Minnesota to Finland

Helsinki & Home

2008-06-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

Posted by Julie (from home sweet home)

Friday was our last day in Finland and we spent it exploring the beautiful capital city of Helsinki. Jarmo, our host for the day, took us to Kiasma, the modern art museum, first. The name of the exhibit was "I just don't get it," which was very appropriate. We also visited the Design Museum. I wanted to buy every piece of furniture and lighting that I saw. After getting our fill of Finnish art, we went to lunch and then parted ways. Kari, Patti and I went shopping and Mary went to a travel agent to make her arrangements for Estonia, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. The girls and I went into the cathedral and took the lift down to the crypt where there was a cafe and art exhibit. In the square outside the church there was a festival celebrating Karelian culture and art. We did some shopping and then, of course, had to have some ice cream. After we met up with Mary, we walked down to the harbor and up to the Russian Orthodox church. On the way, we spotted a structure fire and stopped to watch the firefighters in action. The fire was right next door to the presidential palace, so there was a lot of action outside. We had to hold Kari back from running into the burning building to offer her services.

After our day in Helsinki, Jarmo took us to our hotel where we met Kyosti and Seneca for dinner. It was sad to leave our most gracious hosts, but our last sauna together made us feel a little better.

Mary walked us to the bus stop at 5:30 on Saturday morning like the fabulous team leader/mom she is. We had smooth sailing to Paris aside from a two year old throwing a temper tantrum and yelling aiti (mom in Finnish) over and over again for an hour. All I can say is, "Thanks for the ear plugs, Kari!" We hit a couple more bumps in Paris when we were yanked out of the boarding line and grilled by security. Word of advice: When asked where you're coming from, answer quickly. The French apparently do not like delayed responses. Two or three movies later, we were home. I think it's safe to say that we were all overjoyed to be back.

For me, our homecoming was bitter sweet. I will miss my days with Kari, Patti and Mary. I can't think of three other women I would have wanted to travel with for 30 days. The people we met, things we saw, and experiences we shared together may never come to pass again and I will forever treasure the memories we created. I love you guys!

Moi Moi!

Julie

Last Day in Salo

2008-06-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

Kari's Post:

We met Tuomo and Jyrki at the market place and headed off in Jyrki's Land Rover to Teijo National Park. The plan for the day was hiking and fishing... but while I was off with Patti hunting for a bathroom, Jyrki and Tuomo were busy setting up a birthday party for me, complete with freshly prepared birthday cake and champagne. And as a birthday gift, they gave me a gorgeous knife made by a well known Lapland knife maker. It was very sweet.

After the birthday party wrapped up, we headed off into the forest. On our hike, we saw a number of fairy ornaments scattered in the forest. These ornaments represent the traditional Finnish gods and beliefs. We also crossed paths with a large group of small children dressed up in handmade native american headdress, grilling Finnish sausage. We have noticed that a lot of childrens' activites are planned around nature in Finland.

After the hike, it was time to fish. We didn't have much luck at the first lake, but Patti started things off reeling in a lake trout shortly after we arrived at the second lake. Not even a few minutes later, Mary had a nibble. Mary reeled in a lake trout just a tad bigger than Patti's; it was the first fish that Mary has ever caught. A very excited moment. Patti, Mary, and I tried fly fishing briefly before the group headed to another part of the park for lunch. We were back at the homes of our host famlies in the early afternoon. Most of us are planning to meet up again at the market center this evening for a concert by a local artist.

Tomorrow is the last official day of our GSE trip. We will leave Salo early in the morning and will spend the day touring around at our leisure in Helsinki. Julie, Patti, and I will leave for Minnesota early on Saturday morning. Mary will stay and travel around Europe for a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for the last photos of our trip...

Salo, Our Last Rotary Destination

2008-06-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

Posted by Patti Keillor

Today was our first morning in Salo, our last stop on this trip. Salo is known as the headquarters of the Nokia Corporation. Jari, a local Rotary member, gave us a presentation tour and lunch. We learned many interesting things about the cell phone company, including the fact that they don't refer to their products as phones, but rather "devices" because today's phone is so much more than a phone.

Nokia orginally began in Tampere, Finland in 1865 and moved to Nokia, Finland a few years later. The company has worn many hats over the years, but orginally started selling wood products, then rubber boots and tires. They started in the phone industry in 1945 when the government asked the company to develop a radio transmitter for military usage. In the 1970's Nokia first began making mobile phones. Today Nokia is manufactured in 9 countries, research and development takes place in 10 countries and they sell their devices in more than 150 countries.

The corporation on a whole has 120,000 employees, about 3,000 in Salo. Salo is more of an operations hub, although it does have a factory, it is the smallest factory in the corporation. It is more economical for the company to manufacture the phones in other countries due to shipping costs.

In 2007 Nokia made 437 million devices and had a net sales of 51,058 Million Euros. Nokia is the #1 cell phone in the whole world. The sales breakdown includes 39% of Europe, 22% Asia Pacific, 13% China, 14% Middle East and only 4% in the US. Nokia has 40% of the market share followed by Samsung at 14%, Motorola at 12%, Sony Ericsson at 9%, LG at 7% and others at 18% (this includes the i phone which apparently has only about 1% of the market.) Nokia has clearly done a good job at understanding many different types of cultures and markets in this very global business.

