We’re Moving!

If you had asked me this time last year when we’d be moving out of Finland, I likely would have said, “not soon enough!” In the midst of the “three year slump”, I was desperate to move, to get out of this seemingly unfriendly country, where everything was a challenge. Now, however, I can fully appreciate the experiences I’ve had here, and look back fondly at the many wonderful things Finland has to offer.

With our moving date set (and now only three weeks away!!), I’m thrilled to be stepping into our next big adventure: Life in the UK. While there are definitely things I’m going to miss about Finland, there are many, many things I’m looking forward to in the UK. Here, I’ll make a list.

• Less of a language barrier. (Yes, I know they speak English, but I’m not prepared to say that there will be zero language barrier. I know better.)
• A house with a yard. Our very own yard! Young Miss has taken quite a liking to being outdoors, so it will be incredibly nice to be able to open the conservatory door and let her run free.
• A conservatory! At the moment, we’re planning to use it as a dining room.
• A real bathtub. As nice as it’s been having a drain in the bathroom floor, a bathtub will be a luxury with two small children.
• More space. The house we’ve rented is a good deal larger than our current apartment, and, in true British style, the kitchen is separate from the other rooms, so I can reasonably hope to not have half the toys under foot while making dinner.
• Having a car. Public transit in and around Helsinki is fantastic (I haven’t found a city to beat it yet), but there were plenty of things we missed out on doing because we didn’t have a car. Hubster and I have agreed that we don’t want to miss out on those things anymore, so we’re planning to buy a car pretty quickly after we move.
• A well-established office. We were some of the first people to move to Helsinki for Hubster’s job, and the only ones with a child. This meant that no one really knew the ropes when they moved, and we all had to figure it out as we went along. In Bristol, the office has been operating for a few years now, and quite a few people have kids, so there are plenty of people to answer our very American questions and explain how all the little details work. (There are so many details.)
• And, of course, getting to explore a new city and country. There are so many amazing places near Bristol (Bath is only a 15 minute train ride away), and so much history, not to mention castles, that I can hardly wait to step into my Jane Austen-inspired dreams and have a good poke around.

After almost five years in Finland, I’m not deluding myself by thinking that everything will be easy peasy. Far from it. I know there will be challenges, frustrations, and hard days, but it’s difficult to know exactly what those challenges will be until we encounter them. I’ve already managed to sidestep a few by chatting with people in Bristol, and that is more helpful than most people know.

With such a short time left until the move, I feel like there is still a lot to get done. We’ve hired packers and movers (Young Miss is in the fun “unpack everything” stage, so packing would be impossible), but I’m still trying to go through clothing to get rid of what we no longer need/want. It’s not a fun chore, and I never want to do it, so it’s slow going. I should get back to that, but first, here are some fun life updates:

Young Miss turned one! And started walking soon after.

Little Man turned five! He’ll be starting school this fall.

That’s mostly it, but it feels like a lot with their birthdays only two months apart. With more travel, or at least new scenery, on the horizon, I’ll hopefully have a bit more to write about in the near future.

Well, That Hasn’t Happened in a While

As I sat at the kitchen table this morning, obsessively refreshing my phone for updates on the US presidential election, the last thing I wanted was to have an argument with Little Man about whether or not he was going to daycare today. Without too much of an issue, we managed to get dressed and leave the house in time to catch the bus from the station. We even got there with a few minutes to spare before departure time.

As is typical with LM, he went in through the front door by the driver, and I went through the middle door with Young Miss in the stroller. I proceeded to sit down in the stroller section while LM climbed to the back of the bus to sit in the very last row. He knelt on the seat, looking out the back window. This is pretty much how we always sit while on the bus: me in the middle, LM in the back. Today, however, that was unacceptable to the driver.

With only five other people on the bus, the driver came up to me and said (in Finnish) to have LM take his shoes off the seat. I looked, and half of one of Little Man’s boots was on the seat. I told him to put his feet down and he did. The driver then kept talking to me in Finnish, so I finally told him that I didn’t understand him. Immediately switching to very good English, he told me that it’s safer for LM to sit with me in case there’s a sudden stop. (I’m assuming I’m expected to catch him if this happens.) The driver clearly wanted LM to sit in the stroller section with me and Young Miss, but, having already judged his mood for the morning, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

You want us to sit together? Fine, I’ll hold the baby and sit in the back row. (For the record, I’ve held both LM and Young Miss as babies on the bus and it’s never been an issue.) The driver told me that I’d have to move now as he was leaving, making it sound like it was my fault that he was going to be late. Trying to stay calm, I explained that I was moving, and continued to unhook the stroller fastenings keeping YM in place.

