George and I flew to Finland in June of 1999. Morgan had spent ten months there as a foreign exchange student, and we went over to spend some of her last days with her. We had a wonderful ten days full of new people, experiences, and a language that was fascinating to hear, but impossible to pick up on in a short time. We landed in Helsinki, spent a couple of days there, then took the train northward over a period of three days to arrive in northern Finland where Morgan had called home for nearly a year. Her last host family had invited us to stay with them at their home in the country.
We arrived at Midsummer, which is a holiday of sorts. After the long darkness of winter, they were enjoying twenty-four hours of daylight. We picnicked on grilled reindeer sausage, learned how to properly participate in sauna, and visited in the backyard till we were exhausted. There was never any clue from the sky that it was time to retire for the evening.
They offered us this cute little guest house for sleeping. Going to bed at midnight, I remember we covered the windows with dark clothes from our suitcase to be able to sleep. Having the sun shining through the night was very disorienting!
Here the Finnish flag is being raised in the back yard to celebrate the longest day of the year.
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