Guilty pleasure #1

Babies nap, elderly nap, but something happens in between, and some people lose the skill of napping when they are in their adults years. I think that losing napping-ability is a result of societal pressure in the modern world: in many countries napping is not an adult-like behaviour, and you should be ashamed of it. Napping is linked to laziness, and a napper is therefore lazy. I strongly disagree, and to my delight, so do researchers. Several researchs have proven that napping has many benefits, such as refreshing the mind, improving overall alertness, boosting mood and increasing productivity. A midday nap reverses information overload, and in some cases, a 1-hour nap could even boost performance to an individual's top levels. Napping may even benefit the heart. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nap

I love napping. On the weekends, my goal is to have at least one nap. Ideally I would have one nap everyday of the weekend, including Friday evening after work. Napping makes the weekends longer, because it divides the day in two, and gives you a fresh start. So instead of two days, you'll have a four day weekend. Without using any of your vacation days.

My napping is a joke to my friends. Years ago I was warned that I will no longer be invited to parties, if I take a nap at the party (I wake up early and go to bed early, so parties beyond 10 pm are sometimes challenging). My godson, 9 years old, thinks that I'm always either in the sauna, or napping. My napping hobby is so serious, that instead of collecting baseball cards or vinyl LPs, I collect nap memories. Here's a list of my top 5 favourite naps:

5) 1998, naps outside in February, in -5c or so. I was supposed to study for my high school exams, but I always ended up having a little nap. All I needed was a sleeping bag, cat on my lap, cozy chair and sunshine. I did very well in my exams.

4) 2008, two naps before noon on Sunday. I woke up really early as usual, read the newspaper and drank a litre of tea. By 9 am it felt like a naptime, so I had a little 30 min nap. I got up, cleaned the house and went for a walk. By noon I felt like another nap is needed, so I made it happen. How perfect is a Sunday like that?

3) 2006, first nap in my new boyfriend's car. I have almost an instant reaction to sitting in a car; I fall asleep. I think it is a muscle memory from my childhood: our grandparents lived 3 hours away, and the fastest way to get there was to sleep most of the trip. Now, in 2006, it was the first week of dating, and we had gone for an evening swim outside of Ottawa. The ride back took only 30 min, but at some point I just couldn't resist of closing my eyes and falling asleep. When I woke up, I was thinking that he must be a good man, since I can feel so secure, comfortable and myself with him. 2 years later we got married.

2) 2012, nap in Ottawa's botanical garden. It was my birthday weekend, and my husband and I had biked some 20 km that day around the beautiful, sunny, spring Ottawa. When we reached the botanical garden, I heard the nap calling - the day was so perfect for it. Crab apple trees were blooming in purple, pink and white flowers, sky was blue, and fresh green grass was soft and alluring. My husband went to take photos of the nature, I laid down under a tree and had a nap. The best birthday gift ever!

1) The latest nap, wherever it took place, and however long or short is was. My latest nap was today, on the early evening of Halloween. Almost two hour long nap at home, and it filled me with energy: I vacuumed, wrote this post, and will soon make an apple pie and pad thai. Delicious nap results!

If you love napping, do not feel ashamed of it anymore. Be proud of yourself, because not everyone is able to nap. Think about the health benefits, and the productivity you gain by having a nap. Consider it as a precious skill; embrace it and use it.

Happy napping!

Surviving the Finnish November

I've been back to Finland twice after I immigrated in 2009. First time was for Christmas 2009, and second time July 2011. Both seasons are good for visiting, because in December you will (usually) have snow, Little Xmas parties, and then the real Christmas. In July you'll have lakes and midnight sun. (Or four weeks of rain like this year.)

The worst time to go to Finland is November, because if there's no snow yet, it's just reallyreally dark. And now I'm going there for 24 days, all in November. I'm actually a little worried how I will handle the darkness. I joked with my colleagues about headlights, until I saw a posting on my friend's Facebook page: one outdoor equipment company in Finland is hosting a "light-night", so people can compare different lights. "Headlamps for climbing, trail running, sailing, fishing..." says Petzl, which is one of the light-providers in the event. They should add ".. and Finnish November" to their sales pitch.

