Monday, April 25, 2011

Barcelona with kids - recommendable!

We´ve had an excellent time in Barcelona. There is so much to do and see in this city that there is much left to explore for another time. When the kids are older we might be able to enjoy a few museums or if we travel on our own to explore also the rich night life and the cuisine (without leaving a desaster zone behind every time we get up from the table). But this time we had to concentrate on kids stuff, through kids eyes, and it was just as good as any weekend getaway. This is what we did (for you with kids planning a trip down here):
1. Aquarium - expensive, not that much to see but the big sharks swimming around us were impressive.
2. Zoo - good one. Much to see, even elephants and giraffs. Many many types of apes. Kids loved it. We did not go for the dolphins, too long queue for the show.
3. Funicular, Teleferico, Castle on top of the hill. - Excellent for princess-fanatics and a really nice view over the front yard and back yard of Barcelona.
4. Teleferico from Miramar down to the beach at Barceloneta. What a view! And the beach, so nice for the kids! If warmer, we might even have played in the waves.
5. Gaudi park, Park Guell. Fun stuff but too many tourists. We could have liked it more with less hysterical tourists, and less stairs...
6. Sagrada Familia play ground. Right in front of the church. Excellent view of both church and tourists but without having to get too close to the frenzy. We met many other families traveling with kids and kids happy to play in a multilingual park.

The bad point: Metro tunnels are bad for those with buggy. Hubby soar after carrying a heavy bugaboo up and down the stairs...should have gone light weight...
Iit was fun, kids were most of the time happy. Actually while on the move they were always smiling. Excellent travel companions. Tomorrow we take the plane back home... I am not looking forward to keeping the 1,4 year old calm but if the DVD battery lasts all through the trip we might be all right. Will make sure to reload the battery at the stop over in Amsterdam, something we forgot on the way here...

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Rubba fakta...

Det är det sannfinländarna och deras anhängare vill göra. De vill få tillstånd förändring. De vill vända ryggen åt globaliseringen. De vill inte ge pengar åt Portugal. De vill inte ta emot fler utlänningar och de vill inte ha med den svenskspråkiga minoriteten (eller någon minoritet överhuvudtaget) att göra.

Undrar om de vill ha en platt jordglob också. Skulle inte förvåna. För de har kanske missat att man inte kan förändra FAKTA fast man skulle vara landets största röstmagnet.

Pandora's box

I remember some horror scenario discussions in secondary school. One was that a Russian politician, who believed Finland should still be part of Great Russia, would come to power and... The other was that a ultra right wing man called Heikinheimo would become influential in Finnish domestic politics. Well Russian threat seems quite remote at this point (never knows, might change...) but the internal Finnish politics is what worries me. The name Heikinheimo has been replaced with the name Soini but the effect is the same.

There is a clear, open, negative atomsphere towards the Swedish speaking minority. I have now listened to interviews of the election winners "Authentical Finns" for two days and what I hear makes me very very sad. I was born in this country, my parents happened to speek Swedish and we happened to live in a neighbourhood with mostly Swedish speaking kids. I learnt Finnish (pakkosuomi) by memorizing the 15 causes and later by emigrating to Jyväskylä as babysitter for a summer. Still, I have never EVER considered myself anything else than Finnish. Finland is my country, I have no other home country than this, my both grandfathers fought for Finnish independence at the Russian border and December 6th has always been a solemn day for me. I just happened to speak Swedish. I would not even say that I am part of what some call (especially my husband likes to use this to annoy everyone around him) the small clic of "Swedish better people" (coming from the past when the Noble of this part of Sweden spoke Swedish). My background is just as plain and simple as of any average Finnish person.

Comments such as "everyone living in this country must speak Finnish", "not everyone in this country need to speak Swedish" has a true saddening effect on me and my identity. Although I speak seven languages, some better, other less fluently, I always feel that my Finnish will never be good enough, not to myself and not to these nationalist fanatics... Still, I do not understand these arguments. If you live in a small fishing village out in the arhipelago of Ostrobotnia, where no one speaks Finnish - do you really need to be fluent in the language of the majority? If you want to continue living there the rest of your life? Shouldn't the argument go both ways? If Finnish speakers do not need to speak Swedish, why on earth do Swedish speakers need to speak Finnish?

