A Life in Waiting

After the fun night out on Friday, the rest of the weekend and beginnings of the next week were more of a relaxed pace.  Saturday afternoon Maria’s cousin Tommi picked me up and we went to watch the local hockey team take on one of its rivals from Tampere, a city up north.  This was not my first hockey experience in Finland so it wasn’t anything new to me anymore, but still a great experience.  The one thing that I still find to be interesting is that during the break between periods everyone heads into the corridors for a beer.  Okay, same as in the states.  The difference is that instead of cheesy little beer stands where you get your beer in a plastic or paper cup, there are full blown out bars on either side of the rink serving beers and drinks as if you were at a downtown pub.  Real glass mugs and high-top bar tables all over for everyone to gather and discuss the previous action.  Once again, just a difference in the social drinking habits. 

After the game Tommi and I parted ways and I met Maria in the center for dinner.  We ended up at this huge Czech restaurant right in the center that was four full floors of restaurant.  A nice evening out in the city.

Sunday was a typical lazy day which ended at Maria’s parents for yet another great dinner.  Seems like every time we go there for dinner Maria’s mother, Aila, uses it as an excuse to try some new recipe.  And it’s worked out in our favor every time so far.  After dinner we sped home so I wouldn’t miss a minute of Conference Finals playoff football that conveniently began at 10 o’clock at night and ran straight through to 5 in the morning.  Needless to say I didn’t do a whole lot on Monday. 

On Wednesday the 23^rd of January, I finally had a chance to meet up with an old friend that lives here in Finland.  Almost five years ago when Ria and I started dating (damn it’s been a long time) I stumbled upon an online group of expats living in Finland, mostly Brits and Americans.  It turned out to be a great source of information over the years on everything Finnish.  And one of the people I met on this site was a kid named Phil from Baltimore that had recently moved to Finland to be his Finnish girlfriend.  They had also tried the living in the states thing, but with little success.  So four years ago, he moved to Helsinki with her.  We’ve kept in contact over the years, meeting up whenever I’m in town and comparing the trials and tribulations of the Finnish woman. 

We met for lunch at a Thai restaurant near our flat in Töölö.  After spilling his water in my lap, he began telling me that he had recently received a nice promotion within Nokia and was explaining to me all about the business world in Helsinki (Don’t worry Mom, I’m coming home.  Just educating myself)  It was good to see that he was finding success as an American in the Finnish business world, something I wasn‘t sure if it was possible.  Definitely opened my eyes to yet another possibility.  (Really, I’m coming home)

As we returned Friday morning from the summer cottage, Maria and I parted ways for the day.  She had to get back to Koiramaja (The Dog hut) to get ready to receive her next guest, a Rottweiler that needed a place to stay for one evening.  So as she went back to work, I headed into the city to prepare for an evening out.  One of the benefits of being a member of a site such as Couchsurfing, is that there is always some happening going on in the city.  This evening it happened to be a game night at one of the member’s new office with his recently purchased flatscreen TV and a Nintendo Wii. 

One of the reasons that I wanted to be in attendance at this meeting, was that I knew a few of the members that would be there and there were a few people that I wanted to meet.  See in the couchsurfing world, as with almost everything else, it’s who you know.  When you begin meeting a lot of the more traveled members of the site, your profile becomes linked to them and thus all the people that they know.  And the more connections you have like this, the more comfortable people will feel having you in their home, or better yet, want you in their home.  It’s a social networking site where you actually meet people, rather than just talk to them on a computer.

The actual game night was not what I was looking for.  It was in a brightly lit room with an almost too diverse of a crowd being too courteous with the game play.  It had an awkward feel to it.  I ended up hanging to the side most of the evening, chatting with the few guys I knew.  After a bit, the party broke up and a few of us strolled down to the local pub and continued the conversations over a few pints.

Now it seems like I am “going to the pub” quite a bit in my travels.  It was mentioned a time or two that it sounds like I’m spending a lot of time doing so quite often.  This is one thing that I feel I should clarify as I have found this to be one of the more common cultural differences.  Back in the states, spending a lot of time in a pub or bar is typically done by college kids or the few older ones that still think they are there.  I would say the majority maybe go out once a weekend or once every two weekends and it’s typically from being out to dinner and not wanting to rush back home. 

