Casey has founded The NYC Finnish Group at :

http://www.meetup.com/The-NYC-Finnish-Meetup-Group

The group has right now 33 members, Finns and Americans.

If you are interested in getting to know some new people and perhaps learn a word or two of Finnish you are most welcome to join the group !

Casey ( the organizer ) writes :

"Keep in mind that the purpose of this group doesn't always have to be about language learning, as I am quite a fan of random adventures for no apparent reason."

If you do not know what Finnish sounds like you could watch this trailer ( with English subtitles ) for Joulutarina ( Christmas Story ), a Finnish movie from 2007:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjB8sNfN ... re=related

Finnish is unfortunately not known for its beauty. Many non-Finns find it monotonous and harsh-sounding. So it may take some time before it starts to sound "normal".

PS. The Finnish word for "computer" is "tietokone".

tieto = knowledge

kone = machine

so "tietokone" literally means "knowledge machine".