Sitä sun tätä, but apparently mostly about food.

After a long couple of flights home, luggage lost and returned, and two good nights of sleep, I finally feel able to begin to process the significance of this trip to Finland, at least the easier, more superficial parts.

I'll begin with my new nickname: Nahkiainen. While I didn't really have a nickname in my childhood, this is merely the latest of several I've found myself acquiring as an adult. At school, my colleagues and students regularly use several: Huth (very common), Miss Huthie, or Huthie (also very common), Dr. Huth (colleagues only), and The Huthinator (not as common and reserved for circumstances when the children feel impending doom). Even my best friend Nora rarely calls me Nancy, a name she uses only in her best teacher voice when she is explaining to me why I'm being stupid.

In short, I've never been "Princess," or "Kitten," (thankfully), so in aural terms, "Nahkiainen" sounds girlier and more romantic than what I'm used to. I like it. I feel cute and cuddly, in a foreign kinda way . . . until I remember that it's the only Finnish delicacy I tried and didn't like. And that it's the Finnish word for this. And this.

There I am, the worm-like thing on the right . . .

Why, I ask Geof, can't I be something cute for once? How about calling me "muikku," a little salty silver fish, and a word the Finns say (like "cheese" for us) to make people smile before a picture is taken?

It's okay, little Nahkiainen. Don't worry, he assures me.

Unfortunately for me, nahkiainen tastes like leather, and I did not enjoy the small bit I tried. Karri assures me that it tastes better when it is fresher and still warm. Somehow, that doesn't make it sound tastier to me . . .

I've enjoyed every other Finnish food I've tried on this trip, including reindeer, elk, herring prepared a variety of ways, dark, flat, round rye bread with a hole in center of it, perch, kalakukko (which is vaguely reminiscent of mozarella in carrozza ,and even salty licorice ice-cream. Eating boiled potatoes at virtually every dinner made me step hesitantly onto the scale yesterday, but I had actually lost some weight.

When I went grocery shopping yesterday, I spent a futile time trying to recreate our meals in Finland. I could not find a nice, big package of Finlandia cheese and so settled for a smaller packet of swiss. I could not find the dark, flat, round rye bread with the hole in the center, so I settled for a pathetically white rye that was round, not flat, and sans hole. Because Geof loves herring in all its forms, I bought a package of smoked herring, but it was horribly salty. About the only thing I could recreate was the muesli and yogurt we've been eating for breakfast. All in all, a very unsatisfying shopping experience. Where are the S Market and the K Market when you need them?

Another after-effect of the trip is despite my resolution at the beginning of summer vacation to stop drinking coffee, I'm drinking even more. In front of me right now is the sticky residue of the second pot I've had this morning.

Since I'm only beginning to digest* this experience, I'll need a few more days and some time to properly finish documenting this wonderful trip. Right now, the rain continues, and laundry and other realities beckon.

*Believe me, I'm suitably ashamed of myself.

See no moose; eat no moose

I just wished Geof "happy birthday in time at home"--which means it's 5:25 in New York. Which means it's 12:25 a.m. in Finland. Which means I'll be up much later than I really want to be, but that is the routine we've fallen into here.

Teemu and Satu working on dinner

Last night, for instance, the entire poetry group had a great dinner made by Teemu and Henriikka, although others helped, too. At some point, a beer run was suggested and subsequently made, and so, we sat around the kitchen table drinking various Finnish beers and discussing various topics. Poetry, language, families, accents, travel, beer, Canada, the U.S., bad jokes . . . it was a good time. I kept looking out the window trying to determine the time, only to fail miserably. By 1:00 a.m., the sky had darkened just enough to give me the sense I was justified in feeling a little tired, and so we left. We walked up a short hill to our little apartment and went straight to bed, both of us tired from our long but enjoyable evening.

Today, Karri suggested that he Geof, Christian Bök and I go again to Naantali for dinner. This time, Naantali was teeming with tourists visiting the open shops and enjoying the beautiful summer weather. We had a fine dinner, and I chose the "game casserole," because Karri suggested the "game" was probably "moose." Unfortunately, since it's (apparently) not moose season, I did not eat a moose casserole, but we did determine that it was comprised of two different antlered (but indeterminate) animals. And I ate it all.

A Naantali doorway

After dinner, we searched for ice-cream and while most of us got pear, I tried orange-caramel. Earlier, we had walked by a group of women knitting beneath some trees with baskets of goods for sale. I stopped briefly but moved on. When we passed again, on our way out of town, I decided I needed to look more closely at their knitted goods, mostly socks of many colorful stripes. We also ran into the St. Birgit's Night procession, and since she is the patron saint of midwives and beer (makers?), what's not to like?

St. Birgit's procession

On the way home, we again searched for moose. Karri always says he can't promise that we'll see any, but he always has us looking. We have hope, anyway. By this time, it was about 11:30; the sky was light salmon, and a skin of fog hovered above the ground.

Because Geof and I are both writing about this trip, I'm well aware of our different perspectives. For instance, although I attended Karri's presentation today and enjoyed it, I will let him document it in more detail. I've also chosen not to write today about a performance we attended by Quo Vadis, a theater troupe housed at the Saari residence this summer. I, therefore, refer you to Geof's postings for more specific information about the poetry workshops and a different perspective.