I started my studies here, mostly because of the university. I have never been to Finland, nor anyone of my family. My parents knew only one person living in Helsinki. By talking to them and hearing their experience I hoped to know, what I will get myself into.
The friend told me, that Finnish people stay within their own space. He saw their neighbors two times in their five years of living there. This doesn’t mean that they weren’t friendly or annoying in anyway, but living near to each other and seeing them on the streets often in a week, does not mean being friends in Finland. This is one of the things I realized, when coming here.
Additionally, the coping with weather is different. The clothing of Finnish people is most functional. While in my home country clothing is important, in Finnish people mostly look for functionality. For example, in autumn there are many people walking around in hiking shoes or robust shoes. In my home country, we would even wear sneakers, if it would rain or snow outside.
These two things were the habits of “Finnishness” I remarked in the beginning the most.
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