March 31, 2012

I was in Eugene for a weekend seminar on filmmaking. Guest after guest would present from morning until night, and the attendees didn't have much free time. I heard about some people sneaking away at night, and I began to resent being obliged to stay put at the residence. My friend's birthday was that night in Portland, and I was really considering it. She gave me directions how to get to her place. "Once in Portland, take a taxi from a really nice old guy who will charge a very little amount. Arrive at the metro stop. Take the metro, and then another metro, and then arrive at my house." This is my chance, I thought. I'm really not enjoying myself here. Spending full days listening to similar different theories and experiences, and from people who think so highly of themselves, without even asking our "humble student" opinions. This is my chance to do something exciting and fun this weekend. I walked outside of the residence, onto the flat, vast road, I saw a hat-wearing, briefcase holding man in a very old, fancy suit, walking toward a spiral case of stairs. Out of my conscious, I shouted something like "Hey!" He didn't turn back, and I felt embarrassed, so I tried to get to the nearest corner I could find. As the man approached the stairs, he faced me and took off his hat. The look was direct and questioning. "I need to get to Portland to take a taxi from this great old --" "He is gone," the man interrupted. "Just a few months ago, he left to New Jersey." My insides dropped. "But I need to go to Portland and take his taxi and get to my friend's party," I said sincerely. The man answered, "I take people on sunset drives, and anyway I can charge you 10 dollars. Actually I can charge you nothing." I was skeptical, but I thought: this must be a part of my adventure. I could think of all the people who would advise me not to travel with a stranger. But I took them out of my head. As we walked back to the man's car, I observed that without a hat he looked much younger. And under his large suit, he was quite healthy looking. I saw a friend in the distance and immediately motioned him over, "Hey! Come to Portland with me! It's a free trip, and we're going to a party!" Confused by the sudden demand, he carefully walked toward us. Another friend from behind him came into view, and without thinking, I invited her along as well. I turned to our driver, who bore a blank expression. He led to his vehicle -- fancy that; he is a taxi driver, I thought, reassured in a way. He unlocked the doors, and the the three of us students, delirious and bored, entered. I don't remember what was said in the beginning of the drive, or what it felt like in the taxi. But along the long, plain road to Portland, we began to see large animals in the foggy distance, running toward us. As they neared, we could see and feel the power of a herd of majestic and silky horses gallop past the car, in the opposite direction. "Hand me my camera!" I called to my friend. But we had all forgotten to bring our cameras. The driver smiled, but he didn't seem surprised. The sunset was beautiful on the world's canvas. After the horses were gone, we saw a few people riding on bicycles or walking past. Nobody was driving on the other lane. Actually, we were the only car on the road. The next moment I can remember was driving (can I say that?) through a deep lake. The driver made a funny and ironic statement about driving on water. We smiled, and remained silent. "By the way, I should give you my business card," the man said, turning to me. "I could take you guys back to Eugene tomorrow." I nodded. "That would be great." But I just realized that I had forgotten my money and mobile phone. Before, I hadn't needed any of that. We were entering a city that requires money and access to communication. Maybe we should just stay for a few hours, and go back with him, I wondered, but not for long. Soon, we were in Portland. I was handed a business card, and we thanked the man, walked out of his car, and ventured for the metro stop.

(dream)

Leaving and entering

Pretty great day. I'm almost finished with an essay on immigration to Finland. Uz and I went to Bono's farewell party at Cafe Europa, deep talking over sweet sangria. For dinner, I had lasagne with Uz and Flo, and was pleasantly interrupted by a Skype call from Alison and Jack! Temperature has been above 0, but they predict snowfall this weekend.

Disconnect and Connect

Here I am, one week later, at a time when days feel like weeks. Lately I've been trying to get out of my room as much as possible.

