Home sweet home
"It's not a holiday. You're unemployed and homeless."
Thank you, Otto, for reminding me of that sarcastically on one morning when I rejoiced at sleeping long on my "holiday". I'm going to take this as such anyway. During one month in Finland, I have enough time to meet friends and family besides getting my things and papers in order at the university and unemployment office before leaving for Senegal.
Right now I'm in Varkaus, the hottest news town of the week: on Monday, a 3-month-old baby was kidnapped here while sleeping in his baby carriage (it's normal here to let babies sleep outside in their carriage, until -20 degrees or so - they sleep well for some reason, properly covered of course), and found a few hours later seriously hypothermic and covered in snow. Until Thursday the police had gotten as far as being sure that "the kidnapper is a human being", wild animals such as lynx being suspected earlier. Yesterday they found out that the kidnapper was another child, a 12-year-old girl.
Another crime that got into national news from my home town was published on Tuesday: a man was shot in the head by another man under influence (not so surprisingly, since nothing happens in Finland without alcohol). Nothing super special there, but then the motive was revealed: it seems to be a murder, planned for a long time and related to a fight over a business company. Before we used to use knives for show-downs, now the big world style has entered Finland as well...
However, besides these bad news this week, I have been positively delighted to be in my home country, especially in Helsinki which is beautiful when covered with snow! Unfortunately I have no photos of this exquisite winter, because my camera is being repaired at the moment. You just have to trust me that it is absolutely gorgeous here! It's just so adorably Finnish having people around complaining that it's "already too hot", when it's +3 degrees instead of the usual -15 celsius they have been having here this winter.
Helsinki also offers some quirky sights, such as a guy with a pair of skis in a brightly-neon-coloured skiing outfit waiting for a tram right in the centre of Helsinki. I find it difficult to imagine this happening, let's say in Stockholm where they have also had comparable, exceptional amount of snow this winter.
Today is the 70th anniversary of the end of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, which ended with giving away one tenth of Finland's surface and 430 000 people moving to the Finnish side from Karelia. Fittingly for these past few days I have felt slightly nationalistic pride when preparing a pair of skis with the appropriate ski wax and actually skiing for 5 kilometres in bright sunshine with a couple of minus degrees yesterday.
Last night we embarked on another nationalistic activity with my sister - today we'll be celebrating our graduation party, as both of us have graduated during the last 6 months, she as the Master of Health Sciences just a few weeks ago and me as the Master of Arts in September. We decided to organize a common small party for some relatives, and the baking included also Karelian pies (Wikipedia, and they are even registered in the EU, "Traditional Speciality Guaranteed", together with other regional products such as champagne), because the best ones are always made at home!
If I were to give an initiation for foreigners on Finnish people, I would make them watch the Finnish version of the reality TV show "Farmer wants a Wife", subtitled or preferably dubbed in suitable regional dialects of the dubbing language. Of course, the show taking place in Finland, for equality's sake it's not only men seeking wives, but also women seeking husbands.
It's safe to say that the scenes at least for the dialogue are definitely not scripted in Finland. In fact, there is no proper dialogue, but mostly just awkward muttering and smiling. People are so incredibly shy that they often even avoid proper eye contact! Desired qualities for a partner include being straight-forward, reliable and easy-going. One guy with a very wide Eastern Finnish accent described how he likes people to get straight to the point, not circling around issues for ages - would definitely make a bad fit with any typical representative of countries south from the Netherlands!
Although the activities themselves in farms seem to be more or less similar as in Finland, the surroundings seem a bit more grandiose in the UK, for example. While Finnish farmers show their suitors the wooden churches of the nearby little towns or take them to horse races, in the UK "Desmond also manages a 300-year-old mansion".
I also suspect that the possible gifts given to the desperate farmers vary between countries. The most romantic gift given to a Finnish farmer lady by a prospective suitor was - TADAA - a knife! Didn't see that coming, did you..? The reaction of the farmer-ess was quite telling: she truly admired the knife, and then the couple even kissed before continuing their work in the cowhouse. So, if you want to impress a Finnish woman, that's what you should get them for a present. Roses or jewellery are nothing compared to a proper, hand-made knife!
