Hyvää Suomi!

So the Hockey World Championships just ended, and usually i'm keeping better track of how Finland is doing during the tournament, but my beloved Kari Lehtonen (goalie for the Atlanta Thrashers) was not in goal for Finland, so i haven't been on top of things as much. Kari is up for signing a new contract this summer, and was nervous about hurting himself. It's understandable (he has a history of groin injuries), but if he had played, perhaps it could have been the edge that could have gotten them the gold, but bronze isn't too shabby.

This bronze is especially sweet (possibly sweeter than gold) because of how they won it. The got the bronze beating Sweden 4-0. SWEDEN! 4-0! Amazing. I'll have to check with Saila, but i have a feeling Finland is on cloud nine right now. (Finland and Sweden have a bit of a rivalry...)

Canada and Russia played for the gold, and Russia prevailed because of another beloved Atlanta Thrasher, Ilya Kovalchuk. Russia was down 3-2 halfway through the second period when Dany Heatley (a not so beloved former Thrasher) made it 4-2 for Canada. Alexei Tereshchenko made it 4-3 in the middle of the third, but it was Kovy who tied it up with 5 minutes left in the period sending the game into overtime, then Kovy again in overtime with an amazing powerplay slapshot which gave Russia the gold. Goodtimes indeed.

The other sport i'm into these days, football (soccer), isn't such a happy story for Finland. They barely missed qualifying for Euro 2008, which is sad, but then again, England didn't qualify either..... which is way worse.

A Finnish dude did "Sandstorm"

You know how there's songs that everyone knows, but no one knows what the song is called or who it's by? This is the true of the song called "Sandstorm". I'm not even sure how i know i've always known that that is the name of the song, but i have. In any case, you'll know it when you hear it, i promise. They always play it at sporting events and things like that. I hear it at Thrashers games at least once per game. It's kind of a 'let's get everyone pumped up' kind of song.

In any case, i was talking about this with my co-worker, Josh, last night, and i joked that even though no one remembers who did that song, that guy still probably never has to work again a day in his life from the money he's made from it. I decided to look up online who it was by, because i realized i don't think i had ever bothered to (because honestly, it's kind of an annoying song).

Believe it or not, they had an entire Wikipedia article on just that song. Well, it turns out the DJ's name is "Darude", but get this..... he's Finnish! Isn't that crazy?! I got quite a kick out of that. I scrolled down to the bottom of the article and found a video for the song which you can watch below. It's a pretty amazingly horrible video, but at the same time it rules because it takes place in downtown Helsinki! The opening scene is all at the Cathedral of Helsinki! I always can't help but get excited when i see Finnish things on TV and i can say, "Hey, i know where that is. I've been there."

It's Finntastic

Hel Looks

I must confess. I pride myself on the fact that when i tell people i'm moving to Finland, they automatically assume i'm Finnish or have some Finnish in me (insert dirty joke here). Even when i was there this past March, everyone always would start speaking to me in Finnish first, and i would have to sheepishly tell them i spoke English. Only exception was this drunk Russian guy, but it was because he didn't speak Finnish either...

I feel pretty good about the fact that i'm able to pull this off. I'm not sure what it is. I am a little pale. That helps. Maybe i have a bit of that cool Helsinki fashion in me? Well, there's one way to check and see if this is remotely true (i've already decided it's a little true), and that is with the gem of a website known as Hel Looks. Hel Looks is just this little hobby website done by these two photographers who wanted to document the looks of the people of Helsinki, mainly young people. For me, it's hours of entertainment, because soon, these will be my people.

Not only are there lots of cute girls, but there's some bad ass dudes (like Janne, Sami, and Antti) which i'm definitely taken mental notes from for style ideas.

Now once you've looked around on that site for a while, you'll realize that not everyone is so progressive. There's definitely the goth scene and metal scene going pretty strong, but overall, this site makes Finland look awesome (and makes up for the "The Finnish YMCA", right, Sini?).

And besides, who wouldn't want to live in a place where they produce dudes like Roberto?!

The Finnish YMCA

As if i needed even more incentive to move...

There's no smog in Finland

This week in Atlanta has been brutal, as far as the weather is concerned. I believe we reached the triple digits temperature-wise, and needless to say that produced some wicked smog. I texted Saila, which is what i usually do when i'm missing Finland, and asked her if there's smog in Finland. She replied that there isn't, which i already knew, but felt like asking anyways for an excuse to be nostalgic.

If there's one thing i can't wait for, it's the crisp, clean Finnish air. It's delicious. And that's yet another reason why i'm looking forward to moving.