Getting To Know My New Home... 

J'arrive Québec!! in a few days :)

I loved my mini break in Bologna! 

This video is so tacky but how I remember watching this thinking that "un jour" and now I've been living here for six months already! Loving every #mtl moment

The modest looking palace of Bélem used to be one of residents for Portuguese royal and today the official residence of the President of Portugal. Interesting, glamorous inside, quite small and nice details but wouldn’t go again though. 

Coming back is feeling growth

Hey guys. Felt like rambling again.

Leaving Montréal and Québec behind me was as difficult as expected but it feels good to be home too. Autumn is on top of its beauty with the multicoloured trees, the air is briskly cool, leaves are falling down slowly. Rain or shine, this kind of autumn is my favourite time of the year. 

So I made it home allright. In one piece. With all my luggages this time.

At the Toronto airport, very cool lounge I must say. Luggages were full so I was forced to wear my winter stuff..

On my way home, on the flight from Reykjavik to Helsinki, there was this old man on board.An  80-year old, originally born and raised in Finland and on his way home for the first time for the 30 years which he had lived in the States.  As life-changing I’ve described my Montréal experience, it made me and my year feel quite small…and it is compared to that! His eyes were shining when he told how he hadn’t heard Finnish language been spoken so widely for decades and how he had missed Finnish food during the years he was gone. He had his grand-daughter and son-in-law with him to whom he wanted to show the country where the family's origins are from. It was touching to listen to his stories.

And when I did arrive in Helsinki, there was a pleasant surprise since some of my friends were waiting for me at the airport. What a luck also for them that my changes of flights went smoothly and I arrived as scheduled.

My favourite: Sallad with goat cheese buried in DEVIL'S JAM!!! :)

Surprisingly didn’t experience any jetlag. I just went to bed on the first night and that was all the sleep I needed. Almost disappointed, I was so prepared for it.

And as for what am I doing now. I’m back at my studies, more or less back at my old job and I’m living with my mom for the simple reasons that I don’t have any money for a flat of my own or any idea of a city, a place which I’d like enough to live in at the moment.  Not exactly the place in my life where I’d like to be at 27 but… However there are possibilities, good options even in Finland but I just haven’t made up my mind yet. Somehow moving to a new Finnish city not knowing much people or having a job, scares me more than what moving to Montréal did. Weird eh?

Otherwise haven’t had much difficulty with settling in back to my old routines if you don’t take into account that I still keep adding tax to all the prices I see in the groceries, cafes, restaurants etc and that I find myself repeating ‘how are you?’ or ‘have a nice day’ to total strangers which is not the most common thing in here. I also have a strong desire to do so in French. Apparently I’ve picked up on some of the local ways of Montréal. Also some of the news that were just distant headlines in Québec are happening If not right here but pretty damn close anyways, across the eastern border. Scary eh?

Lahti

My québcoise journey had a bit of extension, if that is the right word for it, when a friend of mine from Montréal made a stop in Finland on her travel through Nordic Countries. Four days we did almost non-stop sightseeing in three Finnish cities and I gotta admit it was a quite eyes opening experience for me as well. After the year being abroad my perspective has definitely changed and I look at my country and culture differently. I appreciate the smallest things the most.

There is a change going on in my home town which seems to be noticeable only to my eyes. But still for my comfort the most important things are never changing like friends, family, the lake and ice cream section at the local groceries. People have been welcoming and it's been nice to see that I wasn't forgotten. 

So for four days I fed my friend with traditional Finnish delicacies like salty liquorice, different ice cream flavours, blueberry cider and more or less fascinating facts about the Finnish history and society. Good trip overall! Merci Annick and I’ll see you in UK!

A medieval castle in Turku

Through my studies I also took part of the ArtSaturday which is a day version of La Nuit Blanche which I told you about last spring. Clearly way smaller over here and the reason why the night version was changed into this new day version is because people got too drunk. This is Finland for you! Anyways it was a blast this year, bigger and wider program of different activities than ever before in the city center.

