Adjusting

This past week and a half has been unlike anything I've ever experienced.  Ever.  The amount of learning and adjusting we've had to do is amazing.  I honestly hardly know how to put it into words. While reading former Fulbright blogs, Jerod and I noticed that there were a lot of explanations about seemingly mundane things.  Now we get why they were writing about those things.  When you are in a new country and you don't know anyone or speak the language, those things are a BIG DEAL!!!

Let's take our first trip into town as an example.  It was our second day here, we had only a few food items in the house and getting to the grocery store was necessary that day.  Lydia was still sick, and I wasn't feeling very well either.  But of course I wasn't about to send Jerod into town alone, when we had literally no clue which end was up.  So we bundled up and headed down the path across the street from our house that we thought lead to the bus stop.  We made our best guess about which stop to go to.  Then we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  It was cold and the girls were not diggin' hanging out at the bus stop.  So we walked across the street and found a dental supply store that was open.  We went inside and asked the lady if she knew when the bus came.  She pointed out the window - there it is!  We all turned to see the bus roll away.  So we went and waited some more.  Finally the bus came . We got on and the conversation with the driver went something like this:

Us: Does this bus go into town?

Driver:  Yes.

Us:  And can we buy a bus pass in town?

Driver:  You do not have a bus pass?

Us:  No.  We just arrived in town.

Driver:  6 Euros please.

Us: ...............  Do you take American money?

Driver:.......................Just get on.

Thank goodness for kind people.  That act of letting us ride into town for free was HUGE, and not to be underestimated.  As in, had he not let us get on the bus, I think it would have been a moment of crisis for us.  We were tired, had no idea where a store with food was, really had no idea how far or close we were to town, couldn't plug in our computer because we didn't have an adapter, had no working cell phones, and no one to call even if they had worked.  

Every little thing we've had to figure out has been a big deal.  And for the first few days, the agenda for each day was small.  

Day 1:  

Find Food 

Get bus pass

Day 2:  

Buy SIM cards for cell phone

Find the REAL grocery store 

(The one we found on day 1 had the food selection of a glorified gas station.)

Day 3:

Find the girls' school

Buy an adapter to plug in the computer

Find beer

That first week was tough.  Not bad, just tough.  Jerod and I each had one day of freaking out, but luckily we are good planners and chose not to do this on the same day as each other.  There was just so much to figure out.  In addition to the things listed above, which were the really big things, there were also a ton of small things.  Like, what do these strange symbols on our stove mean?  And how do miles compare to kilometers, or how does celcius compare to fehrenheit, or kilograms to pounds?  Where does our recycling go?  How in the world does one read these very confusing bus schedules (that are all in Finnish)?  How do you lock the front door? Why does the drier keep beeping?  (Because in Finland, you have to empty out a tray of water after every load.)  Also, jet lag was tough.  We were not prepared for how long it would take us to adjust.   

Our second week has been a little easier.  This week has been less about figuring out the big and little questions, and more about adjusting to our new life.  At our orientation in Washington D.C., we were told not to feel like we had to hit the ground running when we arrived in our new countries.  Rather, we should take a week or two to get situated and find our way around town.  This sounded so luxurious to me, I mean I am getting paid to be here after all.  But now I totally get it, and thank goodness we were not forced to start work right away.  

Here we have no car and use public transportation to get everywhere.  This alone has been a big thing to adjust to.  For the first week we just showed up at the bus stop and hoped a bus would come.  We finally found a website that explained the schedule, which has proven to be accurate most of the time. But we have to plan much differently when we can't just hop into our car.  

Not having a car really affects grocery shopping.  You shop differently when you have to carry home everything you buy.  We shop everyday for food.  Anytime either one of us goes into town, we pick up a few things.  And we don't buy things that we don't need, because that will just make our bag heavier. This also means that we are way more aware of not wasting food.  I know I'm hardly growing all of my food or raising chickens, but I already feel much more connected to my food.  It is just so different when you are intentional about EVERYTHING you buy.

The day light, or lack there of, has also been an adjustment.  When we got here the sun came up at about 9:00 and set by 3:00.  We can already see that the days are getting slightly longer - we are gaining almost ten minutes of daylight each day.  The combination of jet lag and and long nights has meant a lot of sleep for us, which has been good.  We are starting to feel normal again.

Our house is little.  This has had an affect on many things.  We need to keep our stuff organized, which is not a strength of ours, because there's just not much space.  But its been easier to do because we have less stuff.  And even though we packed a fraction of our belongings to bring to Finland, we already feel like we don't need everything we brought.  Being in a small house also means there aren't as many ways to escape from each other.  We've spent a lot more time together as a family and a lot less time watching tv.  That has been a really good change for us.  

