Marianne

From Norway to Finland. Marianne tells me how it feels to live in Helsinki. She moved here about one year ago and works as a writer. Currently she learns Finnish.

How do you like Helsinki? I like it better and better, really. I think it‘s very pretty here. Especially the nature but also the whole city, like the architecture. It has history and Suomenlinna is beautiful. And I think it’s a lot of fun, I do a lot of fun things here in Helsinki, like this light show and all kind of artistic projects all the time.

What is your favourite spot in Helsinki? It has to be Suomenlinna. It‘s so special to come from that noisy town and take the boat over and it’s totally silent. No traffic, no cars, just a lot of trees and wind and snow in the winter. In the summer it is more unpeacefull. But being in town is also beautiful, too.


Why are you here? Why did you move to Helsinki? Because of love, of course.

Where are you from? I am from Norway, Bergen. West coast.

What do you miss most about Norway? The language I guess. I miss to express myself properly. And be able to write and read in my own language. Otherwise the nature too, because I love mountains and it is not much mountains here. But I like the Finnish forest. I think they are very fairytale like and exciting.

What do you have in your bag today? A Finnish dictionary because I just started this Finnish course and I have homework and a summary of last year‘s course.

A book that is in Swedish. Because I am going to learn Swedish, which is very interesting too, by the way. It is called Jakten på löpningens själ and is about running. People from Mexico who do running as a living, as a philosophy of life. There is actually this 95-year-old guy in this book. He was running up a mountain and down and the only reason why he did that was because no one questioned if he could do that or not. He never thought about it that he shouldn‘t do it. He just did it because he thought he would manage. No one said you should sit down in a wheelchair and eat and take it easy.

I was thinking that I want to have the same attitude, like I can do whatever I want in this live as long as I don‘t question so much if I can make it, then maybe I will make it easier.

How often did you radically change your life? Many times. Everything was radical in my life.

If you could ask someone else a question what would be your favourite question? It is “What is motivating people to do what they do?”

Ok, what motivates you to do what you do? My motivation to move here, to Helsinki was, well I have this undying hope to improve life all the time. So I try to do whatever I can to see how my life can improve and how I can improve others life and I was thinking that this may be a good chance however it turns out. I think this is the right step on the road and I think that everything leads to something better. Whatever it is. So even if I moved here and it doesn‘t work out, then I will find something even better than living in Norway. My new motto is to just have fun. Not to only have fun, but to have as much fun as possible.

What have you been proud of lately? My results of that Finnish exam.

Do you have a favourite quotation, something that helped you?
 Well, there is this guy, a professional snowboarder, he had his own TV series and he said in one of those trailers something that catered that motto. He said: “You have to learn by every challenge. Like Each step, each path has different challenges. And you have to learn by each of those challenges and enjoy whatever you do and try to get the best out of life.” Something like that he said.

What is your dream? That is my last question.
 I think it is to get married with full romance and happiness after being together for many years. And do something that I like and be successful with that.


That is so romantic. Thank you for this interview.