Helsinki...

...is very dark this time of year. I knew this was true in theory, but having never ventured this far north in the winter before, I wasn't quite prepared for arriving at 3:30 PM, i.e. dusk, walking around the city at 4:30 PM, which might as well be 4:30 AM in terms of darkness, having dinner, going to bed, sleeping for eight hours, waking up, having breakfast, getting into a van, arriving at a day care facility for our scheduled tour, and it's still dark. It's a Fiddler on the Roof light pattern, basically--sunrise, sunset, all in the space of about six hours. That said, the people are friendly and as is always the case when you travel abroad, one's sense of possibility as to how things in America might be different is expanded, in terms of everything from public policy and cultural attitudes to food and bathroom fixtures.