For the first time in my life I entered a Mexican cantina when I was in San Miguel de Allende. Reminded me of my local Finnish lähiöbaari.
Tag Archives: finland
Proper winter weather
Sunny and -10°C means it’s finally frosty and the bay is frozen. Nice!
How long before I can start skating again?
Vox Hunt: What Winter Means To Me
Show us what winter means to you.
Now, that depends where. If it's Finland we're talking about this:
If we're talking about Mexico, then it's something like this:
Climate change
This autumn has been unseasonably warm and rainy here in Southern Finland (we're still above freezing point). According to this story published in Helsingin Sanomat, it's only going to get worse in the coming years.
I want some snow!
Finnish Independence Day
Yesterday we commemorated Finnish Independence Day with my wife’s family at our place, with a typical Finnish dinner.
As much as I like Finland and respect the people that gave their lives for it, I haven’t yet understood why is it such a sombre occasion. Or rather, I understand that it is like that since such events are rather recent and, well, Finns tend to be melancholic, but I don’t feel comfortable with it. I’d rather have a celebration of Finnishness, but of course I understand it’s not my holiday, it’s theirs. I don’t mean to offend anyone with these observations.
What I really don’t like is sitting down and watching the reception at the presidential palace. There are these kind of receptions in Mexico, the United States and other countries as well on their national day, but Finland is the only place I know where people feel compelled to sit in front of the TV to watch a line of guests arrive and greet the president, and where the newspapers will have all the pictures of the party with a special focus on what where the guests wearing. Is it that Finland would have liked to have these kind of “royal happenings” more often, given that it is the only republic amongst its Nordic sisters?
Regardless, hope you had a hyvää itsennäisyyspäivää whichever way you decided to commemorate it.
Now, what am I going to do with my blue/white candles…?
Castañas
La cabañita a la derecha de la estatua de los Tres Herreros ha sido mi fuente de castañas en Navidad desde el año 2000 (exceptuando el año pasado que tuve que comprarlas en Bruselas).
Hay pocas cosas que me hagan sentir que ahí viene la Navidad que una bolsita llena de castañas calientes.
This is me
Quesadillas with Jaffa. The best of both worlds.
Finally at the local supermarket in Finland they have proper Mexican brands for their Mexican food like La Costeña and San Marcos, not only producers who are unknown and given the flavour of their offering would probably fail in Mexico. This means I can finally have quesadillas with a tortilla that tastes of wheat, not of cardboard.
Jaffa, well, that's just the best Finnish invention since rye bread.
Pink sky at sunset time
Said it before and will keep on saying it, Finland has an amazing colour palette.
Bureaucracy
You EU citizens have no idea how easy you have it to move around.
I'm going to switch planes in the US on my way to Mexico for Christmas, so I had to renew my American visa. The amount of papers required is astonishing, as not only do you have to fill 3 different forms, but they also ask for bank statements, pay slips, letters from your workplace, a copy of your contract, and some other things. You also have to e.g. detail what do you do at work, who is in your family and list the countries you have visited in the last ten years with the years when you have been there.
I ended up with a file that measured a couple of centimetres, which could almost mean that now Uncle Sam knows more about me than my wife and my mother, and it truly shows how afraid they are of illegal immigrants and terrorists. Went to the interview and a few days later received my visa, so all's well that ends well. I understand that being Mexican in their view increases the chances of me overstaying my welcome, but I really have no intention nor motive for doing so. Frankly, the least I go there, the better, which is a pity as I would like to visit New York and Boston again, for example. Comparing this with the UK IRIS scheme, which took me ten minutes to get enrolled in the last time I was in London, shows the difference between tough talk accompanied with cumbersome procedures and an implementation of border control that combines security with business friendliness.
This whole ordeal made me wonder (again) about this whole Finnish citizenship story, since Finns don't need a visa for short trips to the United States. Called the guys at ulkomaalaisvirasto since according to their new web questionnaire I would fulfill the requirements for citizenship, as I have lived here long enough (pretty much all of my adult life), speak Finnish fluently (still waiting for my diploma on that one), and have no criminal record. However, they told me that I can't get it since I have lived abroad in the past two years, meaning that if I hadn't gone to Belgium I could be a Finn. The law was changed this autumn, so I had no way of knowing, and there is another catch: all male Finnish citizens under 30 have to serve in the army. If I were 18 I wouldn't mind doing that, and furthermore if push came to shove I would probably volunteer anyway, but currently I'm at a stage of my life where putting everything (family, career, finances) on hold for six months to a year is not an option.
We'll see what happens, but it's definitely getting interesting.
Edit: And, oh boy, in March I have to renew my Finnish residence permit. Ugh….
Finnishness, an ethnic concept?
As we know, there is not that many foreigners in Finland, society is very homogeneous, and the country has a history of emigrants, not really immigrants. Discussing these details with a couple of friends (a Finn by birth and a Finn by naturalisation) over a beer last Thursday, I started thinking that Finnishness is an ethnic, not only a cultural concept.
This would be behind the perceived fact that an immigrant who comes here, no matter how well he/she (hän) adapts to the place, learns the language and adopts the culture will not be regarded as a Finn, even when holding a Finnish passport as he/she wouldn't "look like us".
If this idea happens to be right, it forecasts trouble for the integration of those immigrants that are already here and those that are coming, since the host society would not be ready for it. Really wonder if that is the case. Any opinions?
Not that nationality being a cultural concept is a guarantee of success. Just ask the French.