Finns

The Finnish people are very interesting. Most of the people I have met are nice, but very stern, stiff and not the types who normally joke around. Occasionally, if you try very hard you can get them to smile. There seem to be two types, those that are very fit and in very good shape, and those that are not even close. Strangely, there do not seem to be many in the middle. We met an American student at Verumäki who said that they appear stiff because they do not engage in any small talk. All talking has a pupose

The kids, like in most cultures are very happy and smiley people. Many little girls have been quite enthralled with our team. We had a large group of young girls looking for autographs last night. They were very interested in the Chinese characters.

The language too is very interesting. Many words are very long. I counted 21 letters in a single word the other day. I think they could streamline the language by removing repeating letters though as I saw a word with three A’s in a row the other day. I am beginning to learn a little of the Finnish language as I can sound out most words from reading them. Basically, you just have to remember to roll your R’s and sound as Russian as you can.

The other thing that we have noticed here is how neat and orderly everything in the country seems. The roads are clean and clear and we have not hit a pot hole yet. The sides of the road are neatly landscaped the streets and side walks are cleaned. It is very planned and obvious.

As I have said before, almost all of the people I have met speak at least a little English. The official language of the Hockey Coaching classes at Vierumäki is English. We have not really gotten out of Vierumäki except to play games.

Tim and I are trying to plan a trip to Helsinki on our first full day off, next Wednesday. Hopefully, we will get a chance to experience a little Finland culture away from the Institute.



Good night from Finland, the land of pandas?