ice, ice baby

The lake froze smooth for the first time in a few years. I need only go out the door, through the fence and down the hill and voila!!... my own personal ice skating rink! Mom and I shovelled the snow away yesterday and last night the wind swept clean what we'd missed. I skated today until my toes went numb and my coat was covered in a layer of ice from the mist that fell all day. I was SUPPOSED to go out to the camp for the annual staff reunion, but since that layer of icy mist on my coat is also covering all the roads, I opted for safety and stayed home.

fleas

My mother decided to refresh her grasp of Amharic, the national language of Ethiopian. (She spent four years there with the Peace Corps, 30 years ago......an option I am also pondering.) Brow furrowed, she now sits at the table, Amharic phrasebook in hand, muttering to herself, "feres....ampol...shamah...." She spits out exploded clicks and "t's", sounds I can't reproduce."This book is for tourists. They don't have the word for flea!!"
I think back to the hostel in Helsinki and hear again dry whispery scratching in the night. In the morning the girl in the bed across the room showed me red dots sprinkled up her arm and onto her back. "Do you think they could be mosquito bites?" she asked.
"At the end of October? In Finland?" I replied. She'd lodged in a grungy hostel in Amsterdam two days earlier. Those were definitely flea bites.
"Did you get fleas?" I ask mom.
"Only at one hotel I stayed at. I told the manager and they scrubbed the floor with kerosene. The kerosene smell was worse than the fleas!"
Fleas and kerosene fumes, diseases from bad water, missed trains, late planes, lost passports and broken down buses. The hazards of travel are many and most of you know this better than I do. Yet the rewards are even greater. I've hung up my backpack and stowed my passport in a drawer for the next few months. I'm sitting here staring out the window at the snow thinking about how big the world is and the itchy pangs of wanderlust still stir my soul. I'm thinking of all the places you all will be this year--Belize, England, Canada, California, Minot, St. Cloud. I'm looking forward to learning of your adventures and hoping I have a few of my own. Wherever you are and wherever you travel this year, may your water be clean, may the natives be friendly, and may all your beds be free of fleas!

7:00 a.m. (reworked)

Dead still
morning
boots print noiseless tracks
in roadside powder
pink glow rims the horizon
star-spattered sky
Frost crystals twinkle in the moonlight

The frozen lake is speaking again
creaks
Blurbps
reverberations from depths beneath the ice
sonorous and eerie likewhales talking
powerlines reply
icy-crisp
extraterrestrial
chatter and buzz
An owl comments from nearby trees
adding quavery staccato to the conversation.
I pause and listen
They're speaking my language

7:00 a.m.

The prairie is dead still this morning. My boots print noiseless tracks in roadside powder. A pink glow rims the horizon, but the sky is still spattered with stars. Frost crystals twinkle in the moonlight. The frozen lake is speaking again. Creaks and "blurbps" reverberate from depths beneath the ice, sonorous and eerie, like whales talking. I feel the echoes more than hear them. The power lines reply with icy extraterrestrial buzzes and clicks. An owl comments from trees nearby, adding a quavery staccato to the conversation. I pause and listen. They're speaking my language.

posting

I've had several people tell me "I'd have posted a comment on your blog, but I didn't want to register with blogspot." Well, I changed the settings, so now you can!! Go ahead, post away!!

Ich will nur sagen....

Frohes Fest, Herzliche Gluckwunsch and alles Gutes zum Neuen Jahr.
Merry Christmas!

hibernating

Tuesday morning I was sitting in my room pondering and fretting. Did I REALLY want to move to Montana? In the middle of winter? How would I find work there? Why did I apply for an undergrad program when I'd rather go to grad school? But Grad school means taking the GRE which I have not studied for because I've been travelling. Plotzlich klingelt das Telefon!!! (Suddenly the phone rang) Was it God calling? Or perhaps the voice of reason? It was Chris from Camp of the Cross. Would I like to work at Camp of the Cross for the winter? This is a job I've had my eye on for awhile. Free room and board at camp, plenty of free time, monthly stipend, and best of all the opportunity to work with some really really great people. So.......I took it. I'll help lead retreats on weekends, help with camp maintenance during the week and the rest of the time? Hibernating, reading, writing, studying for the GRE and maybe, just maybe Kotah and I can write enough songs to make a CD.
I'm not giving up on German though. I'm going to practice that every chance I get.

Theo van Gogh

Just out of curiousity, did anyone see anything on American news this fall about the murder of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh? He made a controversial film , titled "Submission" about Islam and the treatment of women. He was murdered in Amsterdam the day before I arrived in Amsterdam and it was in the news in Europe.

culture shock

I'm writing this blog from the warmth and comfort of Lisa's apartment. In the background American tv is blaring. There is carpet on the floor and I can understand everything everyone is saying. Outside snow is falling and the air ist noch kalt....I mean the air is cold, with that dry midwestern cold that so familiar ist...is. My brain is still spinning circles of German words but I am home again. Everything here is familiar...street signs, food, people. Yeah, I'll miss Europe. I'll miss the food and the people I met. I'll miss Jennifer and Xavier and Alex and Jacek and Philip and all the Marias. I'll miss the way people greet and say farewell with a kiss in the air next to each cheek. I'll miss the disco and sitting in the bar all night drinking beer with the Polish guys. I'll miss the majestic churches. And I'll miss the sound of English as spoken by a European. But....doch..........Dang it's good to be home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disco

I did go to the disco last night. It was really great. Totally laid back....all sorts of people there. I expected it to be fancy with a dress code....not at all. But that's the way Berlin is. Everyone is welcome here. I wish I could stay......I really do. maybe I can use the return portion of my ticket on Jan 7????

Denial

I realize that I've been denying reality for the last ohhh....3months or so. Often I'll be somewhere and I think 'this isn't really happening. I'm not in Europe....I'm just dreaming. When January comes, reality will hit me hard I think.

what next?