Finally ensconced in the back row, we were ready to go. Unfortunately, the driver wasn’t. Not satisfied with our chosen seats, he came all the back to where we were sitting and explained, mostly in Finnish, why we needed to move closer to the window. (There are five seats in the back row, four of which are behind other seats, with the middle facing the aisle. LM likes the middle seat, with nothing in front of him.) The driver pointed out that if there was a sudden stop, there would be nothing to stop LM from going flying. Fair enough. So let’s put him in a seat where he’ll get a concussion if that happens. (I was pretty irritated at this point, and felt like I was being badgered.)

We scooted over so LM was in the window seat and I was right next to him. The driver then seemed to notice that I was holding a baby. He opened his mouth and I was prepared to argue back this time (dude, just GO!!), but he rolled his eyes instead, as if giving up, and went back to his seat. Finally!

I have not been pestered on a bus this much the entire four years that we’ve lived in Finland. It took me right back to our first months here, when everything was new and scary, and all I needed was a little help and compassion. I don’t think this driver knew I was foreign when he started talking to me (quite apart from speaking Finnish, I see a lot of other people not sitting next to their young children on the bus, so it’s not a “foreign” thing), but it made me feel like the ignorant foreigner, and I haven’t felt that way in a very long time. Until you live as an expat, you never fully understand this feeling or comprehend just how far a little compassion and decency can go to making someone feel welcome.

As we sit on the brink of a new presidential term, I hope and pray that Americans will show that compassion and decency; to their neighbours, to their friends, to the people they don’t like very much, and to the foreigners, many of whom are being threatened with deportation and separation from their families. Compassion and decency matter. I hope our votes can prove it.

Happy January!

Good grief, I’ve been slacking! The last you heard from me, we were about to go to Colorado, then Oregon to visit family. We did that in September, then in November went to Mexico to celebrate my mom’s retirement. On the way home, we had a half day layover in Istanbul (boy, was that exciting!), and somewhere in there, I became pregnant. It’s been such a long time since I last wrote, there’s only two months until the baby is due!

So here’s my plan: I’d like to write a post about Cozumel because it was such a great trip. We’re actually heading to London this weekend, so that might come first. I’m also now writing a pregnancy blog (because if life in Finland is different, pregnancy definitely is), so I’m juggling that as well. However, Little Man is now enrolled in daycare five days a week, so you’d think I’d find the time for all this. Plus, you know, preparing for a new baby. Eek! I figure if I write out a plan, I have a better chance of sticking to it. Here’s hoping!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! For now, I’ll leave you with this adorable picture of Little Man poolside in Cozumel.

He had a blast! Pappy is in the background (that’s my daddy!)

What I’ve Learned from 2+ Years of Expat Life in Finland

Two and a half years ago, Hubster, Little Man, and I packed up our lives and flew to the other side of the globe. I’d never set foot in Finland prior to arriving here as an expat. To do so with a four month old baby and two dogs might seem a bit crazy, and, looking back, it was. But it’s also been incredibly educational, not to mention a wild ride! Here are some things I’ve learned from life as an expat:

Moving day, 2016!

You’re going to miss out on things “back home”

Marriages, babies, and all the other fun life events happen, whether or not you’re there to help celebrate. And that hurts. Sometimes you can see it coming. Sometimes it’s like a sucker punch that takes your breath away. It’s even harder when you want to be happy for someone but you can’t help feeling left out. Imagine seeing pictures of your entire family at one event without you. All you can really focus on is the blank space in the photo where you know you’d be standing. That gaping hole no one else seems to notice. Ouch, right? That’s the worst part about expat life. I haven’t found any way around it, so I bite my tongue when I feel a snide remark coming on, and try to let it pass. Because truly, I am happy for my friends and family. And I know, given the chance, they’d want me to be there too.

