Tortinmäki

Moi!

I just recently arrived at my first host family's house in the village of Tortinmäki, Finland. Their house is absolutely beautiful, or 'kaunis' as they say in Finnish. It's made pretty much of wood inside and there is a sauna too! There is also a smoke sauna outside.

The orientation camp at Karkku finished today! I have officially learned how to say my name, age and phone number, as well as the colours, days of the week and months of the year. Don't ask me to put any sentences together though... The only thing I can say is that Finnish is a very logical language. eg. the word for knowledge is 'tieto' and the word for machine is 'kone' .... a computer is a knowledge machine: 'tietokone'. The same goes for airplane. We'll have to see how school goes on Tuesday :)

We went to Tampere at the camp on Wednesday and it was great seeing how Finns actually act. So far, the lessons have been: no looking people in the eye on the street, no loud conversations, no sitting next to people on the bus unless absolutely necessary, no talking to people on the bus if you don't know them, very little conversation with cashiers/bus drivers etc..... Sounds pretty cold eh? It's not, surprisingly. For me, from the little I saw of Finnish society, it is extremely polite! People seem to be hyper aware of their effect on other people (hence the no talking on the bus for fear of disturbing others). Also, Finns value silence, thank goodness! There is a motto that if you have nothing to say, don't say anything. It is better to say nothing than to talk a lot about nothing, if that makes sense. I also learned that if you break on of these unspoken rules of society, it is assumed that 1) you are drunk, 2) you are crazy or 3) you are a foreigner. Guess which one I am.

Oh, side note: Finns love their forests. Is is legal for anyone to pick berries or mushrooms from any forest in the country, so long as the person is not on anyone's back or front yard. At the camp, we were told that one guy from Italy actually started a business selling mushrooms from Finland back home since they are so expensive there. Pretty smart guy since he picked them for free. Some more Finnish: blueberry is 'mustikka' and they grow wild everywhere, like in Newfoundland. You'd better move to Finland Niki! Berries are eaten with everything. :)