Tarina jatkuu

Lähes kahden vuoden blogitauon jälkeen olen valmis ottamaan virtuaalisen kynän taas käteeni ja jatkamaan tarinaa. Luonnollisesti näiden kahden vuoden aikana on ehtinyt tapahtua kaikenlaista jännittävää ja ei-niin-jännittävää. 

Uusi-Seelanti vaihtui Norjan harmaisiin sateisiin ja talvimyrskyihin tammikuussa 2013. Alkoi puolen vuoden puurtaminen gradun parissa. Kesäkuussa juhlittiin tuoretta maisteria. Syyskuussa heitin kyynelsilmin hyvästit Stavangerille ja Norjalle ja suuntasin auton muuttokuormineen kohti Suomea. Päivät täyttyivät töiden ja asunnon etsimisestä. Marraskuussa minusta tuli ensimmäistä kertaa elämässäni helsinkiläinen. Koitti vuosi 2014 ja uudenlaiset tuulet alkoivat puhaltaa yllättävältä suunnalta - pohjoisesta. Lähdin kahden päivän varoitusajalla Lappiin töihin. Rakastuin. Huhtikuusta lähtien työskentelin Helsinki-Vantaan lentokentällä, mutta Lapin taiat olivat tehneet jo tehtävänsä, ja ainakin alitajuntani harhaili muualla. Solmittuani vihdoinkin vakituisen työsopimuksen, olin jo halukas hautaamaan CV:n ja hakemuspohjat tietokoneen syövereihin. Pienen yllytyksen ja uteliaisuuden saattelemana raapustin kuitenkin vielä yhden hakemuksen - Leville. Heinäkuussa järkytyksekseni huomasin irtisanoutuneeni ja allekirjoittaneeni uuden työsopimuksen.

Nyt elokuuussa muuttoauto on taas pakattu. Olo on melkein yhtä jännittynyt kuin ulkomaille muuttaessa. Perillä odottavat uusi työ, uusi asunto, uudet vielä tuntemattomat ihmiset, ja mikä parasta: uudet seikkailut. Karistaessani eteläisen Suomen pölyt jaloistani, päätin samalla pyyhkäistä pölypallerot myös blogistani. Sattumuksia ja tarinanpoikasia luulisi nimittäin riittävän, kun yritän sinne jänkälle kotiutua. 

Jos minäkin nyt vihdoin näkisin niitä revontulia:

                                          Lähde: VisitFinland

The day gets closer

The summer has been perfect. But as always with Finnish summer - it has been too short. After Midsummer I have spent 31 days sailing, traveled 460 nautical miles, been wearing no socks god-knows-when and my diet basically consisted only of sausages and blueberries. Can't really ask for more! 

Every proper ship has figureheads

Live on blueberries - it's healthy :)

This is how we sail

Race boat 69 - skippered by ladies of course

Enjoying the summer evenings

All this sailing, racing and having fun, however, made the time fly. Now I have realized that I only have less than two weeks to organize myself, pack things up and MOVE to Norway! So now, let's panic! I'm not even ready to wear socks and I should adapt myself into the civilization again! Yikes! 

Normally, the packing haven't really been my strong feature. And therefore, all of my stuff is still all over the place and seems like the neverending story... Most of the students who are going abroad are complaining because they only have 20kg limit in the airplane, or 40kg if they are lucky and pay more. I have the whole car and it still seems impossible! maybe I'm just proofing this for myself, but compared to exchange students I'm planning to stay, at least for 2 years, but maybe even longer. I don't want to feel like that I'm just staying there temporarily, I want to feel that it's my home. Because that it is going to be. 

It's funny how excited I feel again. I already know the place, I know the campus and even some people but somehow it's like starting a new adventure is. Which is actually true. 

Hyvää Juhannusta! Happy Midsummer!

It is again time for the midsummer festivities aka Juhannus! Apparently, the weather is according to that as well: rainy, stormy winds and super cold. Perfect weather indeed to go sailing for the weekend! As it says on the wall of our boat:

Sailing, the art of getting wet and becoming ill while slowly going nowhere at great expense.

I have to agree with the other points except the last one. Nemo is an old lady and starts to be closer to antique than sporty new boat.. And going with a motor boat is definitely more expensive compared to the natural wind power that we are using. Anyhow, this weekend the "getting wet" part is especially going to happen. But to be honest, I don't care! It is a fact that the weather at Juhannus is often very crappy so it is more like with whom you are spending it and what you are doing. In my case we are just going to eat a lot and hang around. And my man is coming over for the weekend just for me, so I'll be happyhappyhappy and will stay warm. <3

So, Hyvää Juhannusta!

Navigare necesse est

And it is. Yesterday we finally had time to go actually sailing. Nemo has been on water for about a week now and since now, we didn't even have enough time or crew to pull up the sails. Well, it's not that big boat but I'm just a beginner still and I have hard time managing all the maneuvers by myself... Anyway, at last we had a change to test the sails and everything went amazingly smoothly and professionally! Scarily smoothly to be honest. Usually there is something at least that crashes, breaks down or just falls off. Just waiting the catastrophe next time.

However, the first sailing trip for almost three years was success! There was just a light wind, enough to take us forward though and even had the spinnaker successfully up (down too!). The whole trip was so enjoyable, even though in the beginning I was a bit skeptic about how it will end up as neither of us have sailed for years now. Will all the ropes be tangled or upside down? Is there going to be too much wind? But no, everything went more than fine, this skill must be in the spine. Actually, the best moment in my opinion is when the sails
are all up and trimmed, the motor have been turned off and just the little ripple comes behind you. Perfection.

<3

Story of finding Nemo begins

Now it has started. The sailing season! The episode of putting the boats on water almost took the whole day though. Luckily both of the boats were floating and motors were working and so on. So we were just in time in the harbor before the massive thunder storm. Obviously, nothing always goes as planned when it comes to sailing. When going to the harbor and parking on our place, there was not enough water! The keel hit the bottom before you could hop on shore :D Luckily we could change the place with Dahlia and managed to get enough water under Nemo's keel.

But the warm weather is also gone with the thunder. On the other hand it's nice because now I can breathe and sleep again. There is something majestic about thunder storms. Even though they can be scary if they really hit your route, some kind of weird way I like them. First you wait and wait and wait, the nature is quiet, then the storm suddenly hits. The moment when the storm comes to you is fascinating. You can see the wall of wind and rain coming closer and basically you can do nothing. Afterwards the air is clear again.
  

Joys of Finnish summer

I've been away from Finnish summer for couple of years now so my memories were already starting to get golden edges. Even though I'm really enjoying the Finnish summer, in some cases the reality already hit me:


1. Mosquitoes. These little suckers can eat you alive in one evening. I don't know what's wrong with this summer but they are heaps and they are massive. And this summer's breed even seems to have some kind of supernatural powers to survive my attempts to kill them! Conclusion: Buy way more mosquito repellent.

2. Wasps. As mosquitoes, also wasps seem to be everywhere where I go this summer. I'm definitely not a fan of these things either (read: I'm terrified) and need to start running in panic if I meet one. Bumblebees don't count though because they don't look as evil and mean as wasps. My last meeting with a wasp was today and as always, didn't go so smoothly. I was peacefully sitting in an outhouse when this evil creature decides to attack me! Obviously I ended up running around the yard my pants still down.

Luckily I've spent almost all my day inside in the cool garage waxing Nemo. In this weather it has been quite nice and relaxing. And the result is super good, she is going to blind everybody in the harbour with her shiny sides and decks! Can't wait to get sailing!