After our Nokia visit we headed to the Salo Art Museum. The Salo Art Museum was an old railcar storage facility that was renovated to become an art museum. There was a wonderful display by Kuutti Lavenen, a Finnish artist whose interest seemed to be with the human form, faces and religious figures. He used several different mediums including charcoal, paint, pastels and used many different canvases included some with plywood.

We then went to the University of Turku's Salo campus of applied sciences. We met with Paive and she told us more about the Finnish college system. We were interested to learn that there were a variety of vocational degrees including a popular nursing degree all taught in English which has 10% international students.

To cap off our fantastic day, we all headed to a Rotary meeting and our farewell dinner with the Salo club. Everyone throughout our entire journey has been so generous and wonderful hosts and we all got the chance to express this at our farewell dinner. Kyosti, the GSE coordinator and Matti, the district governor where there, and we enjoyed spending more time in their company.

We had a fantastic evening and we were also sad to think that our trip will soon be over. We are all excited to tell our families, friends and Rotary Clubs in Minnesota about how wonderful Finland is, especially the Finnish people!

Nordkalk, Nauvo and a castle called Qvidja

2008-06-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

a post from Mary

Leaving Turku this morning was hard for us. We enjoyed being in the homes of our hosts and it was sad saying good-bye. It is amazing how close you can get to someone in 3 or 4 days. Thank you Tapio, Eero and Marja-Liisa for taking such good care of us.

Our hosts from the Rotary clubs of Parainen picked us up in Turku at 9 am and brought us to visit Nordkalk, which is a limestone quarry on one of the islands in the archipelago. The limestone in this mine is used for cement, aggregate, for making paper and a few other products.

The first part of our trip focused on the mine. We drove down into a pit that was over 180 meters deep. ( The pit is only a short distance from the sea.) The trucks up on the road looked like toys in a sand box. It is really impossible to describe how big this place is. We went into a tunnel and went down another 100 meters or so. I would have taken notes to give you precise depths, but I wasn't thinking about you at the time. I was thinking about why there was water in the tunnel and how we would get out if it started to collapse and just how deep were we going???

We stop and get out of the truck to look at the machine that is grinding the limestone into pieces that can be moved onto a conveyor belt and brought to the surface. The photo you see if from the platform by the machine, looking back at our truck. This is all in a tunnel. The tunnel started to be dug in the 70's and possibly it will have another 30 years of limestone to be dug out. There is only one person who works in the tunnel. The majority of work is done by giant machines. We drove out of the mine on a road ( narrow) that is alongside the conveyor belt. The angle of this road and the conveyor belt is 17 degrees. The distance is 500 meters from bottom to top.

From there we went to the cement factory. The complex covers acres, and includes not only the grinding, mixing and firing areas but also a port for the ships that take the cement to areas of Finland and to Russia.

After lunch, we took a boat trip. We've been told that there are 60,000 islands in the archipelago. Some are tiny, others big enough for towns and a huge limestone mines. But from the water what you see are low islands, covered in evergreens. Some have houses, red with white trim, up a bit from the sea shore. A small building down by the dock is the sauna. There are other islands off in the distance as far as you can see. Even though the weather today was cold and gray, and the seas very choppy, being among the islands was beautiful.

We stopped at a small island that had a pilot house on it. The water in this area can be treacherous to navigate. In the past, if a skipper of a ship needed help , he would raise a distress flag and the pilot would come out the the ship and help navigate. There is a small museum devoted to the pilots.

We went on Nauvo, a very popular island in the summer. There are over 150 boats that stay in the harbor all summer, plus hundreds of other boats that have shorter stays. There is a sushi bar and a sauna, of course, along with other staples for use by the visitor boaters. Cruising ships stop here on there way from Estonia to Stockholm. There are flags of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Aaland Islands flying in the harbor.

One of our hosts for the day, Anders af Heurlin, invited us to his place for coffee and cake after the boat ride. He owns a castle that has been in his family for 6 generations, 4 of the generations a direct line. The castle is from the early 15th century, built over 40 years starting around 1419. It is the oldest castle in Finland still owned privately. The family lives in a house built in the 1800's that is across from the castle. At one time his family owned the entire island, some 6000 acres. About one third of their land was given to farmers who were displaced from eastern Finland when the Russians took control of those lands after the war. This was the case for all farmers outside of the captured region in Finland at that time.

The Rotarians of the Parainen clubs then handed us over to Rotarians from the clubs of Salo and Uskela. We will be here until Friday when we go to Helsinki and our exchange is over. The time is going so fast.

Turku Weekend Update

2008-06-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

A post from Julie

We arrived in Turku on Friday mroning. We were greete4d by our host families and daily hosts, Rune and Caterina. We had an interesting visit with Seppo, the CMO of Oncology at the Turku University Hospital where we learned more about the Finnish health care system. Seppo also gave us a tour of the hospital that included a resource center where patients and families can find information on all sorts of diseases and ailments. Caterina then whisked us away to the Rotary Club of Turku Aninkainen for a lunch meeting followed by a presentation and tour of the district courthouse. We learned many interesting facts about the Finnish judicial system including don't open the door if the "in session" light is on. Afterwards, we walked through the promenade and discovered Stockman's, the Finnish department store, had some ice cream and watched all the beautiful people of Turku go about their days.

