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#thingsiloveaboutfinland (August 14, 2020)

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#thingsiloveaboutfinland  Blog post by Ethan Tabor who served as Deputy Public Affairs Officer at U.S. Embassy Finland, 2017-2020, Originally posted on 8/14/2020 by U.S. Embassy Finland https://fi.usembassy.gov/thingsiloveaboutfinland/ I had a conversation with a colleague a few months ago about doing a series of personal social media posts highlighting the top 10 or 20 things I love about Finland. We ultimately decided to turn it into an embassy series, including a couple of fellow diplomats, who breezed through Finnish with me in 2016 and 2017 and who also depart this summer. Sadly, we ended up with only two posts before corona virus. One was based on our love for all that is right with Runebergin tortut and the other was about Finnish playgrounds. COVID-19 may have altered our project, but COVID also gave me a lot more time to think about the things I love about this magical land Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Under the North Star). Earlier this summer I reached the milestone of 21 year
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Exploring Ohio on the Great Ohio Lake to River Greenway

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  For years my brother and I have dreamed about biking from Pittsburgh to Washington on the Great Allegheny Passage and C & O Canal Towpath trails. 2020 was finally the year! I recently returned from a three-year stint in Finland and we were planning for a week in July or August. And then COVID-19 hit, which prompted us to look a little closer to home. Fortunately, Ohio has solid bike tour options, such as the Towpath Trail and the 326-mile Ohio to Erie Trail. We opted for an even closer adventure on the Great Ohio Lake to River Greenway. Brothers on the Great Ohio Lake to River Greenway The Great Ohio Lake to River Greenway (GOLTRG) is an absolute gem. Running from the Ohio River to Lake Erie through the hills of Eastern Ohio and the Western Reserve, the GOLTRG has a bit of everything: abolitionist history, the world’s 11th biggest lake, one of our country’s most storied rivers, post-industrial landscapes, a designated Wild and Scenic River, beautiful farms, wine country, one of t
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A Week (or so) in the Life

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Every time I travel home, I realize that many people have absolutely no idea what diplomats do. Our jobs are not as concrete as building cars, working in a rolling mill plant, managing a bank, or nursing. My life and career are constantly changing. Career wise, the changes from administration to administration can be significant (you might have noticed some differences between the Obama and Trump administrations, for example) and my assignment changes every two to three years. On the life front, my wife and I (and for the past few years our daughter) have moved so many times, flying, packing, unpacking, etc. By my count, I have moved 19 times since February 5, 1997. New Middletown, OH; Lackland AFB, TX; Sheppard AFB, TX; RAF Fairford, UK; Camp Darby, Italy; Mountain Home AFB, ID; Lynn Haven, FL; Blacksburg, VA; College Park, MD; Greenbelt, MD; Maputo, Mozambique; Arlington, VA; Greenbelt, MD; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Falls Church, VA; Greenbelt, MD;   Kabul, Afghanistan; Arlington, V
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5 days in the Western Reserve

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“Why oh why oh why oh, did we ever leave Ohio…“ (Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green from 1953’s Wonderful Town ) --- I have thought a lot about that question since I traded home for an itinerant lifestyle more than 8,000 days ago. Ohio increasingly occupies my thoughts after years of moving and travel. As a relatively new father, I have an unexplainable new compulsion to understand the Buckeye state I will always call home. That’s why Youngstown (in Ohio's Western Reserve region) and not England, Italy, Mozambique, Virginia, Maryland, Brazil, Afghanistan, or Finland is the source of my first blog post. And why not Youngstown or the Western Reserve of Ohio? There’s no lonely planet. We are lumped into the “Rust Belt” or “flyover,” a land dominated by coverage of unemployed white male factory workers, heroin, and people in MAGA garb. In the just released "the Best Coffee in Every State 2019," Food and Wine notes,  "There are so many places in
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