Finland, 01.01.2007

Dear Mummy, sisters, brothers and Loredana

Greetings from the land of snow, lakes and Santa Claus. A lot has happened since I left the warm and cozy  Italy in September.
My flight to Finland was pleasant, I slept the whole journey. My mum Crista picked me up at the airport in Helsinki. Boy, she surely spoke a very strange language. She even phoned Loredana from the airport and tried to speak Italian. It sure sounded strange and I do wonder did Loredana ever understand a word my mummy said. Later on I have learned many words of this odd language. Mummy uses words like mammas kompis ( mummy’s friend), vänta (wait) and duktig pojke (good boy).  Daddy speaks an entirely different language and that’s the language most of the people here in Finland speak. I know many words in that language too.
I live in Kirkkonummi, a little town 30km south-west from Helsinki. I have not met any polar bears here nor have I met this Santa Claus who seems to be a famous person here in Finland. In stead I have met some deer and some elks in the forests.
I am not the only dog in our house, Ronja is a mixed breed, she’s called granny because of her old age.
She’s a grumpy old lady who insists on washing my ears and eyes every day. Jói is a Bernese mountaindog who is called pretty boy, he is a real sissy. Every time I try to play with him he runs away. Now when I am older both Ronja and Jói try to play with me but mummy and daddy don’t allow them to do that. They say that our games are too rough. We have lousy room service in this house.
I have made many complaints to the manager about the lack of food and the small food servings.
No luck. Mummy is strict. I have even tried my poor starving puppy look, but no success.
I have a room of my own, actually it’s mum’s and dad’s room. Mummy says I have to have my own room because I’m only a little puppy. She thinks it is better that I sleep with them at night and not with the older dogs. Still I do have to sleep on the floor and not in the bed with mum and dad.  If I had to choose a room, I would prefer to stay in the kitchen. You never know what you can find on the tables there. The kitchen is the best place in our house.
People always think Finland is a cold country with a lot of snow. We have had some snow a few times but a lot of snow….Well let’s just say I have had many showers this autumn both outside and inside the house. Instead it’s dark here. The sun has been playing hide and seek for months now. You can never tell if it’s day or night when you wake up because of the darkness. Mummy says the sun will come back in spring again and the days will be longer in a few months. Somebody could have warned me. Now I have begun to shed my coat and I bet it’s because of this darkness
The Christmas holidays are over. They sure have some strange traditions here in Finland. A few days before Christmas mummy and daddy brought in a big tree and placed it in the living- room. It smelled like the spruces in the forest. Then they put some gnomes made of wool, shiny balls, candles and some glittering ribbons in it. Now I have gotten rid of most of the gnomes and I also had to taste one ball. Mummy was not happy at all when she discovered my new talent as a gnome hunter. It’s nice to sleep under the tree even though my coat is full of spruce twigs afterwards. Christmas is lot of fun. Many people come and visit us and I get a lot of attention. Yesterday was New Years Eve. Mum and dad stayed at home because of me. They said that I’m just a puppy and can’t be left alone on this day. So we stayed at home but many other people were outside. The whole evening you could hear noise from outside like shooting sounds and every now and then the sky was lighted in various colours. Mummy told me that the sounds and colours are called fireworks. I was not afraid at all.

Many kisses and hugs: Grínja ( Tricolorbear Harry Potter)