Christmas Peace

The proclamation of Christmas Peace, a tradition in Finland since the Middle Ages:

"Tomorrow, God willing, is the most gracious feast of the birth of our Lord and Saviour, and therefore a general Christmas peace is hereby declared, and all persons are directed to observe this holiday with due reverence and otherwise quietly and peacefully to conduct themselves, for whosoever breaks this peace and disturbs the Christmas holiday by any unlawful or improper conduct shall be liable, under aggravating circumstances, to whatever penalty is prescribed by law and decree for each particular offence or misdemeanor. Finally, all citizens are wished a joyous Christmas holiday."

This give of course good reason for kids to be on best behaviour or they just may spend Christmas in a Finnish jail cell without presents. So the declaration was made in Tuku today at noon and we've been very good and aren't working.

Santa even dropped by some friend's house and handed out gifts to the kids. The kids know that Oulu is the first stop after Rovanieme so he comes in the late afternoon on Christmas eve. Though we aren't sure if he uses the reindeer or just saves them for international travel. I think he just drive a pick-up truck in Finland.

Disco! Finnish Style

I haven't been to any dance clubs yet, but in case I need to prepare I have a lesson review.

Finns Happy and Least Corrupt

I like surveys and world maps. Here's a couple of interesting ones showing Finland scoring very high on both:

• Corruptions Perceptions Index (high score is less corruption, more transparency) and
  
• Quality of Life (Happiness Scale)(pdf).

Corruption Index

Winter is Really Here!

Wow! What a difference a week of really cold weather makes. The bike riding is much easier on the hard snow as it becomes a little more consistent. The mud is gone and the lakes are starting to freeze over. I spent all day yesterday outside pretty much riding and skating with the kids on the lake that is a 5 minute walk behind our apartment. There's so many winter sports to do and so little sunlight you really have to get out and take advantage of any sight of the sun you can get because you don't know when you will see it again.

Some photos from the ride before my derailleur hanger snapped off: http://personal.inet.fi/urheilu/pekka.lindvall/kuvaalbumi.htm

PSA - Don't Fool Around with Frozen Water

Public Service Announcement from Finland -

Don't Fool Around with Frozen Water - If you do you could fall into the cold water and die immediately. LOOK - TRY - DIE. So you see, frozen water can be dangerous.

Looks like our little talk about the dangers of frozen water were clearly understood. But we were too late for these guys:


Well, we got onto the ice safely on some shallow areas after seeing a big fishing party, several skaters, and a couple of kite surfers on the ice.

Maailman Lapset Mix

Sweden has Abba, Iceland has Bjork and now Finland has Isabelle (still working on a stage name), Here's the the Maailman Lapset Mix (Children of the World) [mp3, 1:26]

The Adventures of Flat Justin

When it's cold and dark most of the time you have to get out and find creative things to do. So this Father's day in Oulu (Father's Day is 2nd Sunday of Nov in most northern europe countries) we made a movie:

Hi-Tech Bottle Return

Lot's of high-tech in Finland, like this bottle return machine at the Prisma.

Guy-Lussac’s Law & Exploding Tires

I got my new Kenda Carbide-tipped front studded tire on (no, not that Carbide) and ready for a nice snow/ice ride tomorrow. I aired up the tires outside when it was really cold. Later on in the evening I decided to bring the bike inside to let the hub and bottom bracket grease warm up. Riding in the cold, cold morning can be quite a stiff experience even without having to get the bike parts to thaw out.

About 5 minutes after I brought in the bike - KER BLAM! The front tire blew out with a loud pop.

I inspected that this wasn't an issue with a pinch or studs poking through so I figured it was the temperature change. But having been through this before in the Texas heat and bikes in cars with exploding tires I had to figure out how much perssure change there actually was. So I found Guy-Lussac’s Law explained pretty well by Fix Werx and they suggest that you get about 2 psi pressure change for every 10 degress F of temperature change.

