Joulutortut 星星可頌吃不停

十二月，芬蘭人期待雪，期待聖誕節。各種party、各種pikku Joulu小聖誕節，每天每個時段、小孩大人老人的，滿滿的聖誕活動，堪稱聖誕月。小村異常忙碌，天天有活動參加。12月6日穿插重要的Independence Day，對戰後嬰兒潮或是目前三十歲左右的青壯年，仍是有感並且重要的節日。今年是芬蘭第96次慶祝。

11月23日聖誕樹點燈後，入夜後的Rauma，深沈的黑襯出老街區晶亮的聖誕佈置。天越來越早沈入黒，位於南方的Rauma偶爾下雪，雪積得不深難以匯聚夠多的雪光。六點後，大部分的店家已打烊，黑夜滲入街區巷弄，北極特快車和馴鹿在聖誕老人村和聖誕老人歡度櫥窗裡的聖誕節。無數分身的精靈是聖誕人的小幫手，更是芬蘭人聖誕佈置的大功臣，家家戶戶貼上紅色精靈，孩子戴起精靈的紅帽子。

有人說精靈住在森林裡，到處有精靈保佑，sauna精靈守護人們泡桑拿；有人說精靈只住在拉普蘭的森林，是聖誕老人的幫手。有人相信精靈存在；有人合理推理，聖誕老人不存在所以精靈不存在。孩子們相信精靈，如同相信聖誕老人存在。相信從聖誕老人手中收到聖誕禮物。我則推論這是芬蘭大政府的美好，以身為聖誕老人的故鄉給予孩子的德政，為孩子構築美好童年想像。其實，禮物是父母準備，委由假扮的聖誕老人發送。

點燈後，聖誕活動陸陸續續舉行，sali和餐廳，逐一換上聖誕系列的桌巾和餐巾紙，12月5日則是穿插獨立日的藍白系列餐巾紙和餐具。讓我一再歎為觀止。參加PPH協助辦理寄養家庭的聖誕活動，一同吃聖誕大餐，目前我吃過最豪華的聖誕大餐。煙燻鮭魚、烤鮭魚、火腿、馬鈴薯泥、聖誕甜菜根沙拉等。

聖誕活動，唱著哀傷的聖誕歌曲，幾乎無一例外。週四晚上在EKO舉辦的退休老人的聖誕活動，從半掩的門瞧去，sali裡的老人正襟危坐不苟言笑，那時校長正發言。我和德國室友、Minna、幾個學生談論為何聖誕曲調悲傷，大家莫衷一是。眾人不否認有些悲傷，聖誕夜和赫爾辛基的朋友談論對聖誕歌曲的看法，或許芬蘭人想呈現聖誕節是嚴肅、平靜的吧。見識了悲傷聖誕，喜悅的是，聖誕月期間，下午茶時間供應的是星星可頌、glogi似有肉桂的飲品、牛奶燉煮的米粥（這我不喜歡）。

默默可說，沒有雪，這樣芬蘭和台灣有什麼差別，可以打包回台灣了。我是想回台灣沒錯，但不是現在。台灣的聖誕樹bling bling金光閃閃，在某層面對我來說，反倒有聖誕節氣氛。芬蘭的聖誕樹一如往常，裝飾極簡冷靜，小燈泡斜繞一圈點綴綠意，不搶風采。

今年是黑色聖誕。等我有時間在來補充Rauma聖誕市集的趣聞。

辛普森家庭和笑在心裡的人們

學生們窩在客廳的沙發上看辛普森，有陣子的晚上，他們天天看。辛普森長相不討我喜歡，捲舌夠Q的美國腔，我聽不懂。芬蘭學生幾乎面無表情觀看，我以為是難看的卡通節目。

這週參與學生的化學課，剛考完試，老師播放辛普森卡通，關於化學污染的。整個教室，只有我和波蘭來的女生笑翻了，壓抑過後的笑聲，仍是最大的。兩個先前協助我詢問洗衣間的學生，不時地轉過頭來帶著微笑（或是偷笑）的表情玩味地看著我的笑。我想我的笑聲和反應比電視裡的辛普森更有趣吧。

原來辛普森這麼好笑，芬蘭人怎麼都不笑呢，害我以為難看，如果難看又何以天天看。到底是如何辦到能笑在心裡而面無表情？我和麗禾還在研究芬蘭人到底是不擅長表達情緒還是沒什麼情緒起伏？到底！整體而言，芬蘭人的情緒曲線是peaceful的，冷靜的，不嗨。我也是越來越冷靜了。

201312

My speech of Independence Day

Suomalainen on ystävällinen ja rauhallinen!