Some highlights:

• I visited a Sammon Lukio (a Finnish high school) for the second time, and was asked questions by students in two English classes like why did you move to Finland, what do you think about Finnish guys and what kind of food do you eat in Hawaii. An English teacher arranged for my American friend and I to sit in on a radio class and band class. The school has a strong media program, and students who complete it are basically prepared to enter the workforce. In the band class, I was impressed by the comfortable level of interaction between students and teachers. Finnish high school students have chosen to be there rather than at a vocational school, and they have relative independence to choose their course schedule and assessment. At the end of the day, S and I spoke with the English teacher about the values and concepts of Finnish high school system. Here's an interesting article about its success: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/ and a video Uz linked: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qlOfZL_J5f
• I saw the Slovakian movie Gypsy, "the story of Adam, a boy who, after the death of his father, struggles to cross the boundaries of his settlement and tries to change his siblings’ lives. He finds himself in a conflict with racial, social, and cultural prejudice and the unwritten laws of his own Roma community." More info: http://www.scanorama.lt/en/%C4%8Digonas
• I saw another Slovakian movie House, "a rare glimpse of life in rural, post-Soviet Eastern Europe, and it makes subtle comments about the unfamiliar quandaries of property ownership and the emergence of a new middle class in that part of the world." More info: http://www.denverfilm.org/filmcenter/detail.aspx?id=24339
• Live rock performance at Jack the Rooster
• Live performance of Burning Hearts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXOcOUQIRrk) and Avasaxa at Doris
• (Awesome!) live performance of Stringpuree (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vnxu9qFwws) at Telakka
• 5 euro BBQ burger, one of the best I've ever had
• Snow is melting away. . .
• School is mostly a highlight

I'm happy!

More Gray and Punk Syndrome

I wonder when I will wake up to spring. This week's highs are around 4 degrees in Tampere (without sun), compared with 11 degrees in Stockholm (with sun). New York city is looking pretty warm -- around 25 degrees. I'm hoping it won't get much hotter during the summer.

Doc Lounge screened Kovasikajuttu: The Punk Syndrome this evening. The documentary, featuring a punk band called Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, was a hit at the Tampere Film Festival. This evening, it attracted a full audience -- with some 180 tickets sold.

There are so many more things I want to learn about Finland and Finnish culture. Well, I still have two more months...

Holi: A Colorful Day for Tampere

On Saturday afternoon, people celebrated Holi, the Indian spring festival (also known as Festival of Colors), in Tampere's central square. The weather was quite gray and drab, but the mood grew with upbeat, world music and people and colorful paint.



Usually Holi is celebrated under the sun, with flowers and grass. In Finland, people threw snowballs instead of water.



People made signs reading "Hello" in various languages.



Federiko in the beginning. By the time we left, his entire face was covered.



We didn't plan on getting painted.



I guess she didn't either.



Cute kid







(Photos taken by Uzair and I)

The event was called "Holi for Equality," in an effort to provide a platform for intercultural interaction. From the event's Facebook page:

During this festival of Holi, one is smeared and dabbed with plethora of colors which makes it impossible to distinguish one by skin color, religion, country, gender, or belief. So, we have come up with this innovative idea of celebrating Holi to promote a common multicultural platform.

I think it was a great success!

More information: http://www.holifestival.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

A video from last year's Holi celebration in Eugene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gRmpSnfrmI

In the evening, we headed to O'Connels in celebration of St. Patrick's day. We waited for nearly 30 minutes in the queue (just wanted to try the word out), and then entered the noisy, crowded pub with a live band and lots of green decorations. We met up with friends from Lapinkaari, who were hanging out at one side of a side room, opposite groups of Finnish people. Uz, Flo and I sat down on a couch, and a Finnish student began to speak with us. Topics included where we were from, where he has been, why we came to Finland, changes in the Nordic welfare state and the Finnish public media system versus America's commercial broadcasting system. I wasn't expecting to have such an interesting conversation at a pub on Saturday night.

Sunday has been mostly a reading day. I'm anticipating a super busy week ahead!

