The Aresan Clan is published four times a week (Tue, Wed, Fri, Sun). You can see what's been written so far collected here. All posts will be posted under the Aresan Clan label. For summaries of the events so far, visit here. See my previous serial Vampire Wares collected here.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Owning an island

When I was living in Helsinki, trying to earn a living teaching English, I advertised around and first got work with some private clients, who I tutored individually for a modest sum. One of these clients was a thirty-something Finnish professional woman. She looked like a typical Finn, with blond hair, pale skin and round cheeks and we met on a few occasions in coffee shops, where she got the opportunity to practice her English and I could teach her some English vocab and grammar.

At one point, when we were talking she told me about how she owned her own island. This was rather surprising as she clearly wasn't an incredibly wealthy woman, just a middle-class working woman. But apparently this thing wasn't out of the reach of someone in her income class. She shared the island with a couple friends and the island itself was tiny. It was basically a huge rock sticking out of the water that they'd stuck a small cabin on top of. The Bay of Finland is pockmarked with little islands. This is not unusual for a coastline, especially when it's in relatively sheltered waters. For example, New York City is littered with dozens of little islands of various sizes, from the giant Roosevelt Island, to the tiny U Thant Island (her island was bigger than U Thant Island).

Her and her friends would visit the island in summer for weekends, boating out there with supplies. Then they would spend the days swimming around their rock and laying in the sun. It's far from the best island out there that one could own (you'd probably find one of those here), but I nice way to get away from the city and I unique piece of real estate to have all to yourself.

No comments:

Post a Comment