits and veggies to satiate our vegan appetite. I have had to educate myself on gardening and what actually grows in a country with a short growing season (June-August) and long days (19 hours of daylight). Our plan is to plant lettuce, spinach, arugula, dill, mint, basil, beans, peas, and lavender. I will keep you posted on our garden adventure.

Birthday Weekend

Wow, what a marvelously awesome birthday weekend (I love adjectives!) Life is gettin' better with age! Charlie's friend, Dave, was visiting us for the weekend. So, Friday night we took him to the local kitschy viking restaurant, Harald's and had ourselves a feast. Saturday was my actual birth-DAY--time for a sauna celebration! We hopped on a train and headed to one of my favorite cities in Finland, Tampere (where I lived in 2007). We ate lunch at my favorite Indian-influenced vegetarian cafe, Gopal, that serves up the BEST lunch buffet. After lunch we made our way back to the train station to catch bus #3 to the Kaupinojan sauna by the lake. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a 15-minute hike through the forest to the sauna. It is always breathtaking when you finally arrive at the lake and see the wooden sauna cottage up on the hill through the Birch trees.

Ah, yeah...sauna time! The sauna was a piping hot 90c (194F), thus a swim in the cool lake water served as a nice break from the heat. This was Dave's first Finnish sauna experience and he took full advantage of it, including a 10 minute stay in the sauna and a swim across the lake (crazy dude!) After 2 1/2 hours at the sauna we bussed back to the city and walked up to the Pyynikki Tower to indulge in the delicious munkkis and a fantastic aerial view of Tampere. Finally, our amazing day came to an end as we dined at my favorite (yes, today was filled with a lot of favorites) bar/cafe Cafe Europa. Back to Jyväskylä.

Sunday was just as fabulous! We started the day with an American breakfast (eggs, potatoes, pancakes, and oh yes...Tropicana orange juice) and headed off for a tour of Jyväskylä by bike. It was such a sunny day--perfect for a ride by the lake (and to show Dave our city). We made a few pit-stops along the way. The big local greenhouse, Viherlandia, sells great flowers, so we picked up a beautiful bouquet of red gerber daisies and a bamboo stock. Of course, we had to have birthday cake! Thus, we stopped at our favorite cafe by the lake. The evening ended with a small gathering of some of our Finnish friends and a Mexican fiesta (how very cultural of us...), complete with GOOD tequila.

A U.S. Visitor Arrives (bearing gifts...)

Charlie's friend, Dave, loves to travel about as much as I do. So, it was really fun hosting him in Finland for a few days. These days, any visitor from our homeland is always asked (very nicely, of course) to pack a few extra items in their suitcase that we simply cannot find in Finland. This time it was Tums, peanut butter (OMG, to die for natural and organic PB), skin astringent, natural vanilla extract, vitamins, and the best taco seasoning from Trader Joe's. (Oh, and I think he had something to do with my birthday gift from Charlie--an amazing, high quality bottle of tequila.) Kiitos, Dave!

Sleepless Nights...no longer!

Who needs sleep when the sun sets at 11 p.m. and it rises at 4 a.m.? We do! The increase in daylight has impacted Charlie's sleep (his brain tells him to get up and start the day at 4 a.m.) So, we decided to go DIY on the window coverings: black plastic trash bags. Yep, we are one classy couple! Who knew that a good night's sleep would only take some ingenuity with trash bags and duct tape? By the way, it was about 10:30 p.m. when we put up the trash bags--yep, still light out.

Neglect & Obsession: A Bipolar Dissertation

Time to walk down the dissertation path.

Ugh, the past few months the ol' ball and chain (not my new husband) of a dissertation (a.k.a. Big D) has taken back seat to a few other high priority items...like getting married, visiting parents, taxes, a research project that I was getting paid for, a trip to Denmark, housecleaning and, and, and... Yes, the list could go on if I let it. I have come to accept the fact that I am neglecting Big D (although I have extreme guilt about this). But, no fear, soon this neglect will turn into pure obsession (hopefully). This process of researching, analyzing, and writing is different for everyone and I am pretty sure that I needed this break before the next big phase: writing my little heart out. I suppose some would say that I am not fully neglecting Big D, because I have been presenting preliminary findings and every presentation I give brings me closer to clarity. Whatever, I am now trying to rationalize this neglect...

One very cool thing that has taken front seat to the dissertation is a project that I was asked to work on with the national higher education evaluation council (FINHEEC). The council is evaluating the international degree programs (English taught bachelors and masters degrees) and I was asked (along with Charlie's cunning statistical help) to analyze the data and write two reports. The work was very interesting and coupled nicely with my dissertation topic, but it was very time-consuming. Good news, though--it is done (turned it in on Monday)!

