Welcome to Tampere!

Tonight, we had a welcoming party (see photos), hosted by our faculty, and they had a lovely spread of typical Finnish food: mouth-watering Salmon, reindeer (yes, like Rudolph) rolls, fruit/veggies, karelian pasteries (rice/pastry), green salad, and these bread-like cold balls (hard to describe but tasty!) in addition to some tasty wine from the great Australian region.

Classes started yesterday and all 17 of us Erasmus Mundus scholars have reunited. It's nice to come back together, reconnect after the holidays and compare lost luggage war stories. We are a smaller class than in Oslo and I would expect that this will make for a more intimate class setting as well as a more close-knit experience (with a few dysfunctions...like any close family). We have the next 2 weeks off because our professors are traveling to China to consult...no classes...that is how they roll in Finland. So, I'm headed to Brussels, Belgium for the 20th year celebration of the Erasmus scholarship program.

Finland, land of the sunshine, er...I mean snow?!

Ok, I finally got my internet up and running after 6 days of paperwork and running around. Seriously, you begin to enjoy the joys of mobility after realizing you have no control over the process. Here are a few of my first impressions and travel war stories...here ya go!

1.) As you are studying the map in the central district, the Finns will actually stop and help you. The Finns are smiley little creatures, eager to help out. They may even do a back flip for you!

2.) The international student culture here is much more organized than Oslo. They have an e-mail list that highlights all of the happenings. Last night we went to our first "social" event and there were over 500 students there international and Finnish.

3.) The central area is bustling with people, stores, cafes and renovated industrial buildings. It has a uniqueness to it that I can't really describe...kind of like the Dickensian quaint industrial vibe.

4.) Ahhhh, the joys of a city that is actually affordable! Oslo is more expensive than Tampere and the proof is the alcohol. I ordered a vodka/OJ last night and it only cost $4 US. What a bargain!

5.) The Finns really LOVE their snow and there is NO snow. Normally at this time of year there is enough snow to nordic ski and it's just not happening yet. So, today the Finns were out with their walking sticks and training for the fast walk world championships, not to be confused with the cell phone throwing contest here in Finland.

6.) Sending 8 boxes from Oslo to Tampere is a red flag for customs, they searched our boxes (see photo) and all they found were drugs for Martha Stewart, enough domestic items to get her high.

7.) As I was waiting to talk with a lost luggage customer representative (yep, lost my luggage), I saw that a store was selling reindeer fur (totally normal for Finland!)

Happy NEW YEAR!

Wow, what a year it was...resigned my job, sold my x-terra, loaned my tempermental cat to a friend (she has since gone through behavior modification and is no longer hissing...my cat, not my friend), rented my townhome, packed my bags and headed to Europe. Discovered that I don't like fish pudding but I do like Dijionaisse. Discovered that I LOVE run-on sentences. Discovered that my little toe that was broken last year will always be my little limp toe. Discovered that there is a sport called, "Extreme Ironing" (check it out!) Discovered that it snows more in Colorado than it does in Scandanavia. Isn't Finland & Norway closer to Santa (North Pole)? Discovered that my sister is also a "lifelong learner". (Woot, Woot JULES!!) Discovered that 3 weeks just isn't enough time to see all of my friends and eat all of my mom's Christmas cookies.

New Year's Eve was spent skiing with the normal suspects... in the evening we snowshoed up to a little hut near Breckenridge in the grand Colorado Rocky Mountains to pop a bottle of champagne. See photo!

Frosty the Snowman!

This year, since we had an abundance of snow, my little kid brother & I decided to revert back to our childhood years and build a massive FROSTY! After 3 hours of snow packing, rolling and a few snowball fights, we had ourselves Frosty the "Big DUDE". He stood tall at 7 ft. and was quite the crowd-stopper with his bug-like aluminum can eyeballs. One of Bobby's childhood friends drove by and yelled, "Aren't you too old for that?" That was when we realized we were the envy of the neighborhood kids & adults...!

Christmas, Weimer-Style!

After 3 days of true cabin fever with the parents, we shoveled our way out of the blizzard and I was out of their hair. Time to shop and get lost in the hustle & bustle of the commercialized American Christmas. Here are a few fun photos of the Weimer's Christmas Vacation...not to be confused with the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, even though there was a fair share of wacky family dynamics. Someone in the Weimer family needs to have babies soon...the adults are having too much fun opening white elephant gifts (re-gifting something that is useless and otherwise repulsive) and waking up early to see if Santa ate the cookies.

More Blizzard FUN!!

We officially had 28.5 inches...this was a measurement yesterday.

Snowshoed to the grocery store!

Mom, shoveling!

Colorado Blizzard of 2006!

WOOHOO! I could not be happier right now, it is
snowing like crazy and windy as ever. When I woke at 8 a.m. it was already snowing and it has been blizzard conditions all day long. We are expecting about 24 inches of snow...my Euro friends, that translates to 61 centimeters. My father and I have been shoveling, making snow videos and snowshoeing. I think we are going to have a white Christmas afterall

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Colorado Rocky Mountain High!

