Outlandish

We are hiring more Finnish people to the office and I’ve been responsible for doing the interviews. My favourite question is “describe yourself with three adjectives” because it totally throws Finns, every time. They go all quiet and their brain is working like crazy to come up with something and usually people say that if I had asked for negatives, it would have been easier for them. At first it made me laugh because it’s such a stereotype but so true as well. But after the third person struggled with this questions  I grew more worried than cheery. It can’t be right that people don’t appreciate themselves enough for three little words. It made me think about self-esteem and what it requires. Especially in today’s media-centric world girls and women are given the impression that they aren’t good enough until they are starving 24/7 or muscly enough to resemble a man, but also in that case they are almost required to have an eating disorder. But not just media, also cult...

Even though moving sucks big time (especially moving from one country to another!) it comes often with lovely surprises and discoveries. You unpack and discover things you didn't remember you had! I've lived in Tallinn now for two months and all this time I've had one box in the living room on the kitchen threshold untouched. I knew that it consisted of the most expensive dishes I own and they are quite graphic and deserve a good place in the apartment. But I haven't been able to find a place for them. But then the weekend came when my parents were visiting and I had to get rid of the box. When I started going through the things there I remembered why I wanted to start collecting them. They are lovely pieces of kitchen-ware with subtle mint-green edges. They definitely deserve to be used!  I drink tea a lot! I love tea, there are so many flavours and drinking tea is its own little moment of relaxation. Tea is also a genuinely calming substance, w...

Some people critique wines, some movies, I seem to have developed a habit of critiquing countries. The difference is that for me that critiquing affects my actual life quite a lot. If a country gets a negative review from me, I’m not going to be comfortable living there, obviously. Cultural differences, those little everyday things that drive you crazy, make you appreciate all the little things you have back at home and make you realize all the things that prove the fact that grass really is greener on the other side of the fence. Those are the things I base my critiques on and obviously as a Finn I look at things quite differently than somebody from India or Brazil, for example. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral The only culture shocks that I have experienced have been all those times that I moved back to Finland. Noticing how nothing had changed, nothing had moved forwards, rather backwards and how the coldness and darkness really do affect your and everybody else’...

International women's day! Still in the 21st century, even though we in Nordic countries don't put much stock on it, it is a very important day, in my opinion. In my several travels I have realized how much work we still have to do even in Europe to reach equality between sexes. In Southern and Eastern European countries women are still too often seen as baby dispensers and as someones whose only purpose in life is to make a man happy. Also in Western countries this can be seen unfortunately much and it's not necessarily a man's fault that a woman is in such a repressed position in a relationship. Eventually we have to take charge of how people around us perceive us and not let them determine that for us. In Finland I have followed how we have slipped backwards worth several decades in just a year or two when it comes to attitudes towards women. Internet has given men an easy and faceless way to attack unknown women who dare to think differently from thems...

Ladies and gentlemen... I HAZ INTERNET !! Oh, don't you ever take such simple things for granted as having a functioning internet connection! But now the planets are all back in their correct places and I can start really living here in Tallinn. Little by little I get my life in order here. I got the local ID card and thus was also eligible for an internet connection in this country where  e v e r y t h i n g is done online; bills, voting, apothecary recipes, signatures(!!), everything. I have also located the main furniture stores in a country that hosts not a single Ikea. So when I finally have enough money (maybe in 2023) I can start to furnish this wonderful flat hard core.  I have had and will have friends visiting me every weekend, which has been an absolute blessing for me and a curse to my wallet. And when my parents finally come I will get the final piece missing from my bed. Darlings, bed and internet, home is not a home without those two things, ...

As we know the restaurants in the biggest and busiest tourist clusters are usually over-prized and more than often not worth a visit at all. We discovered this last weekend again when we were craving for some simple pizza and went walking around in the Old Town. Not knowing where you're going you often end up just anywhere close in the end. We found pizza on the side of the main Square and it really wasn't worth the Finnish prices. Thank goodness we had booked a table for Saturday in a place that was recommended to us: Restaurant Kaks Kokka (Two Chefs) between the Old Town and harbour. The place was a bit tricky to find. It wasn't on the street but in the inner yard behind a parking lot. But even though weather was absolute shit this place was worth walking around a bit! The decor was pretty simple and Scandinavian, with black and white and earthy colours, and huge windows facing the street. The lights were a bit bright and in your face but that was ad...

I might have mentioned it before but I need the sea close to me. It’s one of these things you  take for granted when growing up because it’s there anyway, but as they say, you don’t know  what you have until you lose it. I have fully started appreciating what the sea means to me after  living in countries and cities far away from any sort of coast. It means peace. Here in Tallinn the sea is inevitably part of my life every day and it makes me insanely happy. I  see it from my window at work (if it’s not cloudy…) and no matter which way I walk (grocery  store, towards Kadriorg or home from work) it’s so close all the time. Last weekend I went for a  walk around the Kadriord area and there’s a really nice beach on the way. And there I saw  waves! Such a simple little thing but I went berserk. They were so beautiful and calming and the  sound is the best in the world. Just what I needed after the worst work week so far. That beach...