Living abroad in today's world

Finns living in the US or Americans living in Finland, which ever way....one can gripe all one wants about missing something back home but the truth is...life is good!

With the globalization immigration to a different country is comfortable compared to e.g. the Finns, who took the journey to come to US during the Great Migration (1860 - 1930) in the search after a better life. I could think that anyone from US, who would have decided to immigrate to Finland during that time...would have been ultimately noted as a lunatic back in US.

Nowadays Finland's strengths have reached global media and the number of Americans living in Finland has been steadily rising. In 1987 there were 333 daring Americans living in Finland. In 2009 that number rose to 3907 Americans, who called Finland their home. Today that number is even higher. In 2013 there were in total 15 570 people living in Finland, whose mother tongue is English. This includes also Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and other countries in addition to the US.
Regardless, quite an improvement.

On this side of the globe, keeping up with the latest and the greatest from Finland is easier now than ever before. I browse the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper every day. Even this morning I was enjoying a quiet morning with my cup of green tea and reading the latest news from the web version of Helsingin Sanomat.

Side note: when there is no paper involved...for an ex-paper industry professional, it feels funny to still call a newspaper. I have yet to find a better way to describe it.

In Facebook there are great communities, where Finns and fellow Nordics post information or share knowledge about how to convert the Finnish recipes to the US environment. We exchange knowledge about which ingredient to use to replace some traditional Finnish ingredient, which is not available directly in the US.

The Finnish and Nordic community in Houston (as well as wider Texas) sticks together nicely. One gets to keep up the Finnish and Swedish language on a regular basis and spend nice times together, sharing the latest events about Life in Texas.

Also there are Facebook,  Facetime,  Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Twitter, etc. which help to stay in touch with friends all over the world. Back in 1996 when I moved to Germany, I was communicating by good old letters, FAX (!!!!) and sometimes even by phone with friends and family back in Finland.

At least a few times a month there is a Facetime session with my brother and his family. My nephews know how to dial me via Facetime, which was the key reason they inherited my old iPad. It is so different to catch up with them, when they can see how life is here and they can show their drawings and latest lego creations. Especially with them it does make a difference, as they would not have the patience to just talk. Those discussions would stay rather one-sided and VERY short :))))

Then there are all these great internet shops, where one can get the necessary things. The few Finnish things that I cannot live without are proper rye bread, Fazer chocolate, proper loose green tea, Moomin mugs and Xylitol chewing gum. All of those are in one way or another accessible via internet shopping.
With good bribing and begging, friends and family in Finland have eventually also started sending occasional care packages. Yeiiii!

I do consider myself lucky that I have the luxury of learning about the US culture and life, and at the same time being able to keep my roots strong. That is a dream; a dream which the Finns, who left Finland during the Great Migration would not even dare to think of as a possibility.

The descendants of those brave Finns now number around 700 000 Finnish Americans living in the US. It is inspiring to see in the Finnish American Facebook page how proud they are of their Finnish roots, even if they would go a few generations back.  With some, the knowledge of Finnish language is limited to a few sayings, which their grandparents used to say. Yet, you can see that in their hearts....they are still Finns.

Who knows, maybe a few generations from now the descendants of the Americans immigrated to Finland will face the same situation. Hilarious thought, but everything is possible.

The little Finnish things in Houston

I have noticed since moving to Houston a funny behavior in myself. It seems that when ever I live outside Finland the Finn in me raises its head more than during the years when I have lived in Finland. I lived, before moving here, 7 years in Finland and prior to that 12 years abroad (Germany, Singapore and Belgium). 

I guess in Finland all that "Finnishness" is part of daily life and getting the typical Finnish products e.g. rye bread, nobody thinks twice about those, as you can get those anywhere. Even the smallest village shop is well stocked with dozen different fresh rye bread brands. Same goes for sauna, everyone has sauna and it is part of the daily life (I will blog more about that separately). 

When you move abroad, suddenly the whole daily life gets extreme make over. One needs to rethink what one can find and where. Weeks were spent, this time around with the help of my American family and husband, to find what my husband calls my "comfort foods". In my case it helped that my husband lived in Finland for a while and a year with me. He knows exactly what Finnish daily life looks like.

It has been a positive experience though. In my opinion everyone should move abroad at least once in their life. For me it has been each time rewarding experience, even though the beginning is always tough to find ones way around in the new place.