I am not an historian, but what I learnt in school is that it cannot be determined who was on this soil first. Swedish speakers might have been populating the west coast long before it was incorporated under Swedish rule. Language was really not an issue back in those days, it became as issue as Finland was to fight for its independence, against Russia. Or do you really think that every common boy could go the only (Swedish) university just because his language was Swedish? In those days it was only the upper class that went to school, whether Swedish speaking poor or Finnish speaking poor, you had no business in school nor university.

This arrogant attitude from the election winners is now spreading to others, who now think it is legitimate to say their REAL opinion out loud or picking a fight with Swedish speaking teenager after a night out on town (happen to friends of mine back in the 90s, seems to be happening still today). I just want to say; whatever feelings you personally have based on personal experience of encounters with Swedish speakers (I can admit that there are annoying ones, just as there are annoying people of all kind of nationalities...); please remember these attitudes are NOT NICE for those of us who have no other home than this and who wants to live in peace with our countrymen. We are all Finnish for god's sake, can't we all get along?

And yes, I'll confess, I am in favor of PAKKOruotsi (obligatory Swedish), just as I am in favor of PAKKOsuomi (obligatory Finnish), PAKKOenglanti (English), PAKKOmatikka (maths), PAKKOhistoria (history). I think we are lazy by nature and will not learn anything if we do not have to. And we do have to learn. Or esle what will become of this society if we do not even know the basics of how to get along? That is something we learn from school, from PAKKOkoulu!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Filosofisk valvaka

Sannfinländarna vinner stort i dagens riksdagsval. Sannfinländarna står för urfinskheten, men allt annat de står för kan man sätta ett "anti" framför: anti-europa, anti-utlänningar, anti-svenska. Eller genom att sätta ett "anti" framför mina egna värderingar så har ni vad Sannfinländarna står för. Nu har de över 35 platser i nästa riksdag med totalt 200 platser. Skrämmande.

Egentligen vet jag inte om jag är så värst förvånad. Mer förvånad är jag kanske att det inte hänt tidigare. Jag menar, min uppfattning om finländares attityder till allt som är nytt och annorlunda är att den inte är värst positivt. Snarare mycket missänksamma attityder gällande allt annorlunda. Utlänningar har alltid bemötts med stor misstänksamhet. Nu generaliserar jag, stort. För det verkar ju vara pop att generalisera. Skillnaden är att bara den att fast man varit varit misstänksam, och helst bara umgåtts i sina egna interna kretsar så har det inte varit politiskt korrekt att säga det högt. Ingen har velat bli stämplad som rasist, men många har ändå varit det, i sina insider skämt och i sina åsikter. Och detta har alltså varit (nästan) socialt acceptabelt. Gubb-jargong (gubb som i finskans äijä) har varit helt gångbart. Men politiken har hittills (åtminstone under den tid som jag fått rösta) varit sofistikerad och inte speglat denna realbild som jag har av det finska folket. Är det då så förvånande att det blir en sådan brakvinst för de som vågar politisera dessa åsikter, legitimera de äkta åsikterna som ligger där under ytan och pyr?

När jag nu sitter här och bloggar och valvakar kan jag ju filosofera vidare. Bortser nu från Sannfinländarna och analyserar de andra istället. Egentligen tycker jag också att åtminstone Samlingspartiet, Socialdemokraterna, och Vänstern är segrare i det här valet. För alla partier har förlorat till Sannfinländarna (förutom SFP då) men de här partierna här förlorat minst och hållit sina positioner. Tycker att Samlingspartiet skött sina kriser under de senaste fyra åren väl. Hej, halleluja då vi fick en Stubbe istället för en textmessande blomma på utrikesministerposten. Centern förlorar, men undra på det! Vad har de hållit på med de senaste fyra åren? Dejtat och stämt flickvänner, smusslat valpengar hit och dit, klappat varann i ryggen, räddat sitt eget skinn. Kan man vinna med sådant? Nej, jag är glad att folket visat att de inte accepterar sådant. Är lite överraskad att Gröna förlorar, speciellt med tanke på Fukushima som de kunde ha ridit mera på. Men kan man rida på kärnkraftsfrågan om man varit med och bestämt om fler kärnkraft till Finland? Dessutom tror jag att många gröna väljare röstat strategiskt på något stort parti för att försäkra att Sannfiländarnas seger inte skulle bli så stor...

