NEED A HELPING HAND? | My Weirdest Google Search Hits

Writing a blog demands you to be quite aware of your Search Engine Optimization - SEO. During my time as a blogger I've followed my Google Search activity with much amusement, because believe me, people google the craziest things! Sometimes, fortunately, they land on my blog with these keywords. People ask questions. Worry not. Now, after all this time googling and desperately looking for advice, I have provided you with answers to Top 10 most common, rather weird Google Search hits to The Strayling. Off we go!

1. Multiculturalism Pros and Cons
This is by far the most popular search term leading you in here, so let's look into it. I don't usually go into politics outside my scholarly entourage, but now that the cat's on the table, let's address it like the mix of a Trinity College Dublin postgraduate student in migration and conflict studies and a feel-good blogger that I am.

Pros: Needless to day, everyone gets to be themselves. Usually the pros mention this 'enrichment' aspect, as in, cultural diversity allows us to engage more with other cultures and this way teach us the many ways of perceiving different attributes of life from food to religion to social interaction. The host society gets to see a wide range of sub-cultures being born in it, and migrants can comfortably reside in their new country without the fear or losing their heritage or being forced to blend into a homogenous mass that is the perceived 'Dutchness' or whatever the country we're talking about. Let's take Canada for example. Their immigration policy is based on the idea of 'mosaic': small pieces create a large, colourful entity that we know as 'Canada'. A happy immigrant is a contributing immigrant, as they say.
Cons: When not carried out properly, multiculturalism can create segregation. Let's take this bunch of Chinese immigrants and put them into the China Town. Now do your Chinese thing. No need to blend in. Let's celebrate your difference. Multiculturalism in its worst makes us ask what does it mean to be 'Chinese', how do we perform this Chineseness and why do we have to caricature ourselves like this anyway. It isolates minorities into ethnic communities separate from the majority population and stalls the integration process where the migrant gets to properly interact with the host society and feel 'at home'. Mind you, this is the case only when proper integration policies aren't implemented and migrants are left to handle their integration process by themselves. (Attention: integration =/= assimilation!)

2. Instagram Follow Button
What kind of Follow button do you want? You mean like the preview of my insta I have on the sidebar? You can head to SnapWidget and get one of your own. Or you just want a javascript button to easily let your readers follow your Instagram with one click? You could try AddThis and get a readymade code for your button. If you want a button that just takes the visitor to your Instagram account without autofollow - like I have on the sidebar with all those small social media icons - you have to do some crafting yourself, but let me get you started:

You could head to SeekLogo and download a vector image of the button to your computer. Change the size and edit the colour as you please with Photoshop, or whatever it is that you prefer using. Upload the image to your domain and make it into a link to your Instagram account. If you want a hover effect, edit another photo with e.g. a different colour and upload it to your domain. Now write the code so that when the visitor hovers the image, the second photo will appear. Like so:

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/YOUR USER NAME HERE" target="_blank"><img onmouseout="this.src='NORMAL IMAGE URL HERE'" onmouseover="this.src='HOVER IMAGE URL HERE'" src="NORMAL IMAGE URL HERE"/></a>

There must be hundred other ways to do it, but that's an easy one.

3. Must See Vancouver

So you're travelling to Vancouver and searching for tips? Look no further, I have just the right blog post for you. Here: 4 MUST-SEE SPOTS IN VANCOUVER. You're gonna love it. I loved it. I loved it so much I could live there happily ever after.

4. Looking for Long-Distance Relationship
Now hold on a minute. Are you saying you're looking for a long-distance relationship? Or just looking for ways to cope with it? Because if we're talking about the first one here, you're out of your damn mind. Why would you intentionally try and find a long-distance relationship? It's hell on earth guys! Stick to normal dating and if that monster lurking into your lives becomes inevitable, you can refer to my LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP 101 blog post for some survival tips.

But I repeat: you don't want to have a long-distance with someone just for the crack of it. Get a pen pal.

5. Fairmont le Château Frontenac / Québec Castle Hotel 

Ah, le Château Frontenac! Québec's most well-known landmark. It's all things gorgeous. If you want to book a stay there, head to their homepage: Fairmont le Château Frontenac

If you're interested in taking a sneak-peek inside and read my review of it, check out my blog post:
FAIRMONT LE CHÂTEAU FRONTENAC: QUÉBEC'S FRONT PAGE

6. Irish Slang 
This is a popular one! People strand in here in the hopes of finding out how to talk like an Irish. First of all, let me offer you my BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO IRISH SLANG post to get you started.

