10 Vroni's Finnish Frost Protection (EN)
Two days ago I saw a documentary (highly recommended, by the way) about the Finnish ice swimmer Elina Mäkelä in my beloved ARTE Mediathek. This woman swam the ice mile off Spitsbergen. I'm a long way from that, of course, but nevertheless I notice that I'm slowly but surely adapting to the local weather conditions. And now, on days with an outside temperature of 0°C, I say: Wow, it's warm today! Why is that? How can it be that I, who was already freezing at 25 °C in Southeast Asia 5 weeks ago, can suddenly go ice bathing in a Finnish lake in the depths of winter? Let's get to the bottom of this and find out what my Finnish antifreeze is! By the way, nice alliteration in the title, isn't it? My German literature teachers would all be proud of me. Well, let's take a look.
Frost protection from the outside
The obvious first
It's a normal morning, I'm standing in front of the wardrobe and have to decide what to wear today. Aesthetic demands play a rather subordinate role, but the double-layered look is all the more important. Three layers of thermal leggings or jeans are not uncommon when I plan to be outside for a longer time, and of course enough layers of socks! Because if my feet are cold, I've already lost. Then it's game over! There's absolutely nothing I can do except get back into the warm. In the best case scenario, my hot water bottle, which I normally only use once a month, namely when I have period pains, is waiting for me in my cosy little studio room. Here, I sometimes use it under the duvet on particularly cold nights. The dormitory is heated, but on some days that's not enough for me. It's also nice to warm yourself on the cooker or oven while cooking. Or as Steffi recommended to me during today's phone call: Blow-dry under the duvet before going to bed. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Frost protection rating: a stable 8/10. The old German wisdom applies here: There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.
Run, Forest, run!
"No way" was my attitude to outdoor running during my first days in Finland. Too cold, too slippery, just completely bananas. Continue to indulge in the treadmill at the gym until the temperatures rise again, after I had already trained on the treadmill for 3 months in Phnom Penh (not because of the cold there, but because of the crazy road traffic and the lack of any green spaces). Well, I wasn't particularly keen on the treadmill in Phnom Penh, and here, too, my passion for treadmill training is limited. And it came as it had to come... After a week, I ventured out in a winter running outfit at temperatures just below 0 °C, with a buff over my mouth and nose to protect my airways, and carefully took my first jogging steps. Am I going to break something? was the question that preoccupied me during this 5-kilometre lap through the lake and forest. Nope, everything actually went well. In the meantime, I can be seen at least twice a week running around Tampere in a hood, and one of my weekly highlights is my long-distance run at the weekend - the landscapes I jog through are absolutely amazing. Frozen, endless lakes, snow-covered forests. Running outside. So simple, so warming. Both from the outside and from the inside. Hach.
Frost protection rating: 7/10. Jogging = one of the nicest side things in my life, but afterwards it's just cold again.
Views from my long distance run last weekend
Worshiping the sun
2022 was probably my most sun-kissed year. Thanks to the Italian sun in Ravenna, my skin had already reached a Dieter-Bohlen-like tan level (just google him on Google images in case you don't know Dieter Bohlen, he's a shitty/sexist but famous German pop singer from the 80s) by the beginning of May, followed by a very, very hot high summer in Bavaria, and then of course autumn in Cambodia, which provided me with tropical heat. Now in Tampere, of course, it's the other way round. We are all bleached out like the Addams Family here, my complexion, imported to Finland, has quickly disappeared from the shock. The sun rarely appears in Tampere at this time of year, as you would expect. But rarely does not mean never. In fact, I've had a sunny day or two in the past four weeks! And when the sun, that old crazy bitch, is there, it is of course enjoyed to the full. The Finns don't really care what the weather is like. They're always out walking, cross-country skiing, skating, drinking beer or doing other sports, and somehow always in the same mood. Just the happiest people on earth, no. But my ERASMUS friends and I see it differently. As soon as the sun is out, we go nuts. Fuck library sessions, the day is spent outside, that's the motto. Fill up on original vitamin D™ instead of taking vitamin D pills. If it is not possible to spend the day outside due to compulsory attendance in lectures and seminars: During the lecture break, simply press your face and as much of your body as possible desperately against the sun-soaked window front. Guaranteed not to be embarrassing. Been there, done that.
Frost protection rating: 5/10. It's nice that the sun shines here from time to time, but it still remains cold.
I left my Titanic-style handprint on the university window. You don't leave anything else but a bad impression. :D
The ultimate opponent for freezing: The Finnish sauna
I don't need to explain much about Finnish sauna culture. Apart from the fact that it's the place where Finns thaw out. Not only physically, but also interpersonally. In everyday life, people keep a safe distance, don't hug too much, and even if you're freshly in love, you have to be cautious about public displays of physical affection. But none of that applies in the sauna! There you sit like chickens on a roost, lined up close together, and suddenly you're super close to each other. And not only that: Finns talk in the sauna! And they talk a lot, loudly and in confusion! Jesus Christ. But the sauna is our happy place. It has to be at least once a week. With ice bathing. Meanwhile, my record is 5 slow, deep breaths, cramped up to my neck in the ice hole, and then escaping as fast as lightning. Of course, this makes me one of the weakest animals in the sauna pack, real sauna bunnies swim through the ice hole and even dip their heads under the water sometimes.