Finland har haft en och annan valfinansieringskris sedan senaste riksdagsval. Ändå tycker jag att detta val inte tett sig så mycket annorlunda än tidigare val. Kandidatnunor har funnits i vareviga tidning. Pengar har nog rullat även i denna kampanj. Men de som fått gratisreklam är ju då valets segrare, Sannfinländarna. Jag tycker det är helt ansvarslöst och försvarslöst att de fått så mycket utrymme för sina åsikter och sina framsteg i gallupar i all media. Förutspådd framgång föder framgång. Tänk om något annat litet parti fått lika mycket spaltutrymme och djupanalyser? Helt bombis på att de kunnat göra brakvinster om deras åsikter ens lite är förankrade hos folket. Pressen har inte kunnat hantera det här fenomenet på rätt sätt. Det är helt klart...Men hur ska det hanteras? Ja, det vet jag inte, men det är säkert värt att fundera på till nästa gång.

Democratizing the next generation...

Today I went to vote in the Finnish parliament elections. Just as last time, in the municipality elections, I had a companion. This companion was not my husband and I'll return to that in a second.
My companion was my daughter. She likes to go to the nearby school with me, wait outside the booth and then off to play in the school yard.

The other day I was thinking about this. When I was little, I remember how I used to go to the yellow school on the other side of the big road together with my parents on election day. My brother and I played in the school yard while my parents were voting. Then we had coffee and some election-buns. Special moments. Days I truely remember from my childhood.

Now, returning to my husband and his absence at the election booths. Well, first of all, this was parliament election so my Chilean husband was not even eligeble to vote. But in all other elections, here and in Chile, I have never seen him close to the election stands. He is not politically active, in Chile not even registered and the election slip for municipality elections that he receives here in Finland is waste paper. So the other day I started to think... what if his complete indifference to voting is that when he was a child, he never had the opportunity to play outside the election place while his parents were voting. He grew up in a country with the lid on all political discussions. And all those of his generation that never found it important to register to vote... can there be a a connection there?

Well, I do not know about that but even if there would be a minimal chance of cause and effect I am not willing to take a chance with the new generation. My kids will be going with me to vote everytime there is a chance, until they can vote themselves, both in Finland and in Chile.

The Finnish election results are coming in as I write. I am devasted about the populist movement gaining two digits since last elections. I am truly worried, both about my own status as part of the Swedish speaking minority in this country and about all foreigners status living here! We need less populism and more reality! And we cannot wait until the next generation...

Tengo huevos...

Tengo huevos, es lo que me dijo mi marido hoy en la mañana cuando le llamé metida en un mar de pelotas en medio del mar Báltico.

La razon de recibir tanta apreciación de mi propio marido es lo siguiente; Ayer a las 23:45 salió el barco grande de Mariehamn, Åland, donde yo junto con los niños habiamos pasado tres días en la casa de los tatas maternas. Åland es una isla, entre Finlandia y Suecia. Para llegar allá tienes basicamente tres opciones: 1. avión (la opción mas comoda pero poquitin caro, esa opción usamos en la ida). 2. 3-4 Ferries chicos + auto (toma una eternidad, bonito si quieres turistear y conocer las islas de Finlandia, pero absolutamente no una opcion en primavera cuando los hielos estan pegados al mar baltico todavia). 3. Crucero grande que navega entre Finlandia y Suecia, sus destinos principales estando en los dos continentes, lo que significa que el horario partiendo de Åland casi nunca es bueno, especialmente no con niños chicos.

