A Little Too Finnish

                                                                                     
At around 4 today, Rami sent a text message asking me to come meet him at his workplace. I obliged. When I got there, I saw two men lingering around the entrance, doing nothing in particular.

I sent him a message. "I'm here. Not coming in. There are weird dudes at the door," it read.

He emerged after a minute or two, laughing. "'Weird dudes' -- you're the weird one," he said. "Those two guys were just from the neighboring company."

"They looked as if they might talk to me. You know, ask me a question or something," I said. "'Weird dudes' was just shorthand for 'people I don't know.'"

"You've been in Finland too long," he said.

"Yeah, that must be it," I sighed. But that wasn't it.

I guess I need to spend a little less time studying and a little more time practicing being a normal person. 

Impending

My next trip to the US is coming up on the 16th of this month.

I'm going home so that I can act as a bridesmaid (-matron?) when two of my dear friends wed each other. I'm looking forward to spending quality time with the quality people in the wedding party, as well as helping out in ways that require my presence (in other words, something more than simply sending emails which read, "Wish I could be there!"). I've also been asked to sing a song during the ceremony, which I'm nervous about. The last time I performed was five years ago, at the wedding of another beloved person.

Aside from that, the trip will be just what you'd expect: lots of catching up with family and friends, eating, and hanging out with Riley. It'll probably be wonderful. And that's the problem.

Last Wednesday, I watched this documentary about Centralia, Pennsylvania. It managed to both move and frighten me. It forced me to notice the hometown zealot within myself -- the sort of person who thinks her own rolling hills are Shangri-La. [Edit: No, that's not 'what she said'. In fact, forget I said that.]

While I'm home, I'll slip back into the slot that's forever reserved for me. I'll get comfortable, and I won't want to leave, because I'm actually an enormous pansy who's utterly dependent on her place of origin. I guess that's the plight of many expats, though, and after the initial sting of leaving and coming home to Finland, I'll acclimate once again.

Other than thoughts of my trip and what it'll mean for my sanity, I've been focusing on Finnish (as usual). I feel as if I've become a bit of a bore on that front, so I'll refrain from commenting on it. Instead, I'll just share the photo of the place at which I studied on Friday.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have coffee to drink and Finnish soap operas to watch. 

Pretty Pretty Princess

Today, R and I went to the harbor for a couple of vetyä.

There's a tori near the water's edge where a man sells used books. He's there every day of the week. I often browse his collection, searching for items stupid enough to suit my Finnish literacy.

I've been slogging through Mies parvekkeella and I've discovered that, while it certainly is good for a mental workout, it's not something I can actually read. That is, I cannot run my eyes over it, understand most of it, and then look up the words I don't know. It requires quite a bit more work than that.

But what I want from my reading is to gain vocabulary, not simply to struggle towards something resembling comprehension. For me, grammar is the easy part. It's acquiring and retaining a decent vocabulary that's (very) difficult.

So, at the recommendation of quite a few people, I bought an Aku Ankka book from the tori last week. It proved to be quite beyond my reach within a few pages, and I've resolved to save it for when I'm a bit more advanced. I'm already reading one way-too-hard book. What I need now is a book that I can get through with some amount of ease and confidence, and which will allow me to learn a few new words without making me strain to comprehend their context.

Today, as I thumbed through the used books down by the harbor, I came across this shiny pink atrocity. "Well, I've been looking for young adult books," I thought. "But this one...I must find something else. Anything else."

All the rest of the young adult books were, in some form or another, about horses.

I approached the kind book seller very sheepishly. "Kaks euroa," he said. His skin was baked a deep brown from standing in the sun day after day. I blushed a princessy pink and handed him a 2 euro coin.

And that is how I began to read the third installment of The Princess Diaries.

Afterwards, we went swimming. I hesitated to bring this sparkly thing with me, but I thought, "Fuck it, I want to learn some Finnish while I lie in the sand."

It's exactly what I needed. I understand a great deal of it, including the context that surrounds unfamiliar words. Actually, I feel sort of badass as my eyes pass over the text somewhat fluidly. Imagine - me - able to read a book intended for someone fifteen years my junior!

I'm not complaining.