On Saturday, Caterina took us to her architecture firm, CC-M, where we got to view some of their 3D building models and talked about becoming an architect, employee benefits and the disparities among salaries between men and women. Afterwards, Caterina took us to the Handicrafts Museum, an old village in the town center that survived the Great Fire of 1827. We then went down to the river to have a beer on one of the boats, followed by a delicious lunch buffet on yet another river boat. The town center was alive with people and avid football fans (the European football matches were ramping up). After a delightful morning and afternoon with Caterina, we went to the Kakola prison for a guided tour. The prison just closed in September of last year and is now the most popular tourist destination in Turku for visitors and locals alike. Some lucky prisoners had a gorgeous view of the city and the Baltic Sea. There were many protests when they found out they were moving to a new location. Rune bailed us out of prison a couple of hours later and took us to the Turku Cathedral to be redeemed. There was a wedding in progress, so we just took a quick look around and then set our eyes on ice cream (we've been eating a lot of ice cream on this trip).

To close out the weekend, we went to Rymättylä Harbor where we met Olli, the president of the Rotary Club of Turku, his wife Liisa and their guest, Layla. Olli took us out on his motor boat for a day in the Turku Archipelago. We first went to Seili Island where lepers and the mentally ill were banished in the 17th century. The mental hospital is now a university research center and the island is quite beautiful. After lunch we headed back in to the harbor, but not before stopping to have coffee and dessert. We were all exhausted after a long day at sea and headed home to our host families.

Last Day in Naantali

2008-06-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

From Kari

The weather was perfect and sunny again today. We started this morning with a tour of the gardens around the summer residence of the President of the Republic of Finland at Kultaranta. The president is arriving early next week, so all of her gardeners are busy planting, watering, and trimming. Afterward we went to the Kultaranta Golf and Sports Center. Because today was the Center's opening day, we each enjoyed a visit to a theraputic salt room, complimentary massages, and over lunch on the patio balcony we watched former US golf pro Bobby Mitchell tee off. Ironically, his cerimonial swing put his ball in one of the course's ponds not too far down the fairway.

Markku and Tiina met up with us in the center of Naantali after lunch and Markku took us sailing on his boat. Though he built it recently, the boat is based on the wooden boats sailed in Finland during the 17th and 18th centuries. The trip was quite the experience, even for those of us who had sailed before. I even had the opportunity to raise a sail with Ossi and Mary manned the helm.

After our voyage, Markku dropped us off at Heikki and Heidi's. Eija, a local Rotary Coordinator, met us there to sauna and the bravest of us swam in the sea. After the sauna, we took a dip in the hot tub and then sat down on the patio for a dinner of Finnish sausage and Eija's strawberry meringue cake for dessert.

Which came first? Raisio or Naantali?

2008-06-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

A post from Julie

We have been struggling with this perplexing question since our arrival here two days ago. Erkki, one of our hosts, argues that Raisio was first (he lives in Raisio, so he may be somewhat biased). According to historical documents, Raisio was first mentioned in 1292, but wasn't officially declared a town until 1974. Naantali, on the other hand, was officially founded in 1443. You be the judge.

upon our arrival on Tuesday, we were greeted by Erkki and Ossi, our gracious hosts during our stay here in Raisio and Naantali. We toured the Raisio library first, but had an improptu visit first at the fire station when Kari noticed the new fire truck pulling into the station. The library was built in 1999 and is the 5th most used library in Finland. They have 300,000 visitors per year (in a town with 24,000 people) and a collection of 700,000 books.

Afterwards, we visited a school where Ossi's brother is headmaster. From there we went to the Raisio flour mill and pasta factory for a brief presentation and tour. The mill was founded in 1939 and Erkki's grandfather was one of the founders. The mill specializes in manufacturing natural, plant-based and healthy foods. They were one of the first food manufacturers to put the ecological footprint on their packaging and they have a product supplement called Benecol that helps lower cholesterol.

We also visited Hermann's Project Design Oy, a company that builds interiors for public spaces aboard passenger cruise lines. The Raisio harbor is the construction site of the largest passenger cruise line on the market right now. Having the design & production company and ship construction site so close to each other makes for extremely effecient production.

The absolute highlight of the day was the opening night of the Naantali Music Festival. The evening began with a reception where the former Prime Minister of Finland gave a speech. We then went to the Naantali church, which was founded in the 1430s, to see the Shanghai Symphony perform. All night long, we kept asking ourselves, how often do you get to the Shanghai Symphony perform in Finland in a church that is over 550 years old? Pretty amazing.

We closed out the evening with a delicious dinner on the harbor with our hosts and their beautiful wives.

Today (Wednesday), Mary and I started the day with a tour of Erkki's family farm. Erkki is a 5th generation farmer. The main house was built in 1827 and his parents have an absolutely spell-binding collection of Finnish and Russian art in their home. They also have a beautiful garden and grow their own herbs and vegetables. Mary and I now know how white asparagus is grown.

