How do you find purpose in life? How do you decide what line of work is worthy of your dedication and passion?
Just about every person grapples with this question as they approach their life and we hear a thousand times as children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” This question can be daunting and many adults still feel like they don’t know what they’re going to be when they grow up. Read more
It is just incredible how each year of your life starts going by faster and faster until you can barely keep up. Before I know it, it is going to be 2016 or even 2030, and that simply terrifies me. It is difficult even to just savor this hour.
And it is incredible just how quickly my time here in Finland has passed.
I have finally fallen head over heels for the Finnish culture. And I think that this is a product of having fallen in love with the Finnish language. It is so beautiful and unique to my ears. I have been taking Finnish for only a few months and my skills are extremely basic.
But hey, en puhu suomea, mutta ymmärrän vähän.
I had no idea that I would enjoy Finnish as much as I do. But I also can admit that is really difficult to learn. It stuns me that most Finnish people are very multilingual and many can produce Finnish, Swedish, and English with ease. Those are the basics and then they continue to learn other languages such as German, Russian, or Spanish.
I came out of Finnish class on Monday with a raging headache simply from spending 40 minutes conjugating several verbs in their various types. There are 5 types. Well actually there are 6, but apparently the 6th one is irrelevant (Thank God).
I have also been listening to a lot of different Finnish music. My favorite artist is probably the very Justin-Bieberesque Robin. He is about 16 years old, he has a dreamy voice that would make any teenage girl or adult woman swoon, and he is from Turku!! (Turku is where I am living)
So naturally, since he lives here and goes to high school here, my friend Sonia and I have had the natural desire to stalk him. We have yet to act on this desire but I could have sworn that I saw him at this restaurant Kaskis on my way to the university the other day. My heart jumped out of my chest, I realized that in fact it was not him, and then I burst out laughing and everyone around me must have thought that I was insane. OH WELL, they didn’t get to see Robin like I thought I had.
Here is a fabulous song by him called “Onnellinen”, which can mean “Happy/Fortunate/Blessed/Blissful”
I also really enjoy the Finnish singer Anna Puu who was in Finland’s Idols and the pop rock band PMMP:
I also enjoy just listening to Finnish conversations that I hear on the bus and reading out all of the signs that I see in walking around the city.
So all in all, Finland has captured my heart, eyes, and ears. I think that from now on I will always carry a small part of Finland with me.
‘Til next time,
Dat.
Well world, here I am, Deodata, dabbling in something. This time, it’s cooking.
This is a simple recipe I made of shrimp and couscous with yogurt-hummus sauce.
I have been here in Finland for about a month, which is just crazy, and I am trying to learn some basic cooking skills. I have really never learned how to cook and my skill set likely consists of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and maybe bacon.
So if you need breakfast, I’m your girl.
Anyways, I am blogging here on WordPress because moving to Finland for a semester is definitely new and exciting. I want to share some of my experience and maybe reflect on some of it.
Like I said before, I have been here for about a month and I cannot believe how quickly the time is passing. It seems like every year of my life is just ramping up in speed.
The people of Finland are really lovely and so are the exchange students that I have had the pleasure to meet. On one of my first nights here, there was a party in my building for everyone to meet each other. At this single party I met people from more countries than I have met in my entire life. For example, these are some of the countries that people are from in my building: Slovakia, Italy, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Russia, Moldova, Australia, England, Ireland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Romania, China, Japan, and South Korea.
Honestly, I know I’m forgetting quite a few, but those are a lot of nationalities! Surprisingly, I have only met a few Americans here. But it is so great to meet new people from all corners of the Earth.
Like I also mentioned, the Finnish people are just wonderful. I am attending a Swedish-speaking university here named Åbo Akademi (In case you’re wondering, about 5% of Finland’s population is Swedish-speaking and both Finnish and Swedish are official languages). All the people who I have met at Åbo are just super friendly and helpful.
I started taking an introductory level course in Finnish and it is definitely very difficult. It was especially hard for me to learn new letters with different sounds that we do not have in the English alphabet. But it is also really fun and exciting because Finnish is like nothing you have ever heard before. The language is closely related to Estonian and loosely related to Hungarian. But overall, it is pretty isolated.
Here is one of my favorite new Finnish songs:
Oh! And the city I am living in, named Turku (Åbo in Swedish), is just phenomenal. It is historic, not too large or small, and it is very beautiful. In many ways it actually reminds me of my own hometown of Savannah, Georgia. The only huge difference between here and Savannah is obviously the climate. It has been snowing here for the past week and today on this Sunday afternoon everything is a glistening white.
This is the view from my window on the 5th floor. Stunning, right?
I have already seen so much and I am experiencing a lot. It is fun and certainly terrifying to dabble in new things, and I plan to continue.
I am learning so much and I am enjoying seeing just how different and alike we are as humans.
I hope everyone else out there is dabbling too.
Well, I guess life is just one large dabble, isn’t it?
‘Til next time,
Datie
deodatadabbling 