If I need help, someone will give me a hand and be patient. For example, when I asked a bus driver one question at bus stop, he listened what I said carefully and I was so surprised.

Finns always look peaceful and calm town. I thought people in Europe like dancing very much, but Finns don't like dancing. Taiwanese don't like dancing, either.

Ihan kylma! Ihan pimea!

The dark in Finland is very heavy. When the dark came, I felt tired and I wanted to sleep in beginning of November. Now I am getting better.

Iso tähteä ja iso kuu!

Sometimes I can see the Big Dipper and the north star in the sky. They were quite big and the full moon looked unreal. The full moon was so big that I thought I can touch it.

20131205

我為我的肚子發愁

肚子越來越大。裝在多的食物也沒有飽的感覺，彷彿失去感知肚子的能力。北歐有太多事務，可以發愁。想裝再多的食物，卻想起我們台灣的父母，十分在意女兒的身材。而我畢竟是生活過對女性身材錙銖必較的台灣，逐漸變胖之際，深切感受台灣胖子的悲哀。想試圖在冷冽生存環境，找回身體感官覺受，不但難以找回還得面對陰魂不散的耳提面命。

International Day

We had international day on 30.10. and international food for lunch time and coffee time.

We made food with kitchen ladies in the morning on 30.10. This was the first time for me to cut huge fruits watermelons and pineapples. I haven't thought I was able to cut huge fruits that my mother always cuts them. It is not easy to cut pineapples, so we called that is killing pineapples. In Finland, I can do it.

In Taiwan, we have many kinds of food and fruits. We have many kinds of Chinese food and create new Chinese food as Taiwanese food. Fruits are always juicy and fragrant, and we can eat fresh fruits in whole year. Small eats are the big thing in Taiwan. If you ask some Taiwanese which Taiwanese is the best in Taiwan, you will make the fight among Taiwanese and break up their friendship.

Moreover, most of fruits are cut before eating. We also cut oranges sliced，and the white fibers are good for health. After mid-September, we can get pomelos and eat a lot to celebrate Moon Festival. Kids get funny pomelo's hat. In Finland, tropical fruits that shapes are similar but flavors are not same.

Green tea(綠茶) is a traditional tea in Taiwan. We always drink tea with fruits or moon cakes or pineapple cakes or other traditional cakes or seeds. We seldom have tea time. But when friends visit someone's home, we always drink tea and chat. To drink tea is to show our friendly. Most of people eat liquorice watermelon seeds (甘草瓜子) with tea. Taiwanese need to crack the shells first (嗑瓜子), and then we can eat the nuts. It takes a lot of time to eat, so we can chat for a long time.

Green bean sweet soup（綠豆湯）is a popular dessert in summer time in Taiwan. We always eat cold green bean sweet soup in summer time, so that we can feel relaxed.Kids like this dessert very much.

Nina and I made presentations for EKO introducing our home countries. In the beginning, we asked 15 questions about Germany and Taiwan. And then we showed our countries's ppts and videos.

I prepared my presentation and practiced playing ukulele for one month. When Heli told me play a song, I directly thought the most famous Taiwanese folk song 望春風 (Embrace the Spring Breeze) is good for introducing. This song was made in 1933 by Taiwanese musician when Taiwan was a Japanese's colony. When Taiwan was a colony, Japan government wanted to control our mind and thoughts so that the musical lyrics just describes the love that is about common people's life. But the melody is so beautiful, so most of Taiwanese can sing the song. I heard heavy metal music is very popular in Finland, so I showed ChthoniC (閃靈) that the band is from Taiwan. I was surprised that students were interested in this band.

Besides, I thought what it is Taiwan everyday and talked about how I can introduce Taiwan well with my Taiwanese friends. We have small conclusion about Taiwanese that they are friendly and shy and funny people, but it is not easy to say. Beautiful landscapes are easy to introduce Taiwan.

