Porvoo

The signs of autumn are here: shorter days, cooler nights, the sound of dried leaves skittering across pavement in the breeze, and masses of geese flying south in formation. Already my co-workers are spending a significant amount of time of our morning coffee break bewailing the coming darkness. I think I now understand the high rate of depression in winter: they spend the last days of summer and most of the fall wringing their hands about how dark it will be. After living here through a whole year and experiencing the extremes of the daylight hours, I now realize the shock to the system when the sun is all of the sudden setting at 8:30 instead of 10:45. However, that does not excuse anyone from enjoying the remaining sun-filled, 65-degree days. Seriously, the last week has been absolutely gorgeous: warm sunshine, 65-70F with a slight breeze, and no one was out picnicking or stretching out on the beach. There were even very few boats in our harbor. This is something that boggles my mind. 

Perfect cooler evenings for hot air ballooning

We, on the other hand, took advantage of the beautiful weather last weekend and traveled to Porvoo, Finland's second oldest city behind former capital, Turku. Porvoo is 35 miles east of Helsinki, reachable by car, long-haul bus (leaves from Kamppi metro station, buy tickets at the office there or from the driver. You may also go by boat (3-hour ride), or bicycle (not recommended, the trail ends half-way there and the road is narrow and actually somewhat hilly). We took the bus (#845) from Kamppi, unaware that the bus would stop only half a mile from our place. The ticket from the metro station was €11.80 per person, one way, and we arrived in Porvoo an hour later. Though the distance is short, we spent most of the journey getting out of Helsinki. We saw countryside on the way, and harvest was in full swing, likely rye or wheat.

Johan Runeberg is on the list of notable Porvoo residents. In addition, Porvoo is famous for it's Brunberg chocolate factory. They make 'kisses,' among other treats, which are nothing like Hershey's kisses in the US. I've had a few and can't believe I don't have any photographic evidence... Here is their website until I eat another one and remember to take a picture before taking a bite!

The bus station in Porvoo is next to the market square. It is much smaller than the markets in Helsinki, with only two coffee and pastry stands, one bakery stand, and a handful of produce stands.

After a coffee and pulla, we walked the short distance to Old (Vanha) Porvoo. This section of town was preserved from shipping days, complete with wooden buildings and cobblestone streets.

We hiked up the hill and admired the quaint wooden buildings that have either settled with time and/or were built without levels or chalk lines or tape measures. At the top of the hill is Porvoo Cathedral. It is a rather understated cathedral and reminded me more of the white churches in every town in Denmark, which makes sense when you recall that the Swedes were ruling Finland when Porvoo was established in 1346. Inside, the church was painted with frescoes. Most were religious in nature, but a first for me was the unicorn next to the altar. 

As we made our way back toward the river there were many little shops to pop in and out of: clothing, home goods, and chocolates. The center of the old town was near the river, it consisted of a town square now used for a marketplace as well as many more shops and restaurants. There is not a lack of options for lunch in Provoo. We settled on a place with outdoor sitting near the river: Fryysarinranta. We both had good meals and it was a perfect day for having lunch outside.

After lunch, we ambled through the shops of the old town as far as my legs would carry me, and then stopped for refreshments at Zum Beispiel. They advertised homemade ice cream and I was not disappointed: blueberry with apricots. Brent's refreshment came from Finland's Malmgård Brewery. 

It was not quite time to go home yet (buses to Helsinki have 1 gap in their hourly departure schedule and it is quite an inconvenient one: either leave at 2:45 or wait until 4:45) and there was more to see. Brent went walking to explore further while I enjoyed an afternoon coffee, my book, and an accordion/violin duo on the floating terrace of the local coffee roastery, Paahtimo, which occupies an old warehouse.

Brent's exploring

Paahtimo, Image from www.visitporvoo.fi

That sums up our day trip to Porvoo. If you have an extended amount of time in Helsinki and the weather is nice, I would recommend a visit. Especially so if you came to Helsinki in hopes of seeing old world European charm. Next time, I think we will try the water route. There is still more to see in Porvoo, including several museums which are just too wearing for me right now. For a relaxing day in a charming little city, visit Porvoo!

