So far I work with Finnish people; they always opt to high quality outcome. My teacher would buy a 40 Euro safety switch for my project to cut off power. For me, it’s too expensive to be done for a student project but he insists to do as safety switches will have the circuit breaking guaranteed features. The equipments and the setups of laboratory are also using industrial standard devices and products. Hence, I had a feeling of working in industry during in the laboratory. I feel great to have the insights of working in industry working with standard electronics from Siemens, Phoenix Contact, Omron, and ABB etc.
Drinking is one of the best capabilities of Finnish people. They drink a lot. I mean very lot. I visited some bars before and I witness with my own eyes the amount they drank into their bellies. Sometimes in the street you can see drunken men doing weird things in public. I was a weird scene for me in the beginning, but now, it is completely normal. I can draw out a fact which agreed by Finnish people themselves: Finnish are shy; therefore they need to get drunk to be friendly to foreigners. This is very true, that when I was on a cruise, drunken Finnish people will approach and start a conversation with you.
“Let’s have a coffee break!” This is the statement that comes out of my teacher after every lecture of 45 minutes. They have a good understanding of human brain that only able to focus at most 45 minutes. Hence, take a break, have a coffee and we shall continue our studies. I used to push myself too much and in the end make my body and mind exhausted. However, I could not believe that I am able to take a 5 hours lecture of a same subject with ease. I think the credit should goes to the coffee break.
Depressing Winter Weather is the thing that I hate the most about Finland. During November, I was astonished by the white snow and I am as happy as a kid playing with snow, sleighing down the slope, making snowman and playing snow ball fight with friends. One month later, when temperature goes down to negative 20 degree Celsius, I was freezing along the way to school every morning. When I woke up at 8am, the sky is still dark until I have my lesson at 10am, the sun rises. Soon after the lunch and a couple hours later, sun sets and the sky is dark again at 4pm. During snowy days or cloudy days, you have no chance to see the sun. I miss the sun very much.
Finnish people like to stay away from the city during holidays, that’s why most of them have their own cottages for summer and winter. I was participated a winter activity in a winter cottage. We stayed in a forest in the middle of nowhere. We were in completely remote area where there is no man in the parameter of 25km. At night, we could see the clear starry sky and shooting stars are visible every few minutes. If you are lucky you could even see Aurora Borealis. I totally enjoyed the activities like sleighing and ice skiing on about 10 cm height snow. The lake is frozen and we could walk on the lake and went across to another land.
Finnish youngsters are quite exotic in their makeup. They have extreme colour dyed to their hair and piercing in many parts of the face. Most of them smoke. They often wear leather costumes and metal rock resemblance clothing. It was interpreted that the reason of this behavior is due to they refuse to be invisible man. They want people to notice them and feel their existence. Perhaps they need to learn something from Spanish people where you can get a friend anytime with them.
