A Letter

For some bizarre reason I was asked by my friend's sister to give advice to her friend on...well basically on life. On trying to find your way, figure out what you're passionate about and look for a job. I suppose I have had enough trouble finding my way after graduating that I...while not an expert...have certainly learned a lot from my mistakes and my successes. It can be easy to forget what you've learned and what you've accomplished. I'm not sure how much my letter helped this girl, but I think writing it helped me remember and reflect on my life thus far. Perhaps it can help other recent graduates as well...


Hello new friend,

Sorry for the delayed response. I wanted to give you a thoughtful response and then ran out of time for thinking.

So I'll start with background information on me. I started my undergrad straight out of high school, which may seem irrelevant, but I think it played a roll in my story. I studied Natural Resource Conservation in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC and absolutely loved it.

The summer after first year, I worked 7 days a week at two restaurant jobs (Subway and a local restaurant). I honestly think that it was great experience, but I had to work all the time (I only took 4 days off that summer because my boss forced me to) in order to make enough money to pay for the following school year at $8 an hour. Because of that, I decided to join the co-op program, which was a great decision. This meant that it took me a year longer to graduate, which I think helped in terms of being slightly less young when I graduated, and it meant that I had 20 months work experience when I graduated. The first summer I worked for BC Timber Sales, then the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, then for a university in South Africa.

They were all great experience (South Africa especially shaped who I am today and inspired the topic of my undergrad thesis: community participation in the management of parks), but each one paid less than the one before and I ended up having to take out a student loan for my last semester at UBC. This meant that when I graduate I was broke and in debt, so I decided to work in a restaurant, while I looked for other work. I cried a lot that summer because it was the first time my future was uncertain (hence the influence going straight into my undergrad had). My parents' graduation gift to me was a flight to Ireland (my father was born there), so I spent that summer making money for my trip and training because I had decided to cycle around the country, so I could see it better. This was good because it gave me a goal to work towards, but I was acutely aware that after that trip, I had nothing planned.

Now, looking for jobs is a depressing enough task and if you're not in a good mood when you go for interviews, you're likely not going to get the job...especially if you didn't use a contact to get that interview. I knew this, so to fend off the depression, I tried to keep busy. I would volunteer bird banding from 5am to 1pm, go home, nap, then work from 5pm to 1am. Keeping busy was good in that it made me feel like I was actually still doing something with my life. I was making money working in a restaurant and doing something I loved in my volunteer work (bird banding in the summer and being a girl guide leader in the school year). It was stuff that I always wanted to do while I was at school, but didn't have time for...one of the perks of graduating.

You asked me how I found the job market in the Lower Mainland. I found it hard. Keep in mind that I didn't put all my energy into looking for a job with everything else that was going on in my life, but I looked for work from May after I graduated until February with no luck and very few interviews. I don't say this to discourage you, but to tell you that mass applying for jobs rarely pays off. Though, that being said, a friend of mine sent her resume and cover letter to every law firm in Vancouver and got 3 interviews and 1 job as a result, so it can pay off, but the odds are not in your favour.

In January, I got an email from UBC saying that they were looking for applicants to a new Trans-Atlantic Forestry Masters program. It involved a $14,000 scholarship, two three week field courses (one in Europe and one in Canada), a year at a European university and a year at a Canadian university. You would graduate with two degrees (one from each university). It was the first year that they offered this program, so I decided to apply...not thinking I would get in (I originally wanted to work before going back to do my Masters), but laying down the foundation so they would know my interest if I decided to apply again in the future. To my surprise, I was accepted in February.

To be honest, it was mostly fear that made me accept my place in the program. Don't get me wrong, it was a great opportunity and I was flattered to get in. But I wasn't ready to go back to school. I went into the Masters defeated...I couldn't find a job, so I went back to school. I see from your message to me that you are thinking of going back to school to do a Masters. This is awesome and, if you love school and love academia, by all means you should go for it. But a Masters is not an out. By going into it and not being ready and passionate about, it is going to be much much harder than it has to be. I mean my grades were great in the courses I took and I was genuinely interested in the subject matter, but it is incredible hard to self-motivate for your thesis, if you a) go into it feeling defeated, and b) don't have a specific passion you want to study. From the sounds of it, you're not interested in academia. As tempting as it is to hide out in school for another 2 years, or probably more if you're not passionate, my advice would be to stick it out in the real world for a bit and really give yourself the opportunity to shine on your own.

If you want to go back to school, it will always be there and, if you work for a while on getting to know yourself and what you want out of life, you'll have a better idea of what to study. It sounds like you're a bit like me from your message. I also don't really know what types of jobs I want to pursue. From my work experience, I have learned what I don't like and some of what I like, but I'm still discovering myself. I think that this is something you're always doing and that there is no one perfect job for anyone, especially because we are always changing. So don't put too much pressure on yourself to find the one thing you're passionate about. Chances are there are many things you would love to do and many parts of those jobs you would love you will become less fond of with time. In this vein, apply for the jobs that you are truly passionate about. It will come across in your application and you won't waste time interviewing for jobs you'll feel obliged to accept even if they don't interest you.

The other piece of advice I have in terms of job hunting is something that you've heard a million times, but, if you're anything like me, it hasn't sunk in yet. The jobs you'll have, especially when you're starting out, are all about who you know. To me networking always seemed fake and manipulative. I felt I needed to get jobs on my own merit and not because my mom's friend owns such and such a business.

When I moved to Fredericton in the second year of my Masters (the first year was in Finland), I had one friend in the working world and the rest of them were students like me or recent graduates looking for work. My working friend was amazing. We had worked together in South Africa and she became a huge advocate for me (from this I suppose you can take the advice to always do a job you can be proud of even if you're not making any money...the stipend I got in South Africa didn't even cover my rent). My friend introduced me to her friend who was looking for help with her job. This friend ended up giving me her job and I went from poor student to the part-time executive director of a non-profit overnight. It was, quite obviously, a huge learning curve, but it made me excited about working and about my future again. Since then, my friend and the woman I replaced have both helped me find other short term work around Fredericton. I think that the importance of who you know is more obvious in a small town, like Fredericton, but it is just as relevant to job hunting in a big city as well.

