The Final Chapter. I’m all grown up!

I started this blog with the intention to write it for the duration of my Comenius year abroad, and that time has now sadly come to an end. It’s genuinely difficult to believe that another school year has flown by and has led me to places I could only have imagined I would end up in! After some initial doubts, I can now say that it was a good decision to complete the Comenius program. It allowed me to find my feet, build my confidence and establish a professional network which I can build my future from. Before I get too sentimental, let me first reflect upon what’s been happening over the last few weeks. 

  

June continued with another fantastic visitor, my half Russian, half Ukrainian friend Sofia. We first met in 2011, after starting our new lives in Finland and joining the Board of a voluntary organisation called ISTU - International Students of Turku Universities. We organised many events together, we cooked for hundreds of people, we hosted sauna evenings, went ice swimming, and even spent long mornings in the library as study buddies, concentrating on that dreaded Master’s thesis. In Vienna, however, we found ourselves chilling in the city, and checking out the sights with the help of a pair of local eyes – those of Georg. Georg is from Ottakring (a so-called ‘ghetto’ neighbourhood of Vienna), whom we’d also met at an ISTU event in Finland. 

Even without a local in tow, we spent an evening at Prater – a permanent amusement park, where I’d somehow avoided during most of my Comenius year. We were lucky to catch a beautiful, midweek evening with a stunning sunset and a change from the overcrowded nature of Prater, instead enjoying the freedom to move and no queues for the rides. We even conquered nerves and rode the Praterturm - 117m high and the world's highest-flying swing ride. I also introduced Sofia to Làngos, a proper greasy Hungarian snack. 

As always, we bumped into special events and festivals, including the vibrant and extravagant pride parade. I’ve always wanted to experience a city during gay pride week and Vienna was a great place for it! I think it was also a special experience for Sofia, considering where she’s from. We managed to catch the parade as it passed by Schwedenplatz, where we happened to be at the time. We had originally been on a mission for ice-cream and I knew just the place – a place I’d recently discovered with Jenny, where they serve an amazing After Eight ice cream sundae – it is simply heavenly!

After Sofia’s visit, I’d planned to spend the long weekend in Hungary – a couple of nights with my au pair family in Sopron and a couple of nights in Eni’s hometown of Nagykanizska (closer to the Croatian border.) In Sopron, I met the new au pair, Renee. As she is training to be a teacher, it was insightful to talk with her and see the tremendous progress the children have made since Renee has joined the family. Saci and Juju are now reading and writing in English. Hanga is forming complete and grammatically correct sentences at 4 years old, while Attila is saying his first words in English at 22 months old! 

Renee and I took the two older girls to an interactive forestry museum, where there were many interesting facts and activities to do with wood and trees. After returning, I went with Eszter and Attila to pick up Hanga from kindergarten. I witnessed Attila walking for the first time, which also happened to be his first time exploring how it feels to walk on grass! Straight afterwards, we attended the closing ceremony of the school, which was interesting for me to see inside the school and compare to those I’ve seen in Austria. Even in a small school in Sopron, the classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards, while those in Vienna lag behind with only chalkboards and overhead projectors from decades ago. To continue the full schedule of activities, we dressed up for a celebratory dinner for Juju and Saci receiving their grades. Juju sang in front of all the diners at the restaurant, alongside her private music teacher playing the keyboard. A packed day, but a great one!

The next morning, I caught an early train to Nagykanizska and was welcomed by Eni, Ilpo and Eni’s grandmother who kindly drove to the train station to pick me up. I was grateful for the lift, but also to make it in one piece – after parking up in the driveway, Eni and Ilpo got out of the car safely, but as I stepped out the back wheel rammed into my foot as the granny nearly ran me over while driving into the garage! Not to worry, I suffered nothing more than shock and a throbbing, grubby foot. I later walked it off around the city with Eni and Ilpo, where we discovered a beer festival happening. We tried a few different kinds, but the experience still confirmed my inability to drink beer. The smell gets to me and since smell forms a significant portion of our sense of taste, my dislike naturally follows. 

