lappi

that's Lapland.

the 2 to 1 ratio of reindeer to inhabitants in the north-most part of Finland creates the "lapland silence"... travelling there with 150 other exchange students meant that I didn't experience any such silence. the whole trip was loud.

sixteen hours on a bus that smelled like tuna fish and lack of sleep...the australians got on the bus at 1 am and held a two-hour singalong to celebrate how awake they were. when the buses finally arrived in muonio, the excitement and noise were at a fever-pitch.

then we went sledding/skiing, which was loud with the sound of breaking bones. people who have never seen snow before have difficulties balancing on it, and six exchange students ended up at the hospital.

sauna time involved a lot of shrieking and swearing. my friends and i threw snowballs back into the sauna to drive the other girls out of the best bench spots. this worked well until we became the new targets.

the next morning's reindeer-farm presentation was loud with snores. we only woke from our stupor when the translator told us that until recently, reindeer herders castrated reindeer with their teeth.

our "cultural presentation" night naturally involved a booming stereo system. all the kids from the spanish-speaking countries danced like professionals, then the canadians presented a choreographed version of "Baby" that involved pretending to throw a baby. based on applause, the cultural lesson here is that hip gyration beats wordplay.

the husky farm was understandably loud in more than one way - even the frozenness of the ground couldn't lessen the odor of dog-piss, 300 strong, and the dogs only stopped howling when they were pulling the sledges. the puppies were ridiculously cute though.

ice sculpting = roaring chain saws. we were stuck with regular saws for "safety reasons"... they sure didn't look all that safe, and hardly made dents in the ice. the chainsaw man ended up having to stomp up and down the row of ice blocks carving whatever we demanded (my group fancied a giant ice cube, which is more difficult than you'd think when you start with a cylinder).

the santa claus village in Rovaniemi jingled with silver bells and profiteering. despite being a blatant tourist trap (santaland is basically an expensive post office, a santa-greeting platform and then dozens of overpriced shops), it was sort of magical. the snow was falling lightly and christmas carols were being piped from every lamppost and everyone was running around with shopping bags, grinning.

then the bus motors rumbled once again for a boisterous ride home.

 i did not end up sitting on santa's lap and telling him what I wanted for christmas.
that's alright. i already have all i need. :)