NOTE: Juuuusssttttt in case you didn't know, you can click on a picture and then flip through them. This might be especially nice for the longer picture sequences, like the Northern Lights photo explosion of love.
Long overdue as usual.
We woke up the next morning to the sun shining through our window with all its might. The scenery was beautiful: crisp white snow everywhere, the sun, and silence. We were excited about the day but tired no less. So, to get us out of bed, Adrian opened the door and let the cold in, creating this cool fog show. I called it 'the magic trick.' And that morning, and every morning after, I would gleefully chirp from my top-bunk clubhouse "Do the magic trick dad! Do it again dad! Do the magic trick!"
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| Doesn't it look homey?? |
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| Morning Starshine! |
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| Lapland's alarm, no clock necessary. |
After we donned our snow pants and coats we wabbled on over to the main house for bbbbrrreeaaakkfast!
I remember I ate a lot that morning.
Time for cross country skiing!!!
Nope, just kidding, all of the skis are gone.
Elena and I decided to go on a self lead snowshoe safari and then go CCS later that day.
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| Bumped into Adrian! |
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| Sank into a big pile of snow |
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| Difficult to see perhaps, but the snow was in the shape of a mermaid. So we drew a face on her |
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| Here she be! Arr! Brr! |
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| SO MUCH [UNTOUCHED] SNOW |
Llllaaaawwwwwddddd did we walk! We just kept going and and going deeper into the woods. It was a winter wonderland, like all of Lapland is.
We took a long break at one point and just stood in silence taking it all in.
I don't think I've every expereinced a silence like this.
Seriously, it was so quiet that I was like "Do I exist??" It was this strange sensation of feeling nothing and everything at the same time, a feeling that resurfaced a few times throughout the trip.
We found our way back to the cabin site and met the huskies of the land. The puppies were so cute and one was named "Friend" ^_^
The cross country skis were still being used by others so we did some sledding, and just chilled and enjoyed the scenery.
Around 4:30 it was finally our turn to ski!!
Now, I'd never done cross country skiing, and bless Elena she tried to teach me, but we got lost a bit in translation.
Use your sticks to help you, they said.
So, I would reach my sticks waaayyy out in front of me and try to pull myself forward. I was exhausted and going nowhere.
I did this for a solid 30 minutes in front of the cabins where the others were inside drinking hot drinks, and possibly watching me.
"Push your sticks behind you," she finally said.
BEHIND ME? They're supposed to go BEHIND me? So for the last 30 minutes I had looked like a total dumb-dumb.
Using this new knowledge, I was finally able to ski decently.
We took 2 laps around the lake and then entered the woods for a real treat.
Skiing through the woods was magical, especially since the sun was setting and last bits of the day's light made the snow glitter.
After the woods I did two more laps around the lake until the sun went away.
We chilled in our room and then had dinner.
That night we had the traditional, though hardly ever eaten (apparently), Finnish dessert. Baked cheese and jam. It was delish.
SAUNA TIME!!!
For those of you who don't know, I love sauna, really really really.
There were a lot of girls on our trip and not as many boys. Though the saunas are supposed to be gender seperated at this place, Elena and I went to the boys sauna where there was more room. They didn't mind.
We had a jolly good time, laughing, talking, and occasionally playfully complaining about the sudden intense heat that came after someone poured water on the hot stones.
The time had come. We were sufficiently hot which meant, LAKE TIME!!!!!!!!!!
That's right kiddos, this chick [carefully] ran outside into the below freezing weather and then voluntarily stepped into the lakehole. Yells of "OHMYGAWDITISSOCOLD" ensued.
We paused for a second and looked up the stars. Another "everything and nothing" feeling occured.
We dropped down so that the water reached our necks and then got the hellabit outta there.
The run back into the sauna/cabin was killer.
We got hot again, and then ran back outside to roll around in the snow, twice.
The snow roll was especially cold. The snow hugs you like "I love you," and you're like "sssnnnnnnooowwwcccoooollllld. me cold. let go"
When we got back in the sauna steam arose from out tummies and it looked rad.
It was time for Lake Crawl part 2!
Half way between the sauna cabin and the lake a girl on the lake very calmly says, "Look, Nothern Lights." Stopping myself like they do in the movies, I look up, don't see anything, and then to her. "Are you drunk?" I didn't mean it in a mean way, it's that everyone was drinking so it seemed like a good thing to ask before I sounded the Northern Lights alarm.
I ran over to her and sure enough you could see a soft green light in the sky.
I was in and out of the cabin yelling "NORTHERN LIGHTS!!" faster than reindeer number 1 of yesterday's tale.
I was in nothing but my swimsuit and managed to survive a good two minutes before my friends were like, PLEASE, put some clothes on before you die!
I went in, grabbed clothes and my camera.
We got lucky, the green became more vivid and there were 4 seconds where they lights did a solid dance across the sky. It was incredible.
This is the dance sequence, I had "Yellow" pop into my head during this.
They left and then came back for an encore:
The lights said good bye for the night, and so did we.
Actually, no we didn't. We all went to cabin 1 where there was a fire going and chilled until 3ish in the morning.
Good night.
Always,
S
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