the police moves up my list of favoured finnish government departments to #1

in an historic event, an employee of the finnish government spontaneously called me today for the sole purpose of offering helpful advice!

(it's not that finnish people aren't helpful - they're usually pretty earnest and nice provided you're following the rules and all. it's just that when they're in their bureaucracies, even school ones and club ones, they tend to be overworked, and leave the uninitiated to figure everything out for themselves.)

apparently i can apply to renew my visa as a family member of a finnish citizen instead of as a student now that wax and i have been living together (nearly) two years. the application is easier and only has to be renewed every four years instead of yearly. the minus side is that wax has to go to the police station in person too, but in the long run it's much less work.

now that i think of it, the police have a very cool logo too.