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.
Tag Archives: life
Mexican Independence Day, 199th edition
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
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).
Helsinki Twestival
Good people, interesting conversations, beer and live videoblogging of the event. All for a good cause: saving the Baltic sea.
Times change
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.
Inside / Outside
Finnish berries
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
What do you guys think of this new avatar?
Bouganvilleas at home
As you might know, I love having plants in my house, and bouganvilleas (ihmeköynnökset to my Finnish friends) are my favourites. They grow almost everywhere in Mexico and were abundant in the neighbourhood where I was raised, so they make me feel at home.
I’ve been trying to find them for a long, long time, so you can imagine my surprise when we finally got them when we were in London. They survived the flight back in our suitcases and are now enjoying the sun here in the outskirts of Helsinki. Whatever makes home more homey is welcome 😀
“I’m young and want to move abroad, but don’t know how”
During the past few years recent college graduates have been asking me what to do if they want to move abroad. This is not a comprehensive guide, but can give you good ideas if you have that kind of wanderlust.
- Understand it’s not going to be easy. Many others are planning to do the same thing, and there’s no more difficult people than those who work for any country’s immigration authority.
- Decide what you want to do: study or work?
- Check were you want to go, what is the study/labour market like and what are the requirements.
- Contact the embassies of such places to get more information.
- Check what are your options and your budget (if for studies, scholarships are always a good option, if for work or a traineeship, associations like AIESEC can also help)
- Map your strenghts and weaknesses vs. what is required of you.
- Try to understand what are the cultural & language challenges.
- Keep an open mind and an optimistic spirit. Will take you places.