HB COLD

I have to write this before I forget about it and if that were to happen then we would all be robbed of perhaps the greatest name for a dish of food that I have ever come across. That's right, come to Joensuu's China Deli and order up one plate of SCARRED WOMAN'S HOT MEAT.

Of course I was a little too afraid to make this dish the first one I tried at China Deli, but I will tame that woman one of the days. She will be mine, oh yes. All in all the restaurant was a pleasant surprise. Now there are 2 restaurants in Joensuu that I would recommend and that is 2 more than I thought would be here. Last night marked only the 4th time K and I have been out to eat since we arrived. That is 4 times in almost 8 months. In Brooklyn we were eating restaurant food 4 times a week.

Oh, I wanted to share this little comparison that K and I came up with while we were walking along the river in Turku several weeks ago (but it feels like months). We were able to compare cities in Texas with cities in Finland in order to really figure out where we live and where we want to live. Here's the breakdown, listed in order of places we would like to live the most in both Finland and Texas:

1. Helsinki = Austin
2. Turku = Dallas
3. Tampere = Houston
4. Oulu = San Antonio
5. Jyväskylä = El Paso
6. Joensuu = Lubbock / Waco combination

Make your own conclusions.

Lately there has been a low-hanging haze around the residential areas of Joensuu. At first I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me, or they simply wouldn't focus. It made no sense that, in a town this size, there would be any type of visable pollution. But this haze was different from the smog that plagues Los Angeles or Dallas or any other big city; this haze smelled nice. Finally, I realized that this haze was eminating from the hundreds of wood-burning saunas that have returned to life with the oncoming Spring.

Riding home from basketball at 8:30, with the sun just beginning to set and a clouds of sweet smelling smoke resting on top of the trees is a very peaceful environment. Sure it's still only in the 40's here and there is still a lot of snow on the ground and my rear bike wheel is warped and needs to be replaced, but all in all Spring is in the air...and I can smell it.

Speaking of basketball, we have been playing like we will never get to play again. With two more games intended for tomorrow and Thursday, we will have played 9 times in 2 weeks. I haven't played basketball this often since I was in junior high school and would go to Huffines Rec Center 4 or 5 times a week. Secrectly, I wish some of these guys would get a chance to sample the type of ball and attitude that is present at the Rec. I don't know if they would survive.

This week the town of Joensuu, the whole of Finland for that matter, is preparing for May Day, Vappu, the Day of the Worker, also known as Labor Day. Unfortunately, this year Vappu falls on a weekend so we will not be able to take a day off from work to celebrate, but don't tell that to the locals. I think they will all be drinkning very early on Friday and will continue until late Saturday evening. Here's a breif explanation of things to come:

Vappu begins on the 30th of April and usually ends around the 1st or 2nd of May, depending on one's personal strength. Most Finns start the occasion amongst friends around good food and drinks. Vappu is the holiday when Finns do their utmost to behave contrary to their reserved image, screaming through the streets with masks in their faces and drinks in their hands.

K and I have not had a drink in several weeks, it seems as if we will need to practice a little before this weekend in order to survive. The day is supposed to mark the beginning of the Finnish summer and that is a little hard to do with piles and piles of snow still on the ground. Although there is considerably less snow on the ground now then a few weeks ago.

So one of the things I miss most about living in the States - obvious answers aside - is watching sports. The sports channel here does show one NAB playoff game a week, but it is at least two days old, so I know the result already. But lately, with my favorite teams playing on the West Coast right now and at night, I have been able to wake up in the morning and follow along via Game Cast on ISBN. So this week, I spent my breakfast in front of the computer watching as the maps fell to the Kings in Sacramento. Sure it was 7 am in johns, but it was still 9 pm in California, and sure the maps lost and I was pissed for the rest of the day, but at least I was able to get a little taste of home.

OK, it is official, I am going to Rome and to the Cannes Film Festival. Tickets have been purchased and hotel rooms have been booked. The press kit for Cannes came out yesterday and there are going to be several films that I cannot wait to see. The only crappy thing is that a lot of the really cool events and lectures will take place after we have left. The entire festival lasts 11 days and we will be there for the first four, which is four more than I ever expected I would get at the Cannes Film Festival, but still it would have been cool to get to go to these later events.

In less than one month I will have already eaten at Dos Charros and maybe the Blue Goose. Karoliina and I are exercising like crazy so that we can eat like mad when we get to Texas - to say nothing of what we are going to do in New York. Man, we need to start planning our next trip back.

