Saturday at the opera

Last Saturday I got to spend the afternoon and the evening at the national opera of Finland. First we toured there. It's always very interesting to get a chanche to peep into places like a big opera house. there's just so much going on in there. I had never realized that there are over 20 men working with the set pieces. It looked like a group of ants walking all over. I guess everyone knew what to do and when to do it. I was also fasinated by all the beautiful costumes in the dressing rooms.

Then we had lecture of the nights opera Bellini's Norma, about national opera's coming season and we got to meet one of the opera singers of the night. It was the first time I saw the Norma and I loved the music! Well everytime I go to opera I seem to fall in love with the opera of the night. Anyway I really enjoyed it and even had a little pit of tears at the end.

My newest hobby at the opera is to read the text in English. I have to admit that far too often I had to check the meaning of the phrase in Finnish. Well, the opera text is mostly poetry and i should probably start reading English poems to get into that world of English language. Any suggestions where to start?

I was early at the national opera and i had some time to wonder around. It was a very beautiful and warm fall day so I loved walking around the park. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. I think the Töölönlahti is one of the most beautiful places at the downtown of Helsinki.



Maple is my favourite tree mostly because of the colours it gets on fall. I used to have a big maple just outside of my window at my childhood home. On falltime we would throw the leaves around jump into piles of the leaves etc. That maple doesn't exist any more but fortunately I was able to enjoy this one right beside the opera house.

Make your own poem

I found this on hindsfeet's blog. She found it somewhere else. Finish each sentence to create your own bit of poetry.

I am
I wonder
I hear
I see
I want
I am

I pretend
I feel
I touch
I worry
I cry
I am

I understand
I say
I dream
I try
I hope
I am

Here's mine:

I am happy
I wonder if anyone else feels this same happiness
I hear the children play outside
I see beautiful autumn sun shine
I want happiness to everyone
I am happy

I pretend I don't care when people hurt me
I feel sad when I meet selfish people
I touch my hair in wonder
I worry about my children
I cry because I've been hurt by others too many times
I am lonely

I understand mothers' pain
I say I love you as often as I can
I dream of the better world to all
I try my best to make it happen
I hope I can make a difference
I am an idealist

Now make your own and let others enjoy it!

Sunday church

I'm not much of a church goer. I think I haven't found a church here in Vantaa which I would feel my own. I attend a little prayer group once week and go to the church occasionally. I like Espoo international fellowship a lot but it's very far away from my home so I go there maybe 4 to 5 times a year.

Today I decided to go to a Lutheran church only two kilometers away from my home. I grew up in a pentacostal church and somehow I learned that it's the only right church for a christian. I don't think so any more. I told you earlier how God has touched me in orthodox church and God has done it in Lutheran church too many times. Today I felt God's presence very strongly in the Lutheran church of Korso.

First thing that touched me a lot was a perfomance by a violinist. He played parts of the Bach's violin concerto in H minor all through the ceremon. I am a music lover and specially the violin music and Bach's music is something very special because he composed for God's glory. I actually have the same sentence in an opening message in my cellular phone than which Bach used in his notes: Soli Deo Gloria. That should remind me that glory belongs to God in everything in my life.

I was also very happy to realize that we were going to have communion. It's something very special to me. I ended up having an "adult baptism" at the age of 14 because I wanted to have communion. Once again I was touched and couldn't help crying. It's such an beautiful moment for me to share Christ body with others and I'm always overwhelmed by the fact that He gave His body and blood for me.

Today I started thinking that maybe I found my home church. We'll see. At least I'm going to go to that church again someday. Maybe it's next sunday.

Peat sauna

Yesterday I was in peat sauna with six of my friends. It was my fourth time and I love it! In peat sauna you first warm up in sauna then you put peat all over you as you can see in the picture and then go to sauna again. You let the peat work in you for about 20-30 minutes and then it's time to wash it off. After that you go to sauna once again now with some honey all over you. Then the play is over.

