Kevätkuvaajat

Weather Forecast!

TWO DAYS!

Today has been probably the coldest day during summer 2011 in Finland and in Joensuu air temperature has been ~15 degrees Celcius. But what about the weather during IFSS2011 - do you need to pack rubber boots and umbrellas with you or just bring a big pile of t-shirts? Check weather forecasts!

SOUTHERN FINLAND (HELSINKI) 3.-9.8.

- On 3rd of August it's 23 degrees and pretty sunny!
- Then partly cloudy and oops - rain is coming towards you in Hyytiälä the latest!
- Air tempature is still around 20!

JOENSUU

- You will arrive in Joensuu from Hyytiälä and rain rain rain we have.
- Oh my, cold too, ~15 degrees and especially in Thursday we have slight storms ahead of us!
- On Thursday the 10th we'll have our forest management field show and again it's raining - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

LAPLAND

- Unfortunately we do not have any weather forestcast for the rest of the part yet.
- However it's always cold in Lapland. :(
- Ask OC members during IFSS if you want to know what's happening in the atmosphere!

When Finns say "let's meet 8 o'clock", it's 8 o' clock!"

Only few days left folks!

OC Members, specially a few of them are working their asses off for you guys! To help them with organizing one of the best symposiums ever it's good to know something about the timetables and how they are made.

Year ago in the Republic of Korea we were always little bit behind schedule. We have tried to plan this years scheduleand so that there's some type of time buffers between different activities. However if you want to act like its ment in Finland, please try to be at breakfast when it's said to be and at the evening party when it's scheduled to begin. PUNCTUALITY, that's what we like in Finland. Oh well, we're still gonna wait for you but pleaaaaase, try to be on time ok?!? :)

And another thing. Here's phone numbers of the OC members - please write them down somewhere in case of emergency!

SEE YOU SOON!

Things to bring!

Important (!!) list of things you should bring with you:

* Sleeping bag and a mattress

* Official clothes for opening ceremony

* Warm clothes and raincoat (just in case)

* Good shoes, really. Hiking boots etc. We also recommend spare shoes.

* National food, drinks, etc. for International evening. Bring also something for Tombola and Auction.

* Your presentation See the advice here!

* You with a smile.

Less relevant but good to have

* Towel
* Swimming suit
* Camera

A glimpse of Finnish folklore

Today boys and men named Jaakko are celebrating their name day. At the same time one Jaakko "throw's a cold stone" ("heittää kylmän kiven" in Finnish). This Finnish belief means that from this day forward water in thousands of Finnish lakes is starting to get colder and summer is slowly starting to end. If it doesn't rain on Jaakko's day the last part of summer will be good. In addition if the weather is clear and warm, Christmas will be cold.

Today sun is shining and it's hot hot hot. If this Finnish belief is true, we'll have nice weather during IFSS and it will be freezing cold in December! Little over a week, stay tuned!
If still wondering what Tombola and Auction mean, check Mikko's explanations!

Greeting from my cat, Otto!

Finnish Music!

Last year in IFSS in Republic of South Korea participants got introduced to local pop music via this band and this song. Now I think it’s only equal and for your own benefit to get to know also Finnish music well beforehand! Globally Finnish music cannot be compared to for example Swedish music what comes to popularity. One might say that one reason for this is our attitude: Finns are introvert people who don’t believe in themselves. I’d like to disagree with this opinion and to prove you that also Finns can do music, I introduce you few past and present more or less famous bands and songs!

1. Lordi.

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Since its inauguration in 1956 Finland hasn't succeeded very well in this contest. Or hadn't until in 2006 one handsome monster came and won the competition. This Monster and his crew was called Lordi and their winning song was called Hard Rock Hallelujah.

(Source:http://static.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/loordiMZ_uu.jpg)

(Yes, we all look like that in Finland)

2. Leevi and the Leavings

For this band and for the next song I don't have much to say...It's classic and apparently LC Joensuu (Mikko N. and Veera T.) made this song very popular in IFSS 2009 in Indonesia. Enjoy the song and for the enthusiastic ones I also found lyrics translated in English- feel free to sing along! Leevi and the Leavings: Teuvo, maanteiden kuningas (Teuvo, the king of Roadways)

"Kotikaupungin katu oli hiekkainen tie

The street of the home city was a sandy road

Siinä Anglia katolleen kääntyi
Here the Anglia turned on its roof
Vielä vinossa liikennemerkkikin lie
Maybe the traffic sign is still aslant
Joka ohjausvirheestä vääntyi
It was buckled by an error in the control
Etupenkiltä lasin läpi lennettyäni
After I had flew trough the glass from the front seat
Olin pyörinyt piennarta pitkin
I rolled along the berm
Ojan pohjalla hampaita sylkiessäni
When I spitted my teeth away on the base of the ditch
Minä oksensin verta ja itkin
I chucked blood and cried

Tässä naamassa arpikin kaunistus olisi
On this face a scar would look good
Ja hampaat voi uusiksi laittaa
And the teeth can be replaced
Mut ajokortin ja Anglian kilvet vei poliisi
But my driving card and the signs of Anglia were taken by the police
Se harrastustoimintaa haittaa
It makes harm to the hobby

Rallikuskiksi pääsystä toiveita elätän
I'd want to become a rally driver
Turha on äitien sankaripoikia neuvoa
It's useless for mothers to advice the hero boys
Eihän rallia voiteta jos siellä pelätään
Nobody can win the rally if he fears
Maalissa juhlitaan voittajapoikaamme Teuvoa
The winner boy Teuvo will be celebrated at the finish

