We have been now at the cottage for about a week. The time was spent with working on my poor old car, helping my parents with small repairs at the house and entertaining our little son.

Especially Nathan seems to be very excited about the cottage. Wherever we go he looks around and stares at new things such as flowers, our boat or even more simple objects such as grass. Nearly everything can make him smile and each time it makes the day a little bit brighter. Yes, he can be easily excited. But he also gets much more cranky about everything which might be due to the fresh air all the time and bright nights due to no real sunset at the moment.

In this aspect he is very similar to my parents-in-law. When they visited us last summer they were amazed by everything such as the blue sky, the lush green and according to them everything felt so much more fresh than in China. Well, sure it feels more fresh when you have suddenly only +28 degrees Celsius instead of +38 and no more smog everywhere…

But my nice parents-in-law also struggled a lot with these very long days here in summer. When they go to sleep it’s nearly as bright as daytime and when they open their eyes in the morning it is again (still) bright. I don’t even realize it anymore as I grew up with these summers but someone who is used to total darkness at around 8pm has hard time adapting to this new situation.

Last summer my in-laws said they would like to return again, but this might be impossible. We move soon to Germany and when my in-laws come to visit it will be there, in our new home, not in Finland anymore. But then again, somehow we will manage to take them for another trip into the nature, we don’t know yet how but we (my wife) will figure something out.

Now we still have over one week left here which I will spend by doing the very same as before, working. In Finland people say they go to their summer cabin to work, not relax. I have to agree with this saying as I have never done anything else but work here with my parents. However all hardship is paying off in the end, especially when you sit down after a long day and see the beautiful nature unfold right in front of you.