Another perfect Finnish moment.   We were leaving the apartment building of friends in Jyväskylä where we had just had dinner.  It's 10:30 PM and two guys in their 20s are standing outside taking a smoke break.  It's 3.4 C (about 38 degrees F) and they are dressed only in towels around their waists- obviously getting ready to go back to the sauna.    Hyväa yotä

CATCHING UP

Me presenting at the Berlin Fulbright Seminar in mid March

It's been a long time since I have posted.  Spending my time living and not writing about it is my excuse.  Just three months left in our adventure here - at least for now - I am already planning a short return in November.   It is April 6 and the sun came up at 6:36 and will go down this evening at 8:30PM  a big change from just two months ago. 

I haven't figured out exactly how, but the Nordic character must be shaped by these dramatic swings in light and temperature.  I know that I have had to shift perspectives and come out of my winter "we can endure the darkness" to the Spring " Wow, it's still light outside!"  pretty quickly.   We just took a long walk along the river and there were people everywhere just out enjoying the evening.  Most department, grocery and all liquor stores, banks and government offices were closed today for Good Friday, but the restaurants seem to be doing a great business!

Random things that come to mind to write about that will be the content of this and upcoming posts:
Swede Casserole
Finnish bathrooms
Last day of high school for 12 graders
Trips to Belgium, Luxembourg, Berlin
Avanto (winter swimming)

Let's begin with Sauna Directions

Think of the last time that you tried to follow the directions that came with a "put it together yourself product."

Now read the following and you will surely want to have all directions written by Finns.

Operating Instructions for Sauna  found in the very complete instruction manual for appliances that came with a friend’s apartment. 

1.3.2  Pre-setting Time (timed switch-on)

Turn the time switch to the “pre-setting” section (section B in figure 2, 0-8 hours)  The heater starts heating when the timer has turned the switch back to the “on” section.  After this, the heater will be on for about four hours

Example:  You want to go walking for three hours and have a sauna bath after that.  Turn the time switch to the “pre-setting” section at number 2.  The timer starts.  After two hours, the heater starts heating.  Because it takes about one hour for the sauna to be heated, it will be ready for bathing after about three hours, that is, when you come back from your walk

1.5  Instructions for Bathing

·      Begin by washing yourself

·      Stay in the sauna for as long as you feel comfortable.

·      Forget all your troubles and relax.

·      According to established sauna conventions you must not disturb other bathers by speaking in a loud voice.

·      Do not force other bathers from the sauna by throwing excessive amounts of water on the stones.

·      Cool your skin down as necessary.  If you are in good health, you can have a swim if a swimming place or pool is available.

Reflections on Work over the past couple months

It's been weeks since I have had time to update the blog.  Life moves quickly between work and travel.  We are trying to take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way.  Sometimes that means exhaustion kicks in and mindless endeavors take over just to give myself a mental break.
This entry is more about work, the next will be about travel.

The biggest change is the light.  Sun rise at 8:23 and sunset at 4:06 today.  And five weeks still to go until the solstice.  It still hasn't snowed, it's been the warmest fall in 50 years, much to the concern of the locals.  It is mainly in the low 40s right now, though it got down to freezing one night this week.  Cool fall weather has always been my favorite, so I am pretty happy even with the cloudiness and damp.  There were a couple of spectacular sunsets this week after clear sunny days.  Today was a little drizzly - just walking through low clouds, I guess - a very Rochester feeling.  Pictures below were taken a few weeks ago.

Fall at the Market Square

I am still mostly at the teacher training school, but I have begun working with people from the City of Turku in their program to meet the needs of immigrant students.  It has allowed me to observe in different settings, and get a feel for schools in different parts of the city.  I met with a kind of steering committee that with representatives from different areas of education - the newcomer classes, Finnish as a second language teachers in Basic Education, "sheltered" content class teachers and mother tongue support personnel.  Finally I am getting a sense of how all the parts fit together.  I also see that the work I have done in the States is more relevant than I had initially anticipated.  People have responded really positively to the frameworks I am suggesting.   Below are 3 pictures of where I work.  My office is in the former janitor's apartment - the picture of the sauna didn't come out, but it's just to the left of the kitchen.   I am really very lucky and so well taken care of.

My office at Norssi

Meeting area just outside my office

My own little kitchen

The pictures show the campus and how my office is situated within it.

Earlier in the fall, entrance way to the office

Outside my office  Gate on the left

Main building of Norssi - Teacher Training School

Another view of Norssi

Norssi again

I had a lot of fun visiting some newcomer classes for elementary students. New immigrants receive a year of Finnish instruction (with a little bit of math and science and home language support). 

It is just amazing to be in a place where the dynamics of multilingualism are so different from at home.  The interplay among Finnish, Swedish, English and the dozens of mother tongues of students in Turku is fascinating and complicated.  For example, English is held in much higher esteem than Swedish by most young people , though Swedish is one of the official languages.  Many immigrant students and their families arrive here knowing some English and use it to communicate far more quickly than through Finnish. There is a route to citizenship through Swedish, which apparently some people prefer since acquiring Swedish is viewed as far easier.  The university has 12 International Masters programs where all the instruction is in English in a variety of fields that are attended by students from all over the world. (My Multicultural Education class is part of one of these programs in the Faculty of Education)

When I visited a different school, two 7th grade boys came up to talk to me on the playground during recess.  One was partly Swedish, partly Finnish, partly American, the other Somali.  They were really curious about who I was and what I was doing there.  These kinds of interchanges are always enlightening.  The one boy told me that efforts to improve a school with lots of linguistic and cultural diversity were bound to fail because the kids were so crazy. The other wondered if I wasn't a little too old to be working as a teacher (must be the gray hair).  Both were anxious that I return and keep on trying.

