Finland's history is characteristic of Swedish and Russian history, for historical reasons. Finland was ruled by the Kingdom of Sweden for around 600 years and then ruled by Russia for a while. Luckily, in my view, Finland was not a part of the USSR. That's part of the reason it is now a well-functioning state. It also has an economy which has been managed with skill.
On my trip, I met a prominent Finnish historian called

Finland August Post 4 - The weekend before the program began

(Top: Cimo House from the outside - picture by Alistair Anderson)
(Second: Sight seeing: a pier in Helsinki - picture by Jelena Jorgaevic )

After landing in Helsinki on a Staurday at the end of July, I passed out on my bed. Together, two flights and in between waits, made for a long travel period. Before, I passed out, I was whisked from the airport. There I met Andrina, one of the organisers of the FCP and then, Mari, another organiser at the actual residence; Cimo House, where I would stay for most of the month.

Later that evening, we all met one another downstairs in the clubroom. I'm not sure why but I instigated a massive ice breaker where, in a cliched fashion, I suggested everyone say who they were and who they wrote for. We would probably do the same thing come the Monday morning.

It actually went quite well. A few people were still arriving late on the Saturday or on the Sunday but FCPers keep themselves busy. I am pretty sure we had already tasted some Koff beer on that Saturday night.

Taisa from Brazil had suggested on facebook a few days before that we attend a Norway peace march on the Sunday. The march followed the gun and bomb attacks in Norway which occurred a week or so before I went to Finland.

On Sunday, we wandered around the city. Bobby from the United States who arrived on the Friday, had already been for a few walks but he showed us what he thought he was interesting. I wanted to "get lost" in the city for the day before the march, which I did. A highlight was the orthodox church, where people were getting married. Around 80% of Finns belong to the Lutheran church but some 1,1% of Finns are Christian Orthodox. Most Finns are not churchgoers and about 20% of them do not have a religion or have not submitted statistics on their religion. Finland also has Jewish, Muslim and other religious minorities.

A search on Wikipedia, brought up this interesting fact, with respect to Jewish people:

"There are about 1,300 Jews in Finland, 800 of whom live in Helsinki and most of the remainder live in Turku."

"During World War II, Finnish authorities refused to deliver Jews to the Nazis, and the country's Jewish community survived the war virtually intact."

I found it interesting to see the wedding which was full of decoarations.

By three pm or so, we went to the march for Norway. Many people there were calling it a protest but, in that case, it was the most peaceful protest I have ever been to.

It was led by an Indian singer-turned-politician called something Singh. I was chatting with a bunch of Finnish people there and it seemed only I could spell and pronounce his surname properly. I have lived in South Africa, alongside hundreds of thousands of Indian people so it makes sense. It did throw me back a bit nevertheless. I did not expect to see a horde of blonde people following an Indian man around. Although, Helsinki is somewhat multi-ethnic and cultural. It is not as mixed as some other cities but it is to a noticeable extent. People shoudl not expect it to be much more mixed; Finland only has 5-million people living in it, it has harsh winters, and it's far from Africa and parts of Asia.

Finland August Post 3 - Why do they fear us?

While visiting Finland for a program organised by the country's ministry of foreign affairs, Business Day journalist, Alistair Anderson, scared many Finnish people. Not because he was badly behaved but rather because South Africans are "dangerous".

In a supermarket in Helsinki on Saturday night, Mr Anderson was accosted by someone he assumed to be a Finn with an agenda. The Finn made jokes about how people could not buy pies in Finland among other unusual characteristics of the country (such as how they drink milk all day). Mr Anderson was not sure why these idiosyncrasies were funny but Finns have a strange sense of humour.

After Mr Anderson did not laugh, the comedian asked him where he was from.

"I'm from the other side of the world," he said.

"From where?"

"South Africa," Mr Anderson said which prompted the unusually talkative Finn to say: "I'm not messing with you," and to run off.

The Insider doubts New Zealanders will show similar fear when they meet South African rugby fans this month.

(A version of this was published in Business Day on Tuesday September 6 2011).

