Well! My weekend was jam packed with new experiences and new places. This is the way I would life to be always. Brace yourselves folks, this is going to be a very long entry. In fact, it is so long, that I have decided to break it up into two parts (and even those parts are enormous). The first part will be about my trip to Tampere and Helsinki and the second trip will be about my time in Tallin, Estonia. So here goes…

On Thursday morning, about 25 members and staff from Suvimaki (including me) go on a bus bound for the city of Tampere, which is about 200 km south west of Jyvasklya. Many folks were going to spend the day at a local amusement park while another handful of people were going to attend a Finnish Clubhouse Coalition gathering. I was asked to come along with the director of Suvimaki and some other members to the coalition gathering. I really enjoyed the gathering, as it gave me a chance to meet more people working in the other 17 clubhouses in Finland. Everyone was so excited to meet me and to ask me about my Finland experiences. I had the chance to tour the clubhouse in Tampere where the meeting was taking place. I also was asked by some folks to help with a major translation project. I felt so honoured to be asked to come to Finland and now people were asking me to help with this very important project. I was overwhelmed. Each clubhouse in the coalition had the chance during the gathering to get up and talk about what their clubhouse was up to. When it came time for Suvimaki to speak, our director asked to say something to the group of about a 150 people (more people than attend the Wednesday afternoon FH meeting). I was really nervous and was hoping that I would be able to speak clearly. I avoided embarrassment thankfully and articulated well enough!

After the gathering, I met a few members and staff from the Helsinki clubhouse, which is the largest clubhouse in Finland (though still smaller than FH). I was going to be travelling with them back to Helsinki and the next morning would visit their clubhouse. On the trip back, many people came up to me and asked me to talk about what I thought about Finnish clubhouses and to explain the differences and similarities they had from Fountain House. I talked about all the wonderful things each clubhouse is able to do and what I can do to help Fountain House become better. I really like the attitude of the people here. The Finns I've met seem to very pragmatic and while they are proud of what they've accomplished, they are always thinking of what they could do to be better.

We got to Helsinki and it was than that I realized that I had forgotten to write down the address of the place I was going to be staying. Fortunately, one of the members knew the hotel and offered to take me there himself. Unfortunately, for me, the members and staff at the Helsinki Clubhouse already had some experience with this establishment and it was not positive. A couple of years ago, they had some of their colleagues who had come for the three week training stay in this hotel. The colleagues did not have nice things to stay about the place. I was very nervous and a little pissed off that I was going to be spending so much money to stay in such a place that rented by the hour (if you get my drift and I think you do). Here's my impression of the place after staying there for two nights: Not the worst place I had ever stayed (that honour goes to Prince Street Backpackers in Edinburgh...yuck!) but I think I would have hated it with a passion too if I was to stay there three weeks. On the positive side, the hotel offered free breakfast and free morning sauna in the price of the room. I was definitely going to be taking advantage of these things while I was in Helsinki.

Helsinki is a really wonderful and charming city, even in the rain and the wind and the fog. Its very European but has a Russian twist. Its brightly colored buildings and many churches make the city feeling cheerful and inviting. I hope my pictures will do it justice better than my words. But the best part of the city: the trams! I loved riding around on the trams and did it as much as possible, even if I was only going to go a few blocks. And it was cheap too! For six euros, I got a 24 hour pass.

When I got to my hotel I decided to go back out and explore the city. After all, I still had at least 4 1/2 hrs of daylight left before it got "dark." I went to Senate Square and took in the beauty of the cathedral and the surrounding buildings. I walked around some more and when my feet could take me no more, I went to a supermarket to get my dinner! Just like when I was in Ireland, my dinner here has often consisted of a baguette and some yummy cheese spread. I also treated myself to a can of Murphys-what a delight to find it here in Finland! I took my goods back to the hotel and ended up eating my dinner while watching a hockey game with another hotel guest. We talked about American sports and he told me about a friend of his who is obsessed with American baseball. In fact, to my dismay, his favourite team is the Yankees (booo!). When the game was over, we watched the first part of the Eurovision Song Contest. Youall should look it up if you don't know about it. Its kinda like American Idol only bigger and more outrageous (if you thought that was possible). This year happened to belong to Finland and their selection, a heavy metal band named Lordi. The song is pretty catchy (if still a bit cheesy) but the members of the band are very scary looking! I am not kidding. Look them up yall!

