Moving to Finland was quite a jarring experience. For a people person such as myself, I suddenly found myself being unable to relate to or understand people…
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How personality profiles (here MBTI) helped me stand in my strengths
January 21st, 2015 Posted by irina Life, My Story The real reason I moved to Finland
January 19th, 2015 Posted by irina Language, Life, My Story
5 years ago, I got on a plane a moved to Finland. I no longer wanted to live in Canada.
Read more...When to commit vs. when to go at it alone.
January 18th, 2015 Posted by irina Life, News | Announcements | Updates
I went to my first 8am class at the gym yesterday morning. Our awesome instructor (who I am totally dazzled by) was pretty tough on us that morning. Tough but fair – if we she knew we could do better she said so. I wanted to accomplish what she seemed so sure I could accomplish.
Read more...Annual Review 2014: Flinchingly Honest & Unfiltered
January 13th, 2015 Posted by irina Life, My Story
2014 was the year of new beginnings. In some ways, 2014 was a hard year, and in other ways, it was a much easier year than those which came before it.
Read more...Reflections Between Destinations
January 6th, 2015 Posted by irina Life, My Story
I noticed yesterday, while flying from Helsinki to Bucharest via Istanbul, that whenever I am on a plane, I feel deeply humbled. On board, everyone is equal.
Read more...2015’s First Adventure: returning to Bucharest
December 31st, 2014 Posted by irina Life
It’s the last day of 2014 and I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for one of 2015’s first adventures: spending January in Bucharest.
Read more...2014 Annual Review Prep
December 16th, 2014 Posted by irina Blog
I’m reading ‘The Happiness of Pursuit’ by Chris Guillebeau in which he talks about finding meaning in our lives through the pursuit of big goals, which he calls quests. Naturally, it got me thinking about my blog, my business, and basically my life overall. On his website, he has a guide to doing something called an annual review, where you look back at the ending year and forward into the next.
Read more...Change is in the air…
December 5th, 2014 Posted by irina Blog
We all know the hero story: a problem, a struggle, and either a tragedy or a success in the end. This is the story on which we base many of our important life moments, whether we realize it or not. The hero defeats or is defeated… but what about the struggle? How many of us are so deterred by struggling that we don’t end up trying at all?
Read more...“Ask and you shall receive” – On asking the right questions
October 30th, 2014 Posted by irina Blog
People would often ask me: “How did you learn Finnish?” and I wouldn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how I did it, it seemed like a random smørrebrød of ways.
Then a couple months ago, Cory, a high school friend of mine, came to visit me in Helsinki. He’s always been excited about languages and he was looking forward to picking up a bit of Finnish during his time here. It didn’t take me long to figure out that our ways of learning were quite similar…
Read more...5 Tips for Surviving Finnish Darkness
October 21st, 2014 Posted by irina Blog
The secret is out – it is grey and depressing outside these days. I won’t go into details but my first word of advice is, become aware of the effect that the weather has on your mood. Then venture to change it. In the video below, I discuss 5 different tactics I use for staying chipper through this tougher part of the year.
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Hi! I’m Irina.
I’m a multibelonger to Finland, Canada and Romania, without ONE language or culture to call my own – I have several. My intention is to be present where I am and find inner peace and harmony where ever life takes me. I’m embracing the gems of the ongoing cultural and linguistic transition which is my life and hope to inspire others interested in doing the same. Click here to find out more!