The short history of sauna

I didn't mean to write anything this weekend but just this morning I was leafing through my notebook for an entirely different reason and happened to find a plan on the series of postings about Finland I was supposed to write last summer. But hey, things happen when the time is right and the starts are perfectly aligned and it happens to be now. So I decided to write about sauna. BTW did  you know the word sauna is actually Finnish? One of the handful of Finnish words that ever made it to Oxford dictionary of English. While sauna as a word was adopted to many other languages to describe a certain type of heated bath, the concept is not unique to Finland, no matter how much we hope it was. In fact many cultures in the northern areas of the globe. Russians and Swedes have sauna. So do some native American tribes (even though their saunas were used for spiritual purposes rather than just washing). 

The history of sauna in Finland can be traced back to at least Bronze Age, to times B.C. The original sauna was a pit dug in the ground with a fireplace at the bottom for heating stones. The pit was then covered with furs, birch bark or turf. When water was thrown on the heated stones, vapor was created. Basically, that is what sauna is. A hot room full of steam for sweating. After pits in the ground fell out of fashion, saunas used to be small huts built of wood inside which stones were heated by burning wood for several hours. Note that there was no chimney to let the smoke out, as was the case for mot houses in the middle ages and even until the beginning of 20th century. Nowadays saunas are rooms with wooden walls that have either a wood burning small stove-like thing for heating the stones or an electric devise for heating the stones. Probably the only electric devise you can safely throw water on.

Sauna is and has always been an important feature in the culture. Not so long ago, less than a century, most Finns were born in a sauna due to it being the most sterile and clean space available for such purposes. Most Finns also exited their life on Earth through sauna as it was a place to wash the deceased before burial. Between the birth and death sauna served as a sick room and sometimes the only remedy know for hordes of ailments. There is a saying "if sauna, booze and tar doesn't help, the illness is lethal". While research cannot show reliable evidence of a magical positive impact on health, sauna is a place for relaxation and it is considered refreshing. Plus it cleanses skin from microbes far better than a shower or a bath.

In Finland it is customary to go to sauna completely nude, an idea people not used to this idea sometimes find intimidating. Overnight guests in Finland are quite often offered sauna, and even some businesses offer sauna to their business partners e.g. after negotiations. I remember one workplace team building in sauna. Now, if you happen to be in Finland and receive an invitation to sauna, don't panic. While stripping and going to a naked sauna with people you have never seen, have just met or are friends with but not that close friends, doesn't probably sound like the ultimate fun, it is an experience, so why not give it a go? Admittedly it might not sound like a comfortable idea.

Sometimes people are worried the others will stare or otherwise make the feel ill at ease. Well, if you have a clearly visible scar or a strange birthmark or something like that, I cannot guarantee that people will not be curious. We are all humans and stop being curious the day we stop breathing but curious doesn't mean the same as malicious. And it will very likely not be the first scar or peculiar birthmark people used to sauna culture will see. Which leads me to one more positive aspect of sauna: realistic body image. The image they feed us through fashion, movies, etc is so very unrealistic. Yet it is a powerful factor in making people ashamed of their bodies and  feeling uncomfortable in their own skin. Perfect bodies and perfect skin without a trace of pores and cellulite requires a lot of work- on computer. Most of us have birthmarks, moles, scars, most women, even thin women, have cellulite, and when we age skin starts to sag, body becomes less firm and that is natural. And as an ending remark, even though people go to sauna naked it is not associated with sex. It's associated with washing.

The world came into being from an egg of a bird

Hello readers, this week's topic is Finland again. My life is so uneventful that there is nothing to write about it, unless you want to read a painfully detailed description of how I process invoices every day. I guess not.. 28th of February is the day of Kalevala (national epic of Finland ) and Finnish culture, so I decided to write a bit about Kalevala and the strange and unique beliefs our ancestors had.

As s short intro to Kalevala, it is a collection of poems an aspiring doctor called Elias Lönnrot assembled in 19th century. He wandered on foot through Karelia and Viena area in search of original poetry that was very typical in Finland and Karelia until the arrival of Christianity, after which the tradition started to disappear as the church did not approve of such heretic stories as can be found in Kalevala. (In this modern era one might question this censure of the poems as the themes are relatively harmless- until we remember the story of Marjatta which I will introduce later on.) Most of Kalevala is based on ancient poems but about 3% comes from Lönnrot's imagination. He wanted the poems to be written down as a complete story with complete plot, which meant that in some places he had to step in to fill voids in the storyline.

The oldest poems are said to date back 3000 years and the newest ones appeared about the time Christianity arrived to the area. They are a mix of songs and poems in trochaic tetrameter, also known as the Kalevala metre. To put the explanation short, 8 syllables are needed to express one idea or verse "va-kaa van-ha väi-nä-möi-nen". Maybe you can imagine the agony of teenagers when they have to read Kalevala in Finnish language and literature class. I tried but it is absolutely too difficult because the language is outdated and because not all the words conform with Kalevala metre no matter how much you wish them to. When Lönnrot was compiling the poems he sometimes added or dropped syllables or letters to make the words fit in and in some parts the result is a disaster. And still, around 2% of the content of Kalevala breaks this rule of 8 syllables for one idea. But now more about the poems themselves.