Making use of your social network is incredible important and something that is super undervalued in our generation. We were raised to be strong and independent and able to move from bottom to top on our own, but that's not realistic and it's not fair to us. You studied biology, we are pack animals. We can work well alone, but we do so much better when we work together. Why waste energy doing it the hard way when we can put that energy to good use? Now, I say this confidently, but it is a lesson that I am still trying to learn myself. I know in my heart that it is true and logically it makes sense, but it is hard to untrain yourself to want to be independent. In conclusion, I'm working on it, dammit!

I think that is all I wanted to say to introduce myself. I hope it wasn't too overwhelming and a little bit helpful, but at least you don't have to feel bad that your email was too long!

Cheers,
April

Sandy

When the storm started, I decided it was time to go to bed. The lightening lit up my room and kept me awake through closed eyelids, as thunder rumbled in the distance. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three. I counted miles from the storm instead of sheep. As I began to drift off, residual thunder became the background noise to the start of my dreams.

Then the storm really hit. Strangely, it was the moment of quiet that woke me. Nothing had happened yet, but all my hairs stood on end and I felt like I was vibrating in anticipation. My eyes opened just in time to see the lightening, thunder cracking a second later and shaking the house. I felt exhilarated. Both helpless and alive!

We were talking in one of my classes about the concept of nature. Are we a part of nature or a separate entity? Can anything be unnatural, if it is the product of the minds of humans? Just another species altering its habitat to suit its needs.

During the storm I was lying in a man-made bed, beside my cell phone and computer, physically separated by the walls of an old house, but directly connected to the storm. The electricity flowed through the walls. I felt it. Within my unnatural, man-made construction, the energy of the storm had a physical effect on me. Is that not evidence that, despite our efforts to separate ourselves with physical and mental barriers, we are still a part of nature.

Tiny. Significant. Electric. A part.

You know you've lived in Finland for too long when...

You bike home at 2:30 in the morning for 30 minutes when it's -2 degrees wearing a tank top and shorts.

Mission Impossible

I might regret this post if my current roommates ever read it, but I hope that if they do they are not offended and realize that I write it out of endearment (and mild exaggeration for comedic value...of course).

I know that I have been terrible about writing this year and I apologize, oh one person who reads this (read: mom). I think the problem I have with writing my blog is that I have too many ideas for posts. So many that I get overwhelmed with all the "work" I have to do and end up not writing anything. So, I am going to not write any of the ideas I have had up til now. If I have not written them yet, they are not important enough. And I will start with a blank slate.

However, you do require a bit of background. I have just moved to Rovaniemi (Northern Finland though not quite Lapland I am told) for my summer internship at the Arctic Center. The move was filled with insane coincidences that I would love to tell you about, but they fell before my decision to give up on my former ideas...so too bad! No, if there is demand (ie. if I have not already told you in person), I can maybe find the time to write about it.

No niin, I am now living with two Finnish girls. Although I had a Finnish roommate in Joensuu, as my lovely Finnish friend put it, she was "special". This means that she enjoyed socializing with me and my Japanese roommate and did not think twice about letting us use her stuff or coming to talk to us when we were in our rooms. All seemingly normal things to a Canadian. And, while I knew that this behaviour was not normal by Finnish standards, I did not have to confront that reality head on.

By Canadian standards, Finnish people can seem rude. They are very direct. This can be seen in the language where there is no word for please and you say "what?" when you didn't hear someone. Their attempts at small talk are awkwardly adorable at best or altogether non-existent. And in their mannerisms, such as pushing past someone who is in your way because you don't to bother them and/or don't think it is necessary to say excuse me. Coming from a world where everyday I have extended conversations with my bus driver or cashier and absolutely nothing is actually said, this can be quite shocking. Though it does make learning the language easier, as you can get by just saying moi (hi), joo (yes), hyvää (good/cool) and kiitos (thank you). They are also very private and it is common to live with someone for extended periods of time and never say more than hello as you pass each other in the hallway.

Usually, when I go to a country, I like to try to blend in. But I have always been to countries where I do kinda blend in or at least countries that suit my personality. So, I have decided that trying to be Finnish does not make me happy because it is not who I am, so I will just be myself and Finnish people and I will just have to work something out. Hence, Mission Impossible: befriend my roommates, so they act less like Finnish roommates and more like Finnish friends (who are absolutely fantastic by the way).

Here is my game plan. It's actually quite simple really. I will just force myself upon them. I will hang out in the kitchen (like I am doing now). They have to eat or go to the bathroom eventually and will be forced to say hi enroute. I will bake them delicious baked things and they will feel like they have to socialize with me in return. Finally, I will ask them how they are every time I see them and when they finally ask it back in response, I will talk about my day in great detail. I shall keep you updated, but so far so good and the cookies haven't yet come out of the oven.

The Bright Side of a Flicker

I realize that I spent the last post complaining about my bathroom disco, but, in an attempt to look on the bright side, I have come up with a new favourite past time. I now spend far to long staring at my eyes in the mirror and watching my pupils constrict every time the light flickers on.

Unenthused Mercury

For the last week and a half my bathroom has been turned into a disco. It contains everything that you could find in a disco: it probably could be cleaned more often than it is; it's best not to think about how many people have been there before you and what they have done; you have a feeling of excitement to get there and disappointment once you're there; and most of all, you are consistently being blinded by a strobe light every time you enter.

Now I have never had to deal with fluorescent lights in my life time. Sure, I have been harassed by them at school, slowly driving insane by the ever so slight flicker. One of those things that if you concentrate on it to make sure it's there, it goes away with the sole desire of making you twitch spasmodically and yell to the heavens that you will do anything just to confirm that it's not in your head. To this I have grown accustomed. One of life's many annoyances that you become numb to until the day when they go away and return a thousand times worse than before. However, when it gets to the point where you have to uhn tiss uhn tiss uhn tiss your way through every bathroom break...something needs to be done.

