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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
Friday, May 28, 2010
Our new aquistion
A few weeks ago we came the conclusion that its a little difficult to get into Finnish homes. It is nothing personal, it is just not common in the culture to invite people over the first time you meet them. This posed a problem because our original idea was to collect photos of nostalgic objects from both Finns and non-Finns alike. We modified our approach and came up with a much better idea. Rather than take photos, we would collect drawings. We plan on mounting the drawings, along with other material into this boat that was recently donated to us. We have a lot of work ahead of us to prepare the boat because we want to preserve the outside just as it is. Look forward to the 12th of June when we set the boat out into the Syvärauma bay.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Considering last week had record high temperatures in Finland, it is amazing we got anything done! Here are a few highlights:
Open Studio
A number of locals and tourists stopped by last Wednesday and Thursday to draw us pictures of nostalgic mementos. For those of you who can, please stop by next week at the same time to participate.
We are really excited to announce that all the drawings we collect will be transferred on to a boat for a final event before we leave.
Saga
On Friday, we met up with our new friend Tiina who works at an independent living complex for retirees. She knew we were looking for people who speak the Rauma dialect and introduced us to Antero. All three of us, with varying levels of Finnish proficiency (fluent, satisfactory, and nil) had no idea what he was saying. We have yet to ask our Rauma Dialect expert, but we are excited to hear his feedback.
The Best Bike Ride....So Far
We heard that on Sunday Rauma would start a week of colder weather, so we decided to take advantage of the final day of heat and took a bike ride. Our method to decide where to go was reduced to looking at the map and finding the coolest looking place. So, we ended up biking to Pyytjärvi. We had such large smiles on our faces, that the locals were uncharacteristically compelled to say "hello" or give us a smile in return.
Updated Google map: Use the link below to see the location of our open studio and Pyytjärvi
View Rauma Finland Blog in a larger map
Open Studio
A number of locals and tourists stopped by last Wednesday and Thursday to draw us pictures of nostalgic mementos. For those of you who can, please stop by next week at the same time to participate.
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
We are really excited to announce that all the drawings we collect will be transferred on to a boat for a final event before we leave.
Saga
On Friday, we met up with our new friend Tiina who works at an independent living complex for retirees. She knew we were looking for people who speak the Rauma dialect and introduced us to Antero. All three of us, with varying levels of Finnish proficiency (fluent, satisfactory, and nil) had no idea what he was saying. We have yet to ask our Rauma Dialect expert, but we are excited to hear his feedback.
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| From Rauma Blog |
The Best Bike Ride....So Far
We heard that on Sunday Rauma would start a week of colder weather, so we decided to take advantage of the final day of heat and took a bike ride. Our method to decide where to go was reduced to looking at the map and finding the coolest looking place. So, we ended up biking to Pyytjärvi. We had such large smiles on our faces, that the locals were uncharacteristically compelled to say "hello" or give us a smile in return.
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
Updated Google map: Use the link below to see the location of our open studio and Pyytjärvi
View Rauma Finland Blog in a larger map
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The Office of International Cooperation is Open for Business
Kauppakatu 26
Rauma, Finland
19. – 20.5. klo 15.00 – 19.00 (3 to 7pm)
26. – 27.5. klo 15.00 – 19.00 (3 to 7pm)
Rauma, Finland
19. – 20.5. klo 15.00 – 19.00 (3 to 7pm)
26. – 27.5. klo 15.00 – 19.00 (3 to 7pm)
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
‘Lauaikast Reissu’ – ‘Hyvaa Matkaa’- ‘Safe Journey’
As soon as we stepped off the bus on Monday(the 4th) from Helsinki, Hannele, the residency director, picked us up and drove us to Syvarauman Elementary School where we met Markku (a member of the Nortamo Seor language club) Juha (the instructor) and the children. This was our first opportunity meet all the participants, both young and old, for Echo, the Rauma Language/Dialect Project.
Upon arrival we were escorted to the inner sanctum of the school- the teacher's lounge- and were introduced to the faculty. Remembering as small children what it was like to look at the door of the teacher's lounge, there was a slight air of intimidation before entering. 'What do they do in there? What do they talk about? Are there cookies?' Well, we can safely confirm, perhaps on an international scale, that teachers do in fact 'lounge' and the topic of conversation tends to rotate around troubled children or what happened or will happen during the weekend depending on the day of the week. Also, there ARE cookies, lots of them, and coffee too.
Then the five adults, Ron, Mackenzie, Hannele, Markku, Juha, and Hannele, all headed to class. As we entered the building, we hung our coats in the hall, and entered the classroom. With a mixture of Finnish and English we introduced ourselves and tried to explain the project to the sixth graders. The process seemed simple enough, but was complicated as things often are by language barriers. The children would listen to Markku tell a story from his childhood in the Rauma Language and also read from the famous book written by H.J. Nortamo, which solidified the Rauma dialect and illustrate the stories.
In general, their English level was exceptional and they seemed pretty game to try entire the process. We set a date for that Friday to meet up for the first lesson.
From Rauma Blog
From Rauma Blog
From Rauma Blog
From Rauma Blog
From Rauma Blog
Small sample of Markku's story
Friday, May 7, 2010
Happy Vappu!
Last weekend we went to Helsinki to meet with two more participants for Repositioning Nostalgia and, of course, to experience Vappu. Although Mackenzie has had a chance to see this all-important Finnish graduation celebration, it was actually much more pleasurable the second time around. The utter enjoyment was partly due to staying with her former host family, the Arjanne’s, who live right in the center of town. This meant that we did not have to drive anywhere, an incredibly valuable luxury, and could easily escape the madness with a few quick retreating turns back to the apartment.
Friday and Saturday included fairly consistent alcohol consumption, not to any embarrassing excess, but enough to accompany the incredible amount of food that Mackenzie’s former host mother dished out as well as the highly sociable party we attended on Friday night.
On Sunday, we traveled to East Helsinki to meet with a man from India and over to West Helsinki to meet with a woman from Kenya. Great interviews and an all around good time.
From Rauma Blog
From Rauma Blog
From Rauma Blog
From Rauma Blog
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Our first participant…
The Sunday before last, 25th of April, we visited the old Rauma church, which was built in the late 15th century, and happened to meet our first participant by chance. He introduced himself as an engineer from France working on the new nuclear power plant just north of Rauma. We can't exactly remember how the conversation started, but we were admiring a particularly beautiful wall on an annex building and he happened to join our conversation.
We asked him if he might like to participate in our project about nostalgic objects by sharing something he had brought from France. He invited us to his apartment and offered a few postcards that he was willing to part with since he was returning to home for a vacation and did not need them. Over some tea we learned that in fact he was from the Congo and immigrated to France to escape the poor economic situation. He knew that by leaving home he would have more opportunity, but also greater responsibility. His story began to detail a clear division of his salary, fifty percent went back to France and his family, twenty-five percent to a home in the Congo, and finally the last twenty-five percent towards medical supplies for his village. He told us that at least once a year he makes a visit discretely home, not wanting to upstage the effort, or lack of effort, of the politicians. He pulled out a small handheld camera and narrated about 30-minutes of video footage, which included visits to local hospitals to hand out clean water.
We had no idea that what started out as simple postcards from home turned into a multimedia humanitarian presentation brought from hundreds of miles away.
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| From Rauma Blog |
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