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So, it’s our last day at FinnFest 2008 and our last day in Duluth, MN. We’re up bright and early grabbing breakfast then heading over to grab seats for Tarja Halonen’s speech
Fri, 10 – 11 am, President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen,Arena
The President has been invited to FinnFest 2008. A ticket is required for this free event.
Tarja Kaarina Halonen, the President of the Republic of Finland began her first term of office in 2000 and was re-elected in 2006. President Halonen is widely celebrated by Finns as a woman who has risen from modest circumstances with only her own competence to guide her to become the leader of their nation. During her career, President Halonen has paid close attention to issues of human rights, democracy and civil society. Issues concerning social justice and promotion of equality have been central themes throughout her political career. READ MORE
After that, we’ve got a couple hours before we need to check out of our hotel so I’m gonna try to check out something a little “festive” and musical since I haven’t covered much of that (just not in my taste but I understand some readers might like to see, listen, read about some of that. There is a small Kantele performance at 11:15 that I might go take a look which is followed by a presentation on Iittala. Our plates and cups are all Iittala and we just love the design. Very classic Finland.
Fri, 11:30 am, “Iittala: Modern Finnish Design”with Ben Horn of FinnStyle
Meeting Room 203, LECTURE
Finnish manufacturer Iittala remains vibrant and fresh after two centuries of operation. This presentation includes an overview of Iittala and its products in glass, porcelain (Arabia) and stainless steel (Hackman). Examine the company’s extraordinary design talent and enduring product lines. Learn more about a company–and a philosophy–which continue to influence modern design worldwide.
After that, I think we’ll finnish (ha) off the day with another round of coffee and pulla, maybe grab another extremely healthy and good hot dog (well, at least they are good) and some ice cream and head down to check out the Sami Camp activities outside if it doesn’t rain. They have reindeer with them and lots of other cool stuff it looks like.
Sami Camp — Outside (southwest of the Auditorium by the “Statue of Liberty”)
The Sami Siida of North America, a loosely organized group of self-identified Sami descendants, has gathered for winter and summer Siidastallens. At FinnFest 2008 the Siida will host a Sami camp at the west end of the DECC near the small Statue of Liberty. The camp will feature a lavvu and reindeer from the Dancing Reindeer Farm, The Dancing Reindeer Farm, is owned by Tom Scheib & Liisa Mayo, Milltown, Wisc. The reindeer have traveled to reindeer exhibitions, parades, festivals, and FinnFests, and have been in movies and commercials. Sami craft demonstrations, lavvus furnished with objects of everyday life, and traditionally dressed Siida members who will answer questions about Sami life, history, and culture. It is a place and time for those of Sami heritage and others interested in the Sami to learn and find fellowship in a welcoming, traditional and educational setting.
Think that can sum it up for us for FinnFest 2008. I’ll send as many updates as I can throughout the day but most likely look for video posts, etc. later tonight and tomorrow (and on through the next few days).
Been a great visit and we got to see Duluth too which is everything people say it is- absolutely beautiful!
“Survival Finnish” with Larry “Lauri” Saukko
This class will present the basics to get by in Finnish, including “Finnish Pronunciation in Five Minutes”, and how to say things such as “Where is the nearest sauna?” and “Can I borrow your cell phone?” Although spoken in Europe, Finnish is unrelated to most other European languages. Learn what this fascinating language from the land of Nokia is like.
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This was a very fun presentation and it was packed! People lined the walls all the way through the entrance so the doors couldn’t close We basically spent the entire time going through pronunciation of the Finnish language which I was able to capture via video and audio. Below are the clips with pretty good sound quality and the pamphlet to help you follow along and see some of what is being said in the background. Enjoy and I hope you can pick some of it up.
Part 1: pronouncing the double ÖÖ
Part 2: A note on pronouncing the ‘p’ and ‘r’ in Finnish
Part 3: W and two letters together
All I have time for right now…bed time. More later! Happy learning!
*BE SURE TO CHECK OUT NEW FLICKR PHOTOS TODAY!
So, I would call today the first “official day” of FinnFest 2008. We headed over to the DECC around 9:30am after breakfast and there was a swarm of people everywhere- a complete turn from yesterday. We headed straight to our first event of the day which was a presentation on “The Titanic’s Missing Woman: Solving the Confusion over Mrs. Latinen’s Fate” with Greg Isola. This presentation was interesting and the research behind it is not only immense, but extremely education. Greg Isola went into detail about the number of Finns that were in fact on board the Titanic when it sunk in 1912. I want to make sure this research gets a good representation so I’m going to put together an informative post and get it up on the blog along with a short video entry by Greg (hope he doesn’t mind the first name basis). I should have it up within the next couple of days when we’re settled back at home and I can go over all my media.
