The Finnishing Touches....

Today is Monday, May 11th, 2009, the official last day of GSE 5550 Canada to 1380 Finland. For a month I haven't been able to find the Finnish words I need and now I cannot find the English words I need. Fantastic, Incredible, Nice, Lifelong, Amazing, New and Delightful, that's Finland. The warmth, humor, kindness and hospitality of the Finns will stay with me always (but I might let go of the ice-bath memory!. So it's time to explain the complicated yet ingenious point system that we devised for this GSE trip. WHAT'S THE POINT? you may wonder. Just for fun. So for the review: MARTY - he had the best souvenir, a DIEMO lazered metallic desk stand that depicted the Maple Leaf and Moomin, very good. 50 pts. Marty was never cold in Finland. He wore short sleeves (and at least twice nothing!) and everyone always asked him, "Aren't you cold?" and his reply was always the same, " I'm freezing. Marty Friesen." 20 pts. Marty had many memorable point-making moments: when he ordered a Baltic yacht (30 pts), when he ate bacon every morning possible (minus pts), when he turned into a fanatic hockey fan and sang the Finnish version of Hockey night in canada (100 pts), when he smashed his finger playing Uniball (50 pts)when he learned to introduce himself as Marty, from the Mestaranta (forest), 30 pts.and when he made an historic trip to Sisu Diesel (70 pts) But Marty's really BIG points comes from 3 important things: 1. meeting with Fredrick, the amazing inventor, 100 pts.
2. Learning that the sausage is the Finnish man's vegetable, 100 pts.
3. Naked Sauna, 1000 pts!!!!!
Go Marty!
Not to be outdone however, we come next to Christina - she really took to heart the slogan, Been there, done that, got the Tshirt. Christina made GSE tshirts for all of us and for the Finnish GSE team. Thanks, Christina! 100 pts. Christina had jet lag and made good points with a 3 a.m. conversation, 20 pts. She has interesting conversational phrases and picked up on the Finnish ones too, "Let's just say" 50 pts. and "Maybe let's go" 30 pts. She really blossomed at our last stop when she stayed with the ballroom dancing maestros, the Panulas. Christina danced, she watched dancing, she attended a major dance competition, and she even helped out with ballroom danicng lessons, all of which add up to 300 pts. But, the finale, the "piece de resistance", the BIG points, came when Christina took one for the team and her kayak overturned and she went into the cold Seinajoki river! 1000 pts. Go Christina!!!!
And I did try to keep up with my much younger friends but from the start they did take good care of me so I'll collect points from each of them:) 25x4=100 pts. thanks Team! Then I was the first, the leader, to go into the ice-cold Baltic Sea after sauna, 100 pts for me. And I kept referring to our last stop, Kauhajoki, as karaoke (20 pts). Big points because I actually like salmiakki! 50 pts. And to talk even further about the food, because you know that I loved the food in Finland, I give myself 100 pts.(not 1 per pound, I hope!) We had an amazing Rotarian host in Vaasa that organized our lives so well, Maj-Britt, so I stayed with her so I get her points! 180 pts. But of course, my biggest points came from a "mere slip of the finger" when I jammed it in a van door and took everyone on their first vocational visit to a hospital! 1000 pts. Hurray!
Now for Catherine's standings: from the start we discovered that she needs alot of sleep, and I mean alot! so for all her deprived-of-sleep nights, when we told her once, "Catherine, it's 12 a.m." and she flew out of the room to go to bed, 50 pts. Catherine didn't meet too many civil engineers,in fact only 3, but she brought us all along on a wonderful field trip to a Waste Management facility and we could tell that was a highlight for her! so she has a lovely souvenir of a bag of "waste", hmmm. okay, still 150 pts. And also from the start, Catherine had the best grasp of the Finnish language. she could ask for the bathroom anywhere in Finland! That's alot of points. 300 pts. But Catherine gets major points on behalf of her husband, Brad, who interviewed for and received the honour of an Ambassadorial Scholarship to do a PH'd in New Zealand. 1000 pts. Go Brad! Go Catherine!
And Laurel scored "gianormous" points throughout the trip too, in fact, 50 pts for letting us all use her word, gianormous! Well, you've heard enough about Laurel, the policewoman, getting lost while out jogging. 300 pts. but you should also know that she's the best at finding things! 100 pts. She managed to find not 1, but 2 lovely Icelandic music concerts. 100 pts. minus 50 pts. But the highlights of the point sytem for Laurel were when she witnessed a dog attack at a lovely Dog Show, when she found Diet Coke once, when she lost an entire 2 hours of blogging!, and when she proved she could hold the title of "SuperPower Shopper!" all of which earned her 1000 pts.(and anyway, everywhere we went, the Finns wanted to meet the "policewoman on the team"). Go Laurel!
SO, NOW TO ANNOUNCE TE WINNER!!!!!!drum roll please......ta dah...... THE WINNER IS
ROTARY GSE!
Of course, this was all in fun, but you know what, the whole trip was all in fun! We learned so much we can hardly describe it, although we made a pretty good stab at it by posting the blog, but the biggest thing we learned, is one of the best values of Rotary: true friendship. We are really leaving behind our new friends, and we want to say thank you to them and to Rotary for this most amazing experience. This was a lifelong adventure, "From Start to Finnish". Thank You.