Somero English Club (5)

Yesterday was the fifth meeting of the the Somero English Club. Even though the club has not existed for very long, I already feel as though we know each other and that every Tuesday evening I am going out to meet two groups of friends. 

Kirsi, Kari, Heikki and Manu

I particularly enjoy the unpredictability. You never know in advance exactly what is going to happen or what subjects will come up, but you can be sure that every Tuesday there will be one or two completely surreal moments. Yesterday, at one point I found that we were discussing how to say "ladybird" in Danish..... How exactly does that happen in an English conversation group? (Mariehøne in case you were wondering)



Kirsti, Antti, Kari and Päivi create jobs in Somero

There are also some common themes every week though. Somehow, no matter where we start or where we are going to, we always end up mentioning both skiing and horses several times. Another common element is that every week I learn something new about the Finnish language or culture. Last week it was piepo (I am still recovering)...and yesterday it was the word "hankikanto." This is another one of those words that does not have a direct English translation (a little like lumityö, or snow work). Hankikanto means a frozen layer of snow that is hard enough to walk or ski on....and this came up yesterday because when you have a hankikanto you can ski anywhere without the need for ski tracks. This is why a large number of people in Somero are out skiing at the moment!

Katri reads her poem



Katri was back after her holiday and read us the first poem she has ever written in English. When she becomes a world famous writer we want it to be clear that we were there at the very beginning!



Our second class was very big last night, so we split into four groups. The task for each group was to use an imaginary budget of 250,000 euros and come up with a plan as to how to spend it for the benefit of Somero.  The whole group then voted on the propositions which were as follows -



Group A suggested that the money was used to employ a local police officer who would patrol the town on a horse. (Yes really, I haven't imagined this). Somero does not have its own police station, so the idea was that this would bring police presence to the town and also be a tourist attraction as they would all come to see the police horse.

Group B planned to split the money, using 50,000 for a concert in Somero. Katri's first choice was the band Nightwish, and at number two was Karita Mattila, who couldn't really be more different! The next 100,000 would be used by giving financial incentives to companies so that they would employ young people over the summer in order to give them experience. This is actually a great idea and if one day I win the lottery I pledge publicly to do it! The last 100,000 was to be used to improve life for elderly people in the town.

Tony, Katri, Leena and Soila propose an airport for Somero

Group C had a different tactic completely, in that they concentrated on transport links to the town. Somero currently has one bus station with direct links to Turku, Helsinki, Salo and Forssa. The suggestion from Group C was that the money should be used towards an airport with direct flights to London and New York!  I don't think anyone had thought about the overhead flight noise though. We certainly wouldn't be able to enjoy the silence anymore with an airport in town.

In response to these proposals Group D then proposed setting up a travel agency which would promote Somero using all of the above ideas. In addition they proposed skating and skiing camps with participants staying overnight in the mansions (kartanot) of Somero. 

Riitta, Raili and Kyösti with the winning proposal

After two rounds of voting group D (Kyösti, Raili and Riitta) was picked as the winner. We finished the evening by talking about all the things that as a group we were looking forward to. The answers were very varied, and included the snow melting (me), entering an ice fishing contest (Manu), having two exchange students to stay (Antti), playing golf (Kari 1), seeing friends at the weekend (Kari 2), finding love again (Katri), going to her summer house (Soila), skiing (Kyösti and Raili), getting the results of her son's science exam (Leena), starting a gym course (Kirsti), finding a better work life balance (Päivi) and finally sleeping (Kirsi).

Life is often full of twists and turns but it helps a little bit to concentrate on the fun things in life, and that is certainly what we did last night. Once again I left Kiirun Tila with a smile on my face, thanks to the people from the club. I wish you all a happy week...and especially get well soon to Heikki....see you all soon!