Memoirs

22-6-08 Weather: Rain

Midsummer went by. We missed the kokko (bonfire), we came too late, but we had great fun.

We played kroketti (croquet) on a "very heavy metal track" designed by Jaakko, and later on, an epic game of Carcassonne. We ate more meat than socially acceptable. 

We failed our bets on how many people would drown (see previous post) since the bad weather discouraged people from boating and so only one man actually drowned

There was no complete darkness during the night. Only a dark dark light and a blue sky. The moon was so big I thought it was a big balloon.

This morning we left for Lappeenranta, where we'll sleep at Henna's godmother's.

We watched "number 23" with Ville; it's rather creepy.

26-6-08 Weather: crazy

Lappeenranta is much nicer than the other finnish cities, which are usually functional but ugly as hell.

Lappeenranta has three nice churces, especially the orthodox one: tiny but filled with gold and treasures.

This country is completely queer. Bunnies frolic freely even in the capital and squirrels are all around. People collect used cans and bottles from the street and recycle them, so they get some cash. The sun shines at night during the summer, while in the winter it's rarely seen.

Lakes are everywhere; I would like to have a boat.

28-6-08 weather: "hot", 22+

Qua in Finlandia sono tornato in quel mondo fatto di incomprensione, comunicazione interrotta, parole spezzate e larghi sorrisi come unico medium interculturale. E' un mondo diverso e difficile.

In Irlanda potevo avere lunghe discussioni con chiunque. Il problema erano ogni tanto le parole troppo difficili; qua il gergo di ogni giorno è una sfida. Le persone vivono nel falso credo che la lingua sia il più semplice tramite di comunicazione, ed essa sia solo un modo per trasmettere fatti, informazioni. Invece, l'atto comunicativo stesso è un fatto, talvolta potente, talvolta creatore di fatti.

There are three keys to enter a society; language is one of them.

2-7-08 weather: warm

Se per sopravvivere è necessario muoversi, allora io vivrò a lungo.

Dopo una settimana a Lappeenranta ho passato una notte a Lahti. La giornata dopo -ieri- a sbronzarsi a casa dei genitori di Mikko. Lì ho passato la notte ed ora sono ad Helsinki. Lo zaino è sempre più vuoto, si svuota di tutto il superfluo, mentre la mente si riempie di novità. Se volevo girare il mondo, ci sto riuscendo. Non passo due giorni nello stesso luogo. Nulla è facile come lo era in Irlanda. Ma quella nazione è passata, la storia scritta. Passerà ancora molto tempo prima che io vi ritorni ancora.

L'estate finlandese regala emozioni forti, a differenza dell'inverno spento. 

History loves to get stuck in linguistic facts

"Real history loves to get stuck in linguistic facts"

Munin hails you from the far north... "so near to the north pole" as grandma said.

Actually I'm still far far away from the northpole. I can't surprise you with 'Vönderful pictürs vrom Vinlant' because I don't have the cable to download them on this laptop. They'll come soon.

I'm in Lappeenranta - which is NOT in Lapland, and it is NOT snowing - suffering from early awakenings caused by the "midnight sun" which happens to be at 4AM and there's no curtain to stop it. It's true: finnish houses are great to bear the cold dark winter but completely unfit to the summer - which is, as you may not believe, just wonderful.

Finnish summer is not just warmer but the antithesis of the winter. The days are warm (not lately... but in general they are) but not too hot, which allows you to stay in, out, wherever you want. Sometimes in Italy it's so hot that you can't really go out or at least not enjoy it.

If the day is not warm enough for you, you can just stay in sauna, which hot temperatures and incredible moist would please the pickiest tropical reptile.

The sun shines almost all the time, giving you freedom of performing any activity at any time of the day - except sleeping.

Lappeenrant (Willmannstrand) happens to be on the biggest lake of Finland - or so they say - which continues, through an artificial channel, straight to Russia. The border is only at 30 km from here; for this reasons, the city, even though very small, is packed with russians, and pretty much everything is written both in finnish and russian - no swedish. The buildings and the city are small but prettier than most of the finnish cities. It's a nice place.

Lakes are very pretty and always accompanied by tiny foresty islands. The weather is completely crazy, alternating thunderstorms with sunshine, but I heard that it's the same in all europe. And what about the food crisis? It is giving me the creeps, aren't they exaggerating? First it was a bad year for agriculture and now all the prices - even dairy, meat, chocolate, drinks - is overpriced.

Well anyway, I came to think about houses.

What are our houses really for? Are they a place for fitting human beings, feed them and make them sleep in warm beds or something else, a temple to some pagan deity?

I'm thinking of all the rooms locked, left there "for some special event" or "so that I don't have to clean them everyday". Are our houses some temple of self-worship, of esteem-wanking, to show ourselves our little amount of glory and wealth, not to show or to use? Are they some complex political instrument to promote our image? Are they a den of vanity, furniture and appearance, or a safe place for people, steady or traveling, a shelter for friends, to offer them a bed and a warm soup in the time of need?

Take care, Munin.