A Life in Waiting

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. 

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