The end of the year 2019

The last quarterly of the year 2019 was busy as usual, maybe even more so. In addition to normal Dreamwear Club and TransHelsinki managements was Dreamwear Club homepage project. Luckily we have a professional among us, Tuula Marika was the head programmer. I was sort of architecture planner and  content producer. The pages are based on Wix technology which means ready-made templates and makes my work easy as a non professional programmer.  We made various sections including information to trans people and people interested in the subject, news, calendar and formal part for the association among others. In the very end of the year we added forum part and the members only section and hope these sections will make the pages more interactive and popular.

As I attended the Radiation safety day for professionals I finally introduced Anukatariina to my entire professional environment. There were lots of my former students to meet. The response was very relaxed: When I tried to say it’s me, they just interrupted and said hi, T....    maybe the rumor had spread wide enough.

The congress hall in Tampere

The congress attender 

There were an evening event between the days. The star of the night was a pop artist Arttu Viskari, but I and my colleague Pia were too tired to listen to him too long – so we decided to walk back to our hotel.

With my former students and collagues Pia and Päivi before Arttu Viskari

The big change to my daily work was that the campus moved to Myllypuro from places around Huopalahti bay. For me it means I must use metro instead of train and I have no benefit of using bike. On the other hand lecturing online instead of live audience increases. Part of it can be done at home but part of it must be done in studios at  the campus.

Lecturing in the studio

Closing the season with colleagues in a restaurant in Myllypuro

My political activity included things that have become somewhat constant parts of my life. Against Hate campaign activities included some meetings in National Board of Education and Crime Victim Support. 

At the National Board of Education

 Education about gender diversity was directed totally to my students. I was also interviewed to the Seta video project - which surprisingly took place at my home.

Being interviewed

And as usual, I attended Seta representative assembly, as a representative of Dreamwear Club. The assembly took place in Joensuu, my old home town. It was also the hottest Pikkujoulu (Little Christmas) season so the hotel was crowded with celebrating people. I tried to spot my old friends but failed totally. Maybe their outlook has changed too much or –which is the most possible explanation – they have mostly retired and so not present at the events arranged by workplaces. And the star of the night was Arttu Viskari – which I skipped also this time.

At the assembly with Tuija

With Amanda after Arttu Viskari

Arranging TransHelsinki is a major effort and despite I had much more people doing it than last year it took some resources. The main efforts were the community seminar and the Transgender Day of Remembrance event TDOR in 20^th of November.

We had a nice opportunity to arrange the seminar at the old cinema theater Orion. The theme was the young trans people. The new government offers a major progress to trans legislation by separating juridical and medical procedures. Unfortunately the reformation excludes people over eighteen years. There are no rational reasons to do so: The young people need social transition before they get the medical one. On the other hand living in one’s own gender role helps to assure it really is the right choice; if not, the procedure is rather easy to cancel. The other thing is the international recommendations suggest the medical procedure should start just after thorough examinations that might take years. In Finland the examinations are started only after age of thirteen which makes it hard to use effective medical methods for adolescent people. Another very serious thing taking place simultaneously is very aggressive attack from conservative religious groups targeting any support to young trans people. Unfortunately the attack is carried out even by some doctors with authority in this field, representing the theory of so called Rapid Onset of Gender Dysphoria which is derived by a transphobic doctor on basis of the parents who would not accept their kids being trans. The theory is not approved by the international expert organizations.  However, because of the authority position of the Finnish doctor even the Finnish Broadcasting Company let her introduce the theory without any criticism on it.

So we had a lot of program about the youngsters in the seminar. We had the chair of Seta and medical student Sakris Kupila talking about the medical points of view. My friend Tanja von Knorring spoke about the history, background and future perspectives on trans legislation. Milla Kissaniitty gave a speech from the perspective of trans kids and their parents. I told the results of our survey of the implementation of the new name law. From the beginning of this year it has been possible to change one’s first names to other gendered name with so called good explanations for the need – before it the proof of gender reassignment process was needed. The sad thing is there is a instruction to demand the medical proof for kid under fifteen – there is no such mention in the law though.

Telling about the implementation of the name law at the seminar

The highlight of the seminar was the All Youth Panel with very bright thinking and quick-witted youngsters.

The TDOR event took place on the front stairs of the House of Parliament. The event is for remembering the murdered trans people in the world this year. There were a list of over 300 murdered just for being trans – of course trans people are also murdered for other reasons as well.

I had reserved the place and made the notice to Police a couple of months before. Some hour before the event I was contacted by a police officer. She said that she is very sorry but there has been a double booking for the stairs that time. The other was a demonstration against Chile government. There is enough room for two events on the stairs but there was another problem: Our event is based on very quiet remembering of the dead people and their way to demonstrate was beating kettles – a tradition from the Pinochet junta era. When we had similar event before the police was sitting passively in their vans to observe our and possible intruders’ activities. This time they were very active and willing to settle our possible conflicts. The main organizer of the Chile demonstration came to me to negotiate the situation. I had an idea to act in turn but the language barrier made it clear too complicated dramaturgy would be too difficult to be carried out. So I said we were the first ones to inform the Police so we also had the privilege to start first but it will not take more than a half an hour. So when we started the Chile demonstrators joined our event and we joined theirs after we had finished – a nice win-win situation instead of a conflict.    

