Working for my money

I am still alive. Perhaps it's the increasingly depressing weather or the intensification of the study schedule, but it has been far too long between posts. So how can I possibly sum up what has happened since September? Well I don't know where to start, but I will start with today I suppose as today is far fresher in my memory than yesterday or the days before.

Today I had my final exam for the first course in my masters program, which consisted of three units. Norwegian higher education is rather different to Australia or North America, as units are completed sequentially rather than concurrently (ie. no final exam period with 4 different exams). The other major difference between Norway and any other country I have experience in, is that my final exam is an oral exam, which is the only graded piece of assessment I have been required to complete thus far. In other words, everything that I have supposed to learn over the past 2-3 months was examined today in a 45 minute interview with two professors/lecturers.

I got a "B". That's okay. Apparently a B is a good grade in Norway, or so it was explained to me. How they came up with the B is far less clear and I can certainly offer no clear explanation of how my interview was somehow better or worse than someone who got an A or C or whatever. In fact I doubt anyone could possibly explain this, as students are asked different questions in their oral exam by different pairs of examiners, at different times during this week. Still, a B must be a good grade as they grade us to a curve where C is the average. I guess the people with their exams later in the week will be hoping that not all the good grades were given out today, as theoretically for every B student there must be a D student (in order to maintain the C average over the class). Still, maybe he whole C average thing is just a big lie to make us feel better about getting a B, this certainly would not surprise me.

As usual I have spent my spare time with Katri in Lund, which as always has been wonderful. Above are a couple of photos which show how the autumn has arrived and the greeny parks of Lund and the watery lakes of Norway, with the trees turning all sorts of strange yellow and red colours. It sounds not so amazing, but given how Perth’s natural vegetation is evergreen, the changing of seasons is a bit of a novelty for me. The third photo above is of a small town near Lund where Katri and I cycled to, obviously the cobblestones don't change during autumn but I added it above because I like the look of the little town (I can't remember it's name though).

Earlier this month I also went to Brussels to attend an Erasmus Mundus Student and Alumni Association conference. It was about the European Commission’s program of funding Erasmus Mundus masters programs, such as mine and 70 or so others throughout Europe. There were a whole lot of representatives from other courses there and it was a great opportunity for me to be at my most extroverted best and to socialise (at the European tax payers’ expense). All the news from the Commission was good and it seems that funding for foreigners like me will continue. I’ve actually offered to play a more active role within the association as it is important for the Commission to receive feedback from the students. There may also be inspiration for a thesis topic in there too!

I didn't get any photos of Brussels as I flew in one day and was out the next, and literally saw no more than the conference building, a restaurant and the hotel. I will be going back to Brussels in November with the whole of my class from Oslo, so I should have a better chance to get some photos of it then, before I pack my stuff and move to Finland in December. As you can tell, my travel schedule is intense, maybe too intense as it's hard for me to ever feel like I am "home" as I always seem to be packing (or thinking of packing) for my next trip. It's like going from one extreme in Perth where there is no where to travel to within a 3 hour flight, to the other extreme in Europe where a one hour flight is quite normal.

With all the travel, I really haven't felt like I have been living in Oslo, and to be honest, until lately I have not cared. Oslo is terribly expensive (I paid 72 Norwegian kroner or $15 for a beer yesterday), there are no ATMs within about 4 kilometres of my residence, Mastercard is not accepted at supermarkets and for the past week we have had to boil our water for 3 mins to kill parasites in the drinking water. Crazy!

But what I have discovered over the past week is that Oslo is actually a beautiful city, if you can afford to live outside the grey apartment blocks. The above photos contrast the view that I get from my window, to the view from a suburban house in a typical street about 500 meters down the road. Somehow I think these houses are a little out of my price range, even on the generous student scholarship the Commission is giving me. Still, the charm of Oslo is growing on me and it is sad to think that I am well past the halfway point in my time here. Everything is so clean and organised in Oslo, and everyone abides by road rules. Even the pedestrian birds!

Trainspotting in Scandinavia

If there was any doubt about my dual commitment to my masters program and seeing my girlfriend, it surely would have been resolved over the past two weeks. This is my third consecutive weekend I have spent in Lund, but I have by no means missed classes in Oslo. Through a combination of trains, boats and planes, I have travelled to and from Oslo to Lund 3 times in 16 days, on one occasion returning to Oslo for a solitary seminar. It may sound like a whole lot of travel (and it certainly is), but what else am I going to do with all my spare time as a professional student?