But over here, it’s a little different.  Going to the pub is the same as going to the coffee house.  A place to sit down with friends and just talk or a play a game.  That’s right, a game.  For example the one pub we ended up going to this evening, Kaisla, is well known for its large selection of specialty beers and liquors, but also for its relaxed atmosphere.  Dark wood covering the walls, dimly lit lighting and a wall full of board games ranging from Trivial Pursuit to some crazy Finnish games I couldn’t even describe (or pronounce).  So sitting down, sipping on a good stout over a game of Trivial Pursuit is “going to the pub”. 

With Maria having completed her first real client contract and not having any other pertinent obligations for another week or so, we decided to drive out to her family’s summer cottage in western Finland, on an island called Kemiö.  So Tuesday morning we head out around mid-day for the 2 ½ hour ride to get there.  What was quite surprising to me was that as soon as we left Helsinki, Finland turned into farmland.  There were no suburbs, no Westchester like towns and villages, but mile after mile of farms.  And the farms are not the manicured farms that you see throughout the US or in the Southern parts of Europe, but rather just muddy patches of land.  Most of which were overrun with pools of water, to the point that a few looked to be small lakes.  After a few discussions about this with Maria, I came to the conclusions that these are how the farms are kept here, and that they were not run down or abandoned like I had previously thought.  I would imagine that it was due to the type of produce being grown, mostly beets and hay.  I wish I took some pictures to describe it, but at the time it didn’t seem like a photo opportunity.

We arrive in the small town ofTynglax, on the island of Kemiö where the cottage is located at around dusk.  This place was as far off the map as I have been so far in my travels.  It had the feeling of the cabin we use to go to as children with our Pop Pop to go hunting in the Catskills.  It was down this long dirt road with the only other buildings around being those of the rest of Maria’s family’s summer cottages.  With it being mid January, we were the only ones there.  It really was an amazing place.  A two room cottage, with the bedroom just off the main room it had all the amenities of a city flat.  Actually it was better outfitted than our place in Töölö.  Also in the main room, a much expected fireplace sitting square in the middle made of soapstone.  A perfect escape destination.

I wish I could fill in this part with wonderful stories, but our days were mostly filled with sitting around talking, playing canasta, and neglecting any sense of responsibility.  We did however explore the area around the cottage, giving Lexi plenty of time to feel like she was back at Upland Lane.  About 50 meters through a rather thin wooded area, was the bay.  Nice open spot with a swimming area and dock, a place I look forward to returning to come summer.

One highlight of the trip was the long awaited introduction to Maria’s grandfather.  He lives on this same island in the center of the village, and keeps an eye on the cottages throughout the winter.  He was a quirky old man, but I really enjoyed his company.  As he put it, he’s forgotten more English than he remembers, as he used to work internationally. 

So on our last full day there (Thursday the 17^th), we called her grandfather to let him know we were on the island and we wanted to meet him for lunch.  No sooner did the words come out of Maria’s mouth, did he inform Maria that he would be over in 30 minutes and hung up.  As we were basically still in bed at this point, we jumped up, cleaned the place and got ready for him.  After our surprise visit, we all drove into the village and had lunch at the only restaurant in town.  We parted ways after having a surprising excellent meal of pan fried perch, the local catch and some homemade root beer. 

All in all it was a great little get away.  Make’s me realize how much we were missing by not having some small getaway perhaps up at Hunter Mountain or some other spot in the Catskills.  It really helps to clear your head by having a place like that at your disposal. 

(Once again, like I needed a getaway…)

Alright, I need to get completely caught up with my summaries as I really want to begin my discussing my upcoming plans.  Fortunately the past ten or so days weren’t overly filled with excitement, so this should be relatively simple. 

The first snow!  I finally get to see snow in Finland.  It’s not a Nor’Easter, but a decent covering.  Perhaps 3-4”.  Amazing how much brighter a nice blanket of white can make the darkest places.  It really makes a big difference.  And everyone is so excited that it finally happened.  We head back out for our regularly scheduled family dinner and discuss all of the wonderful things we can finally do outside now that it’s finally getting cold outside.  Skating on the ice all between the islands, wind surfing across the ice on this crazy contraption I really want to try out and numerous other unique winter sports here in Finland.  Unfortunately the cold weather doesn’t stay, and the snow is gone within a few days.  It actually feels quite like a New York winter here. 

