Wedding photos, proszę

As the title suggests now it is finally time to publish some pictures of our wedding. The photos were taken by lovely Sonia from Sensja and we could have not been more happy; perfect photos of perfect day! <3

PS. Please do not use the photos without permission, thank you.

 

Language challenges.

As you can imagine the language is quite big question in our wedding. Ceremony in Poland for German-Finnish couple who communicate mostly in English. Like there is not enough to think about in wedding planning in general. ;)

First of all, apparently due to some legal stuff, the wedding ceremony will be in Polish. In order for us both to understand where we are putting ourselfs into, there has to be sworn translator to translate the ceremony. What we are not 100% sure of is whether it could be translated in English. But as finding a German translator from Poland where the second most spoken language after Polish seems to be German is not too difficult, we will most likely have one. But. What comes to Finnish then? Well, you might already guess it is not very common in Poland to know Finnish, not even in this city that seems to be full of people who "loooove" Finland. But for objectivity I would really like to have the ceremony translated into my own language too. And also for the sake of some family members and friends whose English/German is a bit rusty.

I have been asking around in this Polish-Finnish translator matter. Belive it or not, there is a Polish person living in Wroclaw who actually really knows Finnish. But unfortunately he is not "sworn translator" in Poland. So now we will have to check if his Finnish certification would be enough.

Also I received a list of translators from the embassy of Finland in Warsaw. I have to go through those names, but none of them are here, so it might cost a LOT of money to get them travelling...

We'll see. I hope we will figure this out somehow. Maybe we will have translated leaflets of the ceremony for the guests, like subtitles. :D

In general we would like to have the wedding in two languages, i.e invitations, menu, ceremony. Of course we have to be flexible with this and for example music will propably be mostly in English.

In the end, I'm sure no matter what the mother tongue is everyone will for sure understand what we are celebrating.

www.artfire.com

Our wedding venue.

As I have mentioned before, our wedding take place here in Wroclaw. I've already heard few comments wondering why here (especially from my Polish friends). You see, in Poland it is apparently a tradition to have the wedding in bride's home town.

Well, we have few (good) reasons why it will be Wroclaw:

• it's almost as far from both of ours home
• everything is cheaper (so much more food & booze!)
• we live here, so it's easier to organize all
• and it's the place were we fell in love

Enough reasons already...? ;)

When we first started to think where exactly the wedding would take place, we were checking some wedding venues close to Wroclaw. The plus in these places would be that they have ready packages with food, music etc. so it should be quite easy. And someone has already thought that the place is suitable for wedding.

Well, we decided we don't want easy. :D you see, it is also a minus if everything is ready. There's not so much space for personality then. Plus it's expensive (even here).

So my fiancé had an idea - we could have the wedding at his work. Now, I know, this sounds terrible. But his office building is not the common one. It's huge, very old, almost castle like, house. With a pretty garden. First I was not sure about this idea, but when I started to think it more I started to really like it: it's close, it's free (almost at least), we can decide which catering we want to use, the band, decoration, everything! More work for us of course, but the wedding will be truly "us". :)

We have already asked whether our idea would be possible. And the boss said yes! So now we are only waiting for the very final decision, but it looks good.

The plan would be to have both the ceremony and the party after in the garden. In case of some rain we would have one or two tents, so that the dining and ceremony "areas" would be covered. And if it's really stormy or freezing (should not be in June, but never say never) we could also be inside.

www.oncewed.com

www.themanorrestaurant.com

"Once there was a thing called Spring..."

Seems like again my busy life kept me from writing the blog (read: I was lazy).
Anyway, what has happened is that I have totally absorbed working woman's life, and the time when I was just at home every day seems like it was just a dream. :P But I'm having fun at work so I don't mind. My training period will last still some weeks, so I can take it quite easy. And I also have some holidays coming very soon, so for me stress is as unfamiliar feeling as being a lottery winner.

Week ago my friend and her boyfriend came to visit us. We had fun weekend: eating, drinking, sightseeing, bowling, shopping... Was sooo nice to have these very important guests here. <3

Earlier this week spring came to say hello, so I put on my tennarit and we went out to take some springy pictures. Unfortunately spring did not stay long this time, but I hope it will come back soon.

Yesterday was Women's day also here in Poland. Here it seems to be a bit bigger thing than for example in Finland. Guys are giving gifts and flowers to all women they know, not only their girlfriends. So I got to enjoy this at work where our team's only male-member gave us an amazing cake. And we got roses too. :) Good to be a woman. On Monday we will have a new team member, so we'll have more man power in our team. And of course my love did not forget to spoil me: I got flowers and we had dinner in a restaurant called Przystan. Lovely food and very romantic, I recommend! And they have propably the best view in the city, over the river and at the university. In summer I'm definetely gonna try their breakfast on the terrace.