They say that you should treat university like a job, but I can assure you that if I was to treat this course as I would my previous employment, I would have used up my sick days by now. To keep things in perspective, I have to remind myself that I am getting paid to do this course, so I do feel obligated to turn up to my classes, even if it means all this travel. Overall, the university course is only a minor inconvenience for my European holiday, it’s mostly 3-4 days a week with a week off to study, write assignments or travel every couple of weeks or so. The added bonus is that I am required to submit my assignments online, meaning I don’t have to be in Oslo to hand in my work. Also, all this time on the train has meant that, for the first time in my life, I am actually well ahead of the required readings for my uni course.

My 8 hour journey from Oslo to Lund proceeds with a 20 min ride on the Oslo subway (pictured above), which is the most expensive public transport I have ever experienced, at 22 Norwegian kronor ($4.60 Australian) per ticket. Judging by the age and dirtiness of the subway cart, it is clear that the ticket revenue is not reinvested into the subway infrastructure. I then catch two trains (pictured below) between Oslo and Gothenburg (the red train on the left, a comfortable 4 hour journey), and from Gothenburg to Lund (the grey one on the right, a less comfortable 3 hour ride).

On my previous trip to Lund I stopped in Helsingborg for some duty free alcohol. My rail pass allows free travel on the Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish transport networks, and by stopping in Helsingborg (Sweden) and boarding a boat for a round trip to Helsingor (Denmark), I was able to buy some super-cheap alcohol on my way to Lund. Scandlines operate the boats between the two very close harbours (see the pic below) and legitimately claim to be Europe's most frequent ferry line, as they are literally a floating dutyfree shop. By comparison, 24 of the cheapest beer in Oslo would cost around 270 Norwegian kronor ($55 AUD), on the boat in Helsingborg, it costs 150 Swedish Kronor ($25 AUD). Throw a bottle of gin into the equation (which I have no idea how much it costs in Norway as they only sell liquor in government bottleshops I have never seen) and you can imagine that I have plenty of friends around the student residence when I return from Sweden.

While in Lund I have also been able to party with the Finnish community and again enjoy one of my favourite new foods, the Karelian pie. Katri's friend Rami, baked a whole lot of these savoury pastries, which I was only too keen to indulge in as they are difficult to find in Oslo. Below is a pic of me with my uniquely Finnish food and wearing my uniquely Finnish Marimekko shirt, not a Collingwood FC shirt, though given the Docker's 2007 season I may be ready to switch teams again!

Norwegian bureaucracy has yet again dominated my time in Oslo. Last week I had to wait in a 3 hour queue for a passport sticker, which I previously waited 4 hours for on a day when their computers were down. This time I arrived at 7:45AM, half an hour before the immigration office opened, only to be number 98 in the queue.

However despite all the travel and bureaucracy, I’ve actually never been happier at university than I am right now. I'm studying something that I am genuinely interested in, getting paid to travel to different countries and truly enjoying living in the moment. Maybe I can not expect to continue living this lifestyle for ever, but then again, maybe not. Apparently the European Commission are thinking of funding Erasmus Mundus programmes at the PhD level in the next couple of years. Cha-ching!$!$!$

Studying how to be a student...

I have now been in Oslo for about two weeks and finally things are starting to get into a routine, giving me time to update this blog. Much of my time has been absorbed by taking a number and waiting patiently in line. We were warned about the Norwegian bureaucracy and with good reason, as Norway's abundance of forests must be steadily deteriorating with the amount of paperwork required for a 5 month student stay in Oslo. However, the paperwork has not stopped me from experiencing my fourth university orientation week (my three previous ones being at UWA, McGill and Lund), in a fourth country. As I am studying higher education and can expect two more orientation weeks (in Finland and Portugal), perhaps this area of unique expertise could form as my thesis?

Arriving in Oslo and finding my accommodation went without any major obstacles. After catching a long but very pleasant train from Lund (I had to ask whether I was actually in the second class cabin as it was so comfortable), I arrived in Olso central station before catching the subway to Krinsja, a suburb on the outskirts of town where I now live. When I arrived, I was able to inspect a number of rooms before making my final decision. I chose the only room I saw with an actual bed (most simply had a foam mattress on a wooden frame), curtains and a relatively hygienic bathroom and kitchen. The room is small and on the bottom floor, next to the main entrance. The room is apparently 10 square metres, but I suspect the authorities may have rounded it up to the nearest 10m as it is tiny.

