Changes..

It was a great, long summer that I had this year. I managed to escape the yearly slush of Joensuu's spring to equatorial Africa for more than two months and came back to Finland when the Finnish summer showed its best. Furthermore, I took 6 weeks of paid and well deserved holiday, the first real summer holiday for some years. During the summer holiday I also got a chance to spend two weeks in States, which was a great and temperaturewise very warm trip. But all great summers have got to end at some point, as did mine too.

Six weeks of paid holiday sounds great and it surely was, but of course I could not just take it easy and relax. It offered me a great opportunity to finally finish my remaining studies and graduate. I took advantage of the opportunity that I had and got my degree officially on 1st of September. That same day marked what I thought to be my first day of unemployment after finishing working for continuous string of short-term employment contracts at the University. Things turned out to be quite different, my friend Pasi tipped me off a short-term job as a researcher at Häme Polytechnic, which I eventually took.

I have enjoyed working past couple of months for the Häme Polytechnic. The people that I have worked with have been good team players and we are together creating a great solution for the problem that sparked our work. Furthermore, the work has been very flexible. I have been able to work from home, which meant that I did not need to move all the way to Hämeenlinna for 2,5 months contract. But this phase is also coming to its end by the mid-November.

So, what's coming next in my life? Continuation at the polytechnic, or trying to find some project-work at the University? Neither of those, I am unleashing myself to roam in the private sector. After couple of rounds of paper screenings and two more rounds of personal interviews I am now (from Nov 6) employed by an American consulting company, which has also got an office in Helsinki. It also means that I am moving to Helsinki or Espoo, depending on where I can find suitable accommodation for myself. It is a farewell to good friends that I have here in Joensuu, but it is also a welcome back from my dear friends living in Southern Finland.

Lots of things have taken and are taking place within this autumn: graduation, three different employers, and move to the capitol city area to name a few. I bet that it would be easy to feel stressed, but I actually don't feel like that at all. I feel a bit relieved from the past and very curious about the future.

Interesting Stuff:

This picture, which I took in NY, gives me an interesting feeling. When approaching New York Stock Exchange from west (Wall St.), one can see two very formidable powers in the modern world being very close to each other. NYSE (read: money) is in the left on the picture and other, perhaps more divine power is located farther back in the right side.