Distractions, reflections

David Ing, at large … Sometimes, my mind wanders

2009/08/24-29 HSE, Senate Square, Design Factory, WeeGee

With a visit to the UK and Finland planned for the same trip, summer air fares led me to fly direct from Toronto to Helsinki, with a side trip into Heathrow and back.  I arrived in Helsinki just in time for the start of SEM 2009 — Service Engineering and Management Summer School — attending for the fourth time.  The classes were scheduled for the Otaniemi campus, as usual, but the first meeting was held at the Helsinki School of Economics downtown.

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I had booked a flight arriving that morning, so the introductory lecture was a big foggy.

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The welcome dinner was held at a restaurant just across from Senate Square.

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In a game depicting the Finnish heritage, a competition of hammering …

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… and sawing preceding the drinking songs.

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Besides attending the summer school lectures, I managed to squeeze in sightseeing.  Minna took me over to see the Design Factory.

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Minna had participated in an workshop in The Stage, a few days earlier.

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Creativity is encouraged with kits of drawing and construction materials.

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On the weekend, I took the bus over to meet Minna at WeeGee Exhibition Centre in Espoo.  Scandinavian modernism shows up in the metal bench outside, even before entering the building.

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The Finnish Toy Museum is on the second floor of WeeGee.  The treehouse doesn’t accommodate adults.

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The Helena Rautavaara Museum displays a collection of artifacts from the travels of a foreign correspondent to the Middle East and South Asia in the 1950s.

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EMMA — the Espoo Museum of Modern Art — is a maze of rooms on the second floor.  Minna noted the classical schoolroom desk, and contributed some comments to the book.

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Downstairs, the Espoo City Museum had a display focused on fire prevention, including some antique trucks.

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Also on the ground floor, the Finnish Museum of Horology has a compact collection of clocks and watches.

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That evening, Minna and Petri hosted a dinner party.  With sushi-grade fish readily available in Finland, preparing nigiri sushi required only a short demonstration for others to join in.  Many hands make light work.

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The distance from Toronto to Helsinki makes a 5-day stay a short trip.  The 7-hour time zone difference means jet lag, so the next stop in the UK would take advantage of having to make the bigger adjustment.

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