By the way, I applied to Montana State University in Missoula...I declared my majors as German and linguistics. Unfortunately I have to wait to apply for financial aid until I get home and I know it's super late......I'm gonna be super broke very very soon.

Almost home and Russian Discos

This will probably be the last entry for a little while....it's been fun here in Berlin...I haven't accomplished all that I wanted...but that's life...my German is a bit better and I've met some totally cool people....BUT I have not yet gone dancing. Tonight is my last chance to go dancing and I'm going to go to a Russian disco in Prenzlauerberg with some friends. Wednesday night was the last day of classes and so after the Christmas party our class ate together at a local German restaurant. (I had roast goose, typical German cuisine). Then after that we went to Stammtisch and I ended up staying the entire night at Cafe Zosch, hanging out with Jennifer and two guys from Poland and listening to this Russian guy playing guitar. Then we went out to breakfast....at 6:00 a.m. It's going to be so strange to come back to the U.S. What if I don't fit in there anymore? Maybe I'll feel strange.....wait...I've always felt strange. I tend not to fit anywhere...but I'm happy that way. Bis spater!!

Wittenberg

Verena and her boyfriend Gregory came to Berlin on Tuesday. Due to a missed telephone message I wasn't able to meet them until Wednesday morning, but we did see the Berliner Dom together and the Karl Friedrich Gedachtnis Kirsch, a beautiful church that was bombed during WWII. I went to Wittenberg with them on Thursday and toured the Martin Luther Haus and met a friend for Verena's, Jess, who is living and working in Wittenburg for the ELCA.

my weekend

Saturday I went to Sachsenhausen. Unfortunately the tourguide was really really hard to understand. Nevertheless it was a very interesting exhibition. Sachenhausen was a concentration camp for Jews, Poles, Gypsies and many Soviet prisoners of war. Saturday evening I ate supper with a woman in my class who is an archaeologist from the Crimea and Sunday I went to the Bauhaus archiv and Checkpoint Charlie.

Berlin Mitte

I have not yet really described the area of Berlin where the Goethe Institute lies. It is in Berlin Mitte, the incredibly hip center of Berlin. Here there are many expensive but really hip clothing shops, including an American Apparel shop (for those of you unfamiliar with American Apparel, they are based in California and they make a point to pay their workers a fair wage. They're anti-sweatshop.) There is also a natural foods store on the corner, many varieties of restaurants, galleries, boutiques, etc. It is really a paradise for shopaholics. Fortunately I'm not. My money is limited and my luggage is already full.
It is interesting to me, all the different ways people make money on the U-bahn.Some play music and panhandle. Others find tickets from people who have bought a day ticket and not used the entire thing and resell them. The thing is, that they don't check your ticket on the U-Bahn. There are signs saying that if you get caught travelling the U-bahn without a validated ticket, you will be fined $40 Euro. However, I have travelled the U- and S- Bahn, and bus lines at least twice a day, sometimes three or four times for almost two weeks now and my ticket has only been checked twice.

Berlin

I like the musicians that play on the U-Bahn in the mornings. I went to the 'Berlin Philharmonic last night, but it was only a quartet from the Philharmonic. It was good anyway. I meet my Tandem Partner in a few minutes. She's from Berlin and is learning English. We'll speak in German for awhile and then in English for awhile. Man, am I ever still struggling with shyness. I want to go out dancing at least once while I'm here....I mean why not, I'm here, right? Now, to find someone to go with. That's tricky.

Monday

I saw the Brandenburger Tor and Unter den Linden on Saturday. Sunday I went to Gottesdienst in the Berliner Dom. There was an English translator. The people here in Berlin are amazingly friendly, especially if they're also foreign and they can recognize that my German isn't so good. I'm here in Berlin until December 18 and then "zu Hause" (back home)

Einsteigen Bitte! Zuruck bleiben bitte!

Achtung Baby! Everyday I take U2 to the Goethe institute....but how does Bono fit in my bag? (U-bahn, line 2)
Berlin is full of Weinachtsmarkts this time of year. The streets are brimming with little markets that appear from nowhere in a morning. You can buy jewelry, Indian scarfs, roast chestnuts, crepes, Glühwein, assorted cheap trinkets....anything really.
The lab is closing now. Bis spater!!

Mischung

"Mischung" ist das Deutches wort für "mixture" or "combination. Berlin and The Goethe Institute are in every aspect a "Mischung" of cultures and languages. My class, Mittelstufe B1.1, has students from France, Bolivia, Switzerland, Japan, Russia, Serbia and USA. Monday I ate supper with a television journalist from Algeria named Mohammed. Tuesday I went for coffee after class with Xavier and Alexander from France, and last night I ate supper with Xavier, Alexander, Zoran from Serbia and Jennifer from Boston. Presently I'm waiting to go get sushi for lunch with Alexander, Xavier and Jennifer. Most people speak English, and we have to make it a point to speak in German so that we learn. It's amazing how much one can communicate with hands and feet and facial expressions and noises. Yesterday I went on a tour of the Egyptian museum in the morning, attended a lecture on the history of Berlin after class and then in the evening went to Stammtisch at Cafe Zosch, which was crowded, a bit loud, but there was a good swing band playing. I'm learning a lot about different countries and cultures.

