Staying Grounded on Foreign Soil

Living in Finland has been a huge change for me and sometimes it’s hard to shake the feeling of being a fish out of water. I’ve lived in California my whole life until this point, always within comfortable proximity to a wonderful network of friends and family. Thankfully technology makes it possible to stay in contact with people back home and I’m living with some Cal Poly students, which keeps things a little more familiar.  However, life in Finland is anything but normal.

The one glaring difference is the language barrier. We’re learning Finnish slowly and most people speak some English but many people are shy to use it.  This hesitance in combination with not having classes with any Finnish students makes it more of a challenge to make new friends.   We go to school with many nice people who talk to us but being a small pack of exchange students makes it hard to integrate with the student body. However, there are student events that help us maintain relationships and build new ones.   The friends we have introduce us to more of their friends and it’s easy to get along with people once they get past their nervousness about speaking English.  I’ve never been the kind of person to be homesick but knowing all my friends at Cal Poly are excited to be returning to San Luis Obispo for school this week makes me a little nostalgic.

Another big challenge I face here personally is the lack of routine.  I don’t understand why I have a hard time embracing the spontaneity of our schedule; at home I often feel bound by my packed agenda.  Coming here has made me realize how much I rely on a rhythm of productivity that I can pace throughout the week.  Our studies in Finland are constantly changing, which is great because we are always doing something fun and different. We go on many field trips, have planned work experience days and class meetings are scheduled around the assortment of activities in our program.  Though we get a schedule every week, we often don’t know exactly what a class outing or workday will entail.  I did not realize how neurotic I am about charting my day until now and I’m floored!  I like to consider myself a laid back person who has no problem going with the flow but I’m starting to realize that might not be the whole truth; I rely on a certain level of control.   Another thing I’ve learned about myself; having dirty feet (or dirty floor) drives me up the wall.  I think I’m turning into my Mom.

Okay, I’m done whining for now. Obviously I didn’t come to Finland because I want to live like I have my whole life in California.  This is a life changing experience and I promise I’m embracing it; the good and the bad and the strange alike. I’ve been doing a few different things to maintain a level of comfort as well as stabilizing sense of self; exercising, cooking and expressing. (Now I know I’m turning into my Mom. Yes, it’s a good thing).  All three things they are all connected in one way or another but two of these things are inseparable to me; cooking and exercise.  Eating is probably one of my favorite things to do in the whole wide world.  I heard before traveling that Finland eats a lot of meat and potatoes.  This is true. I’ve also probably never eaten so much cheese in my life.  To combat the amazingly cheap but chalorically dangerous school lunches, I’ve been trying to cook healthier at home while still satisfying my hunger.   Our kitchen is limited in pots, pans, tupperware, and I have a budget to keep. Solution? The one pot meal.  This is something I love doing at school when I want to have something warm on hand for a few days that has everything I need; carbs, protein and veggies.  Most recently I made a delicious Cous Cous creation and fried rice (pictured below), both with chicken and many different vegetables. You may be thinking this doesn’t sound extremely healthy but that’s where the exercise comes in.  I’ve been trying to work out four or five times a week; running or if it’s raining, going to the school gym for sprints, stationary biking and strength training.  Every time I ask Sepo, the extremely helpful man at the front desk, to unlock for the gym for me he asks, “Get power?” and I just love that!  Not only does exercise release endorphins, I also use it as license to eat guilt-free when I’m hungry, which is priceless in my book.

An additional outlet I use to maintain some balance is expressing myself, which can be done in many different ways.  Communicating with my roommates and people back home is one common method of grounding myself. I feel very lucky to have people supporting me all over the world and though I value my independence, I’ve always gotten by with a little help from my friends and family.  Another way of taking my mind off life is to create something enjoyable.  This time I’m not talking about food, I’m talking about turning a blank wall into something you don’t mind looking at.   Last week the walls in my room looked painfully dull so I used a Swiss army knife (thanks, Grandpa), some packaging tape and the millions of Finland brochures I have sitting in a drawer to make a couple posters.  Suddenly, the room is infinitely more enjoyable!  It also distracts from the unexplained musty cat smell. Luckily you can’t smell the pictures of my room posted below.  