Calling Finland...

Since we are Americans living Finland, communication with our loved ones in the States and at a reasonable rate is of utmost importance. Fortunately technology has come a long way and we have instantaneous access to those in the US. One of my great-aunts tells of living in Paris for two years and only talking with her mother on the phone twice in that time. That was before the internet age, however. Here is what works for us in the modern era.

Apple products: FaceTime and iMessage are free between any (and with iMessage with multiple people) iDevice that has access to WiFi. Both pieces of software can be downloaded onto Apple computers, tablets, and phones. FaceTime is Apple's version of Skype, though it is much more reliable than Skype with better picture quality and less dropped calls. It previously only functioned with WiFi, but for the last year it has been operational on 3G. iMessage is Apple's texting application and is by far my favorite technology. In the last few years I relied more and more on texting to communicate with family and friends and this has enabled me to keep in contact with those people who have an iPhone as we had before. I am a bit biased... I jumped on the Apple bandwagon years ago and have not looked back.

Skype: Video chatting service that is free, and if you don't have a webcam, the audio functions on it's own. There are versions for computers, tablets, and phones. You can also load money onto your account and make phone calls to landlines or cellphones for $0.02/minute and you can also send texts for a few cents, but you will show up as blocked number. For an extra fee, you can buy a phone number that people can call and text, and they will be charged an out-of-network fee. Traditional Skype video chat is functional, but the video quality is not as good as with Apple's products, and sometimes the video lags behind the audio, and we've often dropped calls altogether. The audio on phone calls is great, and though it is not free, it is very reliable and we've never had a dropped call.

Google Hangouts: Have a GMail account? Then you can try out Google's video chat service. This is also free and has what I call Mr. Potatohead capabilities. Feel like being a king? With glasses and a moustache? Scan through the clip-art on the right hand side of the software and click to accessorize yourself. Somehow these figures are able to stay in the correct location while you are nodding your head or changing the position of the camera. We only tried this for the first time last week and so I can't tell of it's full capabilities, but it seemed to work well, and as far as I can tell, better than Skype.

Phone calls: Phones that work in the US generally will not work in Europe due to each continent's adoption of different cell phone technology. When we traveled to Europe previously and wanted to be reachable for emergencies, we purchased an unlocked quad-band phone off of E-bay. When we reached our destination, we purchased a SIM card for international calls, usually found at a kiosk in the airport or in touristy areas. Pop the SIM card into the phone and you have a pre-paid phone plan. In most countries, a small amount of money will get you a ton of minutes to call the US, while local calls are more expensive. This is how we operated in Finland until we were able to get phone contracts (see below), but the rates were much more expensive and we easily ran out of minutes while in other countries, we had to try to use up our $10 of minutes.

Cell phone service: I don't think that anyone has a land line here anymore. I recently saw a statistic that there are more cell phone numbers in Finland than there are people, it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 150% of people with cell phones. Finland is home to Nokia and stereotypically, the Finns are eager to adopt new technology. You may remember that they introduced mobile phone technology to the world. There are 3 main carriers in Finland (DNA, Sonera, and Elisa) and they are more or less the same, from what I can tell, and we went with Sonera because they work throughout the Nordics and the Baltics. You must have an identification number to obtain a contract with any of these companies. After that, they complete a credit history check (~1 week). If you are without a history in Finland, they will grant you a contract, but only after you pay a really high deposit, somewhere in the neighborhood of €300. This isn't really so bad, the deposit is then used to pay your monthly bill until the deposit is used up. And the monthly bills here can be dirt cheap. The plans are three-fold: number of minutes, number of texts and internet speed. Don't need many minutes or texts and don't care if you speed is slow (1 Mbit/s)? your monthly bill can be as low as €10 ($13). Even the most expensive package is reasonable: 5000 mins + 5000 texts (really, who can go through that in a month?) + 100 Mbit/s is only €50/month. This is so cheap that my American brain wonders if we are ripping off the cell phone companies. No complaints about any of it though, I have yet to reach the end of my deposit! Calls to the US would be expensive and since we have so many other options, I haven't used my number here to call home. Likewise, calling a foreign number from an American number would be pricey, but I do know that at least Verizon has a plan that includes calls to international numbers.