And when you do make it back, you’re overwhelmed with joy

True friends stick around

It’s hard to leave a place where you have good friends. Sure, you can (and should!) make new friends, but some people have known you so long, you can’t tell a story without them already knowing it (or being in it), and you just can’t replace that. I feel incredibly lucky that I’ve kept most of my friends from the States. And it truly is states, plural, as Hubster and I moved from Oregon to Wisconsin a year after we married. Eight years there, and we’d dug our heels in pretty well. I figured if my friends in Oregon kept in touch over those eight years, moving to Finland wouldn’t be an issue. And it hasn’t been. Two of my Wisconsin friends have actually flown out to visit, so talk about being invested! Let’s not leave out Colorado in this list. Hubster grew up there and had/has an amazing group of friends in the mile high city. (I think I actually keep in touch with them more than he does. Thank you, Snapchat!) It might sound time consuming to keep in touch with so many distant people, but it varies person to person. Some people I talk to almost everyday, others get a text once a month. Honestly, I’m glad they put in any amount of effort; even a little bit goes a long way when you’re thousands of miles apart.

Besties since we were 12, living in different states since 18

You become more of your true self

This was quite an interesting lesson, and one I didn’t realize I was learning. When Hubster and I first got married, my dad told me that the best advice he’d gotten was to move a thousand miles away from your family. Not being the type to do things halfway, we moved two thousand miles away. Then, we more than doubled that distance to move to Finland. When you can’t physically spend time with your family, you no longer pick up their habits. Sure, some things are ingrained in who you are, but adaptation can occur organically, and without your notice. I’ve picked up habits, mannerisms, and words that my family have never used and find quite strange. I caught myself just the other day referring to a popsicle as an “ice lolly”. I’ve left my sleeping child in his pram (stroller?) outside restaurants without a second thought. I now know to always weigh my produce at the grocery store. These are things that never would have crossed my mind had I stayed in the US.

Just napping outside the restaurant

On the parenting front, this forced me to find what was important to me, and also highlighted my parenting style. I didn’t feel like I was surrounded by judgy moms (it was a real fear before LM was born) because the expat friends I made also had foreign customs they were adhering to. I felt supported in my decision to buck certain Finnish parenting standards (like always having your child nap outside) and went with the flow of what worked for my son and I. (And Hubster, because he’s here too.) That’s not to say that everything worked, but I felt more free to pick and choose from a much wider variety of options than I would’ve had Stateside.

Loving the pink sand beach in Crete, Greece

It does get easier

Thank goodness, right? Those first days, and even weeks, in Finland were new and exciting and I definitely viewed everything through rose tinted glasses. I was living in Europe! I was surrounded by a foreign culture! I could walk outside and hear a multitude of languages! It was everything I’d always dreamed of. And then…it wasn’t. All those exciting things turned into frustrations: this was a culture I didn’t know and wasn’t sure I could navigate. I didn’t actually understand any of those other languages, so where did that get me? (Okay, the living in Europe part never bothered me.) There were days when I’d come home from the grocery store and cry tears of frustration because nothing went right. Yet, somehow, I made it through. I was lucky enough to know another expat (living in a different country) and I can’t remember how many times I texted her telling her about what a crap day I was having. She would always respond by saying she knew exactly how I felt, and would usually share a frustrating/funny story of her own. That one connection made everything seem manageable. Knowing that I wasn’t alone made all the difference. Eventually, mostly through mom meetups, I found other expats, also with babies, and we bonded. On so many levels. It’s one thing to be a first time mom, but to do that in a foreign country really compounds so many feelings. Those ladies became my main support system and now, almost three years later, I’m so glad they did.

Mom night dinners are a sanity-saver for all

I would do it all again in a heartbeat

As exasperating as some days have been (and let me tell you, I’ve had some doozies), nothing widens your perspective like living in a foreign country. You not only get to fully experience another culture, you get to see the world from a different angle. I don’t have the words to properly explain it, but I did stumble on a quote by Mark Twain that really resonated with me: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” It’s just so true.

Teaching LM all the ups and downs of travel

So, if you’ve ever thought about moving abroad, or even traveling somewhere new (and you find that a little scary), take the leap. I promise, you will be better for it.

