Stockholm and friends

(Exploring one of the 14 islands in the Stockholm area)

Having friends living elsewhere in Europe always brings up the grand statement: "Oh yeah, we'll be so close, we'll hang out all the time!"  It never happens... or rarely happens... traveling in Europe, as easy as it is, does not always allow for much hanging out with friends living in random cities around the continent.  But it's always exciting when the stars DO align and friends can come together for a quick weekend getaway to catch up and have some fun!  This past weekend I had the opportunity to hop on a ferry to Stockholm and hang out with my Erasmus friends, but also with my Pendu-family, Peter and Kareem.  The trip was a bit bumpy... in many ways, from choppy seas to health issues, but the end result was positive and I'm so happy to have shared a few moments with some great friends!

Arriving at 6am to a sleepy city after not sleeping yourself is not the ideal combination for starting a trip... but we blazed through the pain and kept high spirits as we explored Stockholm for the first time.  Peter joined us a few hours later, and Kareem only later in the day...

(Peter and I, overlooking the city)

(Yep, it's Stockholm!)

(Boats and shiny things go together well... sunshine makes it better!)

 (Woo! I'm in Stockholm!)

(Stockholm sunset)

That night we were lucky enough to attend a **free** concert at Debaser club in the center of the city.  The bands playing were The Bland Band and Ewert and the Two Dragons.  I had heard the latter at Positivus and had become a fan of the Estonian indie rockers.  The opening band, however, was such a great surprise!  A Swedish-Avett Brothers, if you will, jamming out on their banjo, guitar, mandolin, even the accordion made an appearance, my favorite song is Bigger than Your Hometown!

Here's a video of Ewert and the Two Dragons, taken by local Latvian Raitis Freimanis.

 

(Romana and I with Ewert and the Two Dragons!)

Unfortunately, I fell ill the following day and had to spend my time in bed while the rest of the group wandered the city..  However, I was feeling well enough to venture out in the night to visit the must-see in Stockholm: the Ice Bar!  Wow, was it worth it!  Everything in this bar was made out of ice!  Even the drink glasses.  Next stop, Ice Hotel in the North!

(Cheers, freezing friends!)

(Luckily, the bar gives you these cozy ponchos and warm gloves to wear while you visit)

(Mirrors and ice acted as walls and made for great entertainment)

Luckily, the next day I was feeling much better, albeit still sick, and was ready to see more of the city.  The boys both had to leave quite early back to their Euro-cities, but us ladies had until the evening when our ferry would head back to Turku.  We really lucked out on the weather!  Although it sometimes rained, it was for a short time and most of weekend was spent in great fall air.

(Overlooking the Old Town Island)

(The sun shined on the National Museum- it glowed!)

The Finnish choir experience

Although I didn't document the past three days with pictures, the experience had is well worth a blog post!  Oh, the Finnish choir experience!  I knew joining a choir would give ample amounts of sociological observation and a good insight into Finnish culture... I did not realize it would be this exciting.  The past three days we've had intensive choir rehearsals because we're preparing for a concert series in two weeks where we'll be singing a concert in Turku and then in Helsinki, both times with a choir from Helsinki.  Saturday was an all-day intensive workshop to really focus on the songs, but also build some skills on the other aspects of music making.

The morning began with a yoga session, led by the choir director as he is also a yoga instructor.  I sympathize greatly with the exchange students who used to come to my aerobics classes in Latvia because trying to follow movements while you're leaning over touching your toes is not easy and you only get part of the exercise the others, who have the luxury of understanding the language, do.  After an invigorating start, we split up into small groups and set off to different stations.

The first stop was with our "Wakcari" song books, the holy bible for Turku choir members, that comes along to every party, event, etc.  I tried to liken it to our "Līksmības Zizlis" for Latvians abroad, but the songs in this book are composed and written out in four-part harmony.  Maybe more of a fraternity song book.   Either way, the goal of this session was to go over some of the songs that would be sung later in the evening at the choir dinner, so that we could show-off to the other choir how well we can sing!

