no one told me i needed to bring my own loofa

jounsuu finland, 5 something a.m.,

apparently sleeplessness isnät exlcusive to helsinki.

i am excited because after so many trees and lakes what i started looking at yesterday are the people and i figured out that if you flip the view screen a certain way you can take pictures of people without them even knowing you are looking at them. i am in love with the children and want to bring them all home with me.




but today itäs all about the sauna. iäm coming out. i know this will disappoint some of you, but iäm not entirely sure about the idea of the public sauna. night before last we were staying at a sports institute (founded ages ago by women and for women--the finns have a long history of strong and forward-thinking women. i love this finland!) in savonlinna. i love savonlinna! we walked down to the lake and were standing on the dock and as we turned to leave here comes this guy in nothing but his towel and a big grin on his face. we passed each other and i knew he was getting ready to whip off his towel and jump in the freezing lake
(yes, it froze night before last in savonlinna). i was obviously born in the wrong place and time because i politely kept on walking and never looked back. i think shane was really tempted to take his picture, but did the proper thing and refrained.

so i realized then and there, although iäm not uncomfortable at all with other peopleäs nuditiy, i really donät think i can get over being uncomfortable with the concept of my own. sorry cjane. last night i really was in the mood for sauna and i walked down to the basement where the sauna is located here (we are staying tonight in the hotel sokos in juonsu) and took one look at the virile 20-something-year-old sitting there in a very relaxed position with nothing on but his towel and a great smile and i just knew i couldnät bring myself to do it. i know iäm a wimp but it just seemed somehow wrong to plop down this old and frumpy self next to something beautiful like that.

besides that, i really didnät know i was supposed to bring my own loofa.

(Jean Sibelius sat nekked here)

yesterday was quite the adventure. we had to drive clear to russia to find a water closet.

we were on our way to jounsuu--which was supposed to be the shortest let of our six-day tour into northern finland--when the guys up front decided they were in the mood to go to the russian border and see some war museum they had heard about.

i have to interject that our native bus driver is darling and even though i canät understand a word he says, i like him a lot. but there is something about seeing three grown men huddled over a brand new gps and several maps--and yes, the driver is driving i donåt know how many kilometers an hour while staring at the maps--that i find amusing. even with all that help we still get lost every time we get off the main highway.


every time.

but itäs all good because now i have decided that everyone should get themself lost in europe on a daily basis. one sees the most interesting things...

in any case, they decided to do this without telling anyone till we were well on our way. i was game for the adventure, especially because if i was coming this far i might as well get as close as i could to the russian border, but there are some darling native finns on the trip--female native finns--who are forces to be reckoned with--and they were not so happy about this detour, especially as we all at this point really needed to go to the wc.

the road trip was lovely, but i have to admit that after so many gazillion (and iäm not exagerrating here) trees and lakes they all start to look the same. and when one really needs to go to the loo the last thing they want to see is another lake.

so finally we stop in the middle of nowhere and the lovely finnish woman and the tour guide have words. she is not happy. meanwhile the rest of the group is scavenging for food as we have stumbled upon wild blueberries all over the thick forest floor. we were picking and eating the berries--wondering when and if we would see civilazation ever again--when the other finnish ladies ran over to us and scolded us because the berries were better on the other side of the road.


sure enough, i looked over there and saw that the moss was greener over there as well...


anyway, a few more miles down the road and a quite relieving visit to one of the most rustic outhouses i have ever seen and we all seemed to be in a better mood.


so i was visiting with the finnish women and i thought i wouldnät be able to understand a word they said. i should not have been able to understand a word they said. but suddenly i realized they were in a quite passionate discussion about how the men shouldäve dropped us off at our hotel in juonsuu and then headed off on this fruitless goose chase for the war museum (which we never did find, but we did see an old bunker and stand on the ground on which the way undermanned finns outsmarted the russians in complete darkness--they fought hand-to-hand in the dark with knives, identifying the enemy only by the feel of their backpacks). they were quite right and i knew exactly what they meant, so i looked at the one finnish lady who does speak english--her name is sirpa and i love her--and said to her, "i think itäs kind of a guy thing." she looked at me in surprise and then told the other finn that what i had said and we all had a good laugh.
(You don't mess with Sirpa--but she has the best laugh)

that understanding of the universal ways of man really does exceed all boundaries of language.

really.