Encounter

I bought an umrella today from Sears. It's raining again today, in fact this is probably the first time it has rained properly since I got my rainproof shoes...

I was at Sears because few weeks back I had booked a complementary make-up consultation after talking to a nice Clinique consultant... Today, didn't feel like going at all but knew that I had to get out of the house. So I went - sat down on the chair, waited for my consultant, and an older lady with a fabulous white hair arrives and introduces herself as Raija. As this is a very Finnish name, my first question was of course "Do you speak Finnish?" (in Finnish) and she laughed and said "How cute" (in English) and we started chatting.

Raija had moved to Vancouver with her family when she was 16 and spoke a funny combination of English and Finnish ("Minä sitten levitän tätä tänne outer corners..."). Didn't bother me, as I tend to do that myself at times, and I can easily imagine that I'd be as bad as she in 30 years time. I remeber after we had just moved to England and Tube and the boys were visiting us, and he jokingly said "I bet in couple of years time you'll just be talking in English to each other" which I brushed off - why would as we're both native Finnish speakers. Since then I know it's not that simple - when things around you happen in English, the stories you hear are in English, and you think in English... sometimes to most suitble word to describe something is an English word. It's worth noting though that I'm definetly worst at this, and Dragon is the language police who keeps me on track when I slip into too bad "Finglish".

Anyway, it was really nice to talk to Raija and sitting there in a middle of a busy department story in middle of Vancouver I suddenly felt very home sick. This is weird as I haven't felt home sick (as in wanting to go "home" to Finland)... well, I don't think I've ever felt that since I moved out. Later on the feeling passed, and I was just glad to talk to someone who had been trough the same thing I was.

In fact walking home in the rain I was feeling pretty happy. Still on an emotional rollercoaster so I suspect it'll pass.