I met Salla on the first day of school in 1984. She was an exchange student from Finland and we had PE together. We became best friends. We have so much in common too. Our birthdays are both in December - just 4 days apart, we share the same wedding anniversary - March 30, we both love to travel, we both enjoy wine, we are both crazy for dogs and the list goes on and on.
When it was time for Salla to move back to Finland, she invited me to go home with her. I spent 5 weeks with her and her family. It was such a wonderful experience for me. We have kept in touch all these years by telephone, mail, email and most recently Facebook. Salla & her family moved to Chicago 3 years ago. She flew out to visit her host parents this past weekend and squeezed me in for a visit too. Sadly, she will be moving back to Finland in June. Here are pictures of Finland 1985 and also of our reunion yesterday.
Meeting Marja, Salla's mom.
Marja, Salla & Seppo (Salla's dad)
Seppo, Me, Marja in Tampere.
Salla & Me
On our way to the airport (my last day in Finland).
Salla & her host mom Joy.
Salla & I toasting our reunion with a glass of Piper champagne at Pearl.
After catching up for a few hours, we headed over to Seastar restaurant in Bellevue. Oh my goodness. The food was so incredibly delicious. Joy is a local celebrity there, so we received the 'star' treatment.
It was such a fun day catching up with Salla and Joy. I hope we don't have to wait too long to see each other again!
2 comments:
I'm glad you had fun
At my mom's 80th birthday party last month in Santa Barbara, I ran into a gal who was my best friend during my early years. I hadn't seen her in over 35 years, but as we visited, it seemed like it was only yesterday since we'd been together. Good friends are like that, no? You can just pick up where you left off. Glad you had such a nice reunion with Salla.
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