So, next up was an hour of “play time” involving time spent in the tori and some great fun to be had in the food court. Case in point involves the great Finnish snacks for sale.
Like I mentioned, it was packed today at FinnFest which was great. It also brought in some free coffee periods throughout the day which we jumped on. We had ourselves some AMAZING hot dogs and found ourselves serenaded by some traditional Finnish accordion music (or Harmonikka musikkia). You can take a look below at the video for day 2 at the tori (with the previously mentioned accordion player)
After we ate we got to sit through, what I would call an amazing presentation on the University of Minnesota Duluth’s women’s hockey team. I’m gonna have to do the same thing with this as Greg’s Titatic presentation just because there is too much good information to write something up quickly. I will give an overview though because I really enjoyed it. The University of Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team has a special connection to Finland (as well as Sweden and Canada) as many of its members are from Finland. The coach, Shannon Miller has led the UMD Bulldogs to four NCAA titles while at Duluth in just nine years. What I loved about this presentation was how energetic she is and how much she loves what she does. There was also much talk about the unique situation the players are in, working together with such diverse individuals spanning a diverse cultural landscape. Can’t wait to follow up on this later. In the meantime I encourage you to read more about the UMD Women’s hockey team…I sure will!
So…again, time to spare, so what did we do…back to the tori. This time to make our purchases we had thought out over the past day. What was on our list:
- Finnish rye bread! My boyfriend loves it and any Finn misses the heck out of this when away from Finland. We’ll see how it is and if it really is the real thing when we get back to Minneapolis (when he can properly top it with butter and cheese
- Candy…because you just can’t get enough really. Got some salmiakki, and black licorice (yes these are different things)
- Souvenir Mug for my desk at work- perfect saying “Living with a Finn builds character.” That it does…that it does!
- Postcards, sticker decals
- And some newspapers to send back to Finland and spread the Finnish-American news to my boyfriend’s parents
Our last presentation/workshop of the day (three was all we had steam for today) involved something truly great and fun. We sat through Finnish Survival Guide presentation where we were walked through Finnish pronunciation and given a great guide on the Finnish language and common words to make sure you can find the bathroom, communicate the basic daily interactions and learn a little. You can find that post through Finnish Survival Guide Blog post
FinnFest 2008 into the evening July 24th
So, I would say after this we were exhausted. Absolutely exhausted. We grabbed a little more coffee in the food court and headed back to the hotel to lounge before dinner. Tonight there was a small block party event with Finnish music in downtown Duluth that was very good. I didn’t see much of it but here is some quick information followed by a short video of their performance. I really enjoyed it a great deal! Right up my alley
Thur, 4:30 – 7 pm, “Rock the Block”with Ninni Poijärvi Trio
Superior Street in front of the Holiday Center, Downtown Duluth, MUSIC
Ninni Poijärvi Trio band members Mika Kuokkanen, Ninni Poijärvi, and Olli Haavisto share a passion for old Finnish and international music as well as traditional Finnish Pelimanni folk music. Mika, guitar player and singer, is rooted in the singer-songwriter tradition but not a “stranger to urban and sharp edged rock.” Ninni, a songwriter and master of vocal harmonies, plays violin, accordion and piano. Olli is the guru of the pedal and lap steel guitar and the mandolin. “Rock the Block” is sponsored by the Greater Downtown Council. In the event of inclement weather, the performance will be moved inside the Holiday Center.
[video coming soon]
Lastly, we concluded today with dinner at a local pizza place called Sammy’s. The pizza was sooo good. Really, really good. So good, my boyfriend claims that it is close to the best pizza he has ever had in the United States (Koti Pizza in Finland is the comparison for all pizza anywhere). However, we weren’t all too jazzed about the service. Sammy’s in Duluth will get a full post of its own detailing our experience, just how good this pizza is and a little bit of feedback/advice for future diners. For now…you can enjoy a look at what is currently resting comfortably in our tummies.
