Official Anukatariina in Portugal

As I told in my previous blog I had sent my application for getting Anukatariina as my official fourth name. After waiting about a month I finally got the message that my dream has become true.  Although it is still just the fourth name I have informed my colleagues I appreciate much if they call me Anukatariina instead my official first name. We’ll see how the things will go.

Because of the new name I have to change all my official cards like ID card, passport and driving licence. Luckily it didn't stop me travelling, the air carrier and foreign officials don't know about the change, yet. And there was a need for showing my ID card because we traveled to Portugal. We have been there many times but never in the northern parts of the country. Our destinations were two towns, Porto and Coimbra.

Or actually we had a short visit to UK first: Our Finnish carrier cancelled our straight flight to Lisbon and we used British Airways which flew with a stopover in Heathrow. In the terminal there were some pianos and grand pianos with signs: "Play me" - so I had to obey and had my first gig in UK ever.

Not a big succes, I guess...

The flight included several passport controls and security checks - pretty much like Brexit would have already taken place. That's why the trip took some time so we stayed the first night in Lisbon and continued to Porto next morning by train.

Lisbon, at last

Porto is the city of port wine. It is the second biggest town in the country but the old part of it is not very big, one hill and the banks of river Douro. People really live in the old and many times quite shabby houses built against one another. We took a guided walk in the old city and heard many stories about the history of the town. The guide had a talent to add some humour and elements easy to identify with. For example we heard that the writer of Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling  has lived there and had taken the idea of the black witch school cape  from the students of Porto University. The Portuguese can get their credits in the matter also in other way: The writer were married with a Portuguese man and after the divorce she was broken and had to do something...

Harry Potter funs...? No, the opposite, the source of the inspiration 

A scene in Porto 

In the port of Porto

Portugal is the land of artistic glassed tiles and Porto is full of them. At first we saw them in the railway station which is full of them telling stories of the heroic history of Portugal. The other place we saw big fresco like constructions was the inner yard of the Porto Dome. The smaller ones were all over the city in the buildings.

The inner yard of the Dome of Porto

The ladies at the railway station of Porto

At the administrative part of  the Dome of  Porto

A scene in Porto, note the walls of the nearest house

The port wine factories were at the other side of the river Douro so we had to cross the river along the high bridge that is meant for the pedestrians and trams.  These trams were not the original ones that we saw in the old city – it is said that new ones have not enough friction in their wheels to climb up to the hill. We got some information of the different types of port wine by buying a set of five different types, a little glass of each. The experience was very informative – and somewhat intoxicating, as well.

A scene from the bridge

Typical historical boats for  port wine transporting

Typical tourists comparing port wines

One night we went to a Fado club where we heard live music and saw a slide show about the history and essence of Fado. It turned out that our next destination Coimbra is probably the most important fado town and it has deep roots in Coimbra University. The male singer was from Coimbra and he also sang the most famous fado, Coimbra – which is known as “The April of Portugal” in Finland. He told that fados were sung in the romantic botanical garden of Coimbra and had some historical pictures of the sessions there.

At the fado club

Fado from Coimbra in Porto

Next day we took the train to Coimbra. The town is smaller than Porto but it is very proud of its university which have the history from medieval era. It had started as a collegiums of wise men in Lisbon and moved to the Royal Castle of Coimbra later. The university area is on the top of the hill – the common habit to build castles those times. So we had to climb uphill again. Actually we missed the funicular although we were told such one was available but we were not unhappy about it. 

Another Harry Potter fans in Coimbra

The way up to the university hill of Coimbra

On the top

The freshman initiation rite going on at the campus

We went down back to the city through the Botanical Garden and it was not hard to imagine the romantic origins of fados, especially the most famous one Coimbra.

Magnolias of the botanical garden seemed to match with my scarf

The bamboo jungle of the botanical garden

There is an old town that, as in so many other towns, have changed to tourist shop area. On the other hand just next corner of the tourist area begins the shopping area for the locals with very traditional shops with very traditional repertoire of goods.

A real traditional lingerie haberdashery shop (lyhyttavarakauppa) in Coimbra

The last day we stayed in Coimbra was the Carnival Friday. In Portugal it seems to be the day for the kids, we noticed the same thing in Madeira a couple years ago. 

Kids' carnival

The Carnival seemed to start also otherwise in Friday evening but we had very early waking for our flight next morning so we skipped it completely – except a tiny posing in the hotel lobby.

