Peroxide in the water.....

So, its been quite the week. Lots of great things have happened to our group since we landed. I'll outline as much as I can here, but I may have to keep it short as we äre scheduled to have dinner with the governor and then head off to a ball.....got to look good for that one...may need a quick sauna before hand as well (do not be surprised if when I get home I actually turn on the heat in my house and start trolling around naked throwing the occasional ladle of water on my ass).

Anyways, our flight was quite the journey. The trip to Newark was just that...a trip to Newark...the second leg, the overnight flight to Koppenhagen was a different story. What a great plane ride! Everything was on time with no issues. Stewardess kept us plenty boozed up, the food was good, and despite having a seat in the back of the plane I had a whole row to myself. When we touched down it was morning in Europe. That kind of screws with your mind a bit because we had been up close to 24 hours straight, at that point it was turning to night back home, yet it was bright and early in the morning in Koppenhagen. Rather than wait out our 5 hour lay over in the airport we jumped on a train to city center. It was a 15 minute train ride to downtown where we exited and set out to explore city proper. The first thing that greets you in Koppenhagen is the immense amount of bikes. They're everywhere!! The city has a bike co-op program that allows you to take any number (and there are literally hundreds) of the unlocked parked bikes and ride them anywhere you like within the city.....it was raining when we arrived or I would have set out on a fixed gear to try my fate in traffic. Anyways, we walked to a small coffee shop that is in the town center (very near a fashion store called "engleborn"). Our first chance to feel the sticker shock of the exchange rate. Yeah, it's true...our dollar is shit. After coffee we walked around the main city square until it was time to go back to the airport.

Koppenhagen to Finland. Short commuter jet. I sat with some lads from NYC that were preparing a sales pitch for Nokia. They insisted on spending the flight educating me on the differences between Swedish women and Finnish women. Since I am completely uninterested in well fit, highly educated, blue eyed, bi-lingual blonde's, I simply tuned them out and caught a quick hour of shut eye. Upon arrival in Tampere we were greeted by our hosts. The airport is roughly the size of the FcLoveland airport so it wasnät hard to find the lads that were decked out from head to toe in Rotary lapel pins. My host was Jali, a lad whose family has been long time residents of Tampere. He drove us to his home which is located on a giant lake. It is an older farm house that has been completely renovated with a modern interior. He is an architect so it is done beautifully. His style is ultra modern (my favorite). After looking through the place it is apparent that americans have no sense of style in their home designs and we should all employe Finish architects before we build anything (that last plug was for Jali, he bribed me with congac). Anyways, it was an eventful couple of days with him. He introduced us to sauna. This topic will be further discussed throughout my trip, but for now I will share the one important (gender specific) lesson I learned. Put a towel down before you sit!! Talk about a souvenir that you do not need....yikes (I sure wished I would have packed some of that Burt's Bee's Miracle Salve)! Jali has a daughter that is getting ready to move to LA for school at UCLA. She played translator and late night party host to our group. Incredibly bright poli-sci gal that speaks 4 languages fluently without pause (more on how undereducated Americans are in another post). On Wednesday night we went to a club called onntelli (passion) to see how Finäs get jiggy. Late night, turns out that clubs and places stay open until 4am, and some in the major cities like Helsinki stay open all night (this may come in handy at the tail end of the trip when we have no kayakalipala or hoteli to stay at). It was a good chance to bust out some home grown moves from the left side of the pond. I may or may not have pulled a groin in the process (nothing a little sauna wonät fix).

The other glaringly obvious attribute of the entire country is that there is no shortage of blonde hair. At some point I hope to meet someone that is a water treatment guy to see if in fact they put peroxide in the water. Everywhere you turn there are blondes.

Anyways, this blog post is starting to ramble, but I wanted to put something out there as I have been unable to email or communicate since my arrival. I will elaborate more on what I häve learned since we touched down on the tarmac in Finland, but I will save that for another time. I have now moved houses and am shacking up with some swedes...these people are hilarious. They make their own wine, sauna (co-ed) and for one reason or another the man of the house has half a dozen compound bows that he bought from Cabelas that he insists I learn how to shoot before my departure (apparently Sunday is a big day for bow shooting). The women of the house seems to want to feed and drink me to death, and there seems to be this random older lady (perhaps someones mom) that keeps showing up with pastries to my room (apartment).... I guess, when in Finland do as the Finns do (or Swedes in this case).....

Oh, and in case Tanner reads this...they do put ice in their water. Looks like I can stay and have fun after all.