January Reflections and the Presidential Elections.

Fulbright Grantees at the ice-skating ring.  

My home for the next 6  months.

 I left sunny warm (82 F, 27 C) California on Wednesday 1/10 and arrived to dark cold (27 F, -3 C) Finland on Thursday. This will be my home for the next 6 moths. My apartment is in the middle of a construction site. The view from my balcony, which faces north-west, can be depressing with sand everywhere, but at 
the same time interesting. I can see the construction crew working on sites and I can monitor the progress daily. They are working there regardless of the temperature.
But, it was not depressing for long, because the snow started falling a week later. 

My morning walk to work. 

A week later, the ground was covered with white snow and the world looked bright and cheerful again even the sun got up at 9.17 am and the down at 3.30 pm. I am sure the Finns are annoyed with darkness at this time of the year, but for me this was refreshing.  I enjoyed walking in the morning to the University of Helsinki in darkness for about an hour and most of the time I took the tram back to the apartment on afternoon.  This took only 20 minutes.

Voting for the first time in 40 years.

January was the presidential election month in Finland.  It had been 40 years since I was able to go to the polls here to vote for the president or any other government official. I was delighted to do my duty.  The president is elected for 6 years and they campaign only for about three months.  What a delightful difference from US! 

Fulbright Grantees having a dinner at Zetor

Several Fulbright grantees decided to have a dinner at the local restaurant Zetor at the heart of the Helsinki before everyone departed to their designated home cities for the next 4-8 months. When we walked in, we were wondering why there were long lines to the Old Student House, which is a historical landmark built in 1870.  Since it was the Presidential Election day, we though people were in line to vote. 

Greeting the Newly Reelected President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö

After the dinner, we noticed that the line was gone but there were lights inside the building.  I encouraged my Fulbright fellows to follow me to explore the intricate details of this building.  There were guards at the door but they did not say anything so we just walked in and took off out jackets.  The room was filled with people in fancy clothing.  It turned out that this was the place where the President was holding a celebration party. We waited for an hour and the newly reelected President Sauli Niinistö walked in and greeted the audience.  I was able to tap his shoulder and stretch my hand to congratulate him.  

Greeting the President.

It was like magic, no invitation, no fancy clothing and there I was in the middle of all this laughter and cheering.  WE JUST WALKED IN, no security checks and no ID!!!  This is Finland. 

President arriving