Shame on you, Lahti folks who missed it for some crappy excuse! I was positively surprised by the entire project, the people organizing it and the experience itself. Good networking it was, met cool people. I wouldn’t have imagined that there are people in this town who care about this city enough to make such efforts for better Lahti happen.  I wanna do it again next year! If I’ll be here.

So this what I’ve been up to after my québecoise experience which seems like a dream that happened only in my mind at this point. I can’t believe it, a year ago I was just beginning my dream, searching for trainee job and building up my new life. I miss the city, endless amount of possibilities whether it was about a job, social life or any free time activity you were looking for. Couchsurfing community and the friends I made.

Even thou I’ve been totally broke and I don't know if I'm ever gonna see any of the people I met in Montréal… Some might say that it was total waste of time.. But I still don’t regret a thing about the year I spent there. However I have a feeling that I might not be returning to Montréal anytime soon. Unless something super-surprising happens to me. But so far it looks like I’m gonna stick with Europe. UK and Spain attract me the most. But now as it feels it might not be a bad idea to live in Finland either. Feels kind of nice actually for a change. 

UMK 2024 Song Review - Jesse Markin

The hype is very real around Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the Finnish national selection for Eurovision and the race to Malmö continues with another entry!

Jesse Markin - Glow

Jesse Markin is one of the most promising upcoming Finnish indie artists who released his debut album Folk in 2019 and was widely awarded for it for example with an Emma (Finnish Grammy) as the best newcomer in 2020. He released his follow-up album Noir in 2021. Musically he would be categorized as a rap artist but his music is greatly influenced by other genres which shows also in his UMK 2024 entry.

He is one of the rare UMK artists taking a stand announcing that in case of winning UMK he would not go to Malmö if Israel participates ESC 2024.

Glow written partly in Finnish toilets but also in the streets of Ghana, is definitely something else. A fresh summer breeze in the middle of cold January - this is a song that no one expected to receive from Finland.

This ain't a simple track, instrumentally rich, would even call it noisy - a lot is going on in here. I hear reggaeton, afro-beats, hip hop / rap, electro / house well, smoothly produced urban sounds - musically this reminds me of Black Eyed Peas a bit. Chorus is memorable and uplifting with "you're gonna make it" where the verses tend to remain a bit flat.

The song doesn't have really a proper bridge and I don't think the rap section in the halfway of the song should be considered as such. And I don't think it's giving the correct energy here but this might be a personal preference. The track seems then a little long and repetitive. Visually this is on of the weakest of UMK video clips this year. Even though the lama is kind of cute!

However, there's a lot of love for this song out there. For those into this kind of genre, the track is an instant earworm but for others it has a risk of disappearing in the background as.. well background music. When speaking about views on YT and streams on Spotify Glow is losing in both lists for its competitors (being 7th and 6th). But Glow does serve a strong feel good vibe and I'm so glad it's here! It does bring light and different perspective to the 2024 UMK line up.

What do you think of the fourth UMK24 track and would you vote for Jesse Markin to go all the way to Malmö? UMK final takes place on February 10th!

They’re just clouds

Can I jump into that part when I’ll have it all it figured out? 

Month has passed by in Lisbon for me and I feel like I’ve done nothing! #Patience

I cannot help but to compare these first weeks to my last adventure in French speaking Canada. Shouldn’t do it cause the situation I’m in now is very different than what I lived back in 2013. In Mtl in the beginning I had 1,5 month time to look for a trainee job, make friends, get the official stuff sorted out and to know my new environment - pretty much against my own wish cause original plan was way more efficient and didn’t include that much “wasted time”. It wasn’t untill now that I realized how important that time off was in that moment.

But this time around, I started to work only after three days after my arrival here and even though there has been some extenuating facts like that I had an actual job waiting here for me, my employer did almost all the official paper (tax, bank account etc) work for me and that I’m working in an EU country now without visas and even in my own language. Still these days and weeks have felt pretty tiring and I miss the times like the first weeks in MTL without schedules and doing things in my own pace. 