People in Ottawa complain about the darkness here, but to me, this is all sunshine. First of all, the sun rises before 8 am even in the darkest time of the year - both sides of the winter solstice which is just before Christmas. Second, you can actually see the sun in Ottawa. Not so in Finland. My mom just said that it's been overcast for six weeks in a row, and when there was one day of sunshine everyone was ecstatic. Some years ago, the capital of Finland, Helsinki, had 12 HOURS of sunlight in the WHOLE MONTH of December. Imagine that. You better catch the sun when it's out. And keep your headlight on for the rest of the time.

No wonder the Finnish equivalent word to beach holiday is "aurinkoloma" - sun holiday. Who cares about the beaches, as long as you can see the sun!

Oh well, I know it's not going to be that disasterous. Even if it would be dark and overcast for the whole month of November, I will have great time with my family and friends, sitting in sauna every other night and eating real rye bread.

.. and where it all begins now

Yesterday was my last day at work.

One of the agencies, which I described in the previous post, and which helped me immensely in the beginning of my new life in Canada, had turned into my employer 10 months later. I started as an employment counsellor and facilitator, then became involved in testing a new Ontario wide curriculum, and a year later became a project coordinator of that same program. Another program was given to me too, and I was soon leading a team of 14. My team was helping over 100 newcomers every month, and every day I felt how our work makes a difference in newcomers' life.

An exciting, and at time exhausting 1.5 year followed; in addition to supporting and leading my team, I was heavily involved in streamlining services, which meant constant troubleshooting and problem solving. I was loving it. I was able to create, initiate and implement.

So why did I leave? Because all the hard work had paid off, and it had started to feel that the structure is in place, the services are more or less streamlined, and my team is strong. Even though there was still plenty of work to do, I felt my part was done. Leaving the organization wasn't an easy decision, and it took me almost six months to think about it before I finally felt that now is the time. So in early October I announced I will be leaving by the end of the month.

I thought that giving 3.5 weeks notice will give me and everyone else plenty of time to get used to the idea. And I thought that since the most difficult thing - telling the news to my team - was behind, the farewell party would be piece of cake. Well it wasn't: my speech of 11 sentences took about 5 min because of all the crying, blowing the nose, and breathing I had to do between the sentences. Not the most graceful speech, but hopefully memorable at least!

It went something like this:

"When I immigrated almost four years ago I had plenty of plans and dreams. But I didn’t have confidence or knowledge. When I became a client here, I started to build knowledge, and gain confidence. When I became an employee here, it further continued. Three years here have been an amazing experience. I’ve learnt so much, developed new skills and met wonderful people. Working here has fulfilled one of my dreams – working on immigration. And above all, this past three years have given me confidence in my own skills and abilities. Therefore it’s time to use that confidence to reach my other goals, which I had four years ago. This organization will always be a huge part of my life, because it made me who I am today. And it helped me to make Canada my home."

The worries and hesitations I described in my previous post are gone, and they are replaced with confidence, knowledge and connections. I feel like I am having a second round of immigration now, and I'm excited to explore what it brings to me this time!

Where it all began then ...

I immigrated to Canada almost 4 years ago, in February 2009. In a month I was busy with accessing the support services for immigrants, learning how to write a Canadianized resume and create an effective elevator speech. I took all the available programs and attended every possible additional event with the agencies. I came across confident to many, but they were just fooled by my smile, height and good posture. Deep down I was insecure about my English and feeling lost with my plans.

I had done many things in my past; journalism, public relations and immigration research. All of these were about writing stuff, and writing it very well. But it had all been in Finnish. I knew that if I was a Canadian boss, I wouldn't hire myself to do any of that writing in English. So the question now wasn't what I want to do, but what I could do with my skills and experience.

With the help of my employment counsellors and mentors I narrowed down my short-term goal: get a job in event coordination. I had experience in it, I liked it, and even though writing is an important part of it too, it wasn't the main task. The problem was that I also wanted the content to be something relevant to me - I didn't want to coordinate events of a car company, but of a company that does something good.

My long term goal was to do something with immigration. I wasn't sure yet what exactly - did I want to continue in research? Or work in front line? Or something else? I didn't even know what else is out there.