Peat sauna leaves your skin very smooth and soft and you feel very relaxed. I slept like a baby the next night and my skin still feels just wonderful. I can recommend peat sauna to everyone. The only problem is that the lady who gives the peat sauna is moving away from Finland and she didn't know anyone who would continue her work. Hopefully someone will start doing it. I love the effect on my skin, the quality time with other ladies and the possibility to make a mess and someone else will clean it. Aren't we grazy we Finns? Sauna is definetaly very essential part of our culture.

Our summer place in North Karelia

On our funeral trip to North Karelia we stayed at our summer place. We visit it very seldom and hadn't done it as a family this summer at all. The place was bought originally for Juha's parents to grow vegetables as they both were retired and longed something to do and with their history of being farmers the answer was the piece of land. It was bought right from the neighbour of Juha's mother's childhood home. Actually the little shed there is built by Juha's father of the very logs of Juha's mother's birth home. The shed is on the left and the building on the right is the sauna.

I just loved to visit the country side and the weather was so beautiful. It was almost like a summer weekend so God really blessed us with the weather. I enjoyed the simple living, peace and quiet and escpecially the real darkness of the nigt without any lights near there. We heated the sauna in the evening and we would go out to cool ourselves. I loved the feeling of freedom being able to go out all naked in the darkness! I also didn't remember how bright the stars actually are. I could have watched them hours but I got cold...

Here is the sauna. Juha's father built it from the board of the old barn. There is just the heatroom and a dressing room in it like all the saunas at the old days here in Finland. One has to do all the washing in a heat room. Naturally the sauna is heated with wood and that's the only way to get a good heat in sauna. We go to sauna at least twice a week here at home but it's just not the same in saunas heated with electricity.


This is what the sauna looks from inside. On the left is the dressing room. The sofa can be used as a bed too. Juha's mother slept in it while we took over the shed. In the shed there is just one room with one bed and one wooden sofa (like in sauna) and one leather sofa so we all couldn't fit in it.

On a good weather we always eat out. Sometimes we cook outside on fire but we also have electricity coming so there is a possibility to cook inside too. We don't have running water but we have an electric pump on our well which helps a lot. Anyway washing the dishes takes much longer than with the machine but you get to do it outside!

Because we don't have the running water we don't have water closet either but Juha's father built a very nice dike to all of us! I haven't had to empty it never and hope that I don't have to do it either. i can imagine that isn't very nice thing to do.

Right next to our summer place there is a big fence for cows. Cows maybe the thing our girls love the best in Sukkulansalo. They go inside the fence and this time Jonna got her shirt tattered by one of them. She was simply standing too close to the cow who started to cratch itself. So no harm done. The only noice (or should I say sound) you can hear during the night is the sound of the cow bells. Oh, how my soul rested!

And here is Juha and his holy cow...

The only thing we don't have and what is the biggest reason we don't go our summer place very often is the lake nearby. But in North Karelia there are many beautiful lakes and while we were driving there I remembered how much I miss the lakeside scenery! My dream is to have a home right by the lake. There are examples of the North Karelian landscapes with lake in here. Can you understand my longing for it?

Juha's uncle's funeral

Last weekend we had Juha's uncle's funerals in Outokumpu. Outokumpu is in north Karelia. Juha's mother is originally from there and Juha has a little place of his own there too. Outokumpu has become a familiar town to us because Juha's parents use to live there for ten years or so. Now Juha's mother lives in Hanko and his father is dead.

The funeral was in a local orthodox church. I really enjoyed the ceremon. Orthodox church is very close to my heart even though I don't belong to it. In Ilomantsi there is a big orthodox church which located very close to my home. Every summer I attended a children's camp arranged by orthodox church. Also many of my friends were (and I guess still are) orthodox. At least on Easter we would go to the orthodox church to enjoy the night liturgy. Even though I love good bible studies at church somehow the liturgy of orthodox church also brings God's presence to me very strongly. So I was happy the funeral was in orthodox church because I've missed it a lot!

