Mr & Dr Pekka Mehtala

And there she was, done and dusted.. well few minor adjustments and the business is over.
I am so proud and am sure so are many others, but I am the only proud husband.. Our trip went really well, no 14h delays on national express or lost baggage or anything.

Halle enjoying the refreshing atmosphere at Heathrow bus terminal, all new and fancy with coffee available.

Primary objective achieved and enjoyment of seeing old friends and familiar places.
I took the night train to Oulu the very night we arrived and thought that I would get much reading done... Well I did read some hour or so.. but not much at all.. and I didn't sleep very well in the train either..
Tomorrow is the last day of school this year and I will be making my way back to Helsinki for Christmas. Thank you everybody for your prayers, our trip was great and we wish you all merry Christmas even though we have not managed possibly send you a card this christmas..

Pekka

Tomorrow Tomorrow

Exeter at last,
We made it finally to Our original meeting place and place of our studies, Halle preparing for her viva, me holidaying and reading for my coming exam on the 17th.
It has been bit of a rollercoaster ride here, with despair and hope and despair. I am sure everything will be just fine in the end, but prayers for Halles Viva tomorrow are very much appreciated.

Weather has been the usual rain and clowdy, but rather mild comparing to our chilling -2C temperatures in Oulu. Jolly 'Ole is not called that for nothing. Here are so many things that have not changed, but many things have changed too. The facelift on the bus(station) was a great surprise. The city center in Exeter has gone through a rough change, from medival city into half old and new made of glass shopping paradice with fancy stores selling everything a rich person might want.
University has not changed that much, even though my old department has doubled in size and gotten new facilities for almost any area of practise.
The prospect of coming back here to work some day as a dentist is not completely crazy, there is something about the island west of "europe" where prime minister says "I want to save the world".. That is yet to be seen, but it really has been a great visit to Exeter and UK. And hopefully Halle completes her mountain of work here tomorrow. Will report on it later.

Pekka

To there and back again

Trip planning and making all the required arrangements seems to be the biggest part of any journey..even to the local store..
Halle and I are going to Jolly Ole, for a week, leaving on Monday and coming back on Monday.. then I am coming back to Oulu for a day or two for the exam, then back to Helsinki for Christmas and then back to Oulu for more school.. Our travel plans look like this..Oh.. the drawing program and me didn't agree on anything... hmm.. well.. Need to wait till I get my hands on something to draw our plans..

And yet again one of our packets got stuck at the customs.. I really have to work to keep myself nice when we go get them there... as they require you to open the packet there and they go through your stuff... The postage was paid to our door!!! not to some skanky customs storage away from our home.. Will try to cool down before tomorrow... If it rains as we bike there I am not going to be very nice customer..

On a happier note, I attended my last work of the year at school, only test to go.. which should be rather easy as far as I know.

Now to bed, tomorrow, train, then plane, then bus... sounds like a movie..I hope our trip goes without a hitch though..

More funny product labels

This uninteresting juice is for underachievers. (Click on pic).

Advent at hand

First advent in Oulu started out with selected bits of Thanksgiving leftovers for breakfast. It is amazing how our fridge is now packed with food, usually it is so empty that your morning sigh of "what am I going to eat" echoes..

It started to snow as we left for the bus and for the International church, where we have gone few times this past fall.



After delightful evening worship we headed for coffee and found some other people who have ended up in Oulu from a far.. and then headed to town for Advent Vespers, which was at the Oulu cathedral.

Here are the beatiful organ pipes and a random decorative ship..

It was good start for Advent time for us, lovely snowy landscapes and good food, with God's word and worship songs. Happy advent to all!
H&P

Thanksgiving/Kiitospäivä

Thanksgiving Day was a success. And I don't say that to pat my own back. Cooking a meal that is part of a national holiday in your home country but is non-existent in your adopted country is sometimes a challenge. Especially if the main ingredients of your meals include the oh-so-healthy Crisco and marshmallows and your adopted country has no idea what the first one is and only sells the second in selected stores. Thankfully we hunted down marshmallows for the all-important sweet potato Thanksgiving dish which forms the backbone of my Thanksgiving Day eating experience and tends to scare some Europeans. As to the Crisco, legend has it that it exists in specialty stores in downtown Helsinki. The quest continues.

No, but really, a good time was had by all, there was food enough and more, great company and conversation. And no one came down with Salmonella poisoning. Yet.