My case:

T1 = 24.8 F
T2 = 72.5 F

Add 460 to T1 and T2 for absolute temperature change and you get:

60/484.8 = P2 / 523.5

.12376 = P2 / 532.5

P2 equals 65 PSI. So only about +5 psi change for brining my bike inside for a tire rated from 50 - 75 PSI. However, in the Texas heat if you are running 120 psi and put your bike in the car you can really see how you could blow out a tire.

So I figure I attribute it to old tubes, lots of riding and really crappy rim tape that the manufacturers always put on stock bikes.

Rockin' Oulu Halloween

Got my first gig today. Two shows: Live at the Oulu English-Speaking Playschool.
Halloween isn't really celebrated in Finland, except at the international schools so all the kids got dressed up and had some party time together. It was also American international day at the playschool so I got invited to play a few songs with the kids. I played some Johnny Cash, Flaming Lips, Laurie Berkner, Nat King Cole and Van Halen - a pretty good assortment of Americana I think.



So not surprisingly we didn't get any trick-or-treaters tonight. Not that the 5 inches of fresh snow kept them away. Kids in Finland actually do go door-to-door, but on easter (Palm Sunday) and dressed as colorful Easter "witches".

Snow!

Normally I wouldn't get so excited about a little snow, especially at such a high latitude. But after a month of temperatures between 1 and 10 degrees Celcius and lots of rain you get kind of sick of it and just wish it would be -10 all the time. Well finally today we are getting a fine dump!

And the most exciting part is getting to ride in the snow the first time. There wasn't a lot of ice on the roads so the white stuff held pretty well. I did only crash once as I was pulling of the road to take a snapshot. Right when I pulled the trigger another cyclist crashed. You can see his legs coming off the bike to prepare himself.


The strange part is that all the snow sticks to the chain, hardlebars, hub, and casette. Since I hate having rusty components I can see trying to keep a bike running in the winter will be a nightly chore. But riding in the foul weather so far has been quite fun and is much safter than a car : )

Of course the kids are thrilled and are having to be dragged in for supper. They were making snow angels in the middle of the driveway when I got home.

Finland National Cyclocross Championships

The SM Cyclocross Championships 2008, the one and only sanctioned cyclocross race in Finland, took place on 5 October at a place I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce: Ghaziabad, KÖYKKYRI. This location is actually an XC ski area just south of Oulu in Kempele, Finland.

The ski track is a bit of an oddity in that it has about a 150 foot "mountain" in the middle, in an otherwise completly flat area. However, this makes for quite an interesting course with varied terrain from deep sand pits, fire roads, single track and slippery climbs. Cyclocross as a sport is relatively new to Finland with cross bikes only arriving in shops since about 2003. This comes as somewhat of an oddity since there is essentially a nine month cross riding season in Oulu. Certainly the best long distance rides of any terrain in central Finland can be done on a cyclocross bike.

In order to do categorized racing in Finland you must be a resident for a minimum of 18 months. So this left me in the enthusiast category. This is just as well since former UCI pro rider Kimmo Kananen came with some fierce competition in the 60 minute mens heat. The laps were 3.3 km loops which the categorized riders where doing in around 8 minutes. My laps were a couple minutes shorter at around 10 minutes per lap.

Perhaps one of the coolest parts of the race was that I was able to just hop on my bike and take the one hour casual bike ride down to Kempele all on bike paths. It's very easy just to ride anywhere you want and not have to worry about getting lost or run over by an SUV.

I now at least finally have a European race under my belt with a little bit of hardware with some Finnish words on it I haven't yet translated. So if I'm running for political office some day I'll make sure to add that I took 3rd in the Finnish Cyclocross National Championships!

Oh and check out the photo - I'm the short guy. There's lots of tall dorky looking guys in Finland, so I blend right in.


More photos, news article and results:

- Kavela News Article on the Race (google translated)
- Results
- Flickr photostream
- and more pics.

A good time was had by all!

