Amazing weekend with my Kuumi family in Kuusamo!

This weekend I had a wonderful weekend away in Kuusamo with my kummi family at their cabin. Milla taught me how to ski on Saturday...my first time and i LOVED it!! I think i'm hooked, something i plan to do again in the near future (i hope!)...one more reason to come back to Finland;) We ended up skiing for almost 4 hrs, first we started on the kiddies slope for our beginners practice, but soon Elissa and I had gotten the hang of it and was "promoted" to the normal proper slope. To be honest, when i first looked down the proper slope, my heart gave a skip as i thought i would never be able to ski down...but i took it slow in the beginning and found it not that bad and for the next 3hrs we skied non-stop!

Me, looking a it worried when i saw the much steeper slope ahead of me...yikes!

When we arrived back to the cabin we made some pancakes on the open fire...Finnish style...YUM!
We also went for two walks, one on Friday and one on Sunday...we were lucky to have wonderful sunny weather with the occasional fall of snow and a few drops of rain!









The view at the lake...beautiful!

Update!

This week everyone is working hard on finishing their Northern Cultures and Societies essays as well as studing for the Finnish exam which we write on Thursday morning 8:30am. Some people have been more productive than others and have already finished their essays but that is unfortunately not the case for me. However, I have found out that my productivity levels are considerably higher in the library...who would've thought!;) So will be spending a considerable amount of my time there...

Just to give a quick update on what has happened the past couple of days, and over the weekend. On Friday I spent a wonderful afternoon and evening at my Kummi family. We chatted for hours while looking at photos. We also went to the son's "elders ball" where everyone was dressed elegantly in beautiful ball gowns and tuxedos.
Then on Saturday we went into Oulu market place for the ski-jump competition. They had built a snow ramp in the market place of Oulu town especially for the competition which took place from 18:00-19:00.

Sunday 8 of us drove to Kemi to visit the ice-castle. Four of us travelled in Daniel's car and the other four in Patrick's car. It took about 1,5hrs to get to Kemi. The ice-castle was not exactly what we expected (a bit dissapointing) but it was nice to see anyway. There were some impressive ice-sculptures inside castle. The interior temperature was an ice -8 degrees so by the end of our exploration through the castle we retired to a souvenir and coffee shop for some "luke warm" coffee and hot chocolate.
Walking on the Baltic Sea...












Inside the ice-castle...

The ice-bar in Kemi ice-castle...After exploring the ice-castle we drove about 6km to see the ice-breaker, unfortunately we were too late as the ice-breaker was not there anymore when arrived...

On our way back to Oulu we stopped over in town for some coffee and pulla in our second favourite coffee restuarant "cafe bisketti". We have all become very fond of Pulla and try and taste all the different pullas whenever we go out for coffee.

Afternoon with my Kummi family!

Yesterday afternoon at 2pm, Seppo (my "kummi dad") and Milla (my "kummi sister"), came to fetch me from my apartment. We then drove to their house, about 20km from the university. When I arrived I was welcomed in with a big hug by Marjatta (my kummi mom) who was preparing food. For lunch we ate a delicious chicken and rice dish, 8 of us sat around the family dining table eating and chatting the whole afternoon. My kummi family reminds me a lot of my family at home so it was wonderful to spend the afternoon and evening chatting and being "part of a family" again. For dessert we had a typical Finnish berry dessert, which I was very excited about...I always love trying new things especially food! So I ate a dessert of cloudberries with sugar for the first time...very delicious! After dessert we had tea, coffee and the Milktart that I had prepared for my kummi family. As I hoped, everyone really enjoyed the Milktart, and Seppo even tried a mixture of Milktart and cloudberries, which according to him, was a really good combination.