After a scrumptous breakfast of homemade porridge, we met Kari, Patti and Ossi at the Naantali Spa Hotel for a tour of the grounds. The hotel has a cruise ship in the harbor that serves as a floating hotel. From there, we went to Naantali city hall for a visit and lunch with the mayor and a gentleman from the city council. With full stomachs, we then went on a walking tour of the old town, museum and Convent Church. We also went to Moomi World, a theme park for the very famous Finnish childrens' characters that are popular in Europe and - you guessed it - Japan.

We ended the day at the last meeting of the summer with the Naantali Rotary Club. We had dinner out on the terrace overlooking the harbor and enjoyed meeting our fellow Rotarians.

Julie

uusikaupunki + munkki

2008-06-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

by Mary

Hi,

I am happy that I get to write this blog because I love the name of this town. Uusikaupunki. Kaupunki means city and it was a favorite word to say in our Finnish language classes.

Uusikaupunki means new city- that is realitive. It was founded by King Gustavus Adolphus II in April 1617. In a sense, the town is new because there were two fires in the 1800's that burned the majority of the homes. Houses are built of wood and fire is a constant threat, even now.

This morning we were picked up by Raimo and Antero and brought to the center of town. We had a tour of a home built in 1870 for a man who was a tobacco merchant. Then we walked through the town and up a water tower for a view of the town and sea. We walked by a bakery a smelled our favorite pastry, munkki. But no. They hadn't scheduled a munkki stop. Darn.

We then went to the Old church, built in the 1600's. The church is shaped like a boat, perhaps because carpenters built ships and could apply the same techniques to shape the ceiling. The church was very simply decorated with painting on the walls that looked like rosemalling. There was a model ship hanging from ceiling that was a thank you from someone rescued from sea.

A lunch outside on a sunny patio was next followed by a tour of the Bonk Museum. This is a crazy place that is all fantasy. The Bonk Company ( which never existed ) built machines for the processing of anchovies for the obvious purpose of oiling machines, but then through advanced research, they were able to use anchovies to light entire countries. They also used a vacuum to collect endorphines to aid family communication. There was a surf scooter, a machine that looked like a snowmobile but could be used on earth, water or snow. The idea for the Bonk Company came from an artist who started to build all of these crazy machines and ideas in the late 80's.

Then- munkki break. (They are like fried donuts. )Our dissappointment must have been really obvious earlier.

We were home for a hour or so and then left for a Rotary meeting in Laitila. We gave our presentation tonight. It was good to see Erikki, his wife Sari and their daughter Enni. And once again, we had to say good bye to good friends.

A highlight for Kari was a quickly arranged meeting with a fire fighter from Uusikaupunki. Kari is a volunteer fire fighter in Eagan. She mentioned on the way home that she hadn't had a chance to exchange t~shirts with another fire department. A phone call was made, a man came to our guest house with a t-shirt for Kari and another cool pin. We have all decided to join fire departments. Kari is having a especially good time in Finland.

Fishing and Fun on the Baltic

2008-06-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

Posted by Patti Keillor

This morning the Rotarians from the Vehmaa club picked us up and took us to a quaint cabin on the Archipelagos to fish for herring. Our hosts today included Perti, Katarina, Jari, Merja and Jarkko, the club president.

We climbed aboard the "SS Minow" (jk) and headed out for a three hour tour! The weather was perfect and and we all sat on the boat deck and enjoyed the sun and baltic breeze. The Vehmaa Club, no doubt, had thought of everything. They even had an accordian player who serenaded us the entire boat ride. Our boat ride lead to a fyke, which is basically a floating dock with a net system out in the middle of the ocean especially designed to catch herring. There was a man out on the fyke who gathered up two buckets of herring. We took our haul back to the cabin and gutted and fried it up outside. The boat driver changed out of his skipper hat and into his chef hat to cook up the herring for us. The Finns generally eat the entire fish. We all enjoyed the meat of the fish, it was very good.

After our boat outting we headed over to Perti's restaurant which was also a bed and breakfast. The building was converted into a restaurant from an old cow house. The food was excellent. Perti's restaurant is where the Rotary meetings are held and there were several Rotary flags from Minnesota!

We all headed over to Merja and Jari's for some coffee and dessert. Much to our surprise we got a private tour of their home. Merja had inherited the home and the land from her father which had been passed down for many generations. The orginal home was built 700 years ago!! And these portions of the home are still quite in tack. Jari and Merja actually host medieval dinners for tourists in a traditional medieval eating area. The rest of the home was built throughout many more eras including the main portions in the 1600 and 1700's. Not to mention it was arranged like a museum with thousands of antiques, everything in a well-thought out spot. We learned that Merja is actually a decendant of Charlemagne. The house is something the couple actually lives in everyday during the summer and would be a dream come true for antique lovers. Their property also includes an out-house room where kings have actually sat to do their business.

Jari and Merja hosted us in an eating hall for dessert and coffee. We then headed back to the guest house, but Jari had one most surprise up his sleeve, a drive to the top of a rock quarry! It was an amazing site. Vehmaa is know for its red granite.

On the ride home our wonderful, fun hosts serenaded us once again, this time in song. The Finns truly understand romance!

Rauma, Laitila, and Uusikaupunki

2008-05-31T20:41:00.000-07:00

Kari's post...