Creation myth 

The Bible says "in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth" but as we all know there are more explanations than this one. After all, people have always felt the need to explain how we ended up on this planet that is speeding through the vast emptiness of space and never arriving anywhere. Up there in the north people came up with the idea that everything originated from an egg of a bird that belongs to genus aythya. Now, there are many species belonging to that genus but as our ancestors apparently didn't deem it important to report the exact species but referred to it by the generic term for that kind of diving ducks, I will not start guessing either. (At least I think it wasn't reported but then again I didn't read the whole Kalevala.) So the next time you are having bacon and eggs for breakfast, just remember you might be in the process of destroying a future universe that didn't have enough time to be hatched before it ended up on the plate.

The story of Sampo

Sampo in Kalevala is a magical machine of undetermined type that produces gold, flour and salt for its owner. There are many "deep" explanations as to what Sampo actually is (world pillar, world tree etc) but it is perhaps most commonly recognized as a mill that grinds riches. It was created by a skilled blacksmith Ilmarinen for the evil queen Louhi (the whore of the story who gets impregnated by the wind, the waves and what not except for a man) in exchange for her daughter's hand in marriage. The evil queen took Sampo but refused to give her daughter to Ilmarinen after all. The reason why I wanted to introduce Sampo is the nowadays somewhat peculiar things it makes. Gold flour and salt. Wouldn't it be handier if it just generated money, low-risk-high-return on investment shares and interest-free mortgages? Or fast cars, luxury boats and expensive jewelry? But the story of Kalevala originated in archaic agricultural society where people probably were hoping to have their daily bread provided without having to toil the earth sweating in their dirty shirts during the short Nordic summer. Can't blame them for hoping.

The story of Aino

In the end Aino died. She was the only girl of her family and unlucky enough to have a very competitive brother who challenged old wise man Väinämöinen for a sword fight. Väinämöinen didn't want to fight with swords but suggested a contest of casting spells (!). The story ended with Väinämöinen singing Joukahainen into a mire and Joukahainen promising his only sister to Väinämöinen as long as the older man released him from the mire. Väinämöinen was as old as the world itself and Aino was a young girl. Fearing her faith she drowned herself in a lake and turned into a fish. Can't blame her either. Aino is a common name in Finland these days, however it is said the girl in Kalevala might not have had a name after all but she was referred to as "aino tyttö" (the only girl) and later on Lönnrot gave her the name when he started to spell it with capital letter.

The story of Marjatta

The story of Marjatta is short and scary. One day she went to the forest, found a lingonberry, ate it and the berry made her pregnant. Beware, ladies, if you go picking lingonberries it is not just wolves and bears you should be afraid of. Of course you might always contradict the story and say that Marjatta came up with this lingonberry theory to dupe e.g. her parents and that there was an actual guy involved in Marjatta's "oops" moment. Her parents being old and having forgotten the act then swallowed the little lie their daughter spun and saw her pregnancy as something else than the accident is was. Or whatever. Marjatta's story is one of the new poems of Kalevala and she is interpreted as the Virgin Mary of the north, giving birth to a son in a stable and so on.

These were just some examples of traditional Finnish story-telling. When Kalevala was first published, it served as means to awaken the national spirit and became the cornerstone of national identity. It has served as inspiration to artists of all fields. The importance of Kalevala can still be seen in Finland e.g. in people's names. Aino, Ilmari, Sampo, and Marjatta are all names that are used today and there is name Väinö that could be related to Väinämöinen. Also, we have Sampo bank and a construction firm Lemminkäinen. (Lemminkäinen was Kalevala's general good-for-nothing guy tempted by ladies and war. In the end he is killed and the body chopped to pieces. His mother retrieves him from the underworld and brings him back to life. Why, it is a mystery to me. Who can understand a mother's heart except another mother and luckily I am no one's mother. :)

Rye bread and Fazer blue

I booked a flight ticket to Finland in winter, can you imagine. See you in March, folks! My original plan was to go to Greece but can you believe, I did not want to. I didn't want it at all. I read an article about travel burn out and realized that is what I am suffering from. I just cannot muster up enough interest towards Greece right now. I am sure it is an amazing place and some day I will definitely go there. When my mood is better and I can actually enjoy the trip. So I booked a flight to Finland cause that is where rye bread is. And oh yes, my family is there, too.