Ruska

There's a word in Finnish for when the leaves turn and get all colorful and you go look at them and all that: Ruska. We don't have a word for that in English. But it looks like this:

Soratieajo 2008 - Cyclrocross in Oulu

Now that the leaves are falling, the wind is picking up and the weather is getting generally nastier, the weekly group ride I've been participating in (08-Lenkki) has moved to the forest floor where is warmer and less windy. The threat of rain all day and high winds (40 mph gusts) didn't keep any one away and 37 rides show up for the annual meeting of road, cyclocross, and mountain biker for Soratieajo 2008.

I had no idea what this was at the start but it wound up a 5.5 hour ride through about every imaginable terrain you could find in the forest. So my new cross bike is now officially baptised.

Here's some pics of the ride.

And sportstracker data.

The weather here isn't a factor for riding, it's just another way to dress, and maybe a little extra anti-freeze in your hubs. As one of my colleagues told me, "Finn's aren't made of sugar!"

Must Be Santa!

Mission Accomplished! We crossed the arctic circle and made a visit to the real Santa. It wasn't crowded at all and took us about 20 minutes to see Santa (you aren't allowed to take your own pictures of the inside of Santa's place). In December we were told it takes about 4 hours of waiting in line before you get to see Santa, so catching him early in the season is a wise move (even without snow). Here's a movie of some sights at Santa's Village and the Arctic Museum in Rovanieme.

Dyn-o-mite!

Isabelle got her picture and little quote in the OIS Dynamite. I haven't seen the cafeteria during lunch but Isabelle raves about it and the menu sounds like a chic 5 star restaurant. With items like:

- Reindeer Lasagna
- Porridge with Lingonberry Sauce
- Salmon Soup with Creamed Mushrooms
- Macaroni and Cheese with Minced Reindeer
- Peppered Bear Testicles with Holinday Sauce



OK, I made the last one up, but they do eat some pretty tasting sounding stuff.

And for some reason Isabelle's teaches keeps thinking she is from Dallas. Why is Dallas the only thing any body knows about Texas (yes, I know, who shot JR?). Being called a Dallas-ite is like being called a Blood when you are a Crip, or even worse, suggesting you are from Tampere instead of Oulu!

Adios Summer

-2.7 C this AM. Winter is comming.


But is sure does make for a beautiful commute on the bike!

The Daily Oulu Rush Hour (with some spilt blood and a lost tooth)

I got some pics today of the daily commute. When the weather is nice we can all ride our bikes to school and work together. It's 4 miles to the schools, which are right on the edge of downtown and is quite a nice pedal - but really pedaling anywhere in Oulu is a joy. Riding a bike never gets old and there's some sense of accomplishment felt just arriving somewhere you don't get being in a car. So Isabelle has been riding her new bike to school quite a bit, much to our amazement. She had never ridden more than a mile or two at one time and is now riding 8 miles a day.

She has been getting much more confident in her bike handling and is learning to keep the bike straight and not to stop in the middle of the bike lane - it's easy to forget the bike way is a highway (albeit a slower moving one) and there's usually someone passing you in both directions. But most important to remember is that the bike lanes allow mopeds and small motorcycles as well and some can zip by quite fast (usually those Finnish high school hoodlums listening to their death metal).

So any ways I've been playing around with sports tracker on my N78 and it has the nifty little feature that it can upload your pictures tagged with your GPS location to show where you took the pic. So there's no need to let the gov't monitor you, as you can do it yourself now. The full pics are here.

Oh, and the blood and tooth. Isabelle ran off the road on the way home from school and crashed in an attempt to get herself out of the gravel and back on the road. Amidst here attempt she hit a hole and flew over the handlebars and fell on her face. I wasn't there, but the story goes that the street was covered in blood but when she noticed her tooth was missing she got a little excited. Luckily the tooth was recovered and is waiting to be exchanged for euros. So despite the trauma and bruises and some new loose teeth, there was some small reward in dusting herself off, riding home, and putter her tooth below her pillow for the nigh. Now I have to come up with 5 euros to pay off the T-Fairy - that exchange rate is killing me.