This weekend I'm just gonna relaaax with a capital R. Busy times are ahead, so I might not have time for couchpotatoing.


"Katso ylös ja mitä sä näät
jotain keltaista ja pyöreää
se sinun sisältäsi sulattaa jään
ja saa sut jälleen hymyilemään
en kaipaa kultaakaan
loistavaa palloa vaan
mut jos se pois viedään
en selvii päivääkään"

Lumo - Täältä saapuu aurinko

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why we call it the present.*

So I've survived my very first week in the office. Actually I cannot say "survived" since it's been sooo nice. :) Our team is small and it has been easy to get to know everybody, I already had opportunity to work with all of them. I feel very welcomed, even they are mostly talking in Polish. But they promised to try harder to speak in English. And in March we will have another new team member, from Spain! So I will not be the only foreigner anymore. :)

I will have pretty long training period, so work should be quite easy-going for the next weeks. Part of my training will take place in Stockholm, which is of course exciting. I've never been on a business trip before, it makes me feel like a very important person to go. :P In Stockholm I will meet Finnish people who are doing my future job right now.

www.itsnotbadatall.com

 I felt like a kid in a candy shop when I got my own desk, laptop, pens and notebooks, and post-its in different colours! I also got e-mail with my own name and my own personal phone number. I feel so adult now! :P And I don't mean that working as a waitress is not adult, but you know...Or maybe you don't. In addition to these important factors, the actual job seems pretty interesting too. First time in a looong time I'm eager to go to work and learn more.

www.favim.com

Oh, and one more positive thing that came into my mind conserning my new job: finally I can actually use the how-to-dress-trendy-to-work tips from women's magazines!

*Quote by A. A. Milne

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.*

Today might be the last day of my housegirlfriending career, at least for now. Might be because I still don't know when can I actually start working, since they need to do some administrative stuff... But I do know that on Monday I will have something called onboarding day. And I'm so excited! This is my first office job, and also first job where I get to wear my own clothes. I have been going thru my closet to see if I own anything "business casual". I think I might have to do a little bit of shopping, but spending money on professional look is totally acceptable, right?

Usually I have been total nerve wreck before starting a new job, because I have bad habit of imagining worst case scenarios. When I was working as waitress it was easy to get swallowed by these terrible what-if situations, because I could think of endless amount of them. But now I am only eager to see what's gonna happen since I have no idea how it could be. How refreshing. :) 

My last day of unemployment has been very lazy: watching Gossip Girl, facebooking and doing some yoga. I'm definetely gonna miss this relaxing life, but I think change is good, and I'm too young and healthy to live like a retired person anyway. We'll see how it will be, our life as a "normal real life" couple. And my life as a office worker. Will I find myself missing serving tables? Or will I finally find my true calling? :D Actually I think I already found it: housewifing. Maybe I'll become real housewife American style someday. :P Meanwhile, let's try something else.

Some months ago I heard or read somewhere, that it takes 8 months to settle down and find your place in a new country. I can totally support this theory. On 14th of February I have been here 8 months, and finally I feel like everything will work out, and this is my life. It is a long time, but when you really want something you are always ready to wait a little bit more. So I guess the message is to be patient and not give up. :)


Quote by A. A. Milne

Second chance.

Last Saturday morning we drove to the mountains south from Wroclaw. We were suppose to spend three nights in a skiing resort called Czarna Gora. For the last two weeks I was waiting for this trip - with fear and anxiety. You see, I have only been skiing once in my adult life, and that was one of the most terrifying experiences in my life. This last time happened in Espoo, where we don't have mountains, and I would not be suprised if this hill there is human made. So you can imagine how felt when we were driving more and more up to the mountain...And this is not even a big mountain, I heard.

 But when I saw the smaller slopes and all the beginners there, I became a bit more confident. If they can do it, I can do it! After some training in the kids slope, we moved to a bit bigger one. After first day off skiing, my ass hurt like hell, because I fell when I was coming out from the lift. But I was still alive, without broken bones and well enough to try again next day. On the second day, I was starting to enjoy myself and on the third day I would not want to stop at all. Something I never believed would be possible - Noora who likes winter sports!

Now the only question is when can we go again? ;)

People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day*

Long time, no see... I've had some kind of crisis about what to write here, so the result was not writing at all. Sorry. As in so many other things (believe it or not) I overthink; I come up with an idea and then abandon it because I think it's stupid, too personal or nobody cares. But I guess you would not be reading if you wouldn't be interested. ;) So I'm gonna report from here, Starbuck's, where I'm hiding our cleaning lady every Thursday. Life's tough...