Remembering the murdered trans people on the front stairs of the House of  Parliament. Photo by Jussi Hirvi

I had a destination to go to gym once a week but it failed because of my other activities. I’m still satisfied with the concept and will continue in the same gym place.

Fat burning after Christmas

The other thing I had to skip was an intensive training of belly dance. I’m still in the group with a level slightly beyond my skills. Fortunately I had a weekend just before the performance when I had enough time to rehearse. So the performance was not a disaster, though with more practice it could have better, much better.

Just before the performance

My busy semester continued as my spouse got ill just before Christmas. So I had to do some more preparations than I used to do. Maybe it was a good thing, now I have at least emptied my mind of my other daily issues and only think totally something else.  J

Nettle wafers

Different sorts of Christmas delicacy

A phoenix cake ready from the oven

Frying duck breast

A joyful and relaxed moment after all, merry Christmas :)

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Dalmatian Week without Black Spots

Today I finally have time to write up my memories of our trip a month ago.


In October we had the conventional autumn holiday and we made our long term wish to visit the Dalmatian coast to come true. Our main destination was Dubrovnik and Split as the secondary target. We thought the time to go there would be perfect because we like neither heat nor crowds of tourists. The temperature was about 23 degrees in the days and about 16 degrees in the evenings – the nights we tend to sleep nowadays.

Dubrovnik is a very old town – actually it has been a state competing with the mighty power of Mediterranean Venice. It has been sort of democracy where the rector was elected to rule only a month! During the colonial time Dubrovnik lost its power to more powerful countries like Spain, England and Holland and it was a part of the Austro-Hungary Empire, Yugoslavia and finally Croatia. The last dramatic period for the town was the siege and bombardment by the Serbian troops in 1991. The center of Dubrovnik is a UNESCO world heritage site and was destroyed very badly. Nowadays it has been restored quite well.

Split also has very long history. Its center is built inside the Palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian who happened to be a Dalmatian.  

Our apartment was situated one and a half kilometres from the center of Dubrovnik. It was quite near the sea and we had a balcony view to the twinkling Adrian.

On our balcony just after arriving

 On the other hand the sea was not so easy to reach, the steep rocky embankments were not too easy for Sini. So we went swimming only once near the apartment.  Sini is a very skilful swimmer but because her just operated shoulder she chose the pool instead the waves of Adriatic Sea – which happened to stay very calm all the time.  

Stairs to our nearby beach...

...which also was rather rocky

The second day was for Split. The distance between the cities is about 170 kilometers straight but because of the serpentine shape of the coastline road it would take about four hours! So we had a plan to stay there about three hours. Because some delays during the trip it took five hours so we had less than two hours in Split. The view to Adriatic Sea and its Archipelago was terrific and we surely had enough time to enjoy it.

Before we got there we had something else to worry about. Dubrovnik is separated from the rest of Croatia by territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina. We had only the ID cards which work nicely in EU and Schengen countries but in that border control we should have had passports. We asked advice in advance from our hostess and she called some official and said it should be o.k. also with our ID cards. She also gave us some phone number for the case we would have some troubles with the matter. Luckily we didn’t need the phone number, everything went o.k. on the passport checkpoints.

Passport (??!!!) control at the Bosnia Herzegovinian border

According to our diminished schedule we had only time for eating and visiting the palace area which is a mixture of ancient Roman and medieval constructions. Anyway we had enough time to sense its powerful feeling of its area of greatness.

As it was October the sun started to set soon after we stated our way back to Dubrovnik. So the view was different this time, and rather dark after the sunset. 

The sudden sunset seen from the bus window

We were a bit worried about the safety of  travelling in the bus. Later we found out there has been a bus fire a week before our trip where a Finnish couple had managed to get out just in time.

The nice little nuance was the grenade apple given by a toilet lady in a bus stop station half way to Dubrovnik. We had the apple as a part of our breakfast next morning.

A breakfast with a grenade apple given by a toilet lady

The third day was committed to Dubrovnik center. We had two guided tours, the first in the streets and the other on the walls surrounding the old center.  Our first guide has lived his childhood in these narrow streets and seen the old shabby period, then the war period and the huge growth of tourism in current century.

The Serbs bombarded Dubrovnik from the hills behind the city

The main street seen from the walls

The walls of Dubrovnik, some stairs to climb when walking round the old city

A grumpy priest has written complaints on boys’ noisy football playing in the hoods our guide also used to play – in the 17th century!!  