Next followed a fun, get-to-know-you session.  I felt a bit like a burden because everyone had to switch to English because of my lack of Finnish knowledge.  But it was great to finally get to know some of the other choir members (memorizing names is NOT easy!).  We introduced ourselves, at which time we had to share our favorite Moomin character.  Alas!  I had only briefly heard about Moomin when teaching English to a little girl in Latvia and even then I just faked my way along, not having the slightest clue of what she was talking about!  Moomin is a popular Finnish cartoon series, there's even a Moomin amusement park outside of Turku.  Everyone loves them and everyone has their favorite character... culture catch-up majorly needed.

Check out the Moomin Opening Theme Song here.

After playing some team building games, I, as the newest member of the choir was tested to see if I knew all the names of my group members... and did not fail as gravely as I imagined I would.  Success!  Then it was off to meet with the choir director who taught us a thing or two about conducting.  Having been in orchestra, studying music and actually directing the Pitt Pendulums definitely put me a bit ahead of everyone else, but it was still good to repeat and fine-tune my skills as a conductor.  It's definitely not as easy as it seems and I was chosen first to go in front of the group and conduct a song I had never heard before.  Ah, one of the perks of NOT being a shy-Finn... get to set the example.  Laughs and all, it was fun!

The final session was to review (or in my case learn anew) two canons that the choir sings.  One composed for the 25th anniversary of the choir, a dissonant and not easy to follow song with such an ambiguous key structure that it was hard to follow where the tune was going next.  The other ditty was written about the previous choir director and told the story about him traveling to Tallinn, buying too much alcohol and getting arrested.  Yes! The typical Finnish account of the alcohol obsessed...

After a relaxing lunch break, the guest choir from Helsinki arrived for the more official part of the day.  We sang over some of the pieces for the concert, one, which is a series of Four Shakespeare Songs.  Reminds me of Nightmare Before Christmas and definitely sets the mood for Halloween!  Here's a video from another choir singing one of the songs- Double, Double Toil and Trouble!

The rehearsal ended on a high note with positive spirits that the upcoming concert will be successful.  I'm refreshed and happy to sing with a choir of such high standards!  Reminds me of those high school days going to regional competitions and singing with the best of the best around. We were all ready for dinner and to let loose a bit!  And this was where things got interesting.  Singing was obviously an integral part of the evening's festivities.  Both choirs brought along their song books (the Wakcari for the Turku choir) and were ready to duel it out in sing offs all night long.  It was a very amicable evening, most people joined in the other choir's songs if they knew the tune.  Toasts and welcomes were included, followed by a delicious, hearty meat and potatoes kind of dinner.

Most importantly, the drinking.  Everyone had either brought along something to drink or had bought drink tickets to buy what was provided.  From beer, to cider, to hard alcohol.  Everyone mixing, taking shots, and of course cheers'ing all your table-mates after each song.  Some songs had choreography, where during each verse we'd link elbows and sway, then stand up and sway, then stand on chairs and sway, ending with the grand finale of UNDER the table, linked-elbows, swaying.  Haha.

Men serenaded the ladies, ladies serenaded the men, everyone hugged, it was such a pleasant and open company to be with!  And even without understanding most of what was going on, I could enjoy myself, practice my sight-reading skills and learning some new songs.  All in all, a successful evening and I'm excited for more when we go to Helsinki in two weeks and later this semester when we celebrate the Holiday concert.  Kippis!

The one about St.Petersburg

When the opportunity comes along to take a long weekend for a visa-free trip to St.Petersburg, you're crazy not to take it!  The Erasmus Student Network at the University of Turku offered this trip and I was so excited to join the ride.  Having heard and learned so much about "Mother Russia," I was anxious to see what it was all about, and although seeing St.Petersburg for 3 days is nowhere near the amount needed to really know Russia, it's a start and I must say, I am inspired for more!

