This post below was written as a draft ages ago, but for some reason I never got to complete it and I didn't publish it, either he he...Here goes, with some additional notes...
Moving to a village in Finland has enabled me to - in a way - reinvent myself. What I mean by reinventing myself is that nobody knows my background. Nobody knows anything much about Indonesia nor what it's like to live there. Nobody knows my family. Nobody knows my family's "social strata". Nobody knows what kind of job I had beforehand and nobody has expectations for me.
It's kinda liberating, you know? I feel like so much weight is off my back. :-D Back in Indo, other people have given me different labels, but when I moved to Finland, I started my life with a blank sheet of canvas again.
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And because of the social system differences, I can be whatever I want to be without feeling that some jobs are "less than" others. Back in Indo, certain jobs are considered "less inviting" due to many different factors (mostly financial factor), whereas here in Finland no matter what kind of job you do, it doesn't matter 'coz the standard of income (among other things) is already set.
It's also liberating to know that even when you change a job here, you don't have to "suffer miserably financially" the way it'd happen in Indo. I mean, in Indo if you start all over again in a different field, you're bound to get "yucky income" and it's a no-no especially if you have kids. After all, in Indo good education that'd allow them to go to good universities that would enable them to get good jobs with good income levels is very pricy these days.
Another thing that makes me feel liberated by living here is the lack of many pressures that exist in Indo (click the link to read further info). Even though sometimes a few Finnish people (whom I don't know well) ask me whether I have kids or not, upon hearing the answer they won't continue probing about my menstrual period the way my Indo neighbour did nor ask any questions whether or not we intend to adopt nor would they give me advice about trying this and that or going to that and this gyno.
One particular "freedom" I've enjoyed thoroughly is the lack of expectation from other people from me. I can start my life from scratch and try out new jobs or training places with very little knowledge of those jobs and in doing so I've learnt so many new things. Moving to Finland has been the greatest adventure I've ever done in my life, especially for someone who "always plays it safe" like me. :-D
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Let's continue Olaf's adventure today before I have to let him go tomorrow. For those of you who don't know what it's all about, you can go here:
Here's my first post on Olaf: Olaf's Here!Yesterday evening I took Olaf to sauna 'coz going to sauna is such an important tradition in Finland. Olaf thinks sauna is a cool invention, especially considering how long the winter is up here.
Then I let him try our new relaxing sofa while watching R2 play Wii World of Goo.
It's a puzzle game, so it's safe for Olaf to watch.
Olaf got more and more comfortable and he got rather sleepy, so I let him sleep there. :-D
This morning when Olaf woke up, the sun was shining brightly and he wanted to know the temperature. Only -5'C and it's much warmer under the sun. Hmmm...what shall we do today? Olaf asked me.
He ran upstairs 'coz he wanted a grand tour of the house.
Here's what Olaf saw from upstairs he he he...
After showing him the bedrooms, he was curious to see this small(ish) door, so I had to show him what it was.
Whoops...there's another door there! :-D
Ta-daaaa...it's a cool storage room. :-D Most of the stuff here belongs to the ex-home owners, which will get them later in summer. :-D This storage room is pretty handy. :-D
Today Olaf also met a Finnish doll and they had quite an interesting chat about different topics. :-D
They became fast friends and they wanted me to take a pic of them. :-D"I'll never forget you," the doll said to Olaf. Olaf replied, "Me, neither!"
Then I took Olaf out to take him sliding on a snowy "hill". Olaf was a bit scared at first, but he was also excited!!!!
WHOOOPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! That was exciting!!! :-D
After sliding down the snowy hill over and over again, Olaf helped me clean up the snow from the yard. Today there wasn't too much snow, but yesterday it snowed the whole day that there was at least 10-15 cm of snow on the ground by the time I went out to clean it.
What an interesting day! Now Olaf is resting for a while to prepare himself for another adventure when he arrives at Henny's place. So long, Olaf...it's been nice hosting you and it's hard letting you go 'coz he's such a WONDERFUL bear, but Daniella needs you more than we do! So have a safe trip around the world until you reach Daniella, Olaf!!!!
HA!!!! I finally did it! I cut my own hair last night. Arttu didn't help at all except to cut just a few strands of hair that were longer than the rest at the back of my head which I obviously couldn't see.
I think I didn't do the job very badly, even though I managed to mess up my fringe HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...So, I need your honest opinion. What do you think of my new haircut? I'll show you the picture of before and after HE HE HE HE...The before picture was taken last October, so my hair was actually longer than this prior to the cutting adventure (I just couldn't find a nice picture of my hair without being covered by a pipo in January or December!).
And here we gooooooo...my new haircut hi hi hi...Tell me the truth, do you think I look like a D I S A S T E R????????????
OK, OK, so the bottom isn't too good, but what can you expect, right? HE HE HE...After all, it wasn't easy to cut one's own hair ha ha ha ha...
Anyway, yesterday I received another book that I won in eBay (What to Expect When You're Expecting). Arttu brought the book home from work and I was a bit confused since I hadn't received any notification about it. The postman had come already earlier without any notification about it. I asked him then how he found out about it and he just giggled like crazy. He said that he just knew. I couldn't believe it! Impossible!
The naughty guy kept on giggling and wouldn't tell me. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHH!!! After he had fun giggling and making me confused, finally he admitted that his friend who worked at the post office had called him to tell him about the package. GRAAAWWWWRRRRRR!!! How could I forget that his buddy worked at the PO? HE HE HE HE HE...
Oh well...so now I have three new books to read. OHHHHHHHHH JOY he he he he...OK, I'm going to blog-hop now! ;-D