Sledding and planning

After the initial shock we have gathered our thoughts together now for the trip to UK, and everything. This end of the year craziness is coming on to us little heavy this year. I have projects coming out and going all directions, exams almost daily and one looming on the 17th.. Thanksgiving coming along with party at ours and the trip to UK in the middle.
So this evening at school as I was getting my head around the scapula, and its grooves and incissuras, I heard that there was a sledding possibility with some hot Glögi (spicy juice) and cookies. I and Kyösti, my good friend from Med school decided it was time to break out and go sledding.
I called Halle and she, first not so excited, agreed to come with. It was a night of sledding with our newly made and designed cardboard and black plastic bag student model. Meeting with Kyösti, Nastara and their son Markku.

The recycled sled worked like a charm, we had hot chocolate with Kyde's family and then walked home, all the while more pure white cottony snow poured down. It really looks great out there.



Here is our style examples of the modern student sled in action, Halle demostrating the lesser known backwards slide.

Viva la viva

Dec. 12. A day that will live in infamy. Well, hopefully not. Yes, the viva has been set. If all goes well I'll be bringing back a few more letters after my name from Jolly Ole.

To be continued...

Snow snow snow

This weekend brought some more snow to the whole eastern Europe, including our northern corner here in Finland. The blizzard went on through the night and filled the streets and fields with pretty white dusting about 3 inches thick.
Biking in the snow is fun, but rather hard work. Thanks for Oulu city for clearing the streets at the crack of dawn so Niilo and I could go for our morning run at 6:30am..
Last week of lectures and 10% of my training is finished. I am .1 dentist, 1.0 actor 1.husband and SiL and .9 ready to head somewhere south to warm up..

here is the poem..

Hammaslääkärikin erehtyy? (even a dentist is mistaken?)

On maailmassa monta ihmeellistä asiaa,
On palloa, rakettia kuutiota rasiaa,
Sternocleidomastoideus, levator scapulae,
Tauko, leipä, keksi kahvi tai tee,
Ei edes hammaslääkäri voi kaikkea tietää,
Vaan joskus joutuu epävarmuutta sietää,

Näin Niilon viisaammaksi joudun myöntämään,
hypoteesit pöydältä työntämään,
Onhan oppimisessa tärkeää vastauksia saada,
On ne sitten oikeita vääriä ei se oppijaa kaada,
Edes hammaslääkäri voi kaikkea tietää,
Joskus joutuu epävarmuutta sietää,

Mitä tästä oppinut siis olen,
On syytä asiaa miettä ku kouluun polen,
Vaikka kuinka kirjaa luen,
Tietoon painettuun olkaani tuen,
Ei edes hammaslääkäri voi kaikkea tietää,
Vaan joskus joutuu epävarmuutta sietää,

There are in the world many wonderous things,
there are balls, rockets, cubes and boxes,
Sternocleidomastoideus, levator scapulae,
Break, bread, cookie, coffee or tea,
not even a dentist can know everything,
but sometimes has to endure uncertainty.

so I have to admit Niilo as a wiser,
own hypothesis I have to push from the table,
In learning it is most importnat to get answers,
be they right or wrong it does not harm the student,
not even a dentist can know everything,
but sometimes has to endure uncertainty.

So what have I learned?,
It is worth thinking as I cycle to school,
No matter how hard I read a book,
to a written word lean my shoulder,
not even a dentist can know everything,
but sometimes has to endure uncertainty.


And here is the performance captured by Niilo Ryti, during our lecture on upper limb anatomy by head of Anatomy department Juha Tuukkanen. From whom I did ask for a permission to interrupt his excellent lecture.

Poem..

What in the world!! the pieces of wood just came flying out when I blew from the side of the toy... so I have written a poem and will be performing it tomorrow during anatomy class... The title is. "Dentist mistaken?"
Other than losing a bet, we have gotten some snow again and some really frosty weather along with it. -7C this morning and it rose to a whopping -5C during the heat of the day, while the sun barely reached it's radiating face over the 3 story buildings..
Yes it is the darkest and most depressing time of year, but with some hope for Halles job and my autumn term coming to an end we will push through. Oh and with help of our Christmas lights sharing the hope of Christmas to all our neighbors.

Happy Veterans Day

On a more serious note...

Thank you to all of those who sacrificed greatly in service to their country.

Poem Bet..

Just about a month ago, me and my friend Niilo were talking about a puzzle.. Niilo had solved it at home and set the scene for me to solve it even without seeing the actual puzzle. It goes like this..

There is a cylinder made of wood, inside the cylinder there is a piece of wood that fits into the cylinder and it has a conical top. The task is to get the piece of wood out of the cylinder without touching it. Can you guess how to solve this puzzle?