The early morning was also very busy... Our hotel was a airport hotel in Lisbon and we were told there would be a shuttle bus that would take us to the right terminal. So we waited for the bus.... We saw a mini bus on the other side of the street with another hotel’s name. Then it went away and after some requests it turned out it was our bus! So we had to walk to the terminal which luckily was quite near. Anyway we were the last passengers to get to the plane. 

Today it is the international Women’s Day and I wish all the best for all the women.

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Starting the year 2019, before I forget...

Year 2019 ha started quite actively so I have to make the first blog before I forget everything.

Work

There has been some progress at my workplace. I finally got my staff ID card with my own face. It made me very happy, it is one sign of the fact I’m at least almost officially recognized.

My new card

With my nearest colleagues

My workstation is still in the old place but we are getting ready to move it to totally new campus. The first part of it is already in use and I visited there with colleagues. The architecture seems quite impressive but I don’t like the idea of open offices - even if there are also silent places and separate meeting rooms.

At the new campus

Sports

My sport life has started busy. I have a season ticket for a gym and I’ve visited there about twice in a week. 

There has been enough snow (actually much more than needed...) to ski so I have been skiing almost every weekend.

I also bought figure skates and went skating with them for the first time of my life. Since then I’ve never skated with skates with toe picks and it made my skating a bit clumsy. 

On the ice

Finally a dense cushion of snow stopped me and turned the skate to the toe picks which finally made me fall. My arms and elbows were quite sore and I went to the hospital to check whether there would be any fractures. I was X-rayed and after that I was called to the operation room where the doctor said I have a microrupture in my right radius and it must be plastered. So I got a modern “plaster” made of wood chips and biological membrane. They also said they will contact me after some more doctors have seen my X-ray images.

Not so happy birthday cake

The worst thing was it was my birthday and I had to cancel the meeting with my grandkids. I also had to replan many things that would be inconvenient with my right arm plastered. On the other hand I wondered: I’ve never had fractures but I had an impression that they would hurt – and this one actually didn’t. I even pushed snow with a snow shovel and did many other things I haven’t seen any person with fractures doing.

After this unhappy weekend I got a call from the hospital: My images have relooked and the fracture turned out to be a vein channel and I was invited to take the plaster away. So I still have had no fractures in my life as far as I know.  I had to replan my replans and try to forget which things I wasn’t able to do with the plastered arm.   

Removing the plaster

Wonder healing...?

Politics

My political year has also started with full of activities. The first one was implementation of our new Name law. Before that you had to show some evidence for the officials that you are in the gender reassignment process. Now it is possible to show the need for the change also in other ways. Now it is also possible to have a mixture of male and female names – the combination possibly needed by transvestites, some non-binary and intersex people.

We assumed there would be some troubles in implementation of the name law in registry offices so we made a survey about the experiences. We will send the results to the Ministry of Justice to get the process better.

My friend Tanja wanted to be the first one to use the new legislation. So we went to the registry office early in the morning 2^nd of January – the earliest possible time to do it. She wanted to have Tanja her official name with no male name with it. It took some weeks before she got the first information about her application. She was asked to give some more information about her gender reassignment process – which was totally against the policy of the new law. So we contacted the Ministry of Justice where we got a statement where it was made clear that such requirement should not be used. The result of our action was fast: Tanja got her new name the next day!

At the registry office with Tanja and Tuija

I also made my application for my new name. Or actually it was new only in juridical sense, I just added Anukatariina to my old male name. In my application I told that I live mostly as Anukatariina but I still need my male identity in some special situations. I told my story during the last few years and added lots of pictures as a proof. 

Hey, what am I doing....? 

My situation seems to be more complex, because it has taken some weeks with no decision. On the other hand my friend had made almost identical application in another registry office and her case is already ready – probably as the first male-female name in Finland.

I attended the Educa expo for teachers at the Seta showroom. We had material for the staff working with kids with variety of gender and sexual orientation. We were mostly well received and our material was very popular.

At Educa expo. BTW: As I forgot to name my organization in that place is "Nainen" (Woman) in my card.

  Unfortunately there was some kind of campaign of religious fundamentalist who tried to take space in our showroom. We answered the place is non discrimination area so we dragged them out of the showroom area and their aggressive message can frighten someone. There I had some discussion with some of them outside of the area probably with no harmony as a result.   