Today I took the initiative. At some point in my life I came across the piece of knowledge that shaking a fluorescent light will prolong its life. My subconscious stored this piece of information away, somehow knowing that I would need it when rooms in my very home would start "jumpin'" and need to be tamed. Now I just needed to get the light out of its bizarrely shaped socket. After much almost breaking of the plastic, I remove the affronting tube. I shake it excitedly hoping that my excitement will translate into the excitement of the mercury molecules who have sunk into a deep depression in contrast to the clubbing feel given to the rest of the room. I even threw in a couple disco moves humming a few bars of Lady's Night.

One would think that the biggest challenge had already been surmounted, but alas! that would just be wishful thinking. I don't know whose idea it was to build a light socket out of plastic, but it is not conducive to remove or replacing light tubes. After successfully dismantling the contraption, I have absolutely no idea how to get it back in without the tube shattering in my hand in frustration. I hope my roommates are ok peeing in the dark or are more skilled light-putter-iners than I. I feel we will never know if the shaking actually does work...

And now my fingers smell funny.

Bye, Baby Bunting

I had my first real step into non-...shall we say marinated Finnish culture a couple weekends ago, when a Finnish friend took myself and another Canadian hunting with him at his home near Kuopio. My Canadian friend had been hunting before and shot a gun multiple times in her life as she competed in biathlon, so I was the only one new to both the hunting and firearms "scene". The Finn was concerned (and I must admit that I was, too) that I would "lose it" when they killed a rabbit and he would have to deal with female emotions; an unpleasant scenario even when you don't have a dead animal lying at your feet waiting to be gutted.

After a nice breakfast of leftover's from our hostess' restaurant, we started off the morning with firing practice. As I had never held a gun before, let alone fired one...this seemed like a good idea. Our Finnish friend had two guns that he took out hunting. One was a double barreled shotgun and the other was a pumping shot gun. Please note that I have no idea what the technical terms for these guns are, so excuse my juvenile nomenclature. The double barreled gun had the barrels stacked on top of each other and two triggers, one for each. You used the same sight for both barrels and picked which one you used based on how far away your target was. The lower barrel was for when the target was close to you and you use the trigger that is further way from your hand to fire it. They put one bullet in and let me try this gun first. My target was a pop bottle stuck onto a tree branch and we fired from the side of the road. Thus fulfilling all hicks with shotgun stereotypes in one go. To make it even more Rambo-esque I got to try out the pumping one as well, ejecting the cartridge like the veteran himself...well, kinda.

After target practice we went to a woodlot and met up with my friend's dad for the actual hunting. As much of the land is privately owned in Finland, if you are interested in hunting, you belong to (and pay dues to) a hunting club in your area. These hunting clubs talk to local woodlot owners in the area and organize permission to hunt on their land or really to have access to the land for hunting. Besides that, there are a certain number of licenses allocated to each species for each hunting club. So, if you were hunting something big, like a moose, everyone would go out together and you would share what you killed. We were just hunting bunnies (technically hares) though, so it was just a small group of us.

To start off with my friend's dad was going to be the "dog", meaning that he would go on the other side of the bushes and try to scare the rabbits out. Our mission was simple....shoot the bunnies, not him. As resident photographer and person not allowed to shoot a gun at living things (rightly so I might add), I took my place firmly behind both hunters and "dog" while we waited for the rabbits to be scared out of their homes. Despite the best efforts of our pseudo-canine friend, there were no rabbits to be seen. Our next attempt was to move into the more forested area and look for rabbits hiding in their. Again the dog walked along the outskirts of the woodlot trying to scare the rabbits in our direction. We had been walking around for only about 5 minutes before a white flash passed by just in front of us. My Canadian friend had enough time to say "Th..." before our Finnish friend had shot it. There's that mandatory military training paying off!

The waiting and being a photographer was fun, but this was the part I found the most interesting. Keeping an eye on me to see if I was going to "lose it" the Finn brought the bunny over to us. I was surprised at how big it was and the lack of blood. He explained that because the shot gun releases tons of little pellets, the animal gets shocked into dying by the physical impact rather than from the bullet piercing their skin. The next step was to gut the rabbit (a girl that I named Jana after the Finnish work for hare: janis). To do this you make a small cut just below the belly button and rip the hole big enough to fit your hand in and then some. Then you stick your hand in a just pull out all of the intestines and organs. The scientist in me came out as I looked through all the different organs and partially digested food, but I think the part that really struck me was how simple it was to do. Just a small cut and you can take out all of an animal's (or a person's) organs, it makes it seem like a natural process. After the rabbit had been gutted, they put branches into its body cavity to keep it from collapsing and put the rabbit on its stomach to drain the blood.

While waiting for the blood to drain, toasted (without my prompting I swear!) the life of the rabbit with yrttisnapsi (herb schnapps, which tastes kinda of like Jägermeister). Something that I have always found really interesting is how there is so much negative publicity about hunters when generally they're quite an environmental bunch. They are usually very considerate of the impact they have on the environment and are often the first ones to notice changes in wildlife populations. It's such a shame that their intimate relationship with wildlife is not better exploited in conservation policies, but back to the hunting trip!

We said goodbye to my friend's father and safely tucked Jana in the trunk on a newspaper bed before heading to our next hunting spot. I was always under the impression that hunting was a lot of standing around waiting for animals to show up (which I still think that it is), but we were lucky enough to catch our rabbit within the first 30 minutes of hunting. As we were already successful in our mission, the rest of the day involved less effort on our part in terms of the hunting and was more about wandering around in the woods. We looked for animal tracks in the mud and tried to attract birds with a call whistle. For lunch we made a small campfire and roasted sausages over it on sticks. It was so peaceful to sit out in the woods, eating sausages and warming ourselves by the fire.

