Mixing it up

I try to mix a lot, even though I don't always understand the people I am mixing with... especially not when they speak local dialect...

One thing is funny when there are westerners and Chinese people working at the same company. Although they would often benefit from spending more time together, they rarely do. At least that seems to be the case where I’m working now. The big boss in an exception, he’s everywhere all the time, but then there are 2 young guys (one from Shanghai and one from Hebei) who are sitting in silence in their own little corner and who rarely speak to anyone but each other.

Or OK, well that was the case until I came along. Keen to practice my Chinese and make new friends I headed over the second day and scared the Hebei guy with my (slightly nervous) rambling about anything and everything. The following day I set my sight on the Shanghai guy and I was surprised of how everyone else (in the office) responded:

“You know the Chinese guys?!”

“Wow, I’ve been here for 6 months and I’ve never talked to them!”

“I didn’t even know they speak English?!”

“Oh, you can speak Chinese…. Well then no wonder” (complete bulls**, these 2 guys have lived in Finland for 2-3 years and speak perfect English).

I’m not simply blaming the western guys for not including the Chinese crew. I know for a fact that unless I had taken the first step, these 2 guys wouldn’t have started talking to me.

However, since they eventually realized that I wasn’t some dangerous creature (?) and stuff they decided to join us for lunch, which created even more raised eyebrows among the staff:

“You had lunch together with the Chinese guys!?!”

“The Chinese guys joined you in the PARK?”

“They ate a sandwich and not rice!?”

Yeah, wo-ho, how exotic and everything… (not).

Same thing happened yesterday when a guy was making a feature about a Chinese pop band. He was having troubles retrieving information from the net and asked me if I knew the group. I didn’t.

“But I’m sure the Chinese guys do! Let’s go and ask!”

“Oh, no no, not necessary!”

“Eh…. Yes, VERY necessary! And very simple! Just watch.”

Five minutes later I knew everything we needed to know and the Chinese guys (helpful as ever) had even offered to do an Internet search for us. And all we had to do was just to ask. Funny how it can be so hard sometimes.

From 'tall and fat' to 'average and normal'

Even though I am struggling with my running/fitness there are a few things over here that makes me so happy I almost feel like singing and dancing on the streets.

1. I’m not a giant anymore. Being 175 cm in Finland is completely normal, it's sort of the average length for girls over here. In fact, I think there are at least 3 girls in the office that are taller than me. Not to mention all the men! O la la, here we are talking about the society of tall people! I have to say that it’s a nice change. I mean, I can even wear heels without feeling like a flagpole! (not that I ever do it but still, there is an opportunity here!)

2. I’m not fat anymore. In fact, over here I’m considered quite normal, and even a bit… (oh, do I dear to say this?) slim? Nah, OK, I take it back, but from (almost always) being the ‘biggest girl in the room’ in China I now often look around me and realize that I’m the smallest person around (weeeeird!).

I don’t know how or when this has happened but people have really ballooned here in Scandinavia. Both men and women are not only big, but like, really BIG, and 90% of the skinny girls on the streets are lanky teenagers (and who wasn’t skinny as a teenager? I personally looked like a chopstick. Chubby, apple-cheeked kid, and then skinny as a teenager). Although it’s kind of scary to see how big people have become (I keep asking myself ‘why?!’ because they have SO MUCH good food over here! Endless options of fish and low fat and low sugar… and some really fantastic nature to go out and play in… but obviously you don’t see it that way when you’re living in it every day. A friend of mine also pointed out that it might be the alcohol. People over here love their drink).

3. My feet are absolutely normal. Size 39 is actually the average female feet size here. Meaning my size always sells out first in the store. Bummer. But at least I can BUY shoes here. That’s not always the case in China.

4. My nose is not a big nose. It’s absolutely normal.

5. My arms are proportional and not ‘too big’ that a friend of mine pointed out some months ago over dinner. All that body pumping have paid off! You can aaaaaalmost see the slightest of a biceps muscle if you look up close… or maybe that’s just me? (Yeah, probably).

6. And then, finally, the best bit: NOBODY IS LOOKING AT ME ANYMORE!!! Except for an dirty ol’ man who I caught trying to glance under my skirt the other day (creep!) nobody have stared, giggled or pointed at me during 5 wonderful, stare-free days. This is truly a great thing. I understand that being flagpole tall, wide, big-feet and blonde in China results in curious stares as well as ‘hellooooooo!’s yelled from the left and the right, but to NOT have all that for a change is actually rather nice.

So… for now I’ll enjoy all these changes until I get bored with them, start complaining that ‘it’s boring to look like everyone else!’ and start wishing I was back in China…

Yey, I'm normal!!

