Kiitos mosquitoes: Thanksgiving sensations

What’s up! Time has gone by SO FAST. Only two more weeks and I’ll fly to Finland for a fortnight. And next week I’m heading for the FLTA Mid-Year Conference, which will be held in Washington D.C.!

Last Thursday was the favorite holiday of many Americans: Thanksgiving. That is the time of the year when people travel across the country and visit their families (in fact many peeps have to choose whether they do this trip in Thanksgiving or in Christmas since these two holidays have only a month between them. It is quite common to travel for one only).

On Thursday morning I baked a cake, shoved it into my backpack and cycled to the city. I met Christopher and his family, who are from Iowa and were visiting Seattle last week. Christopher was an exchange student in Finland last fall and he was my tutee and student and most importantly my friend. Last time we saw was in December in dark and freezing Jyväskylä, when I took him to the railway station early in the morning. It was so strange to see him again in such a different setting...but so awesome too! We met already on Monday on campus and on Thursday we headed for the Space Needle. The day was a bit cloudy but you could still see the mountains in the horizon. Thank you so much Christopher and the whole family, I hope to see you again soon!

From Jyväskylä to Seattle

Our Scandinavian-German TA family had decided to celebrate Thanksgiving together and at some point Dominik suggested we could be at his place: his landlords have a tradition of throwing a dinner party almost every year for friends and neighbors and we were welcome to join. Alright! I got to the party place, soaking from the rain, and took the cake from my bag. Imagine a cake that has been traveling in my bag the whole day and even went to the Space Needle. Yeah, it looked simply terrible. We decided to turn it upside down before presenting it to our hosts, and that’s the way it was served later at the dessert table.

The dinner was great and lasted for hours. We had it all: turkey, chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salads, cranberry sauce and cranberry bread rolls, and really great wine. Thanks god my poor chocolate cake was not the only dessert. There was also a pumpkin pie, an apple pie, a pecan pie…I’m probably forgetting something. When our German-Arizonan-Libyan-Finnish team finally withdrew to the basement, we could do nothing but lie in bed and on the floor and wonder if we would ever again feel less full.

The day after Thanksgiving was Black Friday, a huge shopping day in America. It is not uncommon for people to line up in front of stores and wait for them to open at 5am or so. Apparently there have been incidents when people have got injured and even killed during fierce shopping. I didn't want to die and skipped Black Friday sales. Instead the rest of my break consisted of studying, light festival at the zoo, and vegan dinner with friends.

Dinner at RICHard's 

Conquered my fear of mascots

Apparently some families have a Thanksgiving tradition of saying what they are thankful for – although everyone who I asked said they don’t do that. However, a certain Lithuanian and I have a habit of listing five things we are grateful for each day. We do this every night before going to bed. It is not as pompous as it may sound: sometimes I’m grateful just for the fact it didn’t rain that day, or that my thermos was working when I thought it was broken. I may be grateful for a good workout, for really nice ice cream or for my thick blanket. I may be grateful for an interesting conversation, or for Jon and Christine, or for crossing off to-do list tasks. They’re simply things that have made me happy during the day. This has been an extremely important routine for us. In the spirit of Thanksgiving I’ll look back to these first months and make a list of five things I’m grateful for.

1)      Friends.

2)      UW as an academic environment. Every day I get to work with inspiring people who genuinely want to do a good job. They are interested in the same small languages as I am and speak many of them fluently. That is incredible and super motivating. It makes me ask myself what is stopping me from being fluent in Swedish, Italian, Lithuanian, Estonian or some other language. Nothing. I also feel I’ve improved as a teacher, which is thanks to Ilona, other colleagues and TA’s, and our weekly class of brandlhandle. I feel I’ve learned a lot since August and our micro-teaching sessions in Eugene. And finally, our Finnish students are just great. I’ll never get tired of them speaking Finnish. I love how they are not intimidated by the supposed hardness of the language.

Mulle meeldib eesti keel, see on väga huvitav ja naljakas. // Homework for the Estonian class

The office

Campus on a peaceful day

3)   As much as I have criticized the overwhelming study and work culture here, I have to admit that there is something about it that I like. Maybe it’s the energy on campus and everywhere, maybe it’s the way people are active: either way, I get more things done than in Europe ever.

