A Visit to the Arctic

I had a week off from school in mid-February so Randy and I decided to go to Finland to experience life in Lapland and to try to see the Northern Lights. After researching lots of different options we decided to fly to Ivalo, Finland which is 120 km north of the Arctic Circle to stay at Kakslauttanen. They offer several types of accommodations including glass igloos which sounded intriguing.

Arriving in Ivalo, the weather was cold but since we are from Rochester, NY we have experienced cold temperatures like this in the past.

On our first morning in the Arctic, we went for a dog sled ride. We had brought a lot of our own cold weather gear from home but they suggested we add another layer of warmth. As you can see, they had every size and piece of clothing you could imagine: coveralls, boots, mittens up to your elbows, hats, balaclavas, etc. The only part of me that got cold on the sled ride were my toes.

We had always heard that dogs preparing to pull a sled will howl with excitement and wanting to move. This video proves that to be true.

Being out in the calm, quiet, beautiful forest combined with the novelty of being pulled on a sled by dogs was exciting and was worth the anticipation.

The sleigh ride above was led by two Sami people. The Sami are the equivalent to our Native Americans. There are an estimated 80,000 indigenous Sami people who live in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. All the reindeer in Finland are owned by the Sami people. Each reindeer, whether it is domestic or living in the wild is earmarked. In order to own a reindeer not only must you be Sami but your parents or grandparents must have had reindeer herding as their primary occupation. There is a maximum set number of reindeer that can sustainably survive in the wild so each year the herd size is culled to allow for newborn reindeer to survive. The culled reindeer are then sold and eaten.

Walking around Helsinki…

When we were walking through the Helsinki Airport we saw our first Moomin Shop. We then saw several more of these shops as we toured Helsinki. The shops were always full of people so I became very curious about what Moomin meant. After asking our guide and then doing some reading I found out that Moomin are a family of characters created by the Finnish author Tove Jansson starting in 1945. The characters look a bit like white hippopotamuses and are a sweet, peace and nature loving family who go on various adventures together. The series was made into a cartoon which has become very popular in Japan. I got really caught up with the charm of the Moomin books and ended up buying our granddaughter two books and a few of the stuffed characters for her upcoming seven year old birthday. I wonder why they have not become popular in the States.

We asked our hotel for a dinner restaurant recommendation and this is where they suggested. When we arrived at the restaurant the server said there was no menu, this would be a surprise meal. He asked if we had any food allergies. Soon after, the food started arriving at our table. It was delicious and so beautifully presented.

One more interesting story I want to share before leaving Finland is a conversation Randy and I had with our guide. I asked the guide how the Finnish people felt about joining NATO. I am definitely not a political person but since Finland joining NATO has been in the news lately, I was curious. The guide said that about 20-30% of the Finns (including himself) felt that Finland should not have joined NATO. He said his country has shared a border with Russia for a very long time without issues. He did not want to risk antagonizing Russia by having his country join NATO. Also, there is a such a dense forest and many lakes along the border which would make it very difficult for Russia to invade Finland. Finally, he said that Finland does not have anything Russia would want i.e. natural resources, so what advantage would it be for them to invade? He said it would be like Russia getting more of Siberia with no resources.

Before flying back to Albania, we decided to spend two nights in Oslo, Norway. We signed up to take a small group tour but it ended up being just Randy and I which was nice. Our guide, Olav was a 25 year old university student studying history and economics. Here, Randy and Olav are standing in front of the main entrance to the University of Oslo.

When Olav suggested that we visit City Hall on our tour, I must admit I was not very enthused. Wow, were we surprised. It is full of beautiful artwork plus it is the location where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year.

I am sure I have added way too many sculpture pictures but I found them fascinating and had a hard time leaving some of them out. Vigeland made all the figures naked because he wanted them to be timeless. Our guide also told us that Vigeland wanted to show many of his figures having fun and playing with their children because he felt he had neglected his own children by not spending enough time with them. He wanted his sculptures to show all phases of a person’s life from childhood to old age.

One reason Randy and I like going on tours is to see the important sights. Another reason is because it is interesting to learn about the culture of the places we visit. During our Oslo tour we got onto the topic of prisons. Our guide, Olav shared with us that the recidivism rate in Norway is 16%. Wow! The States have a recidivism rate of 75%. When we asked how the Norwegians kept the rate so low, Olav explained that his country wants every citizen contributing to the welfare of the country. If someone is sitting in jail doing nothing then they are not making contributions. Norway works very hard to teach job skills, provide counseling, etc. to help the prisoners be successful when they return to society. They are more interested in rehabilitating their prisoners than punishing them. Another interesting fact is that if someone from another country commits a crime in Norway, they are taken back to their own country and Norway pays for them to be incarcerated in their own country. This is done to discourage criminals from coming to Norway.

One more interesting cultural bit of information is that in the late 1960’s oil was discovered in Norway. This caused Norway to go from being a relatively poor country to one of the wealthiest countries in the world. When we asked what happens with the oil income, Olav said it is invested to be used to fund the pensions for the Norwegian citizens. Because of this, Olav does not need to save for his retirement. The government is very generously doing it for him.

From the little bit we were able to learn about Norway, it seems that Norway would be a wonderful place to live.

The name of our last IB unit was called How We Express Ourselves. My assistant and I took the children on a walking tour of Tirana to visit nine murals. The kids made a quick sketch of each mural, wrote a few words about it and then rated it with one to three stars based on whether or not they liked the mural. It was fun to hear the children’s varied opinions about the artwork they were viewing.

Thank you, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I really do enjoy reflecting back on our lives abroad but I simply don’t have as much time as I would like to work on putting it all together. It only took my two months to get this blog written. Oh, well. I have a few more posts to get caught up with, we’ll see how long that takes. 🙂

I am down to a bit more than two months left in my teaching career. The feelings of excitement, fear and a bit of sadness are all mixed in as I anticipate the next step. We are looking forward to settling back into our life in America starting in July.

• Farewell, Albania
• Visiting Switzerland With Our Son
• Lots of Visitors and One More Trip to Italy
• A Spring Break Trip to Morocco and Gibraltar
• Visiting Cinque Terre, Italy and Corfu, Greece With Our Daughter