Finnish winter by Rune Pönni, class 9C

Finnish winter starts at different times in different parts of Finland. But you could roughly say that in Southern Finland it starts in December and in Northern Finland already in October. The "beginning" of winter is counted from the day the first snow arrives. The temperature also differs between south and north. In the southern parts the temperature is about from 0– -17°C and in north it's about -20– -25°C. It's pretty cold anyway so we Finns must have a warm change of clothes.

Winter is very important to the Finns. The winter is quite long in Finland so the Finns have lots of time to do all kinds of winter sports like skiing, skating and slalom. In the past the skiing has been a quite important travelling form in winter in Finland. Nowadays people don't move that way to travel but skiing is very popular sport in Finland and Finns have won some remarkable competitions like Olympic skiing.

Skating is also popular and ice hockey. Many young people like to play ice hockey and it's a common hobby among Finnish youngsters. Finland has also many good ice hockey players and Finland has also won many world championships in ice hockey. But ice hockey isn't the only way to skate. In Finland you can also go skating to a frozen lake! You can travel much longer distances than on a normal ice rink. It's really great.

There is also a quite special "sport" that some Finns like to do in winter. First they make a hole in ice called avanto. Then they warm their sauna and go swimming in the cold water. This is called "avanto swimming". After the cold swim Finns go quickly to sauna to warm their cold limbs. It's really refreshing though it sounds quite grazy (not that I had tried myself). Obviously this can only be done if you have a sauna beside a lake because you would freeze after the cold swim if you didn't.

In the Southern Finland where I live we don't always have much snow so skiing isn't always possible here. But the norther you go the colder it gets and there is more snow. In winter vacation many Finns go to Lappi, the northest part in Finland, to do all kinds of winter sports. In Lappi you can also see reindeer and even Santa Claus because his office is located there.
Well I hope you got some kind of figure of what Finnish winter is like and maybe even learned something. But I think I should stop now so that I won't steal more space from here. Thank you for reading this.

The Magic of Winter in Finland by Maria Efimova, class 9 C

Many Finns, especially small children, love winter. It’s not only beautiful but it also gives the opportunity to do things you would be unable to do in the summer. Some people may say they hate the winter because of the cold but most of the Finns have loved it at some point. I myself am one of those people who like it. To me there are only few things that are more beautiful than land covered with snow.
In Finland the snow falls usually in the end of November but lately we have had to wait for it until second half of December. First snow can fall as early as middle October but it usually melts away in few days. Snow falls, of course, earlier in Northern Finland than in south. As a matter of fact the winter is actually longer and colder in north.
In the past few years the winter has become a lot warmer. Ten years ago the temperature could drop down to -20 degrees in Helsinki, nowadays it usually stays between 0 and -10 degrees. There have been a few times when it was as cold as -17 degrees in Helsinki and most of those times were Saturdays… In the Northern Finland it has been as cold as -30 degrees or less.
During winter it’s possible to do many things that are impossible in summer. You can often see little kids building a snowman or playing in the snow. Ice skating on natures own ice on top of rivers and lakes, ice swimming, skiing in the forests, and playing ice hockey outside are a good example of the kind of activities that are only possible during winter. At least I can’t imagine myself doing any of them during summer…