Calm before the storm at the embassy

November is traditionally a very busy month at the embassy. The large start-up event Slush demands a lot of attention and generally there are a lot of things that need to be finished towards the end of the year and prepared for next year. It also seems to be a popular month for different Dutch delegations visting Finland. In early Novmber we will be welcoming primary- and secondary education Minister Wiersma together with experts from the ministry and representatives 'from the field'. With this in mind, there was a bit of a “calm before the storm” feeling in October. Also October was full of activities.

At the end of last month, just after I had written my first blog, I got to read a part of a Dutch translation of “Blindness”, a work by Portuguese author José Saramago at the EU representation in Finland. This for the occasion of the day of European languages. Many European languages were represented and it was nice to represent the Dutch language at this event.

At the beginning of October, my Public Diplomacy colleague Ilona and I started on a new design for the embassy website. The idea is that the new website will make it easier for interested people to see what topics our embassy is working on and that they can be directed to the right sources of information in an easy way. If everything goes well, the new website will go live in early February.

Now that we find ourselves in what some call “post-COVID times”, there are more and more things happening physically in “real life” again. One example is that there was a EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council briefing at the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry again. It was interesting to hear about the Finnish stances on topics such as fishing quota and fertilizers, which are important topics for The Netherlands. Taking note of these stances and at the same time meeting colleagues from other embassies was a nice experience.

In line with my focus on energy topics during my internship, it was really interesting to work on an upcoming Nordic hydrogen market study together with my Economic Affairs colleague Miina. In cooperation with colleagues from other Dutch embassies in the Nordics, we have been working on so-called “terms of reference” for this market study that will be carried out by an external party. It’s a lucky coincidence that this market study is in development now that I am also working on this topic at the embassy and it is insightful to see how such a market study takes shape.

Life in Helsinki

Fall has now really kicked in here in Helsinki. This month I was shortly back in the Netherlands for a weekend and while it was still 18 degrees and sunny there, around-zero temperatures are not rare anymore in Helsinki. So far the report on the weather here up north.

Equipped with some warm clothes I went out exploring more of Finland this month. One of the highlights was Nuuksio national park, where I did a 10km hike together with an intern of the German embassy. Where in other national parks you could bump into majestic moose, reindeer or bears, the signature species of Nuuksio National Park is the flying squirrel. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any of these cute animals during our hike. Luckily there was hot chocolate afterwards to ease the disappointment a bit.

Later this month I had a friend from the Netherlands coming over. It was nice to act as a semi-local tour guide and to see some of Helsinki’s landmarks such as Suomenlinna  again. Helsinki is not always on the city trip radar of Dutch people, but I hope I manage to spread the word a bit :-).

Coming month I am planning to visit some other places throughout Finland outside Helsinki, see you in the next blog!