I feel ashamed to confess that food was an important motivator in choosing to go to Finland. I am not saying there is something wrong with Czech food but there is also no rye bread No Karelian pastries, no mämmi even though Easter is coming. Even chocolate doesn't satisfy the craving. Ever since I booked my ticket in January I've been calling Mom pretty much every second day to add a dish on my meal wish list. She keeps scribbling down the notes and last time informed me "there are 8 main courses now on the list, so are you planning to do something else than eat on the holiday or not?" Hell no. And I will fill my suitcase with 20 delicious kilos of domestic delicacies. In Prague I will buy an enormous freezer and stuff it with Vaasa rye bread.

Sometime during my studies we had intercultural communication lessons and one of the topics was missing home but it turned into missing food. Most foreign students told they missed the food they were used to eating. It does matter what you eat. When I was an exchange student in South Korea I also noticed I missed some dishes I wouldn't have touched in Finland. Like smoked salmon I used to blame for headache, fish soup and other strange things I never cooked and only ate if there was no choice.

During past 6 months here in Czech Republic I have constantly felt an empty hole in my poor belly that only rye bread could fill. Missing rye bread drains the life force out of me so better go to Finland for a hearty meal. Finnish food is not so well-known or well liked abroad (after all, it's not sushi or pho) because in all honesty it is weird. Nevertheless I decided to write a post about some dishes I miss, and probably other Finns abroad miss, too.

1. Rye bread. Not even Sweden can offer the same, even though their rye bread is not bad at all compared to the stuff other European countries try to pass as rye bread and sell to unsuspecting consumers. Trust me, the only rye in that bread is written on the package.

A breakfast that is not going to leave you feeling sad and hungry

2. Fazer's blue chocolate (no, it is not the chocolate that is blue, it got its name because of the blue wrapping) Yes, many people miss this stuff and now I am part of that group of desperately sugar-deprived poor devils. (I guess choco gods heard my bitter sighs, when I went to peel an orange in the kitchen my roommate offered me some chocolate and to my surprise and joy it was Fazer's blue. Her friend had brought it from Finland.)

3. Coffee. Some foreigners have insultingly called it tea because it is weak, watery like brew compared to espresso-style coffees. Finnish coffee must be drank from a Moomin mug or at least from a mug that is Iittala or Arabia.

Spooky coffee

 4. Karelian pastries. Dubbed as "the most pussy-looking food on Earth". When I go to Finland, I will bake heaps of them. Baking them is not technically very challenging but they need a very high temperature to bake, otherwise they will become chewy. Don't think anything else than wood-burning oven is strong enough to handle them. Or so I have been told.

5. Mämmi. (If Karelian pastries look like pussy, this delicious dessert looks like it was already eaten once.) I suggested Mom she could buy some for Christmas but she refused because "girl, mämmi is an Easter dish, they'd think I've lost my last marble were I to go to any grocery store to ask for mämmi just before Christmas".

Mämmi..

6. Salmiakki. Well, strictly speaking it is not food, because it is liquorice spiced with ammonium chloride. Anyway, I miss it. It's a great pity my roommate's friend didn't understand to bring this from Finland. Or maybe that was the good deed of the day, because consuming salmiakki is known to make blood pressure rise and cause unpleasant palpitations somewhere in the vicinity of heart. For example, salmiakki never made it to Japan because the country's health officials labeled it "unsafe to be consumed by humans". Make your own decision about touching this stuff. You have been warned.

Candy in Finland

7. Berries. Blueberries, gooseberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, currants. Last night I dreamed of sitting in our garden, vigilantly keeping an eye on the currants, waiting for them to ripen before my outbound flight. A very true situation in the real world, too. For years I have missed the gooseberry and currant season because the stubborn berries want to stay green and bitter. Based on that dream I assume food is becoming an obsession.

There are many more things I would like to add to the list but I must stop writing because thinking about food causes a psychological hunger that has nothing to do with actually needing to eat. And guess what happens if you eat when you are not really hungry? Yes, you'll get fat. That is exactly what is going to happen to me on my holiday.

Finlandia since 1917

On Wednesday I went to ambassador's residence to celebrate Finland 100, our 100th independence day. The whole country has been preparing for the centenary since 2016 and why not. Not everyone lives to be one hundred and in this insecure, turbulent world, the same goes for nations. The residence was completely packed with people, makes one imagine that half of the population is actually here in Prague. Prague City celebrated along and the Dancing House was lit up with blue and white, the colors of our flag. 

As I have probably written in previous years, too, independence day is THE day for me. It is probably the only day of the year when I can forget about the things I don't like in Finland and just be happy and proud of our country. It might not be the best place for me at the moment, and nothing can ever make me feel like winter is a nice thing, but I am aware of all the positive aspects of life in Finland. Compared internationally, we do well in several sectors. Our education system receives praise in media abroad and some countries interested in developing theirs have been interested to learn more about it. Needless to say education is free, even in universities (even though I think there's been discussion about introducing fees). 

