Recent Posts

Return to Finland (2022)

I’m sitting at RDU (its Friday April 22nd) awaiting the start of a journey that will return me to Finland. I have been fortunate to...

Who Says Friday the 13th is Unlucky? Me

The week after we came back from St. Petersburg had a quickly changing situation due to corona virus.  UEF began discussing the need to restrict...

Back in Kuopio

When we came back to Kuopio we were greeted by fresh snow on the walkway that we take to get to work. We also saw...

St. Petersburg – Other sites

While in St. Petersburg we also visited several other sites including the Savior on the Spilled Blood church.  This church was built in the 1880s...

Lapland Deux – Last Day (March 1)

As you might appreciate we fell behind with the blog for a while. Our last day in Lapland was spent going on another dog sled...

Lapland Deux: Day 3

Our last night in Lapland was also spent in search of the Northern Lights,  We ended up on a small bridge over the Paatsjoki River...

Lapland Deux Day 2: NORTHERN LIGHTS

About midnight Friday (FEB 28th) night the aurora became visible directly overhead.  Although the colors we could see remained mostly white with hints of green...

Lapland Deux

Melanie and I decided to revisit Lapland before the days become too long and aurora hunting ends in early April.  We also want another try...

Tallinn Estonia

We had a chance a week ago to visit the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, for a short three-day weekend.  Tallinn is a relatively short (55...

Outdoor Sports in Kuopio

It’s been a relatively busy past few weeks so I have fallen behind on my blog posts.  The weather continues to have daytime high temperatures...

Finnish PhD Defense

We attended our first Finnish PhD defense  a few weeks ago.  When compared to PhD defenses held at NCSU it can be best described as very...

Lapland – Last Day

Our last day in Lapland (February 4th) promised to be our last chance to see the Northern Lights during our stay.  Each of the preceding...

Lapland Day 2: Huskies!

Today, February 6th is celebrated in Finland and several other Nordic countries as Sámi National Day.  In Lapland the day is marked with a variety...

Lapland Day 1+ – Reindeer Games

Melanie and I had an opportunity to visit Lapland over a long weekend.  We stayed at the Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort.  We stayed for four days...

Celebrating Runeberg Day (Runebergin päivä)

Greetings from Finland – today (February 5th) celebrates the birthday of Finland’s national poet – Johan Ludvig Runeberg.  Runeberg is known for Maamme the Finnish...

Sisu and Finnish Nightmares

Finland is roughly 80% the size of California with approximately 33% of the country situated above the Arctic Circle (next weekends adventure – stay tuned). ...

Finnish Educational System

About half of my fellow Fulbrighters here in Finland are K-12 teachers back in the US. These teachers are part of the Fulbright Teacher Exchange...