First day in Berlin

I awoke from a fitful sleep on the night train this morning. A wet snow was falling. The man next to me was friendly, spoke English and told me he was on his way to visit the prince of Denmark. He showed me pictures of him and the prince of Denmark.My host lady, Heidi is nice, but very very reserved. She said she won't be home very much as she is also a student. But when she is home in the evenings she prefers to be alone. I pretty much have the run of the place, my own room, I'm allowed to use the kitchen and cooking utensils therein. She has a black cat named simply Katze. The cat is also a bit reserved, but friendly enough to come and rub on my leg once in awhile. The cat also has the run of the place. Hopefully the cat and I will be good friends. There is lots and lots to do and see here, so no matter what I'll be busy. There is a cultural program so I can see the sights and do things with other students and there is a Stammtisch at a nearby cafe every Wednesday night so I'll probably go to that. (A Stammtisch is a table where the people from the Goethe Institute gather and talk) There is also the possibility to connect with a student who is learning English and then you speak German for a half hour and English for a half hour. It's called the tandem program. I think I'll do that. The U-bahn is surprisingly easy to use and it's not nearly as crowded as I'd expected. Bis spater!

onward to Berlin

Verena's family is really nice. Her two nieces were here this weekend, so I played with them a lot. I can communicate better with children, they speak more simply. Also I got to read children's books to them....that was helpful for me I think because adult books in German are a bit hard to read. Yesterday I went to a Russian Icon exhibtion at the Lutheran Convent nearby with Verena's father. I'm killing time until Verena comes home and then later tonight I take the train to Berlin. Here is my address where I receive mail in Berlin, if you'd like to drop me a line. I promise I will write back.
Stephanie Blumhagen
Goethe-Institut
Neue Schonhauser Str. 20
D - 10178 Berlin
Germany

International letters from the US cost 80 cents.

Hellos and goodbyes

I said farewell to Erika, Ewald, Ottile and Christian yesterday. I'm gonna miss them. We prayed together before I left. I'm back at Verena's and I'm here until Sunday night when I take a night train to Berlin. I'll be living with a woman named Heidi on Schlosstrasse, there is a palace nearby. I'm a little scared. okay I'm terrified, but hey, what else is new. I've spoken with her on the phone and she sounds nice enough. Last night I watched Jahrestages with Verena and some of her friends. I didn't really understand much of it, but it's a good movie....really really long though. Miss you all bunches.

Don't marry your cousin

I spent from Monday until Wednesday afternoon in Ballingen with Emilie and her husband Johann, another relative of my grandmother. Balingen is in the foothills of the Alps. They were both very sweet and very nice and took me to a castle in Sigmaringen. Emilie is a grandmotherly time who called me 'Meine Lieblings' or 'Mein Schatz' a lot. I have never in my life looked at so many family pictures. Emilie is very interested in family history. Now I'm back in Höpfingen with Erika and family. I got to try Turkish DonerKebap last night. My German isn't really improving much due to the fact that I haven't got any of my grammar books and I'm being exposed to different dialects. The speak Schwabish here, and in Bavaria it's differnt and it will be different in Berlin too. I found out that I'll be staying with a host family in Berlin and I have to travel a half hour on the U-Bahn to and from the Goethe Institute every day. I'm terrified!!
Oh, and if you marry your cousin, it makes life frustrating for those of us who are trying to untangle family history and relations with relatives who speak a different language!!!

Bonfeld

Today I went to Bonfeld with Erika and her father Ewald. Bonfeld is where my ancestors emigrated from to Hoffnungstal Russia in 1817. It's a tiny little village. We went to the cemetary, but the grave isn't there anymore. They remove the gravestones after 30 years. We lit two candles and laid flowers in the cemetary. I took a picture of the house where my ancestors lived. Ewald is my grandmother's cousin. That makes Erika my father's second cousin, and Christian my third cousin. We're Schwäbisch, Germans from Russia. The dialect is a little different from the high German I learned in college, but I can understand. I might go visit other relatives on Monday.

Die Verwandten (the relatives)

Erika picked me up yesterday around 1. She is very nice and very sweet. Yesterday was St. Martin's day here in Germany. The children make paper lanterns and St. Martin comes riding on a horse and the children walk through the streets and they sing and then they end with a bonfire and the children get sweet buns and there was a table selling Glühwein (hot spiced wine). My cousin, Christian (age 15) is on the fire squad and so he had to help with the bonfire so we went and joined the festivities. Erika's father is the son of Gustav Ehrman. Gustav's brother was Jakob Ehrman, the father of my grandmother. Today was Erika's mother's birthday so we had a big dinner with a goose. (All I've done is eat. I'm going to be so fat when I get home!!!) Our family, although originally German, emmigrated to Russia in the last century. One brother(Jakob, my great grandfather, went to America around 1909) Erika came to Germany when she was 17...so in the 70's I think. Her parents followed later and now live in the same house. (they have the basement, she has the upstairs) I'm going to Brunfeld to see where the family originated in Germany before we went to Russia.

Hallelujah!!

Praise God it's all okay. I called the Goethe Institute and they have recieved the payment. I just didn't know because somehow their e-mail ended up in my junkmail folder. So...all is well again although I still miss you all. Glad to hear that some of you are starting your own weblogs. Today: Neustadt and then to the relatives. I pray for you all by the way.... that God would take care of my friends

prayers please

I'm getting pretty worried because I STILL haven't heard from the Goethe Institute and the deadline is tomorrow. I'm going to call in the morning. please please please pray for me. I have plane tickets home already and they aren't until Dec. 18. My other option I suppose is to wander around Europe until then, but wandering alone isn't much fun.Anyone want to come join me? Please? Today we went to Bamberg and saw a Romanic church and a Gothic church. Also Little Venice. Bamberg is a really nice town, renowned for it's beer and there is a University there. The food is good in Germany.

Rottenberg

Today we went to Rottenberg. We saw St. James church and teh Christmas shop. This evening I went to choir practice with Verena's family. Tomorrow we go to Bamberg. Vielleicht wirt meine Deutsche eine bischen besser. Still don't know if the money actually got to Berlin for my tuition at Goethe Institute. Lord I hope so.

Verstehst du mich?