I share a bathroom with a Norwegian guy, Nils, who is very friendly and I share the small kitchen with five more people: an Azerbaijani guy, a German guy, a German girl, a Chinese girl and a Norwegian girl. The Chinese girl, Amy, is taking the same classes as me in first semester as she is studying in the University of Oslo's Masters in Higher Education program (not the Erasmus Mundus program that involves travelling to Finland and Portugal). Below is a photo of Amy and I at our orientation week 12 hour conference (!) in the Oslo hills.

Outside my student room, Norway is a land of wide open spaces and one of the benefits of being outside the city centre is that I am close to the wilderness. Near the student village are some wonderful walking trails, hills and freshwater lakes, giving me plenty of reasons not to spend all my time in my room.

This week has been the first week of my Masters program and so far it has been fantastic. The program organisers are extremely organised, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and have done their absolute best to help us settle in. As the Erasmus Mundus program is designed primarily to bring non-Europeans to Europe, the group is very diverse with 4 Europeans (2 Portuguese, a Spaniard and a Slovakian) and 20 non-Europeans from all over the world (China, USA, Mexico, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Vanuatu, India, Ghana, Serbia, Albania, to name but a few). There is a significant amount of reading to get through, but it is wonderful to actually enjoy reading articles for class and the class discussions are certainly dynamic. I also was nominated today as the class representative in the General Assembly of the Erasmus Mundus Alumni and Student Association. I have no idea what that means, but I do know I get a free trip to Brussels out of it!

Outside of the classroom I have been even busier organising all my papers, setting up student registrations, internet, library cards and all the other sorts of things I will get to do all over again in 5 months time when I move to Finland. I really don't wish to relive the bureaucratic experiences again by writing about them on this blog, but you can easily waste an entire morning and/or afternoon standing waiting for paperwork to be signed. Still worse is when you wait and still don't get your papers signed, which to cut a 5 hour story short, is what happened last Saturday a computer system crashed on the day all international students were asked to get their residence permits stamped. However, as an Australian I am not one to judge the Norwegian immigration authorities, as at least I'm not in an offshore detention centre waiting for papers to be processed.

But my time in Oslo has not been entirely absorbed by classwork, bureaucracy and Ikea shopping, on a more fun note, I have also been able to join the University of Oslo symphony orchestra. As not many people want to play an instrument that is difficult, never has the melody and is the butt of all musical jokes, simply having a viola was enough for me to join the orchestra. I was supposed to have my first rehearsal on Monday evening in the university hall (the picture at the top of the blog entry), but apparently it was rescheduled as when I walk on stage, all that was there was a grand piano and a confused Norwegian man who thought I was performing in a concert that evening and kept insisting that I was "in the right place".

The Norwegians will have to wait another two weeks before they get to see their new Australian viola player, as on Friday I will be heading back to Lund to see Katri and go on a shopping spree. I never thought I'd ever go to Sweden to do cheap shopping, but then again, I'd never been to Oslo. Ordinarily paying $12 for a cheap beer at the bar would be enough to crush my drinking spirits, but hey, the European Commission gave me this money to spend and spend it I will!

A welcome return to Lund

It has been 14 months since I graduated from Lund University and it has been wonderful to see the town again. Lund is such a beautiful town and is Sweden's second oldest, founded around 990 when Skåne (the region of southern Sweden) was part of Denmark. Lund has a long history of being a place of education and Lund University, established in 1666 as part of a Swedification strategy of Skåne following its acquisition by Sweden, is the second oldest university in Sweden (the oldest being Uppsala University est. 1477). As it is currently summer holidays the bicycle traffic has been refreshingly quiet, but this will no doubt change when the 40,000 students return next week from their summer holidays.

Bicycles are a way of life in Lund and they will become terribly expensive when all the naive international student arrive next week. Some Swedes make a lot of money each year by purchasing bicycles on the cheap when the students finish at the end of the academic year and then sell them at a huge profit at the start of the following academic year in August. Some students get around this problem by simply stealing bicycles, but thankfully I never had my bicycle stolen. In fact, yesterday I met up with a friend of mine who I gave my squeaky death-trap of a bicycle to before I left, and he was actually able to give it back to me.