Sooo, what have I been doing lately? Apart from the life that's becoming a norm for me aka housegirlfriending, I have had a real job interview! Actually two (part l & part ll), in the same company, and we are waiting for results. I have pretty good chances to get the job, since they need a Finnish speaker and there's not too many of us here. But "pessimisti ei pety" (pessimist won't get dissapointed), as the famous Finnish saying goes, so I refuse to believe I could get the place, before I'm actually writing my name in the papers. Anyway more about that if I get the job. If not, don't bother asking about it. :P

www.popscreen.com

Two weeks ago we were visiting my maybe-future-parents-in-law in Germany. It was a very nice weekend, once again I felt like in my third home. On Saturday we were in a huge techno party, and I got to know that my "good" old alcohol using habits are still there, even I've been very nicely here in Poland. I blame Finland and Finnish culture for this (not you mom and dad). So I decided to keep away from alcohol for undefined period of time, until I've learned the limits of sophisticated drinking (never?)...

www.google.com

And back to happier subjects: winter came and winter went away. Which means here is now lovely spring weather: sunny and +8 degrees. Reminds me of the winter in Cyprus. Propably the winter will "surprise" us at least once more this year, but I don't mind taking a break from it. :)

In addition to hanging out in coffee places, cooking, reading (3rd part of Hunger Games), job hunting and couchpotatoing with my love, I have finally started to refresh my memory in German. I found amazing web page, with soooo much material. Who needs expensive courses or books, when you have internet and a personal tutor. ;)

Update: I got the job!


*Quote by A. A. Milne

Last year my dreams came true, so this year I promise I will do my everything to cherish what I have.

So went Christmas. It was a wonderful Christmas, despite the fact that my family is far away and there was no snow in here. We spent three days eating, watching DVDs, playing, eating...oh, and eating a bit more. Just the two of us. Wonderful. <3 Not that we would not have time for us, but nothing just seems to be enough. ;) I must have been very nice last year, I got so many wonderful presents...

One of them was weekend-trip to Berlin right after Christmas. We went to see some ice hockey (go ERC!), it was a tough and entertaining game. We also wandered around the city, had few cocktails, met a friend and ate Thai food, which seems to be very hard to get from Wroclaw. Maybe the best part of the surprise was that on Saturday evening we returned to o2 World, where the ice hockey was, to see Voice of Germany-concert. We were watching the show earlier on TV, and I really liked the winner, so my boyfriend thought I should see him live. It was so nice, has been too long time since last live-concert.

From Berlin we drove straight to Wroclaw's airport to pick up my cousin, who came to spend the New Year's with us. She had the honor to be first guest after my parents. And I think she really liked it here. So come, come and see the wonderful Poland! ;)

We had New Year's Eve's party at friend's place. Before that we were enjoying some traditional "nakkeja ja perunasalaattia" aka small bratwursts and self-made potato salad (much better than market crap, and very easy to make). The party was very pleasant: interesting new people, food, drinks, music and we even saw the fireworks from the balcony. This was my first NYE abroad, and with this experience I say that at least here in Poland the celebrations are (maybe a bit too much) similar than in lovely home-Finland.

My cousin was spending here almost a week, so we took her around the city, played Scrabble (good for your brains, I've heard) and Tasku-Mölkky, ate very well, did some serious shopping and partied, of course. It was so refreshing to have someone from Finland here!

"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back."*

My writing motivation seems to be somewhere else than here now. So here's some pictures for you, maybe from them you can see what I've been up to lately...

Couple of weeks ago we went bowling. I'm no master, but it's fun anyways. :)

11th of November is the Independence day of Poland. We saw the parade from our window. Did you know that Poland has been independent since 1918, so it's actually younger than Finland.

I continued my exploring of Polish food culture by making "sernik" aka cheese cake. Pycha!

Some time ago we decided we want to have cool poster from every city we have lived in. Here is Wroclaw. :)

Finally I started a new book! And almost read half of it the first day, it's gooood. :) Oh, and then there's the stuff I SHOULD be reading. :P

Some Christmas decoration.

I wanted to make this Finnish Christmas pastry "joulutorttu". Unfortunately the dough I made was not very similar to the "real" one (from freezer). And the plum jam was also different... So when I come to Finland I definetely want some good old joulutorttu!

More decoration. Last Friday we bought all the stuff we need for Christmas tree. I know it's a bit early, we were propably the first ones, but this is what happens when you put together two Christmas fans. ;)

No Christmas without some lights. :)

Next week the Christmas market of Wroclaw will open, can't wait to see it!


*Quote by Arthur Rubinstein.

Exploring foreign food cultures.

While my boyfriend was in Madrid watching football, I had more then enough time to test my cooking skills. Only problem was that I had to eat everything myself...

I decided that pierogies, traditional Polish dish, would give me enough challenge. Pierogies are small pastries filled with savory or sweet stuff. Something like ravioli. They are boiled in hot water, so the look of the pastry is not so delicious. But the taste is what counts, right. I've also heard it's possible to fry them to get some color, I have to try that next time.

