Finnish summer

After a two week break from Berlin and from the internet, I'm excited to be home. Everyone who's lived abroad knows that a visit home is no vacation, it's work. You have to meet all the friends and family members you can, no one can be left out, because that would be unfair. You feel guilty and stressed a lot. Everyone also wants to offer coffee or a beer - either way, a lot of drinking is involved.

I shouldn't complain. Finland was so much fun and everyone showed us so much love! We got tons of birthday presents and we did a lot of fun stuff like go to the amusement park in Helsinki and chill out at A's family's summer house; swimming, boating, barbecuing, sauna-ing. I read two and a half books (two Swedish mystery novels and half of Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban). We also made sure we ate an insane amount of new potatoes with butter, fresh smoked salmon and locally grown sweet peas. Nothing quite compares to summer at home!