The new year means also new plans for political activities. As a chair of Dreamwear Club I attended the summit of the chairs of Seta member organisations.  I also continue in the Seta Trans political group.

A new and interesting opening has been anti hate crime activity. I attended the meeting in the Ministry of Justice about this issue. We were sorry to tell the authorities the reason for very obvious underestimated findings of hate crimes concerning the sexual orientation or gender diversity are result of things as follows:

1.      Victims don’t recognize the crimes as such

2.      The police officers don’t recognize them as such

3.      Victims don’t believe they are taken seriously

4.      In many case the police officers don’t take the crimes seriously

5.      The victims also cannot recognize discrimination and don’t know what to do about it.    

To solve all the problems is a vast task. One little thing to get things better could be a internet site where different situations and ways to get help are described. We also would need kind of “rainbow sensible” police officer. I heard there really is one in Finland (In Sweden there has been Gay Polis for decades...). We planned an option to have a link to this institution to make the victims feel safer when they contact police.

At the Ministry of Justice

 Culture

My cultural life hasn’t been very lively. Once I went to a symphony concert with my friend Harri. Last time we were there together was nine years ago and my feelings were very different: Then I was very nervous and thought a colleague who happened to be there would definitely recognize me and I would be “outed” – well she naturally didn’t recognize me and I lived closeted many years after the incidence. Now there also were a colleague who didn’t notice me – so I naturally went to say her hi!   

At the concert hall

The other night life activity has been a burlesque show. The synopsis of the show pieces is approximately invariant but the innovations how to express it is sometimes with imagination. The best thing in burlesque shows is the feeling of community, the audience is also dressed mostly in pin up style and takes part very actively. This is what I like the most. 

Burlesque audience

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A short story about the long Christmas 2018

Before Christmas I was quite exhausted after so many activities at work and other places. I even got ill during the last week in spite of my normal biological state. So I worked at home to get the rest duties done - even had a seminar online.

Our children announced no one is around during the Christmas so we decided to choose a sort of do nothing strategy. It included the Christmas time at a Spa in Rakvere, Estonia. There we had almost five days to avoid any obligations: Only breakfasts, dinners and massages and beauty cares were scheduled. Otherwise we concentrated in walking in the town, swimming in different kinds of pools and do some gym - or just relaxing.

After the Christmas Eve dinner

This pool was even too warm

Exercising 

Having a pedicure

The worst thing in the hotel Christmas was you just couldn’t hide from various versions of Christmas carols in uninterrupted chain.  However in the Christmas evening I also played some of my versions, not very easily identified, though...

Improvising The Jazz Sparrow in the Christmas Morning... 

Rakvere is is a town of 15 000 inhabitants situated in the North East part of Estonia. The district is mostly populated by Estonian Russians but Rakvere is mostly Estonian speaking. Actually it is an old Estonian German city Wesenberg, founded in 14^th century. And of, course, there is an old German castle that is blown up by Peter the Great – a very usual story in Estonia. The ground of the area contains oil shale and therefore there are some mines for that smoking stuff.

Rakvere Castle

Some parts of the city have remained the pre war feeling with well off houses along the streets – nowadays only partly renovated. Of course there are the Soviet layer and also the modern layer of buildings.   

At the Trinity Church of Rakvere

After coming home we finally had our own Christmas preparations because our children and grandchildren came for Christmas dinner. When we went shopping to get stuff for it we noticed many Christmas things was quite cheap – we even got some orchids for free!

Making my wafels...

...and different ways to enjoy them

We had two sittings, one for my and the other for my spouse’s offspring. The regime varied a little but in both cases my nettle buckwheat wafers with Smetana and smoked whitefish were included.

Incorruptible opinions on my biscuits

The year changed between the two sittings. I hope the new one will be as happy as the last one was to me - and I hope it for everyone.

My toast to the New Year

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Before the Christmas 2018, ending the semester

The end of the semester didn’t give anything special change to my life. However it was full of action and in some cases even surprises.

In the beginning of November I attended the Rainbow History Club organized by Seta. There we heard stories of rainbow life and battle for the rights from the sixties. The stories were a huge evidence to prove the importance of the human right work: The situation has become better due to very hard and perseveringly work: First decriminalization, then depathologization and finally legal equality – the latter still being partly incomplete and in many ways also unimplemented in everyday life. 

