You have to regroup every once in a while.

This past Thursday after class let out I was free as a bird until next Monday; it's officially fall break! Immediately after class Valeria and I headed out for a camping adventure that I gravely needed. 

Valeria's boyfriend, Emi, attends another university in Finland, Tampere College, where he is in school to become a wilderness guide; his program sounds incredible. Basically he and his classmates are learning how to take people out on wilderness expeditions. For example, they have to partake in two internships during their schooling, and one of his classmates is doing his internship in northern Sweden taking groups of people on multi-day, cross-country skiing camping trips to see the Northern Lights. This kind of stuff gets me all excited! Anyways, back to my camping trip! 

So Emi and his classmate Dave decided to utilize their wilderness guide knowledge and plan a camping trip for Valeria and I. So the Esquizo Tours drew up a food plan for us, and took us out  to the wilderness. (ps. I later learned that that esquizo was merely a bad translation of skitzo haha)

On Thursday after class Valeria and I headed to their town, which is not Tampere, but they are rather at another location, in a town called Kuru. After arriving there we spent the evening at their place, which is a giant house that all of their classmates live at. We had dinner, went to sauna, and hung out until it was time to call it a night. The next day we got up and began our Esquizo tour, and at the last minute Matthijs decided to join us as well.

Kuru is already a bit in the country, and is surrounded by amazing forests, so we began our trip from essentially their backyard. We hiked about 7 miles the first day throughout beautiful forest landscape, it was stunning. We also got unbelievably lucky and didn't get rained on. The weather forecast called for rain all 3 days of our journey, but we instead got glimpses of sunshine, I was beyond grateful. After our 7 mile hike on Friday we arrived to our first laavu. Laavus, I learned from my trusty Esquizo guides, are scattered all throughout the forests in Finland, and directly translated it means "lean-to." Laavus are my favorite bit of Finnish culture that I have discovered so far, they're a brilliant concept. They are free places for people to camp out throughout all of Finland; their high taxes have resulted in many amazing things. 

Sometimes I love how accurate Wikipedia can truly be, because they define a laavu far better then I ever would: A Finnish laavu, is a small building with only three walls and a sloping roof. The open side is commonly oriented away from the prevailing winds and rains. It is intended for temporary residence during hiking in the wilderness. Like wilderness huts, laavus are not kept warm, and may not be reserved beforehand (they operate on a first come, first serve basis). A laavu is intended to only provide a safe place to sleep during fishing or hiking trips. Visitors are expected to bring their own sleeping bags. Laavus also have a place to hold a campfire in front of them. Additionally, they have an outhouse and a shelter for firewood that is periodically restocked by the gnomes.

In other words, you don't have to carry a bulky tent with you when on camping trips in Finland, how amazing! You also don't have to worry about whether or not firewood will be available, nor do you have to carry an axe! The gnomes part is mostly a joke, but it's a lot more fun then realizing that the forest service comes around supplying the laavus with firewood. (On Saturday morning we woke up to the sound of a tractor at about 6 am; the gnome driving it was checking on the supply of firewood). The other amazing part about all of this is the fact that the laavus aren't overrun by homeless people, and the axe and firewood is honestly left there for the next set of backpackers. Finns are very honest people and never take advantage of the system, it's refreshing. 

On Saturday we left our first laavu and hiked to another laavu that was 10 miles away. After hiking to the second laavu we set up camp, made dinner, and enjoyed the campfire until the wee hours of the night. Saturday night it rained while we were sleeping, but we didn't mind because as long as it stopped by morning, which it did, we vowed to not complain! 

On Sunday we hiked back to Kuru from the second laavu, and that was about a 5 mile hike. Once we got back to Kuru we were tired and ready for a relaxing evening. The typical Finnish evening ensued: we made dinner, went to sauna, and hung around enjoying one another's company. On Monday morning everyone had class, so I headed home to Lahti. I will be enjoying the remainder of my fall break leisurely hanging around my house finishing up some schoolwrok, running, and spending time with friends! 

Now I will photo bomb the hell out of my blog with epic pictures from the first Esquizo Wilderness Expedition of 2012. Supposedly there will be many more Esquizo tours to come; I'm pulling for a trip to northern Finland to see the Aurora Borealis, I was told it'll likely happen! :) 

Photo credit is due to Valeria and Emi. 

We are geared up and ready to go! (Dave, Emi, me, Matthijs)

What's that sign?

I learned it depends on who you ask! North Americans would call this a moose, but the rest of the world calls it an Elk. This was one of many realizations I had this weekend.

We took a break on day one to have lunch alongside a beautiful lake.

Dave and Matthijs enjoying the lunch break.

And then we finally arrived at laavu number one!

I was super excited to discover my first laavu.

Dave chopping the firewood for our fire.

A better view of the firewood shelter.

Emi preparing a fire for the first night.

Matthijs and I were the cheerleaders; everyone needs a job.

I didn't let the fact that everything was flooded get me down! 

Because how can you care when it's this pretty?

I just had to dry my feet by the fire is all, no biggie!

Our laavu had a real green roof!

How cool is this?!

The first laavu was also situated along a lake.

This resulted in many beautiful pictures.

I breathed a little deeper.

Looking back from the lake at our laavu.

So beautiful.

Emi woke up really early on Saturday and took this hilarious photo of all of us trying to stay warm. That pile of hair in the middle of the picture is mine.

Saturday's hike was the longest and maybe the most beautiful.

I loved this piece of yard art that we stumbled upon.

There is moss covering everything, I love it!  Few things make me happier then a moss laden forest.

We eventually got to laavu number 2; Matthijs and I were very excited! 