The Dancing House

Finland is one of the best countries in the world to be a girl. Women work actively outside of home and participate in politics, culture, everything. Finland was among the first countries in the world to enact universal suffrage a decade before becoming independent (and the feminist in me wants to ask what the hell took them so long and why wasn't the centenary of that event celebrated???) And even if I personally think that this world should so more respect to women I must admit that in equality Finland does well, too. I cannot remember hearing shit like "you cannot do it because you are a girl" or "this is not for women". Women can be anything they want to be. And if you actively want to be nothing, that's quite OK, too. After all, our fantastic social security will take care of you. 

Finland is a safe country. Traffic is not high risk for your health and safety, only for mental well-being sometimes. You are not likely to be kidnapped, killed, robbed or anything. In fact, you are more likely to be a victim of domestic violence or be murdered by your mates than being randomly attacked on the streets. We can all think for ourselves if that is a positive thing or not.. 

Christmas is coming 

Whatever I say or think about Finland, I am extremely happy it is an independent nation. Even though it's something I usually take for granted, it is not that long ago when things were different. My great-grandparents were born in Russia (or the Grand Duchy of Finland but in effect the same thing). They went to Russian school where they were not allowed to speak Finnish. When my grandfather was born, Finland was only 5 years old, recovering from a bloody civil war. It is also good to remember that for some time there, it wasn't so sure if we were going to remain independent. My grandfather went to the war, and it is their generation we can thank for escaping the faith of the Baltic states and Eastern Europe. After all, we are one of the rare nations who have been able to say no thank you to Soviet Union. It is said that the war unified Finland and hard feelings remaining from the civil war years disappeared in the face of a common enemy. Which goes to prove that the enemy of an enemy is a friend. 

What's up

I was planning to write about Finland but somehow I couldn't find the interest towards the topic. Now I am going to move to Czech Republic and the Daily Immigrant is going to concentrate on my experiences there, but I am also planning to start writing a separate blog about Finland, maybe on some other platform. More about that later.

Today I was trying to prepare a report on my medical history for initial health check before the work begins. As a matter of fact, it was impossible to arrange the medical check to actually take place before the start date. That made me think of the possibility to forge my medical report as I don't actually have a recent one, moreover I don't even know what kind of document that would be. Most of my visits to GP have been abroad for the past year and accessing the information would be quite difficult. So I logged in to our new online account where all the recent medical data is stored. I copied it to a nice-looking template and translated it into English myself. This forgery and falsifying of data took me the better part of an hour, then I finally went to library to print my report of which I was extremely proud. And shortly after that I got a message from my company explaining that the report is not necessary, I just need to explain my medical history to GP during my appointment. tough luck! But it was a really nice fake report..

Australia has really changed me a lot. Never before would it have occurred to me to prepare my medical report myself. I would have asked the health center to provide it and then paid myself sick for translating it. Also, I am moving in a couple of week's time but I haven't even started to look for an apartment or anything like that. Plenty of time later, huh? One of the goals I wanted to accomplish in Australia was to become more relaxed and worry less. Apparently I met the goal, easily.

Midsummer Night Madness

The beginning week's weekend is midsummer weekend. Midsummer's day is a big thing in Finland. The origin of midsummer celebration has its roots in the pagan times. The peoples of the Nordic and Baltic countries used to celebrate midsummer on the longest day of the year, i.e. the summer solstice. After Christianity arrived in the area, the Catholic church thought it best to accommodate the local people and incorporate their festival into the religious calendar. As John the Baptist happened to have been born around the time of the midsummer festivities, his birthday was declared the official midsummer's day. In Finnish midsummer is called "juhannus" and the name can be traced back to "John" (Johannes in Finnish. Reading tip: the "j" in Finnish is pronounced as "y", like in "yolk", never like "j" in English). Juhannus always falls on a Saturday between 21st and 26th of June.

So, what is traditional for midsummer celebration in Finland? I cannot speak for the whole country as traditions may differ from one area to the other, but I will explain how it is and has been celebrated in my area. In the past times the midsummer time was considered magic and even a bit threatening, it was thought that evil spirits and ghosts were fooling around on the Earth. A suitable way to repel the potentially harmful influence of those spirits was to be as badly drunk as possible and burn big, bright midsummer bonfires. (Sounds like a dangerous combination, right?)

At the same time it was considered a time when forecasts about the coming year could be made and people used to perform rituals to secure their livelihood and good luck on the marriage market, the latter usually only concerning young girls (which annoys the hell out of me because it's not equal!) When I was a child my grandparents and parents told me that young girls were supposed to collect seven different kind of wild flowers and put them under their pillows, so they would meet their future husband in their dream. Another way to see the future husband was to peek into the well. The image of him should be reflected on the surface of the water. I wonder how many young ladies met the grim reaper instead of the fiance after falling into the well.. 

For midsummer people used to, and still do if possible, place birch trees on both sides of the entry to the house. It is still traditional to bathe in the midsummer sauna to be lean when it's time to celebrate on earnest. As a matter of fact, even if some traditions will fade, one tradition is going to stick around: Finns have always been and will always be drunk as a skunk during midsummer. And this leads me to describing the ways to die during the festival. 

