Finland

I had to leave Finland. Actually I had to leave all Schengen countries which is most of Europe. My residence permit expired. I didn't find a job I wanted so I didn't get a work permit which would have allowed me to stay. I didn't get a job because I didn't have a work permit. That's the crappy catch to working in Europe for a non-EU citizen like me. I am now back at home in San Mateo. It is bitter sweet to come home since I left friends and someone very special behind.

I took some random pictures in the last week before I left.

Goodbye apartment

Goodbye silly supermarket where NOTHING is on sale

Goodbye low afternoon sun and untouched snow

Goodbye cool skies

Goodbye frozen lake

Goodbye Sanna. I hope to see you soon.

I think having to leave Finland due to permit issues is...

Goodbye Finland

I spent Christmas with my girlfriend's family way up north in Finland at a ski resort called Levi. It was above the arctic circle so the sun never came up! You might think it never got light but for a couple hours a day the sky looked like the sun had just set and there was plenty of light.

Here you can see the sky and the ski hill all lit up

We stayed in a great cabin only a short walk from downtown.

There were wild reindeer wandering around the cabins! Unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures of the ones with big antlers

Here is the entire group sitting down to a great Christmas dinner.

Guess what we had for Christmas dinner...Reindeer!!! It is a common food in Northern Finland. It tastes similar to great roast beef but with a stronger flavor. Here is my christmas plate.

The four mystery piles around the side are different potato and carrot casseroles. MMMMMMMmmmmm!

After dinner Santa made a delivery. Finland is the home of Santa Claus. People do not give gifts to eachother, they are all from Santa. He makes his porch delivery in the evening.

I received many great gifts for Christmas and my birthday.

The gifts were all Finnish. The hat and wood cup are traditional to the nomadic reindeer herders of Northern Finland.

Sanna's family are into cross country skiing so I gave it a shot

I was crap for about an hour until I got the hang of it. Its fun and a killer workout. My super gift from Sanna was a Polar heart rate monitor so I could keep track of my workouts like she does. My heart rate hit 95% of max while skiing!

Check this thing out!

Its a snowmobile with one ski! You have to balance the crazy thing while riding it like a motorcycle!

Another cool thing we saw was this:

Its a Mink. It was like an otter/ferret and very rare.

Log cabins are popular here since Finland is mostly forest and there were many huge ones.

That one belongs to Finnish Formula One racing champion Keke Roseberg

This one is only the garage of another huge cabin:

We took a trip to the top of the ski hill. Here is the view back down on Levi:

The summit looks like another world with tons of snow covering the small trees.

This shack was up there too. Brrrrrrr!

Overall it was a great trip. On the way back from Northern Finland I just had to take this picture:

The Finnish are very against illegal downloading of music and other copyrighted content so they started a new branch of the police. Since illegal downloading first started in Germany with techno music they call the new police branch TechnoPolis!!

Yeah Right

I will leave you with this sunset shot I took near our apartment...at 1 in the afternoon!

Halloween came and went but I made sure the traditional pumpkin carving lived on. Sanna thought it was a silly idea and pumpkins were super gross inside. Here is the gut pull.

I finally got her to start carving and then something crazy happend...she liked it! Now she is hooked and wants to do it more.

Here is her side of our pumpkin

And my side

The weather has been getting colder. Here is one of the frozen lakes near our apartment.

There has been lots of snow and I LOVE IT! This is the view from the bedroom window.

And the view from our kitchen window

This is my pimp ride. I found it in a thorny bush and fixed it up. Notice the pimp white wall back tire. (Don't notice the yellow wall front tire)

I went for another walk around the frozen lake near our place. This time after some fresh snow. Here is a snow covered boat on the edge of the lake.

And some plants on the shore

What time do you think those pictures were taken at? 1 in the afternoon! The sun rises now at 10am and sets by 2:20. It never gets very high so it always feels like sunrise or sunset.

I have said this before but Finnish people LOVE candy!

And they love saunas. Check out this sweet sauna hat I found that comes with a free monster spoon.

Sanna likes piggyback rides

I'm officially edumicated...and unemployed. I got my masters degree in Automotive Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg Sweden. My thesis was titled Testing and Comparison of Electronic Stability Control Systems. I took longer than planned but I'm done!

So where am I now...Finland. The northern coastal town of Oulu to be exact.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulu
I moved in with my girlfriend Sanna while I apply to jobs in the US and Europe.

Here are some pictures about where I live now and what I have been up to:

This is everything I own on this side of the Atlantic.

I took a 20 hour train ride and then a 4 hour bus ride to get from southern Sweden to Northern Finland!

The old buildings and fall colors made the city quite nice but the leaves are mostly gone now.

The city powerplant...is not that exciting but I like the picture

Sanna and I live near the university in Oulu. She is in the mechanical engineering department so I got the tour. Here are the department's vehicles that the students can use:

The fire truck is a General Motors from 1928. The entire cab is wood. Ironic?

No university machine shop is complete without contraptions like this monster scooter Sanna and I are riding.

It has already snowed a couple times. We live at 65 degrees north latitude which is farther north than Fairbanks Alaska but our weather is not that harsh. We are only a 2 hour drive south from the arctic circle!

We live a few miles from the sea. During my August visit to Finland we took a ferry to an island off the coast of Oulu where many people live. The baltic sea freezes this far north so that those people can drive to their island homes in the winter!! Ice highways on the sea!!

Here I am at the beach.

And me playing in the snow:

and the reason I'm in Finland:

I am not sure what will happen next. I will have to see what companies are interested in me. Keep your fingers crossed...

Mike over and out!

In August I spent 3 weeks travelling in Finland with my girlfriend. We started on the south coast, went up through the middle of the country and ended near the Swedish border. I have never seen so many lakes or been in so many saunas! It was great and here are some of the pics.

I took a ferry from Stockholm to Turku which must be one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world. The trip is 10 hours and winds through thousands of scenic islands.

To see more of the islands once I got to Finland, Sanna and I spent a day island hopping. Here is one of the many small ferries we took.

We stayed in a small cabin owned by her company. Here is the view from the sauna. The water is actually a small inlet from the baltic sea.

After leaving the coast we went inland to her home town of Turenki. Near there her family has a summer cabin on a lake.

Rowing is fun. She is actually fishing and Im doing the trolling.

In Tampere we stayed with Sanna´s sister Heidi ( second from left). Here we are out on the town.

Sanna and I climbed a lookout tower. Notice the trees and lakes in the background...Welcome to Finland.

We went to another island off the coast of Oulu. The island has sandy soil and the forest floor is covered with soft green moss. Cool!

Finland, Finland, Finland...