What it has done to me though;

I have stopped taking things or people for granted and learned to appreciate things in Finland, which I did not even pay attention before. On the other hand from each country I have lived, I have taken new ideas and habits with me, able to recognize that there are some things which we are way behind in Finland or able to see things here in US, which would be in need of checking how other countries are doing it. I consider it a richness to be able to get deep into foreign countries' culture and melt as part of the local culture with my Finnish & international quirks :)

There are certain things though, which I try to keep with me, no matter where I live. Wanted to list some of them below and also tips or places in Houston / Internet, which help to keep the Finn in me content :) Maybe other Finns around Houston find these useful too.

Finnish Hairdresser / http://www.mikkosalons.com/

Might sound silly but most Finns (and Swedes too) have very different hair type than e.g. Germans, Belgians, Asians or Americans. It is thin but there is plenty of it and it bends / curls all directions.

When I moved here I was lucky enough to hear through a friend that there is a Finnish hairdresser in Springs, Mikko. Here some people might wonder, why on earth would I drive all the way to Springs for hair cut (it means about 45 - 60 min drive one way). I do it gladly when I know that my hair is cut by someone who know exactly how to cut it. My mother was hard core professional hair dresser and taught me to be picky about my hair. Plus now the hair cut is not just a hair cut, it gives a chance to speak Finnish and compare experiences in US. Mikko has lived here 12 years and has given me lot of good tips along the way.

Xylitol Chewing Gum

Having grown up in environment, where xylitol is part of daily life since child and importance of dental care starts from early years.

It was a relief to notice that Americans have actually gotten away from the sugar chewing gums and more sugar free chewing gum exists, which have xylitol. One can find main brands in any grocery store. My issue with some of main stream brands was though that I got some kind of allergic reaction.

After searching for a while I noticed that health food stores sell xylitol products, which do not cause any reactions. One good one is Spry, several flavors and available in most health food stores, as well as online.

I still remember when living in Singapore, where chewing gum in general is banned from being sold commercially. I had to "smuggle"boxes of chewing gum from each trip to Finland. That lead often to interesting discussions with customs. "Mam, you are certain that these 10 boxes of chewing gum are for your personal use only?" Luckily each time I was able to convince them that I really am "addicted to xylitol chewing gum".

Rye Bread

I have not found anything even close to my favorite rye bread, Reissumies. Yet there are luckily good selection of German rye breads (Thanks to all the German communities in town...Danke!!!).

Best places to find rye bread, which actually is rye bread (several US produces claim something to be rye bread, yet rye is the last ingredient on the list):

- Fun fact for those who did not know it from before, the ingredients are listed in the descending order of how much of that ingredient is in the product -

Phoenicia has good selection of German rye bread and dried rye bread (näkkileipä in Finnish).

Following chains have generally good selections:

Trader Joe's

Specs

Whole Foods

Ikea

But like said, one cannot get the Finnish rye bread like bread. Thus I decided to bake Finnish Archipelago bread. In Finland this would be nothing no big news. Here getting all the ingredients together was the most exhausting part. Kroger, Whole Foods and Central Market have good quality rye flour. The trickies one was finding malted rye and it took us few weeks to find a place....as we had to go to a hobby beer brewing shop to get it :)
Defalgo's has German malted rye, which is very close to Finnish malted rye.

I found this recipe, which helped me to find local equivalent to the ingredients, which one would use in Finland: Finnish Archipelago Bread

Those living Houston, happy to make some extra ones in my lil' home bakery when ever I bake, if I know that there would be demand for some.

Cheese

Finnish Edam cheese is not yet available here but Valio does have a daughter company in US, Finlandia Cheese.

One can find Finlandia's cheese in most of the chains listed above. Houston being international hub, decent cheese selections are available in most stores (also at HEB, Fiesta and Walmart). In most places cheese costs as much as it does in Finland...unfortunately.

Maybe Finlandia would start producing Edam if they get enough requests.

For many foreigners Finnish Edam may, with its taste, reflect the nature of most Finns, silent and does not say much. But that cheese goes with anything :)

So far the only way to get Edam cheese is to fill the suitcase with Valio Edam and stock them in the freezer. If I only would not forget the cheese pile to my brother's fridge....which happened during last trip. FOUR kilos of Edam cheese, which I forgot to pack when heading to airport in the crack of dawn.