Well I figured it out quite soon and we started talking about the physics principles that are behind the workings of this piece of puzzle. I claimed that the rocket only works because of it's conical shape top. Niilo says that the shape of the top has nothing to do with the puzzle solution.
With our differing opinions left yet unsolved we decided to place a bet.
The wager is a poem, that one has to perform spontaneously in front of the class (150 approx) and it has to tell about the fact that one has misunderstood the laws of physics.

The rules are. there is going to be 3 sample pieces of wood, one as long as the cylinder, one slightly shorter than the edge of the cylinder and one taller than the cylinder. I say the piece will not come up as the original did and Niilo says that the piece without conical top will work as well as the one without.
Niilos brother is making us the test pieces and mailing them here soon.

Do you think I should start rhyming??

P.S. here is the solution for the puzzle.
http://www.grand-illusions.com/acatalog/Raketti.html

Marketing researcher fired...

Periproducts Ltd has had this amazing product, but the naming was as successful as the former car Chevy Nova in spanish speaking countries.

Actually we have not even tried this, but thanks for Wini who noticed it during our visit to the pharmacy and proving me wrong (I said there is nothing funny in pharmacies)











On an other note, Halle made me fish soup from "rainbow" frozen salmon cubes, everything looked fine untill we tasted the salmon cubes.. they had slightly diesel like taste and smell... needless to say we had our dinner at the local pizza joint around the corner, e-mailed the store and called the health inspectors to find out if there are any more petrol-headed salmon on sale..

This end up

My teeth being what they are, little more than pieces of chalk likely to crumble if tested by nothing more than a kernel of popcorn or, in some cases, that most dastardly of tea time delights, a scone, I managed to break off a piece of crown on one of my molars this weekend. The tooth pain, however, was not as bad as the thought of having to book a time at the local dentist in my broken Finnish. Having secured the number to the clinic, I hemmed and hawed before finally dialing up and waiting with sweaty palms. A woman's voice answered and went through her obviously memorized spiel in Finnish. I swallowed hard and then with a dry mouth attempted my feeble, 'Puhutko sinä englantia?' (Do you speak English?) I was able to catch a few words of her reply, enough to learn that she only spoke Swedish and Finnish. A very long and awkward silence ensued as I wondered what to do. I though about just saying the word tooth ('hammas') in Finnish and hoping for the best. Instead, trusting that she knew more English than she let on, I mumbled, 'Well, I'll call back later' after which I hung up, texted the DH that all had not gone well, and resigned myself to the fate of living the rest of my life with half a molar.

Fast forward to this evening when a grinning DH returned home to inform me that the number I had dialled was incorrect. Apparently DH, in an attempt to help me out, had tried to book an appointment for me. He talked to the same woman who said that she had remembered my call. At the end of their conversation DH asked if I could come in to have someone look at my tooth, to which the woman replied that, in fact, this was the University of Oulu Colonoscopy Department. DH's comment sums it up, 'That's a long way round to look at a tooth.'

Mirror mirror on the wall..

It was a lesson in compromising and finding the golden middle ground when we started our journey of mirror placing onto our corridor wall. It was battle of engineers daughter vs. artsy actor-dentist.. who knew how differently one can hang 5 mirrors...


It was, millimeter accurate, 90,000000001 degree angles.. as you can't ever get absolute accuracy in reality, only in math.. so the error margin was set to ,000000000001% Or let's slam these babies on the wall and see how they land, then the next day wonder which wall they ended up on in the end.. We ended up with accuracy and order..
Tape to hold mirrors 5,36€, set of recycled mirrors 2,00€, great new look to our corridor priceless!

Thank you Halle for all the hard measuring and careful planning, it looks GREAT!

All Saints' Day

Snow still covering the ground, we ventured out, braved the blistering 0C degrees, and headed for the town. Everything was covered with white snow frosting but the already forming puddles of slushy-wet snow were trying to lure us to step into them..
Without any terrible mishaps, only few close calls we managed to get to the town. (close call=almost slipped and crushed our coccyx) There we met up with my dental student friend Kyösti and his family.
One coffee, chocolate-rum-cake, carrot cake and hot chocolate later we took a walk along the coast of Oulu city. The chemical factory/paper mill or something looked like it was on fire, when looking from the shore.

After the shore we headed for the cemetery, where it is a custom for Finns to light a candle at their relatives grave this day. All Saints' Day, the cemetery looks always really beatiful with hundreds, perhaps thousands of candles lighting the evening. Today it looked especially cool with snow and all. We had purposefully taken a camera with to capture some of the feeling.

Here is the place for those whose relatives are buried elsewhere, we had forgotten our candle, but will put it out in a lantern later today to give hope to those who are outside... that there is a warm place inside somewhere..

Blessed All Saints' Day to everybody.

