Useful Links

Hi,

I still don’t have good internet connection in my place, so I’m struggling to post anything here.

But things will get better soon and I expect to post more often.

So this time I’ll just share some links that have been really useful (or just interesting) for me so far.

Weather Forecast

http://www.foreca.fi/Finland/Espoo

I check this daily. Although it doesn’t change much the way I’m dressing to go out, it does change my mindset when the temperature rises. However, this week has been the warmest since I’ve been here, but also the darkest one… Snowing and winding all the time. I miss the good old sunny days in which the temperature was -20°C.

Finland Forum

http://www.finlandforum.org/

This is reaaally useful for people living here or planning to move. It contains topics and discussions about every possible subject. And tips from locals or foreigners living here for a long time are very welcome!

This is Finland

http://www.finland.fi/

This one contains practical info about moving, studying and living in Finland. It also contains general information on several issues and some blog listing.

Transportation

http://www.hsl.fi/EN/passengersguide/goodtoknow/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.reittiopas.fi/en/

Ok, these are very important. And useful. I’ve been using a lot this journey planner. I’m still getting used to the names of the stations and the train lines. But I’ll learn by practice.  If you’re planning to use public transportation here (and you’re an over-planner like me), read the passenger guide. And use the journey planner, of course.

You Know You Have Been In Finland Too Long When…

http://www.hs.fi/english/extras/toolong

This one is funny! It’s an article from the English version of Helsingin Sanomat (they no longer has the English version, unfortunately) talking about “myths” of Finland and Finnish culture and people.

That’s it for today, hope it helps!

=)

PS: I forgot to mention that I follow Helsinki Tourism Office on Facebook (great events tips):
http://www.facebook.com/visithelsinki?ref=ts&fref=ts and BTW they just shared this amazing interactive map today: http://www.discoveringfinland.com/view-map/

Life in Finland - First impressions (part 1)

 Now that I’ve been in Finland for one week, I can share some thoughts or what can be called as “my first impressions” of the country and daily life here. It will be interesting to compare these thoughts in the end of my stay here after six months and see how they develop.

The cold

First thing that comes to my mind is still the cold. Coming here during winter was something that scared me a little back in Brazil. I tried to be prepared, bought some winter clothes and accessories, but I knew I would have to come here first to understand what the winter was really like here. For many people this might be trivial thing, but being born and raised in Brazil, I think I had some reasons to be concerned about that cold. When I left Brazil, the weather there was something like +30°C (86°F)! What I can say about the cold is that is not as bad as I expected. It’s bearable with the right clothes on. Last Friday and Saturday, the temperature reached -20°C (-4°F) and although it was a bit harder to breath and I felt my face skin burning a little from the cold…. nah…. it wasn’t that bad. Not much worse than the –10°C (14°F) when I arrived. My conclusion is that I am more lazy than usual here, because for me it is a big effort to put all those layers of clothes before going out for any place, and the snowy view from my window doesn’t encourage me to go outside. But I’m ok with that. It’s easy to get prepared for the cold. (The darkness, on the other hand, still bothers me a little. But I heard people saying the worst part is gone and now it’s going to be better and better)

The system works 

Some things here make me feel like I have moved from a 3^rd world country to a 1^st world one. Nowadays these classifications are not real anymore. But still, Brazil has a lot to develop in many aspects like education, health care systems, transportations, etc. The point here is not criticizing my home country. I still love Brazil. It’s just that I see many positive things here that wouldn’t work in Brazil. For example, winter here is a high maintenance period. Snow removal activities are a serious business. And it is done in an incredibly efficient way. One can say that Finns cope with these things every year, so it’s easy for them to be experts in that. But in Brazil also, we have floods every summer, and every year the chaos is the same. I don’t know what we are doing wrong (or not doing at all). Another thing that it’s interesting here is related to transportation. I bought the single tickets to go to Helsinki by train on Friday and it’s a bit expensive (€4,50) but no one checks if you have that ticket. I mean, sometimes there are some inspectors checking that, but not always. Well, if we had that in Brazil, most people would ride for free.

It’s expensive

They say life in Europe is expensive. Well, I can’t disagree. In general, things here are more expensive than they are in Brazil. In some cases, MUCH more expensive. Last week I bought a router for €70. In Brazil I could have had that for R$60. Considering that one Euro is now 2,70 Reais… that can be seen as expensive. And yesterday, I went to the movies and the regular ticket was €12,50… However, I got a prepaid phone here that allows me to make phone calls to Brazil at €0,20/minute. If I could talk less to my family, that would be a good deal. But since I cannot spend less than 30 minutes with them, the best solution for me is to get a good internet connection, which I couldn’t do so far. I’ll pay more attention to prices to see what could be considered cheap here. But so far, either things are more expensive or same price range.

Hi from Finland

Hi all,

Just passing by to say hello.
I arrived in Finland last Friday and only today I could get internet connection (Sonera prepaid Nettitikku).
I don't know if it is the best option, but I was so in need of connecting that I just grabbed the first option I could find.
It's working pretty good now.
My first impression is that the cold is not that terrible as people say. It's totally bearable. I'm even enjoying it, since it's so different from the type of cold we have in Brazil.
And the snow... It's SO beautiful! I'm in love! It can be tricky, though. I almost fell several times because of the slippery floor. But you just have to be cautious.
That's it for today, just a short post to register my arrival here.
Pictures: my living room, an old Santa at a flea market I visited on Saturday, myself in winter clothes that are saving me, and a snowy view nearby my place.

Puhutteko suomea?

First post of t he year! And today is the birthday of my mother and my sister! I love them so much!
=)

So back to the question in the post title: Puhutteko suomea?

Ei, en puhu… (Unfortunately)

But I’m trying to learn it.

When you move to a different country, things are much easier if you understand the local language. The language barrier can make you feel disconnected from what’s around you. Considering Finland, there are a few reasons why immigrants often don’t bother to learn Finnish:

1. Finnish is not a global language, so if you’re not planning to stay in Finland for a very long time, it seems pointless to put so much effort into learning a new language that you can’t use elsewhere.

2. Almost all Finns speak English, and that makes foreigners a bit lazy when it comes to learning Finnish.

Even knowing that I’ll be in Finland for less than a year, I’ll try to learn as much as I can in the meantime. Finnish is an interesting and beautiful language. It’s very different from Portuguese or English. Or any other language (they say Finnish is only similar to Estonian).

The common sense says that Finnish is difficult to learn. Some people even say that it’s the most difficult language in the world. But I’m pretty sure that they are exaggerating (a lot!).

The fact that it doesn’t relate to other languages makes it a bit difficult to learn. However, the letters are the same, and pronunciation is very similar to Portuguese. For that reason, I feel much happier to learn Finnish than I would be if I needed to learn Chinese or Russian, for example.

Another characteristic of Finnish language is that it is an agglutinative language, which means that prepositions and other such words are used as suffixes instead of being a separate word. That has been the biggest challenge for me so far.

I believe I won’t be able to learn Finnish as well as I’d like to, but if I can at least go to a ravintola (restaurant), read the ruokalista (menu) and choose between liha (meat) and kala (fish), I’ll be happy!