Para la vuelta elegimos la opción 3; partimos ayer a las 23:45, yo y dos niños profundamente dormidos, sin auto. Como lo hice? Me pregunto lo mismo pero lo hice. Y lo hice así; a las 23:00 niños dormidos en su cama donde los tatas. Los vestimos, dormidos. Los llevamos al auto, dormidos. Llegamos al terminal, hago el checkin, sin niños. A las 23:30 ponemos A en coche y llevo G en silla de auto. Los dos durmiendo. Una persona del personal del barco me ayuda subir los niños en un ascensor escondido del publico. Entro el barco, empujando el coche y llevando silla en mi mano, los dos siguen durmiendo. Nuestro equipaje llevo en una mochila. A las 23:45, a la misma hora que siento que el barco parte del puerto ålandes, entro nuestra cabina, saco la ropa de los niños y los pongo en sus camas, siguen durmiendo. Y duermen hasta las 7 de la mañana. Alli, mamá preparada les da desayuno, huevos duros y pan con jamon y de alli partimos a la sala de juegos, piscina de pelotas etc. Los niños jugaron intensivamente 2 horas en la sala mientras mamá tomaba sus dos tazas de café, leyendo lo ultimo del mundo con wifi del crucero. Asi lo hice. Facil... Por lo menos en comparación con nuestro paseo por el centro del Mariehamn el otro día... o mis intento de mantener mi hijo vivo en una casa con 3 escaleras en medio de la casa de mis papás.

Orgullosa otra vez de mis patiperros chicos. Han mostrado que saben manejarse en el mundo grande! Seguimos patiperrando... proximo: Barcelona!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Reclaiming the hoods of our summer paradise

After a very long winter we are back at the summer paradise, the Åland island. Well, there is still some snow around and no sight of tourists, not even those school excursions from the mainland that is such a typical spring sign around these places. Daughter was amazed to see our well visited camping site, closed, no tourists. Where are they?, she asked. She was also annoyed that I was making her wear the winter overall. Looked at me as if I was crazy. She had also asked me at least ten times on the plane if the green dress had been included in the backpack. Yes, I said, its there. Thinking of the green winter dress that she has, while she was thinking of her summer dress. Later I understood why she was making all these strange questions. As we spent almost half of the summer last year over here, she thought that Åland means summer. Simple. She also made me pack our swimsuites, at that point I did not get her intentions. She wanted to swim in the sea! I thought she wanted to go to the indoor swimmingpool... Well, quickly we sorted out the concepts. Åland is not like taking the plane to Chile. If its winter at home its winter on Åland.

Today we've been busy reclaiming the house and the streets. Literally. We started off the day with G reclaiming the house. In less than 30 minutes he had emptied the mould from a pot in the "green room" down stairs, tried eating and putting the car keys into the radiators (those with the sign "do not cover"- better known in Sweden as "ei saa peittää") and when that did not work he just got the radiator off its hooks on the wall. He also tried several kamikaze-jumps down the three different stairs in this house. That's when I understood; we need to get out of this place....

So I got the kids dressed. A not very happy about the abrupt ending to her "Barnkanalen" tv watching, but I bribed her with grapes to make her cooperate. We did the normal tour of the city: first to Emmaus to get some cool second hand toys and then to the library to get a couple of excellent children books in Swedish and then to the other side of town for lunch with my mom. You would think the kids would have been happy with these exciting arrangements. And they were. But where ever we went, we left our mark... First in Emmaus, G managed to get all toys on the shelves down on the floor and end our discovery tour of 70:s-80:s toys with a free fall into the shelf and a lip filled with blood. My man is not exactly the most quiet chap when crying, so our shopping ended there quickly and we walked two blocks down to the library, chidren section, filled with toys and books for both kids. Kids excited, yes. But G was maybe just a liiiiittle bit over excited. He turn every cup with caryons upsidedown, he tried all toys, all small chairs and he picked every book he could get his hands on and placed them in another shelf, another section. Nightmare for librarians... I got my excercise of the day, running after, picking up, trying to keep track of his book placings.

Once out of the place and heading towards the lunch with my mom, the sugar level of A had turned critical (that is how far you get on 3 grapes...). I need to add that also my own sugar levels were critical at this point. The stirred eggs from the morning had just not fulfilled their duty today. Major tantrum. We talk world catastrophy tantrum. Our small dispute must have been overheard by all locals having their lunch in the city center today. It was the kind of situation were you as a parent become nervous... at what point do others start interferring in our small unpleasant discussion...Supernanny, to our rescue, please! But no supernanny around. Still, somehow we managed to make it to lunch, get some food in all of us and then pass by the city playground, bus home and have an excellent spring afternoon with the neighbour's kids out on the front yard.

