InterNations Blog

Expat Maris tells us about his experience of feeling strangely at home in his country of origin, Latvia, despite not having lived there longer than 10 months of his life.

I was born in Latvia, yet spent most of my childhood and adolescence in Denmark and was living in the United States for the past ten years. When my grandmother passed away last spring, I naturally went back to Latvia for the funeral. It was here that I noticed how much Latvia means to me!
I always thought that your surroundings make you who you are, regardless of where you were born and what your heritage is; where you grew up is key to forming your personality. However there must be something inherited because you realize that you belong to a certain group of people, regardless if you’ve grown up around them, or like in my case, haven’t seen them in 20 years!

I remember precisely how it was when I landed in Riga. My aunt and uncle were there to pick me up and I had to dig in the dusty corners of my brain for some long-unused snippets of Latvian. To put it simply: I struggled. Now this is not my parents’ fault, as Latvian was always spoken at home in Denmark, yet when I moved out of my parents’ home at the age of 19, I stopped using it as much. When I moved to the states for my job ten years ago, I rarely used Latvian anymore. Communicating with my parents was a mix of English and Danish, with my sister only English as she lives in London.

To get back to the point, my Latvian was quite rusty, and the last time I saw most of these people was a good twenty years ago! Nonetheless I had the feeling that I had been here forever! Despite not knowing where anything was, which direction to go in or generally speaking what to expect, I felt entirely comfortable. Do you know that feeling when you try on an old sweater that you’ve had for ages and somehow forgot about and you wear it and it just seems right? That’s how I felt in Latvia.

A few days after the solemn affair of my grandmother’s funeral and when the last mourning guests came by with ridiculous amounts of food, I went to explore the town where my grandparents lived for almost 90 years. Walking down the neighborhoods and along the main street in the town center, past little bakeries, florists, barber shops, handyman’s shops, supermarkets, and unidentifiable shops, I began to feel a sincere sense of longing. Attributing it to my grandmother’s passing, I went back to the house. The next morning I drove to Riga with my mother to walk around the city a bit to take her mind off the funeral, and was surprised at myself how comfortable I felt in this city, as if either I had been living here all my life, or as if I had at least been coming to visit on a more frequent basis than every decade or two!

During the next two weeks of my staying with my parents, an inexplicable feeling of belonging took hold of me, which eventually made me take the next turn in my life: I decided to move back to Riga. My parents were overjoyed, my sister was appalled, and my friends in the States were quite shocked as they had seen me more as a Dane than a Latvian.
I have been living in Latvia for almost a year now and I feel quite content in having made this decision. Sometimes it feels as though the country called me home. I even found a girlfriend within the first couple months of moving here! It’s a strange thing, this finding home…

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Filed under: Culture Shock, Moving to another country? Me?!!, The daily grind, abroad on January 25th, 2012 | No Comments »

Elodie from Montpellier shares with us her realization that she travels differently since she’s been an expat.

I obviously went on vacation before I left Montpellier to begin working in San Francisco yet since my time abroad I came to the realization that I travel differently. Now I don’t mean necessarily in how I pack and when I get the airport and such things (I still always bring too much and barely make it on time to gate closing!), I mean there appears to be a difference in the way I absorb my destination.

For example, I visited Rome when I was younger and still living and working in France, and I was, to put it bluntly, quite shy. I didn’t want to go into any of the cathedrals by myself, I felt silly going on a tour of the catacombs on my own, I thought it would be awkward to take too many photographs, and I just generally felt very uncomfortable being “the tourist”. On another trip to Berlin I was less shy, yet spent my entire week there running from one recommended highlight in my guidebook to the next, it was insane and I was quite exhausted after what was supposed to be a relaxed city trip!

For most of my friends and acquaintances this was the norm: either we did everything in our power to avoid looking like a tourist or we were the tourist par excellence! However this gradually changed when I moved to the US. I remember the first actual vacation I took in the States with a coworker with whom I had become close friends. She was from Tempe Arizona and wanted to show me her state. So we flew to Phoenix and after a few relaxing days at her parent’s house, we borrowed her brother’s car and took a road trip. We drove south with a destination Bisbee and took long hikes in the Coronado National Forest and visited amusing little towns along the way. It was definitely the most unique vacation I have ever taken – especially since to me this was like a trip back in time through the Wild West!