The trip package included bus transport from Turku to Helsinki, followed by a night on the ferry from Helsinki to St.Petersburg, then back on the same bus (the bus traveled with us on the ferry) all around St.Petersburg center and even to the town of Pushkin.  Traveling by bus with a few hundred students is never easy and can be time consuming... I guess that's really the only complaint I have of the trip- the endless waiting for stragglers and dealing with a large group.  Otherwise, the trip went off smoothly as we visited the "highlights of the highlights," such as the Hermitage Museum, the Cathedral of Spilt Blood, Catherine's Palace and more!  During the day or at night, the city was luminous and so colorful, only enhanced by the beautiful fall weather that we were so lucky to have while visiting.

 (We left a terribly rainy Finland on a rocky boat... but kept our spirits high!)

(Arrived to St.Petersburg harbor the next morning...)

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(The Hermitage Museum is one of the biggest in the world)

(If you spent all your time there, it would take you about 8 years to see the entire collection)

(The museum at night)

 (Inside, the museum is full of all kinds of treasures... this was Peter the Great's throne room)

(Some original DaVinci pieces as well...)

 (And my personal favorite, Matisse)

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(Romana and I rubbing Peter the Great's -tiny- head for good luck)

(Biggest tourist souvenir, Russian dolls!)

(Boy scouts?  Future generals?  Boys marching and chanting down the street)

(It's fast food... but it's good food!  Borsch and meat pancakes! YUM!)

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(Cathedral of Spilt Blood, colorful and vibrant in the evening sun)

 

(Cathedral in the day)

 (More cathedrals!)

 (Travel buddies, Romana, Eliska, Imanta and Anna)

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 (Day view of the river)

 (Night view of the river and open bridges)

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(At St.Catherine's Palace in the town of Pushkin)

(Welcome to my humble abode...)

(A new outfit every day... can you say diva?)

 (And a sneak peak into the infamous Amber room! Shh!)

(See ya later, Russia, it was great!)

Sights and sounds in and around Turku

It's been almost a month since I arrived in Turku.  Settling in and getting into the swing of things has been pretty easy.  We still have a light course load, but that will soon change in the weeks to come.  For now, that leaves time to take strolls through the city, survey our surroundings and take little adventures to the sea.  Meeting new people has definitely been a priority, which is why I've chosen to participate in a French language circle hosted by a language center associated with the University.  It was a shock to me that after over a year of not speaking French the language was still pretty solid in my subconscious to allow me to freely participate in conversation!  What a great feeling to know I haven't lost it completely.  I've also joined the University choir- Turun Yliopiston Ylioppilaskunnan Kuoro which is going to be an interesting experience considering I haven't sung in a choir in a few years, I've been bumped UP to an Alto 1 (in the past I sang Alto 2), AND the working language of all rehearsals is none other than Finnish... good thing I learned my numbers this week!  I'll be able to practice and finding my measures to sing.  The people seem friendly and the quality of the choir is definitely up to par, so that's refreshing.  I'm excited to have a chance to keep my vocal chords in shape while I'm here in Turku!

So, what does it all look like?  Here are some of the activities we've enjoyed in our first weeks here in Turku!

(The city has a wonderful museum that shows guests what Turku was like a long time ago before the great fire burned most of it down, here's an authentic shoe-maker)

(At the Handicrafts museum)

(It is very popular for towns to have a special "town day", these were the fireworks on the river Aura on Turku day)

(Madara and I decided to take a stroll in our neighborhood to see what we could find... about 30 minutes of walking brought us to this beautiful lake!)

 (On the way to the lake was a quaint antique/junk shop)

(A rainy Friday is great for a walk through the city art museum- even better that it's free in the afternoon!)

(Looking to the center of Turku from the art museum)

(Weather changes quite frequently as one day can be terribly rainy and the next beautifully sunny, thi is the city library)

(The goods at the central market square)

(View of Kauppatori- main square in Turku)

(Took a trip to the Baltic sea!)

(What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon other than grilling outside and having burgers! yum!)

(A stop in the mall and I stumble upon Finnish Female Acappella!  haha!)