The other day I got talking to some friends and it gave me an idea to write about this topic. One of them has also got a Finnish citizenship, but she said that it felt weird saying to people, "I'm a Finnish citizen" because she felt that her roots were in her home country. She said she had heard other expats saying those words without any emotional attachment whatsoever to her home country. Another friend told me that her mother would be so sad if she had opted to have a Finnish citizenship.
That made me think about me. Some people may think that it's so easy for me to let go of my Indonesian citizenship (Indonesian government won't accept dual citizenship, by the way - otherwise I'd have kept it, too). For me, a citizenship is just a citizenship. It doesn't mean I'm denying who I am.
Additional note: I don't want to give the wrong idea with this post, so just wanna add here that it WAS easy for me to let go of my Indonesian citizenship due to the reasons I've written in this post. Plus another practical reason is that having Finnish passport enables me to travel more easily compared to having an Indonesian passport.
Maybe one thing that is different from me and that friend whose roots were in her home country is that even though I was born and raised in Indonesia, but I know that some people there would still tell me that I'm a non-native Indonesian. I'm Chinese by heritage, but the Chinese government and people won't accept me as one of their own because I don't speak their language, I don't even know how life is over there, and I have NEVER been there, either.
That said, it's actually helped me a lot when I moved to Finland because I'm used to being a "non-native". I may never be a full-blown Finnish or Indonesian or Chinese woman, but that doesn't matter. I'm a citizen of the world and I love living here. Period. :-D
Anyhow, here are some pictures I've taken lately:
My first snow angel ever ha ha ha...The head looks weirdly small for the body and wings HA HA HA...
Doesn't the snow look so fluffy and soft? :-D
Not a really good pic, but I just wanna show the pink sky the other day:
Unfortunately yesterday it was -8'C and the snow was too dry. I tried making a small ball, but it didn't work AT ALL. So I gave up. I did try making a snow angel by myself, but I didn't take a pic of it 'coz the end result was weird as I had to get up by myself and thus I ruined a part of it ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...I'll try again next time and ask hubby's help to get up and take a pic of me while lying down on the snow, OK?
I saw a SPECTACULAR view of Sodankylä's river, though unfortunately I didn't take a pic of it as we were passing it by by car and there was no way I could ask my hubby to stop his car around that area. But I held my breath when I saw that view. It just makes me realize how WONDERFUL this place is. I've always loved the view around the river, either in winter or summer. Makes me feel SO peaceful. Mmmmm...
Anyway, here are some pics I took.
First pic: Took it a few days ago from our balcony. I was doing something with my computer and then when I was about to walk to the kitchen, I drew a sharp intake of breath when I saw this view. I LOVE the gradation of colours. White, baby blue, pink...mmmmm...
Second pic: Guess what time I took this pic? 3 pm!!! It was SO dark at 3 pm and there was a moon in the sky! I grabbed my camera right away 'coz I wanted to show it to you he he he...
Now these pics were taken yesterday near my in-laws' place. Actually the SPECTACULAR view I was talking about consisted of the same kind of "sunlight" effect like that, but it was surrounding a frozen lake and some houses around it, so it was more breathtaking than these pics as I could see the view from above the bridge mmmm...My fave pic is the last one he he he he...the one of the frozen lake near the cabin. Let me show you a comparison with the last pic...the same spot, taken in summer.
