(Yes, the Devil wears knickers, a red jacket and a tie; or, as I like to believe, "The Devil IS Prada [plus Ralph Lauren, Yves St. Laurent and Armani]")
My topic today is my recent trip to Finland. Contrary to everything I thought I knew--thanks to my American education and American news sources--Finland is a real country. It has its own capital, its own flag, its own language, and its own alcohol. Well, its own alcohol. That is something I am sure about. The rest . . . Well, I wasn't paying that much attention.
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Because, if you have even a smattering of brain cells, you realize that I am talking about MY trip to Finland in late November, which means (1) that we are not talking about a sensible person in the first place; and (2) I am going to Finland from Indiana, The Hoosier State, so there are no possible conditions in Finland that could prevent this from being an improvement.
However, in addition to the general benefit of travelling into the twenty-first century, I had a special motivation for my trip to Finland--a lovely woman I met while volunteering in Tanzania last summer, by the name of Raija Saastamoinen. (A poorly constructed sentence, I fear. It seems to suggest that I gave last summer its own name and called it Raija Saastamoinen, when in fact that is the name of the lovely woman.) [The name I gave to the summer was Sandefur Calrissian--obviously a much more appropriate name.] Anyway, I visited Raija because she said to me those wonderful words that every man hopes to hear once in his life:
"No, I haven't obtained a restraining order against you."
Raija lives in Helsinki--an absolutely delightful city. Here are a couple of pictures from her neighborhood:
This is Kallio, the former working-class area of Helsinki--though, as Raija pointed out to me, the closest most of the current residents come to manual labor is when they sort their recycling into separate bins.
Also, the start of the Christmas season took place while I was in Helsinki. It did seem a little strange to start the Christmas season before Thanksgiving--except, of course, Thanksgiving is not a Finnish holiday. During the time period when Americans were being saved from their own ineptitude by generous Native Americans eager to prove the axiom that no good deed goes unpunished, the Finns were not having such thankfulness-inspiring occasions. Instead, they were being oppressed, exploited and abused by arrogant Swedish overlords. And those were the best of times. The worst of times were when the Swedes got their asses kicked by the Czar's armies and the Finns were being oppressed, exploited and abused by arrogant Russian overlords. (I think it is instructive that the two periods in the 1700's when the Russians occupied Finland are named "The Great Wrath" and "The Lesser Wrath" in Finnish history.)
It was extremely cool to be in downtown Helsinki for the opening of the Christmas season. We went to brunch at a downtown restaurant and when we came out, the main square was filled with families, couples, teenagers--a true collection of people of all sorts. And on the steps of the great church, a choir was singing Christmas carols.
And at the side of the church, preparing to take part in the festivities, we found a delightful group of dogs and their owners, dressed for the occasion.
WAIT! WHAT'S THAT I HEAR?! I THINK IT'S THE CLATTERING OF LUMPS OF COAL ON MY ROOF!!!
I will have to continue this later. Including the story of our trip to Tallinn, Estonia. So, so long for now.
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