Next comes Wednesday, the day that Maria’s Dog Hut guests leave and she gets her validation for a job well done.  Over the previous few days, we bust our butts finishing up construction, painting everything and cleaning the place so it looks like a professional outfit.  When the owner of the huskies and other dogs arrive, the woman is blown away on how wonderful the place looks and applauded Maria on such a lovely space.  She receives her first payment as a Finnish Business owner and we go out to celebrate.

Now I really need to thank somebody here.  One of the things I’ve been missing while being in Finland is American football.  There’s plenty of that other crappy kind of football on TV here, but not the good stuff.  And to top it off, we’re in playoff season.  Well Shane, a great friend from home, has done one of the single greatest things one can do for someone in my situation.  He hooked up a Slingbox, a device you hook up to your cable box that sends the TV single across the internet to be watched remotely, for me to use.  This means I get to watch the playoffs!  So I spent this past weekend, staying up quite late mind you since we’re seven hours ahead, watching some of the best football I’ve seen to date.  And it’s all because of Shane. 

With New Years being as full of excitement as it was, the next few days were good to lay low and relax.  Now I haven’t been completely lounging during all of this down time, most of my days include a healthy amount of work, either with The Dog Hut or my own work back home in New York.

So on the third of January, I get picked up by Maria’s cousin Tommi and head to my second Texas Hold ém tournament here in Finland.  Being that I didn’t go out drinking the night before, my head was not as foggy as it was at the last game.  Once again I find myself sitting at the table as one of the four remaining players at the table.  Only this time, I declare my unwillingness to walk away empty handed from the tournament.  It was said slightly in jest, but as with most jokes there was some truth mixed in.  After a few good battles and definitely some luck on my side, I walk away from the table the winner!  215 Euros richer!  Felt pretty good to be the new kid in town and walk away with the W.  And now with being twice in the top four,  I am one of the favorites for the big tournament on the 26^th… which probably means I’ll be the first one knocked out.

 Fast forward a few days to Saturday the 5^th.  One of the things I’m trying to accomplish during my travels is do things that I normally don’t do in my typical daily life back home.  So during my perusing of the Couchsurfing website, stumble upon a group of about ten people heading to a local art museum to check out the Carnegie Art Awards exhibit.  The Carnegie Art Awards is one of the largest, if not the largest, honor in the Nordic counties art scene.  The show travels throughout all of the countries involved, and happened to be closing right after this gathering.  So being I’ve never been to an art exhibit with a bunch of strangers before, I figured why not. 

The exhibit was at the Kiasma Art Museum, which is right in downtown Helsinki.  Well considering this city really isn’t that large, everything tends to be pretty close to the center.  We all meet up at the nearby market square, do the standard introductions, and then head towards the museum.  The group is rather diverse, consisting mostly of Finns, two Americans (myself being one of them), one German and a good spread off ages ranging from early twenties to mid fifties. 

As it turns out, the girl who organized the gathering invited a friend of hers who happens to be a local journalist who had the assignment to cover the expo here in Finland.  So as we walked through the exhibit he explained each piece including some background on the artist and the work.  It was great to get the inside look of some of these works of art that I would normally have walked right past.  The show had no specific guidelines on discipline; there was everything from painting, photographs, and sculptures to stop motion animations and short movies.  I tend to appreciate art that I can relate to the most, and the stop motion animation was just absolutely incredible.  It had to be at least 10 minutes long and depicted the artists view on the fashion industry.  It was full of life, filled with subtle and not so subtle mockery and was just done so darn well.  The piece had to take a lifetime to make, between the details and timing it was just amazing. 

Afterwards we all agree to swing by a nearby pub to grab a bite to eat and a pint of something cold.  Discussions of the show ensue and a nice little political discussion breaks out between the two most opinionated of the group (the two Americans).  The party finally breaks up, but as a few of us couldn’t think of anything better to do, we head downstairs to a British style pub and try to find out exactly how much beer it takes to make the cold walk to the tram station feel like a summertime stroll.  Not sure how well the others did, but I was successful.  Unfortunately I have forgotten the results.