In my life I have traveled quite a few times. I’ve been to our neighboring countries as well as some that are a little bit further like Germany, Denmark and Czech Republic. Usually not for more than a week at once.
But I had no idea what to expect when I was coming to Finland. What will the people be like? Will I make any friends? Will I have trouble coming around without knowing the language? What is the culture like? What about nature? So many questions I had no answers to. Well now I do.
As I have said many times in my previous blogs, people are closed and shy. For some reason they always seem so confused to me. However, they are all very nice and everyone is trying to treat you respectfully. Someone told me, Scandinavian people are very judgmental, but from most of the people I’ve met so far, I didn’t get that feeling. In stores, on trains and in coffee shops workers are sweet. When they realize, you’re
foreigner they speak perfect English with you and always wish you a good time before you leave. I can hardly say I’ve made any friends here, but the closest to my friend is Robi (Roope), but we haven’t seen each other in a while.
The nature is beautiful. There are lots of lakes and mostly they are so big it almost looks like the see. It is getting colder every day. The flatland is covered in snow, and I feel like in a fairy-tale when walking around the lakes in snow. I admit I am starting to miss hiss and mountains around me, but I still love it here.
I thought more people would be interested in ice hockey. Of course everyone says they like it, but they are usually not very interested. I don’t think I have to explain how surprised I was when they told me Frisbee-golf is a big thing here. I think in Slovenia we call it disc-golf. I’ve only played it once in 7th grade when we were in Peca on a week trip. Miha as well as students from Lahti said they have never heard of it when we told them about it. Actually, Vili invited me and Miha to play last week and it was really fun. I was terrible at it but at least I tried it again and wasn’t in my room the whole afternoon.
I think Finland has more to offer than it seemed at first, but I would need more time to connect with people so they would show me around.
