Posts filed under ‘Finland’
Climate, Finns and changing
Finnish summer weather is a preferred topic in the headlines – no matter what turns: hot, warm, getting colder, the sun is out, behind a cloud, cold and windy, thunder in the air..
Last week was groundbreakingly warm. Having almost +30 degrees is a lot for May. The papers went crazy over the hot weather and so did people, the streets were full of life. Now the week started with drizzling rain and less than +10 degrees. The changes are visible.
I find it amazing to see how weather affects the general mood. It’s more of a guideline than an exception: when the sun is out, so are the people. I know that in most parts of Europe the same deal exists. However, when the weather goes on for a longer time, people tend to find it as a nuisance. Allergies get worse, plants dry up, you get sweaty just thinking of food.. or it’s too cold for this time of the year, people are wearing woolen socks and whining about freezing weather and constant rain when according to them it’s suppose to be sunny. The weather takes a hold of everything from traditional cuisine to acts of love, from common habits to bureaucracy, commonly preferred cloth-colours to the national sport. It affects moods, traditions, how the roads and houses are constructed etc. Seems that most of the people take 30-40 years to get used to the weather in their home country. Why?
Here are a few paragraphs freely translated from the blog of Aikamatkustaja, a counter migrant in Finland. You decide if it’s beside the point:
“It is fashionable to blame the immigrants about everything at the moment. Cultural differences and violence are things that were brought here by foreigners. Politicians could find the guilty from outer space easier than from their own parties. Cultural differences have always existed. Karelians, Savonians, Tavastians, people from Varsinais-Suomi and especially from Ostrobothnia have down the ages caused a respectable amount of quarrels, conflicts, silent treatment, crisis in marriages, open quarrels, drama in tutelages and knife fights. There was no foreigner needed either before.”
Read the whole text here (in finnish). There was also a group on Facebook telling the volcanic ashes to go back to Iceland. I would love to present it for joining purposes, but apparently it doesn’t exist anymore. So instead, make it fun and go dance with cultures from all over the world when they meet in the centre of Helsinki 29 and 30 May 2010.
Summer feelings in Finland
This beautiful video is by Visit Finland.
Valentine’s day special
Suvi, Jaakko and I decided to do something special for Valentine’s day. But before I get to the special, let’s go to the Valentine. There’s a story behind that since in Finland the day is dedicated to friends more than lovers the day being ystävänpäivä (ystävä – friend, päivä – day). So doing something special for Valentine’s day in three doesn’t mean what you might be thinking of. Our choice included snow but no sauna.
The best slide and the highest peak in Helsinki is Malminkartanonhuippu. Only a quarter of an hour train ride away from Helsinki is the quite nice suburb called Malminkartano. After a kilometer walk from the station, you’ll arrive to the gorgeous view’s that also serve as an awesome slide. Sunday’s are definitely not lazy here.
It gives a wild ride down the hill especially if you make a queue out of those two seen in the last pictures and then put four people on board. Actually so wild that in the end one will end into the hospital with a strained ankle :) No worries, Suvi is just unfortunate, prone to accidents and recovering!
After the countless “this is so fun, we should do this more often” the supposed last slide led into 2 hours spent in the hospital and getting her ankle x-rayed and everything. Humour sticks through everything and in the end I have to say it was a fun friendsday that after the hospital gig lasted another 12 hours :)
Hey let’s talk about suicide in Finland!
Kaamos is the Finnish word for polar night, the night lasting more than 24 hours inside the polar circles. The longest the night is around the change of the year. The sun doesn’t come above the horizon. The most common question is how do we handle it. Well just fine! There’s plenty of things to do when you just wear right kind of clothes and are determined to enjoy it. Especially this winter, there has not been any of that ‘black ice’ or wet snow (loska). Sure it makes us frustrated at times and we complain as well. But not nearly as much do I complain about that than of foreigners asking about the suicide rates in Finland, especially during winter months.
Putting that frustration into an effort. Here’s some crucial and ugly facts for you about the suicide in Finland. Read it, take it and get over it. There’s so much more to it and believe me, it’s not the number one topic people here want to discuss when you are visiting for a short while.
– According to the World Health Organization, WHO, in the year 2000 around 1 200 suicides took place in Finland (815 000 around the whole world).