Now, four specific words give me hits. Let me help you with your queries. Mind you, there are multiple Irish English dialects, but it's your lucky day since my Irish friend is from Cork and that's by far the craziest, most bizarre accent of them all. He's here today to provide you with answers:

Craic - A universal English equivalent for craic? It's 'crack', as in 'fun' or 'enjoyment'. You might hear an Irish say 'Well tis gun be good craic', in other words, he expects it to be fun.
Hello - Saying hi people generally say 'sup', 'sss'da craic?' [whats the craic?] 'how's da form', 'how's she hanging', 'any scéal' [scale, scéal = Irish for story] but generally insults are also accepted, like 'sup scuts' [scut = disreputable person] or 'hey motherfuckers'.
Goodbye - People say 'slán' [Irish for goodbye] 'talk cha', 'safe journey', 'gwan', 'gluck', 'fuck off so', 'il talk cha', I say 'later bitch' to a group of friends quite a bit. 'See ya' being an obvious one.
Friend - Usually I'd use the negative like: 'they're not a total dickhead like'. Generally you would call someone 'sound' and then someone would ask them do you know them well. If you do, it means they're your friend, if you don't, then you might either be hedging your bets not wanting to sound like a dick or you might consider becoming friends with them. But you wouldn't really say someone is my 'friend', you would say they're sound or yee hang out. You could also use the word 'langer', it's a mainstay in Cork and can be a harsh insult or a term for endearment depending on the context. You can be a langer which results from 'acting the langer', or it can be dismissive if someone's 'a bit of a langer alright'. Or it can be used playfully without negative connotations.

You can also listen to The Langer Song on Youtube if you want to get more immersed to this real Cork spirit.

7. Emporter Conjugation
Unbelievably so, my blog is now a destination for French grammar assistance. Luckily I have one native-speaking boyfriend here with me and he's ready to help you with this one:

Pronoun	Conjugation: Present
J'	Emporte
Tu	Emportes
Il / Elle	Emporte
Nous	Emportons
Vous	Emportez
Ils / Elles	Emportent

8. Living in Finland Pros and Cons
Pros: It's safe. Free public healthcare. Good and free education (unless you're a non-EU university student, sorry). Low crime rate. High life expectancy rate. Highest gender equality rates in the world. Beautiful girls (I have to cheer for the home team a bit, right?). Houses are well built and insulated so you won't freeze during winter. Wonderful nature. Technologically advanced.

Cons: The language is hard to learn and I bet you can't find a job if you don't speak it - unless you work in IT or such. It's effin' dark during winter. It's effin' cold during winter. It's effin' cold sometimes even during summer. People like to pout in solitude and mind their own business. Racism. Everything is expensive (mind you, the salary is correspondent!). Everyone wants to live in Helsinki and there aren't enough apartments. Finland is actually pretty hard to reach flight-wise, so if you enjoy your frequent trips to Europe, Ryanair won't be there to save you. Did I mention it's really, really dark?

9. Cringyness
Yes. You're in the right place. Welcome.

10. How to Irritate a Citizen of Each European
This is my favourite. My blog is now a source of hatred and ethnic stereotyping. Sadly I can't provide you with all the answers as this blog post would become too long, but let me get you started with the two nations closest to my heart here and now:
Finns: Call them a Swede. Tell them Nokia is Japanese. Ask if they speak Russian as their first language. Casually touch them during a conversation.
Irish: Call them British. Tell them Ireland is exactly like Britain. Assume they have a British monarchy. Actually, just talk about the British.

 What are the pros and cons of multiculturalism in your opinion? How about living in Finland? Do you have more questions? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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MY INTERVIEW IN LIFE IN DUBLIN

"I never felt like I left Finland because I didn’t like it – it just wasn’t enough, and spontaneously leaving everything behind to run away with a foreign guy might just have been the kick in the butt I needed.... "

Hi Lovelies! Today I come to you with more external material from the depths of the internet. Life in Dublin blog's wonderful writer Ana-Maria Hota interviewed me to give her readers more insight to the many lives of immigrants from different nationalities in Dublin.

The interview discusses my observed similarities and differences between Finland and Ireland, the craic of the Irish and even experiences of discrimination. How's the life of a Finnish emigrant in Ireland? You can read my interview here:

MY INTERVIEW IN 'LIFE IN DUBLIN'

Do you have similar thoughts about Ireland? Or did I get it all wrong? Let me know what you think in the comments below! 

