Bad News and Then Amazing News

I know that I haven't been posting much mostly because I've been busy with school and work, but also because I've been a bit depressed about Finland.  My car broke down and so I ended up spending most of Finland's money, putting my plans to visit on hold.  But today I got some very amazing news!  I'm a Early Childhood Education and Development major and I found out that in April of this upcoming year there's going to be a study abroad program to Finland.  It's gonna be for ten days and it's going to be in Helsinki and another town slightly north of Helsinki (the professor I was talking to couldn't remember the name).  I've decided I'm going to do this program, meaning I'm going to be in Finland in less than a year!  I just have to focus on getting the money, but the way this is falling together, I feel like the universe means it to be!

Which means that I am hopefully gonna be posting pictures within a year of me in Finland and visiting Finland :)  See ya'll!

Bocuse d'Or

Finland has come under fire in the past regarding their food, supposedly by past President of France Jacques Chirac and Food stars such as Gordon Ramsay.  Although Mr. Chriac has denied such statements and different videos like this one shows Gordon enjoying some Finnish Reindeer dishes, but from a world stand point Finnish cuisine does often seem to be forgotten about.  So that's why it's a bit nice that Finland won two awards in one of the worlds most prestigious cooking contests in France.  Read the article yourself, and be proud for Finland!

Hyvää Vappuu!

For those of you who don't know May 1st is Vappu, or May day in Finland, otherwise known as Spring Fest or Labour Day.  A lot of Finns basically go to the streets and celebrate, most of them wearing their graduation hats.  If you want some more information here's a good blog post, and if you're wondering what Vappu food looks like here's another one.  Enjoy your day, drink some sima, and Hyvää Vappuu!

Hey Helsinki

It can sometimes be hard to find information about Finland, especially information about Finland from expats, and so that's why its so great to find wonderful blogs from expats in Finland.  Hey Helsinki is a blog by a woman from New Zealand.  She lives in Helsinki, and while she doesn't have as many post as say the blog Life in Finland, she does amazing pictures and reviews of places around Helsinki.

Helsinki Underground

This is a blog post just giving some tips on Helsinki Underground :) Just in case you find yourself needing to take the Underground in Helsinki!

One Million Finnish Passports

We talk so often about the good things about Finland, but like any country there are also less desirable aspects of Finland.  One example can be Finland's 'racism'.  While this is not as big of a problem with the younger generation, there have been many accounts of older Finns acting stand offish towards anyone who very obviously is not Finnish (although wither they really are racist or just typical quiet Finns has yet to be determined).

Another aspect is immigration for Finland.  It can be incredibly hard to get Finnish citizen ship and for immigrants to get resident permits (especially because an employer has to show why no Finn in the area can do the same job as the person the employer is getting the resident permit for).  Sadly, if you don't have family connections, or a Finnish partner, the likelihood of you being able to stay in Finland are pretty low.  About this specifically, Alfredo Jaar created a artwork called 'A Million Finnish Passports' (number three on the list) as an example of this issue.  It's a fairly interesting piece of work, check it out.  It was created in 1995, and things are much better now regarding this issue in Finland than they were, but there's still work to do.  And when I say that I really began to feel that we as a world of nations have more we need to do.  We're already extremely globalized, and thanks to technology today countries really need to be more open.  In my opinion, we should stop being citizens of a country and start being a citizen of the world.  Rant over.

Reaching Goals

I have some exciting news for you guys!  I've finally reached my financial goal for Finland :) If I wanted to, I could leave at any time and go to Finland!  I'm still waiting for a good time to go, lots of planning to do, but it feels good to finally reach my savings goal so early.  I'm still saving money every paycheck so that when I go to Finland in a year to two years I won't be completely emptying my savings.  But it's so nice to be able to talk to my Finnish friends and began to make actual plans for travel.  

How to Survive Winter in Lapland

Lapland is the northern most part of Finland, the part that is really in the arctic circle.  It's the best place to see the Northern Lights in Finland, and also the home of the indigenous Sami people.  This is a fabulous blog post with pictures and tons of information about visiting Lapland and tons of actives and hotels.

Sleeping in a Box and Outdoors!

One of the best ways to understand cultural differences in a country is to look at the way a child is raised, doing this brings understanding to adult behavior.  Finland is often known as being really cold, in fact when I tell people that's where I want to live someday they respond about how cold it is.  Part of why Finns are so good in the cold may be because of them sleeping outside when they're babies.  Despite seeming very odd to those who don't experience such frigid temperatures it's not that unusual for babies, or child in general, to sleep outdoors in the dead of winter and some parents even say it helps kids to sleep longer and deeper if they're outside.

Another interesting thing about babies in Finland is that no matter their social status, rich or poor, all parents receive a baby box from the government (or a check from the government, though most choose the baby box because its a much better deal).  Part of why I want to move to Finland is because they amount of support to parents and to children truly create an environment where you can succeed no matter your background.

Finally, here's a blog post from a fantastic blog about Finland where the mother uses both the baby box and lets her baby sleep outdoors.

Finnish Grocery List

This is just a neat little article from Yle.fi that talks about what Finns buy at the grocery store, and how that's basically been unchanged for the past ten years.  It does mention though that recently Finns do seem to be trying to buy healthier options.

Finland Infographic

Here's just a neat site and this link can give you some nice quick information about Finland!

Finnish Sauna (Ten Tips)

Here are ten tips for beginner sauna-ers :)

Even Swedes Agree Finland is Great!

Just an article that was published in an Swedish paper entitled 11 Reasons to Love Finland.  As if we needed any more reasons to fall in love with Finland!

Suvi Pallas

This is just a very cute and silly 'Finngenerator' that has you put your gender and your name in it and it gives you what your Finnish name would be!  Mine would be Suvi Pallas.  Suvi means summer and Pallas is the name of the fjeld in Finnish Lapland.

How to Survive Winter in Finland (and Enjoy It)

The This is Finland website recently posted a article called 'How to Survive Winter in Finland and Enjoy it'.  I figured it was appropriate considering it is still winter in Finland, as well as many other places (although not where I live!).  Be warm this season and most of all enjoy this magical time!

Odd Christmas Things

It's a bit past the Christmas season now, but I'm still finding articles about odd Christmas things Finns do :) I love to read up on the culture of Finland!    

56 Reasons to Move to Finland

Buzzfeed has a list called '56 Reasons to Move to Finland'.  It has some beautiful pictures and some very good reasons to convince you to move, if you haven't already decided.  Check it out!

Mexican Vlogger in Finland

I've just found this super cute girl on Youtube by the name of My Suomi Finland. She's originally from Mexico but is studying in Finland and makes lots of videos featuring that.  I've only watched a few of the videos but they've been very cute and funny.  Here's the first one I watched about her ten first impressions of Finland, just what she found odd about Finland compared to Mexico.

Welcome to Finland! (WTF)

I don't even know how to describe this video. Just watch it and you'll understand why I titled this post the way I did.  It's a bit long at thirteen minutes, but I promise, just watch all of it.