– The highest risk of commiting suicide for men is at the age of 41-45 and for women 46-50. In Finland it is also common for younger and for men from 20- to 34-years-old it’s the most common single reason of death.
– Among the 15-24-year-old girls Finland’s suicide rate is the second highest (India being the highest) and boys the 5th.
– Unlike believed the rates don’t especially pop up during winter, but the most common month is May.
Let’s end this rant with a beautiful picture of what we have been witnessing everyday for the last month.
Autumn gone by
And all I’ve done is sit inside writing the Thesis.
Next week, I will have more stories to tell: Muse in Münich is waiting!
Culture shock, phase three or four or five?
I’ve been waiting for this to pass for sometime now but everything around seems to motivate it. I have a really bad urge to move abroad.. again.
The weather is getting worse all the time. Finland is beautiful in the fall. I don’t mind it nor winter as long as there is no water from the sky involved (or at least only at times when I’m inside). Last week my socks got wet the first time. The last time it rained disturbingly much was in February when I was in Spain. So the weather is rubbish, the food is not as good, it’s boring here (though I did go to an interesting bar here in Helsinki just last night) and I’m annoyed by the general being of Finns. Blaa blaa..
But the main reason is – that some of my friends are moving or already have moved abroad to places I like or would like to visit. Looking at their pictures of the warm and exciting.. uff. A beautiful sunset viewed from a cliff somewhere in Marseille, driving around Paris on a scooter, the blue waters of Spain, sky diving in Italy, dancing salsa in Barcelona, pizza eating at the Colosseum and further more – canooing and snorkling in Thailand, Bali, Singapore.. Miami, Colombia, San Jose, Venezuela.
Even Finland’s English language magazine, Six Degrees, has a survey “How to avoid autumn depression?” and the first answer from the designer Lincoln Kayiwa was “A bit of travel should be refreshing.” YES.. please! Though right after it the next answer went for a cognitive hint “Do not complain about the weather all the time. It does help to accept the situation as it is.” (Ruth Franco, psychologist)
You made me happier than I’d been by far
Do the things that you always wanted to
Without me there to hold you back, don’t think, just do
More than anything I want to see you, girl
Take a glorious bite out of the whole world
(a song from Snow Patrol I’d like to share just because it’s so beautiful.)
The many meanings of light
The first days that I lived in this new apartment, I lit the first candles of the year. I was trying to remember when I lit the last one. Maybe last December. Maybe November even.
The word light has many definitions. A device serving as a source of illumination or the visual effect of illumination on objects or scenes as created in pictures. Luminosity, brightness, luminance, luminousness, light.
Cottage in Korppoo, the archipelago of Turku
I’ve been thinking about how much light and climate effects on how people are. Everywhere. Malagueños go on Sunday walks, while people in Helsinki mostly stay in. Spanish dance and but don’t drink themselves to the stage of unattractive, Finns stay in smokey bars and get heavily drunk.*
Light and climate create an ambience that effects on people’s personality and behaviour. Not to even begin with the food we make. Finns obviously cannot get as fine olive oils, fruits and vegetables because there is not enough sun light while all the Mediterranean enjoy their diets. I believe many people don’t like Finland just for the things that the climate prevents us to be and have. The climate was the number one reason for moving abroad what I heard from Finnish immigrants in Spain. (And there are plenty, up to 15 000 only in Spain.)
Absolutely everything seems to have an aspect that can be explained by how the dynamic duo has affected on us or the systems. The twists of the moods, the difference in people’s appearance between summer and winter, the traffic, the ways and times to work, how we work.. even politics. Like the british writer and comedian and a long-time resident in Helsinki, Neil Hardwick said: the seasonal switch between summer and winter puts the other rules on use. “The rules, which unofficially kick in on October 1st and run until April, require that people no longer smile, make eye contact with strangers, or wear anything colourful.”
Although light and climate seems to have a very deep of effect on us Finns, the contrast does have a thing or two to do with history as well.
* Sure I’m talking about harsh stereotypes but to proove a point that can only be prooven through them.
Source and more info if interested: Katja Pantzar’s The Hip Guide to Helsinki (Wsoy).
