November 13, 2011, 19:50
Music: Chopin Polonaise Op.26 #1 in C sharp minor
Mood: Mellow
Weather: Oscillating from –3°C to +3°C
Snacktrek, n.:
The peculiar habit, when searching for a snack, of constantly returning to the refrigerator in hopes that something new will have materialized.
Rich Hall, “Sniglets”
With a shrug, I return from my tour of the kitchen and refrigerator—it is interesting that the frequency increases when studying—empty handed; damn, nothing new has materialized.
And nothing new has materialized in this little town either. We all wait in anticipation even as one grey day joins another like blankets being stitched together, and wonder when it will snow. In anticipation, we buy the appropriate clothes, gloves, warm socks, scarves, coats, and boots. And wait and argue. It will snow tomorrow, no, next week, no, in a month, no, never…Meanwhile, the weather forecasts change every day, every few hours, like a teenage girl changing her shoes.
In the middle of the week, our hopes rose like paper planes buffeted by the wind: the temperatures dipped to –3° and there was ice all over the place. Cars looked like they had been in the freezer of a refrigerator, while white icicles covered the ground. It looked like someone had refrigerated the place for a bit and then some.
But, still no snow.
The transition from fall to winter in October-December — wet, rainy, dark and generally miserable — is the worst time to visit, a tourist brochure had sagely advised. And almost all the websites and blogs I had read had told me that November is the worst month to be in Finland. Fortunately, we are in the Internet age and there is no difficulty in being entertained even if perennially stuck indoors. The days continued to get shorter, like candles burning down, and the light was like candlelight: practically useless. Barely 2 and half months ago, when I had first arrived here, sunrise was at 5 am and sunset at 10 pm; now, the sun rose at 8 pm, made a virtually invisible parabolic arc across the sky like a colourless rainbow, and set at 3:30 pm. And the perpetual soundlessness. For the first time ever, even Diwali had flitted by without any murmurs. (Oh! A horn did blare once the other day, and it was a moment of great surprise, like spotting a tiger in the jungle. Hope the driver did not get struck by lightning.)
And still no snow.
Turning to the Internet, in amazement, I read that Finland has a cold but temperate climate, which is actually comparatively mild for the latitude because of the moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current. That sounded like a practical joke.
Last week, two naked women had walked into my friend’s flat asking if they could shower. So when my doorbell buzzed randomly and unexpectedly, I could not help wondering if my luck was in. As it happened, two clothed men walked in wondering if I would be interested in becoming Jehovah’s witness or something like that. Of all the people, atheistic me. I was courteous enough to patiently hear them out, while expressing my contention that God does not exist…I wish I had asked them to send naked women next time to improve their membership! Thankfully, I was not asked to buy anything except their sales talk about their version of human beings and their capers; instead, they left me with a book that smartly accepts evolution, points its limitations gleefully, and gives even more convincing reasons for believing. I politely threw them out, but kept the book: its got awesome photographs.
Meanwhile, I seem to have gotten windburned, presumably due to lack of moisture and extreme dryness. In fact, until I started applying ghee and moisturizer, my hands and face felt like paper; every time, I twitched my increasingly red crinkled face, it cracked a little like paper full of red equations being crumpled and thrown into a dustbin.
It has been that kind of a week.
And, still the waiting for some snow.
Then again, someone posted this on Facebook:
+15°C, Spanish wear caps, gloves and winter coats; Finns are sunbathing.
+10°C, French desperately try to get their central heating on; Finns plant flowers.
+5°C, Italian cars won’t start; Finns drive with convertibles.
0°C, Pure water freezes; Water in river Vantaa thickens a bit.
-5°C, First people are found frozen in California; Finnish midsummer festival ends.
-10°C, Scottish turn the heat on in their houses; Finns start to use long-sleeve shirts.
-20°C, Swedes stay indoors; Finns are having last barbeque before winter.
-30°C, Half of the Greek people have frozen to death; Finns start to dry their laundry indoors.
-50°C, Polar bears evacuate North Pole; Finnish army begin their winter training.
-70°C, Siberian people are moving to Moscow; Finns are furious since the Koskenkorva booze can’t be stored outdoors anymore.
-273°C, Absolute Zero; Finns admit that it is quite cold outside.
-300°C, Hell freezes over; Finland wins the football World Cup.
Perhaps, after all, its better to not be in anticipation of snowy winters and just sit tight and hope that the grey days continue till March…One never knows a good thing until its passed…
Right then, its time for another snacktrek now; its exam time this week, you know!
Lappeenranta Sojourn 