We ended up cutting our day a little short because we still had to look for a couple Christmas trees for my friend's house and his neighbour's. In Finnish Christmas tree is joulukuusi or Christmas spruce because they only every use Norway spruce (the original Christmas tree I am told). We had a lot of fun wandering around the forest looking for the perfect Christmas tree. I am a huge fan of weirdly shaped Christmas trees, so I kept getting out voted in favour of a more traditional style. The benefit of spruce is that they are usually very beautifully shaped for Christmas trees, but in terms of ornament possibilities, the lack of branches is very limiting. It all depends on what you like though and we had a lot of fun wandering around in the woods some more anyway.

After our Christmas tree hunt we went back to the house to skin and butcher the rabbit. To do this we went to the wood shed and hung the rabbit up by its neck. To start you make a cut in the skin around the neck and then you just pull downwards. It does not come off quite as easily as pulling down clothing would be, but it looks very similar. It is quite a surreal thing to watch an animal being skinned. It starts to look a bit more human when it loses its fur, but not in a way that creeped me out, more just the realization that all mammals are really very closely related in the grande scheme of things. The only part of the skinning and butchering that irked me was when my friend got to the wrists and ankles, he broke them off rather than attempt to skin their hands. I mean it makes sense because there would be little meat on them and it would be very hard to skin, but that act of breaking bones, or maybe the sound of bones breaking, was the only part that made me twinge a little.

I cannot claim that the experience made me not want to eat meat. On the contrary, the whole process seemed a lot more natural, even more respectful, to me than buying pre-marinated meat wrapped in plastic from a grocery store. I am not 100% sure that the experience changed me at all, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to experience it. I like the idea of hunting and eating hunted meat, but, to be perfectly honest, wandering around in the woods waiting to kill something is a little boring. I would much rather go for a hike and see animals that way...though to be honest, there's not much difference in the two activities. And maybe that says a lot. That the intention behind the activity can change the way the actions feel, but I don't know that it even really does. Maybe it's all in our heads...isn't it usually.

Snow, Slush and Ice

It was brought to my attention that I never mentioned that I got a bike. It was about two months ago that Skeletor and I were brought together and it has been a wonderful relationship ever since. But like every good relationship it has its ups and its downs. The latest down has been due to the lovely autumn weather we have been having recently. Like autumn back home, the weather has a really hard time making up its mind. Here it alternates between overcast and rainy, and snowy and cold with nice icy bits in between.

It's hard to decide which is the most difficult. The overcast rainy days where you don't see the sun are the ones where you definitely want to take your Vitamin D. I would never have guess what a difference it makes! On the days where I forget to take it, I am sleepy by about 3 in the afternoon as the sun is setting and it is definitely harder to wake up the next morning as well. So the sun kind of makes up for how cold it gets on the cold clear days.

In terms of biking though, these days each pose their own challenges. Rain I can handle. As a Vancouver girl it's what I know best, but cycling in snow and ice is another story. I was pretty nervous about even attempting to ride my bike in snow. I should mention that Skeletor is a lovely streamline racing bike with very thin tires that have no tread. Excellent for racing along to class in the summer, less so for navigating snow filled roads. So the first day I woke up and it was snowing outside. I left early to give myself enough time and went very slowly to class. And mission accomplished! I made it to school in one piece, faster than walking and didn't fall off my bike, although there were a few narrow misses. The second day I was filled with a little more confidence and sped off to catch up with a friend I saw leaving. About two seconds on the bike and the snow makes my back tire twist out of my control making me fall. Thankfully no one was around, as my friend was long gone at this point, so my dignity remained more or less uninjured like myself.

I haven't fallen since then, but I have been more careful in my riding style. Here are some of the tips I have picked up on when cycling in the snow or ice:
1. If you get stuck in a rut (like when driving a car), just go with it. If you try to steer out, you'll just fall.
2. Stay upright when you turn and try to just turn using the handles, not your whole body )a shame because I had just gotten used to turning with my whole body on my new bike).
3. If your back tire starts to fishtail (which happens every time you go through uneven snow or slush) don't steer or brake and just go with it til you have control again.
4. Leave a lot of space between yourself and others because they will fall and you will crash into them.
5. Pump your brakes and start braking way before you need to stop.
6. Wear a helmet and when you inevitably fall try to go limp, so you don't actually get hurt.

Now that you've had your unasked for advice for the day, the only other news that I have is that I am going hunting this weekend for rabbits. I have never been hunting before let alone held a gun, but I have been wanting to get to know Finnish culture more than what is offered at the bar or in my classes, so my friend is taking me hunting near Kuopio. I also kind of feel that as a meat eater, I need to better understand what is involved in the process of killing an animal for this purpose (even though most of our meat is obviously not hunted, but farmed). So I will have to let you all know how my first hunting experience goes. Have a nice weekend!

Rain

It's raining in Timbuktu
http://isitraining.in/timbuktu

Icy Picnics and Dancing Finns

Last Saturday was my birthday and, despite it being close to 0 degrees out, it was the first year where it didn't rain on my birthday! I had suggested previously that if it was nice weather out that we should go for a picnic by the lake. Nice weather being a relative term, we decided that not raining counted and set to planning a small picnic. Unfortunately, my birthday happened to fall on All Saint's Day. This is kind of like the Finnish version of Halloween except that it is nothing like a North American Halloween at all. It is the time of year when Finnish people remember their loved ones and relatives that have passed away. They usually go down to the cemetery and light a candle in their memory, so the cemeteries on these evenings are absolutely beautiful all lit up with candles!

But back to the picnic... All Saint's Day is a national holiday, so all the shops are closed. I biked around looking for a place that was open in order to stock up on picnic supplies and all I could find was a gas station. So I bought some suffeli puffi (a corn puff covered in chocolate whose name has been making me and the other Canadian laugh every time we see it) and decided to see what I had in my fridge. I was able to through together a couscous salad, along with a block of cheese and some crackers for my contribution to the picnic. Everyone met at my house by about 3:30 with their meager supplies and we walked down to the lake.