As always in Hungary, I was well fed! We enjoyed traditional Hungarian lunches of three courses (soup, main – almost always with meat – and dessert). We spent our days chilling out, playing cards (learned a Hungarian card game), and picking strawberries in the huge garden where Eni’s family can be self-sufficient. They have every fruit and vegetable you can think of, as well as many chickens for eggs and poultry meat. It was enlightening and heart-warming to meet the family of one of my best friends, and I was chuffed to see Eni thrive in her own hometown environment. I can’t wait to see where the next place we’ll meet will be! 

As the last week of school approached immediately after returning from Hungary, I anticipated an incredibly busy week, but nothing could have prepared me for the madly packed schedule I had! Every day was full of school, tutoring and end-of-year school events in the evening. On Monday evening, before Thomas arrived from Bern, I attended a dinner with the 4^th graders and parents.

They presented me with a beautiful, big potted plant that will hopefully fit well in our new apartment. I have two asides to add here – firstly, I’ve become somewhat green fingered. After growing a mint plant, I was excited to discover a deal on a herb pot, in which I now also grow basil, parsley and chives. Before I left, I planted sunflower seeds which I received as a gift from a pupil in the private school, and I adopted an orchid too. Hopefully, thanks to the next tenant in my old apartment, the plants will survive the summer and I can move them to our new home in August.

Secondly, two milestones were reached during that crazily packed week, through the signing of my new work contract for the next school year, and securing our new apartment. My new job will be in the private school as the class teacher of 3^rd grade Junior High School, teaching them English, history, geography, chemistry, biology, coaching and craft. I have a huge challenge ahead of me but one that I hope to tackle head on and work together with my colleagues and pupils to create a positive and thriving learning environment from September onwards. 

On the last Tuesday evening of June, I was invited to a staff farewell party with my colleagues from the Comenius school. During a fun-filled evening of banter, I received a farewell gift with a voucher for Interio. At first, I deceivingly thought it was a CD(!) because of the case it came in, though I didn’t question the oddity of such a gift. I was later told that they had originally discussed buying an IKEA voucher, but as IKEA is always on the outskirts of the city and I don’t have a car, they decided against it. Interio is a more upmarket home ware store where I wouldn’t think to shop, but now Thomas and I have the chance to treat ourselves and our new place to something special from there that we wouldn’t normally buy. Can’t wait to see what there is! Then the next big mission is sofa shopping! I’m growing up, indeed…!

On that note, I’ve mentioned our new apartment – it’s central, big (at least 75m2) and cheap. There’s lots of potential to make it our own and it even has a huge bathtub (as a fan of long, hot soaks, this was a major plus-point for me!) The toilet in the corridor is the only negative, being in an Altbau building, but that’s something I’m already used to from the past 10 months. No apartment is perfect and all the positives more than make up for the negative. I’m lucky too that there’s a direct tram to school, and everything in the city centre is within easy, walking distance. Thomas and I are both looking forward to living and experiencing the real hustle and bustle of big, city life!

Before the final school day, I had another break from city life on the Lobau camping trip with the 4^th graders from the private school. The weather started off great: warm, the children could swim in the Danube and play outside. However, later we were caught in a thunderstorm and it left the camp too damp to make a campfire during the evening. It cooled down for the night but with a

good sleeping bag and a bit of camping savvy (e.g. not wearing too many clothes inside the sleeping bag!) it was warm enough. Though we were sleep-deprived (the noise only lowered around 1am and the children were up and wide awake at 4.30am), we still managed to make the most of the time away. The forest trail the next day was rather exhausting for everyone! Fun all the same, and I was even offered a summer job at an English adventure camp, camping for five nights. Unfortunately, the timing doesn’t suit, but otherwise I would be interested and might have the same opportunity next year if they still need a native speaker.

Before I knew it, the last day of school had already arrived and emotions were running high, particularly for 4^th graders, but mainly their parents, and especially those leaving the country. I received more cards, gifts, chocolate and vouchers! I now also have 110€ of Amazon vouchers to spend! Sometimes teaching doesn’t just deliver psychological and emotional rewards, but material rewards too! By the end of the week, I was exhausted but still no rest for the wicked! I had to pack up everything and start moving to the new apartment and clean the old one. The next day was Saturday, and it was already time to board a flight to Helsinki. 

