Ice Swimming!

Last week, I finally got to go ice swimming with Erika, Kate, and some ladies from the Fulbright center: Johanna who led us, Topi, and elegant Terhi.


It might sound crazy, but there's something really wonderful about ice swimming. First we walked shivering over a snowy path from the changing room to the steaming smoke sauna. This place was kind of funny, in addition to being really warm... Whenever someone came in - especially if it was a man - he would pour a ladle full of water over the hot rocks to create more steaming heat. I think that seeing who could withstand a hotter sauna was sort of a test of manliness. I couldn't really handle it at first and had to sit on the steps. (The temperature is hottest up on the platform.) Now, this is where the ice swimming comes in.

Before leaving the sauna, Johanna told me to breath calmly. "Just tell yourself that you're not going to die." It was very good advice.

So you step onto the stickily frozen wooden porch and first let yourself adjust to the cold a little bit. This is pretty important. The second time I went into the lake, I didn't wait as long to cool down beforehand, and the water felt much colder and stung my skin a little. So anyway, then you walk over a walkway to the lake, where you slowly let yourself down a slippery ice-covered ladder and into the water. Those who are brave enough will actually take a short swim around the little lake, but I only dipped myself in then slowly let myself out. After adjusting to the cold then dipping into the lake, the freezing air actually doesn't feel that bad at all. It's even rather pleasant. Then on the way back to the sauna, I could see everyone's bodies enveloped in a cloud of steam. After the lake, I could withstand much more heat in the sauna and managed to sit on the raised platform.


I told myself while outside that the sauna was hot, but now, it's time for the cold part, and the cold part is supposed to be cold. Somehow, ice swimming ends up being a truly amazing blend of the two extremes.

By the way, here's a quick fact. Aaron didn't believe this until he looked it up himself. While most saunas stay at around 40-50C, Finnish saunas range at about 80-110C (170-230F). The older men, who are experienced, might try for higher. And while there are about 5 million people living in Finland, the country has over 2 million saunas. Amazing in kind of a quirky way, huh?

Left to right: Johanna, me, Kate

European Figure Skating Championships

Yesterday, I watched the final gala to the European Figure Skating Championships - held in Tallin - with my new roommate from Estonia.

This gala is such a good idea. No required jumps, no score-keeping. Just the best of the best doing what they love.

And pairs figure skating... talk about defying gravity, for real. Even the camera can't follow them at times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99bwcFwSTE

I wish this video was of a better quality, but you get the general gist.

Fun Nordic Facts

- topics that have come up during lab coffee breaks

Snow. Mikko told me that it has snowed approximately 40-50 cm so far this winter. The ground has been covered with a permanent layer of snow for over a month now.

Equinox: a country of extremes. With all this wintry darkness, I think we tend to forget that Finland also has some of the brightest of days. By the equinox (March 23rd), Finland will again have longer days than most of the rest of the world. I tried to represent the changing length of day in this doodle.


"Ass washer": best Finnish inventions. That's exactly what a man in my lab called it. I've always wondered what those little hoses, commonly found beside sinks in private and public bathrooms alike, were for, and now I know. That must be why all the public bathroom stalls here are actual doors that go all the way to the floor.


The drying cupboard is another great Finnish invention. It's easy to use, saves tons of space, and just makes so much sense! I'm definitely going to have one built into my future house.


Polar bears in Norway... ... are dangerous. When scientists go to the research stations in northern Norway, the first thing they are handed is a gun, and their first lesson is on how to shot down a polar bear. The sad thing is that polar bears will sometimes drift on ice sheets - broken off as a result of global warming - to places where they don't normally exist. Then they have to be shot and killed, because otherwise they will disturb that particular ecosystem.

Also, despite being carnivores, polar bears don't eat penguins, because penguins only live in the South Pole.

Viili: the mother of all yogurts. You always hear about live cultures in bacteria (and how wonderful they are), but with villi, I can actually believe it. Of a fantastically gooey substance, this almost tasteless snack is normally eaten with some sort of jam and/or fruit. I think it's somewhat of an acquired taste, though. I'm trying to acquire it because villi is supposed to be quite good for you, but I still have to eat it with an enormous blob of strawberry jam to stomach it. This is also specifically Finnish, though the other Nordic countries have their own versions, as well.