In the Land of the Snow Queen
Our author Claudia Freyer-Lindner is officially called, but no one in Finland can speak such a long name. The old name did not really appeal anymore, that's why she calls herself Freya Lindner.
Five years ago, she decided to follow her husband's job offer and move with the two children to Karelia in eastern Finland. The challenge of coping with this European, yet linguistically and somehow uneuropean, country was bigger than expected.
For Freya, Finland is the land of the Snow Queen. The eponymous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen roughly describes the process of maturing that she herself went through. At all levels it was and is required by the Snow Queen and slowly transformed by inner processes. In addition, there is a lot of snow in eastern Finland and the Finnish women - with their stern look, their independence and uncompromising clarity - even radiate something of a snow queen.
Freya studied forest science in Göttingen, but has strayed from this career path after the birth of the children and has, after various intermediate stations, four years ago, self-employed with full-body massages. She works alternately at home, in a small town in Eastern Finland, and in Helsinki, the white capital by the sea.
As the inner snowstorm of the culture shock slowly subsides and the language difficulties subsided, she can recognize Finland and its peculiarities ever better. The desire to talk about the country, people, insights and happenings came from reading the other blogs at ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com.
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