Suomen kurssi

Last night, my Finnish teacher mentioned to me that some people from Yle would be coming to film our morning class. My first thought, as it often is with these things, was en fucking jaksa. But they were actually quite unobtrusive, and we nearly forgot about them altogether. To my great relief, I was not chosen as an interviewee; that honor went to Krisztina, and I think she did an excellent job. They also filmed the class next door. The shots of people milling around are of our class. The shots of people poring over what looks like Suomen mestari 1 are from the other class.

Here it is. Our story begins at about 4.30.

Furthermore, I find it quite touching that the people of Lappeenranta are interested in what their ulkomaalaiset do all day. I thank them for caring and not recoiling. There certainly is prejudice here (though I'm pretty much never the object of that prejudice), but, on the whole, this place should be proud of its cultural tolerance.

Spring and by Summer Fall

It's autumn again, and I'm very happy.

The air is tight and cool, the leaves smell sweet with decay, and I've discovered that I am, in fact, still alive.

I always get annoyingly poetic about the season that precedes winter. I once wrote:
There is potential in the fall for my tissues to be reborn into glorious sensitivity. If it were summer, I may have wasted away by now, blowing away in the breeze, or melting into the soil.

Overly emotional, 18-year-old dreck aside, there is certainly something about fall that awakens me in a most pleasant way. I, like everyone, dread its onset, because it means a vanishing summer that will eventually give way to winter. Still, when it arrives, I am invariably overjoyed. I'm not sure why, but it's probably because fall's quite an important season for most New Englanders. It's hard to hate autumn when it looks like this, even if its arrival means returning from vacation, going back to school or work, and an imminent winter.

I'm not sure that Finns love fall quite as much as we do [any Finns care to comment on this?], but Finland certainly doesn't want for autumn beauty. And just as I always did back home, I feel now as if I've awoken from some kind of summer-induced stupor, and that I can begin again in some productive capacity.

I appear to have hit the ground running in terms of Finnish study; all the passive activities that I took part in over the summer, though they seemed a bit inadequate at the time, have helped me quite a lot. I'm actually speaking Finnish -- using it to communicate, not just to practice communicating. Please don't think that my attempts to speak are anything other than pathetic, but still. One has to start somewhere.

My English class has been a real joy, too. My students are really enthusiastic and very fun. They're quite willing to speak up, as well. What more could a teacher want?

And, lastly, if you were a nerd kid who grew up in the USA in the 90s, you probably watched The Adventures of Pete and Pete. I always think of this show as a bit of an autumn treat, since much of it seemed to take place around this time of year. And perhaps this formative children's entertainment is the reason I get so annoyingly poetic sometimes. And why I giggle whenever I hear the word "blowhole."

Fatigue

I've been doing very little, and, therefore, have had very little to write about. Real life begins again in a week or so.

I'm just coming out of a period during which I was very homesick, and life felt stultifying and arduous. My trip to the US was truly beautiful, but I was way too busy to really process what it all meant. I'm currently stuck in the quicksand of inertia and boredom, but I know that school and study will throw me a rope.

As it turns out, I'm awfully nervous about what's to come, though -- what if I'm unqualified to teach English, and I'm unable to answer pedantic and inane grammar questions (you know, the sort of questions that assholes like me ask)? What if my students prefer Received Pronunciation and are instead forced to listen to my distastefully coarse rhotic "r"? What if I haven't learned a sufficient amount of new Finnish vocabulary this summer, and I'm left perpetually behind as a result? What if I then never learn Finnish properly, and I end up with a permanent seat in front of S-Market, just next to that woman who asks everyone for precisely three euros?

Perhaps my anxieties aren't quite that irrational, but they're certainly somewhere in the neighborhood.

At my father's suggestion, I've started running. What a genius suggestion it was, too. I've always loathed running in the past, but my short-term circumstances give me little choice but to enjoy it. It gives me a sense of accomplishment that memorizing vocab on the couch fails to provide.

[I apologize for the lameness that is this post. I've been thinking of reviewing some of the restaurants here in Lappeenranta, so perhaps some juicy expat-blogish type stuff is on its way.]