Finland is as Finland does. (Post 21)

    This blog will be about what makes Finland Finland, and not Canada.

But First thing’s first. WE ARE THE CHAMPS!!!

    This past Christmas I spent my holidays staying up until 6am and sleeping until 2pm to watch Canada finally win gold at the World Juniors!

  Since I have been in Finland I have been trying to blend in with the culture and people, but also keeping note of all the differences good or bad! So I have decided to write about a few things that describe life in Finland!

   Finnish school is similar to Canada, except here the lunch is free and there is free wifi everywhere in the school. A true win-win for all. Also almost everyone in school has an ipad and they are used in almost every class. Teachers are called by their first names and there is no bells, so class begins and ends when the teacher is ready. (Usually varies a few minutes depending on the teacher) We also don’t have lockers.. Which I don’t mind because I did just get a nice backpack before I came here! I also don’t know if it’s just that i’m an exchange student but the classes seem to be very laid-back! My classes are mainly English and geography but now I also have a dancing class and French! 

Me at school:

 

    One of the most important parts to Finnish “culture” are Angry Birds. If you didn’t know Angry Birds was Finnsh all you’d have to do is visit Finland for 5 minutes. Angry Birds are on everything and are everywhere. There is an amusement park dedicated to Angry Birds (I wrote about in a previous blog) there is candy and drinks with angry birds, there are cups and plates with angry birds, and sometimes people where angry birds t-shirts. But I have yet to see someone actually play the angry birds game.

Angry Birds is everywhere.

    Besides Angry Birds another thing you’ll see everywhere is that guy named Teemu Selanne. He is what Wayne Gretzky is to Canada, but he does way more commercials. Teemu can be found advertising things with absolutely no relation to hockey or sports at all. He’s famous in Canada but he’s an icon here in Finland. And here in Finland is last name is spelt Selänne..

Teemu doing what he does best, advertising with giant pencils..

    Grocery stores in Finland are quite a bit different than in Canada too. Besides everything being labeled in Finnish, you can find alcohol right next to soft drinks, and slot machines right by the doors. so really you don’t even need to leave the grocery store to enjoy the bar and gamble.

   The flag in Finland is also treated a bit different than in Canada. You can only find the flag being flown on certain days, usually once or twice a month. And the flag is never used as a cape or blanket like us exchange students do with our flags.. So us exchange students try and be very careful when dealing with the Finnish flag in an attempt not to offend any Finns.

    Finnish food isn’t too different except the amount of potatoes and bread products you eat will increase by at least 200%. The rye bread in Finland is incredible and the potatoes are slowly becoming more and more difficult to eat. You will eat potatoes in 1000 different ways 2000 times. Before you leave you will be completely fed up with potatoes but in love with the 100 different kinds of rye bread! These numbers maybe exaggerated.. Other than the foods you will eat all the time, there is rice porridge and blood sausage that are worth being written about. Rice Porridge (Riisi Puoro) is probably my favourite Finnish food/meal. I could eat it for all 3 meals and once in between each. Blood sausage though.. I think the name is worse than it actually tastes. It’s not full of flavour but it is made of blood.. so I have a lot of mixed emotions when I eat it. The candy is good and the chocolate is way better than in Canada. I have eaten well over the reasonable amount through 5 months of exchange. If you come to Finland you will fall in love with a guy named Karl Fazer and he will treat you extremely well. I must say though, as good as the rye bread and chocolate is, the peanut butter is bad. Everything good about peanut butter is not true about Finnish peanut butter. It is dry and it is not sweet. Only buy the peanut butter if you are amazed by the chocolate and want to be thrown back into reality rather harshly. The maple syrup is imported from Canada though.. So it’s not too bad! 

Blood sausage. Close your eyes and dig in.

   I have taken pictures of a few “Finnish” things during my exchange.. Most of which are completely random and have no significance outside of being Finnish.

Signs are blue and white which makes sense given the flag.

A license plate. A Finnish license plate.

Reindeer meat..

Rudolph has been smoked and turned into chips..

Karl Fazer is the Finnish Willy Wonka.

Don’t waste 1.45 by buying Salmiakki.

Typical Finnish lunch. (Almost)

And my favourite place in Finland. Sauna.

   Being an exchange-student in Finland has been incredible so far. I have been able to do so many things and experience it with so many new and equally incredible people. But despite doing so much, there is still so much I want to do! With a good understanding of the train system I’d like to see more of Finland! Places like Porvoo and Kuopio have interested me! And something completely different than North America is how close and easy it is to visit other countries! In Canada I can travel for 20 hours and still be in Canada. Here in Finland you can get to Estonia or Sweden and back in one day and still have time for sauna. I believe the half way part of my exchange is close, so in the 2nd half I would like to meet a bunch of new people and see a lot more places. Also being a Pittsburgh Penguins fan I’d like to meet Kasperi Kapanen (Plays in Kuopio) (Penguins 1st round pick last year). Maybe me and Kasperi will visit Sweden together! No matter how the next half of my exchange goes I know that in the end this whole year will be the best thing I’ve ever done.

Quick update on my past 10 days: Went skating and turned the other exchange-students in my school into Canadians.

   It was also time for the Australian exchange-students to return home.. So here we are saying goodbye at the airport…

Link to my blog about Shelter-box:  https://trynnjogsandblogs.wordpress.com/shelter-box/