…nod and smile like you have the faintest idea what someone is talking about and laugh in all the right places.
How old are you, where are you from, where are you living now and what took you there?
I am 30, originally from Rochdale, Lancashire (UK), a very built up and dreary northern industrial town and I now live just 20kms from Lapland, 60kms from the Russian border in northern Finland. It is probably the most under populated place I have ever been to and we live on a farm surrounded by trees, more trees, and a lake. Very peaceful but rather isolated too
How long have you lived there and how long will you stay? What keeps you there?
I have lived here for over 5 years now. I originally came out here to work as a ski rep in the local ski resort but after just 6 weeks I met my husband, fell in love and have only been back to the UK twice since. I’m here for life now, we have two small children, 3.5 and 1.5, and this is our home. We live in the same farm house that my husband was brought up in, and his father before him and one day it will belong to one of our children for them to bring their family up in.
What do you do to make a living?
I cook, clean, wipe bums and noses, feed animals, launder clothes, clean up copious amounts of poo and have sex with my husband and blog. One of these jobs keeps me in money.
Describe your average weekday and weekend day.
Pretty much the above with the occasional sitting naked in a hot cupboard.
What skills have you learned while living abroad?
Apart from the fine art of Finnish sauna and that you can buy sex toys from a supermarket, you mean? How to nod and smile like you have the faintest idea what someone is talking about and laugh in all the right places. How not to mind that you have gone from life and soul of the party and become social wallpaper. And that no matter how hard you try to speak Finnish 90% of the time you will get answered back to in English despite the fact that your Finnish may be 10 times better than their English and you will have to suffer half an hour of translating what they are saying before you allowed to make a simple purchase. The nodding and smiling comes in really handy here.
What are you missing (professionally) by not being in your home country?
The recession.
If you could live anywhere, where would that be and why?
For 4 months of the year I would like to live somewhere hot and sunny, preferably with sand and sea. The rest of the time, here is just fine.
What is your favorite gadget that makes your work life abroad better?
The internet. How I would ever manage in such an isolated place with few friends without the wonder that is the internet, twitter, facebook and blogging, I don’t know.
Do you have a favorite book that inspired you to travel or consider a different way of living?
Mr Galiano’s Circus. It’s a very old Enid Blyton book that I loved as a child about a young boy that joins the circus. It filled me wonder, the thought of travelling and seeing all these different places, meeting all these different people and having adventures. Even from a young age I knew I wanted more to life than living in one place could ever give me and i’ve spent most of my life, before coming here, travelling and experiencing new places. I’m happy to have found somewhere that makes travelling seem less appealing than staying in one spot.
Other than your blog, Notes from Lapland , do you have a favorite expat blog?
Vegemitevix is a fabulously funny blogger, a Kiwi living in the UK with her 3 kids and English husband.
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thank you! this is lovely!