Finland: Poised for Global Domination?

A Perfect Day

Simplicity...that alone can make a perfect day. Yesterday morning I biked the girls to school with Fiona in the kid seat attached to my bike and Isabelle on her own. We took the bike roads in to town and dropped Belle by her school first. Then on to Fiona's school where she was delivered safely. My newly found friend from NM was dropping off her son at the same time so we headed out on our bikes and explored the outskirts of Oulu for a couple of hours. Berries, berries everywhere! Did some shopping for rain gear (desperately needed since today is the 5th day of rain in a row), found some corn tortillias (I've been searching for these for 4 weeks & now I can make enchiladas), and headed back into town where we had a lunch of fresh sushi at the fish market. By then it was 2:45 pm, time to head back towards Isabelle's school. So we took the scenic route of bike paths by the river and through the park where we stopped for dessert and coffee. Fiona, Isabelle and I started biking home together about 4pm and got drenched with rain, but it was no bother as we were done for the day. Lovely.

Interesting Cycling Stat

- In Oulu, Finland 37% of all trips made are on bike [LEDA Case Study].

- The city in the US with the largest % of bicycle communters is Portland, at 3.5% [US Census Report, Commuter Blog]

Cool Nokian Boots

I found that our local "Target" sells Nokian boots. Too bad we already got the girls rain boots (and this pretty pair wasn't in my size).



Of course, if you knew the history of Nokia you'd know they used to make paper and rubber products. They had to change the name when they sold those portions so they just added the extra n.

Berry Mania!

We're having a beautiful sunny August day around 65 deg F, so we decided to take Finland's "every man's right" and go hunting. Berry hunting that is. Right now bilberries (a cousin to the North American blueberry) are ripe and can be found just about anywhere on the side of the road and in the forest. Barbed wire fences are very to see in Finland so you pretty much just ride your bike or drive out of town a bit and walk the forests where there is little ground growth.



There are multiple varieties of berries and mushrooms are scattered on the forest floors. I still don't know how to tell the bad from good mushrooms, but berries are pretty safe and easy to identify. Cloudberries seem to be the rarest and most expensive going for about 14 euro / liter. Lingonberries grow like crazy here but won't be really ripe for picking for a week or two.

Berry picking is hard work, and there are special tools that make it easier. Really all you need is an afro pick and a bucket. Or one of these to be a pro.

Ahhhhh...Back to School

Isabelle started school Monday the 11th and Fiona's first day at the English Speaking Playschool was yesterday. I have to say that we were all ready for them to get started. The girls were long past due for some playtime with new friends and it gave me a chance to go for a swim and sauna in peace.

All Finnish schools provide free lunches for the students. Fiona came home raving about her "fish soup and sandwiches with cucumbers". "Mom, you can buy the fish soup at the store", she exclaimed! Ummm...yum? Actually, it is so great that they are trying and enjoying all of these new foods and I found out today that the "fish soup" is actually salmon soup and is supposed to be quite good. Fiona's school is located in an old army barrack that is a historical building, so it can't be renovated. It is very quaint.

Oulu Cycling on Ovi

Some quick shots of the cycling roads in Oulu. Check out the street cleaner, they have little ones made specially for the bike roads. This is really just a test for my new Ovi account, Nokia's web/media sharing solution.

Oulu International School

We had our meeting with the principal of the Oulu International School to turn in our results for Isabelle's "koulukypsyystesti" - roughly translated as a school maturity test.

In Finland public school starts the year you turn 7 and you can enter first grade. Isabelle doesn't turn 7 until next March so we had to have a "koulukypsyystesti" done before she could be administered. According to Finnish law you need to have this testing done to enter school early and the test includes the WISC-III. So we really didn't know if she would be accepted, but to our good fortune we found out today she'll be able to start the 1st grade next Monday!