1. Traffic. Midsummer is one of the most popular times to go to the countryside, and that means more traffic than usual. Sadly, it is not uncommon to drive in the state of serious intoxication which increases the risk of traffic accidents. Someone dies every year. 

2. Drowning. Midsummer is also a popular time to be on the boat and as many summer cottages are located on a lake shore, there's plenty of fresh water to drown into. I remember at school a first aid teacher once told us that 80% of the people who fall from the boats and drown in the lakes are young men and 80% of them have their fly opened (that is, they wanted to pee to the lake but being drunk ended up falling into the water. Well, there will be no further need to pee..)

3. Fight. When alcohol is involved, people might get a bit aggressive. Especially the ones who have the "drink and fight" gene. So, someone might end up in the hospital or in the cemetery. 

There are other ways to end the days during midsummer, too, like alcohol poisoning etc. but let's not dwell on the subject. Juhannus in general is a happy holiday when families or groups of friends gather together. There will be barbecue, beer, cider, plenty of food and weather permitting people will be outdoors. Some skiing centers and other holiday resorts organize their midsummer night's party where it's impossible to run out of alcohol. 

One more direct consequence of midsummer night's more relaxed behavior is the occasional peak in the birth rate nine months later. (According to statistics there doesn't seem to be a relevant connection between midsummer and a baby early the next year but this myth still lives and people joke about it a lot. :)

So, are you ready to celebrate midsummer? great! Hyvää juhannusta! Happy Midsummer! 

The Summer Guests

"I always knew the summer had begun when the summer guests started arriving", my mother told me some time ago. "They would walk to our house from their summer cottages. The house was always full in the summer. They started arriving in May and the last ones left in September." We were driving by the said summer cottage that's been empty all winter now and I was thinking summer is absolutely the best time to be in Finland. See, everyone else is here, too. Even when I was a child I also knew it was summer when my godparents came home from Sweden.

In East Asia people always try to get home for the lunar new year. Summer is our lunar new year. Most Finns who left the country to work abroad try to return in the summer. My home town is in Eastern Finland, it was one of the areas that lost a lot of young people in 60's and 70's when they mass emigrated to Sweden to work for the growing industrial sector, or went to work in the bigger cities elsewhere in Finland. My home town was pretty much empty in the winter but in the summer it filled with people, filled with life when the summer guests arrived. In the summer Finland is one, big, open guest house. We meet people we haven't seen in a year.

We call this Midsummer Rose because it's supposed to blossom around the time of  midsummer 

Of course Finns travel in the winter too, for Christmas and New Year's holidays and such but traveling in the summer has one advantage over everything else; traveling is easy. It's warm and it's daylight throughout the night. In addition people mostly take their longest vacation in the summer. There is plenty to see, too. Some small, local places like restaurants and cafes in Finland are only open in the summer. I invite you to come to Finland in the summer. We are ready to receive more guests!

The Moomin Mania

The story has it that it all started with a drawing on the wall of an outhouse in 1930's. Since then these funny, hippopotamus-shaped creatures and their motley collection of friends have made their way into the hearts of the Finns. I am talking about the Moomins.

Most people have at least a couple of Moomin mugs

I have more than a couple of them..

The first book was published in 1945 straight after the Continuation War finished. At that time the book didn't appeal to the greater audience, the nation was too busy rebuilding everything to be interested in books and such. Despite the low interest in her story, the creator of the Moomins, Tove Jansson did not give up but published another book the following year. The second book didn't sell any better and the publishing house declined the questionable honor of publishing even more of the books that didn't generate any income. Jansson offered her third book to another publishing house and finally the Moomins started to receive some attention. The third book was Jansson's break through and since then nothing has been able to stop the Moomins from taking over the world.

Containers for coffee, sugar, flour etc. 

The Japanese got interested in the Moomins as early as in the 1960's. Two animations were created in the following decade but it was only in the 1990's when a Japanese animation for kids became hugely popular in Finland (you can watch the animation online in Youtube. Just type in "Moomins" and an English version will appear). Originally the Moomin books and comic books were written for grown up people, but the Japanese did some editing to make their animation more suitable and interesting for a younger audience. When I was a child I loved the Moomins, even though some of the episodes were actually quite scary. :)

The pages of the Moomin notebook are being filled with notes about job applications sent

Eventually, the Moomins also made it to the cinema and theaters and the books were translated to 40+ languages. These days Moomin characters decorate anything that can be decorated. There are the mugs, the pillow cases and duvet covers, towels, notebooks, you name it. The oddest thing I have seen was a Moomin bra in Bangkok. At that moment I realized I've seen it all. Also, the Moomins are probably the only thing that can cause a riot in Finland. When a special batch of Moomin mugs was released to the stores, people were actually snatching the mugs from other people's trolleys and even some fights over the coveted ceramics were reported in the news. This all in a country where people don't even want to cross the street if the light is red.