Friday was our last day in Rauma. In the morning we visted the UPM paper mill there. It was quite an experience to learn about paper production, tour the plant, and see the machines in action. Some of the machines move paper through at a pace of over 80 mph. And longer rolls of paper can weigh up to 6 tons and stretch out for 10 miles. Over lunch we met with and presented to the Rotary Club in Rauma. We visited the shops of Old Rauma in the afternoon before heading off for an evening with our host families.

We arrived in Laitila early on Saturday morning. The president of the Laitila Rotary Club brought us to a end-of-term celebration, where young children sing, received their marks for the class they are in, and "graduate" to the next class (i.e. grade). After that we met with a nature guide and took a boat to an island for a picnic and bird watching. The day was beautiful and the island was quite amazing. Everyone roasted up a traditional Finnish sausage over the fire and enjoyed a variety of other treats. We stopped at a few other bird watching spots, including the Otajarvi bird watching tower, before heading to Uusikaupunki.

The presidents of the two Uusikaupunki Rotary Clubs, Esa and Marita, met us as we arrived in Uusikaupunki. They showed us around the Yara guesthouse, a guesthouse for a local company, where we will be staying for the next 3 nights. We had a couple hours to relax and unpack, before being picked up to have a wonderful dinner, sauna (our first electric one), and dessert at Marita's.

A Visit to Eura

2008-05-31T09:08:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Julie

This post is a couple of days behind schedule due to "technical difficulties."

On Thursday, we all had our individual programs in the morning. I met with the marketing department at Oras Oy, a company that manufactures beautifully designed faucets and showers. The family-owned company was founded in 1945 and has distribution all over Europe. I found my dream bathtub in their showroom. It costs a mere €6,500 if anyone is interested. Mary went to Nordea Bank and Kari went to the fire and police departments. Patti went to Toivontalo ("The House of Hope"), a place where people are encouraged to get back on their feet following drug or alcohol abuse or incarceration. Surprisingly, she met a man from Colorado...and another man who claims to be her new boyfriend. I'll let the other ladies elaborate on their individual programs if they so choose.

Following our programs, we drove to Eura where our gracious tour guide, Johan (John), took us to the sacred grounds of Sammallahdenmäki. There were many burial cairns from the Bronze Age and is the first Finnish prehistoric monument to be named a UNESCO World Heritage List site in 1999. The most impressive structure at the site is called the "Church Floor." The folk story behind this structure is long, but it involves Christians and giants - use your imagination...or Google. We also went to Naurava Lohikäärme (The Laughing Dragon), a museum of Eura artifacts and culture.

After such a busy day, the sauna was calling our names. Luckily, our evening host, Jussi, from the local insurance company invited us to their guest house for sauna and dinner. We had a great time and headed back to our host families feeling refreshed and exhausted all at the same time.

nuclear power+crawfish+grapes

2008-05-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
What a great day. I had no idea that a presentation on nuclear power could be so interesting. It was fabulous.
Our host, Mikko Kosonen, a Rotarian and host to Kari, picked us up at our host families this morning and took us to Teollisuuden Voima Oyj or as it's friends know it, TVO, a nuclear power plant outside of Rauma. This plant has two reactors, one has been in production since 1978 the other since 1980. There is a third planned to go on line in 2012, which will be twice as big as the other two reactors. In 2007 the two operating reactors provided 14 TWh, which is 16% of the power used in Finland. We heard so many facts and numbers that I will not try to keep them all straight, I will only tell what I found most interesting.
The power plant is owned by several investors. The power is given to the investors net of all operating costs. The risk of operation is borne by the investors, and the possible gains are also owned by them. The power plant has 700 employees, and an additional 3000 during the construction phase of the new reactor. The new reactor, Unit 3, will provide 1600 MWe. It would take an equivilent 6400 wind mills to generate the same amount of electricty provided by this power plant at Rauma. One pellet of fuel ( about the size as a pellet of rabbit food) provides enough energy to provide electricty to 5 homes for one year.
The type of plant in Rauma is called a pressurized water reactor. The reactor takes in 30 cubic meters of sea water per second. When the water comes in, the temerature is 13 degrees C. when it returns to the sea, it is 26 degrees C. None of it is exposed to radiation. There is an area of about 2 k in the sea, about 5 meters deep, that has warmer water than is natural when this water is returned to the sea. TVO is experimenting with this water to see how it might be used. Currently they are farming crawfish, salmon, and rainbow trout. They are also growing a vinyard.
Reactor 3 has new and improved safty features. The most obvious is that it is in two containers, one to enclose an accident from inside the reactor, the second to prevent damage from outside of the reactor, such as a plane crashing into it. In addition, there are redundent power sources, and disposal systems for contaminated material.
We all were interested in the production of uranium, which is used in this reactor. We heard that most uranium is mined in Canada and Australia. ( Another source of uranium was from Russia, from the nuclear weapons that were disarmed years ago.) Yellow cake that is mined is changed to a gas form and then enriched into uranium 285 or 239. The countries that do this work are France, Germany and Russia. One quarter of the fuel is relaced every year. It takes 7 days to replace the spent uranium with new. The old units are stored enclosed in tubes, in water for 5 years and then in another place for 20 years.
Another company owned by the same investors that own TVO, is Posiva. This is a company which is currently researching and developing and will eventually implement a geological disposal site for spent rods in the same area as the reactors. In 1994 the government of Finland passed a law that said that all spent fuel would be buried in Finland. They are planning a cave system that winds round and round, going deeper and deeper until a depth of 520 meters. The cost of this project is expected to be 300 Billion €. It should be competed in 2020 and will be full in 2100.
The visitor center was expertly developed to show both by animation and video how the reactor works. It also is a beauty building, light and set right on the edge of the estuary.
After our visit to TVO we drove Vuojoki Mansion for a delicious 4 course lunch. The mansion is an empire style building now completeöy renovated.
Tonight we are spending time with our families. Mine has invited an exchange student from Grand Marais Minnesota to have dinner with us. We are eating outside tonight, with our jackets on.

