Last couple of weeks in Finland!

It is with mixed emotions that I am leaving Finland in just a few days, a "win win" feeling overall.  I am excited to be getting home, seeing friends and family,  walking the dog, sleeping in my own bed, reconnecting with my students and colleagues at Meadowdale, and all that.  At the same time, I am really going to miss Finland.  Compared to the USA, it is a noticeably relaxed place where people take time to invest in their personal relationships over long coffee chats and take leisurely strolls along the Baltic after work.  People seem less hurried, more in the present here.  I hope that I can retain some of that "Finnishness" with me when I return home to the hustle and bustle of my "regular" life.

These last two weeks have been busy ones, with lots of time spent in the public library listening to "nature sounds" on Spotify while I try to collect my thoughts on all I've learned here and synthesize it into something resembling an Inquiry Project to submit to the Fulbright team back in D.C.  I got that done and turned in a few days ago and feel pretty good about it overall.  That gave me the remaining week to relax and do a few final things around the Helsinki area.  Between this writing and my early morning Sunday flight, its mostly packing and cleaning up the apartment and a few last goodbyes to some of the friends I've made here.

I hope to come back to Finland someday; Janet and Emma and I all wish we could stay longer.  Emma's school friends have been busy taking her out after school and doing fun things with her.

See you all back in the States!

Pussy willows staring to bloom as winter releases its grip on Helsinki

A Helsinki Cathedral on a sunny spring day

I loved this "mirror" I saw in a bathroom at a restaurant!  I think we should put one of these in the girl's bathroom at my school!

One final school visit in Porkkola, outside of Helsinki area.

Porkkola students made a nice meal for me to share with them in their cooking class!

Dessert included

Nature area near Porkkola.  Looks like Maine!

Sharing a meal with a Finnish family whom I met on a school visit.

Janet's friend Serena and her son over to our place for burgers, chips, and chocolate sundaes!

Some last minute souvenir shopping in Helsinki

We took a short ferry ride out to Suomenlinna Island near the Helsinki harbor.  

Janet's friend Laura came for a visit from Seattle and she and I took a two hour train ride out to Turku in the southwest corner of Finland.  Here are some pictures of Turku:

A view down the main town corridor

Daffodils along a bridge

Turku castle, one of the oldest structures in Finland, built in the 1300's when Finland was ruled by Sweden. 

Laura near the Turku town center

Funny sculpture!