Tuesday, January 25, 2005
There are some places in the world where someone walks down a path, maybe a dirt road or even a sidewalk, finds a little rock and passes the distance by kicking the rock down the path. Well, not here in Joensuu. In Joensuu that path is elevated due to the three or four inch layer of ice and snow on the sidewalk, which is sandwiched in between two cliffs of snow that reach up to my waist and instead of rocks, there are frozen chucks of ice, that have remarkable staying power, probably because they are frozen solid.
That's what I did last night when I missed my bus stop. I was caught up in the middle of a game of backgammon - on my phone - and I missed my bus stop. Normally I wouldn't take the bus because it has been very warm here pretty much all winter - I probably just jinxed myself - and I like to ride my bike. But yesterday was a Monday with Markku and that meant beer. I'll admit that riding a bike in this weather after a couple of beers can be a real fun time, but I there is a lot of snow on the ground and you never know.
It's really a trip talking with Markku. Here is a guy whose latest film is up for 3 Jussi's - the Finnish Oscar - and he and I are talking about our childhoods, our opinions on all sorts of movies, his opinions of his own films (he admits that he has made a lot of crap and can only watch 3 of his films without feeling awkward), the pond that he is constructing at his new home, so that he can go ice swimming. We just chat.
Man, I just got really tired. It's almost midnight. I usually have some trouble getting to sleep early on days when I play basketball, which I did today. These guys are crazy that I play with, they're maniacs. No rest in between games. I watch the pro's play and they rest more during their games than we do, and they get paid to play ball. These guys finish up, drink some water and are ready to go again. Literally, they rest like 2 minutes in between each game and we usually get 4 games in in 90 minutes. So that's 82 minutes of ball and 8 minutes of rest. And they don't stretch before hand either, they just show up and go and go. It's funny, I am referring to them as them, but it is really us. Only I get there 30 minutes before everyone else so that I can stretch. Really, these people are nuts.
One more bit of news, my column for the University newspaper gets published and put out tomorrow. It's called the J-town Journal. I am doing my best to coin that name. We'll see if I have any luck. We'll also see if anyone likes it. I could get a lot of strange looks tomorrow. Which is par for the course, because if you haven't guessed, I don't look like the other people here.
That's what I did last night when I missed my bus stop. I was caught up in the middle of a game of backgammon - on my phone - and I missed my bus stop. Normally I wouldn't take the bus because it has been very warm here pretty much all winter - I probably just jinxed myself - and I like to ride my bike. But yesterday was a Monday with Markku and that meant beer. I'll admit that riding a bike in this weather after a couple of beers can be a real fun time, but I there is a lot of snow on the ground and you never know.
It's really a trip talking with Markku. Here is a guy whose latest film is up for 3 Jussi's - the Finnish Oscar - and he and I are talking about our childhoods, our opinions on all sorts of movies, his opinions of his own films (he admits that he has made a lot of crap and can only watch 3 of his films without feeling awkward), the pond that he is constructing at his new home, so that he can go ice swimming. We just chat.
Man, I just got really tired. It's almost midnight. I usually have some trouble getting to sleep early on days when I play basketball, which I did today. These guys are crazy that I play with, they're maniacs. No rest in between games. I watch the pro's play and they rest more during their games than we do, and they get paid to play ball. These guys finish up, drink some water and are ready to go again. Literally, they rest like 2 minutes in between each game and we usually get 4 games in in 90 minutes. So that's 82 minutes of ball and 8 minutes of rest. And they don't stretch before hand either, they just show up and go and go. It's funny, I am referring to them as them, but it is really us. Only I get there 30 minutes before everyone else so that I can stretch. Really, these people are nuts.
One more bit of news, my column for the University newspaper gets published and put out tomorrow. It's called the J-town Journal. I am doing my best to coin that name. We'll see if I have any luck. We'll also see if anyone likes it. I could get a lot of strange looks tomorrow. Which is par for the course, because if you haven't guessed, I don't look like the other people here.
// posted by Howard @ 11:22 PM 
