Struggling with Jet Lag

Fortunately no one expected me to get off the airplane and attend a conference or any other event. I appreciated being able to fall asleep for several hours before waking up and going out to shop and explore. Last night I did not sleep too badly. I woke up at five in the morning and fell back to sleep for a few more hours. Hopefully it won't be long before my body decides which is daytime and what hours are night.

This is the street that we live on. The two official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. Also recognized are several Sami languages spoken in Lapland part of northern Finland. The sign below shows the name of the street in Finnish and below is the name in Swedish. Needless to say, the Swedish name feels more familiar to me. All of the street signs are posted on the corners of buildings. Sometimes they are very difficult to read unless I am right underneath the sign. Definitely the signs create a problems for these "old" eyes.

At about 11:30 this morning, one of Earl's colleagues came by the apartment and walked with us to the university. Markku is interested in the National Parks of the United States. The area in which Earl will be teaching includes the cultural aspects of North America. Markku will be going to California in October to visit four parks. He is going to visit Yosemite and Death Valley. Hmmm. I think we drove past Death Valley last Wednesay. It feels as if that was a very long time ago.

This is a picture of Earl on one of the sidewalks between our apartment building and the buildings where he will be teaching and have an office. The rounded stones are just about impossible to walk on.

On the major streets that we walked on last night, the surface is concrete and includes a lane for pedestrians and one for bikers. It didn't take long to discover that it is wise to be cautious when approaching a corner. Bikers can come around the corner in their lane very quickly.

Below is a sign outside of a restaurant near Earl's office. The restaurant had several rustic wooden signs outside. Although I wondered what the interior was like we did not look inside. If you look closely you will see that the soup of the day contains reindeer meat.


When we arrived at our apartment yesterday we discovered that FRY was already posted to the mail slot in the door. At his office, his name was already beside the door. Markku joked that it was missing Earl's office hours. Why hadn't he taken care of that? In fact, Markku was one of the two people who very kindly picked us up at the airport yesterday.

On the door is an interesting black and white poster of a Husky sitting on the saddle of a motorcycle in a winter lanscape. I wonder if that was the choice of the previous Bicentennial Chair.

After a short reception this afternoon, we wandered around the area where we live for awhile. Chocolate cake was served at the get-together and everyone said that Frazer is the name to remember for anything chocolate. It certainly was delicious.

We walked along the area where large cruise ships were anchored and than further along the quay to the area where smaller boats/yachts were bobbing gently in the water.

There was an open air market at the harbor. The first stall we saw was this fruit stand. All that they were selling were berries. I recognized the strawberries and small blueberries but nothing else. The young man working at the stall invited me to try the Lingonberries but warned me that they were tart. They are small red berries that are usually made into a jam or jelly. The man told me that when I had reindeer it should be served with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. He told me what two other berries were but I didn't understand what he said. They looked like small purple or green grapes.

The price of the fruit kept me from being tempted to buy. However, when I figured out that the lingonberries were 4 Euros or about 6 American dollars for a liter/quart, I realized that the price was not bad at all. I have been known to pay about $3.00 for only 4ounces of blueberries occaionally.

Next to the area of the university where Earl is situated there is a large square, (the Helsinki Senate Square). On three sides of it are solid yellow buildings. On the fourth side is a large Lutheran Cathedral. I am standing in front of the Old Senate building. It no longer houses the senate for the national government of Finland. Instead the president and his cabinet have offices there.

In the years before it was possible to visit Russia easily, Helsinki was frequently the location for shooting movies that took place in Moscow. Most notably is the movie Reds with Warren Beatty. Markku said that he and his wife saw the movie in the United States when it came out. They had no problem spotting some of their students in the crowd scenes in the square.

Tsar Alexander II still stands in the center of the square. In the mid nineteenth century Russia conquered Finland. Rather than impose their language and culture on the Finnish, the Tsar encouraged them to speak their language and worship their religion. (Today about 85% of the population is affilliated with the Lutheran church.) He built the cathedral that stands on one side of the square. At this time Swedish was becoming a prominent language in Finland. The Russian ruler was concerned about Sweden taking over the country. Because of this he promoted the use of the Finnish language.

A young man, Jonathan Lundquist, told me today that in some ways Finnish is similar to Magyar, the language spoken in Hungary. Both languages have managed to survive despite being surrounded by more dominant languages.

Markku told us that we would be surprised when we saw the interior of the cathedral, but he would not tell us what he was refering to. When we went into the building this afternoon, we looked around very carefully but we could not see anything that was strikingly different.

The pews have gates on them as many of the old churches do in New England. However, they are not large enough to have brought hot bricks or some other means of heat to warm the people in the pew box. Rather than being build of a dark wood, they are light colored which is unusual.

Partly because of this the building is light and airy and relatively simple. A very beautiful cathedral. Rather than a traditional cross shape, the cathedral has a Greek cross plan.