Finnish and Russian Studies

(Disclaimer: I'm really tired, so this post might read confusing and tedious.)

It's been a great day.

First lecture: Folk music and dance in Finland. We got to listen to songs (calls and squeals, juoigos, lamentation and Kalevala melody), play instruments (kantele, bowed harp, among others) and sing songs. The teacher was very engaging and humorous.

Second lecture: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in Soviet and Russian Films of the 20th century.

Our Latvian professor began with Russian cinema that constructed womanhood through images that appealed to audiences at the time. In Baby Ryazanskie, we observe the patriarchal gender power relations in a rural home, while faced with psychologically nuanced representations of relationships and characters. Bed and Sofa focuses on a married woman who initially feels like a "bird in a cage." She does all the work, and doesn't get any love or attention. At the end, she leaves the house, free and independent. Alone is one of the first films to use sound. It is about an urbanite Soviet woman who is going to be a teacher. Images of consumerism are repeated and associated with joy, pleasure, happiness, privateness and hope for the future. This film marked the beginning of female economic migration.

Then we moved onto racial politics and how cinema made race and sex issues seem to not exist. Two questions posed were: What are the limits placed on (racial/gender) identity by iconography, narrative patterns, genres and target audience? and How cinematic organization of racial representations in binary terms reduces the complexity of race relations?" Our teacher presented Arapchonok (meaning "black boy" in Russian), who is a figure of "filial subordination and infinite growth." This image of a boy in colonial literature has been a symbol of eternal growth, but never reaching full development. European literature added to the image of Africa as an uninhabitable place, full of cannibals and savages (see: Tarzan and works of Jules Verne). During the 1920s, lots of movies were bought from Hollywood, and Russian cinema came out with cheap blockbusters of their own. Red Devils was Russia's first action movie, and it featured brother and sister protagonists with an African accomplice. He was shown as a soldier, a brave guy, who from time to time would use his skin color to scare people. In 1936, the movie Circus came out, and was an instant hit -- even Stalin loved it. The story is about an American woman who flees to Russia to hide/protect her mulatto son. She is the icon of femininity, and Russia is shown to love all kinds of people, as the nation adopts all people, no matter what race. Our professor pointed out the film's support for political paternalism and the reproductive agenda at the time. It came out in the same year abortions were banned. Maksimka (1953) is about an African boy on a slave ship who is rescued by Russian imperials. At the time, globality was becoming a part of Russian nationalism. Interest in Africa, Oceania and other parts of the world was heightened. The colonial thinking at the time, our professor said, was that if you help others, you help yourself. The boy is shown as taken from the "wild, pagan place" that is pre-lingual. He is objectified in camera shots, and later taught Russian words and given a Christian name: Maksimka. Many young children in Russia grew up with this kind of iconization/imagination produced in cinema.

Things started to change in the end of the 1950s. The 6th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow in 1957, and drew in tens of thousands of foreign students. "Moscow was open to the world and the world opened Moscow" (professor). There was art and expression and protests, and anti-colonial movements were held. Our professor had little time to wrap up, so she left us with two movies that, while "marginal and without much artistic quality," were unique and a kind of cultural resistance: The Black Sun and Chronicals of Night. When I find out more about the plots, I'll update this blog post.

I was surprised to find out that there haven't been any African directors in Russia. With such obviously racist commercials and overtones in cinema, along with people acting like racial/gender issues don't exist, it seems like a good idea to produce popular African-directed/centered films and distribute them in Russia. Just like women were able to improve their situation by writing and directing films.

Okay, I need to stop here. I can't really think straight since I'm so tired. And I have an early class tomorrow.

Wow, really a great day.

When in Finland (take a dip in the frozen lake!)

The snow is melting, leaving sidewalks with patches of slush and littered with tiny stones.

