Outlandish

Listening to music before falling asleep. I put the music away when I have fallen sufficiently close to passing out. I hold a cup of tea or coffee ”wrong”: I take the whole cup in my hand(s) even if there is a handle for picking the cup up. This is a habit that was pointed out to me when I was very little and still, to this day, I haven’t been able to shake it. I have a collection of books, which I read all over and over again. I’m extremely particular with books, I can’t just read any book, it needs to match my requirements precisely... Except even I can’t describe what exactly those requirements are. In my apartment there must always be noise. If I’m home the TV is always on, even if there’s nothing interesting to watch. When I take home office, I actually work. The whole 8 hours. I must always choose and prepare my clothes for the next morning before going to sleep. If I don’t do it there’s no point getting up the next morning. ...

* I tend to demand things, not ask: it's very impolite and quite arrogant /  It's also very effective and I usually get my will across. * I am an extrovert: culturally in my home country this is quite unacceptable behavior, it's not OK to be too loud or too open about differing opinions; it all can be embarrassing for family and friends /  I make friends easily because I am very open-minded and willing to try new things, which all leads to not being judgmental. * I am emotional: culturally (again) quite strange, sometimes I am unable to control myself, especially negative feelings can take over my entire body (head ache, heart attack etc.)  / I come across as genuine, honest and caring person, so people find it easy to trust me, which is the base of any friendship. * I value free time/freedom of choice over money: there’s no risk of me ever becoming rich / I am happier when I spend more time with my friends and family and am able to do things t...

It’s a common joke in Finland that people who graduate from Universities graduate to be unemployed. Unfortunately more often than not this is very true. In my case as well as many other cases. I had a job when I was nearing graduation but in the end if I wanted to graduate by Christmas 2012 I had to finish my thesis and in order to do that I had to sacrifice a lot more time to the research and writing. So I quit a job as a sales assistant in a clothing store. Thankfully I already hated the job a lot, so quitting it wasn’t a big shock, moreover it was a positive thing. So, I graduated and after New Year had gone by I found myself “standing on nothing”. At that moment it didn’t much matter because I still had plans. And money left in my savings account to realize these plans, like going to Paris for a long weekend. But after the trip the harsh reality started setting in when I had to start applying for all sorts of jobless benefits and proving to all kinds of entities that I ...

Women and sport, 2016 edition. This summer has been a real celebration for all sports, so the media coverage has been very large on the subject as well. Recently there has been an increasing amount of talk about whether women’s sport is neglected in a discriminating way in the media and I find this discussion very interesting especially because I do follow all kinds of sports. The moment that inspired me to write this was when I watched a program, where a group  of successful Finnish athletes gather in Florida, hosted by one of world’s best ice-hockey players, Teemu Selänne, to compete in light-minded sport activities and go through their careers one athlete per episode. These athletes were some of the most successful Finns… and all men except for one figure skater, Kiira Korpi. So I wrote this but didn't publish it... until I saw a picture on Facebook: a huge headline screaming how Michael Phelps won silver swimming 200 meters. And a teeny tiny headline somewhere inside...

It's August but the worst kind of Autumn has already arrived in Estonia. It has been raining eeevery day, just as it did in February for a whole month. And since it's raining all the time it's also dark, which is the most frustrating thing, because in reality it should still be light most of the day for couple more months. Until the never-ending winter darkness descends. And no matter how positive a person you are there is no way the darkness wouldn't affect you. Especially when I lived much more South it was easy to recognize from people's reactions that darkness was descending here, because people started to complain more than usual. The closer to the end of the year we got the worse the complaining got, and the array of issues worth complaining about went to stratospheric lengths. French are famous for being very big complainers but I think we Finns could beat them hands down every time. It's in our genes. But in the end no matter how much you complai...

One evening the weather was just so nice I couldn’t stay indoors so I put my jacket on and went for a walk on the beach. There I found myself smiling without a reason, which tells me that I am happy here. But I must confess a disappointment about Tallinn; people. They are not the least bit interested in making new friends. They are helpful, for example, I got exceptionally wonderful help in finding a flat, which I appreciate enormously, but when the time came for me to take the person out for a drink or some food to say thank you, I was thanked kindly and never heard from them again. Even the Brit I know here is more interested in hanging out with his own friends than helping me find new friends by maybe introducing me to his friends. He has Estonialized in a very short time, and comparing to Brits I can’t say it’s for the better. It’s not just Estonians, this is a very Nordic problem, extremely common with Finns as well. I've seen it even with my own friends in Finlan...

We are hiring more Finnish people to the office and I’ve been responsible for doing the interviews. My favourite question is “describe yourself with three adjectives” because it totally throws Finns, every time. They go all quiet and their brain is working like crazy to come up with something and usually people say that if I had asked for negatives, it would have been easier for them. At first it made me laugh because it’s such a stereotype but so true as well. But after the third person struggled with this questions  I grew more worried than cheery. It can’t be right that people don’t appreciate themselves enough for three little words. It made me think about self-esteem and what it requires. Especially in today’s media-centric world girls and women are given the impression that they aren’t good enough until they are starving 24/7 or muscly enough to resemble a man, but also in that case they are almost required to have an eating disorder. But not just media, also cult...