After the ceremon in church we gathered to eat together and i was asked to sing a song there. I'm always ready for that and I felt it was a priviledge to sing there. I chose a song by Oskar Merikanto who is one of my favourite Finnish compousers. The words in a song are Eino Leino's who is a very famous Finnish poet. When we got to Outokumpu after driving over 500 kilometers I realized that i forgot the notes to home. That's just so typical of me! If there is an easy way of doing things I somehow miss it. Fortunately I have music loving colleagues and one of them had the note. So I wrote the lyrics done on phone and of course I new the tune. There wasn't going to be accompaniment anyway. My husband said that he can't stop admiring my way of dealing with disasters which I create. Sometimes I just get very frustrated with myself. Maybe someday I will learn to keep my things in order - or more likely not...

I never got to know Juha's uncle very well so personally this wasn't a hard funeral. On the contrary I enjoyed meeting with Juha's side of the family because I don't know it very well. I've been lucky because I haven't had to give up any dear person away yet. Juha's father and my grandfather have been the closest to me who have already died but in their deaths you could see God's timing very well and I felt very comfortable with those.

On athletics event for children

Yesterday I took our girls to an athletics event organised by our bank. There were about 100 children on the field enjoyig athletics. Everyone got to run a short distance run (20 meters - time was taken by electric equipment), throw a children's javelin and jump long jump. All the results were marked on a little paper and after doing it children got a little present.

Our girls loved the long jump. They did that at least 7 times. Every time the same men who had been working as volunteers on world championshps in athletics here in Helsinki messured the result with smile on they face and encouraging words on their mouth. Girls didn't like the javelin... We did some high jump too even though it wasn't arranged there and wasn't messured at all.

While our kids were taking part on these acticities I took an UKK walking test. In that test you walk 2 kilometers and after that they take your pulse. And of course the time you've spent in walking is messured too. After couple of weeks I will recieve results of my physical condition. I'm little bit afraid of that because last time I took the test results were very bad. I haven't done much after that. It's such a change in my life. I use to be in very good condition while I played Finnish baseball. How can it be so hard to take care of your physical condition after being competing athlete?

Anyway we had very good time yesterday! We went to the field by bycicles were there for two hours adn drove back (4 km one way) so you can imagine girls were ready to bed when we got home. Today the violin teacher said that Viivi was very tired today - wonder why?

Coin collecting

Since I was a child I've collected coins. I wasn't active in it for 7 years but now I've started to be active again for about a year. Today I've been organizing my coin album in order to fit the new coins my brother brought me from his trip to East Europe. I got new coins from Poland, Slovakia and Romania.

I've got coins from 105 different countries. Of those countries I've been in 22 myself. Three newest once are from this summer: Latvia, Lithuania and Peru. Someday I would like to have at least one coin from each country on Earth. That will take time but maybe when I'm 64 that day will come...

Most of my coins I've recieved from my friends and family. Some I've bought through internet or from second hand market and some I've brought myself from my travels. If there's anyone out there who would like to change some coins with me I would love to do that. I've got extras I could give up.

I also have three coins that I don't know where they are from. I can't even remember where I've got them at first place. Here are pictures of those three coins (6 pictures, each one from both sides -first and last go together, others go together in order). If anyone can help to identify these coins, please let me know!

Night of the Arts

Yesterday we took our kids to my sister's and visited the Night of Arts in Helsinki with tens of thousands of other people. Night of the Arts brings arts to parks all around helsinki for people to enjoy free. There were all kinds of arts to see and experience: dancing, singing, acting, sircus, painting, sculptures etc. I really like the athmosphere!

The main thing for us was to see the national opera's picks of the coming seasons. I LOVE OPERA! On our way to the opera we walked through a big park with many kinds of cultural activities. Still what I enjoyed the most was the art God has provided to the sky! It was really beautiful: rainbow, multicoloured clouds, sun giving the last rays etc.