I arrived back at 8:45, and headed straight to Wolfi's place where he had organised a "eating of his Plan A - cake "flop" evening that had started at 8:30pm. Wolfi's "flop" of a cake actually turned out really well and was so good that we recommended that he has to make the "flop" again sometime...hehe!
The "the Plan A, flop cake"...it consisted of a layer of cake, covered by a layer of cream filling, covered by a layer of whipped cream and finally covered by chocolate sauce! Everyone else proceeded to play a game of Carcassonne while I indulged myself, devouring the "flop cake".

Finnish church service

Today I decided to attend a Finnish church service. Daniel made arrangements to go with his Kummi family to the 10am church service so I decided to go along. I was very curious to experience a Finnish church service and to compare it to our church services back home. At 9:40, rather tired and in need of more sleep, Daniel and I walk down to the Lutheran Church which is situated on campus, just a 5min walk from our flat. It is a beautiful sunny (but icy) morning, I checked the thermometer before we leave (we have a thermometer outside our window & we check it everyday to see how cold it is) and it is an icy -18 degrees. We meet Rainer and Leila (Daniel's Kummi family) outside the church and proceed into the church. It is a small, quaint church and everything inside the church is colour coded either green or white. The organ begins the church service and we try and follow as best as possible, throughout the church service. Even though we don't understand anything, I find it a rather peaceful experience and throughout the church service I gaze out of the glass windows surrounding the church and watch the squirrels playing in the snow covered trees outside.

We also have communion and then after the service we are all invited to enjoy tea, coffee and, the very popular Finnish bread - Pulla - in a room adjacent to where we had the church service. We sit with Leila and Rainer and chat, drink tea (I had a delicious apple, cinnamon and raisin tea!) and eat Pulla. It is wonderful to chat to some local Finns, as I find that for the majority of the time, we are surrounded by other exchange students, so it is refreshing to experience some local culture.

After church Rainer and Leila invite both Daniel and I for lunch at their house (which is located 3.5km from the church). Rainer and Leila are a wonderful couple! At their house we all get involved in some baking and cooking. We first bake a delicious chocolate cake (I will definitely make sure to get the recipe!). Then we help with peeling of the potatoes for a potato, salmon, cheese bake that Leila was preparing for lunch. Throughout the baking and cooking we chat about Finnish culture and interesting facts, as well as answer questions about our own countries (South Africa and Germany)...

While lunch is baking in the oven, Daniel and I decide to play a round of chess. Both of us haven't played in years so we are quite evenly matched...we abandon our our chess match as soon as lunch is announced, by now we are rather hungry and eager to eat! The food is delicious! The potato/salmon bake is accompanied by carrot salad, three different types of Finnish bread served with creamy cheese & slices of apple and onions , a Russian type of sauerkraut (which actually tastes really good!) and a delicious red wine. After lunch we enjoy a really good cup of coffee (the best coffee I have tasted in Finland!) and chocolate cake. Rainer and Leila have a beautiful elegant house, and as we sit, chat and eat chocolate cake and ice-cream, we can hear the crackling of the fire in their elegant fireplace...

At sunset, they then drive us back to the university where we attend a tea party at Amy's (South Africa) flat...where we continue eating...

21st Jan, Kummi family meeting

We finally met our kummi families at a meeting hall in town. Paul, Daniel and I were planning to walk into town but decided to try our luck with hitch-hiking. We did not feel up to walking in icy cold weather for 6km. Luck seemed to be on our side as within 5 min a friendly guy from Macedonia offered us a lift into town. He ended up being a very friendly chef at a Mediterranean restaurant in town called "Olympos". When we arrived in town we still had an hour to spare, so we went into a very cosy pub for a hot chocolate!

I ended up having a wonderful time chatting to my kummi family and they have already said they would take me ski-ing sometime at their cabin up north! Finally I can learn how to ski!!!

In the evening, Wolfi, Daniel, Marko, Paul, and I made "pizza bread" dinner together while looking at all the photos from our hiking weekend. The recipe came from Wolfi's famous housewife recipe book.

Wolfi, making the pizza bread topping...what skill!!