Another early morning wake-up, breakfast, packing, and then on to the bus we went.  Our first stop was Säynätsalo municipal building, designed by Alvar Aalto between 1950 and 1952.

The lighting in the building was amazing, especially considering that picture above is the main meeting area.  It was actually one of my favorite buildings that we visited on the trip (and of course, an Aalto).

Then back on the bus to head out to Alvar Aalto’s Muuratsalo experimental house.  Apparently we would normally have gotten to the house by crossing the lake, but the ice conditions were shoddy so we instead jumped a fence and hiked through a good 40 centimeters of snow (a little over a foot).  Jon, our fearless tour leader, donned his rain pants and lead the way through the forest stomping down the snow creating a path as he went.

This was quite the funny walk, because if you slipped off the path you “fell” into a whole bunch of deep powder.  We must have looked ridiculous; 40 students walking single file through the woods, most with inappropriate footwear, and really, where were we going haha.

We eventually made it to the experimental house, which we were only able to see from the outside, and even then only two facades, but we were so glad to have made it and to see the beautiful view out to the lake.

We took the opportunity for a group photo in the courtyard of the house… throwing snowballs of course!  You can see just how deep the snow was…

The whole area reminded me a lot of Long Lake, and I can imagine how great the house would be both in summer and winter (with the right equipment!)

Let’s just say I was very thankful to Pernille for letting me borrow her boots for the week—they definitely came in handy during this field visit!!!

We made it back to the bus up our little path and tried to defrost on the bus on our way to Jyväskylä to the Alvar Aalto Museum and University.  Are you noticing an architect theme for the day?!  We ate lunch at the university canteen which was cute—felt like I was back in Alliot, only I had to pay for the food.

The A. Aalto Museum was designed by none other than Alvar Aalto in 1973, and it was actually pretty interesting, showing a lot of his models, furniture, and works with wood (which are shown below).

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the university which was, in my opinion, a disaster.  We couldn’t see most of the places that students were presenting on, and we were so exhausted and cold still from the long day, we all just wanted to get back on the bus and sleep.

Since I was so bored at the university, this would be a good time to share one of my favorite stories from the trip.  Remember my bus buddy Edward?  He went on the Sweden ski trip with me, so I remembered meeting him there.  On this trip, though, our jobs were to keep a look out for each other, and make sure we don’t leave the other person behind in the woods of Finland.  Well, someone on the bus asked me, “Your name is Cassandra, right?”  And I said, “Yeah, call me Cassie,” blahblah name shpeal.  Well, Edward is giving this person (James) the weirdest look, and then he just says, “Oh…no.”  Apparently, since the Sweden trip, Edward had thought my name was Danielle.  Of course I was just laughing and making jokes because here I was sleeping next to this kid (and apparently on his shoulder and across his chest when I was really out) and he didn’t even know my name!!  Well after that I threatened to leave him behind at just about every stop and take the whole seat to myself.

the swim hall at the university and a sculpture swimming outside the municipal building.

Anyway, back to the university, the one redeeming part of that afternoon was the swim hall that A. Aalto designed; this was not a pool hall.  It was an amusement park.  There were probably about 5 different pools, including double-decker hot tub and full length swimming pool, as well as a giant twisty slide and wading pool.  This place was amazing, and here were were clomping around in our snowboots with plastic booties over them and jackets, taking pictures of people while they swam.

Back on the bus, fall asleep, wake up for a delicious dinner (on DIS)!  I sat with my CalPoly crew, and we enjoyed artichoke soup, lamb and bearnaise sauce, and orange-chocolate mousse.  Back on the bus, back to sleep, wake up in Helsinki at a real hotel, which was such a treat.