If you’d like to hear more about expat life in other countries, check out the Big Dreams Bold Moves pod cast here. You can also hear my take on it verbally as I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Malia.

Keep adventuring!

Pause for Real Life

I’ve been really struggling to find the motivation to write recently. Croatia seems so far away, and with so much happening right after that trip, I feel like I got lost in the melee. So I figured I’d give you all an update on life’s current challenges. And let me tell you, it feels like one challenge after another.

In August (is it really already halfway through September?!), Little Man started part time daycare at an asukaspuisto. It was three days a week for three hours each day. The first day was an orientation type gathering with all the parents and children present. Throughout the entire thing, Little Man was crying and screaming. Eventually, I took him out of the main room and into the kitchen so he could throw a fit. I was close to tears at that point as well. (He doesn’t usually protest that much about anything.) I have no idea what was happening in the main room because everything was in Finnish, but one of the four teachers attempted to translate the form they needed me to fill out. This was perhaps not helpful as one of the questions asked if anyone else would ever pick Little Man up. The words the teacher used were closer to “is there anyone else here, your mom, or…?” which just brought me even closer to tears. (I think I was still coming down from my parents visit and it felt like she was rubbing the distance in my face. It’s a harsh reality, especially when raising a child.) I completed the form as best I could, then we hightailed it home so LM would calm down.

The next day, the first full (three hour) day of daycare, I led LM to the outdoor play area, tried to get him settled, then left. This was the only daycare I’ve heard of that doesn’t have an ease-in time, where one of the parents stays until the child is comfortable, typically for a few days. He screamed when I left, to the point that another mom was nice enough to tell me (in English) that it would be okay. I was so sure that LM would enjoy his time socializing that he wouldn’t mind me not being there. Forty-five minutes later, the daycare called me and asked me to pick him up because he was still crying. (I could hear him in the background.) Oh, the frustration!

We tried again the following day and the same thing happened. The second week, we had more of a plan. I must say, they worked with me quite a bit to try different things and help LM adjust. Nothing worked. The first hour of each day is spent outside so I brought him in later so he could play inside. He put his shoes back on and stood at the door screaming. If I stayed with him, he tried to walk home. Nothing. Worked. After three weeks, I decided that was enough. I had so looked forward to having some time to myself for the first time in two years. It didn’t take long for it to sink in, however, that if I kept getting called to the daycare to pick up my screaming child, I wouldn’t be able to make any plans. Aside from that, time alone was not worth seeing my boy so incredibly upset every day. I’m not going back to work so there’s no rush to put him in daycare. While I’m of the mindset that “you must first take care of yourself before caring for others”, perhaps this was simply a case of changing my expectations. During those three tumultuous weeks, the quote “be the parent your child needs, not the parent you want to be” kept running through my mind.

I gave in and pulled him out of daycare. I can’t say he’s now the happiest toddler ever (he is a toddler, after all), but I can clearly see that he’s more comfortable staying with me all day than being left with strangers who speak a foreign language. Speaking of language, LM has started speech therapy since he isn’t saying more than maybe ten words. We’re only two sessions in so I’m not sure how much it’s helping him, but I’m gaining insight into what I can do to encourage speech. There’s progress but it feels achingly slow.

So, with an active toddler to keep entertained, I’ve been making a point of being outside or going somewhere everyday. Little Man is incredibly routine-oriented which makes going to the park difficult; it’s the opposite direction from the store, where we go almost daily. He loves going on any type of transit, but now insists on walking, so the pram, aside from making said transit free, is a bit cumbersome. There have been days when I’ve bought tickets on my phone just to ride the bus to the metro station, then home again. Today, for example, we took the train into Helsinki, switched to the metro to go back to Espoo, grabbed some food and coffee at Espresso House in the metro station, then hopped on a bus to get home. Luckily, these things are all fairly close and I’m certainly testing my navigational skills, but I don’t feel like we’re really doing anything. But hey, LM is happy, so I’ll count it a win.

But what happened to that alone time? Well, I’m glad you asked. I’ve been yearning to get more into photography for a while now, and Hubster surprised me with the camera I’ve been pestering him for. (He told me he’d ordered a cable so I didn’t think twice when a package arrived.)

