Terveisiä talven ihmemaasta!

What a strange year 2021 has been so far! 

I moved all my teaching online in November, when case counts started to climb in Helsinki, and have been 100 % online since. Though I love online teaching alongside with teaching face to face, I've learned that I do my best work when I'm in the same physical space as my students at least once in a while. I've started dreaming about teaching an actual group or class, and hope that it's not too far off.

All my projects are more or less stalling, though of course I'm really lucky that I can still keep going with them, and that I still have really wonderful students that I get to safely meet online. But the fatigue is certainly real!  

We've also been having especially cold weather in Helsinki lately. This is a wonderful thing in an abstract sense - I love having four seasons, in theory - but winter is by far not my favorite, especially when temperatures are so cold that my face feels like it will fall off within minutes of venturing out. Masks do come in handy for that, I can't believe it took a pandemic to learn that covering your mouth and nose actually does help when it's extremely cold. 

In addition to my lovely private students, I do have some wonderful things going on: 

• My online intermediate YKI course series is continuing in March
• More online courses are coming up this year, slowly but surely
• Our second book project is almost ready for publishing! I'll keep you updated, but it's a pronunciation and listening comprehension workbook, especially focused on helping you practice your intonation and rhythm and to help you understand puhekieli. Just a bit more fine tuning needed! 
  
•  I've been volunteering with Mothers in Business International. We have a lovely online Finnish conversation group on the first Wednesday of each month that I'm proud to host, I'll be posting the event here as soon as I have the details! 

Talven ihmemaa takapihalla.
Talve+n ihme+maa taka+piha+lla.
Winter+genitive wonder+land back+yard+on.
Winter wonderland in my back yard. 
(This is not my actual back yard, but almost!)