Annu at a blackcurrant bush
Atte takes it easy
Reko's become a little hippie. Peace!
Annu shoots...
...and Reko saves!
Make, Atte and the airplane
Annu, Raimo and Vivi
The leaves are turning
Off into the dark season...
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Signs of autumn
We spent our traditional annual end-of-summer day at Make's stepdad Raimo's and her mother Vivi (who Reko thinks is one of the world's greatest cooks, along with grandmother's Lea, Kaija and Jeannette!) place near the town of Porvoo. Annu and Make gathered blackcurrant leaves (no berries this year) for a delicious natural drink, and the boys played soccer and flew a model airplane. Well, the adults got into some of that, too...
Annu at a blackcurrant bush
Atte takes it easy
Reko's become a little hippie. Peace!
Annu shoots...
...and Reko saves!
Make, Atte and the airplane
Annu, Raimo and Vivi
The leaves are turning
Off into the dark season...
Annu at a blackcurrant bush
Atte takes it easy
Reko's become a little hippie. Peace!
Annu shoots...
...and Reko saves!
Make, Atte and the airplane
Annu, Raimo and Vivi
The leaves are turning
Off into the dark season...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Everyday Grind: Welcome to the Machine...
Well, it's definitely September rolling in. Raining, raining, raining, and grey - so hello you guys there Down Under, we're not sure if you'd really like this or not... Truly, Finland between September and April may be pretty way over in Lapland or something, but otherwise. Oh well.
The boys' school has somehow just started running like an engine. Atte's strange in that he shows no signs culture shock; for him, school just... began. Probably his reading and other such "school skills" help in that. On the other hand, his school routines like homework do need some looking after - they don't come so naturally. "Work before play" is a principle that will take some time to be learned thoroughly.
For his Religion class, Atte had to draw a picture of himself with other God's creations. Well, the six-year old artist came up with a drawing of himself, some trees and animals, God, the Great Wall of China (Atte's been using Google Earth a lot) and a Finnair jet on its way to Australia, carrying Lorraine with it. It's a very nice picture but it will probably need some explaining for the teacher :)
Reko is very fastidious with his homework, but sometimes gets frustrated if he doesn't get it right the first time. There's a lot more homework on 2nd grade, and a lot more English, too. By the end of the year he will probably have a working grasp of the language. Today, for instance, his English homework consisted of math tasks in English (numbers in English etc) and an English hidden words crossword puzzle. The rest of his time is spent with Pokemon trading cards. Oh well, again.
Both boys seem to have many friends, and they spend their time with them, too. "Where's Atte/Reko?" "Oh, outside with his friends somewhere" - a pretty common dialogue these days. They're growing up...
We're past the 2nd Harry Potter novel for bedtime reading, and in Chapter 8 of Tom Sawyer! It was a gamble, because there was no telling whether they could get excited over 19th centuryAmerican boys, but they can! It seems very little has changed in a boy's life over the past 150 years, which is kind of hopeful, really.
Annu is pretty deep into her new job even though it officially starts next Monday. She seems very happy with it, and even the pay is, for a change, decent. It's close to what she's studied for, and she feels she really can contribute to that community. Even if everyone else there is at least ten years younger than her. Oh well.
Marko joined another band on top of his E.L.O. tribute band. Earplugs, now more than ever! And also on the music front, we got the wonderful news that our great favorite, the perhaps-the-greatest-songwriter-alive, Mr. Randy Newman, will give a concert in Helsinki on Nov. 14. The tickets will come available on Monday.
So we're pretty busy but will keep on blogging - next time we hope to have some new photos too.
The boys' school has somehow just started running like an engine. Atte's strange in that he shows no signs culture shock; for him, school just... began. Probably his reading and other such "school skills" help in that. On the other hand, his school routines like homework do need some looking after - they don't come so naturally. "Work before play" is a principle that will take some time to be learned thoroughly.
For his Religion class, Atte had to draw a picture of himself with other God's creations. Well, the six-year old artist came up with a drawing of himself, some trees and animals, God, the Great Wall of China (Atte's been using Google Earth a lot) and a Finnair jet on its way to Australia, carrying Lorraine with it. It's a very nice picture but it will probably need some explaining for the teacher :)
Reko is very fastidious with his homework, but sometimes gets frustrated if he doesn't get it right the first time. There's a lot more homework on 2nd grade, and a lot more English, too. By the end of the year he will probably have a working grasp of the language. Today, for instance, his English homework consisted of math tasks in English (numbers in English etc) and an English hidden words crossword puzzle. The rest of his time is spent with Pokemon trading cards. Oh well, again.
Both boys seem to have many friends, and they spend their time with them, too. "Where's Atte/Reko?" "Oh, outside with his friends somewhere" - a pretty common dialogue these days. They're growing up...
We're past the 2nd Harry Potter novel for bedtime reading, and in Chapter 8 of Tom Sawyer! It was a gamble, because there was no telling whether they could get excited over 19th centuryAmerican boys, but they can! It seems very little has changed in a boy's life over the past 150 years, which is kind of hopeful, really.
