4 months in 10 highlights

Last Saturday, May 11^th, I completed 4 months living in Finland.

Many things happened in these 4 months. Good things, mostly. And I’m so grateful for all those happy moments and for the nice people that made them possible.

I selected 10 important aspects/events of these 4 months. 

1. Trips – Germany, Tallin

I always had in my mind that when I was in Europe I should visit as many countries as possible. And that’s what Brazilians usually do when they come here. But living in Finland I realized that I’m not so close to all European countries and that travelling here is not as cheap as I expected. Even though, I had two good experiences first in Germany during Easter holiday (I visited Heidelberg and Munich) and a couple of weeks ago in Estonia (Tallin).

2. Vappu

This one is difficult to explain. You have to experience it to truly understand what it is like. But shortly, the May 1^st holiday in Finland is a colorful and exciting student celebration that makes streets crowded in a wonderful gathering that reminded me of Brazilian street Carnaval. And luckily the weather was perfect for the picnic in Kaivopuisto, a park where most people go to celebrate.

3. Sunday breakfast with Expats

In the beginning of my stay here, I wanted to meet new people and make friends, so I joined the InterNations social network for expats living in Helsinki where I found this group that get together every Sunday morning to have a cup of coffee and talk about random stuff. The interesting thing is that the group is never the same; people come and go all the time. I really appreciate the discussions about life here and it’s wonderful to learn about other people’s experiences and diverse backgrounds, even knowing that I might never see some of them again.

4. Sightseeing with Ana

Ana is a dear friend who works with me. She is also from a foreign country and has been living here for five years. I’m deeply thankful to her and her efforts to show me nice spots in Helsinki, including cozy cafés near the sea, panoramic towers with great views of the city, churches, public markets and so many things that I can’t even remember. Thank you, Ana!

5. Long wait for summer

Weather has never been such an important topic for me. But now I check the weather forecast every day and I feel that I’ve been waiting for the summer since I arrived, not because I miss the warm weather so much, but people here talk so much about it that I get influenced and find myself in the same expectation mindset. Despite the summer-anxiety thing, it amazes me to see all the spring changes! It’s so beautiful to see flowers blooming after all the snow. We don’t have the four well-defined seasons in Brazil, so that’s totally new to me.

6. Ice hockey

I’m not a sports person per se, but I do enjoy watching football matches and F1 races. Last weekend I went to see my first Ice Hockey game at the stadium. The match was between USA vs Austria as part of the International Ice Hockey Championship that is being hosted conjointly by Finland and Sweden this year. I really enjoyed the experience and now I’m watching the games on TV, whenever it’s possible.

7. Sauna

I already wrote a post about mysauna experience. But I had to mention it again since it was the ultimate Finnish culture event in these past 4 months, and the one I’ve been expecting the most, since the last time that I’ve been here in 2011.

8. Special people

It seems impossible to develop intimate friendships in such a short period of time. But I really feel that I’ve made great friends here already. In the beginning I felt that it would be too difficult to be close to anyone here because Finns are usually shy, reserved and don’t mix personal and work life. However, that certainly is not the whole truth and I met amazing people and they are friends that I would like to keep even if I move away.

9. Food

Not much to say here, just that I love food in Finland. It’s so authentic and simple. I don’t miss Brazilian food at all! (Maybe the picanha…)

10. Missing my Family

In Portuguese we have this beautiful untranslatable word called “saudade”. It refers to the feeling when you miss someone or something. So far, the saudade of my family has been the worst part of living here. I talk to them very often, almost every day.  But we have 6-hours difference, so it’s not that easy. The important thing is that they are happy for me and it comforts me that everyone is fine over there. 

(BTW, my sister and one of our friends are coming to visit next week and I'm so excited!!)

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!