Shannon Mendis: Moi, Moi Tuomas

Moi Moi Tuomas!

This week marked the end of the road for Tuomas Jääskeläinen and me.  Tuomas was the first person I met here in Helsinki, Finland.  He was my boss for the first two months of the GROW ambassadorship here at Bonnier Publications. We have a lot of memories, even though it had only been a couple of months. He was the one holding the sign at the airport that said Shannon Mendis (like I was some celebrity, hahaha) and he was the one who showed me my flat in the city center, next to the pyramids, and the one to show me the office in which I would work.

Tuomas introduced me to the pink book called A Book about Helsinki, which had more than a guide book could ever show, with the coolest photography. It was almost like a document of places that I would see in my time here. We visited some during lunch like Lemongrass or Soul Kitchen, both very good places to eat. And then we also went to a few places like We got beef, Erottaja Bar (I call it the Ebar and is one of my faves here in Helsinki), and Tori (which has the best meatballs in town).  He even told me about Redrum to see Top Billin (which is the best nightclub on my street and the best dancing night so far with Tiki). If it weren't for Tuomas, my trip here wouldn’t have been the same.

During his training, I worked on the launch of Olivia’s website, Olivia’s newsletter and a travel shopping supplement for both magazines Divaani and Olivia. Tuomas taught me a lot about the style of the magazine, what it's like to design for Olivia, how important pictures are to the design, how important it is to have good communication between the writer and the photographer and to make sure not to misguide the reader. He is so very talented and with my stay here, was pulled into all different directions. With the launch of the new magazine starting as the next GROW ambassador gets here, there wasn’t time for Tuomas to take holiday, so as our time got cut short, it had to be so...because we don’t want such a talented guy to get burnt out now, do we?

So I am happy for the time I had with Tuomas with my stay here in Finland and I look forward to working with my new boss and Art Director, Liisa Karttunen, who I am very fortunate to have with me my last month here in Helsinki.

So this may be goodbye for Tuomas and me for now...I am just so happy to have worked for him and with such talented people here at Bonnier Publications. Speaking of talent...Olivia’s Laura Mattila was rewarded on Tuesday at the Aikakausmedin ceremony for the journalist writing prize. She is AWESOME! They said her writing is irresistible, absolutely fantastic narration, the reader gets the chance to walk a step deeper into the subject selected.

The next day, we had our monthly meeting and had a surprise guest. It was Olivia’s food blogger Anna-Leena Härkönen. Härkönen is the author of seven novels in addition to short stories, speeches and plays, and her works have been a number of film and drama arrangements. It was a pleasure to have her speak for our meeting and meet her. The meeting also consisted of Helena speaking about our numbers for the Olivia website and I am happy to report that we had 16,000 visits to the site last week, which is so great for Finland. And we had 500 comments on Stella’s style blog! Way to go! So as I sit here typing this blog and thinking how Tuomas isn’t here...I am sad because I am selfish and want more time, but I have to remember this is all part of GROWing up. And this isn't goodbye...this is till next time...