One advantage of the huge amount of snow in Finland is that you can ski everywhere.  Just avoid gritted streets and you’ll be fine.

I recently met a student of cultural anthropology and had a very stimulating conversation like I haven’t had in a long time outside of work.  Her main area of interest are cultural areas in cities, and when I mentioned that the part of Mexico City where I grew up is somehow similar to the part of the Helsinki metro area where I live now as they’re both suburbs we got off to a good start.

During the course of this conversation she mentioned the phrase that gives its title to this post, and it got stuck with me.  The first example that came to my mind was that of the different manifestations of the Virgin Mary: in Europe she’s Caucasian, in Mexico she’s mestiza and in China she’s Asian.  However, I have been reflecting more on that given the current chapter in the Finnish immigration debate, where a university professor has pretty much reached the same conclusions as Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations (conclusions with which I couldn’t agree less).

The other reason why this phrase is stuck in my head is because in the past few days through analysing my behaviour (and a couple of faux pas) I have found a couple of things I’m not sure I like too much about myself.  Then again, the first step in enacting change is discovering what the desired state is.

My friends can visit their families for the weekend.  In my case, it takes me the weekend to get to see my family.  That’s why the few times I get to see some of my closest ones I enjoy the occasion immensely.

Only wear this once a year, but it's worth it

This year we celebrated Mexican independence day in Helsinki.  The reception, organised by the Mexican embassy, had very high attendance with over 300 people.  You can check mine or Ricardo’s great photos of the event or a couple of videos below.

Parikkala church

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

We have been visiting this small corner of Finnish Karelia a few time sin the past year because a good friend lives there. While it is far too small for me to even remotely think about establishing myself there, I was really glad to meet good friends and have Carelian pies (Carelian stew was not available this time, but it’s awesome over there).

Good people, interesting conversations, beer and live videoblogging of the event.  All for a good cause: saving the Baltic sea.

When I was growing up and my parents’ friends would come over to our place, there would usually be dinner and/or coffee and they would just keep on doing the “adults’ conversation”.

Now that I’m an adult and some of my friends already have kids of their own, when we meet we sometimes have dinner and/or coffee, but there’s almost always a playing session on the Wii going on, while we take turns to take care of and play with the kids. Videogames (of a certain kind) have become part of the social experience.

I’m not sure I can picture my mom shredding to Guitar Hero: Metallica while I was growing up.  Makes me wonder what kind of things will our children take up to show their rebellious spirit when the time comes if they are so inclined.

One thing that I couldn’t quite understand before I moved to Finland was the sheer amount of berries in these parts.  You can pick them from the forests, from the hills and sometimes from the sides of the roads, and depending on the time of summer you will see different ones available.

The funniest thing about it all is that I’ve learned their names in Finnish, so I needed to check in Wikipedia what were their Spanish names and lo and behold, most of them were fruits I already knew, but didn’t know what their appearance was.  Some examples below:

Grosella = Redcurrant = Punaviinimarja/Punaherukka

Frambuesa = Raspberry = Vadelma

Mora azul= Blueberry = Mustikka

Cowboy towards the sunset

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

What do you guys think of this new avatar?