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Interview in BlogExpat: Why I Hate to Love Ireland

Ireland: this damned Emerald Isle. I can sincerely admit I love to hate and hate to love my new home country. Ireland has an international reputation of being the heart of every party - always merry and always drunk. But what's the truth? How is the life in Ireland, for real?

BlogExpat approached me a few weeks back, asking if I would like to share my immigrant story on their website. Well, of course! My rants about the ups and downs of a Finnish migrant's life in Ireland is now live:

READ THE INTERVIEW HERE!

In other news regarding my presence on the world wide web, I have now officially expanded my social media cavalcade with a Twitter account. I honestly never thought this day would come, but I'm actually pretty excited about it already! It's not my personal Twitter as much as it's a platform to share my blog's content and other immigrant stories. Check it out by clicking the photo below:

It's November in Ireland and 15 °C inside: I'm currently wearing Alex's harem pants as a scarf around my neck. Desperate times ask for desperate measures. I swear I can almost see my breath!

Check out my previous interviews on other websites:

ExpatsBlog ⎮ Expat.com

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10,000 Visitors - THANK YOU! + Newsplash

Hi guys!

Today is a special day for my blog: we just hit 10,000 visitors! Ten thousand clicks on my blog posts. That's a lot of people! I know I haven't always been the most active and consistent blogger, but seeing such a number in my blog statistics makes me immensely happy.

At first I was planning on doing something special to celebrate this tiny milestone of mine, but a few failed attempts and many abandoned ideas later I came to the solution of keeping this post brief. I tried to film a little video of myself saying thank you for all of you guys in person, but no one, I mean no one has ever bothered to tell me how hideous I sound on film. In other words, you just missed your chance to witness a real documentation of my Finnish-British-Canadian-French English accent blabbering away.

So no videos this time. Instead, I wanted to take this occasion to make a few exciting announcements. As a huge SEO and blog traffic nerd I'm highly aware of the main sources of traffic on my blog, and on the top sits who else but FACEBOOK. Realizing this, I gathered all of my courage and created a Facebook page for Terra Incognita. Shoosh! Go and like it HERE!

I'm still working on it, but in the future I'd really like it if I could stop flooding my personal facebook profile with my blog updates. I would like this page created specially for my blog to be the main platform to advertise new posts to my audience. A girl can dream, right?

Speaking of traffic: I've had a chance to do some amazing collaboration with multiple expat community websites during my time as a blogger. These websites have been a huge source of traffic to my humble little blog project here, which is why I'm now ruthlessly taking this space to thank EXPAT.COM for featuring me on their website on multiple occasions.

The support of others is of top-tier importance for any immigrant, which is why communities like these can turn out to be incredibly helpful when you're sad and alone in a new country, feeling helpless, sitting in your new apartment and eating pot noodles for a week straight since you were too scared to buy anything else from the grocery store.

The community on Expat.com Canada was fairly active, but the folk on the Ireland community still seem to be lost in the winds of the Emerald Isle. So all my fellow expats in Ireland, go and make friends there! Forum discussions, job boards and blog directories are waiting to be discovered. I regularly get messages from people asking for advice on things like immigration processes, housing and job search in Canada and Ireland, and I find it incredibly exciting to be able to help others battling with those same piles of forms and documents as I have in the past.

I actually have much bigger and more exciting news to share with you in the near future, but let's keep a bit of mystery for a little while longer. In the meantime I promise to have a more consistent and regular posting schedule - I have a million drafts in Work In Progress state at this very moment! Stay tuned for city guides for Toronto and Ottawa, my ultimate guide for a successful Long Distance Relationship and a lovely tour around my ancient, world-renown university, Trinity College Dublin....

What kind of posts would you like to read in the future? Suggestions, ideas, feedback warmly welcome! Let me know what you think in the comments below! 

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HIS STORY: THE CANADIAN BEHIND THE SCENES

During my blog's history I have been going on and on about myself: my experiences as an immigrant in Canada and as a part of a multicultural couple. But how about the other side of the coin? How does all this work out for the Canadian underdog, the boyfriend - or "un chum" as they say here in Québec? I asked Alex to write me a guest post about his experiences as the receiving side of this multicultural chaos.