When I’m lacking the energy to work out or make something, I enjoy reading, listening to music and enjoying the sauna on campus.  A trip to the sauna can be a little strenuous but provides incredible stress relief.  One other way we exchange students are adding some fun to our weeks is by having a Sunday “family dinner.”  This week we rode our bikes to the forest where our assigned Silviculture stands are to take some measurements for our project. After helping each other measure and record we roasted sausages and pineapple around a fire pit drinking beer.  George, the Czech student that joined us last week, said as we were cooking our dinner, “I really like this moment.”  We all smiled and agreed life in Finland is pretty awesome.

Simply writing this blog helps me organize my thoughts and focus on the big picture instead of small details like dirty feet and smelly rooms.  This week Anna Tall gave the exchange students a little pep talk about adjusting to life in Finland.  She mentioned how it’s easier to be in your home country where, “you don’t have to think as much,” being so comfortable living your everyday life. As you cross borders you start to think differently and gain new perspectives about world because you are exposed to different things and face new challenges all the time. She can relate to how we feel because her family moved to Kansas from Finland for over half of this year before we arrived. I’m learning more about myself, the world, and human nature everyday on top of the incredible education I’m enjoying at the university.  We have already had so many unique opportunities and wonderful experiences; I’m looking forward to many yet to come. Attitude is everything, I don't intend to waste any of my time here with a bad one. 

Cous cous

Fried rice

My forestry stand bordered by a logging road

Happy campers!

Week 4: From the forest to the farm

Week four in Finland felt a little less busy than our previous weeks. Not to say it was boring at all, it was simply relaxed and more localized in comparison to the activities requiring more travel since our arrival.

We started out the week by getting acquainted with our forest management stands for our Silviculture class.  These personally assigned plots are be the basis for our final report, which examines the stand history, current situation, site health, collected data and risk analysis to substantiate our chosen future sulvicultural treatments.  Basically, a forest management plan structured around the knowledge we have built about Finnish forestry in combination with our unique stand characteristics. 

Juha drove us out to a nearby forest where we hiked around each of our plots to discuss past treatment operations in the area, species composition, review of measurement techniques and ask any questions we might have.  This was a valuable learning experience to see stand I would be reporting on but also how it contrasts to the other students’ sites.  The untrained eye might not notice how tree species, age and management practices change across the landscape but it is very clear to see how foresters have purposefully transformed the composition across our plots. Some things I missed from Cal Poly while we were hiking around were the GPS trackers and compasses we are trained to use when identifying points to return to for future study.  Out here we only had our conscious memory and each other to rely on for tracking, but I realize now that these are skills just as valuable out in the woods as well as in the city.

The rest of the week was an educational assortment of Finnish language, livestock feed and heat regimens, agriculture machinery and school farm experience.  My favorite part had to be the various tractor-driving activities.  I never thought I would have to maneuver a tractor backwards with a trailer attached and it was not pretty in the beginning.  After some guidance, practice and many wrong turns I started to get the hang of it.  Our machinery teacher Juhani also taught us to take a front loader on and off the tractor, which required some strategic joystick controlling and directions from a helpful friend on the ground who can see things you can’t in the drivers seat.  During our farm work we moved hay bales much more efficiently than we did last week.  It feels good to be comfortable driving these powerful machines in all directions for a variety of tasks! The exchange students were discussing how the learning process here is much faster and involves infinitely less red tape than Cal Poly’s tractor driving class.  We didn’t have to sign our lives away or listen to hours of lectures about what knobs, pedals, wheels, or levers are in the machines we would be operating; we were personally shown the controls then we drove! This is a very different system than we are used to at home and you often feel awkward not knowing exactly what to do but the teacher is right next to you, helping calmly and very patiently, understanding when you make mistakes and advising how to do it differently next time.   I feel very lucky to enjoy such an extraordinary learning experience and truly feel like my practical knowledge has grown exponentially because of it.