Yet this trip opened my eyes. I realized that I didn’t have to have a little book with me to tell me where the hotspots were (OK, I had my friend with me, but still), just heading off in a direction will show you wonderful things that you probably would overlook when just following a travel guide’s tips.
Back in San Francisco this Arizona trip motivated me to explore my new hometown – of course I had done the tourist thing right after my arrival, but to be frank, I hadn’t a clue what San Francisco was really like. So off I went to discover this hilly city on foot and let me tell you it was marvelous and I found so many little shops and parks and streets that were lovely and yet no guide book would mention!

I have since travelled quite a lot – throughout the US and South America, and aside from a city map, I never bring anything. I ask the locals for recommendations on where to eat or have a drink, which direction they recommend me to walk in, which beach they think is the best, etc. Now, I would never buy a travel guide and follow its directions. A trip is what you make it and if you are secure enough to figure things out on your own it’s really the only way to travel!
Do you think being an expat has changed the way you travel?

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Filed under: The daily grind, abroad on January 19th, 2012 | No Comments »

Expat Samantha from the UK tried to avoid having too much contact to other expats when she moved to Argentina, and tells us how incredibly hard it was for her to do this and why it is sometimes impossible to find local friends.

I was completely convinced that I would have no problem whatsoever finding local friends. After all, I spoke Spanish and considered myself to be an open and friendly person who rarely had difficulty making friends in general. I’m not saying I am the most spectacular human on the planet, just that I am pretty easy to get along with!
Well, apparently people living in Buenos Aires think differently… This is not saying they were unfriendly, quite on the contrary, yet it was incredibly difficult to get into their circle of friends. I guess maybe it had to do with the fact that I was just not lucky with my coworkers. I started in a pretty small office and was, aside from Joe from the States, the only expat. Most of my coworkers knew each other for many years and were sort of a little family. I spoke to Joe about it once to see if perhaps he had some tips for me, but he seemed to prefer things the way they were. He was the typical expat who favored his expat watering holes.
What I had imagined the Argentineans to be like was nothing they ended up being. I guess my stereotypical image of them was generous, warm, outgoing people, which I am sure they are within their own closed circles of friends. Unfortunately that is the problem: they do not openly welcome strangers into their groups. I tried unsuccessfully several times to join in on conversations, but aside from polite nods or smiles, I got nothing!

I was incredibly frustrated because I’ve lived abroad before and know that an expat experience is not complete if you don’t meet any locals in order to fully appreciate and submerge into the culture. What Joe was doing I wanted to avoid. However it appeared that this was going to be more difficult than I expected.
After months of trying to connect with my coworkers and joining a yoga class and a book club, I gave up! If they didn’t want to be friends with Samantha then so be it, I couldn’t force them to… I have made several friends during my time in Buenos Aires, yet they are all from abroad: Jordan, the US, Russia, Germany, France, etc. But we’ve become our own little expat family and I am quite happy here. I still think it’s a pity that I haven’t been able to find friends among the locals, but sometimes it is what it is.

What I have learned during my stay in Argentina is that the most important thing while being abroad is not necessarily to find local friends and completely assimilate to their culture, but to have friends from anywhere. Together with my international expat friends I discovered quite a lot of great areas in Buenos Aires and Argentina as a whole and can happily say that my time was well-invested and well-spent!

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Filed under: The daily grind, abroad on January 17th, 2012 | 1 Comment »

When Davide from Sardinia in Italy found out he was to be offered a job transfer to New Zealand, he was delighted! What he didn’t quite consider was that the job was to start in 3 weeks and he needed to get ready. He recalls his three-week packing spree and how he regretted not taking more time out for his friends and family.

All I pretty much remember from my meeting with the boss man was that I was going to New Zealand in three weeks. I can’t remember much about the rest that was discussed because I was so excited at the prospect of going to this magnificent country! Looking back, I probably should have listened to the boss, as he offered me a wealth of information on how to begin getting ready in speed – as I was told later.

But of course, as usual, I was too stubborn and proud to go back in and ask him to repeat his tips. The first thing I did was call everyone I knew to tell them the great news. Everyone was very happy for me as they all knew that New Zealand was the country of my dreams, yet of course a bit perturbed by my sudden departure date.
I was so busy sorting through my things, packing suitcases and getting in touch with utility companies and fighting my way through all the bureaucratic red tape, that I almost forgot the most important thing: saying goodbye to my loved ones.