E-mail: Good ol' e-mail. Reliable, accessible anywhere you have access to internet.

Snail mail: It takes about 1 week for mail to reach us from the US. The USPS now has the Forever versions of international stamps. The last I knew, these cost about $1.05. Shipping things is quite expensive, however. It seems that using bubble-mailing envelopes is best, especially since these can be shoved through the mail slots in doors if they are small enough. Since we have been here, there has been a change in receiving packages. If you order something from outside the EU and the value is more than €22, your package will be held for a ransom of extra taxes and customs. If it is a gift, the same is true for items valued over €45. So, order things from other EU countries, and if your loved ones send gifts, you might consider asking them to fudge the numbers a bit on the customs form.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc: Love it or hate it, they are here to stay for the foreseeable future. Permits same level of interaction or creeping that prefer from anywhere in the world.

That's our experience with international communication. We are fortunate to have all of these tools at our cheap and convenient disposal. Otherwise, I am not so certain that our families would have let us out of the country!

Find it in Finland

When you leave home, what do you miss? Whether it's a week-long vacation to another state or a few weeks' journey to another country, there is bound to be something that you find yourself craving: a normal routine, your own pillow, or maybe peanut butter on toast for breakfast. When you return home, all is right again and you forget that you ever missed anything as you look back dreamily on your vacation. 

What would you miss if you moved away, either to another part of the US or to another country? Some comforts are transportable while others fall into the perishable category. Moving to Finland, I was expecting that we would have to adapt our eating habits to what was available to us, whether it be adapting favorite recipes, learning some new ones, and leaving a few old ones for the US only. I have been pleasantly surprised at some grocery items that I have been able to find and sorely disappointed to not find others. What follows is my experience in the last year.

Grocery stores:
Alepa: Usually smaller, part of the S-market chain
K-Market: Franchises, more variability in stock among stores as the owner decides what to carry, most stores have a small US/British food section
Lidl: German chain, generally a little cheaper, but not much
Prisma: Somewhere between Super Target and Super Walmart, lots of selection
S-Market: Uniform stock, but depends on the size of each shop
Siwa: Usually smaller, more convenience-type, but has most things you would need in a pinch
Stockmann: Part of the department store, large selection of everything, wide range of international items, generally more expensive

Fruits and Vegetables:
The produce available at the neighborhood grocery stores is highly dependent on the season, sometimes even the week. It's the middle of winter? You can still buy a box of strawberries in the US (though I wouldn't recommend it), but certainly not in Helsinki (maybe Stockmann, but still not recommended). Nevertheless, I have always been able to find apples and bananas, potatoes and carrots.

For the freshest produce, go to the market (tori), there are several from which to choose: the touristy one at the South Harbor, the local's favorite at Hakaniemi, or the temporary one at Hietalahti (the Old Market Hall at the South Harbor is under renovation). 

What I have missed the most is part of my all-time favorite meal: sweet corn. Corn doesn't grow very well here with the short season, so it isn't abundant. I have only seen it at one K-market last week (shrink wrapped on a styrofoam tray, from France) and at the Hakaniemi market this week. It is sold already half-shucked, who knows when this happened! Anyway, we tried some from the K-market, and it was very disappointing: flavorless and old. I didn't even bother with the corn at the market, mostly because I was burned once and also because it was €2.50/ear (over $3!!!):

Grocery items
Various stocks and broths do not exist here. They come in condensed cups or syrups (fondi), or in bouillion cube form.

Most familiar herbs are available in dried form here. However, they seem to be less potent as it seems that we can dump in 2-3x as much as normal and there is still no hint of seasoning in our food. Fresh herbs are also available in tiny pots which is quite handy.

