Kiitos Suomi!

in iceland it was takk, in latvia it was paldies, in estonia it was tänan, and in russia it will be spasibo. it is perhaps the easiest and most practical word to learn in a foreign language, besides hello. in finland, it is kiitos.
so kittos, finland, thank you thank you thank you for the memories!!
it is bittersweet, now that Navetta is empty and quiet and all the cots and sheets except ours have been folded and put into the common space. i am sitting here in the kitchen drinking vanilla tea with the door open to the night and it is only crickets i hear. i went downstairs and walked through the maze of deserted printing facilities and was reminded of lonley late nights in the oberlin silkscreen studios, trying to perfect my sloppy registration and admiring the drying racks full of posters for concerts at the 'sco: blonde redhead and the like. i feel i haven't said enough about this week. our workshop was great, the perfect pace. we worked a lot- we were always working- yet it was easygoing and flexible. we played with light in the woods and the lake and in a beautiful mansion and an attic. it was a small class: there were ole and henry, two dutch boys of grad school age, and there was middle-aged oldrich from czech republic (but living in imatra with his finnish girlfriend who worked at the school next door). also living in imatra was laura who just finished her first year at the very same school where we had our workshop, and esko, a delightful old finn who spoke hardly any english and who must have felt so out of place taking part in a workshop conducted in a language of which he has only the most basic knowledge...an outsider in his own city. yet he made such an effort today during our final critique, and he was so sincere. he had prepared some kind words and translated them and written them down to let us know how happy he was to have participated in the program. then there's melissa and myself, the two american girls ('you came all the way from america?! why?´ to which i say, 'why not?') and of course also jan pohribny, whom i have admired since i took his class in prague. we all left with very warm feelings, a bunch of decent photographs, and some knowledge and experience we didn't have on arrival.
paivi, another photo teacher, has arranged for some woman to drive us early tomorrow morning across the russian border where we can catch a much cheaper train to st petersburg after spending some hours in a small town. the anticipation is building, and i fear i won't be able to sleep from excitement, like a kid on christmas eve. the contrast will be great from this little city- this little town- to that grand city, which contains probably as many people as in all of finland.
finland for me will from now on be mushrooms and black lakes and suanas, instant coffee and bulk candy and tall trees, a perpetual train taking car after car of felled birch trees to russia and a perpetual truck taking luxury car after car there as well, people power-walking with ski poles and washing their cars and their rugs at the edge of the river, and of course it will be painting with light.
i will take with me a wooden toy boat found in the woods and a woolen sweater found in the free box of our hostel on the lake and also a bit of a cold. i will leave here my baltic states lonely planet and my travel tripod lost in the shuffle and also my two final prints from the workshop.
it is midnight and i must pack.