Walking in a Winter Wonderland

By far the coolest picture I've ever taken.  It captures the magic of the first real snow storm of the season.  This picture really speaks for itself.  It was taken at the tree lighting party that Eija threw last Sunday night.  She invited friends over to light the trees.  Here in JYV they have the annual tree lighting ceremony for the city which was now two weeks ago.  But since we had wrapped our own trees with lights, it seemed only fitting to have our own tree lighting party.

So you can't really make anyone out as it was snowing and the camera wouldn't flash.  Hmm...  Is it strange to see people using umbrellas when it's snowing?  I thought so.  But, I learned that when it's just at the freezing point the snow is quite wet so it melts when it hits your coat.  Who knew?  Not this Texan...  The group is waiting for the countdown to begin.  Eija and I practiced it because there are two light switches right next to each other and we didn't want to flip the wrong one.  :)  So, then the countdown began.  10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...

The first Christmas lights of the season!  Notice the candles in the windows.  Afterwards we went inside to enjoy Glogi, date bread that Eija made, and American brownies.  We watched the snow fall for about two hours before everyeone went home.  It was so cozy listening to Christmas music and sipping on glögi (see last picture for a description of the drink).  The evening festivities top the "best experiences in Finland" chart.

This is the lamp post in the garden.  There's a hare that lives in the garden and I see him every once in a while.  This is what I imagine Narnia looks like when Lucy stumbles upon the lamp post.

It's a Winter Wonderland!  This is what greeted me in the morning.

I left my bike at church on Sunday because one of my friends gave me a ride home and then gave me a ride back to the church on Monday.  After remembering what it felt like to slide across the street when I fell while biking last week, I decided it would be wisest to use my two happy feet as transportation to school.  Interestingly, though, I find walking in snow and on ice to be more dangerous than biking.  I've perfected my crashes such that I avoid breaking bones or crushing skulls.  But when I'm walking I don't know how to manage falling strategically when my feet slip out from underneath me.  This is all to say that I walked back to the church to pick up my bike Mon. night and rode (very, very slowly) home.

Famous staircase that leads up to the water tower.  I need to come back and see what it looks like at night when the lights are lit.

A park in the city center where the water tower also sits.

This sculpture is placed in front of the main university library.  Until the snow came, I never noticed that it is such a vibrant blue, and with the whiteness of the snow, it has the makings of the Finnish flag.  Love it!

The walk way from the main building to my building.  It's really incredible to see how it's transformed.  There were bobcat machines that sanded and salted the walkways to help melt the snow.  Brr!

Helsinki!  We stayed in this hotel.  I love the lights.

This is the back side (or front side) of the hotel (the building on the left).  It's all glass so while we were working on our projects in the hotel restaurant, we could people watch. 

Any guesses what this is?  Right.  It's a living room.  But what makes this special is that it's in the inside of the elevator.  I was amazed at how "dead" space was used so beautifully at the hotel and in the mall where the hotel is also located.  In the hotel, each of the elevators had different images on the doors and the wall opposite the doors.  Very creative!  In the mall, the staircases had the names of places like Subway painted on the stairs such that you could see the name as you walked up the stairs.  Who would have thought?!

An artist's rendition of our hotel.  Nice.

When the elevator doors opened on our floor, this was what awaited us.  The windows!  You could sit on the sofa and enjoy the city lights.

I paid a visit to the Finnish Association of the Deaf and the Parents of Deaf Children Association which is a twenty minute bus ride north of the city center.  The building is called the "Light House."  It houses all of the associations that work with deaf and hard of hearing individuals. 

Bustling city!  Well, bustling for Finland.  The city has a great feel to it!

The Parliament House.  We had very little time to do sightseeing and such, but before our train left on Friday we raced over to at least get a peek of the building from the outside.  You can see someone protesting on the bottom right-hand side of the stairs.  There's a yellow sign there.  I'm not sure what it said, but someone had set up camp there.

All I know is that this is some place that is number one on my list of places to visit when I'm back in Helsinki.  The church has a fortress wall that surrounds the church premises.  Can't wait to go back and see inside the church and walk around the grounds.  While I was taking the bus from the city center to the Light House, we passed a park that had a nearly life sized chess board and chess pieces.  The parks in Finland have creative games and activities.

This is the train and bus station on the right; on the left is a restaurant (I think the cuisine is from one of the Baltic states).  Beautiful!!

 

Another creative use of space.  I stopped in at the Post Office Museum (Posti Museo) that is housed right across the street from the train station.  These are matchbox post office trucks.  And they're placed in the floor.  I noticed that the museums here also display various artifacts in these shadow boxes that are placed in the floor.

This was what was left of the snow when I returned to JYV on Friday.  The forecast said that the snow would melt.  I wasn't so sure when I saw how much snow there was on Mon. and Tues., but the meteorologists were right.

Walking through the city center here in JYV on my way to church from the train station to attend the weekly young women's activity.  You can see the star that now hangs in the heart of the city.  I was surprised by the thought that came to mind while I was walking, "It feels so good to be home."  JYV feels like home.  I have just two weeks to go before I head home for the holidays.  I'm so sad to be leaving.  Really.

Remember the roses we made out of egg cartons?  Well, the young women packaged the roses for the widows and older single sisters in our ward.  We'll go caroling and hand deliver them a week from Friday.  I can't wait!

I took a long walk through the forest on Saturday (notice how much snow is left...right...hardly any).  Last Saturday I also took a walk in the forest and ended up 4km from home.  Thankfully I am not directionally-challenged.  I was so proud of myself for finding my way home without having to stop and ask for directions (not that I hadn't wanted to...it's just that there are so few people who are also walking in the same part of the forest that I found myself in).

Once every 10-15 years the forestry service of Finland comes through and cleans up the forests by removing trees, shrubs, etc.  The last few weeks we've seen piles like these all over.  I was amazed at how orange the insides are.  They were nearly the color of the sun as it was setting.

I continued walking and met the sun as it was shining through the trees.  You can see the lake in the right side of the frame.  Spectacular!

Eija made potato soup for dinner.  Yum!  The best part was a heart shaped core that was growing inside the red bell pepper.  You can see it on the plate.  Aww...  We keep finding hearts everywhere.  Which reminds me...a few weekends ago Eija and I went down to the city center to Old Bricks Inn which is where older people hang out on in the evenings.  Eija wanted to introduce me to glögi  a Christmas hot drink that's similar to apple cider (American apple cider, mind you, as it is also non-alcoholic) but made with berry juices.  It's divine!  At any rate, Eija drove and it was difficult to find parking.  There was just one space open that was for those with a handicap parking permit.  Eija said, "We're love-handicapped so we qualify!"  Oh yeah.  She totally parked there.  :)

I will sorely miss the friends I've made here when I leave in two weeks.  I'm sure Eija is already sick of hearing me say, "I'm not ready to go back yet.  I will be so sad when I leave!"  I'm happy to be coming home to see my family and friends back in the states, but a big part of my heart will remain in Finland.  It's such a privilege to be here.