Finnish Goodies

I have found Panda liquorice in Fiesta.

World Market has Haribo selections and other salmiak (salty liquorice) similar products. My advice is though to stay away though from the Dutch Salty Liquorice products....they are nothing but salt.

Fazer chocolate.... there would be huge market for it here. Fazer chocolate is refreshingly different compared to any US, Belgian, German or Swiss chocolate. It is not as thick and the different flavors are yammi. Right now only places one can get them here are internet stores:

Willy's Products

Suomikauppa

FinnStyle

Some of those stores run out the best products fast and prices reflect that you are buying luxury import goods. But definitely worth buying!!! It takes your tongue with it (Finnish saying), so smooth and yammi.

We were lucky to get from ex-project colleagues at Fazer 16 kilos of chocolate for our wedding, as their wedding present to us. The whole 16 kilos was eaten too! What stayed over from wedding disappeared during mid-summer with the core family. The whole American side of the family fell in love with Fazer chocolates :)

Vihi vihi vihi and greetings to family and friends back in Finland or who have access to Reissumies rye bread and Fazer Chocolate...do not hesitate if you ever want to surprise me with a survival package ;))))

Happy to hear from the other Finns in Houston if there are some other good places to get our comfort foods.

...and here comes the container!

Have you ever had the situation, where you forgot about something (e.g. the full packed storage vanished from memory over the winter period) and suddenly you are reminded with it...in all its mighty....

In those situations the emotions jump through the roof. Not just because of all the work involved to unpack everything but unpacking boxes brings up emotions of home left behind. Momentarily there is a tear inside that screams.

I went through that this week as my container arrived....yep, all the 108 boxes were still there. Momentarily I wished that this container would have fallen off from the ship in the winter storm (in which it has been sailing over the Atlantic).

But no....it made it through, all intact. It took a whole army to pack everything in Finland and at this end there were 2 movers to bring the boxes. Mainly because I had indicated that I do not want them to unpack anything else except furniture.
Which means that all the spare time is this week known to be spent by unpacking the boxes.

On the positive note, it seems that there is a cure for the emotional overwhelm it seems. My fiance found it! It is called the Irish pub & talks :o) After the drained day of mentally fighting against the mountain of boxes my fiance persuaded me to go with him to Irish pub. What wonders 2 ciders, Pretzel and conversations with my fiance did!

Mental note for myself - next time one should clear off 4 rounds instead of two. I donated half of the house to friends, family and to charity. But while unpacking the boxes I think I could have done even better. Will need to remember that in few years time when possible next move comes along :o)

In the meanwhile I will try to study the warehouse picking and packing strategies in own action. Maybe that will be of use at work someday, when needing to find a solution to a client logistics problem.

As in Houston; I will now just say 108 times "Touch Down!" :o) 

From the "Airport hell" to "Ticket to 7th heaven"

Changing the home country is never easy, from an emotional roller coaster to roaring and running through airports....it is not far from feeling like you were dumped into the airport hell.
But what if there was an angel that offered you a ticket to 7th heaven, wiping all the previously mentioned away?

Exhausted from the previous day packing the house. Neither sleeping so well due to all the anxiety, excitement and everything in between....at 5 am we packed ourselves and the luggage into the loan car. Unfortunately we had not been able to get flights to same plane. I dropped my fiance off, checked my bags in, took the loan car to the car dealer.

The morning energy package was to meet with one of my best friend, my honeymelone, (she is like a sister to me really) at the airport. Previous evening she had been texting and asking about my departure time. I thought it would be more for curiosity but never thought she would be keen to come to the airport early in the morning. But I guess that makes best friends to be the best friends...they do things, which seem crazy for others :o) (Well my 3 best friends....they are really wonderful crazy bunch. But I come back to that some day later)

But in all seriousness....How many of you would drive in cold and dark weather at 7 am to the airport to have coffee with someone before going to work? Nope, not seeing to many hands up there in the crowd.

It was the best morning tea/coffee I have had for a while. We babbled on with everything between earth and sky, with the energy and happiness which one would have at a after work meet up :o)
Even the "tear control" process was in place when saying good-bye to each other (I lost the control later but she was not there to see it). It felt so nice to walk through the gate after such a nice "bon voyage" morning session.