New Nikon D3400

After watching some youtube videos for tips and advice, we found a guy that offers different courses. I signed up for the beginners course (and have since completed it) and I love it! I don’t exactly get “alone time” while practicing since Little Man is my constant companion, but I can make it work. Most of the techniques can be practiced anywhere, but I try to combine it with an outing so we both benefit. The other day we went to the white church and ended up sitting on a street corner while I fed LM. (He had previously thrown a fit because I made him sit in the pram. He’s so active, he won’t stop for food unless forced to.) I ended up getting some good photos, but boy did it take patience (and not the kind taught in the course)!

So, on we muddle, into new phases of childhood, parenting, and personal growth. And slowly, slowly, we welcome fall to Helsinki.

Bits and Bobs

Nothing much has been going on in my corner of the world lately, hence my lack of inspiration. Spring has finally arrived in Helsinki, melting the seemingly-endless snow and providing some wonderful puddles in which to test out Little Man’s new rain boots.

He could not love these boots more. He wants to put them on in the morning (and often does) and wear them around the house. He’s becoming much more independent, and his persistent personality is becoming quite apparent. Tantrums are a fun new game.

My patience is tested almost daily as I try to provide various activities to keep my little whirlwind entertained. There’s a park literally two block from our apartment. You make one turn to get there. On days when we actually make it, it can take up to 45 minutes to walk there. It’s amazingly exhausting. I’m torn between trying to do something specific (like end up at the park), and letting my little explorer, well, explore. I love watching him see the world from his point of view. Everything is fascinating. But damn if I don’t sometimes want him to just walk along with me. The nice thing about the walking paths to the mall near us (near by distance, miles away if you’re calculating in toddler speed) are wide and safe so he can wander a little. Most days I can tolerate taking half an hour to walk to the store, especially if it means there’s a good nap in the near future. Other days, not so much.

This week, as luck would have it, I fell ill the very day Hubster left for a week-long sojourn to the US. Needless to say, it’s been tough. Manageable, but tough. Thank goodness for Peppa Pig. (I never thought I would say those words.) I’m all for limiting screen time (and boy, have I learned the dangers of NOT doing that!), but when push comes to shove and you can’t bring yourself to get off the couch, let alone supervise another human being who has a desire to run into traffic while outside, a little TV isn’t going to hurt in the long run. It’s days like those that make living so far away from family incredibly difficult.

Speaking of family, another reason I haven’t written for a while is a lack of recent travel. (On my part at least. Hubster is off gallivanting in the motherland. And by “gallivanting” I mean attending meetings, going to work, and taking my sickness with him. Poor guy. At least he gets good American food to lift his spirits.) However, that will change next month. We sort of had an unspoken goal of hitting 30 flights before Little Man turns two. Somehow I miscounted in my Spain post and we actually hit 30 on the way to Barcelona. So Little Man currently has 31 flights under his belt, and has since he was 20 months old! (That’s an average of 1.5 flights per month, his entire life!)

That being said, Hubster has a business trip planned towards the end of May and the pilot-in-training and I are going to tag along. I’m super excited about it. For one thing, it feels like so long since I’ve had a vacation. (Three months is a long time, right?) For another, the flights are the week before LM turns two, so the total cost for him is 31€. Oh, and the best part? The destination; Bristol. It’s where we’re hoping to move to after our time in Finland is over, and since I didn’t do a pre-move visit here, I’d like to do one to our next potential home. Not to mention, it’s always been a dream of mine to fly into LHR. (Heathrow airport, for those of you not up on your airline jargon.)

June will be spent at home, possibly celebrating Little Man’s second trip around the sun, then July will be packed. We’re meeting my in-laws in yet another country (I’ll keep you guessing until it happens) for a week of family time. The day after we return to Helsinki, my parents arrive for an almost three week visit. Although we nixed the idea of going to Russia, we have quite a few other adventures planned. As my parents have never been to Europe (okay, my mom went to Germany when she was 17, but I’m pretty sure the Berlin wall was still intact, so I’m not counting it), it’ll be interesting to hear what they think. Kind of like seeing everything the way I saw it when we first moved here. Exciting and new.