...by which point the sun had already set. So there we stood. In the dark. Torn between trying to eat our gas station food and leftovers with mittens on or frozen fingers. And toasting with pink champagne to just how ridiculous the idea of a November picnic in Finland was. It was the best picnic I have had in a long time!

After giving up on the picnic and warming up at my house with hot tea and cake, we split up. Some people went home and I went with some others to see the candles in the cemetery. Then we went to get all dressed up because, conveniently enough, there happened to be a salsa party on my birthday as well. What are the chances that there would be a salsa party in Joensuu that happened to fall on my birthday? I had to jump at the opportunity! So, I finished off my birthday dancing the night away with my friends and practicing my newly learned bachata. Yes, the bachata. The hip dislocating dance that I have spent the last seven years making fun of with my friend. I have learned it and, to be honest, I think it's growing on me. It's quite fun to dance to even if it looks a little silly to observers.

Speaking of dancing, I have also recently started taking a Finnish folk dancing class. Well...it's an exercise class that incorporates steps from Finnish folk dancing. But it's tons of fun! It reminds me a little of Scottish country dancing, thought it's definitely unique in it's own way. I have only been to one class so far, as I was too busy to go last Sunday, but I'll have to write more about it once I am more familiar with the style.

I have also recently learned that Finns are very fond of the tango. They even have a festival in the summer where everyone goes to tango in the streets! Every time I think I have these Finns figured out, they surprise me with a random fact like this. They're a very oxymoronic peoples!

6 AM

How could you do this
Tawdry affair with the dawn
Stupid alarm clock

Oishii Ruoka

Alright, so you want to know what kind of food people eat in Finland. Well, they're definitely a country of meat and potatoes kind of people. Some classic Finnish dishes include sausage and potatoes, meat sauce on pasta (there is no tomatoes involved in this meat sauce...just ground beef/pork and thickened gravy) and ground beef/pork and cabbage casserole with lingonberry sauce. I have written beef/pork because it is rare to find ground beef by itself. It is usually a beef and pork hybrid or just ground pork in and of itself. The main meats you find in the grocery store are pork (definitely number one), chicken and to a much lesser extent beef.

Vegetables are a rarity in the actual main dish itself, but everywhere you go they have salad buffets before your meal. I do not exaggerate on the everywhere department; restaurants, the school cafeteria, after hours kebab stands. Similarly to Canada, Finland is a nation of wild berries. By far the main fruits grown in Finland are blueberries, lingonberries, and, to a lesser extent, wild cranberries. Furthermore, most of the berries you buy in stores was picked in the wild, not grown on farms. There is a huge culture in this country around picking wild berries and mushrooms. Some of the people I have talked to go berry and mushroom picking every week. This is partially because of the Everyman's Right law that states people have the right to collect things grown in the wild (ie. not cultivated berries, but ones that are there just because) even if they are growing on private lands. [As a random side note: this is a concept I am contemplating doing my Masters thesis on...assuming I can make it work]

There is also a huge coffee culture in Finland. This was one of the aspects of Finland that I loved right away. Coming from Vancouver, I know that the South African habit of drinking instant coffee was not something that I wished to repeat in a new cultural experience ;-) But, yes, coffee breaks are a wonderful thing and, in Finland, they are usually accompanied with a "light" snack of pulla. Pulla is possible the most delicious pastry/bun/thing I have ever had (coming only slightly short of coconut buns). They are a sweet bread baked with cardamom inside and I have eaten far too many of them since I have arrived in Finland. I will definitely need to learn how to make them before I go back home. There is something about the light flavour of cardamom that makes them irresistible!

So basically my Finnish diet consists of meat and potatoes with a salad for my meals, interspersed with multiple coffee and pulla breaks throughout the day. Delicious!

Shopping 101

I have received a request of information from my lovely Nana about the type of food I eat here in Finland. But before I respond to this request, I will tell you the story of my first Finnish shopping experience that I meant to tell you about weeks ago.

When I first arrived in Finland, the day I was going to move into my apartment, my fellow Canadian and I decided to stock our kitchens with all the essentials while we still had access to a car. Our student tutor pointed us in the direction of a grocery store and off we went. first was the produce section. Collecting all the necessary fruits and veggies wasn't too hard because they look the same all over the world. Proud of our collections we went to move on when I had a flashback to my time in South Africa and the then foreign concept of weighing your produce before hand and taking it to the till with a barcode sticker on it. I scanned the produce area and saw some similar looking machines. First crisis averted and embarrassment avoided.

Next we had the navigate the world of Finnish labels. Our Finnish friend from field school had been kind enough to provide us with some basic grocery-related vocabulary, so we new words like maito (milk), voi (butter), juusto (cheese), kala (fish), and some others. This was very helpful when finding things, but less helpful when distinguishing low fat from delicious milk. For this we had to rely on the efficacy of marketing, assuming lighter coloured packaging meant lighter milk (and it worked!!). After about an hour of clumsily collecting everything necessary to stock an empty kitchen, we moved towards the till.

Only one till was open, so we stood in the only available line to wait. Once we had stopped the learning experience that was our shopping trip, we had time to look around. Maybe see what other people were buying and judge a whole countries diet based on that, like I do back home. That was when we realized the error of our ways. the people in line around us had a maximum of 5 items each and there we were. Carts piled high with everything a new kitchen could ever want or desire. Surrounded by people buying chips and beer for a relaxing evening. Then it dawned on us. We were about to buy everything we would need to survive...at a convenience store. We were next in line, making sneaking out and putting some of our stuff back impossible.