Due to the fact that I was so stressed out with getting everything sorted before I jumped on the plane, I didn’t quite have the time to mentally and emotionally process that I was leaving my home for a place that was indeed very very far away!

This was probably the greatest mistake I made during those three weeks, since I now regret not having taken the time to understand what it meant to go abroad, as well as take the time to properly bid my friends and family goodbye. In my mind it was like I was just going on vacation – despite the fact that I cleared and rented out my apartment, gave almost all my furniture away, and was basically down to living out of a suitcase (the apartment in Auckland was furnished).
Don’t get me wrong, I did have quite a few farewell dinners and drinks with my friends, and my parents helped me with my apartment and getting rid of the odd knickknacks. Yet since I wasn’t really clear on my leaving situation on a larger scale it didn’t seem to tragic, and I remember always being a bit annoyed at my mother and sisters when they began sobbing at random intervals during our hours together.

Reality hit me at the security check in the airport. My entire family and most of my closest friends were there to see me off, despite the inhumane hour of my flight. After I checked in and dropped off my two suitcases and returned to my goodbye-bidders, my feelings hit me like a brick wall. I then realized what I was doing: leaving for a period of at least 24 months to a country that was almost 20,000 kilometers away. And I was going to be travelling light: not only had I managed to pack all my personal belongings into two suitcases and a backpack, but I had neglected to properly say goodbye to the people I loved, so I was leaving without many possessions and without many memories.

Soon I will be facing the opposite: my time in Auckland is coming to an end and I will be missing all the wonderful people I have met here these past few years. This time, I will make sure to say goodbye properly to each and every one of them! I may also only need two suitcases, but a head full of fond memories is a guarantee!

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Filed under: Moving to another country? Me?!! on January 12th, 2012 | No Comments »

Jimmy from Chicago decided to take up a job offer in Tokyo in order to learn about his family heritage and discover whether his grandparents’ experiences of Tokyo before coming to America still ring true. In this blog entry, he tells us about some of his impressions from his first day in Tokyo.

I wouldn’t consider myself a third culture kid, even though my parents are Japanese. But actually they are more Japanese-American, and I personally just consider myself American, although I have been asked to comment on how it is growing up as TCK. Luckily, my parents were stubborn enough to stick to Japanese at home, which gave me the definitive advantage of growing up bilingually. Therefore my decision to take up a job in Tokyo didn’t require much thought as I was always interested in visiting my grandparents’ hometown and seeing what life in Japan is really like!

I remember my first day here in Tokyo as if it were yesterday. I arrived at the airport and took the appointed train into the city. This was not really much of a problem. However, after I successfully managed to find my apartment I decided I needed a walk to prevent my jetlag from really getting to me – especially considering I had my first day at work the next day!

So off I went on what turned out to be my new passion: walking through Tokyo. I should probably start out by saying that I expected Tokyo to be entirely different from Chicago. During the ride from the airport I was already surprised to see that Tokyo looked almost exactly like any large city in America, at least in terms of buildings and streets, sidewalks and shops. It was literally like walking in a concrete jungle with not so many pretty buildings as I had expected. I was slightly disappointed to be honest, especially by the traffic, which I had always heard was horrendous and was somehow looking forward to. I decided that it was probably because it was Monday afternoon and most people were at work…

After walking for almost two hours I got tired and stopped at a restaurant for tempura and then decided I would take the subway home. This decision ended up being the pinprick I had been waiting for that day! I let three subways pass by before I dared hop on. It was so ridiculously full and people just kept squeezing on. They even had two security guards or policemen help shove the last few crazy passengers on! What I didn’t know then, was that this was standard day-to-day rush hour in Tokyo!
I always got annoyed at the people in the el in Chicago who pushed and shoved and stepped on your toes without so much as an apology. Now they seem like politeness in person! I can now say that I have mastered the art of shoving onto subway trains and when I went back to Chicago last summer, I surprised myself by getting annoyed at the waste of space on the el!

