there are ways of telling that you're in a different country, so when yle english news reports about how more finns are against the war on iraq and you see a placard like this:

you know you're not anywhere else on earth.

pulla is a sweet pastry that is standardly eaten along with coffee in finland, and since finns have about a dozen cups of columbia's finest export a day, they need a lot of pulla. (the secret ingredient is cardamom.)

i haven't had one since christmas now. that and a proper sauna. i am one fucked up finn.

three bits of news from finland.

results from the finnish parliamentary election (i.e. the one ahem i didn't participate in) have come in and the opposition centre party is the new governing party, giving finland a female prime minister to go along with our existing female president.

meanwhile, hometown skiier kaisa varis was caught with doped blood at the most recent val di fiemme nordic world championships. this strikes a further blow to cross-country skiing-crazy finland, two years after six finns were caught and suspended for blood doping in the sensational lahti world championships. kaisa was the only ray of hope for finland at the 2002 salt lake city games, but now, she's caught in the same disgrace as the rest.

good news for finland comes from somewhere unexpected: kalle palander won the world cup in slalom downhill skiing, the first time finland ever won. finland has no real downhill history, mostly because the country is relatively flat. kalle had the fortune of willing parents that allowed him to commute to northern norway daily when growing up. way to go, kalle.

the rough plan today was to go vote in the advanced polls in the 2003 finnish parliamentary election at the finnish consulate today, but after finding out that i can't look up any real information on the 75 candidates for the 7 seats in my province, as an uninformed and uncomprehending voter, i refrain for now until i find more english sites explaining the candidates' proposals or i learn better finnish.

most major finnish policies are relatively unaligned. finland is not a member of NATO, but it belongs to the EU (those elections are even more insane; imagine a ballot with almost 200 names). i'm behind their green party's stance on fighting more finnish nuclear plants, but otherwise, i'm still trying to figure out their and the other 20 parties' policies.

still: you need more than 2 parties to make any proper choice. picking the lesser of evils doesn't bring much promise to the future.

marko found out some information about his family history tonight: it turns out that his family isn't necessarily from savo....they're from north karelia, my province! which is fine about face for his family, especially his sisters, who have ragged about me being a karjalainen, but i'm sure they're surprised they're not savolaiset anymore.

of course, this is just neighbour rivalry, where the people in the next province are easily castigated, although the farther away the provinces get, the less you tend to think about them. savo has probably the best lake country in northern europe, along with the gorgeous savonlinna. northern karelia (or pohjois karjala) is the ancestral and cultural lands that gave finland its language and folklore and music.

so, marko forwarded me to the genealogical society of finland and i ended up looking through their files. you may not know this, but korhonen is the 2nd most widely used surname in finland (and rising). there are too many links to poke through, including the popular baby names in both finnish and swedish and immigration patterns, but i'm fading. and a lot of it is finn, so you may not be grasping the full extent of information there.

there's nothing like seeing a sauna in a SAAB. except maybe one that you can actually drive.

those old saab cars were definitely quite odd. my dad had a late 1970s model one for about a summer around 1993. the ignition was between the seats and the gear shift was almost like a rally car. lorne, as i called him, was a groovy automobile, but he had a fatal flaw: his engine kept revving to the point that you were fighting the brakes and in neutral, it would keep whinging away. eventually, my dad sold it for parts, but i liked driving that car. if i lived in a place with horrible transit, i would get a saab if i could afford it.

then i'd put in my own groovy wood interior.

finland is experiencing its coldest winter in 40 years, which is causing the demand for hydroelectricity to skyrocket. as a result, to prevent possible brownouts, finns have been advised to lower their sauna usage to save power. families are also advised to limit use of the computer and other heavy electricity-consuming appliances.

of course, those finns with wood-burning saunas are advised to have plenty of chopped wood available, so they can keep cooking themselves no matter what the weather is like outside.