If you are from the Midwest, chances are that a lot of your top comfort foods call for a can cream of something soup. Learn how to make these homemade, because they also don't exist here. There are other pre-made soups available, mostly pea and other vegetable soups. You can even find Campbell's tomato soup, for a price (€2.65 = $3.50/can):

There are a large variety of cooking oils available everywhere: any type of olive oil, avocado, walnut, etc. etc. However, you won't find corn oil or vegetable oil. I have substituted rapeseed oil for these recipes.

The selection of flour here is vast. In even small grocery stores, there is an entire aisle dedicated to flours from all sorts of grains: wheats, rye, barley, rice, etc. The variety of flours is then available in different levels of grinds from fine to coarse.

The basic cereals can be found: bran flakes, Cheerios, rice krispies, oatmeal, etc. There are others, but I haven't paid too much attention to them, so I can't comment.

There is a HUGE selection of Tex-Mex foods. You can find anything you need for making your favorite south-of-the-border-inspired dish, except for the cheese, of course. This I found to be unusual.

You will also find a big selection of Asian food supplies: varieties of rice, soy sauce, sushi wrappers, coconut milk, curry powder, and a plethora of sauces.

My favorite grocery item is peanut butter. Like most of Europe, there is little peanut butter to be found here. I was prepared for this possibility and brought a jar of my favorite brand (Skippy Extra-Crunchy) with us when we moved. At first, I was surviving on that, and the jars that friends and family would bring for me (a big thank you again!!!), but had found that Stockmann carried it (for a price) if I ever ran out. That is until doing a little searching over the weekend, I found that Skippy is no more. They've replaced it with this junk that I've never heard of: 

It was called Arkansas peanut butter, and is produced in Piscataway, NJ. Anyone ever try it? We will see how desperate I get. I have another 4-6 weeks of supply left.

Dairy
There is a high prevalence of lactose-intolerance in Finland (unfortunately this is not one of the stats available on www.stat.fi, surprisingly!), and so most of the dairy products have been treated to make them lactose-free (laktoositon). In fact, it is difficult to find dairy items without this distinction. To me, there is no noticeable taste difference, I just hope that my lactase enzymes don't forget their job when I leave Finland.

Butter is also laktoositon and mostly comes in the salted variety. You can also find 'less salt' and 'high salt' varieties. Not sure yet what uses the high salt butter has.

Beware buying milk here, you may end up buying a Finnish favorite: sour milk. We lucked out and guessed the correct one (maito) the first time.

There is plenty of yogurt to be had here, but if you are a fan of greek-style yogurt, you will have to adapt, unless you enjoy the jammy, fruit-on-the-bottom variety, that only comes in lemon (Kreikkalainen jogurtti). Also beware of the yogurt with rice in it: riisifruiti. Before leaving the US, I had just gotten into greek yogurt and going back to the normal kind left me feeling hungry. My Russian co-worker suggested that I try rahka, a Russian-developed and Finnish-adopted thick yogurt. In it's original form, it is more sour-tasting than plain yogurt, has higher protein and less sugar. It is even more filling, and I enjoyed it with fruit stirred in. There are also fruit-flavored varieties, which are a bit more palatable.

Love cheese and can't live without it? This is not the place for you. The Finnish cuisine has nothing smothered in cheese, and so this department is very small in the grocery stores, and all of it is lactose-free. There is a selection of sliced cheese, very few blocks of cheese, and even less shredded cheese. And really, really do forget that cheddar cheese ever existed. If you are a connoisseur of cheese or French, go to the markets or Stockmann for your cheese supply.

Meat
Meat counters are non-existent in the smaller stores, and vary in size and content in the other stores. No matter where you go, selection is very limited, even in the pre-packaged containers. We can always find chicken breasts, ground turkey, pork, and beef, and some salmon filets. There are also containers of already-marinating chicken and though I see people buying these, my co-workers have advised against buying these: what are they hiding in that marinade?

For any meat outside of these basics, you must go to either Stockman (good) or the market halls (best). Here you can specify the cut you want and the amount. However, be prepared for sticker shock, a ribeye will cost you €10-15, and a whole chicken (3-4lb) will cost you around €20.

