Hyvä paiva

Greetings from Finland. Some quick thoughts:

• The 24 hours of day light (the sun actually does set below the horizon where I am, but it's still light outside) is pretty amazing. But what is even more amazing is how the people who have lived here 20,30,50,70 years still get so excited about it. Their excitement speaks volumes about how different the dark winters must be.
  
• Lordi, the recent champions in a European music contest, may look like they are demons from Hell, but they are played on the radio in between Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson. 12 year olds love Lordi.
  
• My aunt-in-law could not understand why in Germany you had to ask someone's permission to pick berries from their yard. In Finland, it's in their constitution that 15 meters away from your house is public land, and anyone is allowed to pick the berries or mushrooms that may grow there. When we mentioned that in the U.S. you might be arrested for tresspassing, she was even more confused.
  
• When you combine strong governmental control of alcohol with months of darkness and snow, you end up with a lot of home-brewed alcohol. But, due to their strict law enforcement, drunk driving incidents are extremely low.
  
• The sauna isn't just a place where you sweat, it's practically a religious experience here. More on that later.
  
• There is a region near by where there are a lot of glass factories. Some of them are larger companies, and some of them are small houses with 1 artist. In a way, it reminded me of driving through Napa and visiting wineries, but instead of drinking wine, I got to look at glass products, and when my timing was lucky, got to see someone making something.
  
• Don't call Finland part of Scandinavia, or call a Finnish person Scandinavian. They'll correct you, and might be a little angry by the common mistake.
  
• There are green forrests everywhere. It's amazing. I joked that perhaps half the world's oxygen was produced here there are so many trees.