… I traveled from San Francisco to Helsinki to start a new life. Yep, today marks 5 years to the day that i officially moved from San Francisco to Helsinki. A lot has happened in 5 years..

* Got a great job working for Nokia Corporation
* Got married to my beautiful sweetheart Hanna
* Traveled to few spots within Europe that I thought I would never ever see for my own two eyes (Prague, Canary Islands, Greece (Mykonos and Island of Crete), Italy, Estonia, UK (Manchester and London)
* Expecting our first child in August 2006

I say a great start indeed, looking forward to the next 5 years for sure..

more to come soon..

I think overall these were indeed exciting winter olympic games, with strong representation from many countries pushing their way through to the top of the winners’ stage.

learned about the Swiss… never under estimate them in Ice Hockey.. and keep a closer look on them due to doping allegations.. ;)

If Finland gets to the gold medal round and they actually make it to the 3rd period, shut the tv off and keep your mind occupied for at least the next 30 mins as there is no point in watching the final period.. its too heartbreaking to watch (now for the last 3 times..they have blown a lead and never recovered.) Its a trend these Finn’s keep dear to their hearts.. (but something that needs to be broken for sure for the GOLD to be worn around their necks).

overall, i liked them a lot and was all good fun in sports. Now back to the NHL Hockey Season and world championships in Latvia this May!! :)

On Sunday Late night talk show host Conan O’Brien came to Finland.

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Chat-show+host+sends+fans+into+near-hysteria+at+Helsinki+Airport/1135218742446

An excerpt of the article link above: –

Finland is ultimately just another entry-stamp in Conan O’Brien’s passport: he has filmed past segments for his show in Canada, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Australia. His 2004 Canadian road-trip – and the off-colour jokes it spawned about the hosts, particularly among the Québecois – led eventually to a tongue-in-cheek “grovelling apology” from the talk-show host.

It remains to be seen how Finland will fare at Conan’s hands when he gets home. You can invite a comedian here, but it’s a lot harder to tell him what’s funny and what is not.

Still, we’re used to it. The country has emerged more or less unscathed from the mosquito-swatting, wife-carrying, sauna-sitting, mobile phone-tossing, tango-dancing, air guitar-playing coverage it has routinely received in past years – and hey, let’s face it, the news items could have been a lot worse.

Ultimately another Irish wit was probably right on the money 115 years ago, when he noted that: “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

This is so kewl. I have always loved to watch the olympics as its a great time to watch, as Al Michaels put it so clearly, “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat”. I think it was in 1980 that i really paid attention to the winter olympics in Lake Placid and how I got hooked onto hockey, when I watched TEAM USA defeat the big red giant USSR to get the spot fo the gold medal game.

The very kewl thing about living here amongst the europeans is that I get to watch for the second time around, (first being the 2004 Summer Games in Athens) is the 2006 Torin Games are only 1 hour behind our time (e.g. if its 15:00 (3pm) in Helsinki, then its 14:00 or 2pm in Torin).. so again, I am watching it live and nothing taped delayed like it ususally is in the U.S.

More comments to on the olympics during the next two weeks. I think I will be concentrating on the hockey games, and downhill skiing.. Bodie and Palander (the US Guy and the Finn) will be interesting to watch. — sorry everyone -GO FINLAND! =)