Alright, I think that was it for today. Tomorrow’s big ticket event- Tarja Halonen, the president of Finland, will be speaking at FinnFest 2008 in the DECC at 10am. Definitely count on photos and video of the event. We’re heading over early to (try to) get seats!
Hyää yotä (good night)
FinnFest 2008 rock music performance setup
Originally uploaded by frozenreindeer
On our way back from FinnFest today we walked through the skywalk over
the area where performances will be going I tonight by a Finnish band
(need to clarify who it is)but here is a quick look at the setup.
We’ll head down later just to see/ hear how it is..
Learning a little survival Finnish @ FinnFest ’08 in Duluth, MN
Originally uploaded by frozenreindeer
We started out the Finnish survival workshop talking about
pronounciation. Here is a page from our Finnish manual. Great
refresher to get me back into Finnish thinking and speaking!
So, it’s bright and early on Thursday morning and we’re planning our FinnFest ’08 day of activities.
First, a little breakfast and a little coffee…or lots of coffee, same difference. Then, the activities begin. Here is what we’re planning on today.
Thursday, July 24th Activities
10am, Meeting Room 202, LECTURE
“The Titanic’s Missing Woman: Solving the Confusion over Mrs. Anna Lahtinen’s Fate” with Greg Isola
When the Titanic struck that iceberg in 1912, there were 66 Finns on board. Two of them were a Cokato couple, William and Anna Lahtinen. Only 23 made it in the lifeboats to reach the rescue ship Carpathia. In several newspaper accounts during the immediate aftermath, there was considerable confusion over the fate of Mrs. Anna Lahtinen. Did she die with her husband or was she rescued? To this day, many Titanic web sites list her as among the rescued. What can the Ellis Island immigration records tell us? Isola’s research into the Lahtinen’s Titanic story grew out of his interest in genealogy, Finnish history, and church history.
12 pm, Gooseberry 2
“UMD Women’s Hockey Team and its Finnish Connection” with Ira “Mimmu” Salmela
Salmela will discuss building a bridge between a U.S. college hockey team and Finland. She will talk about the success of the UMD Women’s Hockey Team and the impact its Finnish players have made. Salmela will show the motivational and highlight tapes she built for the team.
2 pm, Meeting Room 202, LECTURE
“Survival Finnish” with Larry “Lauri” Saukko
This class will present the basics to get by in Finnish, including “Finnish Pronunciation in Five Minutes”, and how to say things such as “Where is the nearest sauna?” and “Can I borrow your cell phone?” Although spoken in Europe, Finnish is unrelated to most other European languages. Learn what this fascinating language from the land of Nokia is like.
AND/OR @ 2pm
2 pm, Meeting Room 204-205, LECTURE
“Soiva Camp – Salolampi” with John Laine
John Laine, the president of Finlandia Foundation, was born and raised in New York State to Finnish-American and German parents. His professional life has been spent in the industrial and aerospace hardware area before forming Laine Enterprises, Inc., in Richardson, Texas, where he resides. He has been president of the Finnish-American Society of Dallas/Ft. Worth for six years, a Finlandia Foundation Trustee, and a FinnFest USA board member. He instituted Project 34 as a means of passing the Finnish culture in America on to the third and fourth generations of Finnish-Americans.
3 pm, Meeting Room 202, LECTURE
“Finland’s War Children” with Veijo Paine
This program concerns the unique and somewhat unknown story of thousands of Finnish children, including the speaker, that were evacuated to Sweden during WWII. These children have been the subject of many studies by sociologists from around the world looking at the effects of their separation from their homes and families.
4 pm, Meeting Room 202, LECTURE
“Finlandia/Finnish Student and Faculty Exchanges” with Phyllis Fredendall
Finlandia University (Suomi College) International School of Art and Design was founded in 1996 with significant influence from their sister school, the Kuopio Academy of Design, Kuopio, Finland. Students and faculty participate in exchanges with Kuopio, the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, and most recently Hämeen Ammattikorkeakoulu in Hämeenlinna. Phyllis will show images of student and faculty work and talk about the curriculum and cultural influences. Associate Professor of Art and Design, Phyllis Fredendall has been teaching fiber and fashion design at Finlandia University since 1993. She has been an artist-in-residence on Isle Royale and the Felt Center in Petäjävesi, Finland.
VIEW ALL FINNFEST 2008 ACTIVITIES
Notice all those open windows between these events…yeah, that’s tori time!! Stay tuned for photos and posts throughout the day. I think I might utilize twitter. I’ll add a quick post on how to view those posts if I decide to do it. And…we’re off! 
