Blue sky, last day…won’t waste much time in front of the computer! But I always wanted to post pictures about the transformer boxes in our neighbourhood. Admittedly, that doesn’t sound very exciting now that I read it….
But the transformer boxes here are really nice. Because they have been painted. And it is great fun to walk around the city and discover new motives. So, here are some from our and the parallel street:
On my way to our weekly lunch date on campus, I saw people melting the snow with big blow dryers. And a boat on the river trying to crash the ice. And huge flood lights creating artificial light.
But it wasn’t a desperate attempt of the Finns to fight the return of winter. Because I also saw sheep on the streets. And the Swedish queen walking into the cathedral.
It’s part of movie that is being shot in Turku at the moment. The film crew has been around for a few weeks now, shooting here and there (in the castle, the cathedral school, the cathedral itself…). Unfortunately it seems to be a rather cheesy movie. But I wish them good luck, especially with the snow-melting. Because while we were having lunch, it started snowing again and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop within the next hour…
Last weekend, our friends came to visit us in Turku. So we took the chance to add another cultural event to our time in Finland and visited Turku castle.
It’s an old, fortress-like looking castle from the late 13th century with immensely thick stone walls, sitting at the end of Turku’s main river. A few days ago it snowed again, so it was quite impressive to imagine how the people managed to survive the icy Finnish winters back then, with no proper windows and huge halls that never warmed up. They had, however, a very smart heating system with several big fireplaces on the lower grounds channeling warm air to the rooms upstairs via funnels in the stone walls.
Generally, the rooms and halls are impressive with nice stories and facts, but they could have been a bit better presented (but that might just be the interpreter in me speaking – right now I would just love to come up with some good strategies how to get the message across! At best as a paid assignment, with a nice cup of coffee next to me and some time to concentrate :-).
Later that day we went to a restaurant where I had a very interesting dessert: it was scoop of ice-cream, vanilla-coloured, with caramel-cinnamon-sauce. Concerning the name, I thought the ice-cream would be black. Any ideas which flavour I got? Small hint: it wasn’t liquorice (though I hoped it would be). I will send some Swiss chocolate to the first person that guesses correctly 🙂
I am sitting on the kitchen floor with the little one. I just had a cup of coffee. It is getting bright outside, I can watch the snow falling down, everything seems quiet and peaceful. Romantic? Could be. If it wouldn’t be Sunday morning at 6:15am.
There are many things that change when you have a child. And although people tell you about them beforehand, you kind of ignore the warnings and decide to have a child anyway. Which is a very clever arrangement by nature! I have already written about the restroom situation…well, that is still kind of a fun change I can live with (somehow). But one of the biggest changes probably concerns your sleep pattern. Not to be mistaken here: my sleep pattern is still the same! It is just not possible to retain it anymore.
It even started before the little one was born. Because at one point during pregnancy you just have to pee every two hours, even at night. Again: very clever invention by nature. It prepares you for what will follow soon. Then comes the birth. Which took exactly 48 hours during which I didn’t really sleep at all. After birth, the nurse rolled me into the hospital room, took the little one and said “I will take care of her and you can sleep!” Sleep…oh yes, please!! And then came the sobering second part of the sentence:”I will wake you up in 2 hours so you an breastfeed her!”. And that’s how it starts. The first weeks were incredibly exhausting. If you don’t have kids and you want to get an impression how it feels: first run a marathon and then set your alarm every two hours night and day for the next 6 weeks. In between, add a week were you only sleep in a half-sitting position because the baby decides to only sleep on your belly and nowhere else. Have fun!
After a while it got a bit better. I even had to wake the little one sometimes during the night so that she could drink. And there was the night when I had my first 4 hours of undisturbed sleep again. And then 5 hours. And one day even 6! God, how good that felt! And god, how bad it feels when it changes again….
Because at one point, the little one decided to wake up every 2 hours again. For weeks. There was a point where she would wake up about half an hour after we went to bed (and we tried to go to bed as early as possible…there is nothing to be ashamed of when your bedtime starts at primetime!). For some time we couldn’t even fall asleep fast enough because the threat of having to get up in 30 minutes anyway was just too big to relax.
Well, it got better again. And now it got worse again. It’s an up and down. Since a few weeks, she manages to stand up. So every time she wakes up at night you hear a rustling noise and a groaning and, in the semi-darkness of the bedroom, you see the black silhouette of her head appear above the railing. It’s incredibly cute – if you think of it at daylight.
Karsten gets slightly scared of me at night because I now master the art of very aggressive whispers. Sometimes the whispers turn into louder shouts. And normally they are followed by unspoken promises that I will spend the next night in a hotel, no matter what happens. Just one night with the feeling that I can sleep as long as I want.
