Month: September 2025

All The Things I Worry About

I was very happy on Sunday, when I returned to Chicago: it was so warm! I went for a long bike ride, and then to the market, and then to the beach, and then we all gathered to celebrate Igor’s birthday.

And then, the reality hit. There were several unexpected things at work (I can’t go into details here, but I expected something to be done while I was away, and it was not, so I could not keep my promise to the customer to finish something else, and it was all extremely stressful).

Next, all things in Chicago that are going wrong: I learned about the exhibit of power in the Loop over the weekend, and about multiple horrible things that happened, and about the new threat from Trump to go to war with Chicago (and I am still paralyzed with uncertainty).

And then, another set of troubles with Prairie Postgres registration. As it turned out, the Charitable Bureau sent us a letter on September 11, and this letter got lost. I am glad I figured out that was the case, but now we need to pay the late registration fee and submit a whole bunch of new paperwork along with all the “old” ones.

I am very close to saying it’s too much for me to handle, which makes me feel even worse because other people around me have more serious problems to solve.

On the brighter side, my almost three-week-long case with Eventzilla tech support was finally resolved. Things are not working perfectly, but at least I figured out the workaround, and I am now able to send registration links to people, so I am grateful for that.

I hope to get at least some of these issues resolved, if not tomorrow, then by the end of the week.

Sunday Sunrise

Going Back

This time, my trip to Finland was “without extras”: I was traveling without checked luggage, and I didn’t have time for any shopping!

I wanted to get something for my girls from the Moomin Museum, and even this little bit barely fit into my carry-on. The conference closed on Friday at 1 PM, and we were home by 4-30. I immediately started re-packing: I will be back in three weeks, and I realized I could leave some of the things I won’t need at home, but will need when we go to Riga. Now that I am thinking about it, I realize I could leave a lot of warmer clothes there – it’s still summer in Chicago!

I had a business class ticket from Helsinki to London, and an Economy Premium ticket from London to Chicago. However, this one was upgraded to business class at the last moment, allowing me to enjoy a couple of hours of good sleep and very productive working time on both flights and in the lounges. I was really surprised with how much I was able to accomplish on the way back – usually it’s not the case.

I reworked my ADBIS tutorial to fit into a meetup presentation, which I will give at Northwestern next week, and I have started working on my Riga presentation. Additionally, I caught up on most of my non-personal emails and finally published a professional blog post, which I had planned to write for almost a month but never got to.

(There was no way for me to eat everywhere the food was offered on that trip, so I picked the best from each place :))

Helsinki Finnair Lounge
Helsinki- London lunch
A cinacmon bun on that flight: I would never refuse that one 🙂
The Emerald Longe in Heathrow – the above flight was delayed, but there was no security wait, so I had a chance to stop at that one. I do not recall seeing this horse floor lamp before, but I might have forgotten
Ater British Airways upgraded me to the business class, they found my low -calories meal request

(And they forgot to give me coffee before arrival, but that was not a big deal – they were busy serving the First Class :))

***

My mom’s caregiver and her husband are Ukrainian refugees. They ended up in Chicago because their son and his family had been living here for a long time before. They just never thought they would move here themselves, and probably wouldn’t for many years if it hadn’t been a war.

However, before they moved to the US, they spent several months (almost a year) in Tampere. I recall how I felt when I first came to Finland after the war had started. The war was in the air; the posters calling to donate to the Ukrainian refugees-supporting funds were all over the place, and half of the conversations I overheard on the public transportation were about refugees.

Remembering all that, I can understand why my mom’s caregiver is so thankful to the family that hosted them in Finland. Since the first time they learned that my husband lives in Finland and I go there often, they have wanted me to meet their former host family, and this time it finally worked, since I was going to Tampere!

When the husband visited me before my departure to drop off the gifts, he asked me whether I could do him a favor and ask these people whether they are scared about possible Russian attacks (in light of recent events). I told him that I believed Finland had been “always ready” since 1918, but promised to ask.

So when we met, I asked. They told me that many people in Finland were very much afraid, to the point that some people they knew couldn’t fall asleep without sedatives, but they were fine because they were sure everything was in God’s hands. They told me that they even started building a new house, which should have proved that they indeed believed they would be fine. And yes, they confirmed, it was always like this since 1918, “we just do not talk about it.”

I have nothing to add to this conversation. I believe in Finland, in her people and her Armed Forces, but why in the world does it have to be “always ready”?

Life Is Better With Cinnamon Buns!

Moomin Museum

Tampere has the only Moomin Museum in the world, and it happens to be in the same building where our conference lunches were served (and adjacent to our hotel building, so we could walk there, staying inside). I loved it! I hope that I will be able to take Nadia and Kira there!

I took a lot of pictures there, so for those who want to see them all, I made a separate album – enjoy!

The museum has a separate room for each of the Moomin books, exhibiting original illustrations by Tove Jansson and the Moomin house!

Moomin Library with books on two dozen languages!

