For the holidays at least. Feels really nice actually to be here. I understand the language and the people much better.
Tag Archives: finland
Being nordic
I was in a class the other day, and the teacher asked “Who here is from the Nordic countries?”. All my friends turned around and looked at me. Should I have said yes, or no?
Types of Finnish silences
Talking with a friend and my significant other we came to the conclusion that there are different kinds of silences in Finland:
- Uncomfortable silences, those where you don’t want to say anything so as to not screw up
- “It’s happy to be here” silences
- “I’m working on something” silences
- And the most important ones, silences that just are there. No reason, no message.
There are more, but I can’t remember them now…
Te, ystävät ja perhe, olette sitä osa Suomesta että minä rakastan
Ja josta syystä kaipaan Suomea. Nähdään pian!
Itsenäisyyspäivä suomalaisten kanssa
Me vietimme itsenäisyyspäiväjuhlaa muiden suomalaisten opiskelijoiden kanssa. Söimme makaronilaattikkoa ja pullaa ja joimme kahvia. Olin tosi iloinen että ne ajattelivat että olin osa porukasta, eli yksi heistä.
Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää kaikille!
Nordic alcohol consumption
I was discussing about that with a friend of mine who has never been in Finland, and had to explain him the basics: yes, Finns tend to have more, say, heavy-duty drinking habits, some people (especially the young) tend to literally drink to get drunk (so beers with high alcoholic content represent more value for money :-0 ), taxes to alcohol are therefore very high although they were dropped a couple of years ago and alcoholic beverages above a certain percentage are only available at the national monopoly.
The good news is that not everybody drinks like that (or maybe they do, but only in their student years 😉 ) and you find quite a few people who drink in a more Continental European kind of way (maybe some wine with food, but nothing of the harder stuff). Now that’s more like it.
Russian Kotka
Funnily enough, I read that Kotka in southeastern Finland wants more Russian immigrants. After the well-known animosities between both nations, and the prejudices Russians face there, it’s quite a surprising turn.
On kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
by J. Karjalainen
Oli aika kuuma kesä tää
nyt on jo vähän viileempää
Tulee paljon omenaa
kohta mehua taas saa
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Vielä lienee lammet paikoillaan
täytyis vissiin lähtä katsomaan
Yhden vanhan virvelin
aamulla mä putsasin
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Eräs leikki traktoreillaan
se tykkää niistä aina vaan
Minä laulujani teen
putoo riimit paikoilleen
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Keväällä jälleen lähdetään
tämä Suomi kiertämään
Ehkä mennään Turkkuseen
kaadetaan viinaa kurkkuseen
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Mä tykkään tästä juuri näin
soitella kanssa ystäväin
San Francisco kuuskytyhdeksän
äkkiä kaiken ymmärrän
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Pilvet on kuin laivoja
ne taivaanrannassa odottaa
Kerran kotiin minut vie
tämä röpelöinen tie
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Lasissa viini vähenee
vaikka pyydän: älä mee
No vielä toiset ostetaan
suulle malja nostetaan
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
No vielä toiset ostetaan
suulle malja nostetaan
on kaikki niinkuin ennenkin
Kaikille suomalaisille ystäville.
Finnish TV: Mogadishu Avenue
Finland is a very homogeneous country, but there are foreigners there as well (this poster was one of them for quite a while, and is open to becoming one again). Mostly they are people from Russian, Estonian, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Swedish or American extraction. They tend to stick to certain specific cities and areas of the country, and there are certain stereotypes to each. MTV3, one of the local TV channels (not related to MTV, Music Television) started airing a drama/comic series about an area of Helsinki with many immigrants, and how the different inhabitants adapt to each other.
Even though I only share with the foreigner characters in the series the fact that I was also a foreigner living in Hesa, I have to admit that reading about one of them who according to the plot is an African man that tries to become more Finnish than the Finns, taking a local surname from his wife, hanging pictures of Mannerheim in his house and making his son try to win the tango king contest to become the first black tango king, well, brought a smile to my face and a little bit of moisture to my eyes. =) And I haven’t even seen the series yet. Is it any good?
Suomi 1-0 Adzerbaijan
Valkosininen joukkue pelasi hyvin ja uskomaton fakta on, että kansallisjoukkue on taulukon päässä Portugalin, Puolan ja Belgian edessä Eurooppanmestaruukseen väylällä. Hyvä Suomi!