May Day, YSA Dinner, and Bunco!

May Day is a HUGE holiday in Finland!!!  We spent April 30th in downtown Helsinki!  Sister Horning, who works in the office, never gets to see "the sights". So she took the train into town and we showed her all the major tourist attractions.  We also saw the preparations for May Day (Vappu)  Balloons were for sale everywhere!

May Day is a big holiday for students.  Kids wear their university jumpsuits (each college has their own color)  and have patches on them for their various activities.  All over town were huge groups of kids gathering in preparation

for their evening revelry!!! (Drinking!)  Missionaries were to be in their apartments by 6PM)

Here is the group from the School of Economics...about 300 of them.  They are standing in a fairly major street that the police had blocked off for them to gather in.  At 5:00 pm  they would all proceed to the center of Helsinki.

This is Senate Square earlier in the day.  By nighttime there 

were 50.000 people here!  At 7pm, a "graduation hat" would be placed on the statue of Alexander the Great in the center of the square.

Juha is modeling a graduation hat...high school graduation.  Everyone in Finland keeps their hat and wears them on Vappu.  Eighty-year-old people were wearing their yellowed hats they had had forever!  They look like miniature Captain's hats.  We saw 1000's of these on Vappu Day!!!

On May Day, our Young Single Adults had a picnic in Kaivopuisto Park, along with 50,000 other people.  It is the place to be on Vappu!!!  We staked out our spot early and had 55 kids attend!

As you can see they are wearing their hats!!!  The streets were full of people streaming toward this park which is 2 blocks from our center.

This is a view from the top of the hill where we had previously gone sledding:

There was a row of "Porta potties" set up for ladies but there were also some special ones for men...we couldn't believe it!

Only in Europe...

Anyway, it was a great day and we were 

definitely where the Vappu action was!

We also serve as the Young Adult Advisers for our ward.  On Fast Sunday they get together after church for dinner  and this  month it was at our apartment.

We had 26 here including ourselves.

What a great bunch of kids!  We really do love them!!!

Last Monday we had Bunco Game Night at Family Home Evening:

And the winners are... Laura, Elina, and Emma! 

Fazer chocolates were the prizes, of course!

Next time we Will do our shopping blog but May Day was too great to miss!!!

CEMETERIES, CHURCHES, AND BRIDES

During the winter months we've been touring the most famous of the Helsinki churches and one cemetery that is very close to our apartment.  Most of the graves have a lantern on them and the candles are lit on Christmas Eve and many at Easter Time.  We didn't know this last Christmas but there were thousands of candles lit...it is a strange Christmas Eve activity but Finns go to their relatives' graves to light candles.  We will remember this for next Christmas.  The large cemetery near us has two sides.  One is for the Orthodox Church and the other is for the Lutherans. 

Many people plant small shrubs on the graves...

at Easter there were lots of daffodils..

This is known as "The Old Church" and is located on our street on the way downtown.  It is very simple but beautiful! It was built in 1826 by a famous architect, Carl Engel.

This is The National Cathedral located in Senate Square in the center of Helsinki.  It was  built  in 1852 by Carl Engel as well.  This was the location for the New Year's Celebration we shared in January.

Here are some interior pictures.  In the summer this is a VERY popular place for weddings so many tourists do not get to go inside.

Not a church, but right next door is the National Library of Finland.  It was very beautiful as well!

This is St. Johns Cathedral located in downtown Helsinki, very close to our Center for Young Adults and ward meetinghouse.

The above picture was taken last Sunday but the following were taken just before Easter.  An orchestra and soloists were preparing for a Bach concert...it was great to get a sneak peek of their concert. 

Now for the brides...at FHE there was a great activity.  The kids were divided into 3 groups and given a bag of old clothes, TP, tape, and odd accessories.  Their first challenge was to create a "Superhero".  The second was to create a very stylish bride.  

This bride even came with a groom ready to present a ring.

Our final bride was from an arranged marriage...the groom's first glimpse was when he lifted the veil and got a terrible shock!  As you can see the bride had a slight "facial hair'  problem!  It was a fun night at the Center!!!

Spring has arrived!  No more snow and many sunny days!  We bought bikes last week so can go on many summer adventures!  Can't wait!!!

There's a Whole Lot of Thawing Going On!!!

Helsinki is warming up with longer days, more sun, and less snow...YIPPEE!!!  We thought we'd better do our last snow blog before the snow is all gone!!!

Snow removal  from roofs is a big thing here...not because the roofs will cave in but because it might fall off onto pedestrians.  A lady was actually killed here a few weeks ago by falling snow so buildings contract for snow removal.  We looked out of our bedroom window just as we were leaving to go out to see some guys removing snow.  We were so fascinated that we stood and watched them for 30 minutes.

Here's the office building across from us covered in snow!

Close up of icicles!  You can see how those could cause serious injury if they fell on you!

Here's a man in action (not even roped up) creating beautiful snow waterfalls for our viewing!

This printed again & I don't know how to delete it.  All my instructions are in Finnish!

Close up..only this guy is smart enough to rope up!!!

Even snow and cold doesn't stop the rug beaters!

A car parked in front of our apartment...glad we have underground parking!

Our sidewalks were kept  cleared but the street was a different matter.  Piles of 

snow were everywhere waiting to be scooped up and taken to the sea.

About one mile away the trucks are continually dumping snow and  ice.

This boat makes great big circles to keep the snow and ice moving away from the dump zone.

Even in winter some people still use bike transportation but with studded bike tires.

The Young Single Adults had an ice skating Family Home Evening at a rink that is right in the center of Helsinki, next to the train station.   Paul & Bev did NOT skate!!!

These guys planned our Scavenger Hunt at Stockmanns Department Store so we

 could have a fun but warm activity!

And the winners are....   (The guy in the back is leaving for his mission to Madrid and the girl in the white coat with red scarf just got her call to Sweden)

We did some fun sledding at a park right near the center!

It is a great sledding hill ~not too steep but a very long ride!!! 
Those buildings in the background are part of Embassy Row!

The mission bought us a new couch and chairs that look much better 

than our old one so you can see we are quite comfortable!!!

Well, spring is coming and we will enjoy sunnier skies and warmer temperatures!