I want to be honest with you here, Karoliina and I have the most powerful blender in the whole of Finland, at least in Joensuu. This thing is more than a little scary. If you increase the level past 3, you are in for a blend or two yourself. The thing vibrates my entire body when I hold it in place, and when I remove my hand to shake out the vibration, the blender start moving around on the counter. This might have been one of those occasions when less was actually more. When we went to shop for a new blender the salesperson told us that 350 Watts is a good amount of power, so what do we do, we buy one that has 525 Watts and now I think we are going to die every time we make a shake.

Another kitchen tale of woe: Our sink faucet changes the water pressure all on its own. We went from having a solid single stream to now having this shower-type thing, and it doesn't change back. Which means now when we wash dishes, it sprays everywhere. I'm sure you find this very interesting, but that is what has been going on lately.

We had an unwanted visitor in the house last night, a mosquito. The surest sign of Spring since, well, since Spring started. This is something that I have been thinking about for a long time now, but I've kept it in the back of my head because it has been too cold to worry about the bugs that will come out to play when the snow goes away. Remember people we live in the country, in the forest, next to lakes and rivers, a veritable breeding ground for those little blood sucking bastards.

This presents a bit of a problem. Since we have no air-conditioning, we have to keep the windows open, but there are no screens on the windows, so the bugs have open access to me and Karoliina as we sleep. And there is nothing worse than knowing that there are bugs flying all around you, waiting for you to get to sleep so that they can feed. OK, maybe it is worse to have one of those bugs fly close enough to your ear to buzz you right when you are about to fall asleep - after you have finally been able to get those little creatures out of your head long enough to get to sleep.

Sure I might be a little dramatic here and I might possibly be over-reacting, but last summer I saw some kids whose legs were covered in mosquito bites, I mean covered. And, of course there is nothing that one can do to prevent the mosquitoes from biting when you are outside - although my plan is to ride my bike fast enough so that they won't have time to sink their teeth (or whatever you call that thing that they sink into you) into me. But you should at least be protected while in your own house. I mean, what is a house for, if not to protect you from the elements?

So I think I will be in the market for a mosquito net or 10 and cover all the openings to our house with them. I do think that we will be lucky, in that we will be in Texas and New York during the time in which the bugs will be in full effect, but it never hurts to be prepared.

I realize that from the outside our house could look a little silly, what with the protective window coverings to keep out the morning and evening sun and nets on all the windows to keep out the bugs, but I guess I would rather get funny looks that get a lot of funny bites. Of course this is all subject to Karoliina's approval which means that it could simply be what I want, but not what I am going to get. I will keep you posted.

Everyone hates those in between stages, well at least I hate those in between stages. Like when your hair is not quite long enough to look good, but rather looks like you desperately need a haircut, or when the sun is out and shining and it feels warm outside and you no longer are wearing your long underwear, but there is still massive amounts of snow on the ground and the ground that isn't covered in snow is drowning in the mud that was created when all the snow melted.

Yeah there are good signs in the air: the neighborhood bar, Paronitar, has constructed the outdoor patio that will be open for the summer; the outdoor market is opening more regularly; the house is getting a lot of sun - it's staying bright out until 9pm, got to get some plants.

But I'm still wearing my winter coat, I've worn the same shoes everday now for more than 6 months and because of all the mud and crap, I wear the same jeans everyday (who needs new clothes when you only have one outfit). I have like 6 pairs of shoes that I can wear regularly and many pairs of pants, but I only wear one pair of shoes, one pair of jeans and like a combination of 4 shirts, that's it. I remember in NYC, if I wore the same pair of pants twice during the same week - even Monday and Friday - I felt guilty and forget about wearing the same shirt two times in a week, let alone two days in a row.

At least I don't have to pack my scarf or earmuffs, but gloves are still a must. I admit, the thought has crossed my mind recently to go ahead a wear another pair of shoes, but I am hesitant.

Oh, I played football last weekend in Turku with Antero and some of his buddies - nice guys. That's right football, not the American kind but the Euro kind, you know the teams: Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Real Madrid. Yeah I didn't know them either, but now I realize that people like to play football here, they really like it and they're good. I looked the right fool playing with these guys. I had't kicked around a soccer ball (there, I said it) in like 11 years. How does that happen? How can I play a sport for so many years of my life and then completely quit cold turkey? I've decided to pick it up again, but I realized that I need to get contact lenses or some other sort of athletic glasses pretty soon because my old pair of glasses with a string holder just ain't cutting it and I think it could make me look pretty stupid. And you can't really head the ball when wearing glasses. I don't know if I'm ready to join Mr. Bionic eyes Wes or anything, but I would give it serious thought.

