Day 6 4/2/12

We are now in Akaslompolo Finland which is right near Yllas. We arrived last night and the six athletes which now includes Eliza are staying in a cabin right off the ski trails. There are over 300Km of ski trails here that go from town to town and have trail side cafes all along them. You could pretty much ski anywhere here! Unfortunately this was our off day so only Nick and Eliza got to go skiing. Nick said this was one of the five best skies of his life, so we are all excited for skiing tomorrow. We spent the afternoon exploring Yllas which is a small, kind of spread out, touristy, both downhill and cross country ski town. Our big excitement for the day was finding a reindeer Farm and trying to communicate with the owner that we were from Alaska and were looking for a reindeer halter for Neill’s reindeer. He didn’t speak any English and we don’t know any Finnish so he called a friend and she translated for us. In the end he ended up just giving Neill an old one of his to take home. We all thanked him profusely in Finnish which is pretty much all I can say so far. Today was just a relaxing day hanging out doing some homework and exploring a new town. It was a bit sad being in such a big ski town and not going skiing, but now we will all be extra enthusiastic about exploring the new trails tomorrow.

-Ema

Quote of the day- “Ice cream isn’t dairy, it’s a dessert.”  Jenny