The main purpose of this project is to give a voice to foreigners in Finland. By writing, we can raise awareness about topics important to us. By sharing our stories we might help others to see who we are, what we are passionate about, what are our strengths and talents. We can also point to obstacles and difficulties in our integration process or discuss the experience with life in Finnish society.

My Salmiakki Life logo

My Salmiakki Life would like to give foreigners in Finland the opportunity to share their unique experience and knowledge.

Immigrants in Finland are not one homogeneous group. It would be great if this blog is as diverse as possible. But I understand, that writing is not for everybody and that English is not the language every person can use. Still, if you want to be part of My Salmiakki Life we can try to find a way.

I believe we can help in the co-creation of a more culturally sensitive, diverse, inclusive and tolerant society in Finland.

Want to be a part of it? Read more blogging opportunities or let be interviewed 🙂 You can also contact me at info@mysalmiakkilife.fi

And why salmiakki life?

Salmiakki or salty liquorice is the very Finnish confectionery and the explosion of tastes, especially for foreigners 🙂 Although it might taste strange at the beginning, there are ways how to get used to it or how to even love it.

And this is exactly how life in Finland is (at least for me). Some things might feel strange and some others will become immediately your obsessions, like little pieces of salmiakki in the milk chocolate 🙂

Welcome!

Salmiakki - the explosion of tastes

Latest on My Salmiakki Life

blessing

To whom it may concern

I dare to slightly modify the original Sufi story about another aspect of the miracles of Jesus so that this article can be properly understood. Once upon a time, while Jesus was passing through a village, he saw a mob handing a man over to the police for theft of jewellery and sexual assault. When…

alexander the great

A new world beyond the shadows

Alexander the Great (who was tutored by Aristotle from the age of 13 to 16, died at the age of 33, and advertised his death as a beggar) had to cope with a unique species of horse. The horse was a beautiful but obstinate, scary, and annoying creature. This horse refused to let anyone ride…

ageing

Ageing

My birthday is coming and I have to think about how to deal with the appearing symptoms of ageing. At almost 43 I am consciously facing the age perhaps for the first time. For now, it’s more funny than serious, but I assume later it would be the other way around. The first sign of…

wolf

The third cage

Ibn Sina, often known as Avicenna (980–1037 CE), a well-known polymath, separated two lambs by placing them in cages. Each lamb was the same age, weighed the same amount, and was fed the same amount of diet. There was no disparity in any aspect. On the other hand, he placed a wolf in the third…

lion

Peeling off the phoney labels

On the hillside, a lioness gave birth to her pups. A newborn cub slipped into a sheep flock. The separated little cub mingled with sheep and grew up. Because the lion’s cub has seen sheep around him since birth and grew up among them. So it had the characteristics and habits of a sheep, and…

dream big

Ambitiousness & Imposter syndrome

I was recently interviewed by Slovak radio and the reporter out of blue asked if I have any work-related ambitions in the country where I currently live. Sure I have, but I am at the same time fighting my internal wars between ambitiousness and imposter syndrome. Work and satisfaction with the job have been always…

frog

A stitch in time saves nine

According to a well-known tale, if you put a frog in boiling water, it will quickly hop out. And if you put a frog in regular water and gently heat it up to boiling temperature, the frog will gradually adjust to the heat until it dies. Biologists who study wildlife cannot corroborate this conclusion. They…

rats

Hope and believing

Kurt Paul Richter (February 20, 1894 – December 21, 1988) was a biologist, psychologist, and geneticist. He was a professor at Johns Hopkins who conducted a famous and cruel experiment on the psychology of drowning rats in the 1950s.  At the beginning of his experiment, he left domestic rats to swim in buckets full of…

herstory

HIStory is also about HERstory

One of my favourite subjects in school was history. Its narrative nature was for sure attractive to me and led me to historical documentaries, literature and even my first university studies in museology. I have never worked in the field but I haven’t lost interest. With all the great children’s books that are bringing into…

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