Lighting up the winter

There was snow on the ground this morning, and it glistened under the sun. People had to carefully lift and plant one foot after the other so as not to slip.

Tomorrow is Finland's independence day. I hope to wake up on time for the festivities. At the parade in Keskustori (the city center), there will be over a thousand soldiers, along with helicopters, jet fighters and tanks. For more information on Finland's Independence, visit: http://www.finnguide.fi/calendar/calendarevents.asp?month=12&p=79

About the event, one student wrote on Facebook:

"I've never understood the need for showcasing military. They even ran over and killed one veteran during a parade a couple of years ago. Now that is irony. The whole damn holy war history, it has soon been 70 years and we STILL cling on the 'glorious' war. The irony with independence is that we have Lenin to thank for the whole independence. Vast majority of Finns didn't even consider indepence before Russian empire fell. Be it Soviet Russia tactics, they still were the first to regognize it. There wasn't any kind of army in Finland when it was declared independent, iif you don't count the Russian garrison, ~70 000 mostly non-russians."

It's also pikkujoulu (pre-christmas party) season, where people get together to drink glögi and eat pastries and traditional dishes. A Finnish girl that I met in the cafeteria told me many young people see it as a reason to get drunk.

Since I'm in a Shel Silverstein kind of mood:

I’m making a list

I’m making a list of the things I must say for politeness,
And goodness and kindness and gentleness, sweetness and rightness:
Hello
Pardon me
How are you
Excuse me
Bless you
May I?
Thank you
Goodbye
If you know some that I forgot,
Please stick them into your eye!"