Post about running: fitness needs to improve, NOW!

So much nature out there just waiting for my feet to explore it... (this photo's from Sweden). I need the fitness to be able to do it!

Last night I decided to give the hills in the forest another try. However, since the lap out there is so short (but tough!) I did an additional 15 minutes on flat ‘city’ ground before I entered the forest. Since running on flat ground doesn’t feel hard I am trying to convince myself that I’m simply ‘hill’ unfit, and not totally ‘unfit in general’… although who knows? Seeing how I was breathing when I got home I am still not convinced…

Anyways, I tried the whole ‘hip out chin in’ style when running down a hill and although I looked like a complete maniac it felt a little bit more stable. So cheers for the advice!

Now I just have to get used to the uphills. Yesterday a fellow male runner passed me in an uphill. He looked completely unfit but kept an immaculate speed, impressing me by taking on the hills with his whole foot (I climb the hills on my toes, otherwise I’d never get up there. This guy put all of his foot down, heels first). I felt extremely jealous and frustrated. To first of all, be passed by another runner (hate it, hate it, hate it! And it never happens in China!) and second of all, to NOT be able to keep up with this little speed ball (I’m very competitive when it comes to sports, did I mention that?!). Anyways, I have to get used to the hills and maybe then I can start working on things like speed and technique. But for now running that one, hilly lap without feeling as if I’m about to die is my goal.

I’d almost forgotten how horrible it is to go running when you’re not running-fit. How long does it take until it gets easier?! Yesterday I did a total of 47 minutes and yeah, like I said, I could barely breathe afterwards. This (non-existent) fitness of mine better improve fast. I hate that my feet/legs feel like concrete rather than feathers… Well, actually, I just hate not being able to enjoy running as much as I normally do. But.. better not give up. I’m giving the hills another go tonight!

So close but still so different

One Dane and 2 Noggys. Who can tell who's who?

Languages are just so fantastic. Last night I had dinner with 2 of my best girlfriends (I LOVE the fact that I can have dinner with them?! Gosh, I’ve missed hanging with my girls) and I almost fell off my chair when I heard them speak Finnish to the waiter. Sure, they have lived here for a while now (both of them are Swedish, but married/soon-to-be-married to Finnish men), but it’s still so impressive to listen to. Finnish is apparently a pretty hard language to learn and it doesn’t sound similar to Swedish… at all. Like not one little bit!

Many people take for granted that people from the Nordic countries can communicate to each other in their native languages and that the other ones understand, but that’s actually not the case. I guess the Swedes are best off. We understand both Norwegian and Danish (well at least I do, although I am from the ‘Danish part of Sweden’ –something I’m rather happy about. I’m not sure how well Stockholm-Swedes understand Danish) meanwhile Danes and Noggys apparently sometimes have a hard time communicating. But then there’s Finland. Where 92% of the population speak Finnish (and not Swedish that many people –including me 5 years ago- might think, in fact, the Swedish-speaking population is only some 6%). In fact, Finnish language is a member of the Baltic-Finnic subgroup of the Finno-Ugric group of languages, which in turn is a member of the Uralic family of languages. The Baltic-Finnic subgroup also includes Estonian and other minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea. And then, Swedish is a North Germanic language…. So these two languages, no matter how close they are geographically to each other, are not related at all.

Since I have lived one year in Finland (2005-2006) many people (including all my bf’s Finnish friends) think that I ‘understand Finnish quite well although I don’t admit it.’ Truth is, I understand very little as soon as the conversation leaves polite greeting phrases like ‘good morning’ and ‘good night!’ (and only those two phrases took some months to learn. Good morning, for instance, that in Swedish is “God morgon!” is “huomenta!” in Finnish). However, since I’m tall, blonde, and my name is Jonna (fairly common name in Finland) many people take me for being a Finn and just rant away to me in Finnish. The last example must have been the shop assistant scanning my groceries yesterday (I know it is terrible, but I simply cannot keep away from the grocery store.. I’ve been there every single day since I landed. Ahhhh!). She told me the sum, then asked something I didn’t understand, so I just said ‘no’ (I guessed it was something related to membership cards because that’s what they normally ask –other people have told me). Then she gave me a curious look and asked me something else, which I again said ‘no’ to (in Finnish… this is one of the few words I know). Then she started laughing and said:

-Or do you want me to speak English to you because you obviously don’t understand a word of Finnish?

-Ehhhhh… sure…. !!!

Nice lady.