Photographs courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Filed under: The daily grind, abroad on January 10th, 2012 | No Comments »

Melanie from Los Angeles finds love with an Italian winegrower visiting California for a wine seminar who came into her wine shop. After a few months of leading long distance relationship, she decides to risk it and let go of her security blanket in the States and moves to Umbria in Italy. She shares her story with us:

I remember the exact moment it happened. He came in to the shop as I was just explaining the taste of Chianti to a customer and somehow I stumbled over my description. When he came to the counter to enquire whether or not we had any Umbrian wine, his smiling eyes distracted me so much that I couldn’t concentrate on the question! This has never happened to me before – love at first sight I would say!
He asked me out directly for coffee and as dumbfounded as I was I agreed, even though I thought ‘How cocky! Typical Italian!’ once my nerves calmed down and I could think clearly again. Well coffee was delightful and we saw each other pretty much every day we could in the two weeks he was in the area. When he went back to Italy there were tears on both sides and I was deeply heartbroken, but we decided to see if things could work out.

I am not a long-distance relationship person, at least I didn’t think I was, and my intuition, as always was right: I missed him terribly, I was irrationally jealous, the time zone difference drove me crazy and things were just not the same. After yet another argument on the phone about why he wasn’t there to talk three hours ago he promptly asked me to move to Italy. I froze. I had never dreamt of that. In my mind, he was going to come back to L.A. and we would buy land, plant grapes and raise a lovely family, I definitely did not ever think of moving there myself. But it made sense. After all, his vineyard was family-owned and he inherited it from his father. It would be much more difficult for him to leave than for me – at least that was his argumentation.

I thought long and hard about this proposal. I spoke to my family and friends and wandered the streets of L.A. to figure out whether or not leaving the city I was born in and grew up in was something I could envision myself doing. During a dinner conversation with my parents my mom asked me why the heck I was still thinking about going to Italy and not already on a plane to Umbria. She went on to tell me that sometimes in life you need to do something completely out of character and daring otherwise you will regret it for the rest of your life. My father joined in to tell me that a plane ticket to Italy in no way barred me from ever returning to the States and I could always try out living in Italy with Giuseppe, sublet my apartment for around 6 months, and if things didn’t work out there were return flights to L.A. Somehow this conversation convinced me to give life in Italy a shot, so off I went to plan the beginning of my stay abroad.

Giuseppe’s vineyard was near Spoleto so I had to fly to Perugia where he picked me up and we drove through the amazingly breathtaking landscape to his home. I literally thought I was dreaming – it was so gorgeous!
To make a long story short, despite my fears of jumping off the deep end into unknown waters, I am very happy here. The people are incredibly hospitable and I think my first two weeks of living here were spent eating and drinking and listening to the lovely dialect (which sadly I did not then master). As Giuseppe’s American girlfriend, I was quite the hit and talk of the town as well. Since his family and their vineyard were known throughout the area, quite a few ‘neighbors’ dropped by for a visit the first couple of weeks.

Since I knew something about wine I was able to help Giuseppe out and when it became clear that I would be staying, I proposed the idea of opening a small wine shop near the wine cellar to sell some wine directly to people driving by. This idea has since flourished and my little own wine shop has become quite the tourist attraction!
In the end I am eternally grateful to my parents for semi-pushing me off the deep end and encouraging me to take the plunge! We are awaiting a little boy sometime this spring!

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Filed under: The daily grind, abroad on January 4th, 2012 | No Comments »

Marisa from Barcelona moved to Berlin for a new job and shares her experience of finding a flat.

I hadn’t really thought much about how different Berlin would be from Barcelona, except of course the obvious language and climate difference. I learned German in school so I was quite happy to have that basis – another reason why I applied for this position in Berlin – and had been to Germany a few times before, yet never in Berlin.
When I arrived I was quite surprised at how big and spread out everything was. I couldn’t believe that it took me so long to get from the airport to my hotel! I always thought things would be easily reachable and within walking distance of each other, but I found out that Berlin is really a huge city!

There is one specific thing about my first experiences in Berlin, which I will never in my life forget. Since I didn’t know anyone in Berlin, I decided it would be a good idea to share a flat either with some native Berliners or other expats, either way someone whom I can learn something about the city from and with whom I can spend some time with at the beginning until I got sorted out and settled in this metropolis. Thus I began to look about in the newspapers and was surprised to find out that it is quite normal to have an interview for an apartment! I went to look at several flats and it was almost a formal occasion, I felt as though I was applying for a job! In Barcelona I lived in several flat shares, especially during my student years, and I never had to apply anywhere, nor did any of my friends who had several flat mates… Well, I was willing to try it out!