So that’s all I have for now. I’ll try to have some more write-able adventures between now and next month. Keep exploring, friends!

mde

My Happy Helsinki Heart

My goal for this post was to write about the positive things that come along with living in an unnaturally dark, frigidly cold climate, full of people famous for being closed off and aloof. Let me just tell you that I’m currently attempting this while the toddler is screaming from his crib for some unknown reason, and thoughts of the multiple judgy glares I’ve gotten this week are floating in my head. I’m digging deep here, people. Real deep.

We’ve covered the many things there are to do during the dark days, but there’s always that blah time after the holidays before spring arrives. And let me just say, that time can drag on and on and on… So I’ve tried to focus on changing my perspective. It’s a pretty handy expat trick when everything seems awful and you need a kick in the pants to shake it off. The sun doesn’t rise in Helsinki until after 9 am. Positive: I’m always up before the sun. It dawned on me (ha!) that I could actually go for a sunrise walk with Little Man to watch the sun come up over the water. I have yet to do so, but it’s still a possibility. (I mean, physically, it’s a possibility. Am I ever going to do it? Probably not. It’s freaking cold at 9 am.) I do, however, manage to catch many a sunset and they can be breathtaking. Not to mention the harbor during those rare sunny days when I manage to get out before the sun starts setting. Quite a feat, when the sun sets around 15.30.

The midst of winter is also a wonderful time for my most beloved hobby: knitting. Oh, glorious Scandic yarn! I fell in love with Nordic-style patterns long ago, and now that I’m in that part of the world, I’ve been able to seek out new and ever-more fabulous yarn. What a treasure trove! I know I’ve barely uncovered the tip of the woolly iceberg, but I’m making progress. It can be tricky (oh honestly, impossible) to browse a new yarn store while Little Man squirms in protest in the pram (if you can even get the pram in the store), so I’ve stuck with one so far. It’s smallish, which is nice. Limited options can be a good thing. What I did find there was Regia Pair-fect yarn. One ball of yarn makes two identical socks, and they are beautiful! I think I’ve made six pairs so far. (Yes, I’m aware that I’m addicted, thank you.)

An excellent accompaniment to knitting is coffee. (Yep, also addicted.) Europe in general has great coffee, but Finland in particular is on point with their coffee game. There are numerous cafes and the culture is a new experience. Just being able to sit and relax at a coffee shop, not feeling rushed as you chat or people watch, while sipping your latte and nibbling on a pastry is a delight. It’s almost an art form here. My favorite part is that all the cafes have high chairs. If nothing else, I can semi-relax while Little Man is strapped in, demolishing a croissant, and get a quick breather. And in case you think all cafes were created equal, you would be quite mistaken. Here is a picture of one of my favorites at night. It’s stunning, and the food is delectable.

One thing that Finn’s cherish, and rightly so, is their connection with nature. It’s hard not to feel connected to nature here. I mean, we’re living in Helsinki, a relatively big city, and you can hardly go from one place to the next without passing a park, walking through a forest, or catching a glimpse of a body of water. It makes it feel like you’re not in a city at all. Something that I, a country girl at heart, really appreciate. In fact, you can walk by the metro track and five minutes later, be completely unable to hear any traffic noise. With all this nature available, it’s taken full advantage of. Hiking and running are common, as are skiing (mostly cross country in the city), sledding, berry picking and mushroom hunting in the summer, as well as swimming and fishing. There’s something for every season, and every level of nature-lover (or nature-tolerater) to enjoy. You can’t even use the weather as an excuse to stay inside. There’s a famous saying in this region: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”. And boy do the Finn’s have clothing for every sort of weather!

dav

dav

Ironically, the one on the left is the spring/autumn suit, and the right is the snowsuit.

As an expat, I’ve realized that it is crucial to make friends and find a support group. Thank goodness for other expats! People who know what you’re experiencing and can not only commiserate, but offer a helping hand to pull you out of the funk. These people are a lifeline in a raging sea of language barriers and cultural faux pas. Your navigation system through an archipelago of newness. Your new friends and confidants. Your people. Your village.

While it can break your heart to think of the friends you’ve left behind, it’s good to remember that they miss you too. This can be incredibly difficult at times, especially when you see pictures of birthday parties, weddings, and baby showers that you weren’t able to attend (let alone invited to, because everyone assumes (rightly so, annoyingly enough) that you’ll miss these things). Oy. It hurts.

