here goes nothing.

Well, I finally caved in and am starting this blog.  After reading blogs from various friends, hockey wives and fellow travellers, I decided that maybe it's not such a bad idea.  Hopefully my title isn't too cheesy, I was going for a hockey term play-on-words to describe our life and it's ability to change in a split second.  My goals for this blog are: 1) to keep my friends and family updated on our lives abroad, 2) to archive stories/events of our hockey life for us to read later in life, and 3) to give an insiders view on what goes on in the daily life of a hockey wife.  

With that, a few orders of business before I get started: 
1) My posts will be completely subjective, and if there is something that you don't like- don't read it :)
2) I'm not sure if anyone other than family and friends will be reading this, but this is still internet world, and therefore I do not plan on posting our names on this blog, and request that any readers/commenters do the same. YES, I do realize that it is not difficult to figure out who we are.  Be my guest, there is nothing to hide on here and nothing that I would not say publicly.  I just don't feel the need to announce our names on here :)  
3) ENJOY!! :) :) :)


Now... Where to start?  Well, for those of you who don't know, "J" and I are on our 3rd month (4th for him- he's been here since July)  in Finland while he is playing in the SM-liiga.  So far it has been a wonderful experience.  We're enjoying Finland very much- it is a very clean and SAFE country.  Finnish people are stereotypically shy and reserved, but very helpful and friendly if you approach them with a question.  We have observed just that.  Everyone has been SO friendly, and thankfully English is widely spoken (Finnish is one of the most difficult languages in the world!)  So far we have picked up on a few of the words- "Moi"- hello, "Kiitos"- Thank You, "Moi Moi"- bye, "Huomenta"- good morning.  There are several other words/short phrases that we recognize but cannot necessarily pronounce them or use them in a sentence.  J has probably picked up on a little more than me from being around it at the rink (the coaches only speak in Finnish) but I like to think my pronunciation is better ;)

Our apartment is nice- close to the city center and the team's arena.  There are the typical up's and down's of living in a big city- convenience, lots of stuff to do, little-to-no street parking.  No dryer, which is annoying, but fairly typical of around here (and all of Europe for that matter).  The team has provided us with a car, but it's manual (pretty much all the cars here are) and I don't know how to drive it yet.  I've tried, but it's pretty much a lost cause.  I'm convinced I'll never learn.  So whenever I go somewhere I walk, take the tram, J drives, or I get a ride from a nice friend :).   Since we are so close to everything, I don't have much motivation to learn- I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.  Also, we calculated out the gas prices here: about 1.44 euros/Liter = $8.60 or something/Gallon.  YIKES!!  I do miss driving though, and I miss my car!!  :(

J's team is doing o.k. so far... but they had off all last week (there was a tournament here with the national teams from Finland, Russia, Sweden, and Czech Republic, so the league was on a break) so hopefully now they'll be refreshed and ready to win some more games before the Christmas break :) 

I like to think we are pretty settled into our lives here.  We're starting to get used to grocery shopping, have established somewhat of a routine, and have made some great friends already.  Life is pretty good.  Hopefully it stays that way, that is, until the season is over and we get to do it all over again next year!!

I better get to bed. J is already tucked in (it is a game night, after all!) and I've got my usual date with "Gym" in the morning.  Hope this first post wasn't too boring... hey, give me a break, I'm new at this! :)

Hyvää Yötä - Goodnight!