Finland Journal
After being in Finland for 3 months now, I have really gotten used to the new lifestyle here. The Sotkamo area is a very active town with people constantly working out for many different sports. It is not uncommon to wake up at midnight and hear the click, click, click of someone polewalking down the road! Quite recently they have also made a 2.5k loop out of old snow they had saved in a giant pile from last year. The loop covers the paved rollerski loop so rollerskiing for this year, is a thing of the past. The underground ski tunnel, which is 1k long, has the doors opened up at the end of it and allows access to the outside loop.
There are some of the worlds best skiers here now too. They come here for about a month to get on this early season snow. There are a couple Russian teams here, I see them almost everyday skiing outside on the loop. I have seen them doing drills, things that I have done since I started skiing. It was really interesting to see that the worlds best still need to do these basic drills also. The other people who come here to ski are from Sweden, Canada, some Norwegians, and I think I have seen some French ski clubs here too. I have been told many more will come from different countries also.
The terrain here is very hilly, almost small mountain sized hills that cover as far as one can see from the top of a hill. There are ski trails and hiking trails everywhere, in fact there is one trail called the UKK that goes all the way up Finland and is part of the trail system here. When the real snow comes, which can be anywhere from late November to early January, there will be around 150k of trail, but since it is not lighted a headlamp is necessary as the sun will set before school even gets out.
The school here in the area is a sports school that also has an IB program for foreign students. The sports schools really offer athletes an opportunity to excel in their sports as they allow time for training most morning and all evenings. The IB program allows students from any country who have passed an English test to come and study here.