It was a truly emotional reunion for me and my bicycle, as I had spent so much time trying to do ongoing bicycle repairs. These were often of little avail as I spent more money on repairs than the bicycle originally cost me. I remember buying it from a guy in a park for around 700 kronor ($120 Aus) who said to me "If you have any problems or change your mind, you can return it and change it for another bike within the first week". Within the first week I managed to brake the back tyre and snap the rear axle, joyriding my way home from the International Students' Welcome Party. Unfortunately for him, I kept him to his word and he had to make the first of what would become many repairs.

Apart from spending time relaxing in Lund, Katri and I also spent the day in Malmö on Sunday and made a trip to Lomma Beach on Tuesday as it was damn hot (by Swedish standards at least). Unfortunately we weren't the only people to think that hot days are good days to go to the beach, as the small patch of white sand was extremely crowded. Tomorrow morning I will catch the train to Oslo and find out where I will be living for the next 5 months. It's sad to leave Katri yet again, but at least this time Oslo is only a 7 hour train ride away from Lund, which surely beats 20 hours on a plane to Perth!

Cruising around Karelia

Since the last blog entry Katri and I have clocked up quite a few kilometres on land and water, alternating between Katri’s parent’s house in Pieksamaki and their summer cottage. Given that petrol is heavily taxed and is around 1.35 Euros ($2.15 AUD) per litre, it has been a significant expense. However, if you are feeling lucky you can gamble your petrol money at most medium sized petrol stations, as they are regularly lined with pokie machines. Finland has certainly taken a different approach to Perth’s “no pokies outside the (one) casino” policy.

All the driving has been worthwhile as my time the summer cottage and around the lakes has been wonderful. The daily routine of picking berries for breakfast and mushrooms dinner continues, with raspberries now in season and in my breakfast bowl each morning. I have also had plenty of chances to relax, have a sauna and spend time on the water. Katri’s parents offered to take us out on their boat for a tour around the lakes surrounding their cottage, which I gladly accepted. It was explained to me that it would be around 25 minutes each way, but even with my poor comprehension of Finnish it was clear that somewhere along the line the plans changed. The dead giveaway was when after an hour or so going in the same direction, Katri’s father gave the steering wheel to Katri as he quizzically consulted his map of the lakes. Although we were lost, it had nothing to do with alcohol consumption as a random breath test from a police boat ensured.

However, I’m certainly not one to give advice on driving a boat, as my seafaring skills are not as strong as my self confidence. My attempts at steering the family's row boat onto the lake for the first time brought about wholehearted laughter from Katri, and glare from me that was icy enough to freeze the lake over. All things considered, my efforts were not as bad as they could have been, as the last time steered something on water was at Katherine Gorge in 2004 when I capsized a canoe with a friend. Somehow the advice of “don’t take the canoe down the rapids” became a challenge to see if we could take the canoe down the rapids. This time, thankfully, the water remained underneath the boat and all that was lost was some dignity.

The cottage is in Karelia near Lake Saimaa, Finland’s largest lake, in the most eastern province of the country. Karelia has a unique place in the hearts of many Finns as it has been a contested territory with Russia and since the bitter Winter War (just prior to World War II) it has remained divided between the two countries. Karelia is also home to some marvelous local beer, bakery products, forest food and unfortunately forest insects. However, you can't blame the Finns for the mosquitoes and ticks as like most problems, the Russians are always to blame ;)

The last few days have been spent back in Pieksamaki, but last Sunday we went on a day trip on around the Savo region and had a trek around some Finnish national parks. A highlight for me was Savonlinna, a beautiful small town in the east of the province. Savonlinna is famous for its month long opera festival and week long ballet festival in July/August, both held in the impressive Olavinlinna Castle. The Olavinlinna Castle is a magnificently well preserved 15^th century castle and the most northern stone caste in the world. Historically it was used to protect the unstable border between the Kingdom of Sweden and its Russian adversary in Ingermanland. As it was Saint Olaf's Day last Sunday, we were able to tour the castle for free. However it’s not just high culture and history that makes the town famous, it is now also home to the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships, held every August. Given the weight of my semi-mobile brick telephone, I don’t stand much chance winning the competition this year.