4)   Simply the fact that I have the chance to be here. This experience is once again challenging me, it's forcing me to reflect and to ask myself what kind of person I am. I am not shy, unhappy or angry, but because of my thoughtfulness, slowness and reluctance to give definite answers, many Americans might perceive me that way. It doesn’t help that I’m often sarcastic, don’t volunteer my opinions when no one asked for them, and prefer listening to talking.

In addition, this time here has had an impact on my Europe-centric world view. I’ve heard people saying that the USA is like a young, optimistic person who believes that anything, absolutely anything can be solved (especially if you throw some money at it, some say) and Europe is old, cynical and fatalistic because of its long and often unhappy history, which we think is repeated again and again. I know that I’ll dislike the way people complain (and do nothing about it) or don’t say anything ever in Finland, but it’ll be also nice that people are not afraid of silence (maybe I’ll be). These are two sides of the same coin. Anyway I'm happy for all my experiences here. 

Sometimes a new experience is a free cookie in a grocery store at midnight

Awesome Indian desserts

Was ist das??

5)      The weather? No but seriously. “I hope you like rain”, said Americans to me before I got here. Also Frasier always gave the impression that the city is rainy (speaking of Frasier, I look at my all-time favorite show from a different perspective now: homelessness is a serious issue in Seattle, and Frasier and Niles are just the biggest snobs on earth. Suddenly not so funny anymore). Anyway I was told this fall has been exceptionally dry. I just think the weather has been great. Or at least better than I thought it would be. What I’m trying to say is November is not at all as dark as it is in Finland. But who knows – everyone keeps saying “wait until January, wait until January”. Perhaps Seattle will show its true color then.

Sama summattuna suomeksi:

Aika rientää! Viime viikolla oli kiitospäivä, joka on monille amerikkalaisille tärkeämpi ja rakkaampi kuin joulu. Vietin kyseistä juhlaa saksalaisella kaverilla. Sen vuokraisännillä on tapana pitää suuret pidot ja kutsua ystävät ja naapurit illalliselle. Ruoka oli hyvää ja perinteistä kiitospäivän menuun kuuluvaa: kalkkunaa ja sen täytettä, perunamuusia, karpalokastiketta...jälkiruoaksi kurpitsa-, omena- ja pekaanipiirakoita. Mäkin leivoin kutsujen isännille kiitokseksi suklaakakun, mutta koska olin heittänyt sen lämpimänä reppuun ja se oli siellä sitten pyörinyt monta tuntia, koko torttu oli aika kammottavan näköinen kun vedin sen päivänvaloon. Pohdittiin, voitaisiinko me teeskennellä kaatumista portaissa ja sillä selittää kakun ulkomuoto. Päädyttiin kuitenkin vain kääntämään kakku ylösalaisin ja tarjoilemaan se sillä tavalla. Täydestä meni ja hyvältä maittoi. Illallisen päätteeksi ei voitu kuin maata selällään pitkin sänkyä ja lattioita, kuvut täpötäynnä.

Stasin ja mun iltarutiinin (joka ilta ennen nukkumaanmenoa pitää sanoa viisi asiaa, joista on kiitollinen sinä päivänä) sekä kiitospäivän innoittamana listaan viisi juttua, joista oon tähän mennessä kiitollinen Seattlessa. 

1. Ystävät.

2. Akateeminen ympäristö. Meidän laitoksella kaikki on kiinnostuneita samoista pienistä pohjoismaisista ja balttilaisista kielistä. Monet vieläpä puhuu sujuvasti useaa niistä. Se on mulle motivoivaa: miks mäkin en vois olla sujuva ruotsissa, italiassa, liettuassa tai virossa? Tunnen myös kehittyneeni opettajana. Ja meidän suomen kielen opiskelijat on huippuja.

3. Energia ja tekemisen meininki täällä.

4. Se, että saan olla täällä ja oppia uutta itsestäni ja maailmasta. 

5. Sää! Ei yhtään hullumpi.  

Mainittakoon vielä, että Frasieria katsoo nykyään vähän uusin silmin. Seattlessa on tosi paljon kodittomia. Sitten on myös paljon älyttömän rikkaita. Se, että Frasier ja Niles on niin snobeja, on yhtäkkiä eri tavalla kiinnostavaa - ei välttämättä niin hauskaa.