Sometimes the little one decides to sleep in. Mostly on the days when we have an early appointment with her. NEVER on the days where we could sleep long as well!
As a mother you often get the advice to take advantage of the babies day-naps. Leave the dirty dishes as they are and lay down as well. But you know what? That only works if your babies falls asleep at home. The favorite sleeping time during the day is, however, while laying the stroller. And then you walk around the city and watch your baby being rocked to sleep, cozily wrapped in warm blankets, the winter sun shining in the face while the strollers makes a soft rattling noise. And you swear that in 50 years it’s your turn! In 50 years, the kid has to push you around no matter what comes unless it wants to be cut out on your will. Just 50 more years.
Ps: Any grammatical or spelling mistakes are herewith excused by the inhumane time!
Slowly but steadily our return to Switzerland comes closer, and with it comes a slight melancholy. During the last months, we managed to settle down, establish a daily routine and, most importantly, made new friends. Finland is a great country to live in and there are many things that I am going to miss. The friendly and supportive approach towards children (where else would you find a small fast food store without any chairs for adults, but a babychair for your offspring?). The landscape with its rocks, birch trees, pines and moss. The seaside and the daily walks along the river. The buildings (and the lanterns next to the front doors). The saunas. The cinnamon buns. Even the weather has been beautiful for the last days –a real feeling of spring took over…about two months early for Finland.
But first and foremost we are going to miss our friends. During the last years, we lived in various places. We made good friends, enjoyed the time, and then we had to leave again because school was over, the semester abroad passed too quickly, the studies were finished, the internship ended, a new job came up somewhere else….I guess it is a modern phenomenon: most of our friends are spread somewhere around the globe. So is our family. And at every new place you got to make new friends. Feels like a never-ending story.
It is a pity because sometimes the distance makes it hard to stay in touch and we would both love to meet up with everyone more often, make them a bigger part in our daily life. Most of our extended family hasn’t even had the chance to meet the little one yet which is really sad.
At the same time, experiencing so many different places is a blessing. Without it we wouldn’t have so many friends in the first place. And we are incredibly happy to know all of you guys! So when we will leave we will do so with an auspicious and a dropping eye and a big thank you to our Finnish and French-Finnish friends.
During the last weeks, we have had the chance to savour some more Finnish specialties:
Since we are both yoghurt-eaters, we tried viili, which is a nordic type of yoghurt with a slightly weird consistency. To be honest, it didn’t really convince us although I was smart and bought the toffee-flavoured one. It might have to do with the fact that one of our Finnish friends mentioned beforehand that it looks like snot. It somehow does. However, I often use kermaviili for cooking as a replace for créme fraiche and it works very well!
Another thing that we tried is the traditional Finnish Easter treat: mämmi. Since the beginning of March you can find it in the supermarkets and it is kind of a malt pudding that was traditionally eaten on Good Friday because it doesn’t need to be cooked (nowadays it is enjoyed throughout Lent). You eat it cold with cream and sugar. And if viili reminds you of snot, mämmi looks a bit like…well. It didn’t really convince us either, but that was again more due to the texture than to the taste. The taste was actually quite nice though you can’t eat too much of it. I think it would be a great hit if it would be pressed into little pellets and rolled in sugar!
A treat that we very much enjoyed is the laskiaispulla. It is a sweet cardamom roll filled with whipped cream and marzipan. Although being mainly associated with Shrove Tuesday (the Scandinavian countries really know how to sell sweets on specific days!), it is sold throughout Lent (and probably during the rest of the year too). We tried three different ones from different bakeries and they were all good 🙂
Generally, the Finns are great when it comes to pastries….cinnamon buns have been my favourite for years now. But for the sake of our waist circumference we might end this culinary review for now!
Aaaaaaaaa…..what a beautiful, perfect day!
Sunshine, wind and clear blue sky after our baby swimming class this morning. We had a quick lunch and went to Ruissalo to recompense for our rainy experience some weeks ago. It was great! Sunbeams in the oak forests (apparently the oak forests on Ruissalo are the oldest you can find in Finland), glittering water, fancy residences, green moss and a wonderful smell of leaves and salty air. Now we are back home and enjoy watching the warm light outside our window – amazing what a little sunshine can do to your mood!
Yesterday, Karsten’s research group spent the day in a very Finnish manner: on a boat. And because I like boats and I love the Archipelago, the little one and I decided to join them, together with friends of us.
The schedule of the research group was: enter the ferry at 8:30am, start giving presentations (and listening to them) while being slightly distracted by the landscape passing by, stop giving presentations at lunchtime, leave the boat in Marienhamn via a gangway to immediately walk onto the next boat without touching ground, enjoy a superb buffet, browse the duty-free shop, spent quality time at the bar and arrive back in Turku at 12 hours later.