Oh, how much I enjoyed the hour that national opera and ballet provided for us! When I was sixteen my father took me to opera for the first time of my life in East Berlin. We watched the Magic Flute by Mozart. Since that I've loved the aria of the Queen of the Night and yesterday I heard alive again. That was a special treat! When I was younger I dreamed that I could sing it one day. Now I've given up hope. I almost gave up the singing totally but since God has given me a good voice I've thought of starting it once again. It's the best way I've ever been able to express myself.

The other song I loved very much was performed by a Spanish opera singer who is visiting our national opera. He sang the song if I were a rich man from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. The performance was very good even though the pianist (the leader of our national opera) didn't have one page which he noticed during the performance. Well, professionals can deal with it with glamour! After that song I decided to represent the musical Fiddler on the Roof to my pupils next. That's a good one!

The school has started

Once again a new school year has started. This year I have the sixth grade. The same class that I've had already three years. What a joy it is to be able to enjoy the same kids, see them grow and learn for a longer period of time. I have a musical class and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of hard work with the basics. My pupils are very good and I just wouldn't be able to teach them anything more after the sixth grade. I'm glad that after that they will have a music teacher.

Two things are new to me this year. It was my turn to take the school's brass band to direct this year. Last year I had the string orchestra and loved doing that. I felt a little bit sad in giving it up but after two times with my new orchestra I don't regret it anymore. Of course it takes time before I remember how to write to saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, oboe and flute so that it's easy enough but not too easy. But I love learning new stuff. And because I can't proberly play any instrument I love conducting an orchestra because it gives me the opportunity to play something well! Even though the kids are the ones who make the work...

The other new thing is that I teach religion for our 9th graders. We have grades from 0 to 9. I really enjoy dealing with older pupils once in a while. they have their own ideas already and the conversations are very refreshing.

Even though I'm much busier now that the school has strated I'm glad it did. I know that there will be times that I get very tired and would like to find an easier job but I think teaching is my thing. I love being around children and youth!

At allotment garden in Oulu

When we were in Oulu for my grandmother's birthday we stayed at the allotment garden cottage of my aunt and her husband. I've always enjoyed that place a lot! Here on the left is the picture of that cottage.









Here you can see the yard of the cottage. On the right there is a little playhouse and at the back is a neighbours cottage. Picture has been taken from the stairs.

My Aunt and her husband grow black currant, red currant, raspberry, gooseberry and strawberry and some other things at their yard. I'm a berry lover so I enjoyed the berries a lot. Joonas and Viivi enjoyed picking them a lot. It's such an adventure for town children to get in touch with a little "farming". When I was a child we also had currants at our yard and I miss the chance to just go and eat them straight from the bushes.

The thing the kids loved the most at the cottage was the giant trampoline! I think they were jumping there all the time even after the birthday party untill midnight! Very good excercise. I could do it for ten minutes and get exhausted.







The other thing the kids loved (especially Joonas) wa a little bond with real fish in it. Joonas would catch them with a net bag and them put them back. Here you can see him in action. Now you can have a better look of the playhouse too.


This is the porch ofthe cottage. I really love the way how it's furnished. You can find many old things in the cottage. It gives the place a certain athmosphere which I like a lot.


Here is a cupboard from the cottage. The lowest shelf is for the girls to play with little teddy bears.


The allotment garden is situated on the river and that was a special treat for me. As I've grown up on the lake I love swimming a lot. That is one thing I miss the most of my childhood to be able to swim when ever you felt like it. Well, on winter time it was a little difficult because of the thick ice on it. Sometimes my father would make whole in it for us to "swim" on winter time too.

