Easter in Nagu

A weekend in the countryside filled with family (the real and the plastic one), sauna, barbeque, sunny spring days, fresh air, quiet calm sunsets, more sauna, a dip in the ice cold sea (literally icy) and then a visit to my godson (who was twice the age but just as adorable as the last time I saw him). These things that make you really, really happy and calm and warm inside.

Exciting life

I bought a new phone when I got home, and in the process of changing (it's a real process! So much for service culture in Finland..) lost all of my contacts. Well, today I got a message from someone (clearly a friend I've been talking to judging by the tone of it), asking me to lunch. For a second I thought about making it a little bit interesting, saying yes and wait and see who walks through the door. Have a little excitement in my life, you know. But then I figured it might be someone I don't really care about, so I asked.

I'm not really one to live on the edge, it seems. (Tragic discovery.)

Sauna

The Finns love the sauna, that's no secret. I got to take my first sauna bath (this is actually what Google Translate offers as the verb. Is the a better word for it?) on Saturday at my dad's place, but a sauna in an apartment can never be the same as one by the sea. So, can't wait to spend next weekend, Easter holiday, in Nagu - and try to warm up the new sauna all by myself. We'll see how it goes, at least the little pyromaniac in me will have a great time. And, if the ice is gone, I'll get to take my first dip in the sea! Brr..

Run away

While the rest of this country is sitting glued to the TV to see how our elections turns out, I can't take the tension and go for a run. Run away from the scary possibility that this country will be run by these idiots, as it looks like at the moment.

Makes me feel ashamed and wanting to move away, and I'm not the only one.

The ice is gone

.. but the winds still blow cold.

It's all about the point of view

When I was unpacking my life, I came over a box filled with old memories - postcards, sea shells, a pair of pointe shoes - and my old diaries. Now I have never really written a diary, just made countless of attempts, usually ending after a few weeks with me just forgetting all about it, getting tired of it or, more than once, getting annoyed at my handwriting (a bit of OCD there?).

Reading these old notes was a painful, embarrassing experience (I guess I'm not old enough, or self-distanced enough, to find my teenage self something worth reminiscing about), but it got me thinking about one little thing. If blogging is the modern, very exposed way of writing a diary, it has one positive side: I never wrote in my diary unless something bad or upsetting had happened (teenage love-drama, anyone?), whereas I mostly write about small stuff that made me happy in my blog. (Someone could point out that I've only written in my blog a couple of times since I got home from traveling, and that no-one is sad when traveling - but I say so far, so good. Let's keep it this way, ey? All too often we focus on the bad stuff, and forget all abut those magical little moments that make life so very much worth living.)

Blue moments

Spent my Sunday afternoon and evening in the best of company, my sweetest sister. Chai latte in the setting sun, and a brisk run in the blue dusk. Early springtime Helsinki as its best.

HausBänd/RäusBand @ Casa

Sometimes all you need is a bunch of crazy guys, that set up a band one drunken night long ago, who want to reminisce the good old uni times, decide to make it large scale and invite all close and distant friends for a party and and a concert at the old crime scene. It really can't go too much wrong.

It looks more beautiful than it feels

The fog, that cuts straight to the bone.

A good day

I woke up to a lovely call, after a good night's sleep and showered with a smile on my face. Had breakfast/lunch with a friend I haven't seen in an extra long time (a year and a half?), babysitting the cutest little kid just around the corner. Cleaned the whole apartment and (finally!!) - got everything unpacked. (Seriously, my home has never been this clean and organized - and all the extra stuff gotten rid off. Therapeutic.) Then cooked for the first time since that one dinner I put together in Singapore. Went for a good run with my sister, got back and made homemade müsli. Now time for a cup of tea and an early night.

It's not exactly like the days traveling, nor a blogpost with pictures from some amazing place. But it feels good to be productive for a change, and home is a place like any other to take pictures of.

A big small world

Lately, I seem to have lost friends and loved ones to the world. People have come and gone, increasingly, for the past few years, and I guess I first lost myself to the world eight months ago, saying goodbye to many at home - for a while at least. Then I had to say goodbye to so many new friends halfway through my travels, when most of the exchange students left for home. Another half later, I had to say goodbye to the ones left in Singapore.

One of my best friends spend the year in the US, and decided to stay for the summer. After the mandatory year in Finland, completeing her studies, she might leave again. Another one of the bests, who I already lost once for Copenhagen, is indeed coming to Finland for the summer, but then leaving for a year to Central America, even further away. She's one I don't expect to move back to Helsinki, ever again. My sister, the one person I missed the most when away, is dancing her way to LA this summer, staying there the whole year.

Friends do stay friends, family is bound by even stronger ties, but a distance rarely makes people closer.

I can't decide if the world is getting bigger or smaller. Smaller, since people have the chance to go, see, live and explore the world in a whole new way, and yet still at the same time stay in touch with everyone back home, only a click away. Bigger, because the people we love don't stay home anymore, but spread out to every corner of the world. And we ourselves, when living all around this small world, we leave friends and loved ones behind distances all too big.