We spend WAAAAAY more time outside than we did in Minnesota.  I'm loving this.  We walk to the bus stop, we walk around town, sometimes we walk into town (Jerod and I do, not the girls.) Speaking of walking, this has been a big change, and it's been a hard one for our girls - especially Lydia.  On the agenda for the next few days is finding a stroller, because her little legs just can't handle it if we have to walk more than 10 minutes or so.  Ruthie struggled the first few days with this, but now she's doing way better with it.  I think Finland is going to make our girls a little tougher! Being outside so much also means that proper clothing is important.  After a very sad trip ice skating, we realized that Lydia's gear just wasn't doing the job.  We invested in some good mittens and an awesome snowsuit for her, and now things are much better.  Finland also has really cool sleds and ski scooters.  The girls have had so much fun playing on these!  There's a great sledding hill just at the end of our street that is so fun!

Our sauna!  It is AMAZING!!!!  I love it.  I want one.  Everyone should have one.

Gosh, I'm sure there's so much more to tell about, but that's a lot for now.  Here are two final things.  

1.  They don't shovel the sidewalks in Finland.  They simply put gravel on top of the snow.  When I asked my adviser why the sidewalks weren't shoveled she said, "What do you mean?  Why isn't the snow removed completely?"  When I told her that in Minnesota each home was responsible for shoveling their own sidewalk she said, "But why?  It isn't slippery to walk on."  And she's right, it's not.  People walk and ride bikes on these sidewalks all the time here, and it's just find.  I don't have a good answer for her.  This seems like an easier solution to the snow than what we do.  

2.  A carrot sharpener.  I've only yet taken a picture of it because I thought it was funny, but I think I may have to go buy one.  

Journey to Jyväskylä

And we're off!

It has been a long season of preparing to live in Finland.  We went to bed on Saturday night feeling ready for our big trip...and then Lydia threw up.  What timing.  In the interest of not paying $,16000  per ticket to reschedule, we decided to stay the course. 

We flew Minneapolis, to Chicago, to London, to Helsinki.  Our first flight was great, but while we were waiting in Chicago, Lydia wasn't looking so great again.  I was holding my breath that she'd be alright, but as we were boarding the flight, she threw up again...right in front of all the other passengers.  I stood there, holding my 3 year old over the garbage can, pretending that the hundreds of people standing around me, waiting to get on the same seven hour flight as us weren't seeing what was happening.  No one said anything, so we got on.  And then as the plane was taking off I had this sinking feeling of, "what have I done?"  It was like the reality of moving across the globe with my family was finally sinking in.  The romance of the entire situation was somehow lacking from this scene. 

Luckily things perked up.  We made it to Heathrow airport, had some coffee, let the kids play a bit, and enjoyed people watching.  Europe has some fun fashions!  At Heathrow, I took a little walk to buy some plug in converters for our electronics.  While checking out at the drug store in the airport, I was totally struck by the workers there.  They looked happy and even proud to be doing their jobs.  When we had been in Chicago, I ordered some food from a restaurant in the food court.  I observed the workers looking tired, miserable, and not terribly put together.  The funny thing was though, I didn't even really process that observation until I was buying tooth brushes and converters in London. It made me wonder why there was this juxtaposition.  Do service jobs pay better in Europe?  Are these jobs more respected?   I don't really have an answer, but the contrast was striking.  

And then...then we boarded our Finnair flight to Helsinki, and I swear to you, I think angels started singing.  The plane was spotless, there was gentle music playing, everything was bright, and these two lovely people greeted us on our screens throughout the flight.  Look how much they love their jobs!!!  For real though, the Finns are a beautiful bunch of people.  And it was a lovely flight!

Once we landed in Helsinki, w e took a cab to our hotel.  The driver spoke not a word to us, but was rocking out to a Backstreet Boys cd, circa 2000, so that made up for the lack of conversation.  It was especially fun to watch him play air drums on the stick shift as he drove.  

We had not the greatest night of sleep ever and were wide awake by 5:00 am or so.  Fortunately for us, Finnish continental breakfasts are AMAZING!  I wish we could eat like this everyday!!!

After breakfast we packed up and boarded the train to Jyväskylä, a university town in central Finland that will be our home for the next five months.  The three hour train ride was awesome!  I'm going to be taking this train route on a weekly basis to study with the Tapiola choir in Helsinki, and based on our first trip, this is not a bad thing!  The scenery was beautiful, as were the houses.  Those of you reading this who know me from my childhood will understand what I mean when I say Finland is like a whole country of "Taylors Falls."  The land looks SO much like Minnesota, but the houses are all cute little houses that look very old.  The only difference is that instead of all of the houses being white with green shutters, like they are in TF, they are all bright colors - blue, yellow, red.  Beautiful!  And it was so nice to sit at a table as a family where we could read, color, play with legos etc, rather than one of us driving, or all of us being crammed into airplane seats.  I think I'm gonna get used to train life. 

