(Dedicated to Moon )

I’ve been back home for over a week now and have been miserable: illness (tonsillitis that won’t go away plus some kind of minor eye infection), work that piled up while I wasn’t there (you’d think some people could take responsibility for a few tasks while one goes on a much-needed vacation) and of course the sadness of being torn away from my SO (almost wrote boyfriend, don’t think I could ever call him husband). I’ve been really struggling and it feels like I’m just starting to get a grip.

So, the point of this blog post is to reminisce about my last stay. Those who read my last post will remember that my in-laws had decided to throw us a Christmas-themed party to celebrate our nuptials (because I have never experienced Christmas as we don’t celebrate it here). Well, they did just that, and I promised Moon I’d give her the details, and figured it’s too long for a message on her profile!

So here’s the menu! It all began at 2am because people had a long drive to go back home and couldn’t stay for a proper dinner. We started with mugs of “glögi” which is spiced mulled wine, with raisins and bits of almonds in it. It tasted nice, and that’s coming from someone who can’t stand the taste of wine in general.

The proper meal was:

- Obviously the Christmas ham, served rather cold, with lots of mustard
- A rutabaga casserole that had lots of nutmeg in it and was just delicious (I hate the vegetable itself, in general)
- A sort of salad with diced steamed carrots and beetroots, pickles and onion, served with some sort of whipped cream with vinegar that was pink because they added beetroot boiling water in it. Looked great!
- Another salad made of herring (pickled, I think), raw onion and lots of chopped up hardboiled eggs
- Meatballs, because it wouldn’t be a Finnish meal without them lihapullat
- Lettuce and cucumber salad (but I doubt that’s a Finnish Christmas tradition)
- And naturally all sorts of rye bread!

I think that’s about it. Not sure if that's what everyone in Finland eats on Christmas eve, but Elina or Tanja could chime in

It was a lovely meal, with lovely people. My SO’s brothers (and future sister-in-law) were there, of course, but also his grandmother, godmother (aunt), cousin and godmother’s boyfriend. We got a few wedding presents, which I hadn’t at all expected: some cash from grandma, a table set and candleholders from my mother-in-law, and a lovely cooking pot (from Marimekko ) “filled with Finnish things” (a couple of towels from Finlayson and a Marimekko candleholder and purse for me)

Oh, and we had a wedding cake too! Well, not really a wedding cake, but a cake to celebrate our wedding. We cut it together and supposedly there’s a tradition in Finland that we have to try to stomp each other’s foot and whoever comes on top will have control over the relationship. We didn’t do it, though; we were too busy trying not to make a mess. Here’s a picture of the cake (R & T are our first name initials)



SO decorated it himself.

So that's for celebratory stuff. We went back to Espoo a couple of days after that because we had to go to Germany. It wasn't really a honeymoon (I like to think we'll go on a proper honeymoon much later), just a four-day stay in the lovely city of Würzburg in Bavaria, where we attended a music festival. He wasn't really into the bands we saw but he agreed to go for my sake. We managed to visit the city properly this time (we went there last year, but we stayed just for a couple of days), ate some really delicious food, and I got properly drunk for the first time in my life (Pina coladas and daiquiris, where have you been all this time??) which was pretty fun. We met up with a few friends there, had a couple of fights (because he can be frustrating sometime, when he shuts people out, even me) and on the first day my shoe got a bit torn and it took us hours to finally find a store that sold glue. It was overall a very good experience haha.

There's something about German men, though. They're not really shy, are they? I mean I caught more men staring at me than I could count. Not that I'm not used to the attention of males (I live in North-Africa so there's a lot of that, and it's more creepy perving than anything else) but things are so different in Finland. The only times I see men showing interest is when we're out at night and they're usually pretty drunk. So I guess I was a bit caught off guard because Finland and Germany aren't that different in my mind (being European countries and all!) At one point a man rode his bicycle by and literally whistled at me. It was all very amusing (both to me and my SO). And flattering, of course.

When we got back home from Germany I only had two days left before I had to go back home, which was depressing. On the last night, though, we went to his friends' place (a couple) and had a really great time with them. It's nice to know that I'll have some friends when I move there permanently.

I should stop now. Thanks for reading, if you did!