Juhannus

Minä olen nyt junalla Helsinkiin. Sitten matkusta lentokoneella Lontoon iltapäivällä. Minulla on minun läppäri ja netti, siksi minä kirjoitan blogiin.

This is me practicing my Finnish. What I said above is "I am now on a train to Helsinki. Then I travel by plane to London. I have my laptop and internet, so I write to the blog."

Sounds a bit odd in direct translation, but you get the idea ;)

With the free two hours I have on this train, I thought it was a good time to make a post here.
This past weekend was Juhannus, or midsummer. It's a big holiday here in Finland, so most people went out to their summer cottages to celebrate the 'yöton yö', or nightless night. We stayed home for the weekend, so on Friday night, I had lots of coffee and stayed up late to watch the sun. It was quite a cloudy night, so most of the sky was obscured, but it was still quite bright. I know in Northern Finland, the sun doesn't set at all, but since we are in the southern part, I thought it would get dark for a little while. Turns out it just looks like dusk for a few hours, which was amazing to see.


This picture was taking at midnight, 12:00, from the roof of my building.

This one was at 2:00am

And this one at 3am, when the sun was rising again.

Kesä!

We have been quite busy since the new year has begun! I'm now in a full time Finnish course, so my learning has greatly improved! I still know very little comparatively, but learning more every day.

Amy has completed second grade and is now on her summer vacation! She did very well in school and we are quite proud of her. She already misses her brother during the day though as he still goes to daycare. We love how well they get along and how much they seem to still love each other. We know it won't last forever, so we try to enjoy and encourage it now :)

Finland has had amazing summer weather so far! It was sunny and warm for the entire month of May, so we tried to spend as much of it outdoors as we could. We went to parks and lakes and just played in the yard as well. The sun stays up late and wakes up early, so it's hard not to enjoy it.

The summer (kesä) is already unfolding and it's exciting! Toward the end of June, I will be going to England with some friends of ours. I've never visited England, so I'm quite excited to explore it. I will be mostly in Cheddar, with some time in Bristol and London as well.
Then in July, my niece is coming to visit and we have some fun things planned, including going to a mökki, which is a summer cottage here in Finland, and a trip to Tallinn, Estonia. We will also spend a few days in Helsinki to explore there. Then there is also a trip to Turku and possibly another to Stockholm later in the summer. It will be quite the traveling time!

We don't yet have plans to go back to the US, but hopefully it won't be long. We do have some family coming to visit in December, so we're already very excited for that!! I can't wait to show everyone around our new city and spend time with them here.

As it's been almost a year since we moved here, I've been doing a lot of reflecting. It's been a great year and I'm happy to be where we are. It's hard to miss so many people, but it's been such a great experience and there still seems to be so much to look forward to!

Hyvää Uutta Vuotta!!

It's hard to believe another year has come and gone. Every year brings a new adventure and this past one did not disappoint.

I think we all are settling in to our Finnish life nicely. The kids seem to be doing well in school and enjoying it. I've been enjoying getting to know the culture and lifestyle here, while also taking some night classes to learn the language. It's a slow process, but it's getting there!

Amy's school is one thing that amazes me. Many of the things people in the US hear about Finnish schools are true, but not all of them. There are also things I had no idea about. First of all, one thing I hear about most is that there is no homework. That's not true at all. Amy has homework every single day, sometimes even quite a bit of it. She does only go to school for 4-5 hours a day though, depending on the day of the week. School schedules vary, so she starts and ends at different times each day. They do so many different activities as well. Tomorrow she starts learning parkour, which she is super excited about. They've also gone swimming, ice skating, orienteering, to museums and plays, and other things I can't remember at the moment. And this is only in second grade, older children do even more activities. So far, that's one of my favorite parts, all of the fun things they do. My other favorite part is school lunches. They are free and all of the children eat whatever is served, they do not bring their lunch. (If a child has a special diet or allergy, the school will accommodate that). This, mixed with some strong enforcement at home, has led to Amy trying and eating so many new foods. She just doesn't have any other option. It was really tough at first, but we're so proud of her for it.

I also hear the kids, especially Cole, throwing in some Finnish language in everyday conversation. Tonight they were playing together and showing each other dances. When Amy was finished, Cole said "Hyvä!", which means good. They also often says "kiitos" for thank you and "moi" as a greeting to people on the street. All of our language skills still have a lot of work to be done, but I'm proud of their progress.

The weather has finally gotten cold here, today was -13C. There is snow everywhere and the trees are beautiful. Growing up, when I saw a fake tree that was made to be white, I never liked it. I always thought it looked too unrealistic, like they were trying to be whimsical and it failed. Here though, the trees are actually white! I now realize why manufacturers make fake white trees!
One of these days, I hope to take my camera on a walk to get pictures of the nature. Every time I step outside, I am amazed at the beauty, so I want to share it!