Here comes a long one...

WOW...two months since I have updated. That is unacceptable, I am really sorry. A lot has gone on since I was last here. I have been to Helsinki, Finland and London and USC has lost twice. I will address my travels before I start moaning about the state of the football team.

I went to Helsinki for the European Public Health Association Annual Conference. What I saw of the city was nice, but since I was there for work rather than play I did not see a lot of it, and I took even fewer pictures. I will put the pictures I did take into my photo album tomorrow. Anyway, Helsinki was cold and that is something coming from Scotland. Helsinki is even higher in latitude that Glasgow is, so they get colder earlier and longer. Since it was October, it was not really that bad, I don't think I will be going to Lapland (the upper part of the country) anytime during the winter.

Here is what I have learned from the conference and about Finland:

1. The Finish language in one of the most difficult to learn, it is a Finno-Ugric Language and therefore is not similar to English or any of the other Anglo-Frisian or Romance languages. They do not speak in genders and so when they are speaking in English they often mix the two up. They also do not have prepositions and to "make up" for that, they have many (over 35) suffixes that they add to their words. It is quite interesting to see the language because you can start picking up on those suffixes.
2. I attended the pre-conference on migrant health I had to stop and change my frame of mind a bit. I am sorry if I go on a bit of a tangent here, but I find it so interesting. First, research on migrants and minority populations is so new in many parts of Europe, they are facing new issues that the UK and US have faced for decades. Relative to the US, they are also speaking about very small numbers. Finland for example is a country of about 5 million people and they have a migrant population of 2.3% of that or 115,000. The UK has 60 million and about 13.1% are ethnic minorities (~8 million). Now if you compare that to the US those are tiny. I mean, California has more people in the state than most of the EU countries have in their entire population. And 57% ( 21 million) of the population is a member of a minority group! It is really something to think about from a social and research perspective. I really get excited when I think about all the research possibilities out there. Anyway, I am sorry for that tirade, but you should know by know that I love to add a bit of education to my posts.

Earlier this week I went to London for a meeting. I walked around with my boss Monday night and got to see the West End, where they have a lot of theatres (for plays) and then we went to Trafalgar square. Tuesday after my meeting I went to Westminster Abbey and walked around the Parliament buildings and down on the walkway by the river. It was all very interesting and even though I have not been to New York in a while, London really reminded me of New York...lots of people always on the go. I will upload those pictures as well. I look forward to going back to London when I have more time and really getting a feel for the city. Luckily for me it was not raining when I went, so I had a few really beautiful hours to walk around before my trip home. As with every European city I have been to their public transportation is phenomenal. We really need to send our city planners over here to understand what a real subway system is and implement them in the US, especially in the western US.

Finally I will say that for once I am grateful that I am not in the states so that I can only hear the USC games rather than have to watch as well. I know that this year has been really bad and that we are still being investigated for Reggie's stupidity, but I am a Trojan through and through and I still wear my USC sweatshirt to work everyday. I saw someone in the Heathrow airport with a USC hat on, but I was not able to talk to him.

I hope that you all are doing well. Keep me posted on the goings on and I hope to see you all soon.

Until next time:

Sabaid Air (Scottish Gaelic) and beat the Beavers!!