H&P

Snowy ride to town and back

In the morning the sky was little overcast and grey, this evening the ground is white and beatiful. Will it last or not? My pessimistic Finnish opinion is that the snow will melt in the most inconvenient time possible to produce slush puddles just wide enough that you can't quite make it jumping over them..
Pessimism aside, after interesting meeting with the professor to whom I might be doing my thesis for I headed to town to meet Halle.
Snow coming down and melting as it hit the ground. I managed not to fall on my way. We had quick lunch at Mac's Steak house... and found some two sided tape for our mirrors, which we bought from the recycling center last weekend.
Halle braved the snowy roads and hopped on her bike also and we made it back home, with only minnor fears for our noses and fingers. They are still attached to us and not even turned white. PHEW..
.

Thicker than pea soup

Finland's traditional Thursday meal was only surpassed in soupiness today by the weather. It's turned cold and foggy with the possibility of snow tomorrow. Coming back from Prisma up the incline of the Joutsentie bridge the cyclists in front of me, shadowy black silhouettes, ascended like silent specters and disappeared in the mist.

Trip to recycling center

It was overcast gray day, wind and spitting rain.. you could say it was almost dark and gloomy night, right before the day of elections for the local council. We took off with our bikes to make our way to the recycling center... and after some reassuring that we are still in "Greater Oulu area" and that the place is just around the corner we made it. 1 h before closing.. best ever timing if you ask me... unless shopping for some gadgets...
The social democratic party greeted us, tired travelers, with BBQ sausages and chocolate goodies and what not to bribe our precious votes. With Ellis (great aunt) threatening voice still ringing in my ears: "not one of our family has gone left!" I ate the juicy sausage, had some hot coffee and lovely chocolate.. Elections elections election.. of local council....
On our way back, we had to snap a photo of this sign... don't do it... or your car will get wet...
The elections came and went, I did my civic duty... til next elections I guess..

Carpet Beating

How Finns maintain their calm exterior...

The birds ate all the rowan berries

These little feathery friends came and ate all the red berries from the trees around our home...Now most of the leaves are gone, berries and I am getting ready for snow, not just the occasional frost on the ground in the morning. As this Sunday we will forget to turn the clocks and are 1 hour early on the move to the church... it would be nice if some snow flakes would be floating down to decorate the landscape here..

Second step on the long road to dentistry

Yesterday I managed to pass yet an other test, on neuron anatomy and advanced tiny little step closer to being a dentist. But what did I really learn, latin names for different parts of human brain and nervous system.. And how is all that relevant to being a dentist?

On my 3 day working experience, when I didn't work, but watched other dentist work obviously, I learned that dentistry really is manual labor. The courses that tech this skill are yet 2 years away, till then I will have to crawl through whole library of theory about medicine and anatomy. I guess for the unsuspecting future client of mine it is reassuring to know that I can pinpoint any part of his body and call it with Latin name.... I will be like a consultant, I can tell what is wrong with their pelvis or at least take educated guess, but have to tools for fixing it... hmm..


Today is the day of, recycling center visit... let us hope we find the stuff we need, not so much the stuff we want.. :) well I am sure it will be worth the 7km bike ride in lovely Oulu Autum weather.

Crazy Dayz

At the end of the week Stockmann had their annual sale "Hullut Päivät" (crazy days), we needed to take a look, even if there was nothing we particularly wanted, except kitchen clock and other stuff..
Our lazy Saturday morning extended to 1pm after which we made our reluctant way to tow in a lazy cold drizzle.. The premature Halloween ghost advertized crazy days and scared the kids on the street.








Our shopping was short but sweet, one kitchen clock and coffe.. vanilla flavor.
I think every kitchen needs a clock, for cooking and for that hurried slow morning coffee, when you bare witness to the fastest fifteen minutes of the day...right before you have to brave the sub zero arctic weather and battle the psychological polarbears on the way to school... Now that we have the clock on the wall I can keep my eye on the long arm..

I think Halles choice was excellent! the french style mixed with our...finnish american-english (Marmite jars)..

My old job..

Just got mail from Antti, my dear twin, who directed me to a website with info on world financial crisis.. and voila, there was RBS!! How strange as when I worked there their weekly report on RBS always talked so highly about the bank and their good investments. And not only that, their employers money is highly tied to the bank.. I wonder if they have their retirement plans in order now... ?

How many job openings in Finland for dentists??

