Some Rando Finnish Facts and a Suomi Life Update

My oh my February is already here and roughly 20.7% already through. Gotta love short months (although not happy about that extra day in there!). Forgive me if I should harsh about the time going by. I know I should be thankful and enjoying every minute, which I am, but seriously, it has been sooooo cold here. Like Arctic cold…wait, that is pretty much where I am. Shiz. You know what I mean. Or maybe you don’t, because before this week, I didn’t know what it meant.

I dress like this in that kind of cold, just less sexier (source)

I don’t scale the weather in degrees anymore, because past a certain point I can’t relate to how cold it is because I have no reference. Surprise, surprise, Texas doesn’t get this kind of weather. So, this is how I explain what 0F feels like…Booger Freezing. Yep, I know you’ve heard of tears and snot freezing in really cold weather, but if you’ve never felt it, you truly haven’t lived (or felt like you were going to die!). This last week in Finland has been down right boogie freezing cold. You walk outside and it almost instantaneously feels like you have tiny, snot icicles hanging from inside the bat cave. Nice, right?!

I am hopeful that this weather will not be here long (it is supposed to be gone this week, but we’ll see about that). Heck, I am even happy for a 25F (-5C or so) day! Never thought I’d be saying that.

Since you might be interested in a few other things besides the weather, everything else is going fine here too. Been back in Finland for over a week. The hockey season is coming to the home stretch. As soon as January is over, February flies by and March is already an afterthought. Only 38 more days until the last game of the season…but who’s counting, right?! And never say never, I guess, but this year isn’t the same pulse-racing, at the edge of your seat thriller that last year’s championship season was. Meh, can’t win them all, unfortunately. But it’s been a good experience here nonetheless. In true hockey form, we don’t know where we will be next year just yet, but I kind of like it that way sometimes. Just means that we are always open to exciting possibilities.

Actual picture of us holidaying in Finland. We look good, right? (source)

And I’ve been working and writing away online. It is going great, actually, and excited for a few new projects in the works. This freelancing is picking up faster than I ever thought imaginable and I’m ready to take on more and more challenges as time goes on.

Enough about me, here is the random Finnish info, as promised.

Sunday, yesterday, was the presidential election here in Finland. The Finnish president, Tarja Halonen (aka Conan O’Brien’s long lost twin sister), had served her two-term maximum, each term being 6 years, and is ready to abdicate her position.

You might be groaning in your head thinking of yet another presidential election, one with absolutely offensive candidates that are better suited in a nut house than at a debate podium. But things are different here. They are much, MUCH more relaxed. Don’t get me wrong, being president of a important European nation is a big job, but the Finns aren’t ape shit crazy over this election nonsense. In fact, the candidates weren’t allowed to start campaigning for the job until about a month before the election! How nice would that be in the US??? Life without caucuses, smack-talking commercials and useless debates would be awesome, right? I know I could certainly do without them, and I’m not even in the U.S. for most of the gong show, something which I am quite happy about.

Anyways, back to the Finnish presidential election. There are 8 major parties, yep, that’s 6 more than the U.S. and it looks like the winner is… Sauli Niinisto.

I sure hope this is really a picture of him (source)

 Their presidential election process is slightly different from the U.S.’s but I won’t get into it. His final opponent was Pekka Haavisto, an openly gay candidate. I thought that was pretty neat and not often seen in politics.

This guy. Niinisto. Not sure what his views are or what policies he is going to implement (still haven’t figured that Finnish language thing out yet!) but congrats to him. Really, though, the actual winners are the Finnish citizens. Kudos to you and your government not turning presidential elections into a full-blown circus. If only we could take a hint and do the same.

Except for this. This can stay. In fact, I’m basing whom I vote for on these BLRs.