~ * ~

Hey, this is Alex. Melissa asked me two things lately. The first thing was to start using her name. So that’s one down right off the bat. The second thing was to write a post for her blog to tell my side of the story. That’s the harder part.

What is it like to have a foreign girlfriend who came to your country to spend your last year of university with you before you both leave for a third country?
At first, it feels absolutely awesome. After all, this girl moved all across the world to your unknown city in your boring country (Melissa arrived before Trudeau made Canada great again), just to spend her time with you, just to wait for you to be ready to leave. Sure there are other reasons, but she chose that specific place on the planet for you. That’s love. It feels good, I felt like a winner.

Under Pressure
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it sours afterwards, but other feelings start taking over. One in particular is pressure and stress. Sure she came for you, but now you have the pressure of making it worth her while, especially after the horror that was the application for the visa. She is not going to spend her whole year on the sofa playing Skyrim, but finding a job in Québec when your French is less than stellar is no easy task. At first I tried to entertain her by playing the tour guide on my days off. But there are only so many things to do in Québec. Plus, she might tire of hearing me speak of Champlain and the British conquest of Canada. Everyday that she said she was bored, everyday that she didn’t think she could find a job, it was on me, or so I felt. I started regretting not choosing Montréal for my studies, hell, I even found myself wishing I was an Ontarian (blasphemy!) just so she could find a job and make friends more easily. And then came that day when she got a call for an interview and nailed the conversation on the phone (in French). And just like that, the pressure left because Melissa can get a job in this French speaking city that won’t raise the finger to integrate its immigrants.

Alex in Suomelinna, Helsinki, Finland

What it is like to speak English at home all the time while living in a French speaking city?
Technically, it is very easy in the sense that speaking English is not a problem for me, it comes quite naturally albeit certain mistakes I might do once in a while. It’s when I have to go back to French that it becomes confusing as I think and even dream in English most of the time. It somehow feels less natural, a little bit wrong as well. I sort of feel like a kid doing something and being super excited and nervous at the thought of getting caught. I have been working in retail and it has happened that I got lost in my train of thoughts and answered to them in English before realizing where I am and putting my brain back in francophone mode. That is what speaking a secondary language all the time does, it makes you get confused when you go out. It also makes me have a very practical relationship with languages, French has lost a bit of its romantic aspect.

Lost in translation
Speaking English in Québec city can be really confusing, but it is still much easier for me than for Melissa as I can switch back to French, even if I have to think about it. I may not have to do it anymore as she understands almost everything, but at first I had to translate absolutely everything. I felt like it was my responsibility to help integrate. So I did my best. I did not mind doing it but if I have to be really honest, I have to admit that it was extremely tiring. It demanded I constantly talk a little over everyone, and that I make sure that I remember everything they say almost word by word.

It somehow felt like I had two brains and that they had to both work at the same time, one listening and transmitting the information to the second one who would then repeat it in English. It took me a lot of energy. The worst part was that I could not really take part in the conversations either as I was too busy repeating everything to formulate a thought of my own. I am happy I did it, as it made Melissa know what was going on and I know how it is to be awkwardly sitting in room filled with people speaking a language you don’t speak, but I now have a much better understanding of the reason why translators have to go through so much more than just language classes. Translation is a completely different way of functioning.

Cultural differences
Melissa already mentioned it: there are quite a few differences between our two countries, even if we are both hockey-loving alcohol-drinking nations from the north. But our roots are extremely different, we are French, English, Native American, American and none of that at the same time. This has caused fights that were only caused by either one or both not understanding the other one, fights that were caused by simple confusions during our relationship. These fights are often solved by the sentence ‘oh, I see now’. But most of the time, I do not really think about those differences, I feel like they are extremely minor, at least their effects on our values and beliefs are minor. I don’t think she agrees with me on that one, but we currently live in my country, so there are a lot of things that she notices, confuse her, bother her, that I won’t think about. Perhaps my vision of this will change once we are living in Dublin, but currently I don’t think cultural differences are an issue, at least not to me.

Québecsplaining and introspection

The Finnish family on a visit in Québec

One thing you don’t always realize as a local is the way minorities are treated. There is a stereotype that Québeckers are super warm and welcoming, and I believed it. But I was sorely disappointed. A lot of my friends made huge efforts to speak in English when she was there so she would understand (and so I wouldn’t have to translate everything) and I was super thankful for them. But then there was all the others, the one who would make a point of not speaking English. The ones who wouldn’t try, the ones who would harass her with the question ‘How’s your French?’. I found myself constantly having to do so much Québecsplaining (I came up with that just there and I’m so proud of it), trying to either excuse the behaviour of everyone, that constant threat that a lot of Québeckers feel for the status of English, and the fact that her English being so damn good was actually a nuisance as most people would just assume she is an English Canadian who never made the effort to learn French (to be fair, there is a lot of them).