I remember the first apartment I was invited to interview at was with an elderly woman. I arrived in jeans and a blouse and didn’t think much of it, especially seeing as this was my first “interview for a flat”… She looked quite appalled at my appearance and asked me a number of quite personal questions and I thought my goodness, Germans are nosy! For example, she asked me whether or not I tend to go to the bathroom before or after breakfast, whether or not I snore loudly and it was very important for her to know if I shower daily and if I am sure that I do! Luckily it was only this particular lady, as the other places I interviewed at all contained relatively normal tenants!

It was interesting to me to see how people have a casting for their flat mates and also the things they asked me. I applied to places where the people were older as I didn’t want to live in Berlin with a bunch of students, but still, my attitude towards parties was interrogated, my choice of music and film, whether or not I was vegan, vegetarian or a meat lover, if I frequently had male (or female) night visitors, etc., was all asked of me. Some people whom I interviewed with even had a clipboard with a checklist and questions and rattled down the list as if I were answering questions to a survey… It was quite entertaining, especially because I met a lot of interesting people – some of whom I wouldn’t even live with if I were paid to do so – and got to practice my somewhat rusty German!
In the end I chose to live with a woman around my age with a seven year old son. She was very open, friendly and originally from Berlin, which piqued my interest! In addition, she spent a few years in Barcelona so we had something to chat about during my ‘interview’! Living with her thus far is proving to be quite fruitful, as she has shown me some highlights and hidden gems of this city!

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Filed under: The daily grind, abroad on January 2nd, 2012 | No Comments »

Expat Hannah from Israel tells us the story of how her daughter wanted to discover Christmas and some other Christian holidays even though her family was Jewish. She recounts how she and her husband came up with a plan to enable their kids to experience all religions!

A few weeks ago in the hubbub of Christmas preparation, my daughter asked me why we didn’t have a tree like all of her friends did or why we didn’t hang stockings over the fireplace. My first reaction was automatically to say “well because we’re Jewish!” but on second thought I had to ask myself – why not? We live in the United States where Christmas is clearly a well-liked and much-celebrated holiday, and since we are not strict orthodox Jews it shouldn’t be that big of a problem – in theory!

We moved to Colorado from Israel four years ago. My daughter was then 3 and her older brother was 7. Language was not a problem for them as my husband and I both spoke English and Hebrew at home, yet this culture was significantly different from what we were used to and took us a while to get used to it. Apparently we have adjusted so well that my daughter wants to send a letter to the North Pole and hang up stockings!
My children know all about our culture and religion and we celebrate Hanukah and several other larger Jewish holidays. Her question got me thinking about how to best bring up ones children with regards to religion, especially if one lives in a country where the religion is different. I consider myself a very open-minded person and find religion in general very interesting, yet somehow it is important to me to raise my children in my faith. Yet it would be unfair of me to expect them to completely ignore their surroundings just because I want to be stubborn about it. My husband and I sat down after putting our children to bed and discussed how we would go about solving this “problem” and came up with the following solution.

Since it is not really our right to determine which god our child should believe in (as my husband said, they are practically all the same anyway!), we will let him/her decide themselves. We will continue to teach them Judaism and take them with us to synagogue for important holidays, yet we will also enable them to join their friends for mass on Sundays or, as in the case of one of my son’s classmates, go to mosque.

We have been doing this for several weeks thus far and so far it has been quite intellectually stimulating, especially for my husband and myself. Questions such as why Jesus was born in a manger and why all innkeepers refused to give the threesome a room, etc. continuously dominated our conversations at the dinner table. My friend who is also a mother got wind of what we were doing and asked me why I was letting my children prefer Christianity or Islam to which I quite simply replied why force them to stick to Judaism?

To me it is something like expatriating. Of course you want to keep all your customs and traditions and pass them on to your children, yet at some point it will become unavoidable to let some new things from the expat culture seep into your daily routine. I can’t forbid my children to eat at McDonald’s just because I think the food is unhealthy and thus make birthday parties at McDonald’s for example a miserable experience for them.

Similarly with religion: my kids go to a public school and although there is quite a substantial Jewish community in Denver, they are exposed to other religions and traditions as well. I think people who refuse to open their eyes simply because they prefer to stick to what they are used to should not go abroad in the first place! If you’re not willing to try something out – such as in our case, letting our children experience other religions – then it is best you stay at home! Plus, it’s not like our kids are never going to celebrate a Jewish holiday again –now we just have both a menorah and a small Christmas tree, the more the merrier!