Viikonlopuksi autoa etsiessäni
In the weekend when I looked for a car
Otin lainaksi naapurin Sierran
I borrowed Sierra from neighbor
Pikatiellä mä rekkaa päin törmätessäni
When I crashed against a lorry in speedway
Kai törmäsin viimeisen kerran
Maybe I crashed my last time

Teuvo, ota meidät kyytiin
Teuvo, [please] give us a ride
Teuvo, sun Angliasi myytiin
Teuvo, your Anglia was sold"

3. Rölli

I asked other members of the OC to help me in choosing songs for this blog. Song number 2. was one of the hints and another one is Omituisten otusten kerho (Group of Weird Creatures) performed by Rölli. Rölli is (or was when I was little) a famous fairy-tale creature who lives in the forest. He isn't a bad person but a bit scary...

Song was chosen my Juho-Matti Rossi and he claimed that this song tells about the OC... Well it must say something about us if chorus keeps repeating "Group of weird creatures, group of weird creatures". Did this song really tell about the OC or forestry students as a whole?
At least I look almost the same after spending a week in a field course.

(Source: http://yle.fi/ecepic/archive/00029/satusuo_rolli_jpg_29153b.jpg

And after two weeks I look like and sound like this: Rölli:Häläpäti Hää Häläpäti laulu Rolli halapati haa Röllin Häläpätihämmää.

Again for the ones who want to learn more Finnish, listen to that song and try to learn at least the chorus: tilipitappitippitappitilipitappitippitappitilipitappitippitappitaa! Häläpätihämmää!

4. Kaija Koo

Kaija Koo and her song Tinakenkätyttö (Girl With Tin Shoes) is something I got introduced to when I enrolled in former University of Joensuu (nowadays University of Eastern Finland) and visited annual party organized by the Forestry students in Helsinki. After the party group od forestry students were sitting in a bus and suddenly one of them started singing this song as loud as possible. Everybody were staring at us but at least I was having fun trying to sing along without knowing the lyrics. Since that night I have had this weird obsession to sing this song in a karaoke bar. So far I have not succeeded but maybe someday, maybe in IFSS2011.

5. Eläkeläiset (Retired people)

They play weird music called Humppa. People are meant to dance along humppa. Hummppa taikka kuole, they sing. In English it means, humppa (dance humppa) or die. What else can you say, HUMPPAA! And to know more about this exciting dance and band, visit Eläkeläiset web site http://www.humppa.com/en/.

Humppaa taikka kuole (Dance Humppa or die)

6. Nightwish

For the last song I was encouraged to introduce more rough (?) music. I can't say anything good about this band but they were pretty popular even globally few years ago and apparently there are people who love their music. I don't but you are free to make your own judgements:

Nightwish: Nemo

What Finnish songs you have heard during IFSA-meetings or in other places??

Bored? Try these games!

Finns are not good in normal soccer, running or tennis. However we are exceptionally good in developing weird games and competitions!

Probably one of the most known is Wife Carrying World Championships, a sport where male competitors race against each other while carrying a female teammate. “The objective is for the male to carry the female through a special obstacle track in the fastest time. The sport was first introduced at Sonkajärvi, Finland” (Wikipedia).

Instead of telling you what it looks like, here’s few pictures of ways to carry a lady during the competition:

(Source: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/110622/thu
mbs/s-WIFE-CARRYING-large.jpg)

(Source: http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/wife_carrying-1.jpg)

(Source: http://www.jaunted.com/files/admin/finlandwife.jpg)

This years competition was held 3.7.2011 and I'm happy to announce that once again Finns were the best as Estonian couple took the second place! If want to know more, watch this "tutorial" from you tube and start training!

If you don't have a wife to carry but crave for exercise in nature, try swamp soccer! In this muddy game soccer is played in swamp/mire/bog or in another muddy and wet environment. This video implies that swamp soccer might be the world's stupidest game, what do you think?

(Source: http://travel.ninemsn.com.au/img/articles/different-ball/swampsoccer.jpg)

In addition to excercise, mud bad makes your skin happy - so why not to try? :D

Another interesting game we have developed is boot throwing competition! In this game competitors try to throw a rubber boot as far as possible. If you don't have a rubber boot don't worry, Finns have national/world championship games also for mobile throwing and frying pans!

(Source: http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1600/821844/18115802/372659636.jpg)

Hmm, what else do we have? Oh yes, Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu! In this competition people play guitar...but without a guitar. Last year Swedish indieband Junip recorded their music video Always in these championship games! This years competition is held 24.-27.8.2011 and if you are interested in participating or just visiting this event make sure you book your flights home enough late. For the possible participators here's few pictures on how your show could or should look like:

(Source: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01467/airguitar3_1467170i.jpg)

(Source: http://www.driveproductions.co.uk/images/news/lge_air-guitar.jpg)

(Source: http://www.2camels.com/images/festival-photos/air-guitar-world-championships-6.jpg)

Pretty cool or what?! For the last but not the least comes of course...tadaa - Sauna World Championships! If you don't know what sauna and saunominen means, read my earlier post and listen this sauna song by Martti Servo and Napander.

(Source: http://www.topnews.in/files/Finland.jpg)

SO, ARE YOU READY TO PLAY GAMES IN IFSS2011??