Who Am I? Identification through places. Finland. Part 1

This time I really don’t know how to start. So I am ‘going back’ to my childhood.

When I was small, my parents were reading fairy-tales to me. Those fairy-tales were from all over the world, representing the cultures of their country. Among my favourite fairy-tales and stories, there were Nordic ones. There were trolls and piles of snow there. The fairy-tales were very mysterious and breath-taking. That was probably the first time, when I got to know Northern Europe, and I was absolutely amazed.

When I was 16 years old, I fell into Finnish rock music: Nightwish, Apocalypica, the Rasmus, and of course HIM. Oh my god, how much I was in love with Ville Valo, the front man of the band! 😌 It was exactly the time, when I started reading more to find out what is that country, which produces such great musicians. I was reading, checking pictures, and living in Finland became my dream. I was telling people around me that one day I will live in Finland and I will speak Finnish. Understandably, no one was taking my dream seriously… 😕😁

Time was passing, and I forgot about my dream. I was so much involved with the university life, that I simply did not have time to think of anything else…

On my last year of studies (The English and German languages), my friend took me to the meeting with foreign students who came to learn Russian. There I met some Finnish people, and my curiosity returned. Those student were so lovely! There was one Finnish girl with whom we became really good friends, she was so kind and sweet. We were in touch, even when she was back in Finland.

I graduated from the university and became a teacher of English. It was great experience, but I wanted to use my languages on full, I wanted to learn new cultures, discover new places, and of course learn new languages. I felt like the world is waiting for me to explore it.

Finland came to my mind, and my friend suggested that Turku could be a great option, a bilingual city with fascinating history. ❤