Avalon Sunset

During the last year, I have been boring, nasty and tacky at times. Sometimes too critical although sometimes I feel that I bit my tongue off...There are so many other things that I would have liked to say. But probably you might have felt hurt or insulted by some of my posts...It was not my intention, or maybe it was, depending on the post and the person. But do not take it seriously cause I usually have no problems in tell what I think to whoever, even if it is not nice...Therefore, you should know by now that most of you are respected and truly appreciated by the one who writes here. Because I showed it, or I tried to do so...But the truth is that I have felt confortable, in general terms, in this country and you, Spanish and Finnish and Irish, and Argetinian... friends, colleagues, humalainen, bus drivers, K-market workers have contributed to my daylife here and I am grateful for that. Dear friends, colleagues and people who regularly visit this place:

MERRY CHRISTMAS / HYVÄÄ JOULUA / FELIZ NAVIDAD.

Pikku Joulut 2008. Nelja. Colleagues and friends from University

To stand the hard Finnish fall, there's something better than alcohol: alcohol and company. I enjoyed a lot last friday when Sonia, María, me and a bunch of friends from University went to celebrate our own Pikku Joulut. Bowling was the activity chosen but first we needed fuel (Beer) and coal (Burguer from Hesburger). At the bowling place, Karin mashed us all like overcooked potatoes with her incredible skills. Miikka displayed a surprising proffesional hability to provide some kind of effect to the ball. After dropping the bowling pins, he remained for few seconds in the typical bent-down position with the right leg partially stretched that made girls crazy ;-)

After that, we went to regain water and minerals with more beer and finally we decided to evaluate the steadiness of our hands by playing with one of those funny games in which you have to move little wooden pieces from down to upper positions to build a big tower. The rest is already known: man chatted about girls when ladies were not around and they talked about...what girls are supposed to talk about when man are absent. Miikka tried to sell his glass table, aquarium and vacuum cleaner once more and he had a crazy moment with Kevin during one photo session: Miikka thought Kevin felt him up with his hands during the picture shoot. Kevin did not deny it and Miikka seemed to be particularly cheerful after that...and I wonder...what's happening here? Is Kevin trying to tell us something? Are we witnesses of something beautiful and passionate that is growing in their hearts? Or is Kevin going too far and too fast with Miikka? Does Miikka need more time to fully open to this new and exciting experience? We´ll keep on informing!

PS. This is just a joke, any resemblance with an actual happening is just a coincidence. Actually, now I think I recall that it was Kevin the one who was nastily touched, or was it me?... Anyhow, we should clarify that both guys are tough and strongly heterosexual. Their robust bodies and hard faces show it. Will you ever forgive me for writing such amount of stupidities...

Pikku Joulut 2008. Kolme. Spanish friends

Not all of us were in a restaurant for sharing the last dinner together before leaving for Christmas holidays. I would have liked to share that dinner with Alfonso and Heidi, and Andrés and his family and many others...But we had fun as usually happens when Elena is around. She amused us all with her skills for speaking 1 million words per minute. It was also nice to see Guille "El Che". They are now travelling to Seville and they promised to visit us in Cáceres. I have now planned a good journey for them. I am looking forward to sharing a new dinner with them in our home town.

Pikku Joulut 2008. Kaksi. Sensory group

In the second chapter, we came around Lautasaari where Sonia's supervisor is living. Hely is a very intelligent, hardworking and world-wide recognised expert in the sensory evaluation of foods. She is involved in a passionate affair with Italian culture and that showed during the dinner. Hely displays a natural hability for acting as an excellent host. Reminds me of the Spanish way: everything is carefully arranged in advance, the food, the decoration, the music, even the conversation: she wanted everybody to participate and enjoy the dinner. Both, host and guests played elegantly our roles: she recieved Christmas flowers and a Spanish wine free of charge ;-) (some readers might know what I am talking about) and we were invited to have a wonderful dinner. Everything was perfect, really, the food was imaginative and tasty and the conversation flew through interesting and varied topics. I was particularly moved when Hely spoke her mind and sincerely talked about Sonia's work. She remarked Sonia's effort in learning and improving, positive attitude, insistance and determination in performing an good job. I was delighted cause honest Finns do not give empty compliments which reflects that she really meant her words. I have been always sure that Sonia was doing a great job here but she has exceeded all my expectations. She has succeeded in Finland and I am absolutely proud of sharing this experience beside her.

