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 23rd 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)