My time in Finland

Viime elokuusta alkaen Anjalassa on työskennellyt saksalainen vapaaehtoistyöntekijä Tjark. Parin viikon kuluttua hän palaa takaisin kotiin monta kokemusta rikkaampana. Tässä hänen mietteitään Suomessa vietetystä ajasta.

During the time of the 8th of August and the 11th of February I spent my time in the country of the thousand lakes and forests… Of course there are some humans in between the forests and the lakes and those really are a bunch of tough guys (and ladies, of course)! Rarely speaking a word, avoiding the social contact to any other human being (especially those from a foreign country) and, if this is not enough already, killing foreigners with their strange sauna traditions, if anyone is so crazy to actually dare challenging them to the waiting game, while sweating like a priest on a children’s playground.

But all sarcasm aside – most of the stereotypes about Finland and its habitants are actual complete nonsense (or let’s say “höpö, höpö”).

While I lived in Finland, I was learning a couple of very important things about the Finns:
They are friendly, always good for a spontaneous evening out in town, speak English quite well and even though they are a little bit shy sometimes, actually like it if someone else brings up the courage to speak to them and have a nice chat (especially the later it gets, when the level of shame doesn’t matter anymore and speaking English is so easy all of the sudden). I made friends here, who probably stay my friends to the end of days and even problems, which seemed quite big back in my hometown, appeared to be rather small, if I looked at them from some distance with some of the Finnish composure.

So how would I sum up, my whole experience within those six months?
Don’t panic, take some time, devise a plan and then get active at the right time!
Or to put it in one nice sentence I heard a couple of times: “Ei ole kiire”.