Taking basal area measurements

Measuring stem diameter at breast height

Root rot on a spruce tree

Counting tree rings to determine age

Drainage trench

George helping us understand how a combustion engine works

DC and AC converters

Learning the difference between agriculture and forestry machine tires

Maneuvering backwards with a trailer

Putting on the front loader

Learning about 'vihtoa'; the traditional Finnish practice of hitting yourself with birch branches while taking a sauna

Remembering 9/11

In the busyness of going to class, fishing, the forest for the night on Monday (without internet or television access) then the arboretum and back to the forest on Tuesday then straight to farm work on Wednesday I somehow managed to lose track of the date.  The morning of Wednesday the 12th when we were heading out for tractor training it hit me like a ton of bricks that I had completely overlooked September 11th, the 11th anniversary of the most catastrophic day for The United States of America that I was alive to experience. I can't describe the wave of disbelief and guilt that I felt realizing I had not taken a moment to remember the lives that were lost and honor the rescue teams that bravely responded to the attacks.  That was a day burned into my memory though I was only 10 years old. I remember the shock of realizing what was happening in our own country, how tragic and almost surreal it was. Now I'm abroad over a decade later feeling a sense of nationhood strong as ever, like a homesickness in my roots remembering the historical day that changed our country and lives forever. I still feel a pang of shame to have not realized the day as it happened, but it doesn't keep me from recalling the pain of 9/11 or having pride in the way America banded together through this difficult chapter in our history.

Sending love to those who lost friends or family members in the attack and thanks to those who helped pick up the pieces to rebuild a stronger nation.  You make me proud to be an American.

Fur farm visit

On Saturday Morning our Finnish Agriculture professor and Animal Husbandry specialist Teija Ronka took us to visit a fur farm at an undisclosed location near the largest lake in Southern Ostrobothnia.  Once a year fur farms are required to allow visitors from the public to view their facilities, ask questions and get educated about the process of raising fur animals in Finland.  This might seem like a controversial subject to you and I certainly do not intend to offend anyone or attempt to sway your opinion… But I did learn a lot at this farm visit and you might be surprised to hear what I have to say.

Due to past problems with animal activists, these visits require a certain level of security and secrecy.  Each group must provide names of individuals and the purpose of your trip. The morning of this ‘open house’ your group is assigned a farm to attend and must meet a representative at a common location such as a gas station to be taken to the facility. This avoids having to release addresses and risk returning unwanted visitors, but more on that later.  When we arrived at the fur farm, we saw rows of roofed, elevated cages filled with silver and blue foxes.  We were given blue jumpsuits and shoe covers to keep the animals safe from any outside bacteria or pathogen we might have carried onsite. To say the smell was unpleasant would be a grotesque understatement but that’s to be expected.   The ProFur farm we visited specialized in raising foxes, Finnraccoons and minks (at another farm site) for pelts to be sold at auction.  On this 80-hectare farm (which included another location or two in the general vicinity) they have about 80,000 foxes and about 120,000 minks.

Anna Maria, the woman who led our tour, was a Veterinarian who had been working with fur animals for about two and a half years.   She showed us the houses, which are lined with pens on both sides with an aisle in the middle. We walked through a few houses looking at the foxes, taking pictures and asking many questions.  Anna Maria was highly knowledgeable and obviously dedicated to the health of the farm.  The first site there were probably only 6-8 sick foxes with out of the 3.400 in that area.  We visited them and saw that these problems were mainly from eye infections or fights when they were young, mangling perhaps an ear. The sick animals are kept separate from the others and given their own cages.  Bacterial illnesses must be dealt with quickly to preserve the health of the other animals.  Females used for breeding are also given their own individual cages.  Anna Maria trains the breeders to use proper hygiene and animal care.   On average, 5.5 foxes out of a litter make it through to the pelting stage and when they are about 6 months old.  The yearly cycle of fur production can be seen in the images below.