This Thursday Katri and I will be returning to Lund (in southern Sweden) for a week, before I catch the train north to Oslo and commence my studies. I’m really looking forward to being back in the familiar surroundings of Lund, as it has been just over a year since I finished my studies there. I was thinking today that if I continue with my ambitions and go on to study a PhD after this masters program, I have at least another 5 years of studies ahead of me… Well it’s a scary prospect, but not as scary as working a Monday to Friday, 40 hour week. My timetable in Oslo looks more like a Tuesday to Thursday 12 hour week, with 3 months of summer holidays. I think I could handle this for the next five years!

Finnish road trip

Over the past week or so I’ve been on a bit of a road trip around different parts of Finland. Katri and I started our travels in a small town called Sääksmäki where Katri played doublebass in a classical music festival, while I ate food and stayed in the hotel provided to the musicians. Sääksmäki is a small town about 30 kilometres south of the city of Tampere, where I will be studying in January 2008. I think we left Pieksämäki for Sääksmäki last Wednesday (11 July), but I’ve been getting confused about the days of the week as every day has felt like a Saturday since I quit work. If you’re beginning to wonder about the meaning of the word “mäki”, it means hill and as there are many towns named after hills, and many Finns named after towns, there are plenty of mäki’s all over Finland.

Even more numerous than the hills, are the lakes here in Finland. When I first came to Finland I was amazed by all of the fresh water lakes, they are absolutely everywhere. Unfortunately the reason for all the freshwater lakes is that it rains and rains. In the summer of 2005 I had the pleasure of getting free tickets to the World Athletic Championships in Helsinki, as not many people wanted to watch track and field athletes compete in 6 inches of water during what should have been the “driest” week of the Finnish summer. During the Sääksmäki festival it also rained frequently. Finns are beginning to suspect that I bring the southern hemisphere winter to Finland each time I arrive on a holiday.

Thankfully classical music concerts are performed in indoor venues and the musicians were simply fantastic. Although my appetite for classical music does not match my appetite for watching cricket on television, it felt great to see such fine (mostly) Finnish musicians perform. Finland has a strong musical tradition and many of the graduates the Sibelius Academy play music professionally all over the world, but return to Finland during the summer holidays and perform in festivals like the one I attended. An example was the cellist Timo-Veikko, who plays in the Australian Chamber Orchestra and whom I had previously met in Perth, and who played an amazing Beethoven sonata for cello on an early 18^th century instrument. The orchestra initially offered me the opportunity to play viola in some of their pieces, but as I am more of a pantomime musician who treats music as a good way to meet girls (I met my girlfriend Katri by sneaking my way into the Lund University orchestra), I politely declined.

Apart from the music, Katri and I also had time to walk around the neighbouring town of Valkeakoski and take some photos (see below). Another neighbouring town we visited was Toijala, which turned out to be where the brother of a friend of mine from Willetton High School, had recently built a house. Our time in Sääksmäki coincided with a Finnish glam-rock concert in Tampere which my friend Klaus was attending, so we stayed with Klaus at his brother’s house in Toijala after the festival, before travelling to Helsinki.

Klaus shares an apartment in Helsinki with a friend of his, who I met at a Finnish summer festival in 2002, and who has since been voted as the second sexiest man in Finland. I was flicking through some junk mail and noticed a picture of him in a catalogue, which you can see below. You can judge for yourself, but since I have arrived in the country, I'd like to think he'll now be relegated to third sexiest man in Finland.

Katri spent about six and a half years studying bass at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, so I had a good guide for my tour of the city. We travelled to Suomenlinna (translating to “Finland’s castle”), a sea fortress off Helsinki which has been used in the defence of three separate states – Sweden, Finland and Russia – giving the fortress special significance and a unique blend of architecture. For more information on Suomenlinna see: www.suomenlinna.fi/

That night we went for dinner with friends on another island, Uunisaari, where I experienced how much a glass of cheap South Australian wine costs in Finland, around 13 Euros (21 Australian dollars). That said, the food was delicious and there aren’t too many cities in the world that offer island restaurants with panoramic outlooks onto the sea. We also went for a drink at an Australian bar (not my idea!) which was surprisingly authentic, with bottom-shelf Australian lager, served by a foul-mouthed Australian bartender, who did not know a word of Finnish.

Following our stay in Helsinki, we stopped overnight at Katri’s parents’ summer cottage, which her father built on a lake in eastern Finland. This was my first time meeting her parents and it was a uniquely Finnish experience. Katri’s parents do not speak much English and as I speak even less Finnish, Katri acted as interpreter. One thing that needn’t be interpreted is my running from the sauna and jumping into the lake, naked in all my glory (though slightly less glorious when I climbed out of the cold water). Needless to say, I made a great impression on them and we will return to the summer cottage in a few days time.

