The longest day of the year

Today is summer solstice, the longest day of the year 2008. From now on it´s downhill; every day is going to be shorter than the day before until we reach winter solstice on December 21st.

Back in Finland this weekend is an official bank holiday weekend. Everything is closed. In all official buildings and homes flags of Finland were hoisted at 6 pm on Midsummer Eve (yesterday) and flown all night till 9 pm tonight. Finland is full of festivals and happenings. People are celebrating the light. Traditional bonfires can be seen all over the countryside. In region Lapland people all over the world come to see the midnight sun.

I´m thinking all of this now, sitting alone here in our second home in Solingen. I came here a few days ago to work a little; Angie is on her way arriving later this afternoon.

We´ll get visitors from Finland tomorrow morning. My sister Maukka and brother-in-law Arska are coming to a late honeymoon. The wedding took place in Salo, Finland, on February 16th but only now could they take some days off from work and kids. The all-inclusive trip was our wedding gift to the newlyweds.

It is really nice to have my sister here. Too bad the visit is so short, they´ll stay with us only five days. We will pick them up from Düsseldorf Airport tomorrow at noon, staying here until Tuesday afternoon and then drive through Germany to Leipzig to show our real hometown. Thursday evening I´ll take them to Berlin, only an hour and half’s drive from Leipzig, where they stay a few days by Claudia. She´s the German exchange student who spent a year in Finland by Maukka´s home a couple of years back and is now considered as one of her own kids, sister for Aino, Venla, Santtu, Eero and Lauri. Maukka and Arska are flying back to Finland from Berlin Sunday week from tomorrow.

Claudia is by the way the only German I know who speaks perfect Finnish! She´s finishing her school this week (abitur in German, about the same as A-levels or High School Diploma, or YO-tutkinto in Finland). Maukka and Arska decided to come now so they can have a few days with us and then celebrate with Claudia.

I like my sister a lot. I think in Arska she found a real soul mate. I´m really happy to have them here.

Have to start cleaning, Angie arrives about 3 pm.

Welcome Maukka & Arska!

Hyvää juhannusta, as we say in Finland (have a great midsummer).

TV from Finland

About a month ago life became easier for us Finnish immigrants. Finally after years of waiting Finnish television is available to everybody with a flat rate Internet connection. Best part is it costs only €10 a month. Viewer should also have a Finnish TV-license paid. I can now watch everything from channels TV1 and 2, Yle Teema, FST5, MTV3, Nelonen, Sub and Jim. It´s not live; I can start watching a program about 5 minutes after it´s finished. For me it´s OK. The provider TV-Kaista stores all programs for two weeks so I can watch my favorite shows whenever it suits me. The quality is super! Watch yourself; the photo here is from my favorite soap Heartbeat, "Sydämen asialla" in Finnish.

It is a tremendous pleasure to watch a nice film or show with original sounds and speech!

Here in Germany they dub everything. Sometimes it is a bit comical, like a musical where some famous American star sings with his / her own voice, in English, but his /her spoken voice is a totally different German voice.

As my friend put it, I rather hear Arnold Schwarzenegger say in his own voice "I´ll be back!", than a totally strange voice in German with bad lip-sync "Ich komme zurück!"

Sad news

Called my mother tonight, just to check if she is alright. She told me my father´s older brother Jouko died earlier today. Pirkko, Sirpa & family: My deepest condolences. Just yesterday, writing about Maukka´s wedding I thought how nice it would be to meet you all.

I am so sorry, I hope you can cope.
Otan osaa suruunne.

Maukka & Arska 16.02. 2008

My sister Marjukka, Maukka, got her Arska in Salo, Finland, Saturday last week. A beautiful sermon, a beautiful party, the most beautiful bride.

For me it was a nice but confusing weekend. I haven´t met most of my family in years, keeping in touch with nobody else than my mother and sister and her family. Maukka put it nice in her speech: "This is the first time in 26 years that me, all my brothers and our mother are together, same time and same place." It´s true. Last time we all (mother, Maukka, my brothers Esa and Timo and me) have met was our brother Pekka´s funeral back in 1982.

I also found Teemu. Biologically he is my son, but like he says I am not his father. That´s OK with me, I wasn´t there since fall 1983. My side of the story don´t belong here, so I´ll just say he has a mother and a father who brought him up, doing a good job I think. I don´t know what would be the right word to describe our relation to each other, or is it even important to find an expression for everything. I´m completely happy just calling him Teemu.

I have to admit I am a bit anxious now. Teemu and my nephew Eero are coming to stay with us a couple of days early next month to visit the biggest European computer fair Cebit in Hannover. Nice to have visitors from Finland. Welcome, guys.

Both having kids from previous marriages Maukka and Arska decided to go with a special sermon designed for reconstituted families (FIN: uusperhe). Here´s a short video from the beginning of the sermon, made with a mobile phone so quality is not very good. The bride was given away by her two sons Lauri and Eero. Bridesmaids were Maukka´s daughters Venla and Aino: (All videofiles are quite big. If you are using a volume based connection, let me know. I´ll burn a DVD for you.)

Next video shows Arska´s son Santeri as a "deputy bestman", giving the ring:

Arska shows why he can´t make his money by singing :)

Eero and "stepbrother" Juuso, pure Pop Star Quality:

And of course, the walzing couple

The waltz went well, although there were some doubts: Santeri, Arska´s son, and Aino, Maukka´s daughter, were talking about wedding some time before the big day. Santeri told Aino "My father can not dance waltz". Aino, clever as always, looked Santeri and said: "Hm! My mother can! She´s been married before!"

The bride, my mother and Angie were not the only beautiful ladies I met there. It was, I´m happy to say, really positive surprise to see my cousins Anitta, Arja and Paula. I remember three giggling small girls with freckles; I met three beautiful and intelligent, friendly women. I hope this is a new beginning, I would be very happy to keep in touch. Talking about beautiful ladies, my uncle Raimo´s wife Kerttu, Arja´s mother, was really elegant. I don´t understand why I look older every day but these relatives of mine stay always young? Erkki, my father’s brother and my godfather was there. We´ve met some 15 years ago but he was exactly the same. I hope someday I have the possibility to meet his two younger kids, my only cousins I have never met.

All my photos from the wedding are here. They are not so good, I have to admit. I would like to have more photos of my sisters big day. If you have some nice shots you can send them (any digital format) to this email. Please mention if it is OK to publish your photos here. Print photos you can send by mail, address can be asked from the same email.

Thank you Maukka and Arska for inviting us!