Sunday came around just as fast, but we had time to enjoy the special day of the name giving ceremony of Matti and Johanna’s baby. Thomas and I had a slight problem with our perfect idea for our present, as an obstacle presented itself in the form of a Finnish tradition not to reveal the baby’s name until the very occasion. Being the ridiculously organised couple that we are, we had a replacement gift with us and still had time to perfect the proper present during our last few days in Helsinki.

 The first couple of day were spent at Matti’s summer cottage, somewhere I’d only ever been in winter. It’s situated north of Turku and Helsinki, in the middle of nowhere, with the closest city being Hämeenlinna. Matti had always said, “In the summer, you can do this, and in the summer you can do that, it’s so great in the summer,” but it was never summer! This time it was and, though it was quite dull and drizzly, the land of the midnight sun still lived up to its reputation. This time there was no need to take a torch every time you used the outdoor toilet hut, because, whatever time of the day or night, there was plenty of light to see clearly.

We felt privileged to be a part of that special day with Matti and Johanna. This was a big moment for them, revealing the name of their 7-week old baby. They gathered everybody outside under a marquee and showed a video that Matti had made displaying photos during the pregnancy and since the birth. The suspense was finally over as the baby’s name was revealed at the end of the video: Tuulikki Lilja Toivio. It was very well done and the name they chose serves the purpose they were seeking: to find a Finnish name that would suit their baby daughter. Tuulikki is a very traditional name coming from the national Finnish book Kalevala, meaning ‘forest goddess’, while ‘tuuli’ in Finnish means wind. Being surrounded by the stunning Finnish landscape of the forest and lake, the name seemed incredibly apt in this situation. Following the presentation, the godparents were asked to step forward, choose a tree, climb a ladder and nail a bird box to the tree. This may not be such a tradition but a nice touch, nonetheless. For the rest of the time at the cottage, we enjoyed cuddle times with Tuulikki, proper wooden Finnish sauna, and skinny-dipping in the lake. The land of the midnight sun, and land of a thousand lakes never disappoints.

Since I was so busy prior to this trip to Finland and the trip was revolving around Matti and Johanna’s plans, I hadn’t planned anything in particular. In fact, I had suspected that we may not have a chance to even visit Turku; a strange thought, considering I lived there for two years. However, we did end up in Turku after all and we were glad of it, as we could spend more time with Matti, Johanna and Tuulikki, catch a few of my friends before they left for the summer, and even organise a small gathering to have a drink for my birthday. So much for a spontaneous, unplanned trip – I spent the entire car journey to Turku organising to meet up with friends. That’s as spontaneous as it gets for me! Not having my planner with me was unusual, but that was only the case because I thought we would return to Vantaa so I’d left it there.

We did return to Vantaa after spending a couple of amazing days in Turku and stayed in Matti and Johanna’s new apartment there, strangely without them present. Still, we felt at home having always felt so in their flat in Turku, and with all the same furniture, just in a different environment, we could completely relax and appreciate our last few days in Finland. It is worth appreciating, as we don’t know when we might return here, and it felt as if a door had somehow closed in Turku when I finally closed my Finnish bank account. It was actually a little emotional and a rather brutal experience, as the lady ruthlessly cut up my bank card in front of me, unaware of what it represented. Nevertheless, it is a good time to close that chapter of my life, as a new one has well and truly began.

As a new chapter writes itself, I celebrated turning 26 and foresee a new year with a new life, in which I don’t feel the need to continue this blog. Celebrating my birthday in Finland was a first, and I was lucky to be spoiled by Thomas the whole day with breakfast in bed, a beautiful new handbag, a picnic on an island, dinner date, sauna and shopping spree in Helsinki just for me! I can wave goodbye to Finland this time, feeling that my goals for this country have been fulfilled – I’ve now experienced the traditional Finnish life at a summer cottage in the summer time; and experienced proper Finnish sauna and swimming in a lake the traditional, naked way; and even tried liquorice ice cream for the first time! – any future visits will be purely to visit those who mean something.

On that note, let me close this chapter and allow the new one to freely express itself as I look forward to spending the summer in Switzerland, Northern Ireland and Vienna, and the future who knows where! With a new apartment, new job and new life all starting in August, I’m sure I’ll have enough to keep me occupied!