Most people are wearing one. Mine is soft fuchsia color, bought for seven euros at a second-hand store (must be last year’s color). So far I’ve registered others in tan, black, white, grey, light blue, bright red, orange and teal. They’re incredibly practical – warm, light and comfortable. I’m talking about toppatakki, a quilted winter jacket. Mine is down-filled and comes with a hood that buttons at the neck. It’s perfect for winter biking. Of course, the styling doesn’t please everyone; there are more fashionable people who wear nice, well-styled wool coats. Some women even dare to wrap themselves in gorgeous fur. Ninety percent of the fur coat owners march in high-heeled boots with a whiff of perfume lingering around them. Immediately, I recognize them as Russian women. Russians have ‘invaded’ Finland – this time peacefully, and they are most welcomed. On New Year’s Day, I returned a rental car at the ski resort hotel, near my house. Not a word of Finnish could be heard. The receptionists spoke slightly accented Finnish, and all the signs on the bulleting boards announced something – I have no idea what.  The only word I recognized was ‘pack’ in English. Russian men lingered in the lobby bar, young couples entered rosy-cheeked, pulling their equally healthy-looking children in sleds in the barely snow-covered sidewalks. The hills were all white – snow produced by a lumitykki – literally a snow cannon.

Last Christmas season, 2007-2008 brought 100, 000 Russians to Finland. Rail travel alone will brought about 40,000 of the tourists, but the vast majority came in their own, late-model vehicles. Many of the tourists went to the northern parts of the country, especially Lapland. In fact, Russian tourists have become increasingly important to Finland – in 2007, tax-free purchases alone have brought in more than 100 million euros. When interviewed the Russian tourists report liking Finland because  “it’s clean and safe, and the stores have a great selection of fashionable clothing”. Famed Finnish design stores, such as Marimekko and Arabia, haven’t benefited that much from the flood of Russians. Average Russian visitors do not favor their simply styled products. In view of this, in the fall of 2007, Arabia launched a new design for dishes, named Taika, Magic, hoping the magic would work its spell.

                           
                                  taika pattern

But there are other new visitors too! I saw some in Helsinki a few years ago for the first time and had to rub my eyes – panhandlers in Finland? Romanian beggars and flower sellers have been appearing in Helsinki regularly for the last couple of summers.   Previously, they moved to warmer places before the winter, but this has changed. Another reason to blame global warming! It now appears that these beggars and flower peddlers are also involved in crime. The Helsinki police hope that the punishment should be severe enough the unwelcome visitors would not risk of arrest nor find it worthwhile to come to Finland or stay here.

But not in Jyväskylä! No beggars! Instead, snow has finally arrived! Last week, there was a big snowstorm. The wind blew and the snow fell, and my friend from campus called and invited me and my officemate for afternoon wine in a pub downtown. She had decided that the day was far too stormy for work. I dared out – in my fuchsia colored toppatakki – and made it to the Old Brick’s Inn. After two hours, we had to work hard to get out; there was a half a meter high pile of snow on the street, in front of the door.

                  


                           
                                     We've got snow!!!!