"Snow" in NC, Ha!

Snow accumulation on the sidewalk

Snow piles in front of our apartment building

A bench beside the apartment building

So it "snowed" in North Carolina this weekend. Well it also snowed in Helsinki, only it really snowed here. We had about a foot of snow fall from Friday night to Saturday night. It has been snowing since Thursday and has stopped temporarily today. It should start snowing again sometime either this afternoon or tonight and last most of the week. We have had a warm front come through in the last couple of days. The high for today was around 28 Fahrenheit.

Seriously, I hope that everyone has enjoyed the NC snow and that you were all safe. Stay warm and enjoy the wintry weather.

In the pictures you are looking at piles of snow that have been pushed up from scraping the sidewalks and piles of snow that has accumulated on bushes and the sidewalk. Those were not piled up from scraping, they are actual accumulations!

Ice Skating

Me and the wetland plants

View of the woods from the ice

More wetland plants

Our feet on the ice

Wetland plants again

Even more wetland plants

A cow barn, dairy most likely

Last night Randall and I decided to go ice skating in the city center. Every year the city forms an ice rink downtown that is open to the public. They charge 2euro per child/student ticket and 5 euro per adult ticket. You can also rent skates for 5 euro per pair. We were able to get the student tickets so it was an inexpensive adventure. We were both given men's hockey style skates. My size 9-9.5 US foot is too big for the average woman's shoe sizes here apparently. I have been ice skating before, when I was in the 4th and 5th grade and clung to the wall most of the time. Unfortunately, at this rink there is not a wall to cling to so I tried to rip Randall's hand off. I did almost take his finger and glove off one time. He was very nice about it and did not give me too much of a hard time. The little kids however had a good laugh at my feeble attempts to skate. I only fell twice in an hour and 15 minutes, which I thought was pretty good. Randall did really well for his first time ice skating. He was able to keep himself and me up at the same time. We do not have any pictures as we were too afraid to take to camera for fear of it being broken. We may be going back with Randall's coworkers before we leave so hopefully I wont make a fool of myself but I am not counting on that. I can hope that his coworkers will not laugh at me too much.

On a different note, Randall and I decided to walk out on a frozen river near the apartment on Saturday. It was a neat experience to walk out on the ice. We also took some pictures of the woods because the trees are still frosted over. There were a lot of people cross country skiing but they did not talk to each other or us so it was relaxing and enjoyable. The days are starting to get longer which allowed us to take our time walking and get some pictures of everything.

*Note: Randall took all of the wetland plant pictures, he just can't stay away from them.

Hoar Frost

Hoar frost pictures

For the past two weeks we have had what is called hoar frost on the trees here. Hoar frost is a type of frost that freezes so fast that individual ice crystals do not form which makes it look more like snow. It looks really neat (as you can see) and makes everything white. Most of it however, has blown off now leaving many of the trees brown again. The trees in the woods are still white as the wind does not affect them as much. All of the trees that are planted around the buildings have lost their frost. Hopefully it will return before the winter is over because all of the trees are ugly now.

This week I have to start focusing on my upcoming class starting Tuesday. I hope that this class goes well. It is an economics based course and I am not very strong in economics. I will just have to buckle down and study hard to pull off a good grade in this class. That may mean that I will not post as much due to lack of free time; but I will post as much as I can.

Mr. Tim and Mrs. Vicki's Visit

After we returned from Lapland we stayed around Helsinki and explored some of the sites near here. The first place we went was to Suomellinna. It is a fortress island off of the coast of Helsinki. It was originally created by the Swedes. It was later occupied by the Russians until Finland gained its independence from Russia. We went to a cathedral, the fortress wall and a museum. The two guys went to the wall while Mrs. Vicki and I went to the museum.

The next day we went to Estonia. We took a 2.5 hour ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn. While in Tallinn we went to the Christmas market, an old Russian cathedral, an old observation tower and hill and the mall. We did not climb the observation tower because it was closed but we did take pictures from the hill. After walking around all day we went back to Helsinki.

On New Years day we walked around Helsinki. We took Randall's parents to the building he works in and the apartment building that we lived in our first 10 days. We also walked to some of the parks that we visited and took them to the shopping center where we did our grocery shopping. We then went out to eat lunch at a restaurant that Randall and I had been to before. After eating we came home and rested.

On Saturday we got up and ate a big breakfast before taking Mr. Tim and Mrs. Vicki to the airport to catch their flight home. All in all their visit was great. It was nice seeing them and spending time with them. Everyone enjoyed the week and had a really good time.

Below is an album of the pictures from their visit. Click on the picture to see the album.

Etheridge visit

Lapland Finland with Randall's parents

Lapland is the northern most region of Finland that reaches the arctic circle. We visited the town of Rovaniemi with Mr. Tim and Mrs. Vicki during their visit to Finland. We took an overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. While in Rovaniemi we were able to experience several "safaris".

The first safari we went on was cross country skiing. That was a lot of fun, everyone except Randall fell at least twice. For those of you that have not been cross country skiing it is a workout. You can either "walk" with the skis or use your arms and the sticks to propel yourself forward. "Walking" was easier for me as I have little upper body strength. It was also easier to control your balance by "walking". We skied for about 2.5 hours with a 30 minute break. During the break we went into a tepee like building where our guide built a fire and served hot strawberry juice. This sounds disgusting but it tasted like a strawberry Jolly Rancher in liquid form. After we had warmed up we headed back to the main building where we took some pictures over looking the town. We did not take the camera with us while skiing because we were afraid of falling on it.

After skiing we ate some lunch and checked into our hotel cabin. We warmed up in the cabin for a couple of hours before our northern lights snowmobile safari. On this safari we drove snowmobiles on one of the main frozen rivers to a remote area in the woods. There was a small cabin with a central fireplace where our guides built a fire and roasted sausages. They also made coffee for those that wanted it. While we were waiting for the sausages they served us more hot strawberry juice. We did not see the northern lights as it was cloudy and the other conditions were not right. We had fun riding/driving the snowmobiles though. Randall and Mr. Tim drove while Mrs. Vicki and I rode. It was very cold and I did not want to get any colder by having the wind in my face. It was also snowing very hard on the way back (when I was going to drive) and Randall had a hard time seeing the lights of the person in front of us! After the safari was over we were dropped off at our hotel where we ate some popcorn and drank hot chocolate before bed.

The next day we were picked up from our hotel for a husky safari. We changed into snow suits and went to a husky farm where we had the opportunity to "drive" a team of 6 huskies. The huskies are not trained to voice commands, instead they have a memorized trail that all of the dogs know. I drove mine and Randall's team the whole time, Mr. Tim and Mrs. Vicki took turns driving their team. There were a few issues with the teams to start with but the guides were able to resolve them by switching dogs out on our team, the lead team and Mr. Tim and Mrs. Vicki's team. It was a lot of fun riding behind the dogs and seeing all of the sites of nature while on the trails. The husky ride was much more peaceful than the snowmobiles because it was quieter. It was also not as cold. After the ride was over we went into a cabin and had more hot strawberry juice and some gingerbread Christmas cookies. One of the guides also told us about the dogs: their breeds, training, feeding and living conditions.

After the husky safari we went to Santa's Village at the arctic circle line. We ate lunch in one of the restaurants there and walked around several shops. We also toured the Christmas museum and elf toy shop. We took pictures under the arctic circle line and bought a few souvenirs before heading back to town for our train.

Click on the picture to see more pictures from the trip.

Lapland