I'm in Bavaria and it's snowing outside. Last week I left Helsinki on Wednesday. I arrived at the airport and was greeted by the word CANCELLED next to my flight number. There was fog in Amsterdam, my destination. After being rebooked standby and waiting several hours and making a few new friends, I finally made it. That's a story for another time.I spent two days in Amsterdam and found a really great hostel there called The Shelter. Then Friday I took the train to Germany (another frustrating day of travel. All the trains were late. But again I made two new friends....a German couple going to Wurzberg and we both got on the wrong train. So we found the right train together.) And now I'm in Bavaria and I'm going to meet my relatives on Thursday afternoon. They'll come to pick me up here in Scheinfeld and take me to Hopfingen where thezy live. Bavaria is very pretty.....rolling hills and woods, farmland, small villages, castles, vineyards. We went for a hike yesterday also to an Evangelische Kloister...a convent, but the nuns are Lutheran. It's called Schwanberg. Verena and her family are very kind and wonderful hosts and they're taking me around and showing me everything.
The only difficulty I'm having is communication. I speak German, but not real well and everyone talks so FAST!!!! It's difficult to get into the conversation when there is a group of people and I'm afraid I'm really not saying much. So if you pray for me, please pray that my German improves and that I learn to more assertively make conversation with people. I miss everyone that reads this.

Verstehst du mich?

I'm in Bavaria and it's snowing outside. Last week I left Helsinki on Wednesday. I arrived at the airport and was greeted by the word CANCELLED next to my flight number. There was fog in Amsterdam, my destination. After being rebooked standby and waiting several hours and making a few new friends, I finally made it. That's a story for another time.I spent two days in Amsterdam and found a really great hostel there called The Shelter. Then Friday I took the train to Germany (another frustrating day of travel. All the trains were late. But again I made two new friends....a German couple going to Wurzberg and we both got on the wrong train. So we found the right train together.) And now I'm in Bavaria and I'm going to meet my relatives on Thursday afternoon. They'll come to pick me up here in Scheinfeld and take me to Hopfingen where thezy live. Bavaria is very pretty.....rolling hills and woods, farmland, small villages, castles, vineyards. We went for a hike yesterday also to an Evangelische Kloister...a convent, but the nuns are Lutheran. It's called Schwanberg. Verena and her family are very kind and wonderful hosts and they're taking me around and showing me everything.
The only difficulty I'm having is communication. I speak German, but not real well and everyone talks so FAST!!!! It's difficult to get into the conversation when there is a group of people and I'm afraid I'm really not saying much. So if you pray for me, please pray that my German improves and that I learn to more assertively make conversation with people. I miss everyone that reads this.

I went to Kiasma today and to a church carved into a rock....and I can't get this keyboard to work right.

Helsinki

I write this from the Cable Book Library in Helsinki. It's 5:41 and already dark here. I flew here from Oulu this morning and booked a room at a youth hostel here. Such a busy busy city. I feel a little homesick and a little nervous, but I'll be okay. I stay here until Wednesday, then I fly to Amsterdam, where my mission is to buy a train ticket to Bavaria and call Verena's parents to let them know when I'll arrive. I'm glad I'm here, but any prayers you say for me would be much appreciated. It's going to be a long and interesting week.

Finnish food

There are few foods here that I haven't liked. Finns drink their coffee VERY strong. (Coffee-kahvi)Just like in the Midwest, if you visit a home you'll most likely be invited to sit and drink coffee and have some pulla. Pulla is like a cinnamon bun or sweet bread. I've had a LOT of pulla and coffee while I've been here. White bread is very rare. Usually they eat rye bread or hard flat whole grain bread. It's usually buttered and eaten with cheese and ham. A difference here is that people eat bread with cheese and ham and cucumbers for breakfast!! Also, flavoured yoghurt comes in milk (milk - maito) cartons and is runnier so you can pour it on your mysli (granola) I've tried cloudberries. They look like giant orange raspberries. Also lingonberries which we ate on the reindeer meat. Lingonberries taste like cranberries, but they grow in the forest, not in bogs. The only thing I'm not fond of is salmiakki or salt licorice. I like Finnish black licorice, but the salmiakki is black licorice that is strong and salty. Also, there is pepper flavoured salmiakki. I really didn't like that. Finns also like tar-flavoured candy. Also I tried a bottle of Karhu, a Finnish beer. Karhu means bear. It's bitter beer.

Is it bravery or insanity...

if you drive out to a cabin by a lake in the woods on a crisp autum night. The moon is full and reflects off the glassy sheet of ice on the lake. You build a fire in the sauna, then when it's hot, you strip naked and sit in the sauna until you're so hot you can't breathe. You splash water on the rocks and steam rises, making the sauna feel even hotter. Moisture beads on your skin and drips off. You walk out into the brisk air, steam rising from your body. Feet aching you walk to the lake. Your stare at the dark water for a minute, break the ice, take a deep breath and jump in!!! Heart pounding, you jump out into air that feels suddenly warm. You walk back to the sauna, sit there until your feet stop aching. Then you do it all again. That's what we did on Saturday. (Marcos's mother goes swimming in the river year round. And she doesn't sit in the sauna first. They say if you start in summer and continue swimming once a week into the fall you don't even notice the difference when you have to cut a hole in the ice to go swimming. And it improves your circulation.)

Finnglish

http://www.makupalat.fi/kieli2.htm
a link to a some good Finnish-English dictionaries

Missa on vess? - Where is the bathroom?
Paljonko kello? - What time is it?

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen!

I ate Rudolph. You know...Santa's helper with the red nose. He was tasty. They herd reindeer in Northern Finland. During most of the year the reindeer roam free in the forests. Each herd has one or two with a bell around it's neck. All the reindeer belong to someone and once a year the herds are rounded up and some are butchered for the meat. It tastes a bit like venison.

Here I go again

As I write this I'm waiting for another airline ticket purchase to confirm. Yes, I'm off to Germany. My intended itinerary? Visit Verena in Bavaria, visit relatives in Baden-Wurtemberg and spend four weeks at the Göethe Institute in Berlin.

Your cell-phone is Finnish

Finland Fast Facts:

1. Nokia, maker of cell-phones, is a Finnish company that started out making rubber boots.
2. Finland has had a female president, Tarja Halonen, since 2000.
3. The literacy rate in Finland is around 99 percent.
4. Finland is the 7th largest country in Europe.
5. Students in Finland don't pay for University. In fact the government gives them money to live on while the study!