85 years ago today, finland broke away from the slowly crumbling russia and stopped being a duchy and became an independent republic. december 6 is finnish independence day (i end up saying finn-dependence day), which isn't really celebratory, but rather a formal or solemn time.

a blue/white candle is lit and placed in the window to pay tribute to those who died giving finland her freedom, especially after the winter war with russia during world war II, which was particularly rough on finland, although it was met with the usual finnish combination of pragmatism and steadfastness.

although the us-ians get ready for thanksgiving (although i like to say tofurkey day even though i'm allergic to tofu it's just fun to say), in finland, it's the start of the little christmas or pikkujoulu season, where friends gather to hold office or other parties (or any other strange gathering where much drink is consumed) before the more family-oriented christmas time.

the christmas season in finland is quite long, usually as a way to battle the long dark winters up north. starting from the first sunday in advent, which happens late november/early december, four sundays before christmas eve, it lasts until epiphany on january 6, which serves as the orthodox christmas time (or the 2nd nativity).

i should try to get an advent calendar for the 1st of december. and a blue candle for the 6th.

meanwhile, if you can't keep up with these posts, here are my recent big lists:
* me rambling on about the homeland security bill.
* me rambling on about dogs dying on tv and more death.
* me rambling on about anagrams.
* me rambling on about things that are good for once.

anti-finland league decries growing finlandization of maritimes.
[nods slowly.]
sure.

marko im'ed that to me earlier and the key thing that was brought to mind was my old idea of the finnish mafia, a super-secret organization that is so low-key but widestretching that the italian mafia, russian gangsters and japanese yakuza all have to appease the finns, otherwise, they wake up in a snowbank with an empty bottle of vodka stuck up each arse.

of course, this might actually be true and i just blew their cover.
paska.

no matter, the hammer looks to be a solid satirical newspaper, in the vein of the equally canadian toque, the venerable onion, the cheeky australian chaser (with their own televised forum cnnnn) and of course, the daily show.

no laptop is unloved, but they can sit idle for a while. so i borrowed this one for the weekend to update a few things.

however, i didn't want to post anything like this: bomb blasts have taken place in two cities i identify closely with.

late friday night, a bomb ripped through a shopping mall in suburban helsinki, killing at least 7 people and injuring 80 others thus far. although initially thought to be a gas accident, it soon became apparent that the myyrmanni mall in vantaa was targeted by someone to take out as many lives as possible. the last time i was finland, i stopped by this mall with my uncle and cousins on our to his place, one of the few malls in finland. finland doesn't experience any strife normally, and although speculation runs about whether it was a terrorist act, this is frightening news.

then, i just saw footage of the aftermath from two car bomb explosions in southern bali, killing 54 people and injuring hundreds so far (this number, sadly, will rise), although numbers are sketchy. one was detonated outside an honourary american consulate building in denpasar and the other outside the sari club, which is a popular tourist destination deep in the party district of kuta beach. the fire then spread to another club in this tightly packed part of kuta and imperiling more lives. although indonesia is a highly volatile area, bali has usually been spared from any major acts of violence, partly from its status as a top tourist destination and partly due being more hindi or balinese rather than muslim. however, both targets are heavy foreign areas and problems can hop from island to island.

i was in bali two years ago as part of a trip to visit my brother whilst he was studying in singapore and southeast asia and i can attest that bali is one of the most gorgeous places on earth i've visited. we stayed close to kuta beach, in a simple motel a few steps away from the ocean. one cnn newscaster spoke about the people who struggle for a living in the area and one of them broke down crying, saying that their way of life is gone, as people will now be scared to visit the island. i can sympathize greatly since their life is hard and i'd go back in a heartbeat when i have a chance.

the beeb had a strange article referring to german experts determining that blondes might become extinct in 200 years. a combination of the recessive gene for blonde hair along with the usage of blonde hair dye amongst non-blondes attracting blonde-lovers away. (no mention of hair dye increasing the likelihood of cancer, naturally (pun intended), but anyways...)

seems a bit extreme to me, since it's not a regressive gene or obvious defective trait. that said, i don't think it's time to resurface that strange nazi edict to preserve the aryan race by having all the blond boys and blond girls go to cottages between school semesters and fuck like minxes to produce the master race (was it ledensborn?).

the funny thing: the article refers to this:

Researchers predict the last truly natural blonde will be born in Finland - the country with the highest proportion of blondes.

i'll agree to that. anytime i've gone back to finland, there are enough blonde-haired and blue-eyed pale moley cheekboney people to last until the end of time. that and everybody looks just like me. freaking scares me since i'm used to either a multicultural environment or just one or two main cultures. however, if it's time to meet a finn female to keep the golden locks flowing, so be it.