Plush toys..

No wonder at some point Jansson herself admitted being sick of seeing the Moomins everywhere she went.

Pillow cases

Decorative items..

In addition to story books and comics, there are books about the stories and the author

Puzzles

More containers.. oh yes, I am obsessed

Want to know more about the Moomins? Check the webpage!
Moomins

The fires of the fox

This is a short post for those of you who are interested in aurora borealis. Often times when I'm travelling people ask me about the northern lights, if I've seen them and if it's easy to see them in Finland. Well, the answer to the question is yes I've seen the northern lights, if only three times in my life. See, the problem is, the northern lights usually occur in the night and because I am a good girl, I sleep. When I was living with my parents they never woke me up to see the lights even though there were winters when the lights appeared most nights for weeks. So I've only seen a very weak, fading sort of northern lights and I feel a bit bitter. I spent the best part of my youth huddled up in the disgustingly cold, unpleasant north and didn't even see our trademark northern lights. The strongest ”northern lights” I've seen were during a flight from Bangkok to Helsinki. In some Finnair planes they can demonstrate the phenomenon, even if it doesn't look perfectly natural.

Here's some mythology about the northern lights. People in Eastern Finland believed that a giant firefox, wagging its tail while running in the snow, occasionally hits its tail to a rock or a tree, thus creating the northern lights. Hence the name in Finnish, revontulet, the fires of the fox. Also, some tribes believed women had better avoid seeing the lights and never venture out when the lights appeared as it was believed it would induce bleeding. Some northern tribes also believed that the soldiers who died in the battle still continued to bleed in the heaven. So, there seems to be a connection between blood and aurora borealis, because in addition to being a pale green tinged with blue, the northern lights can also be red.

I don't have a photo of the northern lights, this is a normal sunset

Planning to come to Finland for some northern lights spotting? The best time is either early autumn or late winter. In the summer they cannot be seen because it's too sunny even in the night. They cannot been seen if it's cloudy. In the winter in Lapland it's possible to see the northern lights three nights out of four and the best time is around midnight.

I will not even try to explain how the phenomenon forms because it's totally beyond my abilities. Also, you will find many different myths and legends about aurora borealis online, I've only introduced the ones that I know well.  

And then what?

The year in Australia is over and I'm feeling empty and hopeless. I don't have a job, I don't have an apartment, actually there's nothing in my life at the moment. Except a little money from Australia :) Usually I enjoy visiting my home but this time I don't have any plans for the future so I cannot fully enjoy my stay here. What if my stay here will be too long? Australia was my ultimate plan, I always thought a year is long enough to figure out what I'd like to do with the rest of my life, I was sure something would appear, there would be something just for me. Well, that's the one and the only time I've been thinking positive in life and look what happened. There was nothing for me and nothing appeared.

Autumn in Finland 

Back to the blog then. I don't have a clear plan for this blog, I don't have a clear plan for anything. I was thinking of writing about Finland only in English (because Finnish people are supposed to know these things about their country). Then all the warm and fussy feelings towards Finland disappeared somewhere between Bangkok and Helsinki, at the airport I was only feeling anxious and depressed. But I think I will follow this plan A. If I have more than two readers for those posts, I will keep writing about Finland while I'm still here, planning for the next step.

PS: It was snowing today :(

Independence Day Post- Are You Home Sick?

I have been living abroad for more than two years now. It's not only the Finnish society and values that have shaped me but also South Korea, Poland, Ireland and now Australia. But still I remain as Finnish as one possibly can. What's being a Finn and what kind of things I miss from Finland?

Being a Finn means never giving up, not even when facing an impossible situation. You know, impossible is only a word. You can win even against all the odds if you believe in yourself and your own abilities. No one will believe in you if you don't believe in yourself. We call this kind of perseverance sisu. It's a certain kind of stubborn mentality that will see you through any imaginable difficulty. I can guarantee that, I've tried. Fight!

I miss the Finnish rudeness. Ooops I meant to say the directness. We say what we think, even in a situation where the counterpart might not appreciate the message too much. Anna told me that when she was working at the noodle market her boss told them they could get food from the stalls. The idea was to go to the stall and start to chat with the personnel until they offer you food for free. In Finland you might need to wait for a relatively long time because people are not used to/ willing/ cannot read between the lines what the other wants. If you can't open your mouth and honestly tell what you want be prepared to be left without then. I miss that kind of directness. People are different everywhere but what I don't like in Australia is how people pretend an interest in you for some personal gain. Finns are fair. After all, if we don't like somebody, we'll kill him.

I also miss Finnish food. Admittedly, it's not on the top 10 list of world cuisines but I grew up eating it and I miss it. One day I was feeling down and found dried rye bread in the market. What a happy day that was! Comfort food, my style. Who would have thought so in the elementary school when we hated eating dried rye bread?