Not every Finn is that ‘helpful’ when s/he notices that I don’t understand Finnish. Although most people over here can speak English a lot of them are a bit reluctant to do so, and don’t even get me started on speaking Swedish with Finns (even more reluctance here) so there have been times when I don’t really get anywhere with my errands (tax office related matters being one classic example). It’s my own fault of course: I used to live in Finland so I should have made the effort and learned the language, but, is it worth learning a language that is only spoken by some… 5,3 million people?! Yeah, not sure. I decided to learn Chinese first and then decide.

Since we’re on the topic of languages I can also mention that I yesterday made my first go of my ‘in Finland-every-day-must-do’ mission, namely to speak Chinese to the Chinese people working in the same office as me (not the boss referring to me as ‘the Little Blondie’ though… that would make things too complicated). Since there was only one Chinese person available (a short, little boy that looked about 15 years old) he became my victim and had to listen to my poor ramblings for a good, 10 minutes (why is it so that as soon as you cross China’s boarder your accent goes all bad and weird?), which he spent the most of looking scared and praising my language skills. Hm… better luck next time? Yeah well, I better do a little bit of speaking every day otherwise it’s going to be hell to keep up at my advanced Mandarin classes this upcoming fall.

Finn, Swede and Noggy -差不多？ Well not language wise.

Chinese influences in the Finnish work life

I won't have to miss China too much during my stay here...

The first day at work went well. I don’t know if I’ve made it clear, because a lot of people are asking so I better say it once again. I’m currently in Finland doing a 7 weeks summer vacancy at a media company where I used to work 3 years ago, before I moved to China. In the end of August I am going back to China, but until then I’m working full-time over here.

It’s strange to be back at a company that I left 3 years earlier. Although the number of employees have doubled since I left a lot of things still haven’t changed. The big boss is a Chinese man from Beijing. Very honest. Very straightforward. The first thing he said when he saw me in the meeting room yesterday morning was:

-Oh, I see our little Blondie is back from China. You know guys, 3 years ago this girl left our company to run away to China with her big love.

Polite smiles and muffled giggles. I felt kind of silly. “Ran away with my big love?!” What the f****?! And also, what boss refers to his employees as ‘little Blondie?!’

As soon as the meeting was underway, I also realized that things are like they always were.

It started with one of the guys arriving a little bit late:

-Oh Mika, said the big boss. Look at you. You look so tired and quiet. You probably have not slept well.

-Eh, well… I….

This was the standard back during ‘my days’ as well. Whoever came in late got a honest, slap in the face:

-Look at you today! You look real tired/ fat/ old/ dishevelled!

I can tell that the employees of today take it just as personal as I used to do back then. I particularly remember one time when the boss said I looked real ‘meaty.’ I swapped my lunch for oranges for the following 2 weeks.

Then, we went on to the meeting.

The big boss had just been to China and was supposed to give us a summary of what he’d been up to:

-Yeah, I had a lot of good, important meeting… made progress when it comes to the X project… and then I went to X province to meet with the head of X and we talked about xxxxxx….. And then I had to go to Beijing to comfort a friend whose wife just committed suicide… and then I had a successful meeting about cooperation in some sections with this xxxx group….

Wait… what.. hang on a second? Did he just said… suicide?!?!?!

Me and my workmates were discussing over lunch. I mean, he said it so fast and so briefly that it just blended together with all the other, important meetings he’d had?!

After discussing it for a while and listening to the sighs from my workmates it hit me:

-This still happens kind of often, doesn’t it? Some kind of important and inappropriate information is thrown into a meeting about something else?

-Sure does. They said.

Yup, not much has changed! And it’s kind of interesting to get this ‘grind of Chinese spice’ in your every day life over here.

Post about running: how to tackle a hilly course?

Yesterday I did one of those things that I like the best about being here in Finland: I went for a run in the forest. The flat we’re living in over here is kind of great: 10 minutes from a big, beautiful lake, and 5 minutes to the forest (and 30 min on a bus to the city) For a nature bug like me it’s perfect. Running in the forest is just the best… I love every little bit about it: the nature, the soft ground (so good for your knees!), the air and the shadow. Perfect during warm, 30 degrees days like yesterday. However, this forest lap is kind of… tough. Forget about 11km/hours (with a 05-1,0 incline) on the treadmill… Even though I thought I was fit I realized after 20 minutes in the forest that I’m not… at all. The course is extremely hilly. When I say extremely I really mean it: up, down, up, down.. Constantly. There are maybe 3 small flat sections? Otherwise it’s mostly uphill…

One lap is something like 5-6 km. Peanuts! Yeah, or so I thought until I realized how those hills actually kill you! Fine for the first, 20 minutes… but the end section is just like one long hill… with little flat sections/downhill for recovery… oh man, I ALMOST gave up last night. But in the end I pushed myself and made it all the way back to the door. But I remember thinking when I was running: “uh… this is not really fun?! This is torture!” Although like always, afterwards it felt great.

