Kauhava, my new home, for a while at least

17th February 2012

Having arrived on Thursday night, I have a few days to settle in before starting at the kindergarten in my new role as classroom assistant and English language clown.

I go downstairs (for that is where the classrooms are - I'm upstairs and need only to fall out of bed to get to work), and pop in to say hello. It's 12 O'clock and I am welcomed by a very bubbly and smiley Outi. Pronounced not like out and tea but more like ow, as in ouch and tea except the t is more like a d and the u makes the o longer. Oh dear, not a great start to a new language. I'm going to have to go back to basics and start with the alphabet. Again. Except this is possibly easier than Japanese. Possibly. At least it's legible. Well, nearly.

Outi has green eyes and dark hair and the whitest skin.

The children have eaten and are having quiet time. Except I have interrupted them. They poke their heads round the door and like shy little mice come out one by one. Breakfast is at 8, lunch is at 11 and they have a snack at 2. Most Finns eat dinner at 5 in the evening so with an earlier breakfast and another dinner later on, it is actually possible to eat six meals a day - as we should. Small and often.

I walk to the shops and have a little look around. It is heart-achingly beautiful and the shopping street, with its new buildings and silver birch, has a feel of Japanese snow resort about it.

I think I am gong to like it here.