First impressions

I arrived in Finland on August 28th, and I have to say that when I first arrived, I was a little nervous. I had expected a large urban metropolis. I mean, it is the capital of Finland. But I arrive at the airport and didn't even see a customs check, just a side door to go through if you have any items to report. The girls and I joked, 'Really? After all the trouble we went through to get our residence permits?'

However, just in the past couple of weeks, I have really come to like this place.

From my impressions so far, Finns are a somewhat peculiar but wonderful set of people. Very law-abiding and somewhat reserved, but also friendly and helpful. I don't have to loop my lock around my bike wheel, I have no problems asking for directions from strangers, and I'm still getting used to cars stopping for me at crosswalks.

I bought a bike last week, and one thing that is both wonderful and frustrating about Helsinki is the way that roads just somehow become one another. This means that sometimes, I'll magically arrive at a destination without quite realizing how, but at other times, I'll end up on a street like Helsinginkatu, 2-3km past my lab, after completely missing a major park. I do love the bike paths, though, especially this one path down Koskelantie. It is marked like a miniature two-lane street, and it runs down the middle of the road, protected on both sides from cars by bushes and trees. It nicely puts bikes on the same level as cars. :) After lab yesterday, I followed five or so other bikes onto this path, one behind another. I then worked quite hard to keep up with them, to maintain our little biking brigade, at least in my head.

So I just became enrolled at the University of Helsinki! Whoo! This means great discounts (2.60€/lunch, 50% off on long-distance travel, and other nice perks). It also means that I get grouped together with all the other international students, especially those of Erasmus, a European exchange program. One of my closest friends at the moment, other than the other Fulbrighters at my apartment complex, is a guy named Christoph from Germany. It struck me the other day that Christoph is actually a German from Germany! This might sound rather silly, but when I realized this, I wanted to ask him all sorts of questions, especially about WWII. I wanted to know what Germans thought of it and if talking about it was okay. I wanted to hear this from a real German. I'm so so glad that I get these opportunities here in Helsinki.


Along these academic lines, my elementary Finnish class starts next week. I really hope to at least achieve a conversational level of Finnish. While most Finns are quite used to speaking English, it is still a gesture of politeness on their part. I think that a knowledge of Finnish is useful for really getting into the culture and learning about it's nuances. Finns are also very appreciative of people who try, and they like to teach it. (I do believe that they are also proud of how difficult it is, and they should be.) The other day, I asked a lady on the tram about the words of the months, and she ended up giving me a mini lesson. All the months end in '-kuus', which means 'month'. It is really exciting when random sounding syllables begin to make sense. Streets tend to end in '-katu' or '-tie', and 'yksi olut' means 'one beer'... very important part of Finnish culture. :)

One more story before I go. Police Day of the Helsingin Poliisi. We accidentally ran into this amazing affair one afternoon near the railway station. A stage had been set up for various small performances, with a small live police band on the ground level. As we watched the commotion, a group of eight or so police officers started to dance and lip-sync to the song "Let Me Entertain You." It was hilarious in a very good way. They just looked so happy on stage. Three other American girls and I clapped and hooted all through it. Then a couple of officers made a speech, and every time one of them said 'yksi' (the only word we could understand, meaning 'one'), Melanie and I would clap loudly and excitedly, as the Finns around us stood in respectful silence. I suppose that's one nice thing about being a foreigner, you can get away with a lot of silliness, and I think it makes the Finns rather happy (or amused) if it's appropriate.


So altogether, Helsinki has been a beautiful city, and it's getting better as the various regions on the map begin to make sense. It's also berry season at the moment, a fleeting but delicious time. Apparently, Finland has the best strawberries... small and very sweet. Because of the cold climate, the berries take a long time to mature, and then in the summer, there is so much sunshine around the clock that they become very very sweet. Real strawberries.


Oh, and yes, a very traditionally Finnish pastry. It really does taste better than it might look. I enjoyed it. :)