Living with someone with a culture that is just slightly different from yours forces you to reflect on a lot of cultural traits of your nation that you never would have thought about questioning. I do question our parliamentarian monarchy as a broken undemocratic system, and other big cultural traits like that, but I would never have thought of questioning the love that we have for our particular brand of French. Nothing makes you realize how ridiculous or weird something is like being asked to explain why you do it. How many times has my answer been ‘uh bah bah uh… I dunno’ when Melissa asked me ‘why does it work like that?’ when trying to teach her French.

You know what they say, travels make you know yourself more. Having a partner from abroad asking questions about your weird habits does the same. I could go into specifics and mention that we have a completely different food culture, from what we eat, to when to how often. But that’s just anecdotes. I feel like what having a partner from abroad does is give you the gift of introspection and self-critique. It gave me a window to Québec’s attitude towards immigrants, towards minorities. I had always been willing to welcome everyone who would want to call themselves Québécois, and I was convinced that was a trait shared by most of us. It’s not. And it’s a damn shame.

The miracle of a waterproof map in Venice, Italy

Nevertheless, it’s not all bad. Like said, a lot of things we do I never would have thought of questioning, because they seem natural to me and they are good. We may not always be welcoming of immigrants, but we are nice and helpful to each other, and once you are accepted, we are likeable. For instance, there was one time when I asked a neighbour if he would lend me his shovel for a couple minutes so I could get my car out of the parking lot. He lent it to me and I did what I had to do. Then I gave it back to him and he said he’d wait to be sure I actually get out. Melissa was amazed. First of all, I just casually asked him to help, he said yes, but even more, he waited because he cared. Melissa asked me why he would do something like that, why he would care about me as we do not know each other. The question baffled me as it never occurred to me that you could not do this naturally. Another time, her parents were there and we were in a restaurant, and they asked me where we learn to be so polite. I just couldn’t answer. It felt like it was just natural, why would we not help if we can and why would we not be polite if we don’t have a reason to be angry? As the late René Lévesque said on the night he became Premier, ‘We are not a small people, maybe we are something like a great people!’

Having a foreign girlfriend living in your country is a lot of things. It is stress and pressure, desire to make her love your city. It is also a lot of efforts, it changes your relation to your language, and causes confusing moments and many weird looks. It makes you question yourself and your culture, makes you see all of your wrong-doings, and it can make you feel like an outsider in your own city - but it can also make you see the nice things about it. Above all, at the end of the day, she still has proven to you how much you mean to her: she went through the personal hell and took a gap-year by choosing to come to live with you. Our relationship is far from a regular one. It faces problems most won’t ever have to face, but that doesn’t mean anything. Our relationship has survived things that would have broken most, and it just goes to show how deep and sincere it is.

Featured Interview and Other Little-Big News

Hi everyone!

It has been a busy few weeks for me: working full-time while simultaneously applying to multiple universities in another country has turned out to be quite time-consuming.

Recently I had a chance to share my expat experiences in an interview for expat-blog.com, an exchange network and blog directory dedicated to life abroad. It provides free information and advice to those living or wishing to live overseas. I answered questions regarding my life as a Finnish expat, my experience about Canada, and all things in between. You can read the interview HERE!

Apart from that, applying for Master's programs in another European country while living in North America has really stressed me out big time lately. It's officially my Reason #1 to stress. Reason #2 is the unbearably unstable life of an immigrant with a temporary employment contract: I don't speak the language, I don't have contacts or local work experience. I got hired for a 2-month temporary contract in August, and since then I have dreaded the final day of my employment in the most amazing job I have ever had.

Well, good news: my contract was renewed!

I now officially have a job at least until Christmas, and I could not be happier. My colleagues are incredibly helpful with my French struggles, and even if I'm still absolutely terrified of speaking the language, my understanding has improved tremendously. It all really depends on the accent now: at times I'm able to understand the whole sentence word by word, while sometimes there might be only one phrase I'm able to recognize. Learning to say "Nowadays I'm fed up with...." must be one of my favourite recent lessons.

Longer posts will follow!