Our guide and the ancient  anti-football graffiti made by a priest

The tiny church where the siesta of the priest was interrupted

The second guide on the walls was also very informative but on the other hand full of Croatian patriotism with not so accurate facts on the people and history of Dubrovnik.

The fourth day was for the Adriatic archipelago. We visited three islands near Dubrovnik. The trip was very well organized, we had car transportation to the harbor and there was enough food and wine on board. The weather was optimal for such a trip, sun was shining and there was no wind and waves. One of the islands was perfect for our beach life, we had more than an hour to swim and have some sunbath. The beach was on the other side of the island from the place we landed but we took a golf cart cab to get there.

Not so safe feeling drive to the beach

So peaceful and pleasant!

After swim Spritz

The other island was more rural with a nice fisher village. The third was quite near Dubrovnik so it seemed to be a sort of suburb. Anyway I had time to walk behind the houses and find a remote olive grove.

The harbor of the fisher village

A view of the fisher village

The olive grove behind the village

One night Sini broke her toes and this made her walking very uneasy. So the fifth day I took a walk to neighborhood of our apartment.  I ended up to a hill and walked for some time in the rocky and bushy slopes of it. I tried to look carefully to my feet to avoid stepping on any poisonous snakes living there. I only saw a rather long tail of a lizard escaping me and a dead snake. I also spotted a hiding mantis and some interesting butterflies.  

On the hill there was a chapel dedicated to St Blasius, a guy you have severe difficulties to avoid in Dubrovnik 

A view from the hill 

A view from the hill to the direction of the Lokrum Island 

An upside down mantis 

A whip snake - very rare and unfortunately also very dead

Macrtoglossum Stellatarum, a butterfly hovering like a humming bird

Buteo Lagopus, a buzzard we use to see in Finland on their way to Lapland

In the morning of our departure day we hired the taxi to the airport. I asked the taxi driver if he knew something about the burned bus. He replied he knows the owner of the bus and that the old buses of him overheat rather often. At the airport I had the first contact to my everyday life: I met my colleague Pirkko-Leena who also had been near Dubrovnik the same week. She told her husband knew about the burned bus but didn’t tell her because they had a plan to visit Montenegro by bus.

The last view to the Adriatic on our way to airport

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Opening the Fall 2019

Happy with the boletus

The late summer was so dry especially in my “territory” so I didn’t even try to pick blueberries. Instead of that I contacted a semi professional person whom I knew to an immigrant. When I called her her husband answered and told the berries would be ready in six p.m. When I arrived there he told there is two hours delay.  I told him I’ll go to a mall nearby and asked him to call when the berries are ready. After an hour he called to tell me the berries were ready. The reason I told the story was this:  During the procedure he thought he had been spoken to a man and met a lady and I had to explain the situation before he got it.

The mentioned blueberries

I’ve been as Anukatariina at work almost every day. Till this semester I still didn’t do it when I had education to professionals. This time I also broke that rule. As a consequence a former student of mine came to tell me how I’ve looked good and got ten years younger! She was my student ten years ago and I just wonder how old I must have looked then...

Starting the semester with colleagues

The political and social activities have been the main reason for my busy fall. We have updated the home page of Dreamwear Club which have taken some effort: Both the content and the technique of the page have been out of date and we had to build a brand new version. It is still under minor modifications but I’m happy to its main characteristics. 

The other big effort has been TransHelsinki happening in November which has quite a lot of preparatory work, because the “staff” has not been too big. I also have attended some meetings around the Against Hate program been, at the Seta desk at the Early Childhood Education Fair, done some experience teaching and been interviewed as a Seta activist at my home.

At the Victim Support Organization with Samuel and Julian from Trasek ry

At the early childhood education fair with Tuija

The fall meeting of the Dreamwear Club had Oktoberfest as its theme. This kind of themed meetings seems to be a good idea and we decided to continue this tradition.

The official part of the meeting as the chair

The inofficial part of the meeting in dirndl

The next day after the fall meeting I travelled to Brussels. Finland holds the Presidency of the EU and organized an event with the Commission, which set out guidelines for the EU equality policy, especially with regard to the LQBTI people. The situation in different EU countries is strikingly different and in the Eastern countries it is alarming, mostly because of the skilful and well planned international hate campaign against us. Finland had quite a big delegation and I and my friend Tanja were part of it, also representing our associations Dreamwear Club and Regnbågsankan.  It seemed I was the only transvestite in the congress among 600 people. We had possibilities to our initiatives to promote equality and resist hate politics in Europe and some of our points were present in the final statement of the congress.  

Relaxing in the foam bath between the congress days

At the congress with Tanja 

Part of the Finnish delegation

 

Some might lose her heart in the place she loves. I lost my coat to

Brussels Airport because it was too warm to wear it there and because we had too good time before the flight back.

Did my coat go there..?

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