It took the woman about 5 minutes to ring all of my stuff in, at which point there was a growing line of 7 people behind me carrying only candy, chips and beer and looking disgruntled at best. To top it all off the cashier didn't speak English and we had no idea how to ask for bags in Finnish. So our groceries were piling up on the conveyor belt behind the till as we tried to mime that we needed bags. Now there are 10 people behind us in line. We had officially become those incompetent foreigners. Eventually we successfully mimed our need for bags, hung our heads in shame and ran from the grocery store. I snuck a glance back as the sliding doors began to close behind us...they had just opened a new till.

What happened in Finland

It’s hard for me to believe I have been in Finland for almost three weeks now. So much for being more regular with my blog updates!

Finland is a very fascinating country. I must say that it feels harder to adjust to than South Africa, but the circumstances that I am here under are very different as well. In South Africa I didn’t know anyone before I arrived, so I had to throw myself into the culture and had only my own observations of cultural differences. Here, I have a friend that came with me in the same program, so I get twice as many observations and a kind of safety blanket in her to avoid loneliness. I think it makes it harder to adjust because it's so easy to go back to familiar Canadian things.

I am learning about the style of doing things and mindset that Finns have despite my attachment to all things Canadian. At times Finland reminds me a bit of Canada in its personality. The underdog lumped in with the surrounding countries from an outside point of view, but proud in the fact that it is an entity in and of itself. However, it is so very different from anywhere I have travelled to before. I really enjoy exploring countries I know nothing about. It makes it much more exciting because you are constantly learning new things and you have no preconceptions about what it is going to be like. The only thing I knew about Finland before coming here was that Santa was from here and that Finns are reputedly quiet people. And I'm not going to lie...there's a little bit more to Finland than just that.

But anyway, enough of my thoughts and feelings, what have I actually done while I’ve been in Finland! Well, I sorted out all the fun stuff, like bank accounts, registering for classes, etc. All of which is a very confusing process in Joensuu and not at all straight forward. You have to talk to an entirely different person in a different building in a different part of town and each task takes a million different steps. I was so thankful to have my student tutor to drive us around and let us know all the little details of what we had to get done. I don’t know how I would have done it without her!

After about a week of organizing my new life, two friends and I went to Koli National Park to go hiking. Koli is a national pride of Finland. It is a beautiful little mountain that you can hike (read: Stairmaster) up and get a gorgeous view of miles and miles of lakes and islands. We had a lot of fun exploring and picking blueberries (mustikka) and lingonberries (puolukka) throughout the park. Then we went mushroom picking. I am terrible at mushroom picking, but I had tons of fun...minus the hirvikärpänen (mooseflies). Hirvikärpänen are the most horrible little devil creatures known to man! They are blood sucking little demons that fly onto you then, drop their wings and burrow into your hair and flesh. They never die, no matter how many times you smack them, and do an amazingly good job of sticking to you despite excessive swatting. And to top it all off they look super creepy. In conclusion, I hate them with every fibre of my being.

I feel like this post is becoming far too long, so I will just quickly say that other than that excitement, I have been attending many less than exciting orientation/introduction classes (though they should all be ending this week and my interesting classes can begin), exploring the town and getting to know my fantastic roommate! Despite the conscious effort to adjust to Finnish life, I really enjoy it here. The people are very friendly and honest about themselves. I may not feel at home just yet, but I do feel welcomed!

No Matter How Late We Stay Up

It’s strange to think that the field school portion of my Masters is already over. Considering how little I’ve slept these last three weeks, they have gone by incredibly quickly. I’m currently in the Frankfurt airport, waiting for my flight to Helsinki, so I’ll do a quick recap of what happened after we left BC.

A lot.





Ok, I’ll elaborate a little. The Alberta crew was great! They welcomed us with open arms and, after laying the ground rules, it was like they’d been with us from day one. You could tell that they’d put a lot of thought into what they wanted us to get out of this portion of the field school and had picked some really knowledgeable guest speakers from which we could learn. Having the coordinator there to supplement everything we were learning, meant that we were able to get a really good idea of forestry in Alberta!

In Alberta, we learned a lot about how to use forestry to imitate natural disturbance when harvesting. Our coordinator having a fire fighting background meant that we learned a lot about this in relation to fire management and prescribed burning. I found it especially interesting because of the time I spent working in Dawson Creek. For the most part we explored the Peace Region of Alberta (a similar area to Dawson Creek) and it was really neat to relate my experience on the other side of the border to how things were done in a similar ecosystem, but a different province.

To finish the Alberta leg of our adventure with a bang, we decided to stay up all night instead of getting some sleep before our 6am flight! I think Edmonton is still recovering from our adventures and I must admit, I think I am as well. But it was all in good fun and there will always be time to sleep later....right?

In New Brunswick, the welcoming committee took a little time to warm up to us. At this point we’d been with only each other for 14 days and it was starting to show. We had about a million inside jokes and must have looked like a motley crew to any outsiders. I like to think that in the end they realized that though we may party hard and joke around a lot, we are responsible adults who are there because we are curious and actually like learning. At least, I hope the message got across!

As different as BC and Alberta were, New Brunswick was in a world of its own! As it was one of the first areas of Canada to be colonized, they are dealing with a lot of private land in their forest management. Another big difference in how the Maritimes work is that they do a lot more value added products. And by a lot more I mean BC and Alberta do none, as compared to New Brunswick doing almost only value added products! This meant that a lot of this leg of the journey was visiting mills and factories and seeing the diversity of products being made, from low grade fencing to paper to high end kitchen cabinetry. Coming from my conservation background, this was a whole new world. I’d never seen all these wood products being made and the questions from me and the whole group were endless. I think we went over time at every stop we made. Our hosts deserve a thousand thanks for their knowledge and patience with us!

The most interesting thing about this field course was learning just how differently everything is done all over Canada. You wouldn’t think one country would have such diversity in resource management strategies, but when you take into consideration the vastly different social and political climates in these areas...it really makes a lot of sense. What one region of a country adopts without a second thought, wouldn’t even be on the radar in another region. Especially in a country as large and politically young as Canada! I also learned that my UBC education was VERY BC-centric and I’m glad I chose to go to a different university (or two) for my Masters.