But things are good. I still haven’t been robbed, raped or attacked in any other way. Safety first, right?. Even though to be honest living in Portugal feels weird. Sometimes I’m caught up with this thought that how did I end up here (more like a confused kind of way than in a negative one) until I remember all of this is a result of my own terminated work and planning. I haven’t quite been caught up by the local life rhythm yet. I still don’t have a phone number, ACTIVE bank account, washing machine has been broken on and off at the flat, things work still in an incredible slow motion for me (especially the official ones) nor do I speak the language. Luckily these things are temporary and fixable in time especially that I have a NIF (local tax number now which is the key to everything here). #Patience

But inspiring factors do come in my way every day. Small things whether it’s the beautiful morning scenery over the river, a brand new day rising on my way to work OR the lively street with its coffee and ice cream shops I found around the corner from home, meeting new people, even just for a once and being exposed to the new life stories that are educating and different from my own.

The city is cool though! It has a spirit and I’m liking it! I’ve been through most of the main areas of it and I do have a thought in which part you do this or that. The same areas may offer you a totally different things during the day and night. Been walking a lot... and how do I love that everything is pretty much in a walking distance here! And for every day there’s a new door or a window, balcony filled with interesting details. How can anyone get tired of these streets!? Been to a beach couple of times also (where you do have to go by train though). It was alright, you know very... sandy. Discovered some cool areas beyond the beach also. 

Portuguese learning is kind of slow. Surprisingly. The waiting list for the free (offered by my employer) language courses is over six months long so in the meantime I have to figure something else out. I try to watch youtube videos, listen the language being spoken around me, read the news in portuguese and do some serious studies by myself with the book I bought. #Patience. 

I have new room mate. The french girl moved out leaving a disaster behind her… HUUUGE mess in her room, kitchen and elsewhere in the flat. She even threw a party which the neighbours called the police for. Clearly the best thing is that she is gone. I try not to be judgemental but in my experience the french GIRLS make the worst roommates (and trust me I’ve had some back in Mtl). I’m sure there must be better ones but I just seem to have an incredibly bad luck of always bumping into the messiest, noisiest and the most selfish ones. Feel free to proof me wrong in here anytime! Now me and the austrian girls are living with this hungarian guy which we’re not sure either but I guess it’s better. #Patience. 

Work is a bubble where you spend most of your day, your week and forget that you ever left home because all I do is to speak Finnish/English and have quite little touch with the Portuguese way of life. My choice though. It has its ups and downs. For a week we did take some actual calls and tried to help the customers in the best way that we could and hopefully without screwing things up too much. Despite of huge amount of information we’ve already been exposed and that we’re still not aware of, I still think this is the coolest job I’ve ever had! But it is hard to try to learn so much in such a short period of time. #patience

We’re back at the class room for another week or so before we can call ourselves actual travel advisors. I know there will be frustration and bunch of other negative emotions caused by endless list of reasons I can already think of. I have a feeling the road is gonna be long. But through it all, at the end of the day I know I’ll be enjoying this once I get the hang of things! It’s not one of those many jobs you do just to survive, to get by through another day while you’re keeping your eyes open for something else. More right, more suitable, more you.

This is right. This fits. This is me.

(God, I really hope I can still stand behind these lines after months from here. Nor get fired :D)

I visited Palace of Queluz last January which is one of the best kept secrets in Sintra / Lisbon located literally between the the fairytale town of Sintra and the portuguese capital. This is the most beautiful room I’ve ever been visited. And the best part was that I was the only person there! 

"..and when you’re in your twenties, i hope you buy a plane ticket to paris. i hope you get lost wandering all of the streets. i hope you travel the world and read lots of new books.  i hope you have interesting conversations over warm cups of tea.  i hope you drink out of mason jars while dancing barefoot in the grass. i hope you have a water fight in central park. set goals and change them. quit your day job. i hope you don’t do any of these things or that you do them all. write a book. change your mind. start new friendships and let go of the ones that you need to. say goodbye to all of the things that have kept you stagnant and vow to keep moving forward..."

As excited I was year ago to book my flight to Canada... I am now even more sad to book my flight back home. July 28th.