My bus pass ran out of credit, so I've been walking everywhere. I remember my first weeks in Finland, strolling around the city, noticing how quiet and calm the atmosphere felt. Cars weren't honking and people weren't talking loudly. After a few months, I realize that respecting personal space and speaking only when necessary are traditional Finnish values. Culture shock has gradually led to understanding and even appreciation.

At 5 p.m., Shiz and I went to the nearby public sauna (Rauhaniemi, built in 1929). There, we changed out of sweatpants, boots and coats, and into bathing suits and rubber slippers. We rinsed off, and then walked quickly to the sauna. The room was much larger than the one in Lapinkaari, and it smelled of warm wood and sweat. One woman threw water on the rocks, which produced a low hiss and heated up the room to over 100 degrees Celsius. There were mostly adults and some college students. People occasionally exchanged glances and words. I felt so warm and relaxed, open and released. Some 15 minutes later, when our breathing shortened and water ran low, we walked outside, the cold, fresh air filling our lungs. We drank some water and proceeded toward the lake, where stairs led into a hole in the ice. Two women in front swam for a few seconds with such ease, but we just managed to put our feet in. By the second and third times, we spent a whole five or six seconds in such biting, freezing water up to our shoulders. And then a final cycle of shower, sauna, lake, shower. At 7:30 we were done. I was tired but felt deeply refreshed and satisfied.

I'll try to take some updated pictures of the sauna and post.

Here are some from before:



(at night during December)



(midday during August)



(midday during the August)

At night, we ate fried rice and then watched "Children of Heaven" on Uz's laptop. It was a great film featuring two young siblings, with a simple story, honest scenes, strong characters and heartwarming messages.

A great day, and looking forward for more to come!

p.s.: I forgot to mention that I saw the northern lights from Tampere on Wednesday. They were pretty dim, dancing green lights.

Midweek Musings

I was flipping through a notebook I kept in Germany last December, and came across this entry:

It's dark at 9 p.m. and I'm on the bus
Burger King on the left
I feel the most sober sense of solitude
Wheels turning on old cement
Dim blue light inside
Only road ahead, no longer anything
to my right or left
I can breathe, and nobody feels it
I am traveling alone
and could do it for days
But once in a while I would like
to share this with a friend

What is it really to be alone and to feel alone? Accelerated thoughts about this tend to come up on long bus rides, or randomly in the middle of the night.

Friends and people around have been constant sources of inspiration and happiness.

Sometimes in a group I lose myself. Dynamics of the relationship -- like empathy, sharing, motivation, tension, disagreements, become more focal.

"Being alone" has given me space to collect my thoughts and develop my ideas. But it also has led me into deep, abstract areas without exits.

I end up wondering whether we are having false feelings of loneliness or false feelings of togetherness.

Some friends have expressed the belief that we are all alone at the core. Others talk about humanity as one, with each person making up part of the larger picture. Are we all just saying the same thing, but in different words and with different focuses?

For some reason, I keep going back to what a shopkeeper in Tzfat told me, "The most important thing is that we breathe. Everything else is just extra."

Break highlights

How to put the last half of the break into words?

maybe: awesome student films, sunshine, temperature rising, little sleep, tired eyes, talented people, looking at Shizuka's face, festival seminars, flower print, ice cream in the morning, walking because no bus card, poetry, slushy snow, lounging (but not much of it), internationals, talking about "stuff," gender roles confirmed or rejected, putting off laundry, what comes first: messy room or messy mind?

I get all twisted up thinking about leaving Tampere.

Tampere Film Festival Begins

Tonight was the opening party for the 42nd Tampere Film Festival, which will continue to host international and national films until March 11th. Uz, Flo, Shiz and I had some interesting encounters and conversations with people involved in documentary and with the festival. The live band was awesome, and I'll link them up as soon as I figure out who they are. The last song was done in Sami style, using earthy, unfamiliar (to me) noises.