Thank you, Otto, for reminding me of that sarcastically on one morning when I rejoiced at sleeping long on my "holiday". I'm going to take this as such anyway. During one month in Finland, I have enough time to meet friends and family besides getting my things and papers in order at the university and unemployment office before leaving for Senegal.
Right now I'm in Varkaus, the hottest news town of the week: on Monday, a 3-month-old baby was kidnapped here while sleeping in his baby carriage (it's normal here to let babies sleep outside in their carriage, until -20 degrees or so - they sleep well for some reason, properly covered of course), and found a few hours later seriously hypothermic and covered in snow. Until Thursday the police had gotten as far as being sure that "the kidnapper is a human being", wild animals such as lynx being suspected earlier. Yesterday they found out that the kidnapper was another child, a 12-year-old girl.
Another crime that got into national news from my home town was published on Tuesday: a man was shot in the head by another man under influence (not so surprisingly, since nothing happens in Finland without alcohol). Nothing super special there, but then the motive was revealed: it seems to be a murder, planned for a long time and related to a fight over a business company. Before we used to use knives for show-downs, now the big world style has entered Finland as well...
However, besides these bad news this week, I have been positively delighted to be in my home country, especially in Helsinki which is beautiful when covered with snow! Unfortunately I have no photos of this exquisite winter, because my camera is being repaired at the moment. You just have to trust me that it is absolutely gorgeous here! It's just so adorably Finnish having people around complaining that it's "already too hot", when it's +3 degrees instead of the usual -15 celsius they have been having here this winter.
Helsinki also offers some quirky sights, such as a guy with a pair of skis in a brightly-neon-coloured skiing outfit waiting for a tram right in the centre of Helsinki. I find it difficult to imagine this happening, let's say in Stockholm where they have also had comparable, exceptional amount of snow this winter.
Today is the 70th anniversary of the end of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, which ended with giving away one tenth of Finland's surface and 430 000 people moving to the Finnish side from Karelia. Fittingly for these past few days I have felt slightly nationalistic pride when preparing a pair of skis with the appropriate ski wax and actually skiing for 5 kilometres in bright sunshine with a couple of minus degrees yesterday.
Last night we embarked on another nationalistic activity with my sister - today we'll be celebrating our graduation party, as both of us have graduated during the last 6 months, she as the Master of Health Sciences just a few weeks ago and me as the Master of Arts in September. We decided to organize a common small party for some relatives, and the baking included also Karelian pies (Wikipedia, and they are even registered in the EU, "Traditional Speciality Guaranteed", together with other regional products such as champagne), because the best ones are always made at home!
If I were to give an initiation for foreigners on Finnish people, I would make them watch the Finnish version of the reality TV show "Farmer wants a Wife", subtitled or preferably dubbed in suitable regional dialects of the dubbing language. Of course, the show taking place in Finland, for equality's sake it's not only men seeking wives, but also women seeking husbands.
It's safe to say that the scenes at least for the dialogue are definitely not scripted in Finland. In fact, there is no proper dialogue, but mostly just awkward muttering and smiling. People are so incredibly shy that they often even avoid proper eye contact! Desired qualities for a partner include being straight-forward, reliable and easy-going. One guy with a very wide Eastern Finnish accent described how he likes people to get straight to the point, not circling around issues for ages - would definitely make a bad fit with any typical representative of countries south from the Netherlands!
Although the activities themselves in farms seem to be more or less similar as in Finland, the surroundings seem a bit more grandiose in the UK, for example. While Finnish farmers show their suitors the wooden churches of the nearby little towns or take them to horse races, in the UK "Desmond also manages a 300-year-old mansion".
I also suspect that the possible gifts given to the desperate farmers vary between countries. The most romantic gift given to a Finnish farmer lady by a prospective suitor was - TADAA - a knife! Didn't see that coming, did you..? The reaction of the farmer-ess was quite telling: she truly admired the knife, and then the couple even kissed before continuing their work in the cowhouse. So, if you want to impress a Finnish woman, that's what you should get them for a present. Roses or jewellery are nothing compared to a proper, hand-made knife!
Comments
Just out of curiosity (since I haven't watched it since the digi-box was introduced), do they also have men seeking husbands, as they do in the Norwegian version? I just LOVE the "gay patrol" / "Farmer wants a wife" vibe.
Also, it seems I'll be staying here in my mountain valley at least until autumn. Fancy stopping by either to or from Senegal or something?