So, now I have no excuses! I have cleared my summer calendar, except a June trip to Prague and a late July trip to Greece. Watch out, big D is making a come back!

Danish Heaven

Imagine this…we took a train, bus, ferry, another bus, and a car to get to the sweet peninsula village of Mols. Charlie's Danish relatives own a few summer cottages in Mols located right by the sea—this is where we stayed for 2 nights/3 days. HEAVEN! We ate amazing food (salmon, fresh veggies picked from the gardens, homemade bread, and more), met many of his relatives (about 20), were educated about life in this small village, and enjoyed the tranquility of the Danish way of life. We were enamored by all of the relatives, they were so kind and you could feel a true family love that kept them all living in close proximity to one another. We spent a good amount of time with the patriarch of the family, Hans and his lovely wife, Birde (Helle's parents). He is retired and proudly spoke of the Danish social welfare system every chance he got (and joked about how the Americans view them as "communists"). He lives the sweet life as a pensioner; he showed us his garden and greenhouse, discussed the importance of hobbies at his age, and showered us with a lovely wedding gift made by his creative hands in his wood shop. His wife was equally amazing, a knitter and a baker of the most delicious homemade bread. Hans took us on a tour of the Mols countryside which was incredibly beautiful because May is blooming season for one of their crops--Raps (see fields of gold in the video). He pointed out the viking burial chambers that are now protected (random hills in farmland), we stopped for some photos of the Paskær barrow (Denmark's largest and most well-preserved stone circle), and then we climbed Mols Mountain for mountain-top views of the incredible countryside flowing into the sea. On our last day, before bidding farewell to Mols, we stopped at the Kalø castle ruins (circa 1313) for a 15-minute walk up the medieval road leading to the castle. More great views of the countryside!

For me, this trip opened the window to Charlie's roots, but I think this trip was especially amazing for Charlie as he got in touch with his European heritage.

Danish Hail

Nyhavn waterfront

Helle & Lily ready for the Tivoli rides!

Great aerial view of Copenhagen.

On Wednesday, Charlie and I boarded a little puddle-jumper of a plane that flew us to Copenhagen from Jyväskylä (yeah for Estonian Air flights). But, boo for lost luggage! We had a layover in Tallin, Estonia where our luggage got left behind, luckily they delivered it to our apartment at Hotel Nebo on the second day. In Copenhagen, we met up with Charlie's American cousins (Cathy & Kayla) and his Danish cousin (Helle, who we think is Charlie's fourth cousin if we did the relative branch counting correctly). Helle has a sweet little daughter named Lillie and she was very excited to go to Tivoli, the amusement park right in city center. All of us adults decided to join Lillie on the Tivoli adventure. For the most part it was a cloudy day and after a little discussion we (Cathy, Charlie, and I) decided to wait in line to ride the "Vertigo" (what looked like a puking-good ride). Little did we know we were about to have the ride of our life. After approximately 15 minutes in line our turn came. I slipped off my shoes, took off my scarf, and Charlie took off his glasses and we put them safely in the storage compartments to the side of the ride. The safety ride dude strapped us in and the airplane began to spin around in all different directions then it made a huge loop into the sky, before we knew we were upside down. Suddenly the heavens opened up and our ride became a wet ride, no wait...that was not rain that was HAIL.
Ouch! Every time the plane whipped around for another loop we took it in the face--ice cold hard rocks stung our face. The language flying from our mouths would have made a sailor blush. Finally, the plane came to a safe landing, but the hail continued. Where was the safety ride dude when we needed him? We were strapped in with no way to escape the storm. Charlie was screaming his head off for the dude to come get us...all I could do was laugh (was this really happening to us?) Finally, the dude came and undid the safety straps and about one inch of hail covered our laps. Wow...ready for the next ride?

The crew walking through the city center.

Despite the hail-ish ride, we enjoyed our time in Copenhagen. It is such a great city! While the others toured around (Marble Church, Nyhavn, Royal jewels, etc.) I nestled into a cafe and got some work done (yes, work on vacation--the project I was working on had a due date only a few days away). I also had a meeting with a research center in Copenhagen--they wanted to interview me about my PhD project.

Tax Season...ick!

Spring Sunset from our apartment. Good for tax rage!