Anyway I really made the most of the river. I took a morning-swim, a day-swim and an evening-swim. Joonas and Viivi enjoyed swimming too but normally gave up before me. At the allotment cottage there is a common building near the river. There are saunas for men and women which they heat three times a week during the summer and twice a week in winter time. When the saunas weren't heated you could go and take a shower anyway there. Near this beach there was a play ground for children too. So in total it was the best kind of a place to stay with kids for couple of days. At least I enjoyed it a lot!

In the last picture you can see my mother (on left) and her two sisters. The one in the middle is the one who owns the allotment garden cottage.

My Grandmother's 85th birthday

My grandmother had her 85th birthday the 12th of August. We had a wonderful surprise party for her. All of her living children and most of the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren gathered at her home to celebrate her birthday from all over Finland. She didn't know that there would be a party for her! She was so happy to have us all there. I guess the life of a widow can be very lonely time to time.

My grandmother has given birth to 6 girls and one boy who passed away almost immidiately after birth. One daughter of hers has passed away about ten years ago. She has 18 granchildren and 10 greatgrandchildren.

My grandmother and grandfather get to know each other because of the war. My grandfather was a soldier and my grandmother was a nurse. One day my grandmother had to take care of my grandfather - her future husband. So, I guess I should be happy that Finland was in war with Russia (or actually Soviet union).

My grandmother is still living at home and in my opinion she's doing fine. Fortunately she doesn't have any problems with her brains or memory and discussions with her are very interesting. She is still travelling some.

My grandmother is originally from that area of Finland that now belongs to Russia. She has very dear memories from Terijoki. I have visited Terijoki too when I was 9 years old. At that trip we also visited Leningrad (now called Sant Petersburg). I got lost on a subway down at the main avenue. Somehow I managed to walk back to our bus in front of the Eremitash. My parents were of course almost losing their minds. My mom told that she went to a bathroom to pray and after that she walked right to me.

Anyway I love to have a big family. Most of my cousins are same aged and now there are many same-aged greatgrandchildren too. Our older daughter is the first greatgrandchildren to my grandparents and also first grandchildren for both my parents and my husband's parents.

In this picture you can see my parents before the birhtday party.

Here is our younger daughter Viivi in a North Karelian national costume. That's where I spent my childhood. With Viivi is my sister's older son Joonas. We went to Oulu where the birhtday party was in one car. My sister couldn't go and our older daughter Jonna also couldn't go. So in that car were my parents, Viivi and Joonas. Children enjoyed the trip a lot.

Climbing

Today I had a special day. I got to meet a friend whom I hadn't seen in about 17 years and I got to do a little rock climbing. It sure sounds awful that I have friends from so far in time that almoust 20 years! I don't feel any older that in my twenties.

Anyway last time I have rock climbed was in my youth when I visited Siperia, Krasnojarsk. My parents use to help ingrian people living in Russia (ingrians are related to Finns) at those times. They got to know a world champion in rock climbing who was also ingrian. They helped her and her family to move to Finland. So we get into the rock climbing circles in Russia and twice they invited me to their rock climbing paradice in Krasnojarsk.

Those trips to Krasnojarsk were very interesting and enjoyed them a lot. Both times we went to the surrounding wilderness to climb on the rock pilars back there. We stayed in cottage that situated on one of the pilars in the height of 40 meters. The little cottage situated in a cave of the pilar which grew straight from the ground to the heights. It was a scary place but I liked it. We stayed there for 3 to 4 days. Climbing was easy because I had three generations of world champions helping me all the time. This time was different!

I climbed indoors this time. It was different but still very enjoyable. At first I was little afraid of the height but I got use to it pretty quickly. I also realized how good excersice it was. After taking two routes I was sweaty all over. I had to give up climbing after three and half routes. But it gave me hunger for more! I recommend everyone to try rock climbing at least once in a lifetime. In Helsinki you can do it at the sport center of Tapanila. find out more: www.kiipeilykeskus.fi

It sure was good to meet an old friend too. With that special friend of mine I good look back the many summers when we were on kantele camp in Ilomantsi. Kantele is our national instrument. We had such a good time on those camps and I still love kantele music. It would be so great to take my own girls to the kantele camp in Ilomantsi and pass on that heritage to them too.

