Eurajoki

Minna and Mika live in a little village just outside of Rauma. We all toured around the southern west coast of Finland, ate reindeer, and reviewed my lab protocols this weekend. Minna is serious about being a good adviser (we worked hard!). She and Mika are also serious about showing me the great things in Finland!


Old town Rauma's wooden buildings are filled with a quaint hustle and bustle of Christmas shoppers and coffee shops. It's known for its colorful wooden architecture. It's now a World Heritage Site and attracts visitors from far away places.

There's a new nuclear power plant being constructed in Eurajoki. The elaborate visitors' center had a number of hands-on energy and physics demonstrations, including a magic elevator that takes you down to the spent fuel storage wells (to store the spent uranium while its radioactivity decays for 2000 years). I mean, it was imaginary, but I still felt butterflies in my stomach as we pretended to descend hundreds of meters. Even though many of exhibits were geared toward children, Minna and I still learned a lot!