Thanks

I just finished checking my e-mail and it was so unbelievably nice to get e-mail from friends and family saying that you're reading this. It was so good to hear from you Lisa and Katie and Mom and Matt and I miss you all!!! I spent the weekend meeting people: Paivi's mom (who doesn't speak any English, but I showed her pictures of ND and my parents) and Paivi's dad (a journalist. He took pictures of me and I took pictures of him.) and Marcos's parents and their house and Paivi's brother and his family. Paivi's brother's family is the All-American Finnish family. They've lived in Dallas and travelled on the East Coast. Tommi, their 17-year-old son loves baseball and has Snoop Dog posters on his walls as well as a map of the US.
Sunday we saw a missionary evangelist name Michael Howard at Paivi's church, the Evangelical Free Church of Finland. That was an experience I'm not sure how to describe.....hmm...well I'll just say Michael Howard was very loud and a bit arrogant and neither Paivi nor I was real impressed with him. They sing many of the same praise songs here....but in Finnish. There are some Finnish praise songs as well. Finnish music is haunting and melancholic....it has a definite Russian flavour.
Today I went to the school again with Paivi. It was another full day of "How old are you?" "What is your favourite color?" "Do you have brothers and sisters?" The kids were a bit fidgety after their week long break. One thing I still love is hearing Paivi say "Good morning class." in this very proper teacherly way, as she stands very straight at the front and the kids stand very straight and proper by their desks. Then the kids reply "Goood mawr-ning Mis-ehs Pah-keh-len." (Use your imagination to duplicate the accent.....it doesn't quite come through written on the page. You need to hear it)

Raahe

It's a rainy day in Raahe. That's where I am today. Raahe is a quaint little seaside village about an hour's drive south of Oulu. I'm staying with Pieta, a friend who went hiking with Paivi, Marcos and me. We saw the Raahe museum today. It has the oldest diving suit in the world. It's made all of leather and quite huge.
The biggest frustration of being in a foreign country is not understanding the language. Most everyone speaks very good English, but most of the time they all speak Finnish and not understanding is driving me crazy!! But I'm picking up a bit of Finnish here and there and Marcos and Päivi are patient teachers. (teacher - opetaja).

Karhunkierros

Karhunkierros is the name of the hiking trail where we spent Saturday evening through Tuesday evening. It was wonderful. We hiked over bogs and past rushing rapids. We picked lingonberries and mixed them with the jam we put on our morning porridge. We drank the water right from the river. There are hikers huts all along the trail where we slept each night. There was firewood and a woodstove and benches to sleep on and outhouses, so it was quite nice and not nearly as cold as I'd expected. Tuesday night we went to Kuusamon Tropikki on the way home. It's a spa where we swam and hot tubbed and saunaed. And yes, in Finland you do sauna naked, but women and men sauna seperately. Wednesday we went to the Raunua zoo. I saw a polar bear and learned animal names in Finnish, then we went to the Arctic circle..the farthest north I've been and we drove to Sweden.

Finnish school

As I write this blog, I am sitting in a quiet teacher's lounge in a Finnish elementary school. The past few days have been a whirlwind and the next two weeks promise to be just as busy. Where to start? Yesterday: Thursday morning I awoke bleary eyed after a fitful night's rest. Päivi was just as groggy. We'd spent Wednesday afternoon and evening planning, organizing, scanning photos of North Dakota and thinking of games and songs for the children in Päivi's English classroom. I went with Päivi to her school all day Thursday. I gave a presentation in each of her classes on the USA and North Dakota. The kids start each class period by standing next to their desks. Päivi says "Good morning class" and the children respond "Good morning Mrs. Päckalen" then they begin the lesson. The elementary school here looks much like and American elementary school. There are the same desks, coat hooks, library, music room, gym, etc. The children had prepared questions for me such as "What's your name?, How old are you?" "Do you have pets?"...the basic questions you learn when you start learning a foreign lanuage. One child asked "Do you like George W. Bush?" !!! I replied that I don't, but some Americans do. We showed them the distance from Finland to the US on the globe, then showed them....ah, gotta go, the school assembly is starting.

Finland

Well, I'm here!! I got on the plane in Minot, North Dakota at 11:08 a.m. on Monday and Paivi and Marcos picked me up at the Oulu train station last night (Tuesday night) just after midnight. The loneliest I've ever felt was sitting for six hours in the Amsterdam airport and knowing that all the people I know and love were thousands of miles away and that if anything bad were to happen I only had myself and God to rely on to get me out of trouble. I'm writing from the University in Oulu. My friend Paivi is an English teacher at an elementary school in Oulu and her husband, Marcos is studying to be a teacher here at the University. In just a few minutes I'll join Marcos and his brother for lunch at the cafeteria. I'm staying on the couch in Paivi in Marcos tiny but adorable apartment. Finland is cold and cloudy this time of year, much like North Dakota. Finland is 70 percent forest, so there are lots of trees. It's strange to look around and see everything written in a language I can't understand. Even the keyboard on this computer is arranged differently than I'm used to.

Sami

The Sami are the indigenous people of Finland. This is taken from
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/saameng.html

"The economic foundation of the Sami hunting culture was destroyed by wiping out the most important game animals - the beaver and the wild reindeer. As game decreased the Sami no longer used their land as actively as earlier, and, thus, their land taxes grew smaller and were altogether repealed in 1924.
Simultaneously, the Sami were removed from the land registers. Their rights were "forgotten", and they were depicted in literature in the same way as natives elsewhere during the colonial period.
Settlers moved into the areas "unused" by the Sami, and they were granted certain rights to the lands and waters. Some Sami founded homesteads on their own land. By the 1980's, the lands and the waters of such homesteads were demarcated. On the basis of no known legal grounds, the state started to control the "public land" left outside the homesteads. The only cause shown was that the 'public lands" had always belonged to the state because they had never had an owner (res nullius). In a situation where the Supreme Court did not consider the state to be the owner of the lands, preservation areas were founded on these "public lands". Today, the state uses, conveys and rents "public land" and disallows the Sami to use it in many ways."
Sound familiar? They suffered the same plight as the Native Americans. Different story, same ending: loss of land, loss of livilihood, loss of culture.