I arrived back in SUNNY Colorado Monday, December 11 with my smiley sister jumping up and down at the airport. Headed up to Breckenridge for some sick early-season tele-skiing, alpine skiing & nordic skiing with Mark & Karen. The snow conditions are amazing!! Did some girl-power, booty dances for the snow gods at Keystone with my girls'; Dr. Lizard & Ann Sully (see photo).

I think the dancin' worked...we've got a blizzard in full effect right now. WOOHOO!!








Photos: (LEFT) You can take the girl out of Norway, but you can't take the Norway out of the girl!
Leasa donning the Norwegian National team jacket before a nordic ski. (UPPER RIGHT) Marky-Mark waxing some ski's. (LOWER RIGHT) Mark & K-dog with some Norweigan gifts.

Trondheim & Lillehammer!

Trondheim is a quaint town up north, with many canals, bridges, and steep streets reminiscent of San Francisco with a pinch of a metropolitan feel. The Nidaros cathedral, dating back to 1300, truly feels like a real European cathedral...with ornate details, spires, and splendour. My favorite was the 'old town', old colorful wooden houses along the canal and narrow streets and alleys dating back to the Middle Ages. The architecture in old town gives you the distinct feel that you must be in Scandinavia. Love that!



Lillehammer...cute, tiny & NO snow. I may be a little biased but Lillehammer has NOTHING on Breckenridge, Vail, even Keystone. I was expecting delicious ski mountains when all I got was some rain and forested hills. No skiing, bummer! The 1994 Olympics were hosted in Lillihammer. I only stayed here for a quick 3 hours and that was enough to see everything...including the Olympic park. The one thing I enjoyed about Lillehammer was the feel of small ski town community, they haven't sold their souls to big corporate conglomerates.

A whirlwind tour of NORWAY!

Hopped on the boat at 10 p.m. for a 10:30 p.m. departure through the fjords and had a tiny little cabin (quite cozy)! 2 nights on the boat and about 1 full day, then I disembark in Trondheim. So, the boat was nice...a bar, a lounge, a cafe and it sleeps about 70 passengers. However, I was the youngest and the only one who spoke conversational english. Low season on the fjord can be very dark! The sun sets at 3 p.m. and the sun rises at about 9:30 a.m.--therefore, bringing a book along is crucial or you can choose to entertain yourself by trying to dance in your tiny cabin. The second day on the boat, we ported in Alesund, for 3 hours. Alesund is a cute little town, known for the Art Nouveau architecture, and the best part was the snow capped mountains on the horizon. I hiked up to the overlook, walked around and found a cute little cafe for lunch and watched the sunset. Then, it was back on the boat for some more tiny cabin dancing. Woohoo! Arrive in Trondheim at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

My favorite Norwegian city!

Here I am in Bergen, Norway. I truly love it here...even with the rain and the wind (it was so windy...it tore apart my umbrella). Couple a scenic port with a mountain backdrop (seven hills) and you get the second largest, yet quaintest, city in Norway. There are just a few things that make this my favorite and special Norwegian city...the colorful architecture, the hostel, the euro cafe culture (Godt Brod-my favorite!) and the norwegian feel. Bryggen, the old city from the 11th century, is on UNESCO's world heritage list and you never get tired of winding around and taking photos of the colorful, preserved wooden buildings. I walked the entire city, without an umbrella, and discovered the area by the University which is so cute...little cafe's, a beautiful church, (JohannesKirken) and narrow cobble stone streets surrounded by the bright clapboard houses. Bergen is the gateway to the fjords and tonight I hop on the hurtigruten and head out into the fjords...I won't see much of the fjord tonight but I will see a good deal of my paper that is due December 8. Woohoo...this IS my life!! Pinch me...

A party I won't forget!!

My dear friends in Colorado, Mark & Karen (a.k.a. Marky-Mark & K-Dog) hosted Gunn-Rita Dahle, a Norwegian mountain-biker, in their Boulder home a few summers ago. This past summer, before heading to Norge country, I was fortunate enough to meet Gunn-Rita and her husband, Kenneth, in Breckenridge and they told me to hold the date...December 1 for a party in Oslo. Cool! They invited to the Stians Sport 30th year anniversary Christmas celebration. First of all, Gunn-Rita isn't just a mountain biker, she is the goddess of Norwegian mountain biking! Stians Sport is one of her sponsors and they have billboards of her all over the place (see photos). She has a women's bike with her signature on it and her face is even on the packaging for yoga mats and fitness balls. She has won many 1st place world cup races...see the Merida Bikes website to see her stats. The best part, she is incredibly genuine and her husband is a kick.

Second, the Norwegians know how to party-Norwegian girls singing 80's rock music (all english), the endless glass of wine, freestyle bike tricks, and the traditional Norwegian Christmas (jul) food--pigskin!