leijonat!

that's our hockey team, the finnish lions.

all the boys at school have gotten their awkwardly short summer hair cuts, but it's still hockey season in Finland. walking Helsinki's main streets you can't miss the men with full Suomi facepaint and empty beers, the Leijonat jerseys, the little kids wearing massive blue and white wigs. world cup fever is obviously running high.

my friend Ida and I took her little brother and his friend out on tuesday for three world cup games and a lot of fried food. the ticket scalpers reckoned they were our boyfriends. we tried our best to look taller and bossier.
 

the boys were actually more interested in the cheerleaders than the hockeyplaying. i, however, bit all my fingernails off with nerves during the first game (canada v. belarus). we sat next to a small but very active french cheering section during the slovakia-france game, all wearing interesting rooster hats and singing "allez les bleus, allez!" at too-regular intervals. it was actually slovakia's jerseys that were blue though...

the finns thought this guy was hilarious.

this is how much people care about slovakia...

 there was even more french singing during the evening's usa-switzerland game...switzerland is a neutral country, but the fans were feeling pretty militant. the finnish audience was also rooting for switzerland, because team suomi was slaughtered by the americans last sunday. pretty sure the only person in the arena chanting "USA, USA!" was the drunk guy in the feathered pink cowboy hat. they didn't need a cheering section though. USA 5, SUI 2.

the final outcomes of the games were predictable - the usa and canada have very strong teams, and we all knew the french ate too much cheese and baguette to be any good at hockey. but all the teams put up a good fight. made for interesting watching. we left the arena around 10 pm, exhausted, our bags full of hockey freebies.

the final is on sunday. if finland is playing...well, it's going to get crazy.