Coming Out

On Tuesday I learned some surprising news. A very dear friend announced that she is bisexual. Whoa! I didn't see that one coming. But, to my friend (whose name I will not mention) I say this: I respect and admire you for having the courage to admit this truth to yourself and to your closest friends. And I am praying for you, though not that God would change you, as certain other people are praying. I'm praying that God would continue to give you the strength and courage to accept yourself as you are and that you would be at peace with yourself. You're still my friend and I still love you very much.
And hey, men don't seem to be working out for me! Maybe I'll try women for awhile!......okay, just kidding. I've been told that one out of every three women has considered having a relationship with the same sex. While I'll admit the thought has crossed my mind, I can't deny the way I'm wired, which is most definitely straight.
October 11 is National Coming Out Day. I'm choosing to "come out" as a straight ally. A straight ally is "someone who is not gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT) but personally advocates for GLBT equal rights and fair treatment". I have a number of dear friends who are gay, lesbian, and now one who is bisexual. I care about these people and believe they should be accepted, loved and be treated equally.

countdown...

So much to say, so little time. I spent the entire day packing. I now have what I need for three weeks in Finland, including backpacking, tucked safely away in one large backpack and one carryon size backpack. Photocopy of my passport in my bag, (check!) passport in my purse, (check!) and Euros in my purse (check!) Still don't have my life figured out, but I did download applications for Habitat for Humanity, Holden Village, Urban Servant Corps, and A Christian Ministry in the National Parks, all of which I will fill out soon.

Frustration

I hate life today. Total frustration! I got a really good deal on a ticket to Finland through Hotwire, but now I want to change my travel plans to visit Verena and some relatives in Germany and the ticket is completely unchangeable. No refunds, no changes, no nothing! I even called Hotwire Customer Care. Plus the flight I wanted from Helsinki to Oulu is no longer available. One week is far, far too little time to prepare for a trip overseas. And to top it all off I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with my life!!!!!!!! It's time to find a job and I don't even know where to begin, nor do I have the time because I'm so busy traipsing all over the globe. I've been offered jobs......but not PAYING jobs. I could teach piano lessons in Hazen, ND, heck I could teach piano lessons anywhere in North Dakota. But I can go anywhere in the US, or for that matter anywhere in the world, so why should I stay in North Dakota?! Why? 22 years here is long enough. My mind is spinning in circles and I'm totally overwhelmed. I wish someone would help me figure this mess out.

Home again, home again

Well, I'm home again. Yesterday we drove straight through from Spokane to Jamestown, ND. It only took 15 and a half hours. Fortunately I didn't have to do any of the driving and I was able to finish The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Good book.
I'd left my car at the train station in Minot. Mom took me up to get her, but the stupid thing wouldn't start!! Since my Honda (Gelly) has a manual transmission, Mom gave me a pushstart. It was quite a picture: this late-middle aged woman pushing a little roller skate of a car through the Amtrak parking lot. A kind gentleman came along and offered to push my car with his car and she decided to start. I'm not sure what was wrong with her other than having sat for a month. She runs fine now.
10 days until Finland. I bought a Lonely Planet guide to Finland and I'm going to read it cover to cover. Did you know "Huomenta" means "Good morning" in Finnish?

Brrr..

Dang I'm tired. Considering everything that's been packed into the last few days, I guess I have reason to be. Yesterday we went to church and Sunday school and came home for lunch. Then John (my uncle) and Kresha (my cousin) sang in a benefit concert for the Spokane Food Bank. It was a fun little shindig that included a local Celtic group called The Celtic Nots, (good stuff...I almost bought the CD) some opera, (John and Kresha and a friend of theirs named Susan. Kresha sang "Glitter and Be Gay" and she absolutely brought the house down.) gospel, blues/Americana, and the Spokane Children's chorus. We came home around 7:30 and I went for a run while they practiced for their upcoming family concert. Then around 10:00 Kresha, Katie and I went back into town to a little pub called Europa where we met our friend Chris.

Today, Katie and I went back into Spokane and volunteered from 10:00 - 2:00 at Global Folk Art, a really great fair trade global import shop. Afterward we shopped a bit. I finally found a good pair of hiking boots!!!!!!!

I found out two interesting bits on info yesterday. First, Paivi and Marcos and I are going backpacking while I'm in Finland (Yay!!). Second, where Paivi lives in Finland is near the 65th parallel. The North Dakota/Canadian border is at the 49th parallel and we get pretty dang cold. This is gonna be some cold camping. Should be fun!!!

Panic!

Katie and I went swimming in Lake Cour D'Alene today. It was great. I have this feeling that it's September and I'm supposed to be in school...but I'm slacking off and going swimming instead. I love it!
I rechecked my flight itinerary today and I realized that I leave for Finland (to visit my friend Paivi) on Oct. 11. Panic is setting in. There's so much I need to do before then and so little time.
I said I'd teach Sunday School on the Reservation back in North Dakota. I want to make some sort of scrapbook for Sidewalk Sonday School. I said I'd help plan next year's curriculum for Sidewalk Sonday School....and that's just the beginning. There are all sorts of little travel and packing details to sort out before I leave. And I still need to book a flight from Helsinki to Oulu. And then there's Verena who I met at Holden and who I want to visit in Germany, but that means even more travel planning....and I don't even know if I can afford all this or not. But hey....God will provide. It's all gonna be okay.

Civilization

I left Holden Village at 1:45 this afternoon. I put my hand out the bus window and waved and waved and my new friends stood and waved and waved until the bus was out of sight. After a bus trip down the mountain, a ferry ride down Lake Chelan, a LinkTransit bus from Chelan to Wenatchee, and a train from Wenatchee to Spokane, I am now at my aunt and uncle's house where I have internet AND a telephone for the first time in three weeks. If you're ever faced with the choice of travelling with a large backpack or a wheeled suitcase, take the backpack. I took the wheeled suitcase, a small backpack and a guitar, plus I had a loaf of Holden bread tucked under my arm. I wasn't moving very fast. Fortunately I didn't have to walk long distances and people were very kind and offered to help me carry things.