I was very surprised that Finns enjoyed our presentation and pictures. Because I forgot to show the film 看見台灣 (Beyond Beauty）in the beginning, I was a little nervous to present. And, I was not sure that they understood. But Finns looked so surprised sometimes. I guessed they also surprised they have something from Taiwan and why the small island have many things. When I arrived in Finland, I saw many people have computers and laptops from Taiwan, for example, Asus, Acer, BenQ. But most of them didn't know where products are from. And then, I thought I will introduce Taiwan's products someday.

I think I have to appreciate Ang Lee's (李安) film Life of Pi (少年Pi的奇幻漂流) and Po-Lin Chi (齊柏林) film 看見台灣 (Beyond Beauty）and photos, that their artworks helped me promote Taiwan.

翁山蘇姬的國家 Aung san Suu kyi is from Burma

9月27日下午，和support family的先生小孩一同出發，前往Kuopio，那個幾乎芬蘭人聽見都會說：那是個美麗的城市。幸運的R待在美麗的小城市裡。大約是下午四點多出發，晚上九點多抵達Kuopio。天很快地黑了。路程上，和The support有些聊天和對話。

話題不知怎麼地，討論了亞洲的國家和東南亞。偏偏緬甸(Burma)的中文和英文差異很大，我沒背上這個國家的英文單字，也無法回應The support的答案。我想到了翁山蘇姬（Aung san Suu kyi），那個翁山蘇姬的國家。音譯的翁山蘇姬和英文發音有些差距，而我也未準確抓住單字發音位置。我開始細數我所知道翁山蘇姬的細節，是牛津大學Oxford university畢業、去年有部翁山蘇姬的電影、是緬甸國父的女兒、軍人干政、是佛教國家。

芬蘭的地理和歷史教育是深入世界的，雖然我還沒搞懂是怎麼一回事，但我想The support對世界是有基本掌握。總覺得，The support的答案和我很接近了。他說是king government ? military government ? democracy government ? 是military government。我還是不知道緬甸的英文該怎麼說。最後，我想The support得到答案了。我們完成了一場有趣的猜字遊戲。想辦法溝通的過程，沒想到先前蜻蜓浮水了解的知識成為幫手，略數翁山蘇姬一二事。

週五芬語課參觀Rauma圖書館，恰巧看到以翁山蘇姬為封面的國際特赦組織刊物。

有光

有很長的一段時間，在一片幽暗生活著，無法確知是不是有天光。每天每天扣遲到薪水，扣錢換得一點點故作悠閒和自由的呼吸，參雜著自甘墮落、自我責備的矛盾感，進辦公室的前一刻，仍是抗拒。走在弄髒靈魂的路上，自虐至此幾近無法辨別虛實，不知為何受困躊躇於此。而我明明是知道的。

每天每天窩在辦公室隔板裡和無數個deadline賽跑，世界小了，我怕心也小了，一度以為辦公室外、整個台灣都很糟糕，佞臣賊子掌握局勢，能人賢臣受盡糟蹋，好害怕隔板之距的髒手觸碰我的靈魂。我戰戰兢兢地上班，害怕所有的觸碰，同時還得延續先前所堅持的工作品質。每天都很忙，有時像馬戲團的雜耍演員，好勝地應付各種事項，一心二用的功力發揮極致。

只能一步一步向前走，才能看清楚盡頭，能不能給我光亮。終於我離開幾個月前的那個地方。離職，才是生活的開始。現在很好。去年聽著張懸的如何如何，眼淚就滑落下來，現在已經不一樣了。20130412

爐子（oven＆stove）

今天研究爐子（oven＆stove）很久，始終無法分辨數字大小與大小火的關係。煮了香菇馬鈴薯湯加油蔥酥（有這樣煮的嗎？但我手上只有香菇、馬鈴薯、番茄、大黃瓜、木耳），微波牛肉燉紅蘿蔔馬鈴薯。整個肚子都是馬鈴薯。加上油蔥酥就是有臺灣味，應該要多帶一些來的。

廚房或洗衣間的機器看似設計簡單，而我像個老外端倪許久，我在此的確是個外國人。而且現在我的中文也好奇怪，中英文都沒什麼邏輯。我就這樣發佈第一篇文章好了。20130915


Today I tried to cook some food by the oven & stove but I didn't know how to do. I just tried it. And now I still have no idea about the numbers of button. I cooked a mushrooms-potato soup and put some onion crisps from my mother. I am not sure this soup we have in Taiwan, because I just had these food. I just cook food with onion crisps so that food is Taiwan taste. I should taken more onion crisps from Taiwan.