The next morning, I went to the clubhouse and worked in the kitchen unit until lunch. The size of this clubhouse is larger than Suvimaki, but I think the members and staff have struck a really good balance between the resources they offer their members and the type and quality of the relationships that exist in the clubhouse. I really enjoyed working in the cafe -and I can happily say my Finnish is improving with use. I now can count to 100! Woot!!

After helping with the pre-lunch duties I had the chance to talk to the director of the Helsinki, which was very helpful to me. It is becoming more and more clear why I have been sent here to Finland on this exchange. When I come back to work at Fountain House I will help to formulate an action plan of sorts that will help us all become better members and generalists. The prospect of my experiences being the catalyst for change in such an institution is a little daunting to me. It will involve a great deal of thought while I am still here and then consultation and the actual planning when I get back to NYC. Talking to other clubhouses is incredibly helpful and will help me articulate my ideas to the folks back home.

The rest of the afternoon was spent riding around on the trams and seeing various Helsinki sights. There are a lot of churches and markets in Helsinki and I tried to see as many as possible. I was planning on leaving for Estonia the next afternoon and because I wanted to see as much as possible while I was here, I gave myself a schedule. I stopped at this nice little cafe after a couple of hours and had a cup of coffee while I planned my next moves.

I should just take the opportunity now to point out to you all that once again, I might be addicted to coffee...and no wonder with all the imposed (ok they aren't imposed) coffee breaks here in the clubhouse. I think Finns might drink more coffee than Americans, which is saying a lot! It doesn't help that coffee (or kahvia in Finnish) is cheaper than soda (no surprise there really) and even water. I found myself in this situation in Ireland and ended up having tea stains that my dentist thought were caused by a decade long coffee habit. So yeah, I have been drinking more coffee lately. I am sure I will be able to break the habit once I get back to NYC. Although....ice coffee from Amy's sounds really, really good right now.

Because of my limited time and the amount of space I had to cover to see the sights, I was not able to go to any museums. Therefore (and I am sure you all will breath a sigh of relief) there will be no history lesson on Helsinki. The only thing I really know historically is that the Russians, when they took over Finland from the Swedes, moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki. I think I might have pointed this out to you all already. Yay! for redundancy! I understand that the museums in Helsinki are all very nice and informative, so count yourselves lucky that I ran out of time.

That evening I went to a Karelin (Finnish country style) restaurant called Mamma's Place and ate to my hearts content! Two things about this dinner: 1) I finally tried reindeer, which is the national dish of Finland (I wonder what the US's national dish is? apple pie?) and it did not taste just like chicken...needless to say, I don't think I will ever be eating it again; 2) Despite the reindeer, the rest of the food, especially the homemade bread, was delicious! The atmosphere was great too! I definitely went back to my hotel happy and full.

And now folks, a short (ha) evaluation of my first Finnish sauna experience. It was fabulous!! At first, when all I was doing was sweating and having a hard time breathing, I thought sauna was very much my worst nightmare. Thankfully, there was another woman with me who not only showed me the ropes but who struck up a conversation with me while we were perspiring. That definitely helped pass the time away. After about 15 minutes in the sauna, we got out and stood under freezing cold showers (this in lieu of a frozen lake to jump into). Now I know why the Finns love to sauna! I felt so refreshed and invigorated and relaxed and happy! I jumped right back into the sauna to do it again...

I spent my last hours in Helsinki checking my email at the Tourist Office and then sitting in a cafe by the harbour drinking kahvia and eating pulla (yummy bread with different fillings). I was excited about going to Tallin and only hoped that it would not be raining when I got there.

to be continued (lol)....