The schedule of the other mostly older Finnish passengers was: enter the ferry, storm the dance floor at 9am, dance and drink coffee for the next 3 hours, browse the duty-free shop, drink alcohol, change the boat in Marienhamn (without touching ground), enjoy a superb buffet, browse the other duty-free shop, buy and consume lots of alcohol, maybe visit the sauna, arrive in Turku 12 hours later with trolleys fully loaded with alcoholic beverages.
Our schedule was: enter the ferry at 8:15am, enjoy some SUNSHINE outside, see the islands passing by, play in the children’s corner, drink tea and eat muffins, browse the duty free shop, enjoy some semi-sunshine outside and let the baby sleep, watch the Finns, meet up with the better half, change boat in Marienhamn (unfortunately without touching the ground too), enjoy a superb buffet while entertaining two little children, browse the other duty free shop, hang out in the children’s corner, have an early evening drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic, depending on who you are), run outside every now and then to watch the SUNSET and the islands (being the only person to do so), arrive in Turku 12 hours later with a very tired little baby.
It was a wonderful day! I don’t know if it is a German thing or if it has to do with early conditioning during the childhood due to all the Astrid Lindgren books, but I truly love these rocks with their different colours, being round and smooth due to the Ice Ages, and all these small islands. It creates an immediate feeling of happiness and being at ease, and if you then feel a salty breeze around your nose and enjoy some sunshine there is not much that can top it off.
Morning nap with a fresh sea breeze
Watching the sea
Fancy starters
This is how you know you are in Finland: liquorice instead of chocolate sprinkles next to the ice cream
More fancy starters (very salmon based)…
Early evening drink (Jura for Karsten, non-alcoholic cocktail for me)
Oy, Mupfens threw us a bone! 🙂
Ok, not sure if that’s the correct way to put it…in German, Stöckchen are sent to blogs in order to make them a bit more popular and it also gives people the chance to get to know you a bit better. The fact that not just me but also Karsten answered the questions probably tells you how narcissistic we are :-). The rules are:
1) Name the blog that threw the bone at you (done) 2) Answer the questions 3) Come up with 11 new questions and link them to 11 new blogs (with less than 200 followers)So, here are our answers for Mupfens:
Are you sometimes paranoid without reason?
Karsten –Paranoid – yes. Whether it is unreasonable is, I guess, debatable. Most of my paranoia are based on the – in my opinion quite real – threat of financial problems and being unable to provide our little family with what it needs. Alternatively my paranoia are the usual – did I leave the stove on, did I forget to do this or that – which in my case is also a quite reasonable response, based on personal experience. The more work, the more paranoid do I get in the daily struggle: an example: Once I rode my bicycle home after work, when after 10 meters I got a shock because I had realized that I did not fasten my seatbelt, until another second later I realized that I was sitting on a bike and therefore should be fine.
Freddie – Yes! I belong to the species that leaves the flat and wonders about the stove, the water kettle and the electric iron. It didn’t improve with pregnancy and breast feeding dementia. I also have to check on my daughter when I wake up at night to see whether she can breathe easily.
Which topic is close to your heart and have you already written about it?
Karsten – A topic I love would be science and I haven’t written about it yet as I usually allow my wife to write the blog articles (“I allow my wife to write”??? What is that supposed to mean??)– maybe she allows me to be guest-author once too (like now)
Freddie – One topic that always bothers me is the way people in Western societies think of and treat refugees. I am aware that the whole refugee issue has many different aspects and it is not that easy to generalize, but in my opinion people should show a little more empathy. It would do no harm to be aware of the fact that we do have a pretty nice life compared to many other countries in the world. And it would do no harm to be aware of the reasons why people seek asylum – because I am pretty sure that most of them don’t just do it for fun. And would do no harm to be a little more friendly, to say hello or smile and to listen a bit. I haven’t written about it yet, but I will.
What food would you live on if it doesn’t have any consequences how much you eat?
Karsten – The only food for some reason I never tired of, when eating it for weeks on end, was Döner Kebap in all its variations 😉
Freddie – Noodles. Sushi. Triple chocolate cookies.
Do you have a favourite game? (PC, console, board game, pen and paper)
Karsten – On PC I guess my all time favorite is still Monkey Island (I-III), but I haven’t had the time to play PC games in ages. Boardgames however are still very much enjoyed and my current favorites there are Brändi dog and Arkham Horror.
Freddie – Pc: Monkey Island and Drakensang – but there is no time in my life right now to play computer games, because if I do it’s hard to stop. Board games: Settlers is an all-time favorite. And right now we are addicted to BrändiDog.