Afterwards, I took the pictures of everything in thr museum store, and send them to Anna so that she and the girls could choose what they want, and then I had to pack it into my carry-on, which was not an easy task, especially because I am also bringing back mine and Boris’s Moomin cookie jars :).

Tampere City Hall Reception

Tampere City Hall visit was an absolutely new experience for me, and I wish I took more pictures! The best part was that we could walk arond the whole building, not just a reception hall. Imagine you visit a museum, and you are allowed to sit on all of these beautiful chairs, and come close to these timy wooden tables, and touch the cabinets and vases, and feel it all like a liveable space!

As for the reception itself, the information about it was misleading. The conference program said that we will have this city walk, which will end with the “event” in the city hall. Boris, who should have some visibility into the details said that “there should be food”.

The event started at 7 PM, and all guests were offered champaign flutes upon arriving the the reception hall, and then there were individual plates with four pieces of appetizers (I didn’t realized that I should have taken picture of them, because I thought there will be something else, but that was it :)). The Mayor of Tampere greeted the conference and delivered a short speech about the importance of data technologies, etc; then the trio of musicians was performing something with people keeping talking, and that was it. My point is that they didn’t have to feed us, but the event ended at 8:30 PM, and it was nine by the time we reached the hotel, and it was too late to look for any other food (the hotel kitchen closes at 9 PM, and I didn’t want to go out and wait anywhere for anything ).

I survived, because Boris saved an apple for me, and because we had hot chocolate packs in the room, and I didn’t really need that much, but it was definitely a planning problem 😂.

Continue reading “Tampere City Hall Reception” →

Tampere

The ADBIS conference is taking place at the Tampere University, and that’s my first time visiting Tampere. The conference itself is sort of uneventful, and I also had to spend a lot of time still doing some work, because there were always some issues. And it’s cold. Very cold. Way colder than I expected, because the wind makes it feel fifteen degrees lower than it is.

Yesterday, we had a walking tour before the reception, and I think this hour-long walk finally made me sick. I am not exactly sick, but I feel like I am about to get sick, which is even worse. That’s just to explain why I am thinking slowly and not posting about the trip.

Let me try to fix it now.

A mirror in our hotel elevator
The gym – thankfully, 24-hour for real!
The gift to the conference attendees
The swinging chairs in the University foyer
The opening of the conference

On the first day, it was so cold and windy that we decided to stay inside (the hotel is just across the street from the University), and we had dinner at the hotel.

On the second day, there was no choice other than joining this walking tour, which, now I am convinced, made me sick. However, I took some nice pictures 🙂

The city was incorporated in the 1770s (I forgot the exact date), and the old buildings we saw were mostly factory buildings, which are now repurposed for some entertainment venues

Finally, we reached the City Hall, and I will show the reception pictures in a separate post.

Seen In Helsinki

Partially obscured, because I was in a hurry and didn’t want anyone seeing me taking pictures of the bathroom, but I still wanted to take a picture of a gender-neutral parent changing a diaper 🙂 .

Two-level bike parking at the train station
And yet anothe ice cream!
Lindonberry season – I got a box in the store, and ate it with rahka, and there is still some left – I will take it ho

On Monday, I worked at Valo again (the staff is saying “Nice to see you again :)).

And in addition to breakfast and lunch, they now have afternoon coffee:)

And finally, here is a mystery photo of the day – any guesses where I took it?

Air Travel

I already reported that for the last two times, I entered the US without showing my passport, just by y picture taken. This time was the first time that I left the US without showing my passport, just with the picture taken. 🙃

Also, first time not only leaving the shoes on, but also not taking the liquids out. Almost Europe 😂.

Minor distruption. Boarding at ORD started earlier than scheduled, and it was not announced neither in the app nor at the monitors in the AA lounge, so when I reached the gate, they were already boarding group nine! And granted, they said there is no more room on the aircraft for the carry on, and they are checking in my lugguage all the way to Helsinki. And that was precisely what I wanted to avoid: I didn’t want my luggage to make a connection at the JFK. For some reason, I’ve heard the unproportionally large number of the lost luggage stories from the JFK! A funny story: the AA issued me an upgrade to the first class when I was already seated. However, this seat was by the window, so I said I will stay at my sale seat – it was close enough the the exit. But you know what – if they would upgrade me 20 minutes earlier, I won’t have to check-in my carry on!

Fortunately, I had an AirTag in the luggage, so I knew it arrived to JFK, but there was no way to tell whether it was transfered, especially because our aircraft was sitting in a departure queue for over an hour, and my connection became short. Only when I looked at my phone upon landing in Vantaa and saw the luggage AirTag there, I could breath easy :). I didn’t have time to go to the Emerald lounge at JFK, so that’s for the next time. The other good part was that for the long flight, I was in the first row of Economy Premium, so I could use the half-reclined seats to the fullest, and actually got some sleep.

Anyway, all those distruptions were minor, and I made it to Helsinki in time, and so did my luggage!