I love today’s Finland.
ART
Finns truly appreciate arts and it shows up more and more every day! So that is making me really happy! We want to be something more than stereotypical shy people. We have so many young people who have passion, enthusiasm, knowledge and ideas for the world to share! We want to change the stereotypes of Finnish people. We are so much more than you think we are. (But still we are Finns so don’t expect too much or we get uncomfortable.)
You would be amazed how talented people you can find in Finland. Today’s Finnish music is more vivid than ever. We have a lot of new young artists and a lot of humble underground music bands. There is music for everyone at the moment and in big cities like Tampere, Turku and Helsinki there is gigs every week! I think the best thing is to see a lot of people of different ages on those gigs enjoying music together. We also have a lot of amateur theatre activities and free artists. We are humble people so we don’t make a big number of ourselves but nowadays there is new types of possibilities to show our skills. Example we have a large scale of festivals in summer such as Flow Festival which is an urban music and arts festival in Helsinki and Ruisrock which is the second oldest rock festival in Europe and it is awesome how big number ART is there today!
NATURE
Finns take really good care of nature. I have lived most of my life in a middle of nowhere. I have grown playing outside in forests building a castle and playing a Tarzan etc. Nature means everything to Finns. I love to go out to the forest to breathe and think. It doesn’t matter what town you are in, you can always find forest near you. To me Finland is a place where you can enjoy nature whenever.
When I got older I moved to a big city to study and I have grown to love city life almost as much as I love being alone in forest and near the sea. In Finland city life is lively and most of the time people seem to be on a hurry. (We are hardworking people.) Luckily, we have the best solution for urgency. We have parks all over the town where your mind can calm down for a moment. It works the same way as a hug works for an angry child.
IT FEELS
Our culture is more like a feeling. Example we have a lots of bad tasting tradition foods but the taste doesn’t matter because it means something to us. You know, it is something more than just a bowl of mämmi. It’s OUR mämmi. (I’m sorry if you like mämmi.) Just like our Christmas songs are terribly sad but we still want to listen the songs every year or it doesn’t feel like Christmas. And this is important! If someone from Finland achieve something internationally it is a moment of victory for all of us and then you will find us going crazy at TORI (market). And if you ever dear to insult our culture WE will secretly hate you together.
Picture: YLE
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