It's late, I'm turning in. Another happening Friday night here in the Jone's Sue. Karoliina turned in an hour ago. I finally got her to start reading "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami after trying unsuccessfully for years and she is really into it, which is they way it should be, because it is an excellent book - as are his many other books. Also, I picked up Smilla's Sense of Snow and it has proved to be quite entertaining and all the references to snow and cold really strike close to home.

I've been slacking lately on this journal thing here. Maybe it's because there's not so much going on, or maybe it's because there's nothing new going on. What should I say? I had to ride my bike home through a sleet storm today? In the middle of April? But you've heard that before. As a matter of fact, I think you can go back to the second entry I ever made on this blog - October 25 to be exact - and you will find something quite similar. So that is nearly 6 months of the same thing, a 6 month snow storm. So I can keep writing this and you can keep telling me how nice the weather is wherever the hell you are, but really, what are we doing here, do you call this progress?

OK, on to more uplifting things. Sure it snowed today, but I got to tell you, at least it wasn't rain. It started out as cold rain, but then the weather dropped a little and the rain became sleet - ranta. I was glad of this because there are few things worse than riding the bike through a sleet storm and one of those things is riding your bike through a rain storm, when the rain is really, really cold.

So it was fun in October and November and December and January, and even February, but April?

OK, seriously, on to more uplifting things. Tickets are being purchased right now for a trip to Rome and Cannes, and if it snows there I think I will punch somebody. This is crazy good news, but I don't like to talk about it much and so I won't. But let me tell you, when I have the tickets in my hand I may open my mouth a little. You know what, better just to wait until I get back. But then I only have like 8 days before Karoliina and I are off to Texas and New York! I can't begin to tell you how excited we are about this, but it's really really excited. I mean really. And it's going to be here before you know it, which is the best part.

Switching subjects, my class is over but we are still going to meet on a regular basis until we have finished the story. By my best guess, we are about an hour or so into the movie and we are looking for another 45 minutes. In other words, we are a good deal into Act II, but now we need to turn up the volume on things, or kick it up a notch, raise the stakes one more time and get to the climax and then set up the sequel - franchise baby, franchise. I want to get the structure down and scripted and then I will get the copyright and then I will tell all about it, but regardless of whether it has any real potential, it has been a fun way to spend some time.

The group is pretty dedicated and that makes the brainstorming sessions an enjoyable experience. It has also been cool to lead a group through the writing of a story, juggling people's ideas and trying to incorporate the ones that work and gently discarding the ones without strength. I just hope that sometime, somewhere in a bar in Cannes, I have a couple of drinks with a person that I don't know and we get to talking and I pitch this idea and it turns out that this person is a big time producer with a soft spot for Finland and vampires. You never know, and that's why I want to get the story finished soon so that I can take a complete idea to as many bars in Cannes as possible.

Wait, I just realized that that little story wound up being all about Cannes, and I just said that I was going to keep a lid on it. Damn. All right, no more talking about Cannes. No more talking period.

Lots of love to lots of you. h still b cold.

So which is better: Going to Turku for the weekend - four day weekend, that is - and seeing what Spring is supposed to look like, or returning home after a long weekend in the middle of a snowstorm?

Well, Karoliina and I spend a wonderful Monday afternoon walking along the river in Turku. The sun was shining and people were out and about. It felt like the beginning of summer. And we returned to Joensuu later that night to a snowstorm and woke up this morning with flakes still falling. So, away from home and in the warmth of Spring, or at home and still in Groundhog's Day?

The trip into the wilderness was crazy. It took us 2 hours to get there. The first hour was spent on a highway and the second hour was spent on a country road that was somewhat cleared of ice and snow, and this road led us to the final road which filled with snow. There was one set of car tracks that paved the way and everywhere else was snow and ice. Needless to say the car ride was a little unsettling.

Once we got there it was hard to believe that people would desire a place this far out in the middle of nowhere - by the way, I thought Joensuu was the middle of nowhere, but compared to this place, Joensuu is Times Square. There was not another house around for many, many miles. It was straight out of a horror movie - a group of young kids go out into the woods for a night of fun, you know what happens next. But nothing bad happened and it was a great time, but it was the first time I have been in a setting like that.