Just a few reflections of the morning happenings: First, its clear - the terrible three are back, and back with a vengence, on this small island. Second, how come the same gang was just a month back passing through a city of 6 million inhabitants without the slightest sign of such challenges confronted today? Come on, this town has 10 thousand inhabitants, there are almost no cars in the city center, and no people either for that matter. I was really not prepared. Maybe because I did not carry around those small bags of emergency cookies...maybe that is why. Let's put it on the account of the cookies, or better yet, the missing cookies. Next time, I am wiser.

PD: I borrowed a book called "Råsmart familj" (Wise Choice Family) from the library today. I studied it with great attention in the afternoon. The author has the solution to these mood jumps that we just experienced today. I will not start preeching abouth the message here but just briefly say that emergency cookies are not the way to go....and actually, I am a believer.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Going green...

So its a fact. We are the lucky ones. The largest Finnish hypermarket has finally opened its doors to the public. And we just happen to live within a radius of 2 kilometer from this beauty. Its green. At least its label is green. Green label just as its counterpart in Chile. What a coincidence. Its big, just as its counterpart in Chile. The parking space is crammed with cars of suburb shoppers and inside you'll spot the happy families, going to shop food as if it was an enternainment park. Yak.

Until now, I have always tried to avoid the smaller version of this conveniece store. Already at its first, second and thirds stage I found it annoyingly big and difficult to find what I was looking for. I always ended up buying things I had not planned to buy and the bill was always disappointingly high. Hey come on, it's supposed to be cheap! But it isn't. And I spent tripple the time inside in comparison with our local market.  So I have tried with all my forces to to avoid this place. Gone there maybe three times a year, and the most common reason for my slip in principles is either that this place has the only Alko (state owned liqor shop) in the neighbourhood and the only metal recycling spot.

What a paradox; I go to the green hypermarket because my green values force me to recycle just there. But the green hypermarket is nothing but green. And this new enlargement is making it only worse. Today, Sunday (!)(in Finland only recently stores were allowed to keep open on Sundays, many still keep Sunday as a non-shopping day), it was like driving in the city center at rush hour. The queues already started inside Haga, almost a kilometer away and getting into the round about just outside the massive store was a major task of strategic driving. I actually came to think of the round about Perez Zucovic in Santiago, before Avenida Kennedy went underground. Ok, now I am exagerratings, Finns would have a nervous breakdown in a roundabout like Perez Zucovic, but still I saw that trafic mess in my head as I navigated in and out from the roud about just north of Ring 1.

After having dropped off some 10 kilos of accumulated glas and metal at the recycling spot, I was about to turn around and go to our own local market. Was not up for this shopping frenzy that seemed to be going on inside the hypermarket. Neither eager to support this kind of craziness. But, but, but. Daughter in the back seat had spotted some green balloons and she insisted we would go inside. Besides, I still had another bag of bottles to be returned to Alko's bottle recycling spot inside the complex. So we parked the car and started our long walk...

It is terribly annoying to have to go and get a liter of milk in Finland's biggest hypermarket - you could just as well go out for your evening run, since the distance from the entrance to the milk and back is one (!) kilometer long. And as I was accompanied by a three year old, this kilometer could have been even longer as the place had its attractions. Balloons at the entrance. A bit further down a merry-go-round (!). I was observant on that one and managed to take a detour without the three year old noticing. Then, at the deepfried aisle, I hear how they announce a Moomin show to take place just about right now...next to the deepfried aisle. Good thing the three year old does not understand Finnish, I think to myself, and navigate quickly further towards the milk stand...girl is cooperating and understand that in this crowd she needs to keep close and behave.

I later realize that we reeeally need ice cream for our afternoon guests. So we head back to the deepfried area. Busted! Three year old enthusiastically hands me the balloon so that she can run towards the Little My and Moomi's on stage. My, my. Guests are arriving in less than an hour, how will I get us out of this situation without a scene? Miraculously I manage to convince the girl that another character of Moomi is hiding by the ice cream fridge, and she goes with me. Lucky me, there is actually a character similar to this one, the Dumle-man, handing out candies to all kids. We make it to the cashier without further drama. I thank the sugar in the candy for that.