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Filed under: The daily grind, abroad on December 28th, 2011 | No Comments »

Expat Ivana from Bosnia tells us how she experienced her first Christmas without snow in Puerto Rico.

I always loved Christmas time. Despite the ridiculous amounts of gifts being purchased and long lines in the stores, the stressed faces running around as if they were under a strict deadline to shop shop shop till they dropped, it all didn’t seem to bother me that much.
Personally I was more of a relaxed Christmas spirit: wandering down snow-filled streets which smelt of firewood and freshly baked cookies, candles lit in the windows and a general peaceful quietness all around. I loved taking long walks in the woods near our home with my whole family just listening to the sound of winter and then coming home to a warm fireplace and a hot cup of tea.

Through my recent job transfer to a beach resort in Puerto Rico, I was completely unaware that Christmas was coming until I began receiving care packages from my family in Bosnia. It was very strange to be honest because I had always loved Christmas even as an adult. It was the time for family and friends, getting together with relatives one hasn’t seen in a while and eating all my favorite traditional foods – en masse!

Somehow I overlooked the fact that it was soon to be Christmas, in part due to my incredibly busy daily schedule what with the new job and all, yet also in part due to the fact that I went swimming in the ocean after work every day and was still wearing flip flops to work – in December! Although I should mention that Puerto Ricans quite enjoy their Christmas holidays and there were lights strung up all across town, our hotel was festively decorated, yet the feeling of Christmas didn’t quite transcend.

I have a friend, who once spent Christmas in Miami and was a little skeptical of the Christmas tree lights on palm trees, the fake snow on the ground and the plastic Santa Clauses climbing roofs that had no chimneys! Now it was my turn!
I was fortunate to have the day off on Christmas Eve so I decided to do what I always did in Sarajevo on Christmas: take a walk. Except where I usually bundled up and wore thick snow boots, I now walked along in flip flops in the sand! For dinner I was invited to a friend’s house where we decided to have an “anti-Christmas” dinner, as she was also used to deep winter and not balmy sea breeze at Christmas.

We went shopping at the market the day before and bought lots of exotic fruits and vegetables and made a delicious buffet of fruit salads, vegetable lasagna and various salads, which we then took to the beach and made a picnic of. After dinner, we went swimming and sat outside in the sand and watched the stars while drinking a refreshing cold cocktail. It was fun because it took my mind away from missing my family for this special holiday, and because it was different and, I felt, more fitting to this beautiful country!

When my family called the next day and I told them about my Christmas Eve, they were slightly surprised. When I told them how much fun I had, and that getting into the ‘real’ Christmas spirit was next to impossible for me here, they agreed that I had made the best of the situation.
Despite however having enjoyed my warm sunny anti-Christmas Day and Eve, I do miss sitting down at a table with my loud family, eating lots of hot steamy delicious food, and then warming up by the fireplace… I suppose wherever I may end up in the future, I will always try to make it home for Christmas!

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Filed under: The daily grind, abroad on December 27th, 2011 | No Comments »

InterNations team member Eva recounts her story of visiting the Helsinki Community as well as a short day-trip to visit the InterNations Tallinn Community Ambassadors back in November. Read on for her impressions!

I was looking forward to this trip, as it would be my first time in Finland, and apart from a few days in Sweden, I had never been to Scandinavia before. I brought with me many of the clichés one has of cold, unfriendly Finland and silent distant Finns. However, during my trip I quickly learned the opposite: they are very friendly and open! It was easy to talk to them because they spoke English with an almost enviable perfection. Street signs and all other public inscriptions are usually written out in Finnish and Swedish, so I could use my basic knowledge of Swedish as well! Of course I also learned a few Finnish words!
It took me about half an hour to get into the city by bus from the airport, after which I had my own small Odyssey until I finally found my hotel! Luckily it is located right in the center, and the next morning I discovered it served an amazing breakfast!
After I checked in to the hotel and rested a bit, I wanted to eat something before going to this evening’s Helsinki November Event. As I expected the majority of Finnish cuisine consisted of fish, which I am not the biggest fan of, so I happily went to an Italian place!

