Hi, and welcome to my travel blog!
My name is Maria Annala and I’m a journalist and a blogger from Finland, Northern Europe, living in Boston. This blog is about my life and travels in the US.
In September 2015 I took a big leap of faith to fulfill two of my biggest dreams at once: to live and work abroad as a journalist and to start a life together with the love of my life. I took a leave of absence from my steady job in Finland to become a US-based freelancer and moved in with my boyfriend, a man I had known just for a few months.
Taking the risk paid off. I feel I’m living my dream now. My boyfriend has proven himself to be a keeper, and we’re now engaged. As for my work, writing articles about the US for media companies in Finland is keeping me busy and I enjoy it tremendously. My work allows me to travel as much as I want – which is quite a lot. I’m passionate about travel and wish to see as much of this huge and versatile country as possible to gain a better understanding of it.
The name of my blog, Amerikkaa Ymmärtämässä, is Finnish and translates roughly to Understanding America. The Finnish name carries the more specific meaning that understanding America is something I’m trying to do at the moment, a process I’m in the middle of – a journey.
Traveling has been my passion all my life. Before I came to live in the US I had visited 73 independent countries. Now I’m trying to visit as many US states as possible. You can read more about my travels in the US here.
At first my blog was all in Finnish, but now I’m starting to create content in English as well. My intention is to translate to English (or in some cases re-write) featured blog posts, the ones I believe to be the most interesting for a non-Finnish audience. I’m starting the translations with travel posts, but if you wish to read also about my experiences as a European immigrant in the US, or about my relationship, please leave a comment in the comment section to let me know.
To read my posts in English, place your mouse over the words in English in the black stripe under my picture at the top of the page and click a post title of your choice.
If you’d like to take a look at my published articles (in Finnish), you can browse them by clicking the links on my journalism page (in Finnish).
Thank you for your interest in my blog!
Maria Annala
Amerikkaa ymmärtämässä 