by Mary

Our First Day in Beautiful Rauma

2008-05-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Posted by Patti Keillor

This morning our team was busy packing up to leave Pori and drive to Rauma. At my host family, I was living on a pennisula on the sea. I ate breakfast this morning the same time a beautful swan was bobbing on the sea, doing the same thing! What a wonderful site. It took a good 20 minutes for us to pack all of our luggage into Kari's vehicle. We are definitely gaining weight in the luggage department and we are only halfway through our trip!

We arrived in Rauma to greetings from Pekka and Mikko. We then headed to City Hall, where the city sponsored a wonderful day for us. At City Hall we met with the Deputy Mayor, Tomi; The City Administrator, Sari; and City Planner, Johanna, who did the GSE Exchange last year to Brazil. They were all fantastic hosts. We learned about the school system in Rauma, and that the majority of people in Rauma are employed by the municipality. They also have several Nuclear Power plants, and have more planned. We will get the opportunity to visit one of them tomorrow.

After our visit in City Hall, we toured the new local library. It has a very friendly design with a lot of natural light incorporated and a geothermal heating system, that much of the city also uses. The librairians said the glass was specially designed to block UV rays that would damage the books. There were many interesting break-out spaces for flexible learning and also unique circular skylights to provided lighted nooks in the even in the middle of the library.

After the Library, we headed to a local school The Kari School. It was a school for general education, with an emphasis in Music. The music students performed a song for us, and they were excellent! When the students heard we were from Minnesota, the instantly knew the Minnesota Wild, and Mikko Koivu. If no one has mentioned yet, the Finns are HUGE ice hockey fans. It is worth mentioning again, I think because it is often a topic of conversation here.

We left the school on foot for a tour of Old Rauma, which was gorgeous. Rauma is one of the six Medieval towns in Finland and has a rich heritage of wooden houses. We visited The Church of the Holy Cross built in the mid 15th century. We also visited a home, now a museum that was originally built 300 years ago and another home that was built in 1820 for a rich man in the shipping business. Apparently that house had the first indoor bathroom, which consisted of a toilet seat and a bucket...just use your imagination!

Rauma is well known for lace-making, and we had the exciting opportunity to see a woman in-action making lace! Amazing. That is the best word to describe it. The town has "Lace Days" in the summer and every year crowns a "Lace Lady."

After our wonderful day in Rauma, we all went back to our new host families for dinner and of course coffee and tea!

Last Day in Pori

2008-05-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

Terve, it's Kari again.

Today was our last day in Pori. And we cannot belive how fast the four days have gone.

Today was a busy day of vocational programs. This morning, my host Matti and I met with a local fire station captain to talk about the fire service and tour one of the three Pori fire stations. Patti visited Prizztech, a Pori firm that connects local businesses and educatonal instituations for cooperative projects. Mary met with a local investment banker and chatted about international investment opportunities.

Over lunch, the team gave a presentation to the Pori-Teljä Rotary Club and said goodbye to Antti Harkila (a Pori-Teljä RC member and the team leader of the Finnish District 1410 GSE team that came to Minnesota). It was great to see him again and we have really enjoyed his company over the past few days.

The afternoon was also busy. Mary and Julie were interviewed by Radio Pori. Patti and Kari Kontula were able to schedule an impromptu tour at a local architectural wonder that is not usually open to the public. And Kari learned more about the Finnish legal system at the local prosecutor's office. We all met up at Nina's shop to listen to Julie and Mary on Radio Pori before splitting off to enjoy one last evening with our host families in Pori.

Our visit to Pori has been the perfect combination of city and nature. We've had a wonderful time here!

Pori Nature & Art

2008-05-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

Julie's post:

Can I just say how wonderful it was to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast with our host families this morning? We gathered at the ympärisotoimisto (local environmental protection office) at 11AM and met Matti Lnakiniemi, our nature guide for the day. Matti showed us the website where they post air emmisions and particle counts for the whole country of Finland. Go to www.airquality.fi if you want to check it out. He aslo talked about the regulations that are in place to hold large companies accountable for their waste production. Finland is quite a beautiful and clean country and they owe it to Matti. Afterwards, we viewed an exhibit of Pori nature and then went hiking to see the real thing. We went to a lake, the Baltic sea, and then to the river delta. It was a beautiful day - not too much wind and the sun was warm. You couldn't have asked for better weather. After our nature hike, we went to the Pori Art Museum, the first contemporary art museum in Finland. The exhibits were very interesting and interactive. Who knew there was such a thing as Finnish Kung Fu? We retired for the evening with our host families and have been enjoying a nice, relaxing Sunday. Tomorrow, we have our individual vocational programs, the Pori-Teljä Rotary Club meeting and then, hopefully, more shopping with Nina!