The event was our first ticketed Event in Helsinki and therefore I came over to support our Ambassadors and help our members understand the new concept and try to help in case there were questions or complaints, as there had been a few quite harsh ones when the event was originally posted.
The event started at 5:30pm, quite early for a German, but it seems that most of the people in Finland finish work at 5. The location was an exclusive members-only club – Bläk – which opened that night only for us. It had a very cozy and comfortable interior with many sofas, a karaoke room (indispensible in Finland) and a very beautiful view of the city. At around 5:45 pm people started arriving in groups.
I soon realized that the Helsinki Community is quite an international mix, as I met people from Sweden, the US, the UK, Germany, Kenya, Bolivia, South Africa, China, Malaysia, Venezuela, Austria, Canada, Australia, and etc. The most important thing of course was that they were all incredibly nice! Everyone was very friendly, interested and open and it was so much fun – and easy – to talk to everyone. There was a feeling of belonging among the members, which is very important for a community but not always so easy to create.

We had many newcomers and I’d say that the general age was between 30 and 40. In the end we had about 65 people who had a fun time networking, talking and enjoying the fantastic welcome drinks from Bläk (really good red and white wine, sparkling wine and others). I gave a short speech, thanking everyone for coming and encouraging everyone to ask me questions if they would like to know anything about InterNations, which many of them did in the course of the evening. I got at least 4 phone numbers from people saying that if I wanted to go out the next days, they would be delighted to show me their city and its nightlife! All in all it was a successful evening!

The following day I had a lunch date with my two Ambassadors, Simo from Finland and Jean Carlos from Venezuela. Before meeting up with them I walked around the city to do a bit of sightseeing. I went to the white dome, the symbol of the city, where I was almost crushed by a falling Christmas tree, which had just been erected a few hours before. I visited the famous market along the water in Kauppatori, and the town hall.
We met up for lunch at a very nice restaurant called “Sunn”, facing the dome. The food was very good and not very expensive, as I would have guessed (another cliché which is not true!). We talked about the Community, its future development, and the members’ concerns. After lunch Simo showed me the tourist office and gave me a few very useful tips on where to go and what to see. For example, there is a tram line that you can take, that goes around the whole city and gives you a nice overview about what is there to see.

My business trip was officially over, but decided to stay a few days longer, since I do not often get the chance to visit Helsinki. I picked up my suitcase at the hotel and went to the apartment of my couch surfer, a Finnish student, at whose place I was planning on staying until Saturday. I had a lot of fun with her and got to know a few more sides of Helsinki I would have never seen without her. The marks of the Russian occupation are still quite visible, be it in statues, street names, art or buildings. I did not even know that Finland had had such close ties to Russia. There is also a wonderful Russian church on a small island near the port. The whole city is so small that you can walk everywhere in no time, but they also have a very good working tram system (absolutely punctual!).

On Friday morning I took the ferry to Tallinn in Estonia to pay a quick visit to my two Ambassadors there. Since Tallinn is so close to Helsinki, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know them in person as well. The Finnish seem to be even more punctual than the Germans, as everyone was on board before the official departure time! Tallinn is a very beautiful little city with an old town that reminds one of the small medieval towns in Germany like Rothenburg, building from the 12th century and cozy little lanes with cobblestones. I really enjoyed it! The InterNations Tallinn Ambassador, Simon from England, gave me a detailed tour of the city.

At noon we met up with the other Ambassador, Anna-Liisa from Tallinn, at the “Wabadus Café”, where the next InterNations Tallinn Event was going to take place. We had a very nice time talking about the Tallinn community, which has been growing very fast during the second part of 2011 and has a fantastic turnout at the events for such a small community. I learned that apparently the Estonians are much more advanced technically than in Germany: Simon told me that their ID works as a bank card, health insurance card, and many other things. He also explained the Estonian language to me, which seems to be one of the most difficult ones you could ever come up with to learn, even more difficult than Finnish!
The trip as a whole was quite interesting. It was my first visit to a Community and I got to know the Ambassadors in person, and was able to see how the Events and the general organization of them work abroad. I also met many nice people in the Community and really enjoyed the Event. The Ambassadors really did their best in making me feel comfortable and organized a great event! I will definitely soon have to come back to these fascinating cities and countries!

Photos courtesy of Eva and Wikimedia Commons

Filed under: InterNations News on December 22nd, 2011 | No Comments »