The number of blueberries in the forest surrounding their summer cottage was absolutely amazing. You can easily pick half a litre of blueberries in half an hour, and given all the fruit picking I have done lately, I beginning to feel like a true backpacker. But the forest is not without its own dangers, with the neighbours reporting that a bear (or “karhu” in Finnish, which I remember as it is also the name of a popular beer I have drunk here) had been swimming in a nearby lake. A storm also passed through the region last night, resulting in trees falling on 30 summer cottages. Time truly stands still in the Finnish forests and I can’t wait to get back out there in my retro sports gear, which should be bright enough to scare off most things lurking in the woods.

Sunny nights in Pieksamaki

Okay so now it all begins! It has been a hectic few weeks, but I have made it to Europe and finally got this blog up and running.

For those of you not yet aware, I quit (or as I prefer to believe, "retired") from my Government job to study a second Masters degree in Europe. This time I will study a joint European Master in Higher Education at the Universities of Oslo (Norway), Tampere (Finland) and Aveiro (Portugal). The programme is for two years and I will move between the three universities, starting with Oslo next month. It is all funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus scholarship scheme, so I can seriously claim to be a professional student now. For more info on my course and other courses where you can get paid to study, refer to: http://www.uv.uio.no/hedda/masterprogramme/heem.html http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/mundus/index_en.html

I left Perth on Tuesday last week (3 July 2007) and flew to Singapore, then via London to Helsinki. I know some of you were interested in my initial flight to Singapore with the budget carrier Tiger Airways (www.tigerairways.com), as they offer perhaps the cheapest way to escape from Perth to Asia. Tiger Airways are cheap, in every sense of the word. The flight was cheap (about $350 one-way) and so too was the terminal I arrived in at 3:00AM (the budget terminal, not the regular one), but once you add in the other costs of upgrading luggage to 20kg, paying for every kilo of excess baggage, booking a preferred seat, buying a packet of chips and drink onboard, it does start to add up. Free of charge however, Tiger left my suitcase to be washed in the rain on the airport tarmac.

The flight itself was comfortable as I had a seat on the emergency exit row, but it was strangely hot inside the plane. Perhaps it was an attempt to induce further purchased of overpriced beverages, but the real oppressive heat was when I arrived at the semi-air conditioned budget terminal in Singapore. The advertisements for the airport carried the slogan “Singapore Airport Budget Terminal- Enjoy the Experience”. Sweating it out with my wet luggage, whilst waiting half an hour for a bus to the main terminal, was an experience I could have easily gone without. Still, it was cheap, and as I am a cheap kinda guy on a student budget again, I'd travel with them again.

The flight out of Singapore to London with British Airways, was far more comfortable, despite its 13-14 hour duration. Being from Perth you get used to long-haul flights, as unless your planning to holiday in a mine site, you will generally have to fly for 3+ hours. The transfer in London went without incident and before I knew it, I was with my girlfriend Katri in Finland and ready for her home town of Pieksamaki.

Katri's parents’ house is on a street aptly translating to “forest school road” as it is near a world renowned school for forestry studies and is very close to forests (obviously!), freshwater lakes, berries and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are Finland's answer to the Australian blowfly. As with the Australian blowfly, my personal technique to repel these nasty creatures is to violently flail my arms around my head and swear loudly.

The landscape here is extremely tranquil and beautiful, though slightly less so when I am dealing with the mozzies. It's commonplace for rivers, lakes or coastlines to be without houses, fences and traffic here in Finland. There are strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and many other fruits ready to be eaten immediately or used in Finnish cooking. I have done well raiding Katri's parent's fridge of blackcurrant juice and blueberry tarts, while they have been on summer vacation at their cottage. I'm sure I will enjoy them even more once my stomach adjusts from my regular steak and potatoes diet.

It’s summertime and if I am lucky, the temperature outside will get above 16 degrees and an even warmer 60 degrees in the sauna (the pic below is a Finnish smoke sauna in the forest, not a little house!). The days have been rather wet and overcast, but the wonderfully aspect of a Finnish summer is that an overcast day can easily become a warm and sunny night. Looking outside at the heavy rain this afternoon means we may postpone our cycling, walking and berry-picking until it brightens up later tonight!