independence day

Yesterday was Finnish Independence Day. In Finland this is obviously a public holiday, but still we tend to celebrate very calmly and officially. There a lot of military parades and speeches and people might have a candle at the window. THE thing of the day is the President’s reception. Half of the population, even more, will be sitting in front of their tv, drinking glögi and judging outfits and the guest list. It is the biggest fashion show of the year.

For me, it was just another day at school and as I didn’t get a Finnish flag from my advent calendar, I might have even forgotten the whole day. But no.

Everybody wanted to know if I was going to watch the reception on internet. NO. Did I wanna go and see a Finnish film? (by Kaurismäki – I hate him and his films) A definite NO. What about a drink for Finland in a bar. NO. I have to work.

So by the end of the evening I had been judged to be very anti patriotic and a bad Finn.

This morning I got up too early, too early according to my sleeping needs. So I had an extra 2minutes while drinking my morning coffee and eating porridge.(and no, not a little tiny coffee, but a proper mug, well two) I went to the website of one of the Finnish tabloids, which would certainly have photos of the best and worse outfits and comments about the guests and their impressions. And I spent far more than few minutes doing that. Yep – what can you do? Just can’t get away, no matter how hard you try.