And now....

Final preparations are underway, and I bet everyone I know is wondering "Are they still here?" or, as a student said to me yesterday, "I thought you were leaving?" "Don't worry," I responded, "I am. Saturday." He seemed as relieved a I.

I am working on packing our bags. Can we fit it all into 3 suitcases? Dear me, it's gonna be close. Rob saw me sitting on a suitcase this morning to zip it, and he said "That doesn't look good..." Ha. I got it closed!

I have my schedule from the University of Helsinki, which made me very grateful. I was worried I was going to be stuck a bit at the beginning, wondering how to start. Nope! Have a meeting next Wednesday with Anna who has been coordinating my visit, and Liisa, who is a professor there. We are 2 blocks from the University and Rob did a google tour the other day and said we have cobbled streets in our neighborhood! Can you imagine how excited that made him? Its like the Paris-Roubaix racecourse, but under snow. He told me his job will be to "make sure I find my way to my appointments" (whew- he knows that wears me out when we travel).

Reading my colleague Kate's blog the other day has really got me thinking...the US spends 43% more per student, has double the student/teacher contact time, and the Finns still outperform the US on major assessments for students. In a time of budget cuts, it really has me wondering what are we doing wrong (and right?) here. I am excited to see this other vision of school.

Off to move stuff back into my old house...

Front page news!

I woke up on Saturday morning, one week till send off. Oh wow, I thought. We are getting close.

I checked my email and Kate, Fulbrighter in Tampere had sent me an email..."You are in the paper!" This is amazing. Kate is in Finland, and as a Google alert set up for "Finland Educational System" and wouldn't you know it, SHE alerts ME to the article. The world is shrinking. Anyway, here is the article. I like that my "Typical Librarian" shirt got center stage (along with the Monster drink my student had on her table...) and I felt a little embarrassed by the only partially true comment ("Sarah chose Finland so she didn't have to learn another language..."). It has been fun to get comments from people about the trip, having people ask questions and be intrigued. Had a really fun Bon Voyage party today featuring lots of Finnish food (ok, pea soup and rye bread and cookies with the Finnish flag!) and surrounded by love and support of friends. This has been a long process. Not arduous, but definitely long. And complicated. And it is still happening (how are we getting to the airport? how many suitcases are we bringing? how will we get from the Vaantaa airport to our apartment?)
But this will all soon be answered.
And then I get to tackle the next steps. Research, thinking, writing.
And, skiing.
Can't wait.
Well, can wait. But am getting excited.

Moving out...moving on...

Our first steps in getting to Finland starts tomorrow...we will be moving out of our house and renting it to some really nice Legislative staff folks. We will be living in our best friend Stacy's house, and it will be good practice for our future European living arrangements...small and cozy. It is good practice to downsize....fewer shoes, fewer toys, fewer choices.

Next steps? Figuring out how we are going to get our bikes, skiis, stroller, suitcases, bags and little girl from the airport in Vaantaa to our apartment in Helsinki...