Moi moi Finland

I have dreaded coming to this last post because it means that I have been away from Helsinki for several weeks -- and the Finnish life is fading away from me.

Now that I am back in the US, I am almost fully re-acclimatized to a different lifestyle:

• I drive around a lot.
• I make sudden and unpredictable moves when I walk (guaranteed to frighten or injure Helsinki bike riders).
• I enter shops at all sorts of hours and expect them to be open. And they are.
• I begin random conversations with people I don't know.
• I cross streets where and when I want.
• I expect strange dogs to bark at me. And they do.

Maybe I should no longer comment on Finland and Finns until I get there again. I hope to. In the meanwhile, I study my Finnish nightly, but the materials are usually uninspiring. So I prove very often that is is possible to forget the Finnish word for almost anything just a few minutes after you think you finally have it down. I will persevere, however, so that the next time I speak Finnish to Finns they will not grow silent and replay my words in their minds until they come across the variation that makes sense to them.

The last of 3,262 photos I took In Finland

Nähdään!