This is a very abbreviated version of the food changes we've experienced. It leaves out so many of the things that I find here that I didn't know existed or can't find anywhere else. It's been fun and at times frustrating to go food shopping, I've likely annoyed my coworkers for translations that Google Translate can't handle and questions of 'Where can I find X?. We've learned a lot, updated some old favorite recipes and tried some new ones. If you moved abroad, what food couldn't you live without?

Pregnancy in Finland

It has been a long time since I have posted! Since our son arrived in mid-November, life has been quite busy and my blog posts have taken a back seat. I hope to resume posting with some regularity.

Disclaimer: This is based on my experience, which has so far been a normal pregnancy. 

Finland was recently ranked best place in the world to be a mother, based on the likelihood of the baby and/or mother to die in the 24 hours after birth by Save the Children. By comparison, the US was #30. 

How did this country of 5 million people earn the top ranking? I think that one of the biggest contributors is cost, all appointments are entirely paid by the insurance that everyone has: KELA. As far as I have read, we will only have to pay the hospital day fee when our baby is born, and I understand this to be quite low, about 35€/day. "Wait, doesn't this make people have more babies and thus burden the tax-funded insurance?" No, in fact, fertility is at it's lowest rate yet. And from my Helsinki-limited view, most people only have 1 or 2 children.

Free prenatal care means that everyone in Finland gets prenatal care: 997 out of 1000 mothers according to a recent NYTimes article. In addition, this cuts down on prematurity: 5.7% of births in Finland are premature whereas it's 12% in the US. The big incentive to obtaining prenatal care is that it is required to receive the baby box (or money, or maternity/parental leave) from KELA (national insurance) as well as to apply for maternity and parental leave and the baby grant. To qualify, you must visit the maternity clinic within the first 4 months of pregnancy and the pregnancy must have lasted for at least 154 days. The nurse prints a note for you, signs and dates it, and you mail it to KELA with the application.

Prenatal care begins by making an appointment at your local municipal maternity clinic. At the first appointment, the nurse-midwife takes an initial interview: family history, alcohol and drug use habits, as well as the mother's vitals: blood pressure, pulse, weight, and hemoglobin reading. You also get a maternity card at this first appointment where all of the important stats from each appointment are recorded. These are of course recorded in an electronic chart, but this card is for the mother to carry for emergency situations.

Maternity care is largely handled by nurse-midwifes in Finland. "Gasp! You only see a nurse?!" Relax. These are healthcare professionals who have specific training and experience in prenatal care. In fact, they only see patients who are pregnant ladies or children. On top of regular visits to the nurse at the same frequency as prenatal visits in the US, there are 2 appointments with a doctor at weeks 28 and 35. Perhaps it was the doctor I had, but I would much rather have gone to the nurse instead. The doctor could not answer all of the questions that I had for her, and I was in and out of the office in 10 minutes, and that included a check of the baby's heart, a glance at the position of the baby by ultrasound, and an internal exam. Whew... we were flying! And not because there was someone waiting for the next appointment. These appointments all occurred in the maternity clinic. 

Ultrasounds: I had 2 ultrasounds, at 12 and 20 weeks, and these took place in the maternity ward in the hospital where I gave birth. It wasn't fancy, just a 2-D ultrasound, but they saw what they needed to see. If I had demanded one, I could have gotten a 3-D ultrasound, but this would have cost €250.

Glucose test: I had this during week 24 and it is different here than in the US. Everyone has a 2-hour fasting test (water only for 12 hours before -- this was pretty miserable for me)  with 3 blood draws: take a sample, gulp the sugar drink (not as terrible-tasting as I was expecting, and I was thirsty), wait 1 hour to take the 2nd sample, wait another hour and take the final sample.

The system for prenatal care in Finland is different from the U.S., but I felt that the standard of care was the same. Look forward to future posts on birth and maternity leave in Finland!

Reflections on a Year in Finland

We have now lived in Helsinki for just over a year. This was us a year ago on moving day (we flew Iceland Air, they allow you to check 2 pieces of luggage for free) a year ago:

Recently, I've been thinking back on the year that we have spent here. A lot of things I have liked and there have been some frustrations, too. No place is perfect, so I have a list of pros and cons in my view. Some topics belong on both lists:

Good:
Livability: excellent public transit, ample green space for every apartment complex, trees everywhere, a grocery in walking distance of everywhere.