I don't have the time or energy to even begin to describe Holden Village. I will say I did some AWESOME hiking. (Including my time in South Dakota, I've hiked 73 miles this summer. I want to break 100 by October. Shouldn't be too hard.) I met wonderful people from all over the world and I want to go back again soon.

Fight Club

I saw Fight Club again last night (or should I say this morning). It was cool the first time, but the second time is actually better because I knew the twist at the end and I could see it coming the whole way through. I like movies like Fight Club and Memento because I actually get more out of them the second time around. I catch more of the quirky hidden stuff. This time I actually caught the spliced in frame in the very last scene where Jack/Tyler and Marla are holding hands watching the skyline implode. Not that I really wanted to see that, but it was clever. Also, reading the Hobbes connection beforehand made seeing the movie even cooler in a strange sort of way. (I got that link from someone else's blog...see comment to "Playing for my supper")
My train to Wenatchee arrives in about 15 minutes, so I should probably head off to the station.

no more cell-phone

Since Holden Village has no cell-phone service and I'll be in Finland most of October, I've decided to cancel my cell-phone service. The service doesn't actually cancel until Sept. 9, so I'm giving my phone to Glen to use until then. Should you call expecting me and get a masculine voice instead, that's the reason.

Procrastinati....

I should be packing for Holden Village right now. I should be doing a lot of things. But I'm not. I'm here in front of the computer again.
I got my tickets for Finland today. Hotwire sent them to me FedEx. I was amazed! If you're making travel plans anytime soon, definitely check out Hotwire. Tickets from Minot, ND to Helsinki, Finland, roundtrip were only $708 And that's from MINOT, an airport that only has three flights a day, all of which go to Minneapolis. Plus Hotwire sent them FedEx, so I got my tickets in the mail a day and a half after I ordered them. There's a catch somewhere, I know, I just haven't found it yet.
Paivi, who I'm visiting in Finland, lives in Oulu, so in total I'll have 4 flights: Minot to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Helsinki, Helsinki to Oulu. I have a six hour layover in Amsterdam, but I don't think entertaining myself for six hours in Amsterdam should be too difficult. If you've been to Amsterdam, leave me a comment with any recommendations you have on things to do there.

Into the woods

An interesting thing about Holden Village that I forgot to mention in my last post is that it's so remote there is no phone or internet service there. So starting next Tuesday I'll have no contact with friends and family for three weeks. I'm not sure exactly how difficult that will be. I've owned a cell-phone for the last year and it's almost too easy, being able to call anyone you want at any time, whether you're driving on the highway or walking to class. I think I'll enjoy the remoteness of Holden.
To get to Holden I'm taking the train from Minot to Wenatchee, then a bus from Wenatchee to Chelan, then a ferry up Lake Chelan and THEN another bus from the landing up the mountain to Holden Village. It's up in the woods, so there's great hiking. (However, there were forest fires in that area recently, so I don't know how many trails will be open.)
Although it's remote, they still get mail daily.....and I love getting mail. (hint, hint.) so here's the address.
Sephanie Blumhagen
Holden Village
HC00 Stop 2
Chelan, WA 98816-9769

I'm there from Sept 1-Sept 23. Drop me a line if you have time. I will write back.

Disorientation

After a summer on the go, it feels as if my life has ground to a screeching halt. I've been home since Tuesday night, and I simply don't know what to do with myself. It's lonely out here on the farm. I have a "to-do" list a mile long, filled with the details of unpacking, repacking, making future travel plans and what-not, but the list isn't getting done. I think the biggest problem is this: Now that I have time to think, there's one BIG question in my mind. "What do I do with myself now?" When I was in college, my life had some structure and I had a goal to work toward: my senior recital and a degree. Now the ball is in my court. The choice is mine and quite frankly that's scary. I've pondered lots of options: Lutheran Volunteer Corps (which a couple friends of mine are now doing), the Student Conservation Association, Peace Corps, Grad School. And of course there's always Gordon-Conwell Seminary, which I am still accepted at for fall 2005.
In the meantime I do have some things planned to keep life interesting. The first is three weeks volunteering at Holden Village in Washington state. I'm on the lawns and gardens crew. I'm looking forward to working outdoors and NOT working with children. (Nothing against kids, I'm just a bit tired of them after this summer)
Later this fall, in October I'm flying to Finland to visit a friend there who's a teacher. She teaches English, so I'm going into her classroom to do a presentation on America for her kids and also to help them practice their English speaking skills. Should be fun!

Home again

Glen and I hiked up Harney's Peak on Saturday. The view at the top is truly amazing. We camped in Spearfish city park that night and drove to ND on Sunday. The Suburban's "check engine" light came on somewhere on I-94, which I found rather ironic. After all, we started the summer with the "check engine" light coming on, which was followed by transmission failure and all sorts of other problems. Fortunately this time nothing was wrong. I think the automotive breakdown gnomes were taking advantage of their last chance to mess with us.
Monday and Tuesday I caught up with friends. Monday night was girl's night at Lisa's (well, her parent's place), and Tuesday was the usual crowd at LCM. And of course Glen and I premiered "Sidewalk Sonday School...Unleashed!" for them. Good times! (Thanks so much for driving up from Fargo, Alycia. It was so good to see you again.)
It was great to be on campus and see old friends and I couldn't help feeling just a bit smug because I DON'T have to get up for class in the morning. I don't have to find a lesson time that fits my schedule or sort out which classes to take when all the ones I want conflict with each other. I don't have any advisors to meet with, books to buy or club fairs to sit at. After five long years, I am FREE!!!

playing for my supper

Apparently I played pretty decently at the Red Rocks Resort and Blue Vervain restaurant tonight. (I know I called it the Minnekahta dayspa in a previous post, but I was confused. It's the Red Rocks Resort) I played Chopin Fantasie Impromptu, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair by Debussy, Mozart's Fantasie in dm, and then I sight read a bunch of stuff from the books there, includign Moonlight Sonata, Fur Elise, a Chopin etude, and a Josh Groban piece. For my music, I got a $20 meal for free AND a lady tipped me $20 and told me that she'd really really enjoyed my playing. Can you believe it? I can't! And all I had to do was ask if I could play.

