Inspired by some of Danny Choo's articles on life in Japan, I decided to do some in a similar vein. Unfortunately Finland is not a terribly interesting country, and I have no doubt that my Finnish readers will find this post rather dull. But for ye olde English pals and other international readers, read on.

On Thursday morning I left slightly early to school, as I had some errands to run in Tapiola. Tapiola is essentially an area in Espoo, the city in which I live, but often the name can be used to refer to Tapiola centre, which is where I was headed. As my school began at 9:50, rather than the usual 8:20, it was rather light outside. At this time of year, if school begins at eight and ends at four, the only daylight you will see is through the school windows; unless you want to go outside of course, although why anyone would want to do anything so absurd is beyond me.

 Crossing a road on my way to Tapiola. From my house one can cycle or walk through the silkkiniityt, or "silk fields" to Tapiola.

As you can see, we're not having a very white Christmas this year. I believe its the second or third year in a row now. We had some snow earlier in Autumn, but currently its just quite miserable. Once we have some snow I will take another picture of this same view, possibly in the evening, when all the lights reflect off the snow. 

A picture from Tapiola centre, at about 9:20. If only we had some snow it would look far more jolly. After having lived here for almost five years now, it's interesting to observe the ever changing demographic within Tapiola. In the morning to the early afternoon it is populated mostly by old people, who often congregate at Kaisan Kafe for a cuppa. At some point some kids from the school next to Tapiola centre will start flooding towards McDonalds for lunch. Later in the afternoon, the same kids will invade Kaisan Kafe to provide it's resident seniors ample examples in their conversations about the declining civility of today's youths. While this may seem odd considering Kaisan Kafe isn't a particularly chic place, especially compared to Wayne's Coffee (which is just inside the glass wall on the right), it does sell whopping huge pulla, which I believe I have previously described as "a Finnish pastry traditionally baked by elves." Wayne's Coffee is also as ridiculously overpriced as cafés tend to be.

This is the road to my school. In addition to our school, the concrete building at the back houses a modern art museum. While the concrete facade might deceive you, inside our school is absolutely fantastic. Every classroom has one or more glass walls, either looking outside or into the corridors. Naturally each class also has smartboard, dvd player, and one of those new-fangled projectors with a camera. One of my favourite things inside the school is the library built into the upstairs corridor, which includes approximately nine computers to be used as you wish. Nine being a rather small number, there is also a fairly computer room behind the library... separated by a glass wall. Enough boasting, I must remember to take some pictures some day. Meanwhile, should you be so inclined, you can visit the school website.

After school I headed back to Tapiola to get my hair cut after another three months of watching it grow. Having finished school at four it was already dark.

Same scene as before but with the Christmas "crowd" (insert your own population joke here).

Moving towards the evening, the old folk will begin to retire back to their homes, being replaced by increasing numbers of people running whatever errands they might have after school or work. Couple days ago I had suffered the misfortune of having to go to McDonalds for lunch to escape the fish balls at school. I had tried to convince my company to go to one of the stalls selling mouth watering Chinese, but the fools wouldn't listen. So, I headed now to fix what I could.

A very nice, meaty springroll with a whalop o' noodles and a hot sauce for a measly €2; and yes, It did taste as good as it looks.  I then strolled around having a look at the different stalls which pop up during christmas and winter. One is a quaint cafe which is open until 5am during weekends for all the late partyers.

This one is selling fried whitebait, sausages and pancakes. Anyone who walks past these in favour of McDonalds is quite the fool  I think. 

Once the shops close Tapiola is still not entirely quiet. This time  it becomes populated by a variety of youths, out for a night of drinking with their pals. I maybe wrong but I do believe the practice of grabbing a few sixpacks, going wherever and getting drunk is quite Scandinavian. I guess it's one way of getting over the winter depression.

I'll try to make better use of photos in the future as well, as they do brighten up posts nicely. Will also be good to getting into the habit of taking pictures before I leave.