"Sankarit." Heroes.
Cold but relatively livable temperatures. Snow. Lots of fluffy white snow. It’s been a really nice winter here. The kids have rebelled against the notion to alpine ski because it was too cold only a few times all winter. It’s been a dream winter, really. But around here, a perfectly snowy winter comes with cloudy day after cloudy day and a general grayness you can’t extricate entirely from your human inner core, no matter how much winter activity one does. Worse, the only sunny days up to now were bitter cold. I think I definitely hate bitter cold more than grayness.
As lucky as I’ve felt about our winter here, following members of the US Ski and Biathlon teams on social media in wonderful, sunny, wintery mountain places like Antholz, Toblach, and Davos, doesn’t help with the gray overtones of Finnish winter either. As good as I've had it, pangs of relative jealousy have penetrated my my outer walls, fully realizing those athletes are exceptions to the exception to the exception. I remind myself to compare my experience to, say, winter in Wichita, when I go down that rabbit hole. Nothing against Wichita. I've just used that one before when people complain about Minnesota winters. If you're going to have cold and gray, you might as well have snow and ice to play on, and in my current case, magically white and black forests with groomed ski trails running through them. I think social media in general is the slipperyest of comparison slopes anyway. So I'm trying to love my here and now, and it hasn't been that hard. I'm just saying Instagram can mess with your relative happiness.
Then Wednesday, it’s like someone turned a switch. Instant spring. And I feel zero remorse for it.
We fast approach the halfway mark between the equinox and solstice, and that means our days and nights are getting back to about as close to those at lower latitudes I'm used to. Sunny, clear, normal, full days have strung themselves together most of last week and more of the same is in the forecast for this week. The days that aren’t supposed to be slightly sub-zero overnight and slightly plus-single-digit with sunshine in the waking hours, promise even more snow. It all looks really good to me.
Iita at Laajavuori
Simultaneously and on top of it all, the Nordic World Championships started Thursday. Ilka Herrola became the buzz of Finland winning silver in the Nordic Combined on day 2 of the championships—the key player in what I have to say was one of the most compelling NoCo races I’ve watched intently. Then yesterday, on some amazingly-well-prepared boards, Ristomatti Hakola and the most anticipated-yet-to-truly-deliver skier in Finland, Joni Maki, stunned Russia, again (though under better resulting circumstances), to take silver in the World Championships team sprint. This time, the 3rd-place Russians decided not to assault Maki at the finish line.
This all paints an environment that doesn’t seem like it could get better for a skier’s family. But that’s where you’d be wrong, because it does.
Do kids in Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Britain, or France have a week of football (soccer) vacation from school? I don’t know. I’m asking. I don’t think Canada has hockey vacation.
Finland has one for skiing though. I’m dead serious. And I love it!
This week, Taavi and Iita are off school for the whole week for “Hiihtoloma”—ski holiday. (?!?!).
These on-going revelations of life in Finland continue to tickle me. But I know; the taxes...the taxes. Whatever. Hiihtoloma is a choice, and it tells us something about how Finns view their lives.
Fortunately for me, unfortunately for my family, Nordic World Championships tethers me to my Crazy Town studio through Hiihtoloma, so I’m having no such loma myself. Moving to a row house across from a ski area though, turns our home into a Hiihtoloma on relative Covid lock down.
Cell phone provider riding the Nordic World Championships wave. Notice the flags on the hats of the guys getting dusted...
Covid has spread quite a bit more than what we enjoyed this summer and fall, and it's at near all-time peak here. And while the rates would still cause most Americans to incredulously chuckle at the “severity” of Finnish increases, they are increases nonetheless. And thank goodness for Finland’s rapid responses to it with subsequent handle on contact tracing and locking things down. It’s the response that makes us continue to feel best about being here, maybe more than the relative sheer number of cases. In the end, what humans want from their government and neighbors is semblance of caring for and responding to emergencies that actually take care of each other. With that response comes community pressure to wear masks daily and maybe not go to Lapland for Hiihtoloma. These initiatives will help keep businesses open. Nothing against those who are going, but we are not. As alarming as the numbers seem to be to Finns, we as a family feel we do not have to add to the stress at this time, really nor figuratively. We just feel lucky we can hiihto and loma, all within the comforts of our home.
First, we have the snow. Man, do we have snow. It’s been a haul since my last post, and I think it has snowed the majority of minutes between finishing that post and my left thumb hammering away sentences on my iPhone as I chip away at this one.
Second, we basically live at a resort. I’m waiting for my turn at a new Frisur at the Scandic Laajavuori, a wonderful poured concrete gem from the 1970s that is full of Finnishness, and only about 1km from our door. I’m sitting in the lobby waiting as Taavi gets clipped first, watching families come and go with Nordic and alpine gear across the street to the ski area. I feel like we’re on Hiihtoloma.
The thing that sticks with me about Hiihtoloma is, it makes so much sense. It’s like the people who run this country have their priorities straight. They know what winter is here and how to make it theirs. They know that when spring pokes its head into their lives after the last 4 gray months, that, it’s going to be tough to concentrate on math with that sunshine glaring through the windows, bouncing of all that snow. Why not embrace it and jump on it? Take the last vestiges of a great winter and play with it as the sun re-emerges and the temps are pleasant again. The world, and taxes, can wait. They’re teaching their kids that a healthy northern lifestyle is worth making time for--that it should be a priority. Happiness isn't that far if your culture spells it out for you.
Ilkka Herola, Ristomatti Hakola, and Joni Maki dominating the news doesn’t hurt that message either.