Fur animals are bred and raised in captivity, living in cages of wire mesh to allow their excrement to drop to the ground facilitating cleanliness. The pens comply with animal welfare regulations to keep the inhabitants healthy and comfortable. There is always a bone for each animal to chew on, water through a pipe, some straw bedding above the cages to keep them occupied and they are fed twice a day. Their diet consists of fish, chicken and pig byproduct mixed with grains, vitamins and minerals. This is probably what largely contributes to the smell but has everything the animals need to be healthy. Their diet is strictly monitored and if an animal is not eating regularly, Anna Maria checks up on them and makes sure they are not sick. She handles the animals with her bare hands, never sedating them. If an animal is unruly, she uses restraints but this is usually not necessary.  Out of the hundreds of foxes and raccoons we saw, only a few foxes growled or seemed upset by the unusual amount of visitors. The foxes were very mellow and the raccoons at the adjacent site were hilariously curious.

From an environmental and animal welfare standpoint, Anna Maria says the process is always getting better as research continues.  One of the farmers recently traveled to China to observe their production methods, learning new skills and sharing some of his own. There are many laws and restrictions in Finland involving the location of farms, especially regarding groundwater supplies. Research about the carbon footprint of fur and sustainability is also tweaking the process. Government officials visit farms every two years to ensure regulations are being followed. When I asked for a comparison of Finnish, Russian and Chinese fur farms in terms of best production methods, I received a sensible answer.  China and Russia have poor human rights, why would their animal care be much different?  Valerie Grant, one of the Cal Poly students, also made an excellent point about labor conditions in third world sweat shops which are often times much worse for those workers than for these animals who are fed, sheltered and kept healthy.  Do we care for animals or people first?

There was another group touring the farm while we were there and they were animal rights activists.  We had no idea they were against fur production until the end of our tour when Anna Maria told us.  She was not bothered though, most people who are ardently against the fur industry often have a lot of misinformation about it.  This open house is a good way of showing them what really happens on the farms. They were very calm, standing in a circle with the ProFur representatives asking questions and making statements.  It was very interesting to see how differently this conflict was carried out than it would be in America.  These protesters were not emotional or attacking, they were having a conversation expressing what they thought about the fur industry.  That is not to say there are not extremists out there; there have been problems with groups freeing the fur animals at night, hence the secrecy of farm locations. Without ever having learned the skills to fend for themselves in the wild these animals die within days of being released.  Luckily this group was civil, petitioning for a ban on fur farming by 2025 in Finland.  However, if it is outlawed here, the slack will just be picked up in foreign countries that do not regulate production as well as Finland does.  I couldn’t help but notice the heavy leather jacket worn by one protester and leather boots and belts worn by a couple members of this group.  Didn’t an animal die to make those as well? Granted, they might have also put a hamburger on your plate, which these fur animals do not.  Tough the leftover carcasses are not wasted; they are used in feed for other fur animals.   They don’t feed animals their own kind and the byproduct accounts for less than 4% of the feed. 

What is my opinion?  I probably wouldn’t ever buy a fur coat because I’m lucky enough to live in sunny California, fur coats are very expensive and I think they’re a little tacky.  I might wear something lined with fur or having fur trim but probably not an entirely fur garment.  Going to this farm was a unique learning experience and I don’t see fur production being much different than raising other animals for slaughter.  In countries with cold climate and high fashion, fur might be entirely appropriate but I can understand why people might be against raising an animal to kill for fashion purposes.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion! 

Suit up!

Fox houses

ProFur Farmers

Feeding machine

Animal rights activists

Cal Poly students, Jiri (third from the left), Teija (middle), Anna Maria (right)

Very curious raccoons