update for iskä

I feel bad about having let this blog shuffle off into the dust and die. just for you, iskä, here's an attempt to make up for lost time. if I were to recount everything that happened since my last blogpost, that would include:

a trip to Stockholm, by boat...

we went through both Turku's and Stockholm's archapelagos.

the sunset melded seamlessly into sunrise.

Sverige!

the Vasa, a fantastic old viking ship.

...and one to St. Petersberg...

we took a boat-tour through the rainy canals of the city.

view from our hotel room. they've got regal palaces for playthings.

the most incredible white-marble-and-chandeliers metro.
I can't believe this is the only photo I have of it. 

muistatko tätä kuvaa, iskä? (:

practicing Cyrillic skills with familiar words.

Vyborg is a chillingly abandoned city of incredible former grandeur.

on the boat to Russia (which went through the Lappeenranta canal),
we had the playroom all to ourselves. (great for getting some quiet time away
from the group of American bachelor partiers who followed us the entire trip...)

...plenty of time at the kesämökki, where I've left part of my heart...

nightless nights over the lake.

Juhannus spent half on a friend's island...

never without my most prized possessions.

...and half back at the village to watch the bonfire.

I had to get a picture of my head on fire (thanks to Essi for taking this).

...the most magical last night in Finland...

äiti helped me light the candles i had gotten as a gift in the beginning of the year.

 

 ...the love of my life....

<3

...tea and pastries during a layover in London...

...and then suddenly being back in the US of A.

I took a walk in the woods with my little
brother on my first day home and we came across this.
I thought it was the perfect "welcome to America" shot.

...and lots and lots of other things of which I don't seem to have photos, including midnight swims, spontaneous weddings, the most nerve-wracking speech, and the most surreal goodbyes. it wasn't until I was on the plane from London to New York, encased in the exact center of a monstrously huge airplane with the huge ocean beneath me that I started to realize all that I was leaving behind.

life here since I got back has been... life-ish. sometimes, Finland feels like less than a dream. sometimes I am surprised to wake up here rather then there. when I am asleep, the two homes still blend together in my dreams, but slowly I have gotten more and more used to the idea that even if I am home, there is no way for me not to be a little homesick for my other home. I have gotten used to the beauty of that.

there is too much to say, too much to show. so here is a photograph of me, now, home. and far away from home.

I have given up on that whole matching socks thing.