Who is this?

Hello, Friend! 

Pleased to meet you, welcome to my blog!

My name is Elina. It's s simple name, but chances are that if you're not from Finland you'll probably pronounce it wrong. It's OK. I'm fluent in responding to all the different versions there are of Eleana, Elena, Eeeliinaa, Elii etc. So far, my favorite version has been "Ena", a name used by a super cute 2-year-old, who acknowledged my existence by using this name.

Back in 2012, I set out on this big adventure and that's when I initially started this blog. I left my home, family, friends and studies in Finland to go live, learn and serve in a country far, far away. And when I say far, I mean to the other side of the world type of far. Because... why not? The purpose of my stay in Santo was to do a year of service, after which I stayed on for a bit longer.

I ended up staying in Vanuatu for about 19 months, writing posts whenever I had time. Until I no longer had any. Life happened, I became crazy busy and things just became too big to write about. I had to do most of my reflecting on the inside. Long story short, eventually it was time for me to go back to Finland and finish my studies. But in my heart I always knew this chapter was not quite finished.

As sad and heartbroken as I was to leave the beautiful islands behind, my stay in Vanuatu had given  a new direction to my life. Before Vanuatu happened, I never knew how deeply I enjoyed working with children. And so, after returning to Finland, I spent the following years pursuing a newfound professional dream. In 2018, I finally graduated from the University of Lapland with a Master's degree in Education. I'm now a fully trained primary teacher.

And what do you know - life is full of surprises. It's time to restart my blog.