When we finally rolled into town, my adviser and the father of the owner of our rental house met us at the train station and drove us to our new home.  It is ADORABLE!!!!!  And to say the girls are delighted with the toys at the house is an understatement.  It's a small house, and it is definitely going to encourage the simple lifestyle Jerod and I were hoping to embrace.  I think we are going to like it here.   

Home Sweet Home

Our house at the top of the path we walk to the bus.

  

 

Our bedroom and wardrobe - right off of the kitchen.  #Finnlife

We love the big table in the kitchen.  

    

We also love the wood burning fire place!

Looking into the kitchen from the living room.

Sweet little play store upstairs.

Antique beds for the girls.

Playhouse in the back yard.

Cool swing set in our yard.

The Future is Murky

In five days, my family and I will board a plane and head to Jyväskylä, Finland. This journey began nearly a year and a half ago when I learned about the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program.  My husband, Jerod, had recently quit his job in corporate America to stay home with our girls full time, and I was feeling the itch to experience some sort of change or growth in my professional life. This opportunity appeared at nearly the perfect time in our family’s life for me to consider doing something this crazy. When I asked Jerod if he wanted to live abroad, he casually said, “sure”...so naturally, I applied.  In the wise words of one of my good friends, YOLO!  

The timeline went something like this:

• August, 2015 - I became interested in this possibility.
• September and October, 2015 - I spent a lot of time talking to colleagues and music educators getting advice on which counties I should explore and ideas about what my proposed project might look like.  
• November, 2015 - I submitted the most beastly application I’ve ever completed.
• December, 2015 - I waited.
• January, 2016 - I waited some more.
• February 2016 - I waited a little longer, and then late in the month I learned that I was being considered for a finalist and that I would take part in a phone interview to discuss my application and project.
• March 2016 - I participated in my phone interview on March 2nd...and then I waited again.
• April 2016 - On April 5th, I received an email from the Department of State congratulating me on being selected for the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program.  

The time between April and now has been full of so many preparations.  We had to:  Find housing in Finland, find renters for our house in Minnesota, complete many house projects to be ready to rent our house, clean out closets and throw out a TON of stuff from our house, attend the Fulbright orientation in Washington D.C., visit the Finnish Embassy in person to secure our Finnish visas, research how to pack for an entire family for a five month trip abroad, find a long-term substitute for my teaching job, continue to declutter our house, make sure all of our prescriptions and doctor appointments were up to date, get credit cards with no international transaction fee, figure out how to buy Sunbutter for our 5 year old daughter, Ruthie, in Finland, find English schooling for both Ruthie, and our 3 year old daughter, Lydia, in Finland, make contact with the two youth choirs I will be working with during my stay, throw out more stuff from our house, and so on, and so on…

Now we are less than a week away from leaving and I can hardly believe it.  I keep saying that I’m ready to finally get going, that this has been looming for so long and I’m anxious to rip the bandaid off and just DO THIS!  But it strikes me every time I say it that I actually have no idea what all of this will be like.  There is so much unknown.  “The future is murky” has become my mantra - not only for my time in Finland, but also for what my life will look like after we return.  I went into this thinking that the Fulbright was the final destination, but I have learned that for most people, the Fulbright is a stepping stone that opens many doors.  And what are those doors for me?  I have no idea.  But the way everything has fallen into place at every step of the way gives me a sense of peace about the unknown.  I’m confident that taking this wild risk is the right move for us to be taking, and good things will come from it, even if it is hard to know what that means.  

While I don't know what exactly lies ahead for me, here are a few things I am excited about and am looking forward to:

• Seeing the Northern Lights.
• Having a sauna in our house.
• Unplugging with my family for five months.
• Visiting new countries - hopefully more than just Finland.
• Learning how to live more simply.
• Working closely with two world-renowned youth choirs: Tapiola and Vox Aurea. I can't wait to see what I learn!
• Going to Lapland to visit the REAL SANTA CLAUSE!!!! Maybe even staying in one of those glass igloos while we're at it...
• Being in Finland during 2017, which is the 100th anniversary of Finnish independence.
• Experiencing life in a socialist country.

One side note as we get ready to depart:  Preparing to leave the country for five months has sure made us feel loved!  It’s amazing how many people seem invested in this journey with us.  All of the well wishes, help with the girls, requests for updates, people who are making us meals this week, friends who want to make sure to see us before we leave - all of it is amazing.  It makes me so grateful to know that we have such a beautiful community of family and friends to return to on May 30th, 2017.  Until then, we’ll be seeing all of you here on the blog, and on Facebook!