At Norssi and TIS, I have also been able to get a clearer idea of the rhythms of the schools (which university students come which semester, how the students from the different strands interact (or don't) and how the many complicated parts fit together.  My colleagues and I are trying lots of different ways to get people talking about and thinking about how to create an even stronger multicultural school.  We had a movie night on Thursday and watched "Crash" together.   I know the movie has some flaws but it stimulated a great discussion with calls to repeat the event and get even more people there.

The clear message that comes from all the different constituents that I have met with is the need for a common vision and greater unity among all the different parts.  Easy to articulate, the challenge will be to find ways to make it happen.

My university class ends December 1st.  I will teach a different version of it towards the end of Spring semester to a cohort of current teachers working on a kind of advanced certificate (like an endorsement program, but not official in the system).  It has been a great learning experience - having to put together a course I hadn't taught in a long time, and also interacting with students from so many places with such varied preparations and expectations.  They are helping me to collect data by carrying out observations and interviews following a fairly basic protocol to get a sense of the degree of "culturally responsive" teaching that is going on and teachers' perspectives on the school and it's opportunities and challenges.

I have also been attending different seminars on areas of expertise related to what I've always been doing, but providing me with new perspectives.  I presented at a Symposium sponsored by the Ministry of Education and GENE, the Global Education Network of Europe.  There were people from all over Europe in attendance and it really struck me how important it is to make the connection between sustainability (saving the planet), intercultural competence and global education (viewed as much more linked to development policies than what we typically think of in the U.S.)  Before I had been thinking of sustainability as environmentally related alone, separate from my work in education.  As I move forward I think it is important to make the links.  I am toying with the idea of Education for Global Sustainability.    Just playing with the words to make the connections.

Yesterday there was a seminar on Intercultural Communication in Finnish higher education, where a couple of the same people were in attendance.   I am pondering the meaning of Post Colonial Theory in Education.   I can't think of another time since I wrote my dissertation that I have been so immersed in ideas and theory - it is both exciting and confirming that my feet are firmly planted in practice and making the connections between the two.  I will present at a similar event in May, we'll see how it goes.

So that gives a little idea of work life.  Next entry   our trip to St. Petersburg a couple of weeks ago.

The Neighborhood Near Our First Apartment (mostly)

Aura River near the harbor

Yard in the Port Arthur neighborhood

Port Arthur neighborhood "Portsa"

Portsa

Hops on a fence

View from the balcony of our first apartment

Living room with view to kitchen - first apartment

Portsa

Flea market across from the apartment

Corner grocery

Greenery along the river

Strolling along the river

Turku Castle

Near the Castle

Billboard on campus

Turku Castle

WE WENT SAILING!!!

 There are many stories to share, but the pictures tell a lot.   We spent three days sailing on the archipelago this past weekend with the principal of the school where I am working.  He has been sailing since he was a boy and knows so much about the history, nature, landscape and peoples of the archipelago that it was much much more than a boat ride.  It was an immersion into an aspect of Finnish life and culture that we never would have had otherwise.  It was a special treat - and the first time sailing for both Ken and I.  And for those of you who know me well - also the first time I didn't get seasick on a boat.  Though I have to admit that the room is still rocking a bit. 

These first two pictures are from the marina where Vesa's boat is docked about 30 kilometres from Turku.

We stopped at this small island on the first day to buy smoked whitefish that we had for lunch.  There was just a small fisherman's shack and the Swedish speaking fisherman who had caught the fish that morning.

Leaving the "yacht club" where we spent the first night.  The small island has room for about 20 boats, some outhouses and of course a sauna.  It is part of the sailing life (and Finnish life) to partake in sauna as often as possible.  It was the real deal - wood burning stove, tank for boiling hot water for "showers" using pails, and dips into the Baltic Sea to cool off. The woman waving on the dock had gone mushroom gathering the day before, so we had chanterelles with dinner.  Mmmmm!

Managed not to fall in the water even once! 

View of the archipelago - there are literally 10s of 1000s of these islands, some quite big, others tiny, all beautiful.  As Vesa pointed out the vegetation and shape of the islands changes from the inner to the outer archipelago.  He organized the route so that we would experience both.

 A view from the stern.  This formation of the sails is call "the bible" an open book. 

 Typical of the scenery in and around the inhabited islands.  Note that nearly every building in the county side is painted red or yellow. Both paints are made from clay in the soil and are gaining renewed interest as an ecologically friendly alternative to modern paints.

 Part of the adventure of sailing is the hiking and exploring on the islands when you dock.

 This was an amazingly lovely and delicious restaurant tucked away on one of the islands.  Crowded on a splendid fall day - fish soup, salad and yummy berry cake for lunch and the coolest outhouse I have ever seen - two stories tall.  Again the archipelago is a large part of Swedish speaking Finland - thus the cafe's name. (Father's mother)

 Docked at the "yacht club"  soon off to sauna.

Amazingly, Vesa let us steer! All you sailors already know the incredible sense of exhilaration and calm that comes from silently making your way through the waters.  We experienced high winds and no winds through the course of the trip.

 

And I made a friend.  There were sheep grazing on both of the inhabited islands that we visited.

Passing by an inhabited island

Departure from the guest harbor on the island Helsinghom where we stayed the second night and then back home on a glorious sunny Sunday afternoon.  Vesa took down the sails as the sailing season is at an end, so we'll have to wait til next year to try once more (if he is so generous to invite us again).  Spring sailing is slightly different because of the temperature of the water and the look of the islands not yet fully vegetated - but there are wildflowers.

Some Photos of Lapland

More on our trip to Lapland later, for now here are a few choice pictures from our whirlwind trip last weekend.