Outside it takes us another 15 minutes to get the car out of the parking lot. The queue out to the round about is just building up. At 2 p.m. the shopping frenzy is just about to start. I say to my girl that I really dislike the green hypermarket and next time I prefer our local market instead. I hear my girl say that she prefers the green hypermarket. The marketeers of the place would have been satisfied. In less than half an hour they had succeeded in turning the green hypermarket into the preferred place of shopping of my three year old. Child marketing - I thought it was banned in this country!

So let's go back to the concept "green" here. The label of this place is green and the balloons handed out at the entrance were green. But that is about as green as it gets. The rest is nothing but green. To go to this place it's preferrable that you take a car - how else will you get all that stuff that end up in your shopping cart during the kilometer long walk with you back home? To our local market I usually walk and get all the stuff packed into the stroller. Secondly, do you really need all that stuff that end up in your cart? I mean, electronics, clothing, toys, food from thousands of different options, home improvement,etc, etc, etc. Since my days of extended maternity leave started , I have managed to become quite a concious consumer regarding what is needed and what not. But this place really makes it hard to keep fingers away from temptations...be it 70% chocolate or French specialty cheese...

If we include the social impact of this place in the green concept, then the result is even worse. We lost our local pharmacy when this place opened its first expansion about a year ago. Our local pharmacy! In an area were most inhabitants are old, without a car, and only survive because of prescribed drugs. Its cruel that these old ladies and gentlemen nowadays have to get on a bus, or take a taxi, walk almost a kilometer, to get to the pharmacy. Cruel. Some weeks ago we got a letter from our local bank account manager. She invited us to the gran opening of their new facilities in the hypermarket building. Do I need to tell you that we did not go to try the cake? Then there is the threat (or did it actually already happen?) of our post office relocating to this place. I love our post office with the kindest personnel in town. They have found more than one of my many internet-shopped-packages in their shelves. I do not at all look forward to having to go to the "green" hypermarket to pick up my packages in the future. Come on! This is why I started to shop over the internet in the first place - to not to have to go to these hypermarkets or shopping malls!!!

No, this place gets thumbs down from me. I am even thinking of finding another place for our recycling and alcohol needs (alcohol is rarely a problem, as the problem is mostly inside our cupbord, filled with unopened bottles). This is just a trend that I do not want to be apart of and I will be very sad if others in our neighbourhood do jump on the train and make both local flower shop, local market and local book shop go out of business. No hopes for Christmas shopping with children in the sled next winter?

My father-in-law use to say that buying bread became extremely expensive when their green labeled hypermarket opened its doors just a kilometer away from home. Local bread shops went out of business and the family had to go to the hypermarket for bread. Do you think they made it to the exit with only bread in their shopping cart?

Very, very disappointed with local politicians who gave green light for this development. Thumbs down for them. Good thing we are voting next Sunday- parliament, unfortunatelly not local government - I'll still make sure my candidate is against this kind of craziness.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I have made a strange observation the past two days.

As I have taken some days off from my home front duties and instead sit in on a very interesting course module on corporate responsibility,  I notice a change in the family dynamics. You would think that having been at lectures from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. would make me exhausted and the only thing I would like to do once getting home is occupying the living room couch.

Strangely enough I notice that I have more energy than ever. Yesterday I concentrated on some writings until way past midnight. Tought I would never wake up this morning. Instead, when the children started making noice, I thought I had overslept because I was in such good shape. Only 4-5 hours of sleep. Made it to school and even had 40 minutes time to study for an exam before today's lectures started.

Then again, tonight. Same phenomenon. I manage to be much sharper at night when having been away from home all day!

At the same time I look at hubby, his gloomy eyes and how he crawls to bed earlier than usual. This home front requires a looooooot of energy input.

Tomorrow we have externalized the hard job. A Spanish girl coming to see after the kids. We get a two-in-one deal: babysitting and language stimulation! Actually three-in-one: adding our own energy level still high in the evening.