I had the pleasure of first hearing Jonathan Rundman perform when I was a middle schooler. The year was 2007 and by then, my intense personal interest in Finland was already unabashedly showing itself. What I do remember was when he played for the celebration of Finland’s 90th Independence Day. I went with my grandparents and enjoyed the rosolli (beet salad with herring) and other Finnish treats, prepared if I am remembering right, by Soile Anderson.
My second winter as a student in Oulu, I spent the entire Christmas break with my adopted friendship family, the Hannus family. When they picked me up from my student apartment complex near the university, I was ready to go. It had mostly cleared out for the break time with students scattering around the world, until studies resumed again in January.
Merry Christmas! Well, Christmas Eve at least! I am baking pulla with Nastya. Basically no one is here in Lapinkaari. That is ok. It makes using the kitchen much easier and I can sing in my room. On Thursday, I went out to the Turtola shopping area. Not as big as Lielahti, but still nice. I bought some ribbon that wasn’t on sale and then got some just like it at Tiimari in Tulintori for 70% off. Well, lets just say I’ll have enough “Hyvää joulua” ribbon for a while.
When you become interested in something relatively niche - say a country of 5.54 million like Finland - its people, languages, and cultures - you may feel like not many understand that or care to know what you know. However, it has come to my attention throughout my involvement with Finland, that this is simply not the case. Finland is definitely having a moment and has been for quite awhile. I am not sure if I can trace it back to a single point in time, but there have been waves throughout my life where Finland has popped into the news, Finnish design has appeared in unexpected places, or Finnish music transcends borders and ends up in the spotlight.