Finland August Post 2 - Culture and Customs

(Group photo in the Nuuksio forest)

Stereotypes are true. If they were not true, they would not exist.

When I boarded a plane for Finland, via Germany, I was nervous. I had heard that Finland was a very different country from South Africa. Apparently, it had an education system that benefited far more people than SA's did. It had little corruption. Newsweek voted it the best country to live in. I did not expect it to be as good as that. But from a cultural perspective, I did expect something different. Let's be honest, Finnish people are not really in world news very often, unless they are driving rally cars or striking oil with a company like Nokia - not that common for them or any country. And when Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen win races they hardly brag, which maybe makes them less interesting for celeb tabloids too.

Well, Finns are not that strange in terms of their customs but they are distinct. Their obsession with saunas is a tad unhealthy. Although, I am sure people do get into very personal conversations in winter in Finnish saunas, when the outside is unrelenting. I am not sure that the winter is that nasty, as a travel brochure that came with my ticket to Finland said the average temperature in winter was -10 degrees celsius. Discussions about Finnish weather can wait for another blog post, however.

Anyway, back to culture shock.

When people travel to countries or even cities or towns they do not know much about or have not been to before, they often experience culture shock. One needs to adapt to unusual ways of living. It can be frustrating but also rewarding. However, the culture shock I experienced early and even during my trip was intense, just one aspect of the trip that beat my expectations.

That was magnified by me meeting people from 20 countries. It was basically like experiencing culture shock 21 times. Did I survive it? Did I thrive within it? You would have to ask the 20 other people on the trip and the organisers to find out if I did. I will tell you that I would probably have drained out Bobby from the US's singing in the streets if I had stayed with him for a few months but I did not within a month. He is a good singer but there are only so many Sinatra covers that a person can handle. I really am not a fan of Michael Buble.

I feel I gained valuable insight about life because I saw how people from other lands reacted to a new land and to each other's land. This made my FCP trip more useful than I originally imagined it would be.

Moving onto Finnish customs, I can say that Finns' reservedness is clear from how they communicate with one another and especially foreigners. They greet people from arms length. They shake hands. They do not kiss each other hello. They only hug people they know well. These are all quite South African traits, so I was not that phased.

What were much more interesting, were the habits of certain people in my FCP group. I will blog about the more unusual or entertaining ones in later posts.

On a side note, Finns take their shoes off at the door. Apparently this is true of 1-in-2 Finns, one of the speakers told my group in one of our early lectures. I think it is true of almost all Finns. I left my shoes in Savo as a result but lucky I got them back in Helsinki.

Finland August Post 1 - My Scintillating Suomi August

Kippies to new friends

I'm not sure that August 2011 was the best month of my life. Some incredible and good things may have happened to be in other months of my life, which are still significant to me. Nevertheless, last month was filled with brilliance. I met interesting people and enjoyed excellent hospitality. Last month, I lived in a Finnish bubble.

But why was I in Suomi (Finnish for Finland)? Every year, 20 journalists from selected countries can apply to a scholarship where they visit and learn about Finland. It starts on August 1st and ends four weeks later. It includes briefings on Finland today, meetings with professionals, politicians and other folks and visits to business enterprises, cultural sites and institutions. It includes a weekend as a guest of a Finnish family as well as visits to different parts of Finland.

Before applying to Finland's Foreign Correspondents Programme (FCP), I had wanted to visit the country but it was not at the top of my "things to do list" and I did not expect to visit it within the next few years. If anything, I would have stayed maximum a week in Helsinki or Lapland and then would have gone to Sweden or Latvia. Therefore, the FCP looked like a nice programme when I stumbled upon it on the Internet a few months ago. However, a few days into the programme, to call it nice would be to insult it. I may have been a bit too busy with my formal programme to see as much of the nightlife and other events and to get to know some Finns, a clearly reserved people, as I would have liked, but I enjoyed so many activities.

This series of posts opens my travel blog. Outside of SA, I have been to Germany, Scotland, England and Mozambique before and I may write some blog pieces on them in future but, I am beginning with Finland.

Alistair Anderson