Working hours: they really believe in working at work and and nowhere else. Also, efficient work during a 40-hour week is highly encouraged so that you can enjoy your life.

Healthcare: available to everyone, heavily subsidized so it is very cheap compared to the U.S.

Summer: very comfortable temperatures (highs 65-75, 85 is really hot) with low humidity and lots of sunlight (over 18 hours at the peak) to enjoy the weather.

Winter: very comfortable temperatures (hovering around freezing) with next to no wind chill, lots of outdoor activities (cross-country skiing, skating, etc.) to get outside.

Public transit: cheap, gets you nearly everywhere you want to go in Helsinki.

Biking: extensive trails throughout the city, designated bike lanes out of the street.

Taxes: very simple, graduated rates based on annual income.


Strawberries: they grow like weeds here, as do many other kinds of berries (blueberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries). They are ready in great quantity in the summer and you can go pick your own from the forest or buy 5kg boxes to freeze and make jam and bake.



Education: also heavily subsidized, but not entirely free. Students get a (very small, between 2000-3000€/year) stipend from the government, but have to pay 87€ or so for tuition.

Holidays: Everyone gets time off (even public transit workers), and sometimes there are special pullas (pastries) for the occasion.

Vacation time: Everyone starts at 30 working days and you maintain the number of days that you have earned even when you move jobs, and it continues to increase the longer you work.

Bad:
Healthcare: you have to wait to see a healthcare professional based on the severity of your problem, and you have to wait even longer to see a dentist.

Winter: it is so long! Winter 2012-2013 started at the end of November with a blizzard and spring finally arrived at the end of April. The days in Helsinki got down to about 6 hours and what sunlight was available never made it past the low, dense clouds.








Public transit: not all lines run with the same frequency and the metro quits running at 11:30 PM, even on weekends. I found that out the hard way once...

Taxes: the VAT is 24%. At least the amount of tax is added into the advertised prices, so it doesn't hurt so bad to pay the bill.

Bureaucracy: We had to apply for identification numbers when we arrived, and without them, no businesses wanted anything to do with us. Once we got these 4 weeks later (why couldn't they be issued with our residence permits???), then we could get cell phone contracts, library cards, health insurance, identification card from the police. I am sure it is very easy when you are born here, but getting into the system took a little questioning and a lot of patience.

Socializing: allow me to stereotype here a bit... Finns are very nice, but it is difficult to make friends with them. Their social circles seem to have been built early in life and it is very difficult to break into them. All of our friends here are foreigners.

Alcohol: overconsumption is a big problem here, even outrageous taxes don't slow some people. Also, old rules left-over from their lengthy prohibition (longest in the world) have resulted in a really poor selection of beer and wine. This alone led to my diminishing consumption.

Language: not Germanic- or Latin-based, so it has been very difficult for my English-trained brain. I hate to give up learning it, but I don't need it at work, or even to get by in day-to-day activities. It's also difficult to be motivated to learn it when I know that I will never need it when I leave Finland. If I do, I am buying a lottery ticket.

Distances: not attached to the mainland (not conveniently, it is connected way up North to Sweden and Norway), so travel to the mainland most definitely involves flying. It is also far from our family and friends and there are very few direct flights to Helsinki from the US.

It has been a good year. Would I do it again? Yes. I won't lie and say that it has been all easy: I've missed out on family gatherings and friends' weddings, I miss watching college football and basketball, and eating Iowa sweet corn. But this is also a once in a lifetime chance that is for a fixed term. My only regret is choosing to live some place with such a difficult language and a closed society. This made it difficult for us to find an apartment to rent and for Brent to find a job (looking for someone in IT who can work during the US overnight? Message me, I know a guy). The upcoming year will also be one of learning about Finland and ourselves and new experiences: we are expecting our first child in November. I will be posting on the ins and outs of maternity (entirely free so far) and childcare in Finland in future posts. What about you: would you move to a foreign country for a fixed term or forever?