Monday, October 13, 2008

My home away from home

Since July I've had two homes, one in Switzerland and one in Finland. I now live in Basel, Switzerland where I have a nice apartment within walking distance from the old city center and the Day office where I work. Since arriving here I've spent countless hours walking and biking around Basel and neighbouring areas, so I already feel pretty comfortable with the surroundings. Basel is just the kind of place I like, a beautiful city with lots of history and details to discover. And the rest of Switzerland isn't too bad either. :-)

My other home is back in Finland where Kikka, my future wife, and our two cats, Juuso and Nöpö, live cozily close to the nature. I fly back to stay with them for roughly a week per month, and meanwhile we call each other frequently. I especially love the skype video feed on our cats. This month I'm not flying to Finland, as a week ago Kikka visited me here in Basel and next week we're both heading to Turkey for a week of vacation together. 

Kikka is staying in Finland until she finishes her PhD studies at the sleep lab in Helsinki. She's doing some kick-ass research on the neurobiological mechanisms of sleep, and while at times I find myself understanding little of what she does, it still sounds totally awesome. I'm so proud of her.

I guess it's still too early to tell how well this living more than a thousand miles apart thing will work out, but so far I think we're doing great. I feel that the time we spend apart just makes our days together more special.

3 comments:

  1. Good luck at your *new* home!

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  2. Keep the phone calls and regular visits going. Long distance relationships can be done, and part of it can even be fun sometimes.

    You're lucky - when my then-girlfriend and I were in a long distance relationship, we were 3,000 miles apart, there was no Skype, and long distance phone companies had even more byzantine per-minute charges. We did have frequent flyer miles, and the opportunity to change long distance providers every 6 months.

    Tips include plenty of calls, writing the occasional letter (yes, the old fashioned kind), and getting into a good rhythm of monthly or so trips back and forth to see each other.

    Good luck! P.S. we got engaged after almost 2 years of US coast-to-coast relationship, got married a year later, and now have a 4 year old.

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  3. You are in Antalya (Turkey)?
    I am jealous!
    Yeliz Eseryel

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