In which epoch/age do you think you should have been born? (Enlightenment, Ancient world, modern age, future)
Karsten – While I would have definitely answered with enlightenment during my adolescence, I will now go with present. Being born in a country, in which I am only the second generation which never experienced war on our territories that sounds very nice to me. Also, I would miss the luxurious washing machine, dish washer, computer and all the other stuff that allows us not to worry about households all the time, but sit down with a book and relax for 12 hours a day and sleep the other 12 (I obviously am kidding… seriously, where does all the time go, we save.. or how where our grandparents able to get anything done back in the days?) Also future scares me with the expected climate change. So present is far from perfect, but from my point of view as good as it gets.
Freddie – I am very happy with the present. But I would love to be a fly on the wall during the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages in Europe and the beginning of the 19th century in Germany and Great Britain.
If you would have to describe yourself using just three words, what would they be?
Karsten – Chaotic, Curious (as in inquisitive), caring
Freddie – Creative, smiling and tired
What caused your greatest adrenalin rush?
Karsten – Probably one of my several bikecrashs – this was the one where I was driving down a hill with around 40 km/h when my front tire within 1 second lost all its air and the bicycle became almost impossible to steer – that time I was lucky though.
Freddie – The blue fire megacostar and the Silver Star (Europa Park). Never again! I am too old for that stuff!
Your favourite recipe?
Karsten – Ha, I am not falling for that question again. Last time I answered that was in Kindergarten and we had just been to the states before (I think it was Maine), and friends hat served us lobster. So back in kindergarten I happily announced, when asked, that my favorite food was lobster – from which point on the kindergardeners treated me like I considered myself an elitist snob (from their point of view). So I will now say, that I do not actually have a favorite food anymore (which is even true), but that I do love tarte a l’onion with new wine in autumn. One recipe that is very close to how I do it is:
http://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.com/recette/332929-tarte-a-l-oignon-en-direct-d-alsace
I prefer pastry dough over yeast dough – only difference to this recipe is that I add caraway and bacon as well. Oh, and I really love semolina, last time I cooked it in milk (obviously), added lemon zest, marzipan, a bit of vanilla sugar (with real vanilla), additional fresh vanilla and a bit of orange juice and it was absolutely delicious.
Freddie – Uh, that’s difficult. Sushi in all it’s variations. Thai chicken. Chicken Marbella. Various noodle recipes. Asparagus. Germknödel (yeast dumplings with plum butter inside and poppy seeds and melted butter on the outside). And so much more. If you want to have recipes, write me a message 🙂
What advice/skills would you give a child for its further life?
Karsten –You will meet many people in your lives and lots of them will be intimidating and/or want to harm you or at least get the better of you for their own benefit. Does not let that keep you from being nice to everyone in the beginning and do not judge people based on their appearance and certainly not on their origin. In the end, it usually pays of to be nice and if it doesn’t, than those were people you don’t want in your life anyway. And finally, if you can choose, always choose family, time and happiness over a well paid, but frustrating job.
Freddie – The ability to enjoy and treasure even the smallest things in life. A lot of empathy, but at the same time enough self-confidence to make and defend her own way. A happy childhood. And good health.
Is there something that immediately makes you see red?
Karsten – Definitely – main two things are people who listen to music in public on their mobile or other devices, without using headphones – particularly when they listen to gangster rap or other aggressive music that you certainly don’t want to bear for 6 hours in the train, and secondly people who throw their trash into the environment. The worst there are people who litter (cigarette butts or other stuff) 1 meter next to a trash can, but couldn’t care less, as when the toxins in the filters easily enter water bodies and can cause harm to aquatic (and other) organisms.
Freddie – Several things. Karsten knows most of them. They include unnecessary acquisitions, loud neighbours and people who think that the whole world wants to listen to their music.
The actual difficulty now is to name 11 new blogs! I have only started the blog in January, so I don’t have a lot of blogs that I follow (and that have less than 200 followers). And those who I thought of have recently answered questions themselves. So I will throw the bone to just a few: Cécile et Nicolàs (great smoothie makers!), Family4Travel (a blog about traveling with children – especially regarding couch surfing) and Mamatanzt (to add an English move to the dance). If you feel challenged by our questions, however, feel free to join 🙂 Our new questions are:
1) What invention was most useful to your personal life and why? 2) Do you think you have multiple personalities? 3) What question did you always ask yourself but never got an answer to? 4) What was the most breathtaking moment of your life? 5) Early bird or night owl? 6) What is your evening routine after 6pm? 7) Favourite tv-series? 8) Have you lived abroad for some time and if yes, where? 9) What do you miss? 10) Do you have a repeating dream and if yes, what is it about? 11) What was the first thing you said this morning?
familial entropy 