This weekend is looking a lot busier since I just found out I have a position as a festival volunteer. I'm so so so so so excited. Also a bit anxious. Lots of things on my mind. One Finnish dancer that we met felt my back and said that I was tense.

My cheesy response to why I stress out is: I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. Maybe I associate a relaxed attitude with idleness and apathy. Just as many good documentaries have tension, I see my tension as leading to improvement or some kind of resolution. Of course, if I had the choice, everyone would be content and at ease and satisfied all the time. But anyway... I guess I can focus on getting there myself.

My Acting Debut...

I would say that my comfort zone is the observer, someone behind the camera. But this morning, I sat in front of that foreign, digital object, surrounded by young film school students. A few weeks prior, I got an e-mail message looking for international people ("The most important thing is that you DON'T look typical finnish person!") to be a part of an advertisement/short movie about tuberculosis. I sent a message back, not thinking much about it. In Tampere, there were a few mornings when I spit out blood. People joked about me having tuberculosis, but I didn't actually know about that disease.

Apparently, this project is a collaboration of TAMK university students with Pirkanmaa hospital district and tuberculosis association in Finland. The objective is to raise awareness about the disease among Finns and immigrants living in Finland. The producer told me that not many immigrants agreed to participate because the issue is taboo in their countries (it is associated with poverty and drug-use).

Uz came with me for moral support, and ended up being in the shot as well. We were in Cafe Europa, a very trendy spot with old furniture and other vintage decorations. I sat on a couch, and I had one action and one line. There were several takes, and after an hour we were free to go. It was nerve-racking, thrilling, exciting, you name it! Anyway, after I joked around with Uz about my introduction into fame.

Many in Lapinkaari left for Lapland today! They'll be there for the whole week. Hopefully I can go next weekend, or soon after. I'm afraid it will be too late to see the northern lights, but that's all right. This week is definitely a good one to be in Tampere.

Will update!

Nearing the new season (with pics and video)

The sun brought out the most beautiful, bold colors today.

People are starting to talk about how quickly time flew and how few months we have left together. It's contagious and makes me sentimental. I just try not to focus on that. Anyway, I bought a map of Finland (Suomi) from the Red Cross (Punainen Risti). It's taped to my wall with green stickers on the places I have been to and yellow stickers on places I must visit. The best time to travel is during the spring and summer, but I should go to Lapland in the winter to catch the northern lights and avoid mosquitoes and swamps.

Uzair and I have been meeting lots of people in cafes and bars and outdoors. A common question we ask is: "What is your favorite part and least favorite part of Finland?" National consensus seems to find sauna as the best cultural activity. As for the least favorite, some people have mentioned the quiet, reserved social behavior. One economics student was most critical of Finland's climate policy.

Here are some highlights from the week:

(Sunday, Feb. 26: Bus to Pyynikki and trek to Pispala)



Pyynikki tower, the beginning of our trek



Everybody gets munkki and kahvia at the bottom of the tower



View of Tampere from the top of Pyynikki



I still haven't figured out how buses can operate in this condition



Many families and individuals spend their weekends outdoors



Trekking past Pyynikki and toward Pispala



Approaching Pispala, a city district 2.5 km from Tampere's city center. It is one of most beautiful residential neighborhoods in Tampere.



Some houses in Pispala





One house really caught our attention



We walked inside to find a community house, where local artists and community members share art, make art, do meditation, converse, play with toys and eat, among other things. The art house is funded by the government.



One of the members of the art house said that they are trying to encourage people to play with toys and find ways to communicate through them.



There were decorations galore. I definitely need to go back for more...







The sun began to set as we walk back to the city center.



(Monday, Feb. 27: Walk on Nasijarvi Lake)



Walking to the lake



Walking on the lake



Cruisin'





It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the lighthouse



During the day, hot chocolate, coffee, sausages and munkki are sold at the lighthouse



We approached some peatchy areas, but were assured it was safe to walk on



Frozen lake, a desert of snow



To view a news report that some friends did, click here.