Read about kantele in here: http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=27002

By the way has any of you watch world champioships in athletics in Helsinki? Helsinki is the capital of Finland. I've enjoyed the international athmosphere it has brought to our capital.

Lima

When we were in Lima our main purpose was to get to know the slums of Lima and in those we spent the most of the time but our hotel situated in Miraflores, totally different kind of Lima. Here are some pictures from there. I hope you enjoy them. One thing I liked a lot was the colouring of the houses.

I guess whenever you are travelling with children you'll get to know where the closest swing is. Our girls enjoyed the local play park as much as ones in Finland even though mom was little afraid if the chains in swings will hold etc.

Lima is the capital of Peru situated on the coast of Pasific Ocean. There are over eight million people living in Lima. It has a mild climate, with warm summers and cool winters, very humid all year round mainly because of the Humboldt sea current. It almost never rains, but it drizzles very often during winter time. The drizzle, however, is generally so thin that only moistens every surface exposed to the atmosphere...

We didn't see the sun except once while visiting the slum of Keiko Sofia which is situated little pit upper than Miraflores and futher from the coast. Because of the lack of rain nothing grows without watering in Lima. Funny thing was that all the flower arrangments by the roads were actually adds. Once I saw Pambers written with flower arrangment. Kind of a clever idea!

I loved all these different kind of trees that were bloomig! Because there was so little green naturally anywhere people grew flowers in very small pieces of land and that was such a delight for the bypassers.

This was a very common sight on our way to slums. As you can see nothing is growing. So you can imagine what an impact a flower add has there!

Hanko, Finland

I had never visited Hanko before my parents moved there a few years ago. After that it has become a familiar place for our family. Later on Juha's mother moved to Hanko too after Juha's father's death. So now we have both grandparents' homes in Hanko in a same building just in different floors. You can imagine what a fun it is for our kids to run from other grandparents place to the other! Actually they enjoy the special attention there so much that they normally sleep in different appartments. Clever kids, don't you think!

I like Hanko a lot! I'm glad my parents decided to move there because otherwise I might not have visited that at all. Hanko has beautiful beaches, lots of rockies and the best of all these fabulous villas! I always get carried away looking at those. It sure is my dream to own or live in one of them! Well, it's almost certain that it won't happen but maybe God has a place like that for me to live in heaven.

Hanko is the southest place in Finland. I think it's worth visiting. Just the landscape is so relaxing. If you want to know more read the town web page. www.hanko.fi

Childhood pictures

This is my childhood home in Ilomantsi the eastest place in Finland. We had a lot of space to run around the house. The house is situated on the lake Ilomantsi. So the view from our living room window was beautiful. In the evenings we could admire sun setting over the lake. I miss that view a lot! From our appartment we can see sun set too which I like a lot.





Here is our sauna. If something I miss our sauna. I have so many good memories from there. In winter we would go out and roll on the snow and in the summertime it was easy to spend hours doing the sauna and swimming. In a heat room we had big window facing the lake and the view was beautiful and it was so relaxing just to look out of it.

Here you can see me and my brother on the borch of our sauna. We still have the bath tub and both of our girls have used it.

We had a lot of animals when i was a kid. Goats were my favourites. They would follow us to our outings. Once they had kids during the winter and the goats had to stay in our bathroom because the stable was too cold for newborn kids. The kids would clime everywhere. They were jumping on ou sofas etc.







We had always cats too. I think the biggest amount was 12 cats at the same time. It's me again here enjoying the company of our cats.





For a while we also had some geese. Then we had a horse. What a fun was it to take carriage rides around Ilomantsi with family! Later on a friend of mine had her ponies at our stable and that gave me an opportunity to ride a lot and take care of them. I sure loved it!



I guess I had a very happy childhood! Hopefully we are able to give a happy childhood to our own kids too!