With a veteran Thea

Talking about the future on the basis of the history

  

This year I was exceptionally deeply involved in TransHelsinki happening in November. The Trans Support Centre hava gradually withdrawn from the organization of the event because of the lack of the staff so someone had to replace it. And this time it seemed it was me – with the help from many other people, of course. But this is typical when things are done with voluntary resources - they just tend to gather for few persons. In a small core team we created planning platforms for the different events, coordinated the overall structure, the Trans Community Seminar and the Candle light event Transgender Day of Remembrance, remembering the trans people murdered this year in the world. The task also involved details like catering, presenter recruitment, seminar room reservation, AV system checks, communication with police and the staff of House of Parliament. My person is not very promoter-like and it took some extra energy to make all this during the spare time. So afterwards I felt a bit tired and decided not to be that much the central person for organizing TransHelsinki next year.

Anyway it seemed the events went well, in spite of some kind of lack of audience. The reason for the latter must be quite late and maybe also inadequate information – things were too late ready to be well informed.

Transgender Day of Remembrance event at the stairs of the House of the Parliament

My personal output was my presentation in the Trans Community Seminar where I considered the reasons for the frustration of lads that are not very happy with the positive development of the LGBTI rights. I concluded that in Finland he is sort of endangered relic but on the other hand he has too much brothers in other countries and we should really be aware of the new and well organized wave containing both populist and fundamentalist religious origins and funds.

My presentation at the seminar

Discussion at the seminar

     

The other major political event was Seta representative assembly at the end of November. This time it was in Tampere. The agenda was “normal”, new chair and some members of the board was elected.

Om my way to Tampere

The Dreamwear Club representatives

It seems recently the chair candidates have been mostly trans people. I wonder whether it may be so because just now the trans issues are even more acute in the agenda than gay and lesbian issues.

The new chair of Seta, Sakris Kupila

The place was far from the city and the organizers have planned that the evening happening would take place in the gay bar in the city. However we old ladies of Dreamwear Club were too tired to go there so we had our own evening meeting with a glass of water – the only thing that was available in the smoke and alcohol free hotel after 6 p.m.!  

A peaceful evening with an almost empty water bowl

This year I had to share my time between DWC Monday coffee evenings and my dance rehearsals. The solution was I made the coffee table ready and left the place when the event officially started. The situation was the same also in the case of the last one which also was our “pikkujoulu”, Little Christmas. Some years ago I used to bake the traditional Christmas pastry at the Seta kitchen. Since they had the office reconstructed they have no oven so I had to do it at home.

Baking for the Pikkujoulu

At work this semester has gone mostly as Anukatariina, the male days have been very rare exceptions. I’ve always liked the interaction with the students the most but it seems it has been even more pleasant part of my work. And the highlight of this was the comment of a student in the middle of the laboratory rehearsals: “We just want to tell you we like you very much as a teacher.” And yes, I like them very much as well.

Giving a pop up lesson about the gender diversity

At the X-ray laboratory rehearsals

I still had some time to do other things than work and activism. I purchased a museum card which allows me to visit a large selection of museums for free. So far I’ve visited the national art museum Ateneum and a brand new gallery, Amos Rex with its light installations. At Ateneum I hadn’t enough time to properly see all the sections I want to see, but now I can go there again anytime it’s suitable for me.   

Amos Rex

Ateneum

The theater activities have been rare. The only one was a musical The Kinky Boots. The performance was excellent but the message of acceptance and non discrimination was distorted by very pejorative joke about being a crossdresser – the crossdressing persons in the musical are drag queens.

The interlude sparkling with my musical friend Harri

One day I walked through a nearby mall when I was asked to turn a lucky dip. It was a campaign of a gym at the mall and I got an invitation to a trying out week at the gym. I chose the week I had some extra free time so I had an opportunity to visit there three times. During my first time I even had a personal trainer who introduced the fitness machines she thought I would need – I’ve never used such devices. So during the last two times I could use them safely on my own. The place was nice and situated perfectly to fit my schedule but the price for my intensity of use was far too high so I decided just to say no for the offer.  But now I have some other ideas to get my body more fit, we will see...

At the gym

This semester my belly dance project had a sad ending: I had purchased a costume for the performance, I’ve trained the choreography pretty well - and the week of the last rehearsals and the performance the belly dance agenda changed to belly problems. The other ladies did it well, but gosh I’d like to be there with them.

Trying on the dress. The dresses in the plastic bags were really used in the performance.

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