My friend Miranda and I have found an excellent way to combat this awfulness, while also letting Miranda get a taste of Finland. We call it the Yum Box. It’s based on the Bark Box that we’d gotten for the dogs before we moved. Each month, they received a box with different chew toys and treats, usually with a certain theme. To make this people-friendly, Miranda and I pick random goodies that we find at various places. I like to scour the grocery store for Finland-specific items. Certain cookies, salmiakki, Fazer chocolate, bacon-flavored crackers, and butter flavoring have made the cut, along with non-food items, mostly discovered at Tiger of Copenhagen. She is kind enough to send me things from home that I don’t see here.

Along with helping me miss home less, this box has the added benefit of encouraging me to continue seeking out the new.

It is this encouragement that I carry throughout my days. I am surrounded by newness. It can be overwhelming and way too easy to slip into my bubble and disappear. Therefore, I choose to seek out the new. To embrace it when I can, or turn it into a learning experience that I can look back on after those tough days that have worn me down. I choose to appreciate all the good things Finland has to offer. Believe me, there are quite a few. Even when everything is awful, I choose to be happy. Because my heart is happy here.

bty

Holding Pattern

Happy New Year, dear readers! I hope you all had wonderful holidays!

We had a relaxing couple of weeks at home, trying to stay entertained, with hardly any snow and most of our friends away visiting family. As part of our attempt to embrace Finnish culture, we made a nice Christmas dinner, complete with ham, mushroom salad, carrot casserole, rutabaga casserole, Christmas stars, and a few other things I can’t name.

It was delicious. The leftovers completely filled our refrigerator, so we didn’t need to go shopping for a few days. Or rather, couldn’t. Not that I minded.

After being confined to the apartment (minus walks in the courtyard) due to a pretty bad cold, Little Man was getting terribly restless. I can only take so much time at home as well, so Husband and I decided a trip to Hop Lop was in order. Turns out there’s one pretty close to where we live! I’d previously only been aware of the location in Ruoholahti (about thirty minutes by metro) so this was a great discovery. Even at 11:00 am on  a Thursday, the place was packed, but Little Man now has free reign and was able to explore most of the tunnels and play areas (closely followed by me, of course). He loved it. He didn’t stop moving until we sat him down to get some food so he wouldn’t pass out. As soon as his little stocking feet hit the floor, he was off, looking at everything and making happy noises along the way. (He doesn’t say any actual words yet. My brother didn’t talk until he was three, and I get the feeling that’ll be the case with this little rascal.) He was practically vibrating with excitement.

On New Years Eve, we attended a birthday party for one of Little Man’s friends. It’s always so fun to see all the (now) toddlers roam around and try to play with each other (or steal each others toys). With at least eight one- to two-year-olds present, it was quite fun.

Bonus: with so many mom’s present, everyone is taking pictures (although quite stealthily, I noticed) and you end up with some real gems, like the one in the middle.

On the walk home, fireworks were being set off at the park near our apartment. It was, after all, six in the evening and completely dark. (Sunset is still prior to 4 pm.) We stopped for a minute to watch and let Little Man enjoy the lights. He went to bed shortly after, while Husband and I barely managed to stay up until midnight. The bottle of Asti helped, as did one of my new favorite things about new years: watching the Finns dance at the big party downtown. I’m not sure why, but it’s highly entertaining.

Now Husband is back at work and Little Man and I are trying to fill our days once again. (Today’s activity: reorganizing kitchen cabinets.) It is, as they say in the airline industry, a holding pattern. Holding on until we have our next adventure in just under three weeks!

That being said, it was recently brought to my attention, by another expat, that simply holding on until such and such is not a good way to live life. (It was a whole thread about how to survive the darkness of Finnish winter and what to do when you’re just not happy here. A bit depressing, really.) So I think my next blog (I will need something to post about between now and said adventure) will be about everything that I like about Finland/expat life. So, if there’s anything you want to know, please leave a question in the comments. I’d be more than happy to enlighten you. And just for fun, if you could travel anywhere in the world for a winter vacation (it can be somewhere warm to escape the cold, or somewhere cold if you don’t like the heat), where would you go and why?