An Essential

Perhaps, just perhaps, some of you wonder about this country that I live in. It is a peculiar place that for all purposes I currently call "home." While avoiding the topic of home itself, which is complex for someone like me, I will make an attempt to share some tidbits of this distinctive people and their habits. So, with nothing but the desire to expand your horizons, let me enlighten you today on one topic that is essential and taken for granted in a Finn's existence.

The sauna.

Aah, here is a word you have heard before, and indeed, it is possibly the only Finnish word that is spoken worldwide. But maybe your mind's eye does not see it quite the way mine does. I see a wood-paneled room, with wooden benches, low lighting, a hot stove with rocks, and a convenient bucket full of water with a ladle beside it. The idea is to throw water over the rocks, creating steam that fills the room with heat around 80-90º Centigrade. Now, add the sweating nude people sitting on little towels, and the picture will be complete. On the first round, I personally like to sit in the sauna until the sweat drops off of my fingertips before I race outside into the lake to cool off. If I'm with cousins, we compete to see who can stand to stay in the longest! In urban settings, you have to be satisfied with the shower in the tiled washroom that is usually next to the sauna. In the winter, you can race outside in the -15º weather and jump into a hole in the lake ice, or roll in the snow. (I can recommend the icehole, as it is quite refreshing and addicting!)

These rooms can be found in all homes, all new apartments, in apartment complexes where they are shared, in swimming halls, on beaches, in hotels, in recreation centers, and at summer cottages. It is said that past Finnish presidents even met with their cabinet members in the sauna! It is a great place to relax, to think, to get clean, to talk, to just be (if you can stand it!). For the record, my parents' hometown hosts the World Sauna Championships every August, but those temperatures are just ridiculous!

My favourite sauna is at our summer cottage. It has all of the above-mentioned aspects, except the stove is an old wooden one that requires plenty of firewood and time to heat up; there is also a huge water boiler next to it, a random assortment of collected shampoos and soaps, and even a lace curtain in the window. The sauna (with a sleeping chamber next to it) was the first building constructed at our summer cottage when my mother was still a child, and I love the front porch that runs along the length of it and the smooth door handles and wall hooks made from twisted tree branches. Situated right next to the shore, it is but a hop, skip and jump from the sauna door to the water's edge!

Now, don't you want to come visit and sit for sweaty spell? :)