Summer dreaming

The sun is starting to shine again in Finland.  As the barometer rises, the days are lasting longer and the smiles are returning to people's faces.  :)  Actually, it's no joke, now that the daylight is lasting past 9pm and the warmth is returning,  I am really noticing a change in my daily interactions with people.  We have lived in Finland now for 9 months and have only met a few of our neighbors.  Now, just in the last couple weeks a few families have stopped by to say  "hello".  Many Finns are an introverted  for let's say 8 months out of the year, but when the sun shines bright, they seem to awaken from their winter slumber and will surprise you with a smile or a "hi".  Nothing like the assistance of long, bright days to bring them out of their shells.

I am starting to get excited by the prospects of the Finnish summer.  I have been teased by a few weeks of Finnish summers while on vacation in the past, but never actually spent an entire summer residing here.  In addition to seeing smiling faces again, the summer terrace culture is kick starting soon.  People tend to avoid most indoor activities and soak in the sun rays at the city's many bar terraces and parks.  They truly relish the short summer season and supposedly frequent the terraces multiple times per week.  In other words, they truly take advantage of the small window of time that is the magic of the Finnish summer.  I for one, having been spoiled by Californian sunshine have taken advantage of every Spring day here where the clouds decide to go on strike and allow the sun to beam bright. It is already light till past 9pm and we are still in April.  Once late June rolls around we will have a few weeks of endless sunlight.  These endless nights are also known as the "White Nights" or "Midnight Sun".

After having completed my first winter in Finland and seeing the weather slowly evolve, I can now truly appreciate the sun I perhaps took for granted in California and now have some insights into the psyche of the Finnish persona and how they truly come back to life like a bear that just woke up from his long winter's nap.

Here's to summer 2012 in Finland and everywhere else in the world, may it be the longest, most magical, summer ever.

There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.  ~Celia Thaxter

Work life in downtown Helsinki

I realize that I haven't posted to my blog in several weeks.  It is not writer's block which is ailing me, it's now a lack of free time.  Life has just become very busy again, and that is a good thing.  I started a new job at an Internet media start up in downtown Helsinki and I am very psyched about working there.  However, I have neglected this blog long enough so I hope you enjoy this entry.

My new job is located near the Kammpi and Punavuori neighborhoods in downtown Helsinki, which is very close to the city center.  I live in Espoo and luckily my commute is no longer than a 15 minute minute bus ride, 5 minute car ride and about a 5 minute walk.  It definitely beats my previous commutes in the San Francisco Bay Area which were roughly 1 hour or longer.  Working downtown is nice because I am engulfed in all the cultural and historical surroundings of the city.  Just steps outside of my office building are multiple restaurants, boutique shops, hair salons, art & design shops, and various other services.  This is a very bohemian and somewhat eclectic part of the city.  Helsinki has never been known as a "hot bed" of culture, but I sense things are changing and the city is slowly becoming more trendy and international.

What mystifies me the most are the amount and selection of restaurants in downtown Helsinki.  Finland doesn't have a reputation as a foodie city and Finnish food itself is less than exciting.   When I leave my building and meander a few steps outside I am surrounded by Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Nepalese, Turkish, Mexican, Italian and countless other ethnic varieties of food.  The choices seem to keep growing everyday as I discover more and more places.  The main issue in Helsinki has always been the scarcity of good/fresh ingredients for ethnic foods.  Also, I think the Finns taste in food was never really geared towards exotic ethnic foods.  Historically this has been a meat, fish and potatoes country.  The only spices Finns seemed to know are salt and pepper.  I am particularly excited about the two new Mexican restaurants that have popped up downtown.  In my previous visits to Finland I had never discovered a true Mexican restaurant and most of them are considered Tex-Mex (think Chevy's style without beans, fresh salsa or Margaritas).  These new places are truly Mexican and have fresh ingredients, and feature Mexican chefs.  Immigration to Finland has been occurring a greater pace now and perhaps that is why so many ethnic restaurants seem to be popping up on every street corner.

Now that the Winter thaw is slowing fading away and the Spring sun is making it's appearance, I look forward to taking lunch strolls along the old streets of Helsinki.  Within 5 minutes I can be at the center of the city and within 10 minutes I can be at Finland's most famous street, The Esplanadi.  The Esplanadi is a long street that features a picturesque park, and is a great place to hang out in the summer sun.  Just a few more minutes away I can be at the famous harbor that features a daily open air market.  Helsinki is a fairly compact city and one can navigate it fairly easily on foot alone.  I look forward to more adventures out and about in the Capital city as the Spring sun slowly turns into Summer's endless white nights.

The many virtues of Wanderlust

My intention is not to go on a narcissistic rant about the merits of living abroad in a foreign country, but I do feel that there are some benefits and lessons to be learned.  Sometimes, I think we all need to escape from the monotonous rat-race of our everyday lives and take a chance here and there.  Well for me, the move to Finland has been a trip away from the safe harbors of my life in the Bay Area.   Of course, I had some trepidation before making a move 5,000 miles across the globe an abandoning more than half of my material goods and renting a house about half the size of our home in California.  Also, I knew going into this move that I would only have my current job for so many months, before needing to transition to a Finnish company.   I haven't even mentioned the fact that I do not speak the local language nor have I stayed in Finland for a long, dark winter.  I think really what I am trying to say is that sometimes in life one needs to step away from their comfort zones, walk out on that limb, take that chance and seek the unknown and undiscovered.  We only go around once and don't want to live a life full of regrets, so Carp Diem!

Traveling and living abroad is perhaps the best tonic for opening the mind to new cultures, attitudes, norms and different ways of doing things.  Sometimes we find that we might walk down the same familiar paths in life and other times everything may seem so foreign and alien to us.  Knowledge is power and a stagnant, unchallenged mind is not the path to personal enrichment.   Of course, these are just my viewpoints and I am not attempting to cram them down anyone’s throats.  I am merely expressing my opinion for believing in the power of opening the mind to change through travel.  I don’t think the only key to happiness in life is a stable, rooted existence.   I may have felt after hitting a milestone birthday recently and settling down in the beautiful city of Clayton, CA that my life was pretty much set in stone.   While I miss my home and the many friendships made, I know that these next few years abroad can do nothing but enrich me and my family and open our minds and hearts to new experiences of a lifetime.    I am also a firm believer that happiness doesn’t come from your residency, but it emanates from inside of you.  I think that once one has truly found happiness and confidence within themselves, they can be truly happy living just about anywhere in the world.  

I am hoping that my children, currently aged 5 and 8 will take this experience living abroad in stride.  They have found the schools to be not so much different from what they remember and have started to slowly immerse themselves into the new schools’ customs and traditions.  My daughter is at an international school and has already befriended several girls who speak both fluent Finnish and English.  There are also nationals from Germany, England, India, Mexico and several other countries represented at her school.  I think this is a perfect opportunity to immerse her into the international culture of living in Europe.  My son attends a Finnish speaking Montessori school and at first struggled to understand and speak Finnish but now is learning some phrases and has made several Finnish friends that he plays with on a daily basis.  I have met many of the parents along the way and have found the world to be much smaller than I can imagine.  In his Montessori school, I have encountered a Finnish couple who lived in USA for 20 years (about half their life) and  have met other Finns who spent a few years in the USA.   I have also encountered a Brazilian/Finnish couple and an American/Finnish couple.   I am finding that even in isolated Finland, I see people from all walks of life.  There is nothing better than exchanging cultures, ideas and traditions with folks across many different nations.