Aaaaaand Continued...

1858 – The Gold Rush and creation of BC
So now the secret was out and the gold rush began. When the first ship of prospectors arrived in Victoria, it doubled the population of the town. Most of these prospectors were Californians that were reaching the tail end of their own gold rush and were hoping to try their luck further north.

Even before the gold rush had begun in earnest, James Douglas feared that the lawlessness that occurred in California during their gold rush would occur in New Caledonia as well. In 1857, he created a law that required every miner to have a license and imposed a 10% customs duty on imported goods. The fee was low, so that a gold panner could pay it back with a day of work, but it created a controlled access to the area.

The next year, James Douglas really cracked down on policing New Caledonia and imposed a colonial government in the area without permission of the British Crown. Tension was high between the miners and the First Nations, so there was little resistance to the imposed governance from the side of the Europeans. When the British Crown found about Douglas’ rogue governance, they decided to make his authority in the area official by making New Caledonia a British colony. Queen Victoria herself was the one to come up with the name British Columbia for New Caledonia. At the time Americans were colloquially calling their land Columbia, so the moniker British Columbia was a cheeky way of saying they may have lost their American colony, but they had laid claim to this new land. On November 19th, 1885 the proclamation naming British Columbia as a new British colony was read in Fort Langley. However, New Westminster became the capital as it was easier to defend being further from the border and lying on the Fraser River.

As the Gold Fever began to intensify around 1860, a 108 mile wagon road was built from Harrison Lake (Fort Douglas) up to Lillooet by the Royal Engineers and contractors. This road made it easier and cheaper to transport goods and people up the Fraser. Shortly after the construction of the Douglas-Lillooet Wagon Road, the Fraser Canyon gold rush reached its peak in 1861 with 50,000 miners along the Fraser River. These miners were mostly Americans come up from California, with a smaller percentage of European and Chinese immigrants.

At this peak, the British Crown changed British Columbia’s eastern border to go directly North in the Peace River area. This was done in an attempt to keep gold-seekers under the control of the British and more effectively monitor who entered the colony from the North. However, after 1861 gold become more capital intensive as it was buried beneath rock and dirt as you moved further North and the alluvial gold was removed.

The Role of Lillooet

So how does the, now little, town of Lillooet come into this gold rush. At one point Lillooet was the largest town west of Chicago and north of San Fransisco. Lillooet was the furthest north the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush went before gold was found in the Cariboo and sparked the Cariboo gold rush. Not only was Lillooet difficult to get past using the river, it was harder through the mountains to the northeast. When they had built the Cariboo wagon road, the engineers had to blast through rock and create bridges over valleys and rivers.

The Lillooet people were often described as being destitute at the onset of the gold rush and were colloquially known as the “friendly Indians”. They were definitely up for a shock when the gold rush occurred and brought with it a huge influx of people so different from themselves. No one is sure of just how many people were there, but estimates range around 25,000 people arriving in only a few months. In spite of their friendly nature, the Lillooet, like so many First Nations at the time, were pushed back from their waterfront communities. Up to the Main Street area of modern day Lillooet is directly on top of the main village of a former First Nations band.

First Nations and their role

There was a great deal of tension between the First Nations and Europeans during the gold rush and it has continued to this day. Some of the reasons for this animosity on the end of the First Nations came from the rotgut whiskey brought in by the Americans, poor treatment of First Nations women by white men, and miners stealing their caught fish in the river. However, the dependence Europeans had on the First Nations to navigate the wild lands of BC put Europeans in a vulnerable position that they did not seem to appreciate. This one-sided dependence and one-sided exploitation of people and resources caused a great deal of armed conflict during the gold rush. Many people on both sides lost their lives and the tension just increased as a result.

The government went about “Indian law” under the assumption that First Nations would be wiped out by European diseases and thus were doomed to extinction. First Nations in BC, unlike the other parts of Canada, were not allowed even the opportunity to sign treaties and get some immediate compensation for their land and resources. For obvious reasons, this was not pointed out to the First Nations. James Douglas even made the claim that British law was there to protect the rights of the Indians and white men equally.

Tie it back to forestry

The fact that no treaties were signed by the BC First Nations during the time of the gold rush means that they are able to negotiate more easily for the management of their historical lands today. This is especially evident in the growing popularity of community forestry.

Early on James Douglas recognized that gold mining was not a stable basis for an economy as it was too destructive to the environment. The other major natural resources in the area were salmon and trees. Salmon fisheries had already taken off as an industry because you could transport them down the river. Trees were not as easy to sell especially to the American market because of the distance the goods had to travel with no roads and high American tariffs. Furthermore, the raw logs had to be shipped because there were very few sawmills in the area, other than a couple at the mouth of the Fraser that sent their products to the Pacific Rim. So, initially, most of the timber used in BC was shipped from Puget Sound just south of the border.

Forestry really became a viable industry in BC after the creation of the TransCanada Railway. The Railway made it possible to ship the timber around the country and helped to create a bigger market for it. Plus there was a lot of lumber needed in the creation of the railway itself and to create homes for the new people it brought to BC after its construction.

A (less than) Brief History of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush

The industrious logger by a fallen tree and gold panner hunched over a stream are the iconic images of British Columbia. While these may initially appear to be unrelated industries, their histories were inevitably intertwined with the creation and development of BC as a province and a part of Canada.

Let me set the stage, back before the West became so wild. Before any country had laid claim to the land that is now British Columbia, it was mostly under the control of fur trading companies in the area and the First Nations or native people that had originally lived there. One thing that surprised me in my research on this topic was the actual size of the native population at this time. The history books always made it seem as though the population of BC was mostly composed of Europeans. Many First Nations had a lot more control of the area than some might believe solely because their knowledge of the area provided the expertise needed to navigate the dangerous rivers and mountain passes. Fur traders at the time were very dependent on the native people to get around.