A big "kiitos" to Kyosti for bringing us a phone, program booklets and a conversion chart so we know what the Finns mean when they use celcius, kilograms, and kilometers. We'd be lost without him.

Julie

Pori and Reposaari

2008-05-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

hello again,

This is Mary.

Yesterday we left Parkano and had an hour long drive through pine forests to the town of Pori. Pori is a town near the Baltic Sea. There are about 75000 people living here. As soon as we arrived in this town, we all agreed that we could spend the entire month here. It is a beautiful river town that has preserved many historic buildings. There is a lovely park in the middle of the town, full of red tulips.

We were met by Kari Kontula. He brought us to city hall where we had a tour of the building that will be the new home for city hall. It is a magnificent home that was built in the 1800's, and has been restored to it's original condition. The deputy mayor, Kari Hannus, met with us and talked about governmental systems in Finland and the differences between the municipal, state and federal governments.

There are many social services provided to the citizens of Finland, and most of them come from the municipal government. Pori has a budget of about 5.2million €. 1 million € come from the state government, the rest comes from earnings of municipal businesses and taxes. The city taxes are around 14% ( the state is about 22%). The city must manage it's revenues by attracting young people and business to the city. This is the job of the deputy mayor. By the way, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are not elected to office, but are hired by the council members who are elected. We spent about an hour discussing these issues with the deputy mayor. He was extremely generous with his time and patient explaining the issues with us.

We left for the Rotary noon meeting where we presented our program. We are getting better every time and the Rotary members were interested in what we had to say, especially the part about the three Finnish players on the Minnesota Wild hockey team. The Pori Rotary club is a men only club. There are still a few of these left in the world.

After the meeting we went to the University Consortium of Pori. This is consortium of 5 universities that offer classes under one umbrella in Pori. They call it academic multi tasking. They have 2700 students and 220 instructors. It is housed in old brick milling buildings on the river. It is a beautiful environment.

From there we went to our host families. I am staying with Krista, Mikko and Petteri Levijervi. Petteri is two and a half and is helping me with my Finnish. We worked on counting this morning before I had to leave to meet the other team members.

This morning we went to the farmers market and then shopping. Finnish design is amazing and we just kept saying "wow". After shopping Kari K. brought us to a yacht club on the port of Pori and the commander took us out in a fishing trawler across the bay to Reposaari, an old fishing town on a peninsula. This area is a huge port area. We saw a drilling platform on a ship that is leaving soon for the Gulf of Mexico. The platform is 15 stories high when laying on it's side. It was made in Finland. We walked through the village of Reposaari. The houses are all wooden, and the area looks like a simple version of Cape Cod. From there Kari brought us to see his summer home and then we went to the Pori City sauna. The sauna is much more than a sauna. It is more like a lodge built of logs, with porches, dining room, dock and yes, a large sauna. The team members took our sauna, once again dreaming of where each of us could build one when we return home. After the sauna, we had a fabulous dinner of several types of cured, smoked, and fried fish and several salads.

I am constantly amazed by the time our hosts devote to our team. Kari spent two entire days driving us to interesting venues and enduring our constant talking and laughing. Many people prepared presentations for us, in English, so that we can learn more about Finland. What we are learning is that this is a beautiful country with charming and engaging people.

To the Small City of Parkano

2008-05-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Moi Moi everyone! It's Kari. We had another busy day today. We start out in Vammala. I had breakfast with my hosts, Jouni and Maarit (mentioned already as the owners of Pyymaen Leipomo), before we gathered in their driveway to make the caravan to Parkano. Mauno and Tarmo were our drivers and graciously packed our heavy bags into the trunks. About 80 kilometers later, we arrived in the small community of Parkano (pop. 7 000) where we were met by another Mauno, Martti, and Martti's wife. Hugs all around for our friends before they departed for Vammala and we began our day in Parkano with Mauno, Martti, and Martti's wife.

First, Paivi gave us a presentation and a tour of the Finnish Forest Research Center. They study many thing there, including the affects of Climate Change and the draining of peat fields that occurred in the 1950s and 60s. Next we went to city hall for an impressive presentation about the city and surrounding area from a young man who we expect might one day be mayor. Our last stops were at the UPM Aureskoski Timber Components Mill and Seitseminen National Park. Martti and his wife introduced us to Parkano's newest Rotary member, his wife, and baby daughter before treating us to a beautiful dinner in the evening. It's been a short, but splendid visit in Parkano.

A Wonderful Day in Vammala!

2008-05-21T12:57:00.000-07:00

Posted By Patti Keillor

Today we woke up to breakfast with our individual host families. My host mother is very kind. Her name is Ansa and her husband's name is Heikki. I was feeling sick yesterday and she took very good care of me, gave me vitamins and slippers and a hug goodnight. I told her that my mother would appreciate someone taking care of me. We went first to a factory called Vexve where they manufacture water valves of all sizes. We were very interested to learn more about the process of making a product and about the employer benefits that the Finnish people receive.

