Kangaroos of the Night

Note: I'm writing this a month after it actually happened; so chronologically it occurred the same weekend as the fireworks. The account is good, though, I pieced this post more or less from e-mails written more recently after going to the summer cottage.

After the fireworks, we got up somewhat early for a Saturday morning and drove for a couple hours into the country. After spending the day at my host aunt's house (which featured some extremely good dinner rolls, akin to the famous Jacksonian Yogurt Roll), we went to the summer cottage; tucked away in the woods a couple of hours farther out.
It's made almost entirely of pine on the inside, (but could pass as a house, it's finished pine, not we built-it-out-of-logs pine. It's actually nicer than most houses) and has a stunning view of the lake it's on. The lake is cold, shallow, and has lots of little islands with trees; better yet there was a row-boat I used to visit the islands. Accompanying the rowing was some unsuccessful fishing, but nonetheless fun.
After that was sauna (at this point about dusk), with a real wood-burning sauna.
For those who don't know about the Finnish sauna, let's say it's a very hot, hot sauna; when it starts to dip under, say, 100C degrees then more water is thrown on some hot rocks. To get the full experience one must go in the sauna naked. Ideally there's a lake (iced or not), or some snow to immerse yourself (still naked) in immediately, every 20-odd minutes or so.
As with any sauna, every fifteen minutes in the heat warranted a swim in the lake, which was termed "not having lost the summer heat". Despite growing up with PT water how it is, I was tempted to disagree.
I slept alone, in the guest house. There were some odd pelts on the wall I didn't recognize. They had somewhat largish bodies with no prominent arms of legs, and flapping little ears accompanied by a very long, thick tail. I puzzled over these pelts for some time. They looked like nothing I'd ever seen before, so I summoned up the courage to ask what animal they were from. Kangaroos. Perhaps one of the last things I'd been expecting, but now I could see the resemblance.
Sleeping in the same house as these odd pelts required a bit more courage than asking what they were. Normally the cheery 60s Scandinavia decor of the guest house would have felt warm, but entering it at night with the kangaroos glaring eyelessly from the wall was none too nice. Something about them- a hidden vengeance, the subliminal feeling that these normally nonchalant outback dwellers were a little peeved about being on a wall and were plotting something altogether malicious. Several times my dreams were haunted by bloodthirsty kangaroos, phantom marsupials waggling their pouches at me as payment for their wrongs.
That was a long night- for more reasons than sleeping in 'til 11.
Later we went mushroom-hunting. This was full of wonderful off-path tromping in a wet wood followed by an ecstatic chocolate lab. The rain came and went, but was pleasant. The forest was very serene, and one always knew that in a given glade it was always quiet and peaceful there, and always will be other than the rustling of gnomes and their ilk. We came back with several bags of mushrooms.

Coming Soon

Sorry I ent posted anything of late! I realize that, but between Wu Shu, sleep, school, and food there just isn't quite enough will power after a long day to write. Hopefully I'll get around to it soon, with some of the following subjects:
Fireworks Competition in Helsinki
A Weekend at the Summer Cottage
AFS Camp

Real Fireworks

Note: I wrote most of this long before publishing; sometime in early September. I don't know if blogger will publish it according to the correct date of the original writing, so if it comes up as the 28th just know it was actually intended for a few weeks ago.

Last Friday I went to a fireworks competition. A full-blown, sky-is-raining-fire, apocalytpic-warzone-oh-no-I-can't-find-the-bunker fireworks competition. My past in fireworks and general explosives mostly involves backyard firecrackers, and is punctuated with the annual Fourth celebration at Fort Worden. Proportionally as Fort Worden is to downtown Helsinki, so the Fourth of July to Helsinki fireworks competition.
Probably the most interesting thing was seeing the Finnish police walk through the crowd. Everyone there (almost literally everyone) was drinking something alcoholic or smoking, and almost everyone there were under 18. But the handful of police just walked through and looked around. I knew the drinking laws were lax but not THAT lax.
Between earth-shaking gouts of sky-fire (AAAH! MY EARS!) we (meaning me and friends) hit one of the high-points in our careers as people-watchers. As I said, most all of the many thousands of people there were drinking. Some were drinking and watching the fireworks. Some were even trying to make out, drink, and watch the fireworks. 'Nuff said.
The fireworks were quite spectacular, and walking around nocturnal Helsinki went well; although it was quiet. Fortunately my hearing returned to normal in the morning.