So, our first day in Duluth, MN for FinnFest 2008 is coming to a close and we have had one heck of a day. At 6pm this evening as we walked into our hotel room, I sprawled out on the bed and just crashed because I was so exhausted. We walked around everywhere, saw a lot of the things in the area, and ate a lot! Duluth is an awesome city in terms of scenery. The weather was perfect today (a comfortable 75 degrees or so) no humidity and just slight clouds in the sky- enough to provide us with some good photos. But hilly…wow. Definitely not the flat lands of Minneapolis we have become accustomed to.
So, FinnFest…where do I start? We went by the DECC around 1pm to pick up our program schedule books. Things were pretty quiet at this point- kind of like the calm before the storm. The festival didn’t officially start until later today, with most things including workshops, presentations and musical events beginning on tomorrow (Thursday). So we got to get settled in and scope things out before the crowds (which for me was great). After grabbing our books we headed out to Canal Park to walk around and grab something to eat. The weather was just too beautiful to spend the day inside.
Canal Park and Canal street are great, fun places. We strolled up the street and grabbed a quick lunch at Subway then spent the next hours just floating around the street and the shore. The photos tell the events better than I could. Enjoy those below- click on each photo for the larger size.
After some sight seeing, some food and some coffee, we felt it was time to head over to the DECC and check out some FinnFest stuff. By this time, around 3pm or so, things were really picking up, the crowds were coming in and my boyfriend was totally excited. We got our official FinnFest 2008 T-shirts and bags and headed in to the food court which led into the tori. We made our list for what we planned to eat the next day while spending Thursday at FinnFest- pulla, hot dogs, lots of coffee and milk to quinch the thirst of a small army (or thousands of Finns!) Milk is a Finnish native’s staple product if you did not now. They seem to drink it more than water! One of the food court spots had a special Finnish coffee menu that we’re gonna try out tomorrow. View below. Funny thing about the food court: As we walked in, my boyfriend saw another festival goer with his same last name- being that these were mostly people of Finnish descent there was a small chance they could be related…turns out his heritage from a more southern region than my boyfriend’s family but they were able to strike up a good conversation and share their connection to Finland.
So then, next we had the tori or ‘market’ in English. Oh, what a great place. We only gave ourselves a small taste since we knew Thursday was dedicated completely to FinnFest. In just a short period of time, my boyfriend was striking up Finnish conversations right and left with some of the vendors who were directly from Finland or Finns living in the U.S. I even got to practice my own Finnish- not in as bad a shape from not practicing much over the summer as I thought which was nice to find out! I think I might learn this language after all!
We grabbed ourselves some candy, scoped out places to buy rye bread before we head back to Minneapolis- big excitement from my boyfriend who misses this almost as much as he misses his family back in Finland. We also got lots of great reading material and found some great local artifacts. Can’t wait to head back tomorrow. Here are a few videos from inside the tori. Glad we got to give it a once over before it crowds up tomorrow.
As we left the festival on the first day we grabbed some ice cream which was so good, I wonder how much I’ll be able to take before Friday…I’m totally going to find out, it was absolute heaven!! So, think that covers day 1. Tomorrow brings more events, some workshops and presentations, food, coffee and hopefully candy!
Signing off for Day 1. Check out our day 1 goodies below- this festival is sooo great!! Hyvää yotä Duluthista (good night from Duluth)
The most awesome car – Finnish car @ FinnFest 2008
Originally uploaded by frozenreindeer
I was going to include this photo with the Day 1 recap but it deserves it’s own post. How awesome is this?!? This is a Rav 4 (I think) but completely covered in white and blue depicting the Finnish Flag. We found it across the street from the DECC (Duluth convention center) in a parking lot so we have to assume these are Finns in town for FinnFest. It is absolutely awesome!! No..not gonna do this to my car anytime soon!
FinnFest 2008 inside the Tori (market)
Originally uploaded by frozenreindeer
Quick look inside the tori at FinnFest 2008. We made a quick run through at the Tori today and I just wanted to share a couple photos. Full day 1 recap to follow later tonight! This is a photo of FinnStyle. They have include a coupon on the back of the FinnFest 2008 guide and you get a free keychain flash light for visiting their booth! Lots of things on sale at FinnStyle as well at their booth! We’re heading back tomorrow!