Some people critique wines, some movies, I seem to have developed a habit of critiquing countries. The difference is that for me that critiquing affects my actual life quite a lot. If a country gets a negative review from me, I’m not going to be comfortable living there, obviously. Cultural differences, those little everyday things that drive you crazy, make you appreciate all the little things you have back at home and make you realize all the things that prove the fact that grass really is greener on the other side of the fence. Those are the things I base my critiques on and obviously as a Finn I look at things quite differently than somebody from India or Brazil, for example. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral The only culture shocks that I have experienced have been all those times that I moved back to Finland. Noticing how nothing had changed, nothing had moved forwards, rather backwards and how the coldness and darkness really do affect your and everybody else’...

Lately I've come face to face with the biggest cultural difference, not just between Finland and Slovakia, but between Nordic  (and some Western European)  countries  and the entire rest of the world: equality between men and women. I grew up in a world where my sex didn't determine anything for me or the people around me. I had a lot of boy friends (not boyfriends) already in kindergarten and it could never have occurred to me that I couldn't or shouldn't do something that they did just because I was a girl. In my family I was the only girl child and I was usually the one who did all the crazy things that boys are expected to do like climbing trees, walking first in line to a dark forest and jumping off rocks. As I got older I as a person was never seen as someone whose main function in life is to settle down with a man, not necessarily a man I would like, just some man, and produce children and be content with the fact that that's all my life would ever be. ...

Parliamentary elections are approaching in Finland and living in Slovakia has made me look at our right for a vote from a new perspective. There is no such thing as democracy. There are good attempts at it, but true democracy is nonexistent on this planet. Still, what we in Finland call democracy is a lifeline that we wouldn't exist without. I live in a country that has the lowest voting percentage in Europe. People in Slovakia simply don't vote. One reason is probably that being able to influence stately matters is still a very new thing. There are still a lot of people (mainly elderly) who think that communism was the best thing that ever happened. Another reason is that in such a corrupt country people have completely lost faith. They don't think that their vote counts at all because it's just that, only one vote. And here's a perfect example for all those Finns back at home who think along the same lines: when there are enough of yous the country ...

I've been struggling big time these past couple days, I must admit. The plane crash in the Alps has totally thrown me. I can't concentrate on work, or anything else for that matter, I am just in shock for what has happened and what the poor families of everyone on board are going through. What makes this case so much worse, in my opinion, is that it seems that it was intentional. Not a fault in technology but a decision made by a person in charge. Flying is a great way to travel: you can cover huge distances in no time whatsoever. But in my life I've encountered so many setbacks when it comes to flying that I've lost faith in it almost completely. I don't trust that I will get to the other side in one piece. Biggest reason for my fear so far has been the fact that when it comes to machines in the air, it only takes one tiny loose part and the thing comes down with fatal consequences. Still, I recognize that statistically it is a safe way to travel.  Human e...

There was  discussion  about jealousy on the blog site that I follow.The sin that all human-beings have a love-hate relationship with. Love in a way that it gives us some sick satisfaction to wallow in the unfairness of life, thinking how wrong it is that somebody has a straight nose when you don't, another one has more followers on Instagram than you do, or somebody else is climbing the corporate ladder faster than you are. On the other hand we hate being jealous because I don't think anyone actually enjoys that feeling. The subject was interesting because Finnish jealousy has been scientifically proven to be different from jealousy anywhere else. In Finland we don't just feel jealous, but also hope for the worst for whoever we are jealous at: for example, my neighbour has a new, fancy car... I hope he crashes and injures himself! :D As a teenager I had a lot to be jealous for: my best friend was an A-student, I was average. She was beautiful, I was ugly. She ...

In most of the Western countries florists are rubbing their hands together happily because the day when they sell the most roses (or pink and red flowers) is upon us. Valentine's Day, or the Finnish version Friends' Day (Ystävänpäivä). Couple interesting facts about Valentine's Day; in the USA 19% of women buy and send flowers to themselves. And in Japan it is traditional for women to dote on men with chocolates etc. unlike in Europe or the United States where it's the other way around.  Anyway, while Valentine's Day has become little more than an excuse for women to demand their counterparts to present them with whatever from expensive jewelry to huge boxes of chocolate, I also think that is a very discriminating day. It celebrates couples, and only couples, even though many people these days don't even want to engage in a relationship when the social pressures (family honour, etc.) are in most countries gone.  I would much rather like to see t...

Another funny thing came into light again this week where Finns and Eastern-Europeans differ a lot. OK, I can't say this applies to most Slovaks but definitely to most of my team here. Holidays.  In Finland we work for the sole reason of having a long, lazy summer vacation. I started here last summer and people were being   told  to use their vacation days from 2013... I can't imagine how that is even possible?! And still, before Christmas people were really being told that you   absolutely HAVE to   take days off. I mean, if people here really aren't that eager to have days off I volunteer to help them by taking those days from them! But anyway, we had a funny incident in a grocery store this week with my neighbour/colleague: we were queuing behind an elderly woman talking in English, of course. When the woman got to the counter she started talking to the salesperson about us. My neighbour translated to me: according to the woman it is so important...