At the time, it wasn't applicable. But when it's freezing -20, it is...

That is the first sign before entering the lake at the Kaupinojan sauna. Yes indeed, I went to visit the public sauna with my classmates.

Earlier that day, we had an introduction session for the IMP course. Getting to know each other, setting the objectives, practical information, stuff like that. In the afternoon, our coördinator, Cai, took us out to play a traditional Finnish game, mölkky. It’s looks a bit like bowling, but slower, and you throw a cylinder shaped piece of wood at some other cylinder shaped pieces of wood. I wasn’t good at it, I can tell you that .

And later that day, we met at school for some prep talk. The 2 teachers joining us, handed out a paper with instructions and safety precautions. Safety precautions??? My thoughts exactly. Some of those precautions:

• Eat before you get into the sauna. Sauna is very energy consuming, if you haven’t eaten enough, you might pass out
• Don’t go alone in the ice. (Not that there was any, but even just jumping in the cold water could get you in shock)
• Don’t overestimate yourself. Begin on the lowest tier in sauna, it’s hot enough to start. You should enjoy sauna, not suffer from the intense heat
• Don’t drink in sauna. (Well, after a couple of times, we just went on with the flow, it’s Finland aight?)

Those were the most significant instructions. I was a bit afraid, I’ve been in sauna 1 time before, it was at a swimming pool, and I left after a minute…
But hell, I wasn’t going to retreat now. Sauna is part of the Finnish culture. 1.7 million sauna’s for 5 million people. Now that I think about it, the sauna/people ratio is the same as the gun/people ratio…Anyway, we took the bus to Rauhaniemi, a residential area of Tampere. We were dropped of at a forest, and had to go for a 15 minute walk to reach the sauna.

So we arrived, paid, jumped in our swimming shorts and had a go. First in the sauna, and boy, 110 degrees is hot. And after a 10 minute boiling session, us prawns were ready to hit the lake. No nonsense, just jump!

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Oh….my….god. What a sensation! You feel your heart rate increasing exponentially! I think I’m in love <3. Daaaamn. Everybody seemed to enjoy it. And everybody looked wasted . Yes, you could get a "high" feeling from the sudden temperature change.

Another tradition was to eat makkara’s afterwards (eventually, we put ‘em on the grill while being in the sauna). And those were lovely, especially with the spicy/sweet mustard gently provided by the sauna.

Some noteworthy facts:

• Hottest temperature I’ve experienced: 129 degrees
• Coldest water temperature: 3 degrees
• Longest run in sauna (without breaks): 20 mins
• Longest run in sauna (with breaks and dips): 3 hours
• The sauna got burned down the weekend I was in Romania…

So, around 18h40 we arrived in Copenhagen. We had a quick meal. And suddenly Brian had to take a leak. After a few minutes he came back, totally elated, and said to me “G, you really have to take a piss at that toilet.” A bit of exaggerating, but hell, might as well have a go before heading to Tampere. And then, I entered a temple! Marble cans, begging me to donate my litter to their shininess. Talk about exaggerating! That was, and still is, the most AWESOME toilet I have ever used.

And then, off to Tampere. The plane of Cimber Air looked quite shabby, but hell, it would do the job. And then, at 22h50 we finally arrived in Tampere. A crap airport, but we were safe and sound. I realized I made a big mistake in communicating the arrival time to the locals. I kept the 1 hour time offset in mind. So when I saw that we would arrive around 23h00, I told the locals we would arrive at 00h00. Trying to be clever and stay one step ahead, little did I knew that airlines already calculate the time offset -_-…

But then, a black haired girl, and a blond guy with a ponytail up ’till his ass (It’s a cool pony tail Juha) approached us, and asked us, are you [insert abstract pronunciation of Brian Cox] and [insert abstract pronunciation of Glenn Veugen], from Belgium? Affirmative. Luckily the blond guy also tried to stay one step ahead, and checked the timetables in advance. Smart guy. So we got in the van, together with 2 French speaking Canadians, Sylvain and Guillaume, awesome guys by the way. And after a half hour drive we arrived at our crib for the upcoming 5 months. We immediately noticed the 3 sex shops in our street. And then, le moment supreme, we entered our room. Not too shabby, and we had our own can and shower. Awesome start. After settling, Brian and me went for some nocturnal sightseeing in Tampere. We did like the city, although we noticed the contrast with Belgium. We, being all casual and stuff, were the weird guys, the goths and emo’s were casual in Tampere. Yuck, I’m allergic to emo’s -_-. But hell. We went to sleep, and then one of the freakiest moments in my life occurred (another would occur 3 days later, but no details on that one, sorry). We didn’t knew how to get an internet connection, and Brian started panicking in his sleep. And how. He was making noises, and woke me up.And as I woke up, I hear him saying “excuse me ma’am, we have no internet. How can we get it?” Those exact words….

The next few days we settled, explored the region, found some free internet in the public library (was a 2km walk though, but so worth it), and made some new friends. Here are some snapshots of our room: