Part 2 - From Breakfast and Skis to Dogs and Dumb Reindeer
It was only light in Lapland for about 4 or so hours in a day, so I can't exactly say that the morning broke too early. Really, the sun came up around 10. We still did have to wake up too early, 'round 7:30, that day, and the rest.
In the first three hours of skiing on Sunday, I think I make a total of 4 complete runs. I spent most of that time helping various nationalities how to ski. Fun stuff. The normal challenge of teaching people how to ski was compounded when the people couldn't speak English. I had fun trying to explain the "Snowplow" or "Wedge" and the concept of "digging your edges in" entirely with my hands.
The hill itself had maybe 6 trails open. It possessed only 800 or so feet to boast to its name. Slightly larger than Otis Ridge, and with a longer slope.
That second night, the Rotary brought in a genuine Lapp man to talk and sing. He sang, and talked. Told some jokes. I took recordings off his singing to save myself the trouble of describing it to you. Here you go.
The guy on the right translated, shall we say, "liberally." When the translator stops and laughs before delivering the "translation," you know that something has gone fishy.
One of the mostest funnyest events of my life passed that night. I my attempts at description will not even approach an, shall I say, accurate, portrail of the event, so I beg you to pretend it's as funny as I think it was.
Well, a peer tutor informed us that they'd asked these two beautiful Brazilian girls to teach two guys how to dance. Two suckers, (I am proud to say that an American was one),
easily jumped at such an opportune chance to dance. Oh Yeah!
One at a time they brought out the suckers, and each time one slipped out of the steamy dance, while the grumpy strict Rotary guy stepped in. And danced. The American danced the longest, maybe a full and funny minute before turning. Ah! I will remember that as long as I live.
The Dog-sled and Reindeer rides where fun, but too fast. With 4 to a sled, we bumped along a max of two minutes. Except, that is, for on groups of Aussies whose reindeer decided to take a detour. They took ten minutes just to find in the woods. They, of course, loved it.
Pictures are all on http://gallery.mac.com/ilobs/.
I'm going to put these entries about Lapland up in parts, but I'm going to be busy for a while, so it'll be slow.
I'm going to try work on this entry over the next week in one-hour installments. I'm moving next Sunday and that's an entry in itself.
Part I - From Bus to Bed
I arrived at the bus stop precisely late by Rotary standards. That's to say: I wasn't early. Birger, my Rotary District Chairperson and the official Responsible Adult had even begun "to be worried." At 5:45 p.m. the bus pulled out of the station. The official schedule didn't predict the end of our journey until 11:30 the next day.
Being the first person on the bus, I read my only pages of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" that trip. The bus stopped next in Hyvinkää, where a couple Americans, three Aussies, and a South African boarded. After the initial flurry of talking, we continued to talk, and talk, and talk. Each time a new person, or group of people arrived, they fed new energy into the never-ending conversation with new stories. Considering that we stopped to pick up new people 14 times with never more than two hours' break, the talking never subsided substantially.
By the time we reached the hotel, Harriniva, in Muonio, we were all glad to be off that bus. I never really slept. Somewhere between 6 and 8 I tried to sleep on the floor of the bus, my head at another American's feet, my knees looped under an Aussie's sitting next to me, and my feet at an unidentified person's head.
I decided to cross country ski that first day, seeing how I'd only "slept" 2 hours at the most, an I wanted to enjoy down hill. I skied, I believe, with several other Americans, a Canadian, a Mexican, and a Brazilian. The Brazilian and I had cross-country skied before, but we definitely formed a minority in the party. The Mexican, Edgardo, had never used any kind of ski before. The area was hilly, so the going was slow. Still, I had time at the top of most slopes to enjoy the near-quiet and the narrow, almost-comic snow-laden pines.
In the end we returned in one piece, sore and wet. Happy
We ate dinner at a Lapp-style "camp," a series of rustic connected bandstands. We ate bowls and bowls of Rudolph soup and Finnish-style pancakes with jam, and drank warm sugar water. Despite everyone's complaints of the cold, and the uncomfortable way I had to straddle an animal-skin covered log, I enjoyed my first night in Lapland.
For the past couple months, I've taken to drinking milk at school. There appeared to be two main varieties served, "Rasvation" and "Fetti-Fri." Now, it's apparent that the second means "Fat-Free," so therefore the first must mean the oppisite. I've accordingly selected cartons labled "Rasvation" this entire time.
Last Wednesday, I bothered to read both sides of a milk carton. On the first side I read: "Rasvation," and on the second: "Fetti-Fri." Well then.
