More Pictures

Here are some more pictures. We leave on Sunday. I feel the need to reflect on the trip and what it means in the greater scheme of my expat experience, but I'm not quite ready to do so yet.

Parfait from the local tea room. 

Christmas lasagne ingredients.

My Grandmother, making Christmas lasagne.

Not lasagne. Octopus. 

Hyvää joulua

Hyvää uutta vuotta kaikille.  

Some Photos to Tide You Over

Well, we've been here in the USA for just over a week now. I'm not sure there's much to write about that would be of interest, so instead I'll post a few photos we've taken over the past few days.

There's no snow yet, since its been unseasonably warm. Lots of ice, though. Taken by Rami.

Ah, Winsted. The jewel of northwest Connecticut. Taken by Rami.

Our first meal in the US. The only half-way decent barbecue place in New England. Worth the gluttony. 

Me, gazing out onto the horizon. A friend said I look a little like I just disposed of a body.

A beautiful picture of the family dog, Riley. Taken by Rami. 

My older brother's letterpress shop on the third floor of the old factory building that also houses the family business. Taken by Rami. 

Candy at a town sweet shop. Taken by me. 

An enormous antique store in the old Collins Ax Factory building. Taken by me. 

I'll be back with a real update and possibly a few more photos in the coming week. Maybe. 

Joulu Asiat

Today, Rami and I went to check out the joulumarkkinat. In honor of Christmas, vendors set up shop at the fortress to sell mostly local, handmade, or homegrown goods. Though it has warmed up some and the roads were a veritable sea of slush, we had quite a Christmasy time there. 

Although we had intended to buy a few trinkets for the folks back in the states, we failed to find anything really suitable and instead bought some smoked salmon for ourselves. Family and friends, it looks like you guys'll be getting a whole lot of chocolate again this year. Try not to cry.

Since it gets dark pretty early these days, I was unable to get any very decent photos. You'll just have to trust me when I say it was neat. 

I do wish we had things like joulumarkkinat in the states. Larger cities have street fairs and things, but it's somehow not quite the same. There is a definite yet ineffable Christmas/joulu atmosphere, what with seasonal songs, the decorative lights,  and the (very wet, grey) snow.

Afterwards, Rami and and I got some lunch at Kasino. For dessert, they had joulutorttuja (singular nominative: joulutorttu). These are flaky, star pastries with plum jam in the center, sprinkled with a bit of powdered sugar. One of my joulu favorites, actually.

And now, to go back two days time, my Finnish class had our holiday/end of the semester party on Friday. A lot of people brought sweet things (as you can see from this terrible cell phone photo), and we had some coffee and glögi to wash it all down. This holiday season hasn't been especially kind to someone with trouble digesting carbohydrates.

I had some really nice conversations with a few of my classmates (sometimes entirely in Finnish when we did not share another language), as well as a nice long chat with my teacher (in English). Among the topics she and I discussed was how well our little international group gets along. There are no tensions to speak of, and everyone appears to pull his or her weight in terms of doing assignments and showing up to class. I imagine that's not always the case, since learning Finnish can be a frustrating task. I left feeling proud of just how much Finnish I've managed to learn in the last three months, as well as connected to the larger community here. Back in July I assumed that, by now, I'd still be flailing about in the joulukuu wind, desperate to ground myself in some degree of integration. Well, perhaps I'm doing just that, but not only do I have a lot of help, I feel strangely comfortable in the role of "immigrant."

Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää

This is a really nice place you got here, Finland. Thank you for letting me live here.

I'm serious. I'm very grateful. The little life that I've only begun to construct has been progressing marvelously, and I'm excited about the future in a way that wouldn't even be conceivable in the US. I don't fret about how to pay for my medication, nor do I have to bludgeon my neurologist and his staff in order to get their attention. [The amazing treatment I've received from them is a story for another day.] This country also produced my husband and his family, all of whom are so indescribably awesome that I'm finding it impossible to describe them.  Really, the only problem with Finland is that it isn't closer to Connecticut, USA.

To celebrate, Rami and I took a walk and snapped some photos of the first real snow of the season.

I'm glad to be going home in a week, but I know I'll be glad to come back, too. 

Surprise Sex Toys

1) In a little over a week, my first semester of Finnish will be over. In about 13 days, I'll be on a plane headed to New York. My dad'll pick Rami and me up at JFK, and we'll be on our way to good old Barkhamsted, Connecticut for a pleasantly secular Christmas. I'm feeling fairly settled here in Lappeenranta, but I do experience bouts of homesickness, and I'm quite excited to get home. When I first arrived in late July, Christmas seemed impossibly far away. Now it's nearly here, and I can't wait to see all the lovely people I left behind.

2) In Finnish class today, it struck me that I probably know a good amount more about Finnish grammar than my husband does. And yet, he speaks it fluently whereas I speak it laughably. That got me thinking about the incredibly efficient nature of childhood language acquisition. It continues to amaze me when I think of it.

3) Also in Finnish class today, we were examining some pieces of junk mail and discussing them in groups of four. Our teacher asked us to bring in a couple of our own for tomorrow, and so, after coming home from the store this evening, I began sifting through the massive pile of advertisements that sits in our hall. (We recently put a sign on the door refusing all forms of junk mail because we had been getting so much of it, but we've been too slovenly to bother getting rid of what we still have.) I found one that looked promising -- it had electronics and other neat things on the cover -- but after flipping through it a bit, I came across a page on which there were two hot chicks posing next to an enormous dildo and what appeared to be a fleshlight. Good thing I didn't just pop that one into my bag to peruse in class.  Opettaja, mikä tämä on? Paljonko se maksaa? 


That's about all. I've been reading Russell Banks's new book, working on my novel, studying Finnish, and watching old episodes of Peep Show on youtube when I need a mental break. Life is boring, but very decent.