Santa Claus is My New BFF

As Sara brilliantly described earlier about our adventures in Santa Land I too have had quite the interesting experiences with the cheery man up north.

Up in the north there are times when the weather is a bit too chilly. When you're walking the streets of Rovaniemi with your boo sometimes you need to sacrifice the warmth for the touch of your partner. But in the land of constant snow there are these really cool mittens that you can wear that keeps the warmth of both parties. how sweet.

In some of these other lovely pictures you can see Sara and Rebekah far too excited to get on the bus to Santa Land!

There is also a picture of Sara on the Arctic Circle, a photo from the Rovaniemi airport...where there are lovely testaments to the big man himself and his eight furry friends, and a picture of Santa from a TV screen that is located outside the Santa-dungeon.

Also, to see Santa you must walk through a "magical wonderland" of Santa where you are actually experiencing what it would be like to walk through the north pole into his workshop. in reality this magical land was quite scary and dungeon-like. there were creepy noises, fire and ice, a larger than life clock, and strange noises from nature. i think there should have been an age limit for the santa dungeon because i could see any child under 6 years of age being quite terrified. anyway....

Santa is a man with an economic and rockstar plan. there was no flash photography allowed while in the Santa-dungeon and our entire experience was videotaped which could be purchased later at the end of our visit. as a group we decided to buy the large gift pack where we were able to get the copyrights of the pictures as well as the video. everyone is splitting the money so all in all it was not so expensive. as soon as i get those photos i will post them for sure.

We also taught Santa how to do the O-H-I-O.

Oh and also since Santa-Land is a tourist money trap you can also buy children's letters to Santa from all around the world for a small fee but rest assured the money goes to charity. Santa is such a giving man.

Overall, i give Santa-Land an A++. it was a nice adventure after a long flight and it was fun to cross the arctic circle. i especially enjoyed the christmas music from all around the world that was playing in the court yard. AND i also enjoyed the fact that we could send post cards from the North Pole with a special Santa stamp. Be on the watch out for those, coming your way.

And to all a good night,

Megan

Wanted: Elves from Santa's Villages

Much to my love, i have seen that the great MC has crossed the ocean to inspire the young minds of Finnish artists. I have no idea what this box is for, perhaps as a billboard or an electrical box, but i love the message behind it. if you think about it, it truly is time to 'stop! Hammer time!' With this in mind, I will humm the 'ooo-ooo-oh-oh' and sway my legs. Do as the message says and just let loose.

On to more exciting things, I have been to the artic circle. and as much as i would love to call myself a BAMF, i cant help but say that it was simply a tourist attraction and i was wearing my Sperrys and a shirt with roses on it. When i was 10 years old, I thought that if i would ever go to the artic circle, i would be adorned in wool and boots. As a presenter of environmental sustainability, i believe it is my right to say that my childhood fantasy has been ruined by global warming (or i dont know what im talking about because it is the middle of june).

Rovaniemi is considered the hometown of Santa Claus. It is pushed into my face every day when I exit my hotel (Hotel Santa Claus) complete with 2 elevators respectively called Snowball and Red Nose. Anyways, the main point of this blog is to tell each and every reader that there are no Elves in santas village. i asked a few workers if there were elves there, and i was being very serious because if there is santa there must be elves. if i can pay 3 euros for a stack of envelopes that children from all over the world send to santa, then why the hell cant they find people to make appearances with little curled up shoes and pointed ears. after i pondered this thought a lil further, i thought, "well, maybe their interpretation of elves are that they are tiny people and not dwarfs" So, i continued to look up in the trees and in small corners of the village to see if perhaps there are some small elves who are taking a holiday.

Fierce & Reindeer,

Sara Christmas

Moi!

Obviously ecstatic to get on the flight.

We're off to Finland! I feel like we have been planning our trip forever and now the time has finally come! This was my first international flight so I was concerned about how long we were going to be sitting in one place. our first flight was to jfk where we had a three hour layover but we were able to pass the time with cheap chinese food and chips ahoy.

The first thing i noticed when we got on the plane was the unusually tall, blonde stewardesses which was the first sign that we were going to a nordic country. the other large give away that this was not going to be your usual in-country flight was that all the safety directions were delivered in at least six different languages. is this part of their job description? can you only be a stewardess if you speak twelve different languages? i need to look this up.

if you plan on flying to any nordic country i would highly recommend finnair. it was a really great flight and there were TV screens in the back of the seats in front of you so we were able to choose what movie we wanted to watch. you could also choose between TV shows as well as music playlists. i recommend listening to finnish classical or finnish easy listening.

apparently on the flight over no one could sleep so when we got off the plane we all looked like zombies and were all disheveled. i tried my hardest to fall asleep but there were a couple of things that were out of my control that decided to keep me up for a majority of the flight. one large problem was that my seat was broken and couldn't recline...bummer. the lady in front of me decided to recline her seat all the way back...which i am happy that homegirl could get her sleep on but i am not a petite person so i cannot fit into small areas for long amounts of time. sara likes to say that it looked like i was in a bubble the entire time. i liked pretending that i was a mime and stuck inside a glass box since i couldn't move anywhere. anyway there was also a small child sitting next to me that was adorable at first....then she put on her headphones and insisted on screaming at the TV since obviously she couldn't hear herself. needless to say the flight over there was enjoyable but i wouldn't want that same situation to happen to me again.

overall, international flights are not as terrible as i was expecting. try a test drive before you sit down to make sure that your seat works...but there is always a possibility that it doesn't and you're forced to sit up straight for 7 hours. obviously avoid small children at all costs when flying over three hours.

that's all for now. - Megan