Finland = snow

This morning was a true blue and white Finnish winter morning. It was cold, and there was plenty of snow everywhere – ground, tree branches, even on the trunks of trees (quite a blizzard last night). The sky was a pale blue where you could see it, and the clouds were a dark greyish blue. Absolutely beautiful..!

It is this kind of weather that most foreigners in Finland are looking for. “When is the real winter coming? “ asked one exchange student from me a few weeks back. I would love to have been able to answer that, as I was just as much looking forward and waiting for the true winter weather. Of course, everyone living south of the Ring III road might not think the winter weather is here, but you do not need to go further than Hyvinkää to experience it :) Snow in the winter is as important as the sun in the summer. It really lifts up our spirits and brings more light into the busy lives. Less need for coffee and chocolate!

I consider myself an open minded, unreservedperson who gets along with nearly everyone. But I keep constantly running into cultural differences that make me uncomfortable or that I don’t seem to be able to understand. For example, I recently talked over the phone with an African man. He politely asked how I am and how my family is doing. Asking “How are you” really is such an everyday thing that it’s not even personal, but asking about my family’s wellbeing when I am at work, working, and dealing with work issues.. for some reason I felt that it intruded my privacy although the person asking surely did not mean it that way and was merely being polite in the custom way of his own culture. Am I going backwards in the process of internationalising myself? Am I becoming more conservative? (I sure hope not or somebody save me quickly please!) Maybe I should travel to Africa, Asia or South-America (all of which I’ve never been to) to internationalise myself.. (Or to save the environment and my money, simply study or get to know people from these continents who live in Finland.) Or is it also good development to simply recognise these limitations of myself and to try overcome them? I will hopefully get loads of practice on that next week when several international quests come to a conference I’m attending. So looking forward to it!