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17-19 August 2001
19 August 2001
Sunday
Sunrise/sunset 0516/2128
Oulunsalo
Hei (“hay”) (Hello),
With the help of Outi Tuovinen, the other second grade teacher, I finally got my teaching
blocks worked out. I only teach 24 hours a week; most of the time I start at
0830 and end at 1330. But they tutor after school and have after-school clubs
so, after I get the hang of everything, I might add some of these activities
to my schedule.
My three biggest teaching blocks are English, P.E. and Arts/Crafts. Our daughter’s
P.E. book was in one the boxes we sent Air Mail, so it is here. In the winter
I am to teach cross-country skiing and ice skating. Heikki, the third grade
teacher, has a degree in P.E. and has offered to help me. We will both go
out for one period together, so I can observe him and then do the same thing on my own.
I am actually very excited after my first week of real teaching. I stayed
after school on Friday and planned my week. We have teaching assistants
that can prepare things or copy materials for us. Boy, am I going to be spoiled.
Sometimes my class might be very small and other times quite large, because
I take other people’s children for certain subjects and they take mine
for Finnish, Religion, and Finnish as a Foreign Language.
Friday, John parked at school, went downtown on an errand and then I walked
downtown to join him for dinner at
The Madison. John had a reindeer pasta dish and I had a chicken burrito. Both dishes were quite good. After dinner we took a nice walk over the footbridge to an island in the middle of the Oulu River and went through the forest along the shoreline circling the island. It was very peaceful and pretty.
Saturday, we slept in and didn’t leave the house until 1330. We drove to
Turkansaaren, an open air museum on an island in the Oulujuki (Oulu River),
which shows buildings of rural Finland in the 19th Century. We happened
upon a wedding that was just finishing in the little wooden church. We
watched as the best man decorated the cars. It was fun to see Finnish
wedding customs.
When we got home Allan and Raija’s daughter, Henna-Laura, was picking
red currant berries. We took her to her boyfriend’s home and they
invited us in. Karri’s mother showed us how she turned the currant berries
into a concentrated juice. They keep it in a cellar or
cool place and then use it in smoothies or drink it when they feel ill.
It has a lot of Vitamin C. She is going to let me borrow her pot, that
is a double boiler, so I can make some with the berries still in the backyard.
Oh, before going to Karri’s home we stopped at Henna’s great grandmother’s
apartment to get more bottles for the currant juice. She is 90 years old
and very cute. She doesn’t speak any English, so Henna translated for us.
She wished us luck. At times I really think we will need it, when there
is no one around to interpret.
Today we went to
Hailuoto,
which is an island in the Gulf of Bothnia, just west of Oulunsalo. It is
a fishing and farming area with many lovely beaches. I took my shoes off
and walked on the fine, white sandy beach. It felt great. The water wasn’t
even as cold as the beach along our part of the California coast. There
were some young couples that brought wood and were starting to build a
fire as we were getting ready to leave.
Mary Ann
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