We have been in Kuopio the for two days now, getting settled into our apartment and finding our way around town. The kids start school on Thursday, so a few extra days of break for them.
Doing some reading ahead of time I learned about the Finnish concept of sisu – loosely translated as inner strength. I was familiar with the term growing up in Northern Minnesota, which had one of the largest groups Finnish immigrants. What I remember is that sisu was used as a substitute for “Finnish” (maybe used as an adjective (“I am sisu.” Or “Sisu proud.”) than a noun or concept.
As an example of sisu, one remarkable thing we immediately noticed was the number of people walking around even in the dead of winter. People biking (using fat tire bikes), as well as senior citizens (we saw people even with a walker!). It helps that the city is designed to support this lifestyle – we find ourselves not walking “next” to cars (or if we do, it is for a little bit), but more on a dedicated walking / biking path – and in some cases in the woods separated from the highway. Kuopio is the only town that we have explored so far – but based on what I could observe from the train ride from Helsinki, it seems like this is a universal concept.
A walking path going into the city center. It looks like a snowglobe! 
The “gravel” used for traction. Looks like some crushed pebbles. 
Even though it doesn’t look like it, we passed a lot of people walking, or even biking. Wasn’t too cold!
The dedicated walking paths makes for a much more pleasant walk (and allows the kiddos to kick around ice chunks as soccer and play) without having to worry about the kids not walking on the sidewalk. One curiosity we noticed: a layer of gravel rock (rather than sand or ice melt) is used to provide traction. We don’t know if the walking paths are concrete, dirt, or something else – there is too much snow on top to tell. I know in Minnesota we shovel our sidewalks to the concrete. To be fair, the walking paths are much wider here – and less of a constraint of where to put the snow.
As we lean into life here, yesterday we walked downtown (about a 30 minute walk from our place) and back again. It felt good to get outside – one of my goals while here is to increase my regular exercise – winter + COVID has been a deterrent for me. The temperature was about 20 degrees – comfortable with enough layers. Making a comparison to a Minnesota winter (which I probably will be wont to do), one variable missing was the wind – it was calm (less windchill). The cold didn’t feel like ice daggers stabbing at your cheeks.
The forecasted weather is trending colder the next few days (single digits), so we are hoping that we can take advantage of these temps. Perhaps when we venture out next time we will need to wear snowpants in addition to the long jacket?
Regarding sleep, I am still jet-lagged. I think C and G have both become accustomed to the time zone switch (G in particular has slept through the night from day 1 – I’m jealous!) P, who I think inherited my genes for sleeping – which I inherited from my mother – is our typical morning person. I think this jet lag is extra hard for people like us – when we wake up our body says it is time to wake up and move – rather than lay down and sleep more. What we do is eat a little breakfast, watch tv for a little bit (we found some English speaking programs), and then go back to sleep.
Rather than fall back asleep it was productive to put on some coffee and read some journal articles for my project in the quiet. We don’t have internet connected yet, which can be a challenge but I also find a little liberating to not be tempted to check social media or email or the 10 million other distractions.
It all sounds so wonderfully idyllic , we’re having an insurrection here, you know just everyday normal things!