Like said, that was the high point of my morning....as from there on things seemed to just get crazier by the minute for next hours. At the gate, when it got closer to boarding time, announcement was made to inform that the SAS flight crew was had not yet arrived. Some of us, mainly Finnish passangers, were joking that the Swedes had gone to celebrate pikkujoulut (little Christmas party) night before. (Those not familiar with the pikkujoulu traditions see HERE)

But our joking stopped pretty fast when they informed little later that the crew will not make it in time for most of us to be able to make it to our connection flights. At that point the verbal statements around me changed to the traditional Finns disliking Swedes expressions:"Those Swedes cannot even get one flight to take off in time. Should let the Finns handle it, there would be less talk and no problems..." (It is a never ending love-hate relationship that exists between Finns and Swedes and it goes both ways)
Luckily they made the full announcement in Finnish first, which gave us Finns the head start to take over the service desk with the request to reroute. After all it was just 4 days till Christmas Eve and any day lost in transit was tagged with a personal price tag, loosing quality time with family.

I got lucky and was rerouted to Lufthansa flight, via Fankfurt to Washington and there on to my new home.As the airlines do not cooperate with each other, I got the privilege to pick-up my luggage and check it in again at Lufthansa counter. All this took me an hour and lot of running around.

When I had done that, sat down to take a breath...I realized that the whole rerouting meant arriving in the middle of the night without keys and forcing my fiance to wake up, who had arrived just 6 hours prior to that.
It made me sad to think that my fiance had just flown the same route some hours earlier and was heading straight from Frankfurt to Houston. I would be traveling alone the same route....hours later.

I called him (well in time before he was due to get on board of his flight from Frankfurt) to share the news and humbly giving the heads up for the need to have him to open the door for me in the middle of the night....
He was so good about it and promised to come to pick me up even from the airport and check my flight situation to see if there were any delays.

I thought to myself....I am surrounded with the best craziest people. First my best friend coming in the crack of dawn to see me off and now my fiance willing to come pick me up from the airport in the middle of the night (after he has just gotten settled in home after 18h travel and with 8 hours time difference).

The flight to Frankfurt arrived in such a tight time that I ran through the airport...the last thing I wanted to do was to miss the connection flight. I managed while running grab a bottle of my fiance's favorite chocolate liquor (Mozart dark), which I had not seen in US. I negotiated in the Russian style to jump the queue before a huge Chinese tourist group. I made sure to make an innocent face and explain that my flight is taking off in few minutes. It all worked well and they were happy to let me go first (or just really confused what I was trying to explain and too happy with all the piles of cigarettes and perfume bottles they had in their arms).

I raced to the gate and went obediently to the mandatory security check and to give my address in US, during which they reprinted the tickets for the remaining journey.
I browsed through the ticket and was sure that they had made a mistake. My seat had changed and boarding group zone too. I asked the lady kindly, whether she was sure that this was my ticket.
I mean name was right on the ticket...but nothing else matched to the ticket they had printed already in Helsinki. I was tired and confused...I was sure there was a huge mistake and then in the plane I would be bounced around, as they had given me accidentally someone's business class seat....until it stroke me that this must have been my fiance's way to say "I wish you a pleasant flight and I wish I was there with you"!! :o)
Could it be?! Would he have gone and done that...for me?! He is crazy!! ...and adorable at the same!

I was shocked, happy and not far from being high from the mind game or my fiance upgrading me to the business class. I walked tunnel that stated "Business Class" and I screamed on the way: Jipppiiiii!!!! (I did not care if someone was behind me and asked the stewards later to give me some mental medication)
I had 2 elder gentlemen sitting next to me. While I was settling in and packing my bags away I told them my conclusions to the business class upgrade and what a wonderful fiance I have. They were very happy for me. I sat down to read the inflight magazine and was hoping that my fiance would feel the warmth, somewhere over the Atlantic, from all the love I was trying to send him mentally.

The inflight magazine looked interesting, especially all the gadgets they had selected for the tax free shopping. I always take some home just to check the latest gadget trends...I love gadgets. I heard a familiar voice asking:" Miss, is this seat free?" I looked up to see if the ticket they gave me at the gate was really the ticket straight to 7th heaven and maybe I was there already... as it was my FIANCE! He was standing there, right there. I jumped up and just wanted to kiss him head to toe and hug him so hard.

As all the excitement calmed down, the elder gentleman sitting on my other side commented: This is definitely something to tell at home to my wife....well not everything though, as otherwise she will start having too high expectations. But this is like straight from a reality show with such a happy ending!"