We'll also have to choose between Evangelical Lutheran classes and Ethics classes for Isabelle, which I think is the normal selection in the Finnish school system. Both are equivalent to making good moral citizens with one having more historical significance on Christianity (not necessarily religious dogma).

There are also school nurses and a school doctor (MD) for the (universal) childrens' health care. Plus all kids get a free lunch. It's going to be interesting seeing why so many say Finland has the best school system in the world.

From Russia with Love

Here's some pics from our Russia venture. The kids did great, but my knees are still hurting from carrying them through all the museums.

St. Petersburg 2008

First Days

It rained non-stop for the first 36 hours we got here and Sharon was beginning to wonder what she had gotten herself into. Would we ever see the sun again? The sun is supposed to be out 20 hours a day in the summer, right? We'll it finally came out and Oulu is absolutely beautiful when the sun is shining. I heard that this year is currently the rainiest in Finland in 30 years.

Yesterday I got an unprovoked "Hello" on the street so I realized I wasn't invisible. It's strange coming from the US, especially Texas, where everyone says hello to you no matter who you are if to acknowledge your existence. I felt like the Jerk when he found his name in the phone book - my existence has been validated!

Idle chit-chat and common pleasantries aren't norm here. However, Finns are generally very nice if you need some help and will help you if they are able to as long as you make the effort. I am surprised I've met a lot of Finns that don't speak English in the stores, so knowing a few words and taking a dictionary along will be useful, like knowing 'vissi' for bathroom so the kids don't pee in their pants while shopping for milk.

We made a trip to the beach where the water and air temperature were the same (65 F). It was quite nice, lots of people swimming and we were the tannest on the beach.

We also found the farmer's market in downtown Oulu where the produce is absolutely amazing and the strawberries more amazing (and expensive at 4euro/liter). And you can buy all sorts of exotic meats (moose and reindeer). The reindeer is quite expensive, like buying filet mignon.



We are glad we brought chili powder and cumin because these seem impossible to find. Sharon made a delicious moose chili for lunch and moose nachos for dinner. Quite scrumptious.

$9.39 / gallon

The rental car company was gracious enough to leave the tank empty so I could fill the tank.

1 liter = 0.264172052 US gallons

1.579 / 0.264 = 5.98 € / gal.

€5.98 * $1.57 (est. exhange rate) = $9.39 per gallon.

About 125 bucks to fill a tank.

32 hours later.

Austin to Oulu, 32 hours door to door. Only missed one flight and 2 lost bags - 9 for 11 isn't bad : )


...and our new home in Oulu

Let There Be Light!

Here's some interesting charts showing sunrise/sunsets over the course of a year. From Matti Tukiainen at GAISMA. You can find the chart for pretty much any major city in the world. Hmmm, can you tell which is Austin, TX and which is Oulu : )

Oulu Bike Map

Oulu Bike Map. Apparently there's 512km of bike roads and lanes in Oulu. There's even an Oulu Cycling blog (not much activity) with some pics of the roads.

My hovercraft is full of eels

This will be my final exam for learning the Finnish language:

Ilmatyynyalukseni on täynnä ankeriaita (mp3)

When I can say this, and get strange looks, I'll know I've got the pronunciation down.
Of course, there are other (more useful) phrases to be learned.

I have no intention of actually "learning" Finnish, which is basically impossible. Finnish typology seems just as complex. But luckily Finnish is a very phonetic language so I'm going to work on my pronunciation. At least if I'm too drunk to find my way home (and riding my bike of course) I'll be able to say the name of the street I live on, Kauppaporvarintie.

Arctic Hysteria

I recently came across this term from an art exhibit: Arctic Hysteria: New Art From Finland.
The show isn't really about being hysterical or insane, but arctic hysteria sounds like some contageous psychological condition... So I had to investigate further. Actic hysteria, also known as pibloktoq, is a condition where you throw off your clothes, run outside into the freezing air and throw yourself into a snow drift (or something like that.) A good account of this in the Inuit is here. Of course in Finland, it's not a neurosis, it's a sport.