Round Two

All of a sudden, I’m back in Finland. Precipitously. Or at least that’s what it feels like. This Oregonian summer was a blur of runs to my storage space, showing my house to prospective tenants after the anticipated sale fell through, making thousands of small and large decisions about whether to save/recycle/sell/give away/ship, interspersed with precious get-togethers with family and friends. The last week in particular required Herculean amounts of strength, stamina, patience, humor and trust – as well as a good dose of humility – as a cadre of fantastic friends helped with the final push. My home became an empty house as they assisted me in moving out 20 years’ worth of memories, junk, cleaning products, curios, acquisitions and surprising finds (whose RayBan sunglasses did I unearth at the bottom of a toy box?). At 10:30 the night before I left, I returned the U-Haul, and at 6:30 the next morning I was on the road to the airport. Here are the names of my summer heroes in no particular order: Karen, Laura, David, Denise, Jarl, Ken, Pam, Thomas, Kate, Diane, Alden, Susan, Maija and Will, Marj, Eunice, Tom, Jody, Cynthia, JJ, Edene and Kristina. (If for some reason I left you off, let me know. It was a tough summer, and my memory is fallable, but you deserve recognition.)

Awesome friends at storage unit

Though this endeavor may sound grim, there were plenty of lighter moments, at times inspirational ones. Having friends sitting on my couch in the back of a cargo van tickled my funny bone as did the rather naughty things they were discussing (and as this is a G-rated blog, I won’t reveal them). Giving away thousands of dollars in possessions was an exercise in release and resulted in happy, if somewhat bemused, strangers. Watching the Perseid meteor shower as Will, Maija and Xana discussed overtones and how to produce them -- and then proceeded to give examples -- was delightful. And there was some humor – after the pain receded – in the fact that I made pretty good money on my garage sale only to have a speeding ticket slapped on me the next day, which meant that my net profit was $10. My trip to visit my mother and half of my siblings involved 24 hours total on Greyhound buses hearing stories that made me feel lucky, and I won the family Hearts game. Perhaps bittersweetest of all was having my elderly cat and Methuselan dog sleep in my room every night, and I didn’t even mind Soc meowing in my face at 4 a.m. After all, I was used to waking up regularly in the wee hours because of the midnight sun in Joensuu.

I flew back to Finland via Calgary, my first trip to Canada ever. We descended over Banff National Park, and it was the most thrillingly dramatic landscape I have ever seen from a plane. One hour after landing in Helsinki, my son arrived from Oslo, and he was able to spend 10 days with me – I don’t think we’ve gotten to spend that much time together since he graduated from college. My friends Nina and Make picked us up and treated us like royalty, feeding us a delicious dinner (salmon!), treating us to single-malt whiskey (and there’s no way I could have remembered the name but it started with Laogh…) and providing us with comfy places to sleep. 

Erik and Make mid-toast

Erik and I got the train to Joensuu the next day and managed to buy groceries and make beds before collapsing. Erik did a lot of relaxing and I went back to work. One evening we went to a Finnish housewarming party and then to an English pub quiz -- our team came in third out of seven but won for best name: Pre-pub-essence. We traveled to Ostrobothnia on the weekend, where we were able to clear some brush and trees at the ancestral cabin. The train trip takes seven hours each way, most of which is Internet-less and restaurant-car-less, but Erik was a good sport. Our relatives brought out photos of Erik when he was three years old, watering the strawberries and the potatoes. We put flowers on the graves of my great-grandfather's father and mother, and we did some sight-seeing. Erik learned a few new Finnish words, including 'lampimampi' (warmer) and 'uutuus' (novelty/new thing).

We had an interesting excursion to the heart of Finnish Karelia, Ilomantsi, where we were treated to beautiful views, a good dinner, some questionable wines (made from berries) and kantele music. While on this trip, Erik remarked on the slow pace of everything done in Finland, and I could see his point. I appreciate the slowness, I realize. It's one reason my life is healthier here.

And now I am beat and, to be honest, somewhat down. It’s probably a combination of too much traveling (I just returned from a two-day seminar in Savonlinna where I heard and spoke Finnish almost exclusively), small frustrations involving money and paperwork, letdown after Erik’s visit and – oh, yeah – once again moving to a time zone 10 hours away and completely changing my daily routine. Generally when I remind myself of things to be thankful for, it improves my mood. So I’ll end this blog by listing today’s gratitude list:

-- I have a son who enjoys my company enough that he stayed with me for 10 days.

-- I have enough good friends that I was able to completely move out of my house this summer.

-- My daughter has moved to a new city to start graduate school, and she is doing well there.

-- My little sister, who was just released from jail, may actually be on her way to rehab. Prayers, fingers crossed!

-- I get to live in Finland, and Finland is starting to feel like home.