I miss sauna! Oh sauna, it's so good to go there and relax, chat with your friends, be happy, be ad, be cntemplative. Finnish personal space requirements don't apply to sauna where people are quite comfortable with the proximity of other people, even if you don't know them very well. Naturally, most of the time everyone's naked. So, bathing without properly sweating first in the sauna is just waste of energy. I don't feel much cleaner.

Sometimes I miss the Finnish summer. Yes, the summer that's cold, short and grey. But other places don't have the sunny nights. I miss seeing the sun 3 am. Full stop there.

I miss these landscapes

And last but not the least, my family and friends. You can make new friends and build a new family everywhere but it's not the same as the one and the original. I miss you!  

I don't miss this sight at all 

Good and bad news

Ireland: "Gardai has a new suspect in Dublin murder case"
South Korea: "Kim Han-Neul to tie the knot with Lee Seo-Jun next month"
Finland: The government planning a rise in income tax percentage during the next reign"
Poland: Probably something similar to Finland
Australia: Something very similar to Ireland

Some things really cause the blood to boil

As you may have guessed, these are some examples of news headlines in different countries. When I first moved to Ireland I started to suspect that the country is full of madmen and an Irish mafia hit man is waiting for fresh victims around every corner. I left the office only after reading the news and making sure there wasn't major mayhem happening in our neighborhood. Then my roommate told me it's not so much about Ireland being a dangerous country than about media attention. In Ireland murders are the most interesting thing. And actually, that seems to be right. Statistically Ireland is even a safer place than Finland but still the Finnish media is much more focused on suggested changes in taxation, proposed cuts in salaries, etc. Who cares about a human life or two when there is a potential financial crisis lurking in the shadows. And maybe Finnish murders are too boring to hit the headlines because we're still a country where it's more likely to be stabbed to death by your family members than by a random guy on the street. Probably that's the origin of the common question "is this a family fight or can everybody participate?" (to be asked when you see a group fighting) By the way the Irish murders were usually connected to gang fights or drunkards taking it outside with fatal consequences. (Well, we have enough of that latter kind of shit in Finland, too).

So, all in all, in Ireland half of the area of the country is permanently isolated with crime scene tape and in Finland people are debating about a 0,00001% change in income tax rate, unemployment benefit or student aid. In South Korea people are always interested not only in the newest installments of the neighboring country but also in who are dating and who is about to settle down and be married with whom and live happily ever after, of course.

In Poland I never watched or read the news but I assume it's all about politics just like in Finland. And in Australia it's Ireland all over again. Murders, weather forecast and MasterChef. I think I'm going to move to Sweden. Their news are the most versatile.

Doctoral studies

The title doesn't refer to a university degree. This is a short empirical research on health care in Finland, South Korea, Poland, Ireland and Australia. Yeah, I've been sick all over the world. Not sure if it's something to be proud of. So anyway, here's how I got the idea for the story: I went to see a doctor yesterday because my ear was aching. It's nothing to be worried about so basically it was waste of time to go there, but at least I got the inspiration for this post.

Let's start from the beginning, namely South Korea. Korea is a paradise for the ones suffering from minor ailments. Koreans are in the habit of going to see a specialist no matter what kind of health problem they seek advise for. If your ear is aching, you go to see a doctor who specializes in ear related problems. You can make an appointment by walking into the health center, there are at least two of them in every block. The only problem in this approach is that you can't be sure if your doctor speaks English. But in general that's nothing to be afraid of. I didn't want to pay the international rate for the services provided by an international hospital and I never had any problems finding an English speaking doctor who had studies in the States.

So you don't necessarily need to book the appointment beforehand, just waltz into the health center when you need the services. I often did just that to get a prescription for whatever medicine it was that I needed. Usually I had to wait 15 minutes or so. How this is made possible- well I don't know but the system is working from the consumer's point of view. In my experience you'll lose 10,000-20,000 won in the process, roughly speaking 7-14 euros. You'll get your neatly packed medicine from any of the billion pharmacies. See example below. We couldn't read Korean fluently so we had no idea what kind of medicine they gave us. We used to joke that it was powdered dragon tail mixed with powdered clay pot but it sure as hell kicks in fast. Makes one wonder if there's something slightly opiatic involved.

In Finland I need to book an appointment beforehand, and I still need to wait 15 minutes, because at least 2 people are going to have parallel appointments with the same doctor (well at least you don't need to go into the examination room with that other 11:15 person.. yet), and the standard fee for seeing a GP is 20 something euros. To be fair to Finland, at least you get your prescription renewals for free (most of the time).

In Poland I had a private health insurance sponsored by the company I was working for. That means I got my sick leave certificate for free. The doctors spoke English and I didn't have any negative experiences with health care in Poland except maybe for the fact that once I had to sit 3 hours in a bus to get to the health center because an English speaking doctor wasn't available in the nearby health center. A big plus for Luxmed was their online booking system. By registering you were able to browse the available appointment times and even select your preferred doctor. Information technology makes being an introvert so much easier. Say goodbye forever to calling the customer service. "You are number 56 on the line".

