Wrapping up for Christmas

December, although a bit shorter because of the Christmas holidays, was another exciting month here at the embassy. The month started with a really cool event at the residence of the Ambassador. The Dutch electric solar car company Lightyear has started the production of Lightyear 0 in Uusikaupunki, Finland. The heads of Lightyear, as well as representatives from the Finnish transport sector were hosted by Ambassador Govert Jan for some interesting presentations and a networking lunch. A nice bonus was that the Lightyear 0 was parked in front of the residence for everyone to have a look and sit inside the car. Needless to say that I couldn’t resist the opportunity :-).

Of course December is also the month of Sinterklaas. The Dutch school in Helsinki organises a yearly celebration for the children of Dutch-Finnish parents. A very important task of the Embassy is to support the efforts of Sinterklaas in Finland and I was so lucky to be a support-piet this year. It was really nice to see how Sinterklaas is celebrated abroad and that Sinterklaas, despite the sinking of his ship, also made it to Finland this year. I am sure he is on a well-deserved retreat to Rovaniemi now to see his colleague Santa Claus. ;-)

Just before flying back to the Netherlands for Christmas, I visited a Finnish prison together with my colleague. Every Dutch detainee abroad has the right to speak/meet with someone from the Dutch embassy. It was interesting to talk with the detainee, hear about his/her experience of being detained abroad and see if the detainee has any concerns that he/she wants to share with the Embassy.

Christmas in Helsinki

This month I also had some friends over to visit me. It was really nice to tour them around in the city and get into the Christmas mood together. Helsinki really feels like the Christmas capital of the world by this time of the year with the snow, decorations and Christmas markets! I also visited Tallinn again with them, which was even prettier than last time for the same Christmassy reasons.

On December 6th it was Finnish independence day. While you would expect a lot of festivities on such a day, like Bevrijdingsdag in the Netherlands, it is more a day of remembrance and paying respect to those who made sacrifices for the independence of Finland. Finns traditionally put two candles in front of their windows and en masse watch the broadcast of a large reception at the palace of the President. This year roughly 3 million Finns watched the handshake ceremony in which our Ambassador also took part. Realising that Finland has a population of 5.5 million, you see how significant this tradition is!

Two Norwegian intern-colleagues came with the nice initiative of hosting a Christmas lunch for interns at their Embassy. It was really nice to see each other before Christmas, exchange stories about our internships and enjoy traditional Norwegian Christmas food.

For the Christmas holiday I will fly back to the Netherlands to spend time with family and friends. After being in Finland since August, it will for sure be nice to spend some time at home! At the same time I am also excited to be back in Finland in January to see what the remaining 1.5 month have in store. See you in January!