Our professor told us that in Finland there are approx. 900dentist every year who come to the age of retirement. New dentist who come out of dental school every year counts, 400. that makes roughly 500 jobs per year which can not be filled. I believe it means that by the time I am done with the school I will have about 2000 job openings to select my choice.
The desperate situation reflects quickly to the areas out of the cities or away from dental school. For example eastern Finland has no dental school, they are really desperate for new dentists, salaries and perks, such as free housing or plot of land are not so unusual for those who go to work there.
Why is it this way in Finland?? Well in the past depression in Finland the dental care "need" dropped and there were even few unemployed dentists. This was largely due to the fact that people rather ate with aching teeth, than hungered with fine choppers... and the politicians closed down two dental schools, which still have not opened. There are only 3 dental schools in Finland these days. Helsinki, Turku and Oulu. The intake of students has been increased to fix the problem, but it will be delayed some 10 years, mostly because the training of a new dentist takes 5 years and the problem is only now being addressed. It will become so severe in few years to come that something has to be done to correct the situation.
Thinking selfishly I can only rub my hands together and thank the thoughtless politicians who have made my job "seeking" day.. thank you very much and see you at the clinic in 5 years.. :)

First exam

The very first real exam in medical school was multiple choice, with 30 questions, needless to say I was disappointed.. I didn't have a chance to show my true understanding of the matter and such a short test chance has too much to do with it.
On the other hand it is just one course of almost 300 that we need to pass, so I will move on to the next one and study hard for them. Now I am ready for the weekend and cleaning the apartment, as I better do it today.. Tomorrow my friends will come over and then the week will be busy with studies and then Halle is coming!!! and it is best to have the apartment in good order for her to arrive.

Furniture

Hey, the long awaited and expected admired and bought furniture arrived! This is so cool, I never thought that I would just sit and admire a piece of furniture... but I have been doing so.. as it turns out the bookshelf from "boknäs" and the table from the same maker, look so great!! I have done my first little bit of studying on the table and put the books we have into the bookshelf.. I have to say that they do look awesome.. our camera is out of batteries and I have no way to move the pictures from the camera to the comp at the moment, but will post some photos soon.. in a week or something.

Culture???

I had hard time believing my eyes as I opened the local news site on the net.. Yet an other shooting in Finnish school, this time a college. People are looking for someone to blame for it, culture, games, school, society, parents, the shooter himself.... it goes on forever.
I have a feeling this is going to lead to some changes, Finns pride themselves as being safe people living in a safe country. We have no hurricanes, floods, earth quakes, volcanoes, poisonous spiders or anything for you to worry about...Except the Finns themselves it seems. Even on todays newspaper I read the comments people outside Finland had written about Finns; "they are not afraid of silence, but talk straight and look people in the eyes as they do".. Well I think Finns aught to talk a little more... at least if they harbor some self destructive thoughts or plans to shoot other people..
In the report on the net, it was said that the police had visited the shooter and considered taking his gun from him, but had decided to let him keep his gun. Now today he had used that same gun to murder 10 people in the school he had been going to for 2 years. It is easy to say that the cops failed at their duty to serve and protect, but what is the alternative?
Prime minister Matti is considering banning handguns, allowing only hunting weapons, I guess he is unwilling to go the other route and take away freedom of expression. This is to allow police to confiscate guns from people who have acted on the web or written on the web, thoughts or ideas of killing people.
I have no idea what should be done, but these killings in Finland are really sad for the whole community and bad for image of Finland.. Come to a country where they murder and eat reindeer, santa's little Rudolf, have sky that is on fire, but you can only see it at wintertime, when there is no light of day to ruin the view. But remember to avoid the people up there, they are nuts!

Culture of the North

In Oulu things are bit different from Exeter UK, the days are shorter at wintertimes and really long during summer. Right now weather is relatively warm..+10C during the day, it is rather normal that temperatures during night time plummet to below freezing. But then again we are waiting for real winter to appear and some snow and all. Cross country skiing and perhaps some slalom to come this winter.
My days are spent at present attending medical school basic studies, usually from 8am to 2pm, and some evening activities. So far studies have encompassed cell biology, histology and some macro anatomy, plus of course the mandatory introduction lectures for library and IT... but that is almost behind now.
Our apartment here is very lovely three rooms, living room, kitchen and bed room, plus bathroom and balcony. It is only about a mile away from the medical school and about the same distance away from the city center. We get around by bikes and buses, even though bus network is rather unpredictable, only running properly when kids are at school.

We have nice park just a walk away and a pond to go feeding the ducks that brave the winter here, there is also the local grill, which we sampled and got a surprise when we asked "with all spices" and got the relish, ketchup and mustard on our fries rather than on our burger.. they do do some things differently here..

There are no taco bell or hoagie joints around, but they do sell fried sausages without the bun infront of the local supermarket. I have yet to try it out, but it surely smells really nice when you go shopping hungry for food.