VAPPU!

I have noticed that Finland is like day and night between summer and winter. Everything is completly different than when we first got here. In the first 3 months we only saw the sun around 6 times. Now, we have 17 hours of sun a day and getting another hour each week and a half and never any clouds in the sky. Also, everything looks really different without any snow. At our first week of orientation they told us that Finns perfer "silence is golden, talking is silver" because they are extremely shy and keep to themselves; but that it would change in summer. No sooner than the weather got better, suddenly the Finns are out and really talkative.

Finland in January

Finland in April


Vappu- I really can't even explain the maddess we experienced in the last 2 days, but it is like nothing I have ever seen. Yesterday, was all day drinking for the entire country and by entire country I mean everyone...families, old people...everyone. Jackie's finnish family called her at 1:00pm to see if she had started to drink because they already had, and they have 2 young kids. The city center was packed with people and the biggest party in the center was at the church (not inside). Everyone was walking around totally drunk and crazy. I am not too big into the drinking so for a sober person to be watching this...its nuts but it was Finland like I've never seen before and never expected to see. At 7:00 we went to a goodbye barbeque for Barbara and Lotte, 2 Dutch girls. Barbara's parents came to visit her during her last few days and she took them into the city that day, her parents found the celebration pretty interesting. We cooked some Finnish sausages, which are horrible but good if you burn them, I think anyways. Then we went to Marja's, a finnish girls house for a party, once again, everyone was completely drunk. From there, most people went back to the church but I went home because I was exhausted.
Today, at noon, Jackie and I met Marjukka, our tutor, on the Harju hill. This is a huge hill in the middle of Jyvaskyla where the Vappu picnic is, more commonly called the hangover picnic. The hill was completly packed with people...eating, drinking, dancing, playing games, etc. The ESN group was right at the top so most of the exchange students were as well. The Finnish students all have overalls (really jumpsuits) covered in patches and are different colors based on what they study....white is business, black is sport/health science, orange is IT and so on. They wore them yesterday and today. When students graduate from high school, most of them buy these white funky hats. Everyone had theirs on today to, even all the adults. We hung out there and had some food and beer for a few hours. Jackie, Anastasia(Russia), Nikos(Greece), Jim(France) and Steven(France) and I went into the city, which was packed with people. There was food, candy, ice cream and some jewlery and clothing tables on the street. We went to Salsa and got some pizza then headed to the beach on the lake. Then, we went to the fair that is in town but it was nothing too exciting, we got some ice cream and headed home. Right now, it is 11:30pm and there are still drunk people screaming outside after almost 48 hours of party. But, Finland is known for its excessive drinking abilities haha.
This website explains Vappu, I'd recommend reading it :)
http://www.finland.com/main-201-id.do


Just a small part of the hill

We really have no idea...these appeared today, all over the place.

On Sunday, we are spending the day in Turku(the former capital) then going to Stockholm until Wednesday morning. I will have more fun stories then!