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My January page was inspired by a business trip to Finland. It would be an understatement to say that this trip did not go well; in fact, I do not ever remember feeling so isolated and alone. This quilt tries to capture the despair I felt upon my arrival and for the next few days. This time of year in Finland they experience about 5 hours of daylight. Even when it was supposed to be light out, it was gray. The ground is covered in snow and ice. The acute triangles are meant to represent ice; the beads rain. The torn and shredded pieces of silk symbols of mourning for the loss of my feeling of security. The faded, stamped images of salmon and reindeer are Lapland shaman symbols. The machine quilting is done in a pattern representing the analog wave that would be created by the sound of a human voice over a telephone line – this symbolizes the reason I was in Finland – to work with Nokia.

Materials: cotton, silk dupioni, Hanah bias silk ribbon, seed and bugle beads, Yenmet metallic thread, Sulky rayon thread.

Techniques: reverse appliqué, rubber stamping, beading, free-motion machine embroidery and quilting

 

Here's my journal entry:

Arrive in Helsinki (Finland) later than expected due to plane problems in Amsterdam. Not too big a deal, except it means I'll be getting to my hotel when it's dark, rather than maximizing daylight.

Get to airport; instructions indicate that I'm to take a bus to Salo. Go to information desk, buy a ticket, go to stand #6. #6 has 3 busses at it; I ask first busdriver if this is the bus to Salo, he looks at me and grunts. I take this for a no. Go to next bus. Ask same question. He says something back in Finnish. I look at him quizzically, and repeat in English. He says more stuff in Finnish. After the third try, a young woman on the bus indicates that this is, indeed, the right one.

Okay, now this is like a Greyhound bus, and luggage goes underneath. I have a behemoth of a suitcase because I'm gone for the equivalent of 7 days in the land of snow and ice. While the bus driver previously was helping passengers with their luggage, he apparently has no desire to help me with mine. Now, I'm standing on permafrost. Yes, the sidewalks, roads, everything is covered with an inch of ice/snow – sorta like you'd crush for a frozen margarita. Needless to say, the wheels on the suitcase aren't rolling, and I'm dragging this puppy. The bus is parked right up to the curb. I know what's going to happen – the momentum from lifting this thing is going to drag me forward and make me slide off the curb. The reality is worse. The cargo doors flip up (sorta like the way a side minivan door slides except up rather than sideways). I slide down the curb and whack my head against the door. Bend my glasses. Now, this may not be a big deal if you have regular old glasses, but these are progressives, and if they're not aligned properly, you can't see. So I can't see. And my nose hurts. If I didn't have my glasses on, I probably would've poked my eye out. All right, it can't get worse.

Now I'm on the bus, and again, have no idea when I'm supposed to get off the bus if the bus driver doesn't announce it. Supposedly there's a bus station in Salo, but so far every stop is just one of those little stands along the street. It's supposedly about 100km, so I'm figuring 60mi at 60mph will take one hour. A half hour into the trip, we all have to get off the bus. We're at one of those little plexiglass stands. It seems that everyone is then getting on this other bus, and the bus driver is transferring luggage, so I guess that's the right thing to do.

It's now quickly becoming dark. We continue to stop at isolated little bus stands along a deserted two-lane highway. Over an hour has passed, then 1.5 hours ... I start seeing signs for Turku. More panic – Turku is BEYOND Salo. Of course I can't really see what they say, and they flash by too quickly for me to focus. We pull off the 'highway' and are apparently approaching a town. Looks like an old New England mill town; one that hasn't experienced a 'rebirth' yet. We stop on every street corner, and then, finally, a bus station. Okay. This is it. Deserted, but there's supposedly a taxi stand. I drag my suitcase off the bus, and start walking around the corner, trying to find the taxi stand. There it is, and there's a taxi just pulling off. Okay. I'll wait.

Waiting ... waiting ... about 15 minutes go by, no taxi. There's a number posted on the sign, but that doesn't do me any good – there's no phone anywhere. One must realize that Finland has the largest number of cellphones per capita than any other country. I think Finns are issued cell phone numbers at birth. Salo is a company town – Nokia. That's who I'm visiting for the week.

Finally, after another 10 minutes, an older gentleman pulls up in his BMW, and asks if I'm waiting for a taxi. I say 'yes'. He says something about 'phone' and points to the sign. I nod 'yes' and we repeat this silly exchange three more times. Finally he changes 'phone' to 'call' and I say "I Don't HAVE A Phone!" AAAHHH! He says. And calls for me.

Okay. Now I'm in the taxi. We pull up at what looks like a side door to a HoJo's. Voila! I've arrived.