Basic ingredients for pierogi are very simple: the dough is made from wheat flour, salt, water/milk and oil. Making the dough was not very hard, but took some time. The most popular filling is something called "Ruskie": smashed potatoes, onion and "sour" cheese called twaróg. Of course this was not challenge big enough for a master chef like me. :D So I also made mushroom-sauerkraut-onion filling and for dessert a filling from berries and twaróg. What happened was that in the end I had huge, I mean huuuuge amount of fillings and I had to make more and more dough. I can remember the recipe for the rest of my life. :D Finally I was ready after six hours of pierogi making. I had to divide the work for two days...

The result was, well, 50 something pierogies. And they tasted good, at least in the beginning. :P Could be that I will never make pierogi again, but at least I tried once! (Except that I already made up some variations in my mind, like Christmas-pierogi, filled with plum jam.)

All you need for pierogi dough.

Fillings for my pierogies.

Patience, patience....

Almost ready!

There they are - my cute little pierogies! "Limaista, mutta maukasta."

Serious shit.

So I'm again without job, "bezrobotna". I quit the cleaning job at the hostel and Sunday was my last day. Might be that it was the stupidest decision in a while. But seems that the older I get, the more short-tempered I get. At least when it comes to my happiness. So if I'm unhappy about something, I want to change it immediately. I guess in some things this could be good character, but maybe next time I could give it a few more days. Life is not always perfect and working is not always nice, but (almost) everyone has to do it.

Well anyway, my original idea was to work at the hostel not more than until December (when I will come to Finland for 10 days, jippiiii!) so the amount of money I "lost" is something like 200 euros. Of course now that I've been without a proper job for a while, all the money would be welcome. And the job was not soooo shitty (haha). And actually now I've realized that for this kind of job, I got good money. (Salaries are unbelievably low here.) But what's done is done, and it will not make it any better to cry over milk that's already spilled. I guess I could ask the job back, but I'm way too proud to do that.

For the last two months I've applied every job that I could possibly get, and even some of those that I will propably never get. I don't know if I have bad luck, bad application, bad CV or what, but I have not got any offers so far... Or actually I've had two calls, but the jobs would be in Katowice (170km from Wroclaw) and in Krakow (240km). First I thought that no way I'm moving, but now it starts to seem like it's either some other city here or Helsinki. I can give it couple of months more, but then I seriously need a job.

In the beginning I thought that if I will not get a job here 'till end of October, I could go back to Helsinki for some weeks to work as a waitress in these Pre-Christmas parties we love to have. But already after some days it was clear, that leaving is the very last and worst choice. Not that I would not like to live in Finland, but my home is where my love is and it would break my heart to leave.

The main thing getting a job is of course getting money for living, but I realized that being unemployed here has some other consequences also. After next May I will not have Finnish social security (public health insurance), but if I don't get a real job in here, I cannot get social security from Poland either. Also I'm starting to worry how it looks like for potential employers that I did not work in months...

So let's all keep our "peukut ja pottuvarpaat pystyssä", that I would here some good news soon.

Otherwise everything is perfect and there has not been even a minute when I would have regretted moving here. <3

And if there is some you that are in the same situation now, I found this encouraging writing. :)

Goodbye September, hello October.

Last weekend I saw my first Borussia Dortmund game live. I have propably mentioned before that my boyfriend is HUGE football fan, so he wanted to take me to Dortmund to see his favourite team. Trip was kinda crazy because of the travel schedules. We flew to Germany on Saturday morning and already on Saturday night we were on our way back to Poland. We reached Poznan at 8 on Sunday morning, had a small breakfast and continued to Wroclaw.




I think it was more interesting to see the game live, but next time I want to sleep in bed... (The train seats were not that bad, but anyway.) I also had some difficulties to see the first half because we got tickets for the standing zone. And I was afraid that someone will spill beer on me or fall into my neck. So next time: proper seats. :P Before the game we went to Borussia Dortmund's fan shop (and got out without buying anything!) and Borusseum, a museum about the team.

The result was satisfying.

When we arrived to Dortmund we had fantastic breakfast in Rigoletto. If you ever find yourself in Dortmund, go there! :)

Dortmund.

Art in Poznan.

Morning sun in Poznan.

 Today was a national holiday in Germany, Tag der Deutschen Einheit. Which means that they celebrate the reunification of West and East Germany that happened 3 of October 1990. For us it meant a day off from work, breakfast together and going for a cocktail party held in the consulate. The weather was perfect, sunny and 20 degrees (what autumn?!).

The adult costume.

To celebrate the possibly last day of summer we had a small Mölkky competition in the park near our home. We got some curious glances from the people passing by... During the game we got an idea to organize Mölkky championships for the CouchSurfers here in Wroclaw.

P.S. I won!