Finland: A Love Story
February 27, 2010 | Filed Under Read Today! | Leave a Comment
I have often been told I should work for the Finnish tourist bureau. Truth of the mater is I fell in love with Finland the way some people fall in love with people over the Internet–sight unseen. I was in my final year of graduate school, at Washington University in St Louis, when I decided to apply for a Fulbright scholarship. I thought it would be beneficial to study one more year before I started teaching at a university. I had some restrictions. As a single mother I needed to find a country where I could be safe with my child; a country that had good daycare and a solid education system. I also needed to apply to a country where I could speak English. I opened a map and my finger fell on Finland. It was not easy getting my university to approve my application when they discovered I only knew the name of one city in the entire country but it was my fate. I was going to Finland. In the end, I spent three years there–one year as a Fulbright scholar and two years teaching at the University of Helsinki. To this day, Finland is my favorite country in the world.
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