YEEEHAAAAA!!!!!

It's a celebratin' night!!!!!! Glen and I are officially DONE with Sidewalk Sonday School for the sumer! I don't have to play Psalm 150 anymore! I won't hear "Give me..!! Give me!" or "I don't wanna sing. When are we playing games?" anymore! And no more cookies and koolaid or white bread and hotdish and hamburgers. I am actually going to enjoy having my normal life back.
Sadly, I also won't hear "I like that song. Let's do it again!" or "We had so much fun. You guys should come back next year." This has truly been a rewarding job. Everytime I got wornout and cranky, when vehicles and sound systems malfunctioned and I wished I was anywhere else but there....Every time that happened I would look at the kids and they would be singing and playing and laughing. They had SO much fun. Just seeing their smiling faces made it worth everything.
Tonight, as I was setting up the trailler, a little girl named Cassidy with little braids in her hair came up to me and handed me two parcels, each wrapped in black tissue paper. She said "I made gifts for your team. I made these for you because you made me so happy." I gave her a hug and thanked her. That simple act and her words of thanks meant so much and I'm so glad I did this ministry this summer. Each smile, each unchurched kid that joined us and got to hear about God, each parent that said "Thank you. My child had so much fun!", those are the things that keep this ministry going. Those things keep our energy flowing and renew us. It has been a truly wonderful and amazing summer.

out of character and out on a limb

Today I did something out of character. Glen and I were walking to the coffeehouse to check e-mail when we passed the Minnekahta resort and dayspa and Blue Vervain restaurant. I'd seen a beautiful baby grand piano throughthe window when we'd passed the night before, so I wandered in to check it out. There was music on the stand but no one was playing so I plunked my butt down on the cracked leather piano bench and started playing Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu. A middle aged man passed by and gave me a thumbs up. The action on the piano was wonderful and I found I could actually put some expression into the music. Partway through the second movement I noticed a tip jar in the corner. I was having a wonderful time and when I finished and picked up my backpack I heard applause. I turned and realized a family in the restaurant had been watching me the whole time. The applause fueled my nerve so I went to the front where another group of people, including the middle aged man also applauded me. So I asked about the tip jar and if I could come back to play for tips. The man turned out to be the manager and he said I could come Friday evening, when there would be more customers to play for. I'll play for an hour and in return he'll give Glen and me supper for free. I'm delighted! I can play for my supper!! I've learned over and over this summer that if you want to do something, you just have to ask. Just go out on a limb, be shameless and don't worry what they'll think of you. There is a chance that I'll suck royally on Friday, but that's okay. I'm leaving Hotsprings Saturday morning, what can they do to me?

coloring books for adults

We have a coloring book in our Sidewalk Sonday School trailer that claims to be "the Bible in pictures." As I flipped through this book I realized that many stories had been left out. "This is censorship!" I cried, and at that moment a new idea was born. Glen and I are going to create and market a Bible stories coloring book that includes all the other stories, the ones you don't hear about in Sunday School. This coloring book will include such pictures as "Cain kills Abel", "David and Bathsheba commit adultery", "Judas falls headlong in the potter's field and his intestines fall out", "Jael drives a tent peg through Sisera's head" and many others. I really can't understand why all these stories are left out of the coloring books. I mean REALLY! We may even package these with an extra red crayon so kids can color all the blood and gore in vivid crimson. The movie industry has shown us that sex and violence sell, therefore we think these coloring books will be a hit. What do you think?

kids

I've decided this blog will be dedicated to my thoughts on what I find when I'm out and about exploring the world. It will be a place where friends and family can check in on me if they want and find out what I've been doing.
Today was pretty uneventful. Both the morning and evening ministries went smoothly. We did a Daniel and the Lion's den puppet show, and I discovered that Glen is quite a good puppeteer.
The weather here is hot and evenings have been beautiful. Glen and I took a stroll downtown after the ministry. There was a group of teenagers gathered outside the arcade and one of them was strumming a guitar. Glen, being the outgoing person he is walked right up to them and started chatting away so I followed meekly along like a puppy dog. One offered to show us the DDR dance machine game, so we went in the arcade with him. The DDR machine has a foot pad that lights up. He chose a fast dance song from the screen and started mvoing his feet as the flashing arrows on the screen dictated. I've never seen such fast nimble feet. We went back out when he was done and someone else was playing the guitar. I think it's cool that the kids in Hot Springs have an arcade to hang out at. There's all sorts of games there, a snack bar, prizes. I thought it was a pretty neat place. My host mom for the week said it's become a place where kids meet to go smoke and drink. Granted I did see a few kids smoking there, but despite the downsides, I think kids still need a place ot hang out.

utopia

Glen and I are in Hotsprings and Edgemont, South Dakota this week. I have conluded that Hot Springs is my new utopia. Good hiking, small town, stuff to do and best of all...a coffee house that's open in the evenings. If there were a university here I'd consider moving here. We've met many interesting people already. They include: 1. a woman who ownd an import clothing shop her in town. She told us about here trips to Thailand. 2. the owner of the local art gallery 3. a homeless Native American man who wandered into our ministry in the park and started playing with our toys. We let him join in with our games. 4. A paleontology student named Will from the U of Alberta. He's here working as an interpreter at the Mammoth dig site. He actually is the reason I discovered this wonderful world of blogs 5.The pastor and her husband at the little church in Edgemont. Both retired from the police force in Dallas Texas
This is only our second day here. Who knows what adventures are in store?!
We'll see.