So we got there...took a look around, kicked out the guy who was there warming the place up for someone else. We called those other people and told them that we were here first - this cabin is shared by a very large family - and then we proceeded to build the fire and drink.

We walked around the location, by the river, which was partly frozen over and part fast moving rapid and the rapid, which originated where the ice was melting, flowed for a 100 meters or so and went right back into a sheet of ice. By the way, no chance I was getting in that water.

There were animal tracks everywhere - and once we got inside I realized who would want a place out here, hunters, that's who. We saw wolf tracks, wolverine tracks (apparently the wolverine is the only animal that likes to kill for fun) beaver nests and lots of smaller animal tracks. But we did not see any animals, which I suppose is fine with me.

As the night started to creep on us, we got the indoor fire burning and the outdoor fire burning and we ate and drank for many hours. Then nightfall hit and out came the Northern Lights. Now, from the movies, I thought that they would be green, but they were grey and so I had a hard time believing that they were indeed Northern Lights. But as they danced and morphed I realized that they were indeed what they were. It was great to just stare up at the sky and watch them. But after many hours of being outside, it was time to hit the sauna.

This was one of my first outdoor winter sauna's and you are supposed to roll around in the snow after spending time in the sauna and that's just what we did and boy is it cold. I couldn't roll so much as crawl and the snow clung to my chest hair and I think I may have screamed like a little girl and ran back into the sauna, but I can't remember right now. Sure this may be the reason why I am a little sick right now, but it was a great time.

So on to last night and my first attempt at making matzo ball soup. I was so concerned with keeping them light and fluffy and avoiding clumps that I made them too light and fluffy and we wound up having matzo mush soup. It tasted really good, but the fact that we had to scoop out a ball from a pile of mush kind of took away some of the appeal. But now I know not to use the electric mixer when making matzo balls and these are the lessons that one needs to make a fine matzo ball in the future. Whatever doesn't kill you makes a stronger matzo ball, right?

OK, so remember when I used to go on and on about how warm -5 (*9/5 +32 = 21F) degrees was? Well today -5 degrees felt like -5 degrees and it felt cold.

And oddly enough on a day as cold as today, it was readily evident that Spring is in the air and that the Winter is coming to an end - even though there are still dunes of snow that reach nearly 15 feet into the air. We moved the clocks ahead a couple of days ago, but today was the first day since that the sun came out to play, and just like that we had daylight until 8:30pm.

Also, our bedroom and kitchen windows face due East, so that when the sun is out it warms the place up a little and it feels great, but our outdoor thermometer is on kitchen window and it shows a very deceiving little temperature. It is regularly 5-10 degrees off, depending on whether the sun is shining or not and this morning it was a significant difference. To make a long story short, it was really chilly today.

Good news / bad news on the job

Good news, it looks very likely that I will be heading to Rome and Cannes in about a month and let me tell you, I like it. For a while it was sketchy and even up until a few days ago our travel arrangements were in the air. In the past two days though we have been able to decide on the arrangements and now we just need to get the tickets and the hotel rooms.

Bad news, my basketball documentary hit a snag today. My main subject, who had already agreed to be the main focus of the story and who told me that he was rather positive that he would stay in Joensuu next season (he has played for the local team since he first arrived in Joensuu, more than 4 years ago, well you might guess where this is headed...) he's moving to another team next season, to Porvoo, near Helsinki. So, I need to wait until the next American comes my way and in the meantime, I will work on the general story and plug in the central character when I find one. I'm not too concerned about this, I feel pretty confident that I will be able to find a willing participant, but this means that Hawaii is out.

Good news, Karoliina's brother, Antero, his girlfried, Jenni and two buddies, Ero and Petri will be coming over this weekend and we will all spend Saturday at Ero's lakehouse here in East Finland. I'm looking forward to getting out in nature, not that I don't live in the country or anything, but I mean really in the country.

Bad news, I could find myself in a sticky spot and a cold sticky spot at that. Karoliina and I were watching a tv show of people ice dipping and Karoliina chimed in with the fact that we could be doing that this weekend. I know I said I would do it, but that was when it was like -20 degrees and hopping into a lake that is roughly +4 degrees would feel nice and warm, but this weekend is supposed to be like +7 and so the water will be a lot colder. That's a -3 degree change rather than a +16 degree change and I'm not a big fan of them numbers.

Oh yeah, none of this is true. April Fool's!

Ha! Got you again, April Fool's on that April Fool's.

OK, seriously. Hey, is that a spider on your shoulder?!

Sucker.