As part of our orientation, we stopped at the Sibelius Academy, an arts school named after a famous Finnish composer. While we were there, the students performed a selection of both Finnish music and popular songs.
The visit to Hanasaari had to be one of my favorite parts of this week. We had the chance to participate in so many activities! We went to Sauna, and swam in the sea; we also played traditional Finnish lawn games.
At the end of our orientation, each grant recipient received a copy of the Kalevala. The Kalevala is the Finnish national epic poem. Most Finns are very familiar with these stories. I look forward to reading it!
At Hanasaari, we played Finnish lawn games. My favorite was Mölkky, which is a little like bowling. Each player throws a stick at a group of pins with numbers on them, trying to knock them over. If you manage to knock down more than one pin, you get one point for each pin you knocked down. If you only succeed in hitting one pin, you get the same number of points as the number on the pin you hit. The winner is the first to get to exactly 50 points.