Well then, hello Ireland. I went to get my sick leave certificate and asked if I can travel to Amsterdam when I've got a flu. The doctor said that there's no problem, just go for it but avoid taking too much drugs while you are not feeling well. What the heck? A doctor is supposed to advise against using drugs in any circumstances. Feeling a bit worried about the state of the Irish nation I left the place, being 30 euros poorer for this excellent piece of advise. Luckily I got to claim half of it back form the company sponsored health insurance.

And what about the price of consultation here in Australia where all the prices are inflated by default? Consulting the GP didn't cost me anything. Nada. Nix. I'm covered (limited coverage but still a coverage) by the national Medicare scheme so I didn't need to pay for the consultation. The bill goes to Australian government or whatever authority is providing the service. By all means, I'm not sad about that. It saves me the trouble of claiming the money back from my travel insurance. I guess I don't even try to claim back the 6 bucks I used for painkillers.

The daily immigrant in Finland

At the moment the daily immigrant is in Finland, doing nothing and enjoying it. I've got all the time in the world to become a new Tolstoy or some other famous author and I don't even get a new blog post started. Or, to be more precise, I have been planning to continue this post that I already started in January in Ireland.. Well, today is a sunny day and instead of going to the garden to do something to benefit our community I decided to lock myself indoors and finally continue my long term project to write this post.

The picture has nothing to do with the text, I'm just missing summer so much at the moment.

Today's topic is living abroad. And for those of you who now say "hello, this entire blog is about living abroad, have you finally lost your last marble", I can assure you, I'm still relatively sane. It's just that more often than not I have noticed that people have too optimistic an opinion about living abroad. It's not all just adventures or beer and skittles but hard work. That's why I decided to describe some of the most common hardships of an immigrant. I decided to write about a person's worst enemy, the boring ordinary days of life.

Let's start from a, from the ancient Rome (meaning let's start from the beginning), from booking the flight. Well that is quite easy (excluding my latest effort which resulted in stalemate as my credit card did not function as I expected.) All you need to do is select the dates, the flight operator, the destination and pay. Everything that comes after the purchase of the flight is what we have most problems with, First of all you'll have to back. Imagine putting your whole life up to this point in maximum of two suitcases. What would you take with you? I have always taken only useful things, clothes, cosmetics, household items etc. That means leaving behind or selling all your souvenirs, memorabilia and other things people are keen to accumulate. You have the option to pack them in cardboard boxes and storing them somewhere, of course. I have been lucky, my parents have promised to keep my belongings while I'm abroad but it doesn't change the fact that I have to start my life somewhere else with minimum of everything. The good thing in that is that you'll soon notice that most of the things we have at home and think are absolutely necessary are not necessary at all. Two suitcases (around 46 kilos) are enough and even one will do in an emergency.

Once upon a time in Amsterdam

Next you will most likely notice that you are homeless. Now while this might have been what you were dreaming of when you ran away from home when you were 16, it's quite different a story when you are not 16 anymore and alone in a foreign country. If you suddenly lose your home in your own country, one of your friends, relatives, acquaintances or someone you have met once in a bar will probably let you sleep on their couch for a couple of nights while your are sorting out your life. However, that's not an option in a city where you don't know a single person. Living in a hostel gets expensive and tiring after a week and you'll just want to crawl into your own little place and stay there. Usually a week is all the time your have to find an apartment. It's difficult to persuade anyone to rent a flat to a person they haven't seen, so finding an apartment before actually travelling to the destination is out of question. Most landlords want to meet the person who's going to move into the apartment they have invested money in.

You'll need to get a local phone contract, gas, water, electricity, insurances and what else. At the same time you'll most likely want to avoid 1-year contracts and other things that might prove difficult to get out of in case you decide to move on soon. You'll have to find a health center that provides the services you need. All this will sometimes happen in a language you can't speak, read or write at all. It's scary when you can't describe your symptoms to your doctor, it really is.

November in Prague

Making friends. Think about building your social circle again and again about every second year. Meeting new people is, of course, a positive thing that'll make your life more interesting but it can also be a pain in the ass and you might be afraid that you'll never find people that are easy to be with, people with whom you have something in common. You will also miss the people you have left behind when you went travelling, some of them being people who have always been a part of your life. Sometimes you rely on strangers for support and strangers rely on you. Tough, isn't it?

How to take care of taxes and other paper work. For example in Poland everything happens in Polish. I could have never managed filing my tax declaration without a friend who has good knowledge of the language. Even the immigration office offers services only in Polish. It makes you wonder how likely it is that Polish people need their services?

That's a short story about challenges people will have to deal with while living abroad. There are more topics to write about but I will not start to compete in word count with Waltari and Päätalo (fyi, they are well-known Finnish authors who wrote extremely thick books) so let's leave this topic for now. All the best, dear readers!

And last but not least, lights in Seoul, the soul of Asia