However, I’d like to ask any fellow runner out there if you have any tips for how to tackle hills. The thing with me is, that I’m almost worse at running downhill than uphill. These hills are steep, and I’m scared of ‘letting go’ as I fear that the pressure on the knee (when you put your leg down in a steep downhill) is going to be too big. So I always hold back… meaning I don’t make the most of those downhills. Numerous friends that I’ve been running with have commented on it over the years, saying that I ‘lose’ a lot when I’m running downhill as I automatically slow down (meanwhile they are letting go and are flying forward). What’s the best way to do it? And, it is pathetic or pathetic to not be able to run a second, 5 km lap after that first one?! I have this long-term running goal for the summer: before I go back to China I’m going to do 3 laps in that forest. Although when I thought about that yesterday it sort of felt impossible. Anyways, any running tips are appreciated. Running in pancake-flat-Suzhou/Shanghai has spoilt me for the last 3 years… never thought hills could be such a challenge! Funny how easy you forget?!

Walking and running in the forests are two completely different things...

The first few days in Finland

So now I’m in Finland. And what can I say? It’s about 10 times as good as I had ever imagined. Not talking about the air, the green nature, the bird’s song, the extended hours of sunlight, the fact that you can drink the tap water, or the selection of non-sugar/low fat products in the grocery stores… Oh no, I’m talking about the fact that it’s summer over here. Real, warm, 28-30 degrees warm SUMMER!

You see, there’s this thing about summer in the nordic countries. This unwritten rule. This Scandinavian summer mantra, that goes something like: “hope for the best but expect the worse.” It’s a way for us to comfort ourselves, just in case the summer ‘rains away.’ Every single Scandinavian knows that even though we treasure summer, it’s kind of naïve to dream of sunshine and 30 degrees. Scandinavian summers aren’t really known for being ‘hot,’ and I can name numerous years when the summers have been cold and rainy (there was this one year when I still wore my winter jacket in June, and then that other year when there was still snow on the streets in May…), when umbrellas have sold gold and ice cream kiosks have hit bankruptcy. So, to step of the plane and be greeted by a clear blue sky, a bright shining sun at 28 degrees (and people in shorts?!) last Friday was kind of awesome. (A sort of summer novelty that I could totally get used to). Although just to remind you guys (and myself) of how rare this kind of weather is over here: this is the first time it has happened in the last 3 years…

I spent the weekend by a lake close to our flat (it’s like a 10 min bike ride… hah!), swimming, sun-bathing and catching up with friends from the past. On Saturday night we went out for some glasses of cider and I was sort of stoked by the fact that you can order yourself everything from dry, to normal, to low-sugar, non-fat cider from the bars?! Europe surely is a place of choices! Also, being able to sit outside in the sunlight until 11pm was kind of cool. My friend was laughing at my excitement, saying I reminded her of someone who’s never been to Scandinavia before. Funny how easily you forget.

On Sunday it was grocery-shopping time. I had been purposely avoiding it, knowing that I might not be able to handle it. And very well. As soon as I stepped into the store my heart started beating faster, and my mind felt kind of wild, almost as if I wanted to buy the whole shop and try to eat everything in there in one go… as a result of this, I came home with all kinds of strange things (5 different kind of cheese, salmiaki flavoured chocolate, gluten free biscuits and soy yoghurt?!) and none of the things that I really needed (potatoes, chicken, toothpaste and milk). “It’s the novelty of it all!” I comforted myself as I unpacked my bags. But seeing how much these ‘products of novelty’ in fact costs (yikes, it is expensive over here!) it better wear off sooner rather than later. Otherwise I’m going to end up spending every single euro of my hard earned salary on food. And that wasn’t really the plan…

Actually, speaking of food. I better go and get my lunch box ready now. When I spoke to my bf last night he reminded me to bring some lunch to work. First I just laughed at the idea, saying something like ‘come on, there’s a lot of Chinese people working there, of course we’ll go out for lunch!’ but then he reminded me of how expensive it is to go out for lunch over here, and I when he said it I did remember: you can’t really ‘go out for lunch’ over here like you do in China (well, at least now if you’re working with my salary). So, lunch box it is: salmon salad (!) with avocado (!!) and mozzarella cheese (!!!). (Actually, who needs to go out for lunch when you can eat food like that?!)

Today is my first day at work and I am feeling a little bit nervous but excited. Anyways, better get ready. Gosh, have to dress for the office now, rather than a lazy day at the lake/a day of Chinese classes at the university. This might take some time…