Frost protection rating: 10/10. Pure everyday wellness.
Just the usual madness
Warmth from within
Drinking????
People always like to joke that alcohol is a good antifreeze. I'm sure it would be here too, but at these prices I don't want to waste my money on maltreating my remaining brain cells and synapses with intoxication. One or two after-work beers or pre-drinking in the dormitory kitchen are okay, but alcohol in the club? Unaffordable or only possible with a guilty conscience. 8€ for a "big" beer? That's almost three meals in the cafetaria! Well, my liver thanks me for the rest.
Frost protection rating: 2/10, at least Finnish beer tastes pretty OK.
Raving!!!!
This brings us to the next topic, the party scene in Tampere. There are pretty much three clubs that are regularly visited by international students, namely Lolas, Bricks and Ranta. These three clubs are alternately played by no less than four local DJs (in a city with 240 000 inhabitants), who seem to share exactly one Spotify playlist with relatively undemanding club music from the years 2000-2015. From a musical point of view, the clubbing game gets bland relatively quickly, so dancing to keep warm is only suitable to a limited extent in this case. But with the right company, the evening can still be quite fun, and luckily I'm always in good company here. Nevertheless, the standard clubs in Tampere don't necessarily offer the party entertainment that one might wish for. But if you open your ears a bit, you can still find what you're looking for. And that's how some of my flatmates and I ended up at a rave last weekend. A rocked-out underground location, fancy/arty-looking people, and DJs who don't play that awful David Guetta remix of "I'm blue" three times in one night, but techno/house and who knows what else - jackpot! After dancing the night away, I fell into bed happy and warm inside.
Frost protection rating: 9/10, best party in a long time. If I can find a location where live bands play rock/punk/metal, it'll be perfect.
The dormitory kitchen
Not warming, but pulse-quickening: the various states of devastation and pollution in the dormitory kitchen. When 50 people share two communal kitchens, it is somehow predictable that some of them are free riders and think "Oh, I'll leave the disgusting pan with the burnt rice like that for three days, someone will clean it up one day". So it's no big surprise that the kitchen regularly looks like a bomb has gone off, but still. I cook a lot, I like to cook, I want to find a certain feel-good cleanliness in a kitchen and not have to scrape other people's leftovers off the hob, the worktops and the dishes. Or having to drain the dishwater and fish the most disgusting leftovers out of the colander. Fortunately, I'm not the only one in the dormitory who feels this way, so we regularly start clean-up campaigns in the team or send annoying messages to the WhatsApp group. The success is rather moderate, and two hours after cleaning, the kitchen looks again like our camp in Nova Rock festival last year. Well, thanks to years of flat-sharing experience, you kind of adapt. But about once a week I still have a meltdown because of it.
Frost protection rating: 1/10, at least sometimes some heat gets into my head when I rant about it and get upset.
The poster here is a product of my efforts (and Canva skills). Am I passive-aggressive? Yes, No, Maybe?
Kaksituhattakaksikymmentäkolme - the Finnish language
Since day 1 at the University of Tampere, I've been taking a Finnish course and I'm really excited about finally learning a new foreign language. Finnish is somehow very special - maybe not as melodious as Spanish or as sexy as Italian, but somehow it has something fairytale-like about it. It's definitely a lot of fun, and my Finnish teacher Veera is really great. I also made one of my first friends in Tampere during the Finnish course, which is of course an additional motivation to stay on the ball. Kiitos samoin, Jeannette!
Frost protection rating: 9/10, my favourite course here! But I'm just saying Monday morning at 8am.... Btw, kaksituhattakaksikymmentäkolme means 2023. THE word Jeannette and I can flex with best.
Last but not least: Heartwarming people, found in Tampere
Yay, now it's getting cheesy! In just one month here in Tampere, I have already met some great people. Most of these friendships I have made in Pinja, the student dormitory where I live, but also outside the dormitory I have already made friends and had memorable encounters (little insider hehe). There are 50 exchange students living in Pinja, and logically I'm not friends with all of them, and I don't want to be - I've never needed huge circles of friends. But the flatmates with whom I regularly do things or just chat in the kitchen have really grown on me - whether we go to university together, go on excursions, go out partying, do sports, organise cooking evenings (highlight: on Friday we had French crêpes!)... It's nice to enjoy coming home. When I feel like socialising, I just sit in the kitchen, someone always joins me. And when I need time for myself, I retreat to my room. It's all very relaxed. The weekend after next we have already planned a weekend in a hut in the middle of the forest with a small group - looking forward to it! I am very grateful to have settled in here so quickly and to feel so at home with the people around me - a real stroke of luck!
Frost protection rating: 10/10, what else!
Crêpes evening in Pinja
Ciao Kakao,
Vroni
Comments
Post a Comment