So, we’re back, unpacked and I’m beginning to upload all photos and videos from the last day of our activities at FinnFest ’08 in Duluth, MN. I know, I know…you all loved the first post that had all those photos and video but I have more media than time in the day to get it all uploaded and posted today. So, please be patient…it will be worth it after a day like today!
Here’s a quick overview of today (day 3) to tide you over.
Our day started with free coffee and pulla which was great. Totally Finnish coffee (yum!) It was great for our wait before Tarja Halonen’s ceremony at the DECC.
I’m in the process of uploading the first video of Tarja Halonen’s event as we speak and should hopefully have the full post ready by tomorrow (there are about 10 videos total so it will take a while:). You can view the full schedule in the meantime- I got it all on video which will be posted hopefully by tomorrow (lots of video so please be patient!). I also got the video of the “Finlandia“ performance by Jean Sibelius (coming soon). Her speech was really good as she focused on her attention to two of her button issues- education and poverty. This was actually the second time I got to see the president of Finland- the first time was in Helsinki last summer.
After the Tarja Halonen event we had three hours to get in as much as possible at FinnFest ’08 before heading out of Duluth. We started at the Food court with a hot dog then a last round through the tori to make sure we had everything we wanted. We grabbed a Marimekko shower curtain from FinnStyle along with some candy. A couple Tupla bars and some TuttiFruitti gummy candies for the road! Then we took in our last sights of the tori. You’ll notice the photo of the Finnish Cookbook below by Beatrice Ojakangas. We REALLY wanted to attend the workshop later today by the author of this book but were unable to coordinate with our check out time. We’re desperately trying to find a one to one ingredient match for some of our dishes and she has written so many Finnish cooking books, including this one that I’ve debated buying forever…but, we’ll have to see if we can get her via email to ask questions.
After the tori, we headed towards the Sami Camp outside and stopped over at the crafts booth. Some really cool things going on in there. For my birthday I received this great bookmark made by my boyfriend’s Aunt in Finland. At the crafts booth today we saw people making these exact things. It’s called Pitsinnypläys (tiny string knitting) and you can see below how they do it (I have a video of her working that I’ll get posted later). Very cool, very precise, takes FOREVER! But, the end result as you can see in the photo on the right is just so beautiful. Mine looks similar to the one below but has two long strings on each side so they stick out of the book. I love it! Again, I’ll let you know when the video is up.
Next to the knitting we saw some other great things as well. Kantele (Finnish string musical instrument- the photo on the right) and other crafts.
So, then it was our last stop- Sami Camp. It was so much fun and the weather was nice so we just got to hang out. The guy running the area was really cool. I was able to recall my Finnish without thinking (which was pretty cool). AND, my boyfriend had a little chat with a Finnish man who not only goes to Rovaniemi (my boyfriend’s hometown) once a year but had photos with him that he showed my boyfriend…small world huh!? Here are some photos from the Sami camp. (Again, I have videos but…I can only post as fast as Youtube will upload them! 
Well, I think that could be it for now. We weren’t able to make it to the Iitala presentation due to our time constraints. And, we finished our day off with ice cream! Drive back was quick and painless and now…I’m at the mercy of internet speeds for getting you some video. Stay tuned…LOTS more to come!!
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