Pikku Joulut 2008. Yksi. Oxidation group

Pikku Joulut (The 'small Christmas') means that you have a special celebration for Christmas with friends/colleages. The celebration varies considerably between people and jobs...We already know a lot of people and our supervisors as well as other friends and colleages invite us to join them in these celebrations. I am grateful cause Finns are not as fond of celebrations as Spaniards (In Spain at least we have Pikku Joulut every weekend without an apparent reason...) and they do not usually invite you to have dinner at home or outside, so we understand that they appreciate our work, our company and/or our friendship. In this first chapter of Pikku Joulut (more will come), we were kindly invited by Marina Heinonen (my supervisor at University) to have dinner in a very fancy restaurant downtown. The food was very tastefully marinated and we enjoyed the company of my colleages at work. A picture taken out of the restaurant hereby proves my words.

Independence Day

The last 6th of December, Finns had the Finland's National Day in which the independence from Russia is mostly celebrated. For those who might not know, Finland played a difficult role during the 2nd World War. Whereas most European countries suffered and fought against Nazism, Finland was invaded by Russia. And naturally, had to fight against those who wanted to enforce Finns to live under the shadow of the sickle and the hammer. According to the Russian style, Helsinki was being cowardly bombarded while the Kremlin claimed that Russian airplanes were only dropping bread to poor Finnish people. Fucking Putin (In Spanish "Puto Putin") does not give a damn about people starving in his on country and Stalin...well he did not even cared about his own soldiers. Actually, I was thinking that would be great if a new Russian Revolution would take place to replace all this thugs by a Lenin of the XXI century. The thing is that a peaceful and until that moment, neutral small country had to fight against the great Red enemy and obviously, they needed some help. Germany was the most likely allied since Hitler and communism did not get along well with each other. We all know how it ended for Germany. Finland surrendered after a long and bloody winter war and became one of bad guys in world History for fighting together with Nazism against Russia , and therefore, against the allied countries during the second world war. Normal Finns were enforced to get into the battle to defende their own families and land, culture and freedom against the invader. In a situation like this, nowadays, they would have been labelled as terrorists. Actually, Russia, in that time, invented excuses to start the war, allocating the responsability of the invasion on the other side. In addition, they assured that they had nothing against Finns, they were actually determined to fight for their freedom although Russia killed unspecifically men, women and children. Does it sound familiar to me????
I was telling all this cause we were invited by Eero Puolanne to celebrate that day with us. As usual, a simple but emotive and solemn happening. We were in a graveyard transformed in a huge park where most of those who gave their lives fighting in the Winter War are buried. In there you can also find the tomb of Mannerheim, the leader of the Finn army, President of the country some years after the war and generally known as National hero. It sounds weird but I prefered to accompany my Finnish friends to this short visit to the graveyard than watching on TV the traditional reception of the current President. She invites the most relevant personalities in the country, including the Finnish winners of the Euro Dancing (I did not even know that contest existed...) and participants of the Finnish version of the Idol program...Sad although most Finns assist excited and moved to the superficial and posh happening. In Spain, the happening of the National Day (Parade of the Army) which is quite spectacular is followed by a minority. The Spanish Prince gives every year prizes (Asturias Prince Award) to relevant people around the world (Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Yasser Arafat, Al Gore, Nelson Mandela, Jane Goodall, Lance Amstrong, Michael Schumacher o even Google, have been awarded) and the program is followed by a few. I felt relief somehow when a Finn told me that the main interest for watching the reception at the Presidential Palace is taking a look to the dresses and critizise them all. I could join to that. After the visit, we had a Lappish dinner with deer meat on mash potatoes and lingonberries. Puolanne's family is our second family here in Finland. We really feel at home when we stay with them. Their kindness, intelligence and sense of homour are in need in this country. More Puolannes in Finland please!

Joulupukki on tällä

Yes, Santa Claus arrived to Helsinki and a very strange procession came along with the chubby and cheerful old guy.