 

Another life item I have pushed to the back-burner: taxes. In the U.S. taxes were due April 17th. Since I am living abroad the Feds give me an automatic two month extension (lucky me!) So, this past week I decided to tackle my taxes; my free time was spent filling out all of the tax paperwork and reading the tax laws. I calculated the time it took me and I spent a total of 17:23 hours on my taxes. Ridiculous! For Europeans who are reading this...you may be wondering why must you fill out paperwork? Most European tax systems send you forms that are already filled out and you just have to double-check it all. This is not the case in the U.S., everyone must manually fill in the paperwork. For me, I had a lot of paperwork in 2011 because I owned property (with rental income), I had income in the form of grants, foreign income, and State income. Ugh! So, figuring out all of the write-offs took a good amount of time, not to mention how long it took to regain my composure after nearly chucking my computer across the room in pure tax rage (ha ha...funny visual, right--not so funny at the time?!) Luckily, my SuperHusband (a so-to-speak 'retired' accountant) has offered to handle all taxes from here on out...another benefit of marriage.

Now, I can happily go to Denmark on Wednesday without my taxes hanging over my head.

Apply! Finnish Visa Extension

Today was a BIG day for us...we submitted our Finnish residence visa extension applications (that is a mouthful) with the requested non-smiling mug shot photos. When we moved here in August Charlie and I had applied for and received residence permits--my permit expires in August 2012 and Charlie's expires in June 2012. Since we are staying here for another year, we must apply for an extension to our original residence permits. Charlie applied for a normal extension, since he now has a full-time work contract (his initial contract was part-time). I, on the other hand, applied for a "family ties" extension, since I have no work contract, no grant, etc. The success of my application rides on three things: 1.) our marriage license, 2.) Charlie's full-time work contract, and 3.) my affiliation with the Finnish Institute of Educational Research (FIER)--where I currently do my research.

Our "mug shots" for the extension...we look like criminals!

The process was painless, although time consuming. We filled out about 30 pages of application questions which included some very funny questions. For example, "When did you begin to see/date each other and how did this happen?" Ha ha...do they really want to know the details of this story? After sharing our entertaining relationship story, we then scheduled a time to meet with the visa dudes through their on-line system.
We arrived at 9 a.m. for our 9:15 a.m. meeting and a young Finnish dude with capri jeans, spiky hair, and a "New Orleans Music Festival" jacket called our names. He went through Charlie's application first--making sure every question was answered and every form was attached, then came my application. All seemed to be in order. Then, came the FUN part--biometric fingerprinting. We had to give eight electronic fingerprints (all fingers except our pinky). The computer kept saying that there was an error when I would press my finger onto the electronic devise, then the visa dude said, "Your fingers are too dry." So, with a mischievous smile on my face, I wiped my finger on Charlie's head...and his natural oils was just what my fingerprint needed to register. After one hour, the dude explained that the police would investigate and then we would receive results in four weeks. Fingers crossed!

Ah, Gifts from the U.S.

There are a few items that Charlie and I really miss that you cannot buy in Finland. So, when my parents booked their flight for our wedding it was time to send them a "wish list". Lucky us! My parents gifted us with chia seeds, nasal decongestant (because you have to get a prescription for this medicine in Finland), chocolate chips, almond butter, and my dad surprised Charlie with a local Colorado brew: Dale's Pale Ale. Also, one of our carry-on rollers (luggage) was about to die (squeaky wheels, torn fabric, etc.), so we bought a nice new roller on-line. I found a screamin' deal on-line for a Sherpani roller--more than 60% off. That is the nice thing about shopping in the U.S., if you shop around you really can find some good deals on-line.  Ah yeah, now it is time to bake chocolate chip cookies, drink beer, and go traveling. Thanks, mom & dad--you are the best!

May Day in Finland: Vappu!

Vappu in Finland is a big spring celebration commemorating May Day on May 1. But, (in true Finnish style) the celebration does not only take place on May 1, a lot of the partying occurs on vappuatto (eve) April 30. We invited our Finnish mate, Ilkka, to our house on vappuatto and he made a huge batch of homemade munkkis (the Finnish doughnut): flour, yeast, sugar, cardamon, fried them up and dusted them in sugar. He made about two dozen munkkis for the five of us to gorge ourselves on...and that is exactly what happened. I think I ate four munkkis that afternoon (OMG, ass growing as I type this...) But, they were delicious! Then, we made our way to the Minna Canth statue in the central park where the university students "hatted" Minna at 6 p.m. with the typical white graduation hat.

The "Hatting" of Minna Canth.

That night (some) people dressed up in costumes and partied like rock-stars. Lots of drinking was had by all. The next day we joined the Greek contingency for a picnic at Harju, the place to be! There was a live band and tons of people with amazing picnic spreads. We devoured Greek dishes and spoke English amidst a sea of white graduation hats and the sing-songy sounds of the Finnish language.