Those are my shoes on that pole, they needed to dry. Bonfires are truly the best. 

And on Sunday we hiked back to Kuru, through the beautiful Finnish forest.

Sometimes it is just a simple weekend in the woods that is enough to help me regroup after a stressful couple of weeks. Adjusting to life in Finland hasn't been that smooth, nor has it been that difficult either, but regardless it's good to get back to basics every once in a while. I couldn't have had a better weekend if I tried. I am thankful for new friends and amazing experiences in my new homeland. I can't wait for many more adventures. 

On Friday night we went around and said what we were thankful for, and we all agreed that we are thankful for the gnomes supplying us with firewood. Then on Saturday during our hike we found this guy hanging out on his day off. 

Lots of little things

The most exciting things in the last week have had to do with school. I guess this makes sense since that's why I am here. Needless to say, this post will be heavily loaded with photos of school adventures. First is my student ID card, which is actually a decent photo of myself, for once. And then there is my new Finnish ID card, it serves as my main source of identification these days.

I need to start learning Finnish to decipher some of these phrases.

This photo, however, I hate. 

My bicycle ride to school takes maybe around 7 minutes and it's downhill along the lake. It is a great way to start out my mornings, especially while it is still lined by trees with beautiful leaves. 

This is my bicycle, sorry for the terrible photo. It's honestly a piece of crap, but it was cheap, so it'll do.

This is the view from my balcony! I head down that little trail and turn right! :)

Pretty trees!

Looking back towards my flat.

One of the courses I am taking right now is titled Environmental Management & Economics. One day during the course, we got to go on a field trip to a local furniture manufacturer ISKU. We got to hear about ISKU's environmental management approaches, only after the complimentary breakfast they provided for us! They are a very eco-friendly manufacturer, and it was very interesting touring their facilities. 

This machine was testing how many times the chair could be sat on before it broke.

This machine was testing how far the chair can be bent before it snaps.

 Another course I am taking is titled Urban Water Protection. We got to take a field trip in this course as well to the local wastewater treatment plant. It may sound like a disgusting tour, but I found it really interesting! I have always wanted to go on one of these tours, and I finally got the opportunity. This is one of multiple wastewater treatment plants that services Lahti, and it is in a cave! I thought it was brilliant when I learned that the plant is in a cave; it's a genius way of solving the problem of the smell permeating the nearby neighborhood. This facility is taking most of their sludge that results and burning it to harness energy, it's awesome!

I was really hopeful I'd see Batman. 

It was shockingly not as smelly as I thought it might be; they flush clean air into the cave once an hour.

There were many processes happening that I won't bother boring anyone with.

 In other school related news, Valeria and I have gotten the opportunity to involve ourselves in a green roof project that one of our professors is working on. We have the very important task of going up to the roof after every rain event and emptying the canisters that are attached to the green roofs. There are 8 green roof blocks, separated into 4 segments each, resulting in a total of 32 jugs to be emptied. Prior to emptying the jugs we measure the amount of water that passed through the green roofs. Additionally, we are measuring the electroconductivity of the water. We are measuring the quantity of water in order to determine how effective the roofs were in retaining the rain water, and we are measuring the electroconductivity of the water in order to see how many nutrients passed through the green roofs. The general idea is that effective green roofs, ideally, should retain a significant portion of the rain water, and they should also retain a lot of the nutrients that the rain water has, in a sense purifying the water that passes through. A large problem with stormwater is the amount of nutrients it contains and then passes to the waterbodies, potentially overloading them resulting in eutrophication. 

The green roofs!

I  was in charge of measuring this particular day.

And then I would read my result to Valeria, the recorder!

It's pretty exciting stuff, as you can see!

Other than these exciting stories, everything else school related is rather ordinary. I have my first exam this week, I am a little nervous, but more excited to get the ball rolling! I have been studying a lot, or at least it feels like it! 

It's difficult to focus when the sun is shining, but I remain diligent.

And my last bit of school news is that I was awarded a 1600 € grant!!!!!!! All International Masters Students were eligible to apply for a chance at one of the 50 startup grants that our University was offering. The only basis for this grant was our letter of motivation that we wrote for our application to the University, so it was out of my hands a long time ago, before I even knew that this letter would also be used for receiving possible grant money. I learned that there are 25 International Masters Programs at the University of Helsinki, and therefore 2 students from each program received such grants. I received the email on Thursday right before touring the wastewater treatment plant! I was so excited! This money will really help me out a lot, especially since I still haven't been able to find a job. The other person from my program that received a grant is Steve. We will go to Helsinki on November 1 for an International Student Grant celebration, and it said there will even be free food! Haha, it's the little things sometimes! 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My weekend is now drawing to a close, and it was a sunny weekend, which equals a good weekend in Finland! I am in a good mood whenever the sun shines and am trying to be very positive about the weather, regardless of the cold, as long as the sun shines! On Saturday we went and picked more apples from someone's tree! We got three baskets worth, they're so delicious! I have even attempted to make apple cookies out of the plethora of apples, they were kind of flaky, go figure. 

I'm a real Johnny Appleseed.

I ate four apples in one day; no doctor visits for me.

Gluten free baking is kind of whack.

At least I didn't burn them.

Last exciting story, I have been running a lot lately. I figure with so much time on my hands I really have no excuses to not be running. It also helps that Valeria likes to run, so we have been running together a lot. Aaaand not to mention, it is still not a frozen tundra outside, so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to run outside while I still can. Today as we finished our run the sun was setting over the lake and it was beautiful! We stayed outside for a bit and watched the ducks and the sunset, it was great.

It truly looks as if the sun is rising when it is really setting here, it's incredible.