I arrived in Finland, and the sky that welcomed me looked just like the one in the picture: blue with shades of pink. This is where I became an adult and a professional. Here is where I've paid my taxes and matured. It wasn't easy, but I definitely don't regret it.
I don't know what life will bring next, but now I'm more ready to take it on.
I'm spending this weekend again in a summer cottage, but with friends instead of family. It is very striking to see how much Finns are more at home in the countryside than in the city. With views like that below, I don't blame them.
If you ever come to this place in the far north, try to make it in summer and try to go to a summer cottage with sauna next to a lake. You will understand more about this country and its people than if you visit their cities. I have to say that the peace you find is very endearing.
It helps if it is warm too, as is currently the case.
As frequent readers of this blog and anyone who has seen my Flickr profile know, I do my fair share of travelling, both for leisure and due to my job. Therefore, I do have my own personal and very subjective "ranking" of border officials, as not all my trips are within the Schengen area. The story I want to share with you happened last Saturday, when we were coming back from our honeymoon.
Since the Czech Republic is outside Schengen, we had to go through normal border procedures when we returned. As I don't have a European passport, I can't go through the fast line, but I'm used to answer a couple of questions from the guards, who after all are just doing their job. The problem this time was, as often is when I come home, that I had another overzealous guard. Even though the conversation was in Finnish (which should be enough indication about what follows), I had to answer plenty of questions about my life in Finland, the length of my stay, my employment, my ties to the country and so on (regardless of the fact that, of course, all my papers are perfectly in order and all my personal information is available to said individual through the government's databases).
The straw that broke the camel's back, as they say, was when said individual said "So, if you have so good Finnish-language skills and you've been living here that long, why don't you have a Finnish passport?". Which is simply because I don't fulfill the requirements just yet (which is another long, sad story). I understand that these people are doing their job, but I I usually have less problems entering Germany or even the UK, where they should be much more worried about security threats than in Finland.
I love my wife, I really like my job, and I also deeply appreciate the house we have, so it is ridiculuous that I have so many hurdles every time I'm returning to Finland, which at the moment is where home is. If this is the way the country wants to attract a highly educated, tax-paying immigrant workforce, it is in trouble.
When I was learning Finnish I was really wondering what were the contents of the conversations I heard in the street, whether they would be somehow more philosophical given what you always hear that Finland always scores highly in different international rankings, be they about corruption, education or technology development.
Imagine my surprise when I started to learn the language and realised that most of the street talk is at the same level as anywhere else: swearwords and gossip are the order of the day. Different language but human nature is still the same.
Being back in other familiar surroundings I have noticed about how I have changed during this past year. Some bits and snippets below:
A year is probably not enough time to notice the changes in a place you haven't seen (especially if you arrive at a time when not much is happening, as July in the Nordic countries). However, there might be a couple of things that I have noticed:
Maybe I'll notice more things in a few weeks, but that's it so far.
Jos tykkäätte intaaneista kulttuureista teidän pitäisi mennä Heurekaan museoon Vantaalla, jossa on näyttely Teotihuacánista, joka on suuri vanha kaupunki Meksikossa (muutamia kuvia paikasta Flickrissä).
Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures, but my plane from Brussels flew over the whole metropolitan area, and I could clearly see where I now live, downtown, where I lived before and many other very relevant places for my previous life in Finland, such as where I met my soon to be wife.
I have to say that the city looked absolutely beautiful under the sun, and I really felt I was back.