Hello, my name is Finland

Okay guys, since I had no new ideas or actually ideas at all, I decided to switch my blog into English. Well, of course not for the whole time, just for this one lousy entry. I try to be at least somewhat funny, which basically means that it’s not going to be funny. Maybe a bit pathetic. And all of you native English speakers, don’t judge my writing, please. I know I don’t know how to write and my grammar probably sucks. So sorry. Ja rakkaat suomalaiset- koittakaa kestää. And one little thing before I really start babbling is that I hope that some of my fellow exchange students will be happy about me trying to write something else than Finnish. I know that some of you have tried to read my blog and simply given up when they have noticed how Finnish actually looks like, ha. And all of you lovely non-Finnish people: google translate doesn’t help you that much. Or at least it shouldn’t, since I write the way I speak and spoken Finnish is a whole another thing. 
 

Since I already wrote a bit about the differences between Finland and Sweden, I thought that it would be somewhat fun to compare the most common stereotypes about Finland with the real thing… During these two months in Sweden I have noticed (unfortunately) that Finland does not have that good reputation abroad, that’s so sad. But anyway… These are some of the topics that have been under discussion lately...

- There are only 5,4 million people living in Finland ( the country is called Suomi in Finnish, by the way..). It really is a small country, with thousands of lakes and tons of forest.

- We are not all blonde and blue-eyed. I am from Finland and I am really a brunette.
- Finnish people tend to complain a lot, especially about the weather. Just because it sucks most of the time where we come from.
- We do not consider it to be rude if you get a little awkward when a stranger wants to hug you. It’s just normal to have your personal space.   
- Finns are also said to be rude and quiet. Well, for the rudeness part I can tell you that it's not true. If you meet a rude person from Finland, it's just the personality thing. But usually we do not take shit from just anyone. The main rule is: be nice to the Finnish people and they will be nice to you as well. Easy, huh? And the being quiet and shy... Have you heard me talking? I talk all the time, and super fast as well. So there goes that assumption...
- Avoiding eye contact is totally normal sometimes, especially in elevators and at bus stops.

Just a normal day at a Finnish bus stop, i love it.

- I have to say I am super glad that no one has seriously thought that there are polar bears in Finland, way to go everyone! But there aren’t reindeer running around everywhere either. It's the moose that you should be afraid of, haha.
- There is actually a season called summer in Finland. Not that it would mean that winter would not be super long and cold and annoying, but in July it can be over +30 degrees in Finland! I know that it’s hard to believe- it’s still true. But don't get too excited yet - usually it's only really warm for one week or less.
- There are other cities besides Helsinki and Turku. Like for example the lovely Jyväskylä, just in the middle of Finland, surrounded by lakes and… nothing.

 - It really is freaking dark during the usually long winter and then in the summer the sun just won’t set. So good luck with sleeping on summer nights, there’s just too much light outside.
- Not every Finnish person loves winter and snow. And we too get cold sometimes, because it can be suuuuuuper freezing from time to time.
- Even though Swedish is the second official language in Finland, everyone cannot speak fluent Swedish, or even understand it… 
-  ….but if you can speak Swedish it does not mean that you would be able to understand some crazy stuff that the Swedes do all the time. Like seriously, no idea. Finland is not Sweden, even though "they owned us" a long time ago. 
- Actually, a lot of people hate Swedish in Finland.. 
- Finnish language is damn hard, I know it. And it is not a Scandinavian language; actually it is a member of the Finnic group of the Uralic family of languages (thank you Wikipedia). And even I as a native cannot find much logic to it. But it is still so funny to brag about knowing words like “juoksentelisinkohan”, “mielettömyydellään” and “tuorepuristettu”. Also “taka”, “takka”, “takaa” and “taakka” (also "takkaa" and “taakkaa”) are all different words.Finnish has no prepositions, at all. How awesome and easy is that? I know you don't agree with me :) We love massively long compound words and the double consonant + double vowel combination, it’s just so awesome. And very annoying to those who don’t get it. I’m terribly sorry.
- Finns usually like to mess with foreigners and teach them to say some really weird things in Finnish. And actually some people may even lie to you about the meanings of the sentences. I don’t do that, I swear. If you want to learn some Finnish, please learn the nice things first, such as “kiitos”, “ole hyvä”, “olet kaunis”, “Suomi on kiva maa” etc. Also “yksi olut, kiitos” might get you far.
- One of my friends said that written Finnish looks like someone just hit the key board randomly with their head. And apparently Finnish sounds like we are just making up words that don’t exist.
- Finland actually has euros, but we do not use the 1- and 2-cent coins at all- I know we’re super smart.

One October in Finland

- If you go to a sauna, it is supposed to be hot as hell in there. That’s the idea of a sauna.
- Conan O'Brien loves Finland. Just search it on Youtube.
- Apparently I (as a Finn) don’t have the right to call a person from another country an alcoholic. Thank you so much! I know now that you guys are not any better, and no- I’m not living in denial.

That was all for now, I know that Finnish people are weird. But hey, nothing wrong with that. I think I’ll go back to writing this blog in Finnish.Haha. Only because it's such a cool and badass language (or at least that's what I heard).  If you would like to see me writing in English again, please say so and maybe I will. It's just for you my fellow exhange students so you wouldn't have to use google translate. And last but totally not least: it's not okay to call me Finland, or Helsinki (that's even worse).

Hei hei!

- Anniina (the double i is totally important, just so you know)