The first thing I'm greeted with (it's now Sunday night, I've been travelling since Saturday afternoon and have had very little sleep) is "It's Sunday, the restaurants are closed." Just as well, once I see the menus. She hands me my room key (yes, it's a key) and sends me off. I find my room, and then spend 10 minutes trying to open the door. Okay. I've lost it by this time. I'm either going to kill someone or commit suicide. I go back down. She says, "Oh, yes, oftentimes people from the US have problems with these." What I want to reply isn't fit for the printed page. If you knew this beforehand, why didn't you bother to clue me in BEFORE I went upstairs and felt like a complete idiot? So, she comes up with me and shows me the secret. Fine.

I now enter my room, and realize it is a jail cell. No bigger than 6' x 8'. A single bed, a counter for a desk. No room for a chair or any 'luxuries.' And it's very, very dark. Okay, I've got to touch base with the real world. I spend the next 20 minutes trying to connect my laptop. Finally, I call down to the desk. "Oh, your room doesn't have access." I'm sure my voice was trembling at this point, and she was afraid for her life. She says "Let me check to see if I have a room with analog capabilities available" ... long silence ... ah, yes, and it's a nicer room, even. Can't get worse, I say to myself.

Okay, back to the lobby, get a different key, and discover that it is, in fact, a much nicer room – a bit bigger, and a view of the river. Frozen, of course. Well, think a 12' channel, sorta like Riverwalk in San Antonio, not the Charles in Boston. I finally am able to figure out how to connect, how many different numbers I need to dial, and reach the English-speaking world. Okay. I can survive this.

Turn on the TV. Not a single English-speaking station. This is not giving me warm fuzzies. Somehow I eventually fall asleep, and survive the next two nights.

On Wednesday, I get to transfer to Tampere. Jaana (the client) drives me to Turku, where I board a train. I've taken the train to NYC, so I can do this. Well, there's no 'platform' – you're outside on the ground and the train tracks are on the ground. Train arrives, and there's these very steep, very narrow steps to get on the train. Did you forget about this huge suitcase I'm dragging through permafrost? Now I have to get it up these steps. Of course, I'm holding up the entire line, I can't fit on the same step as the suitcase, but eventually get it to the top. I walk into the car and find the first available seat in which to collapse. All of a sudden, there's lots of shouting, and some people exit the car to find another. Not me. I'm staying put. No way I'm going to try to maneuver this thing through the train. The commotion is being caused by a drunken fellow. He's at the other end of the car making lots of noise, and everyone else is yelling at him – in Finnish. I'm just reading my book. Hell, I grew up riding the T in Boston – drunks are familiar to me. Okay, 2 hour ride. Get to Tampere. A nice middle-aged overweight gentleman lifts my suitcase off the train for me. He and his wife have obviously done a month's worth of shopping at the local liquor store and have cartons and cartons of stuff that they're taking off the train.

Now I need to make my way to the station which is several sets of tracks over. Seems they use tunnels to get from one set to the next. Okay. There's a huge flight of stairs (think of going down into the subway). No escalator. And this behemoth of a suitcase. At least it's down. New taxi, new hotel. Much nicer. Nicer, bigger rooms. Big city. Overlooking a river and some historic mill buildings all lit up. Okay, I can do this. Credit card keys. Figure out that from this city you use a different set of codes to dial internationally. Oh, and that there's this constant interrupted dial tone – like message waiting – so you've got to reconfigure your modem settings in order for it to recognize that you've got a dial tone. At least it was all explained in the hotel book. MTV Europe and CNN World on the TV. At least it's English, even if it's loud and/or boring. Too tired – pass on dinner. In the morning, take a taxi to the Nokia facility (kinda in the 'burbs). Even more spectacular than Salo. Thursday night I'm adventurous and decide to try the Mexican restaurant in the hotel. Nachos look like Fritos, but the steak was decent.

Friday morning the wake up call never happens, and it's 9:30 and I should be leaving the hotel. Worked just fine on Thursday morning. Oh well. I call – it's okay. Short day anyway.

Drag the suitcase to Nokia, and then take taxi to train station for the train to Helsinki. Remember that huge flight of stairs I had to go down? You've got it. Now I've got to go up them. And there's this huge crowd of people that are all very impatient behind me as I'm dragging this thing step by step. A guy comes up behind me and picks it up. Nice, but with each step he whacks me in the heels with it. Another train to somehow get the suitcase up on to. A three hour ride through total darkness.

In Helsinki (which looks like a really cool city and it would be great if I had gone to Nokia offices close by) I take another taxi to the airport, since I'm spending the night at the airport hotel for my 7am flight. I make my husband stay up to call me in case the wakeup call doesn't work. Last thing on earth I want to do is miss my flight. Get up, get to the airport. Finally, something that looks like a tourist spot. Real shops. Unfortunately I'm leaving and don't have too much time to spend. Buy two quick gifts and get on a plane. Spend another tortourous 5 hours in Amsterdam and then get interrogated by security in Amsterdam before boarding the flight to Boston. A co-worker says they've been doing that in Amsterdam for years – not a 9/11 thing. All I know is I want to be home.