The biggest player in the fur trade at the time was the London-based Hudson Bay Company. The HBC was kind of the eyes and ears on the ground for the British Empire at the time; Canada was a little too far away and spread out for Britain to bother sending resources to claim and defend it. Most of the British investment at the time was put into hot countries, such as India, South Africa, and Australia, which were thought to be more valuable (spices versus fur hats). Therefore, the men involved with the Hudson Bay Company tended to be the same people the British put into positions of power once BC had become a colony.

The biggest threat to the stability of the HBC in New Caledonia (now BC’s mainland west of the Rockies) was from American “mountain men” coming in to trap beaver and other animals for their pelts as well. In an effort to deter Americans from moving further North, the HBC trapped all the beavers in the Snake River Valley so if they did move north, they would only find a wasteland devoid of the animals for which they were looking.

In 1849, the Hudson Bay Company moved its headquarters from Fort Vancouver to the more convenient location of Fort Victoria and Vancouver Island became a British colony with Victoria as its capital. As I mentioned before the leading members of the HBC were often put in positions of power by the British government and this case was no different. The senior HBC officer James Douglas was appointed governor of Vancouver Island and was put in charge of the British subjects in New Caledonia.

The joint roles he performed created a conflict of interest as he was affiliated with the largest company in the area and the government meant to control resources and manage the land. In fact, James Douglas and the HBC knew about gold in BC long before it was made known to the British government or the public. The First Nations had known about gold in their rivers and its value to the Europeans, but bands like the Haida in Haida Gwaii (then Queen Charlotte Islands) did their best to keep this fact hidden from the Europeans. The Haida people tried to prevent the HBC from exploring their islands, but they didn’t have any luck if they wanted to continue trade with the HBC. In 1857, the HBC slipped up. James Douglas sent a shipment of gold he collected from the First Nations down to San Francisco and the word spread that the HBC was trading gold with the First Nations in BC.

Robots in Disguise

As you've probably guessed by my lack of a conscious effort, I've been super busy with school. Our schedule is packed with all kinds of lectures, hikes and "cultural experiences". We're in Alberta now, so I'm going to try and go through the BC highlights in this post, so I don't get too far behind.

When I left you off last we were in Lillooet. From there we headed further north to UBC's Alex Fraser Research Forest at Gavin Lake. What a beautiful facility! It’s a shame I didn’t get to use it in my undergrad, but, as they say, better late than never. There were canoes to take out on the lake, a three foot high ramp for jumping a bike into the lake, the resident fiddle band and a sauna. Everything was so much fun and it was hard to believe we're actually receiving credits for this! The first night we all alternated relaxing in the sauna and jumping into the lake. We even partook in the Finnish practice of beating yourself on the back with aspen branches. As ridiculous as it sounds, it does feel like a strange kind of massage and was welcome after all the day's driving.

The next day we went around the research forest and learned about their shelterwood harvesting research. The idea of shelterwood is to harvest the large trees in a stand and leave all the little natural regeneration in the understory, so that you a) don't have to plant as much, b) the trees already have a headstart at growing , and c) it doesn't look like a clearcut...'cause it's not. It's a really neat idea (not that it's a very new one) and I've never seen a logging operation that looked as beautiful as this one. See below :-)



That evening we had a bonfire and decided to fire up the sauna (pun intended). The night ended on an exciting note when the enthusiasm of the group to create the perfect sauna caused the overheating of the wooden roof. The teamwork we’ve developed over the last week really showed as we all rushed to put out the fire together. I didn't realize fire fighting would be part of the course material, but it's something I've always wanted to try!

The next day was a lot of driving interspersed with a trip to visit the West Fraser sawmill in William's Lake. Then it was time to say bye to BC and get handed over to the Albertans. A horrible fate some might think, but it was assuaged by the surplus of funds providing us with a white water rafting trip down the Fraser River up near Mount Robson. We had a blast and the guide was so impressed when he had to call as back out of the 7 degree river for our end-of-the-trip swim in the Fraser. That's what happens when you travel with a bunch of Scandanavians!

A Conscious Effort

I am going to try to write in my blog more religiously (though I've said this before) while I am at field school. I need to write a blog of what we do each day anyway, so that should be a good incentive to just continue the writing.

Today I had to do a lecture on the BC gold rush, particularily how it relates to the town of Lillooet where we're staying. We ran out of time during the day due to excessive enjoyment of our Joffre Lakes hike just outside of Pemberton, so I had the privledge of doing my lecture in the pub. Each of the students from BC was asked to do a presentation on something related to forestry in BC and I chose the gold rush, aka the least forestry related topic. It was unfortunate that my first choice BC parks was already taken, but I did learn a lot from my topic being the gold rush. It's amazing what they don't teach you in school.

It was an extremely effective way to have to do a lecture. It was more of a conversation or "story time". I told the history of BC and they played a drinking game where they had to drink every time I said "gold". Making the lecture all the more fun and my lapses in memory all the less memorable! I will hopefully post a blog with all I learned about BC during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. It is a remarkable story that I am surprised I never learned in school. Much more interesting than incessant babble about the Hudson Bay Company and lacross!

In any case, I think the lecture was a success (at least in everyone's intoxicated state) and I was able to finish of the night with a Finnish (pun intended) lesson. Again, I would like to post the Finnish that I've learnt so far and to thank our resident Finn for all his assisstance in my education. He has been more than patient and deserves all the beer I plan on giving him!

Fighting for the Right to Party

I had a weird moment today where I realized just how old the Beastie Boys are. I always thought the song "Fight for Your Right" came out while I was in high school 'cause that's when it was the most popular and when I first heard it. But my 30 year old friend was sure it came out while he was in high school. Then I talked to a coworker who's almost 40 and he was sure it came out while he was in high school. Imagine being so influential as to directly impact the lives of high school students across at least two decades. It really give me a whole new respect for 40 year old rappers.