“But trash is trash and snuff is snuff,
even if in golden boxes,
and roses in a cracked jar are still always roses.”

“New Poems” by Gustaf Fröding, 1894,
translated by Mona M Olsson.

I am a foreigner living in Finland and my name is Mona M Olsson. I am a currently living in a big town in southern Finland, and as you might already have guessed from my surname, at least my husband is of Scandinavian origin.

In my Blog you can read about my life here in Finland, what has happened in my life and personally affected me. The things I find different in contemporary living in Finland, odd and peculiar customs that I come across and also the occasional philosophical thought that accidentally fall down on me.

I am not claiming to be an expert on anything; I am merely expressing my opinions in this way, as it might not even be my real opinion at times as I am trying to raise discussions about some issues at hand. Therefore my Blog-entries might sometimes contradict themselves with what was written earlier about the same subject.

As I have been here in Finland with my family for several years now, I have discovered that life here is not very much different from other places and as I have lived in a couple of other European countries during my life and visited several quite often out of various reasons, I have discovered that some things always differ in every country but many things are just the same no matter wherever you go.

I am simply writing about the things that occupy my mind, things that make life worth living and enjoyable for me. My goal is to write my Blog at least every two days, but due to apparent difficulties getting the opportunity to post during the weekends, school-vacations and other holidays when other family members occupy the machine, I might sometimes post my writings a bit later than they actually were written.