After the factory tour we went to Vammala's City Hall for lunch. We met a very nice man named Ashton who lived in the US until he was 10 and then moved back to Finland because his mother is from this area. We talked about the different economies in Minnesota and Finland and Ashton said he would like to visit Minnesota someday, and had heard about the Mall of America.

Kari and Mauno then took us an a boat ride. It was a gorgeous sunny day right until the moment that we got to the boat and then it started to downpour! We got on the boat anyway, and it had a cabin to keep us dry. We took the boat to a resort where they have skiing in the winter and summer cabins. We had our raincoats on as we hiked through the woods and then it got very sunny and wonderful again. It was probably about 50 degrees F. We hiked through the woods to a stone cottage of a famous Finnish painter Emil Danielson. We then hiked futher up to a gorgeous lookout view. We loved to have some good excersize and and some clean, crisp Finland air. The trees and rocks and lakes remind us all of Northern Minnesota..sometimes I wonder if I actually left! The difference here is that the forest floors are draped in a beautiful soft moss.

After our hike the Skipper, Kari and Mauno brought us to a Finnish church that was 800 years old. I took lots of pictures so I could show my Dad (he is an architect who designs churches). It was an A frame building with wooden shingles and the structure is mostly stone. The facility is still used today and they have many music concerts there. (And by the way Dad, they said the acoustics are fantastic!)

After this we went to Kari's summer cottage to sauna and have dinner with our Vammala friends. We will be leaving to the next town tomorrow morning, so we will all be sad to say goodbye to our new, good friends in Vammala.

Goodbye Forssa, Hello Vammala

2008-05-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

From Julie:

Today we gave our first GSE presentation at the Forssa Rotary Club. Aside from some minor technical difficulties, the presentation went very well. We miss everyone in Forssa already. Mattias drove us to Vammala, which is about 80km north of Forssa. We met Ansa, Mauno and Kari there and had champagne, coffee, pie and pastries in Ansa's gift shop. After some much needed coffee, we went shopping in the town and stopped at a book store and a jewelry shop, all owned by members of the club. We also went to Herra Hakkaraisen Talo (the house of Mr. Clutterbuck), which is a character in a famous childrens' book written by a Finn from Vammala. The displays were amazing and made you want to be eight years old again. Afterwards, we went to Maarit and Jouni's bakery, Pyymaen Leipomo, for lunch. Ole hyvaa! They gave us a tour of their bakery as well.

Then it was off to our host families for some much needed rest before the Vammala Rotary Club meeting. We gave our Finnish introductions at the meeting and no one laughed, so that's a good sign. Our Finnish is getting better day by day...we think/hope. Now, we are all resting comfortably with our host families.

Tomorrow, we are going to a valve factory, for a nature hike and then on a boat ride before heading to Kari's summer house to sauna. What a rough life!

Julie

hello from Finland

2008-05-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

Terve-
You have now had your first Finnish lesson ( trans. Hi !)
This is me, Mary. Let me tell you what has happened so far.
We are in Forsa tonight, a beautiful town of 18000 people in SW Finland. Today was a classic Group Study Exchange day, a meeting with the communications director of a recycling plant, tour of the "old town" of Forsa, lunch with Rotary members, an interview with the local press, a tour of an art school, individual professional visits ( me to a bank, Kari to a police station, Patti to e-commerce marketing company and Julie to an ad agency). Then, a little shopping and dinner with our host Maija.
When we arrived in Helsinki on Saturday, we were met by Kyosti, Jaakko, Tuula and a cold bottle of champagne. They were a welcome sight. We drove to Jaakko and his wife Seija's house for a light dinner and our first sauna. Seija likes to take a quick swim after a sauna and I thought if not now, when, so I followed her in. Kari, Patti and Julie had to follow to save face! It was stunning and fabulous! We slept well that night. The next day, Sunday, we were given a tour by our guide Risto of a national park. We planned to fly over the region in Jaakko's plane, but the weather was bad, rainy and cold. So instead, we had went to a sky diving club and preceded to fawn over the dive master. ( See picture.) At 3 we had lunch, which included several courses and much alcohol. It was at the hunting club of Major Mannerheim, a distinguished general of the WWI. We presented our gift to the District Govenor of district 1410, which is our host district.
By the way, Group Study Exchange is a program of Rotary International that arranges annual opportunities for thousands of young people to learn about the customs and culture of other countries. Our team was choosen from a group of applicants last fall for this years exhange with Finland.
Tomorrow we give our first presentation to the Forsa Rotary Club. Wish us luck.
Mary

2008 GSE Team Photos

2008-05-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

Patti, Kari, Julie and Mary on top of Mary's condo in downtown Minneapolis. Three days and counting!!!!

Team Logo

2008-04-23T16:49:00.001-07:00

Patti's amazing and talented boyfriend Paul designed our team logo...with plenty of input from the team, of course. Check it out!

First time blogger

2008-04-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Hello blogosphere! First time blogger here. We're setting up a blog to keep everyone back home up to speed on our travels to Finland come May 17th. Our blog will be pretty quiet 'til then, but come back and check it out next month.