Family Travel

They're married! Turns out a Finnish wedding is very much like an American wedding. The bride wears white, they play 'Here Comes the Bride', and there's plenty of food and dancing at the reception. The ceremony was at a beautiful brick church at 5:00. Then the bride and groom were driven away in a Jaguar as church bells pealed and the guests moved on to the reception hall. The biggest difference was how long the reception goes on. First awaiting the arrival of the couple in the parking lot before entering the hall. Then the receiving line, 150 guests, one at a time. Then the photo slide show, narrated one picture at a time. Then dismissal one table at a time to the buffet line (Great Finnish food, prepared by Henna's mom, a cafe owner/caterer). Then a music performance, etc. etc, all the usual wedding stuff, but with 20-40 minute breaks between each activity. At an American wedding, the guests would drift away with every downtime, certainly after a couple of hours. But here everyone stayed until 1:30 in the morning, even danced every dance. And the most glaring difference was the competitiveness to catch the garter toss - they actually want it! Nick was about tackled in the stampede to catch it! So alas not the next to get married. But it's a definite glimpse into authentic Finnish culture. The people have been absolutely wonderful, and we exchanged email addresses with all our new friends in hopes of visiting the U.S. someday. Especially Jarno's parents have welcomed us like family. It's so neat to be included in such a special occasion.

We made it! The flight was uneventful (with the exception of the girl behind us puking all the way from London to Helsinki - nothing contagious I hope), but we were nearly late for our connection at Heathrow, arriving just as they began boarding, then spent over an hour waiting on the tarmac for a dead plane to be towed off the runway. Arrived in Helsinki only an hour late (6:30pm), and Jarno picked us up at the airport and took us to his fiance's grandparents mökki (cabin) on a lake deep in the woods (both of which Finland has plenty of, as seen from the plane!). We enjoyed a campfire cookout, dip in the lake, and traditional Finnish sauna, in the waning dusk from 8:30 - 11pm. Fell asleep propmtly in the car for the ride to his parents farm, and then happily fell into bed once here.

Today we are exploring the farm and helping with wedding preparations. We picked wildflowers from the field, berries from the orchard, folded napkins, tied ribbons, etc with Jarno, his parents, fiance Henna, and a couple other guests from Germany who were also international students at WSU. It is so special to be included in such a neat and intimate cultural experience as a wedding! Janelle has also made fast friends with Jarno's 7 year old nephew, Arttu, teaching each other vocabulary words. We even got to watch a solar eclipse, reminiscent of the first night Jarno spent with our family watching a meteor shower in the driveway Can't wait for the wedding tomorrow, will write a full report then. Näkemiin!