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.
At our wedding, I couldn't help but notice that we have an amazing amount in quality and quantity of friends. Only thinking about the distances some of them had to travel to be with us during that day makes us realise how much they care.
We hope they enjoyed the occasion as much as we did.
But as you know, there are certain things in life that are truly worth the time you devote to them. Therefore, now I'm married with the person that has stood by me for some time now, and we went on our deserved honeymoon.
I apologise for the infrequent posts, and have to say that this will be the tonic for at least a few days (most probably slightly over a week). My personal life is about to go through one of the most important rites of passage, and of course it will take some time.
I can assure you I'll be back with more insights later on.
Not only did they break some of our stuff, but at the warehouse where we had stored our belonging some of thhem were misplaced. What really annoys me the most is that most of my book collection is MIA, and some of those are not found anywhere anymore.
Durante el último año, varios de mis amigos se han casado, y varios más lo harán dentro de poco. Incluso a mí me queda menos de una semana de vida como soltero, y los invitados ya están empezando a llegar a esta esquina del mundo.
En un ratito de tiempo que tuve con mis amigos en la última boda hace unos días, empezamos a acordarnos de lo que hemos pasado juntos, y no pude de dejar de notar cuánto hemos crecido sin darnos cuenta. Varios de mis amigos ya se están graduando de la maestría, y algunos ya empezaron incluso a tener hijos. Muchos están (estamos) desperdigados, muchos en México, algunos en diferentes partes de Europa, unos más en EU, un par en China incluso. La mayoría trabajando, y algunos ya metidos en esto de las hipotecas y el estrés de la vida adulta.
Lo bueno del asunto es que después de todo seguimos siendo los mismos y seguimos siendo amigos. De eso se trata, ¿no?
Today I really felt back at work. Even though July is high holiday season in Finland and some parts of Europe, there is enough interesting people and interesting projects to work on. Starting was a little slow, but now we're doing what we're supposed to: helping bring interesting services and devices to consumer's hands.
Being back in other familiar surroundings I have noticed about how I have changed during this past year. Some bits and snippets below:
I automatically say Merci or Dank u instead of Kiitos. Furthermore, I read French words such as "entrecote" in French (and with the circumflex accent even when there's none written).
I kept on wondering about the large expanse used by Finnish cities, which is needed given that people really like being surrounded by forests. In Belgian standards, living in western Espoo is like doing the Mechelen-Brussels commute every day.
Life without Central European TV is not the same. That's why I got the cable package that includes it.
I understand business issues much, much better, but now have to get up to speed with what happened at work during my absence.
I understand even less the Nordic attitude towards alcohol, summed up as: let's drink until we're not constrained by social rules, and then drink even more. Finding a bunch of absolutely wasted teenagers on my first day here made it even more painfully clear.
I appreciate the purity of Finnish water and the cleanliness of Finnish streets (except for the occasional saturday morning vomit – see above) even more.
I'm even more of a cultural mess, for good or bad. My home here feels more like my home not really because it is in Finland, but because all our furniture, our clothes and, most important, our stories are with us again.