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6-11 August 2001
11 August 2001
Saturday
Sunrise/sunset 0450/2157
Oulunsalo, Finland
We arrived in Oulunsalo on Monday, the 6th. It has been a fast week. The
Fulbright
Orientation in
Washington, D.C. was
very informative and we really liked the Perttunen Family.
Because we had e-mailed so much before we met, it felt
like we were old friends right from the start. We had many
cultural workshops and lots of time to meet with our partners
to discuss our school situations and home information. But
it was very intense, with little down time. The two days following
the workshop were spent doing errands. We did a little sightseeing.
But it was quite hot and muggy, so we ran out of steam pretty fast.
When we arrived in
Oulunsalo, Henna-Laura, Raija and Allan's daughter, picked us up at the airport.
She brought us to our new home and showed us how to use the appliances,
etc. She also took me to the grocery store and showed how to weigh the
produce; punch a number for each item. Then an adhesive bar-coded tag is
printed with the weight and price. Not so different, you just need to know
what to do. Many of the younger people speak English, but people in their
50's or older don't. We crashed after Henna left; didn't even eat dinner.
I'm using a sleeping mask, because it is only dark from 0000 to 0400. That
is changing daily. I should appreciate it for it will be dark soon enough.
Tuesday we just took a walk around the area, unpacked and started
making this our home.
Wednesday Henna and her boy friend's mother came to take us to set up our
Finnish bank account, set up our cell phone service, rent a car for the
first week or two, and to the library to get cards, great English book
section. She was a great help, speaking in Finnish and getting things taken
care of much more quickly.
Thursday we took the bus into Oulu, about half an hour
from our house to my school,
Myllytulli.
We went to my school and met the headmaster, Olli Nenola, and the
English speaking Coordinator, Johanna Nousiainen, who I'll be working
very closely with, along with Outi Tuovinen, the other Second Grade
teacher. They were all very friendly and helpful. The building that
they are moving the English Speaking Classes into was not finished
as of Thursday. They were painting the rooms and putting up the
chalkboards. They are supposed to move in the desks on Sunday. I'll
be meeting with Outi on Monday. to divide up our Second Graders,
doing some setting up and planning. I'm glad I sent five boxes of
my own things; three have arrived. They had a hot water pipe burst
this summer in the prior building and it ruined the English texts
and many of the teacher's personal files. The replacement books they
have ordered haven't arrived yet. It is good I am used to having things
never go smoothly at the beginning of school. This will help test the
saying, "go with the flow."
Friday we spent the day in Oulu, trying to track down a power cord for
the computer. We finally got the cord problem solved today, so now we
can start e-mailing. Hooray!
Today we went back to Oulu and walked through a lovely park that goes along
a river, down to the waterfront, over bridges to an island back to the
main land. The weather reminds me of Hawaii, right now. It was about 19ºC
today, (around 68ºF). There have been rain showers on and off. Nobody
lets the weather stop them at all. They just keep going about their business.
The city has cobblestone or brick everywhere. It seems very clean, but
does have graffiti on overpasses etc.
We found a wallet on our walk today. We couldn't find any policemen around
the city, so we got in the car and located the police station. When we
finally figured out how to get inside, the policeman behind the desk was
our age, so you know what that means; he didn't speak English. We gave him
the wallet which he opened and found a phone number and called; we could tell
the owner was happy by his facial expressions and changes in his voice. We
gestured to leave and he made us realize that he wanted us to stay. Then he
called the dispatch department elsewhere in the station and two younger police
officers arrived. We explained what had happened. Then the older officer said
something to them and they asked "Do you want 10% of the findings". We shook our
heads “No!, of course not”. Then he wanted to see our identification. The young
officer asked if we were vacationing. I told them I would be teaching for a year
at the English Speaking School. Then the other officer shared he had lived in
New Jersey for two years and the first had been to Los Angeles, so we had a nice visit.
Our not finding a policeman at first indicates our safety in Finland, not
the lack of policemen.
Food wise, we have tried Swedish meatballs from the deli and we bought
a smoked white fish that we used for two meals. We went out to dinner
in Oulu for Chinese on Thursday. John did dinner on Friday - rice, lihapiirakka
(piroshki), salad and Thai frozen vegetables; very good. Tonight I had
"roni" and John had scrambled eggs. We could spend a lot on food,
but we will figure it out. It is great that most items in the grocery store
have pictures on them, so you know what you are buying. We are going to
try to go the farmer's market next week.
The four television channels that we receive often have shows from England
with Finnish subtitles. The young people say it is one way they learn
to pronounce English so well.
Mary Ann
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