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