Annu is pretty deep into her new job even though it officially starts next Monday. She seems very happy with it, and even the pay is, for a change, decent. It's close to what she's studied for, and she feels she really can contribute to that community. Even if everyone else there is at least ten years younger than her. Oh well.
Marko joined another band on top of his E.L.O. tribute band. Earplugs, now more than ever! And also on the music front, we got the wonderful news that our great favorite, the perhaps-the-greatest-songwriter-alive, Mr. Randy Newman, will give a concert in Helsinki on Nov. 14. The tickets will come available on Monday.
So we're pretty busy but will keep on blogging - next time we hope to have some new photos too.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Summer's out, school's in
Well, here we go with our very first blog in English! We started this so that we can share our everyday doings (and undoings) with all our friends abroad, post pictures and links right on the page. We will keep emailing everyone personally, of course, but the general diary-like things we will post in this blog. Do write your comments here, too - maybe we all can end up having some interesting discussions :)
So - hello everyone in different parts of the world, wherever you are!
Our vacation season is well and truly over. Marko's been back to work for three weeks, and the boys' school started last week. Atte is now an eager first-grader, and Reko enjoyed joining his classmates for his second grade year.
Atte's first school morning
Reko's 1st morning on 2nd grade
Annu has been working shifts at a group home for young people, and evidently she has made an impression: the owners offered her a full-time job for a year that she promptly accepted. She will begin her new job on Sept. 1.
The summer vacation itself was fun. We did a bit of travelling around Southern Finland, visiting friends, relatives - and theme parks.
Atte and the Skywheel
Close to the end of our holidays old friends (hi Suvi, hi Ingo!) celebrated their marriage, so we had the chance to catch up with both them and a mutual friend, Lorraine, whom we got to know during Suvi's early days in Singapore.
Lorraine flew here from her current home in Melbourne, Australia, and spent a whopping three weeks all over Finland, plus a trip to St Petersburg, Russia. We were lucky to host her twice during her Finnish journey. She left only yesterday, and we're still smarting - it was ten years we'd last seen her (seems we've specialized in overlong periods of separation). Reko said that she brought extra joy to our home, so Lorraine, we do hope and believe we'll meet you again in about 330 days time, in Toronto, corner of Dundas (it was not Spadina after all!) and Bloor. Ok?
Annu and Lorraine, farewells at Helsinki Airport
Our next summer's plans have evolved a bit again. We have found a very nice apartment hotel in Toronto. We plan to stay there for four weeks and spend another four weeks in Virginia and Michigan. (Sterling & Kathy, Jack & Jeannette: we'll ask about your schedules for next year over email very soon) This means us staying in N. America from about June 7 to the beginning of August.
Even if this summer's fun and games are now the stuff of memories, one has to have fun, too. The Living Thing, Marko's Electric Light Orchestra tribute band, played their second concert on the 17th, and at least we got a picture of the stage, if not the band:
10 minutes before going on stage...
Neat, eh? We'll try and get some pics of the band too, next time ;-)
So - hello everyone in different parts of the world, wherever you are!
Our vacation season is well and truly over. Marko's been back to work for three weeks, and the boys' school started last week. Atte is now an eager first-grader, and Reko enjoyed joining his classmates for his second grade year.
Atte's first school morning
Reko's 1st morning on 2nd grade
Annu has been working shifts at a group home for young people, and evidently she has made an impression: the owners offered her a full-time job for a year that she promptly accepted. She will begin her new job on Sept. 1.
The summer vacation itself was fun. We did a bit of travelling around Southern Finland, visiting friends, relatives - and theme parks.
Atte and the Skywheel
Close to the end of our holidays old friends (hi Suvi, hi Ingo!) celebrated their marriage, so we had the chance to catch up with both them and a mutual friend, Lorraine, whom we got to know during Suvi's early days in Singapore.
Lorraine flew here from her current home in Melbourne, Australia, and spent a whopping three weeks all over Finland, plus a trip to St Petersburg, Russia. We were lucky to host her twice during her Finnish journey. She left only yesterday, and we're still smarting - it was ten years we'd last seen her (seems we've specialized in overlong periods of separation). Reko said that she brought extra joy to our home, so Lorraine, we do hope and believe we'll meet you again in about 330 days time, in Toronto, corner of Dundas (it was not Spadina after all!) and Bloor. Ok?
Annu and Lorraine, farewells at Helsinki Airport
Our next summer's plans have evolved a bit again. We have found a very nice apartment hotel in Toronto. We plan to stay there for four weeks and spend another four weeks in Virginia and Michigan. (Sterling & Kathy, Jack & Jeannette: we'll ask about your schedules for next year over email very soon) This means us staying in N. America from about June 7 to the beginning of August.
Even if this summer's fun and games are now the stuff of memories, one has to have fun, too. The Living Thing, Marko's Electric Light Orchestra tribute band, played their second concert on the 17th, and at least we got a picture of the stage, if not the band:
10 minutes before going on stage...
Neat, eh? We'll try and get some pics of the band too, next time ;-)
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