I kept staring with an idiotic smile at my fiance the first hour. I could not believe that he was really there...with me, flying with me... making the entry to our new life in US together. While holding my eyes closed, I kept reaching my hand out to reach his hand...wanted to make sure that even though my eyes were closed...that he would stay there, right next to me...my angel.

And yes.....he had sooooo deserved his Mozart chocolate liquor :o)

Well planned is half way done....

With that motto in mind I started preparing my move to US since July.

For nearly 5 months I was living according to all kinds of project plans...one for the move, one for wedding preparation and few for my work related projects :o)

It has of course the benefits that one will most likely be well prepared for the day when the moving company comes. Not sure though that my fiance was overly happy when I decided to give away the tv already in September to our German friends...

The rising piles of boxes serves positively for one thing, the urge to move keeps increasing. The place one felt at home has changed into a warehouse. It helps a lot to overcome the mental and emotional side of things. As there are no preparations plans which would come with the tool "skip the emotional hurdle".

The past months have been at times a roller-coaster. Within one day one goes from from being totally excited and happy about the change in life to the other extreme...being sad about the increasing geographical distance and time difference to most friends and family. It was great medicine that my fiance and myself were actually able to go through this time together. It keeps reminding in concrete way the fantastic reason of ripping oneself off from the platform and rocketing to Houston to build a new one.

Generally I think that having lived the past year together in Finland has equipped us well for the future adventures ;o) My fiance knows the environment well, what I used to call home for the past 6 years and what kind of food I consider my comfort food. Though he keeps laughing and wondering how anyone can eat caviar paste (aka by him as "fish liver paste") :o)

Having sold and donated half of the house....somehow on the moving day I realize that still one gets confronted with the question:" Mistä tätä kamaa tulee?" / "Where is all this stuff coming from?" (famous Finnish mobile company commercial had similar slogan).

So, we start the new journey with souveniers coming from Finland in 108 boxes in about one months time. Then not just Houston will have a problem but till then we need to find space in our new home (which used to be my fiance's man cave) :o)

Excursion to my new future

Sometimes things just fall into their places...
Unexpectedly I got the chance to get view on my own to the American daily life prior to moving.
One week in Mobile (which is funny enough pronounced like mobil due to the Native Americans Mobilians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobilian), Alabama is a great way to get the pre-taste of what will soon be my new life in America.

It's the little things that one starts paying attention to and appreciate when being outside the familiar surroundings.
My TomTom (aka Tomski) did not cooperate before the flight and thus I had no US map available when I took off from the Mobile airport with the rental car. Trusted enough to my wash proof Finnish orientation skills and decided that I will give it a shot to find my way to the hotel without navigation system. Worked out beautifully.

Managed to even amaze 3 Norwegians , whom I got to know at the Atlanta airport while waiting for the Mobile flight. They happened to stay in the same hotel with me. We left from the airport roughly at the same time, they took taxi and I drove my rental car. I arrived at the hotel only few minutes after them. Long live Finnish orientation classes! (....which though everyone dislikes greatly at school age but they do seem service the purpose)

This morning, when driving to the project site, again without navigation...was really smiling and feeling like singing "Living in America...."

I know it sounds silly as such.... But if one looks alone at the traffic signs, they are so different from each other (Finnish vs American). Another thing is that Finnish style to give indication in the traffic is more "search and you shall find guidance", where as American style is "we will inform you even those things, which are self evident".  The first time on the road in Texas during summer holiday felt like information overload. Here in Alabama that feeling followed during the first day. But one starts getting used to the busy scenery and learns rather targeted approach to get the necessary information.

Hope I can get a photo as an example of one of the intersections, where the amount of traffic sign pile in Mobile, Alabama looks like equally busy as the advertisement for Black Friday sales. Also noticed that at least cars in Alabama do not carry license plate in the front of the car. I know totally unimportant...but just shows that one really pays attention on a whole different level when being outside the comfort zone.

Alone today's experience here has definitely increased my confidence of being able to adopt rather fast to the local culture(s).
The feeling was amazing when I got to the office...that I will not forget so easily. I was smiling the whole drive and thinking to myself: "This is pretty awesome, I am driving to work in USA!" (I never could have imagined to get to live there one day, yet it has always been a dream hidden somewhere deep.