Helsinki's Forecast

This was the situation at the beginning of this week. A snow storm during Sunday night left a thick layer of snow covering everything in Helsinki. In those pics you can see the chairs and tables we used to employ for summer breakfast in our garden. The first pic correspond to the first night and I thought that they wouldn´t stand more snow and that I would never see more snow on those chairs and tables. Big mistake, only 24 hours late the situation was even worse: they were not even seen below the white and cold snow (no proof pic, sorry). The snow was accumulating against the wall of the house and we were even worried that all water coming from subsequent melting would lead to a flood at home. The first great snow fall is usually welcome and we also enjoy the watching the snowflakes falling gently on the land. This time it was different. Whereas in Finland people usually pay for having the snow removed from the shared parking areas and from the main doors of each house, in our neighbourhood we do it ourselves. Yes, I know what you are thinking, we are lucky. Actually, we should play the lottery because...do you know who was in charge of the cleaning this week, when the great snowfall arrived to Helsinki???? Yes, we were...and that meant that we had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning and make a considerably hard work during 1 hour and a half. After that, get dressed and go to work as any other day...I never thought that snow could mean something different to have fun and enjoy the view. Needless to say that I would pay to get it done by somebody else but it seems that most of my neighbours do not agree with my opinion. Will we have to remove more snow in the future? We'll keep on informing...

We are so many people

Since we arrived to Helsinki in May 2008, we have met so many people, we have invited at home to so many people, we have visited so many houses, parties, birthdays, with students, erasmus, colleages, Spanish, Finnish, Cuban, Italian, Argentinian, Irish, American and from everywhere. I think we are not totally aware of the amount of experiences we have been collecting here. I guess we need time in Spain, back to our former life, to assimilate all this. Also about my work here. I also need to take a look back to what I´ve done here to be aware of the great progress I´ve made to make a good researcher out of myself. But I would defitively choose the people and the experiences as the main goal of this stay. Finnish people have also greatly collaborated to enrich my personal life. With their silences and their funny language. With their habits and their weird point of view about life: be calm always, no problems, no hurry, no stress, everything's gonna be alright. Cottage cheese on top of a slice of rye bread, milk, and the sound the wind caressing the leaves from the birtches while watching the birds fishing in the lakes. Simple life, simple food and simple habits mean happiness. A bunch of friends go every wenedsday to play floorball to the same gym I usually go. I have seen them several times now. I don´t like gossip but I sometimes like spying Finn's life, analyse their behaviour and try to learn something from their particular way of understanding life and human relationships. Actually I learned long time ago that all Finns were not angry with me, neither scared of talking. They don´t say anything unless that something is relevant. In fact, too much talking amongst Finns involves empty conversations, or alcohol or both. In that bunch of friends, all are above 40 y.o. and they probably have known each other for ages. But they hardly ever talk to each other, before, during or after the game. They seem to be ignoring each others all the time, as if the others, their partners, were not there. Only when one of them, for some reason, say something, the others cheer up and decide, why not? Let's chat for a while. But even in those moments, their faces turn red and their eyes reflect a deep shyness, unexpected for people who have met dozens of times. I believe that some days, they don´t even see each other's faces. But they enjoy the game, they are sharing that experience. After the game, they never, ever say: "it was a good game" or "will you come next week?" and of course, they never, never, say "good bye". There's no need to say that, the game is over and it is obvious that now, everybody will leave alone. Ain´t that crazy. This is just Finland.

These pictures belong to the last meetings we've had with our friends.

Reception for International Scholars, Students and Stuff from HU

Last week we were invited to participate in a reception for international members of the University of Helsinki. Considering the few "free" events arranged by Finns for foreigners, or even for themselves, we had to go and see. Actually it is a very nice reception because besides the well known complimentary party, the event includes a live performance and this year a Finnish virtuous guitarrist amused us all. The food was also a great surprise: lihapullat (Finnish/swedish meatballs/albódigas-de-toda-la-vida-de-dios), salaatti (salad with thick sauce/ensalada-con-salsa-espesa-que-sabe-a-putos-rayos-pero-que-se-hace-indispensable-para-poder-asimilar-la-mezcla-imposible-de-ingredientes) ja (and/y) musta leipä (rye bread/pan-negro-de-centeno-que-sabe-tan-mal-pero-que-viene-tan-bien-para-lo-que-viene-siendo-el-jiñar). Yes, I was trying to be ironic. But the truth is that it tastes so good to eat and drink for free in a party arranged by Finns. You won´t have many opportunities ;-) so when you have that pleasure: take advantage and make the most of it!

Now, talking seriously, I am not being fair: we have met very good hosts and generous Finns in Helsinki. My supervisors are, as an example, inspiring colleages and kind hosts with exquisite manners. We are making good friendships with Finns that will last long for sure. It is just that lately we have been involved in some surrealistic experiences...maybe other day, I am not brave anough to tell the story today.