Going Kokkola

Altough I go in January for a whole month to Kokkola to get some practical training in the Finnish social welfare system. I already am there now to have a little reunion with some friends. Not I only met the Finns I know frome an exchange project, but also a Dutch fellow student of the same project who studies also in Finland. Seinäjoki to be precise.

Before I was in Kokkola, I had to take the train from Turku. The journey itself takes 5 hours with 15min trasfere in Tampere. This fact is already amazing for me. In the Netherlands you never have to sit in the train for that long. We are not that big... Also that there is a restaurant on board jn the train is amazing. I understand why, because if you are hungry or thirsty you need to eat or drink something, especially on long distance trains. But still I find amazing. What I also find remarkable, is that the conducter memorizes if he already has checked your ticket or not. In the Netherlands he checks your ticket everytime when he is doing his round. But in Finland, he does only once because he reconizes your face and I think that is great service and professionalism.

The last 90min I was joined by my fellow Dutch student. We discussed how we experienced our time in Finland and adventures we had here. When we arrived in Kokkola it was one explosion of happiness. It was so great to see our Finnish friends from Kokkola again. After some shopping we returned to one of our friend home, where we'll stay the whole weekend. There, her husband made a full course dinner for us. I forgot what a great cook he is, because I already visit them once, but he deffently is. I still have to get used to the fact that in Finland you have to cut your own part of the cake. While in the Netherlands, the hostes does this for you. The rest of the evening all of us relived memories from our exchange project in Belgium and how our lives went on after that.

Night of the Finn

Yesterday I failed to write a blog because I had a little party with 3 Finns, a German and Swiss. So we where a pretty cultural group that evening. We decided that even we are in Finland we dont gonna spent the night Finnish way. We just drank some drinks and being social. Social we were because enjoyed each others company till 4:45. For the Finns it felt quitte uncomfortable they we want it to be social, not end up drunk. But they are social Finns so they managed. Here and there we had some cultural diffrences but it amazese me how much Finns and Dutch have in common. The German and the Swiss tought I was rude too a Finn at a certain point. But me and the Finn didn't felt that way. We Dutch and Finns are very straight forward in to saying what we meen. This is something what is not shared with our Swiss and German friends, so they were suprised we didn't felt it like rude. We tought it was normal.

Today I did not much special things. I write some reports for my school in the Netherlands and that was pretty much it. But in the evening I had something planned I do every week with my Swiss friend, and this week we did it even twice. In our opinion it is one of the best things Finland has to offer to the world: sauna. I really enjoy it and it is always something I look forward to, everytime again. It really helps me to get rid of the stress of the week and to relax. I surely want to have one to in the future, but for now I'm more then satisfied with the one hour of sauna I have each week. Although I wished I could go more often. Even now, when I was there twice this week, I'm looking forward to go to sauna next week.

Let's talk about...

Today we had our last class of aggrissive behavior. I'm really gona mis this one, because it was the only real class we had in social services. The other class, Finnish, is a common course so it has not much to do with social services. Altough I like Finnish also. During this course, I really felt like a true Dutch, constantly talking and always knowing things better. At the same time feeling frustrated that you have to talk so much and others are way to silent. In case of this classes it happend quite naturally. I've the most experience in working with youngsters and people with aggressive behavior and I'm always willing to share my exeperiences. Unfortunaly for me, other didn't had that experience or where more reluctent to share it with others. This resulted in that I had quite often had very good discussions with our teacher, unforuntaly other students didn't join the discussion. I just hope that the learned something new from it. What I liked about our teacher is that you can noticed that she is very skilled and has a great knowlegde of why people show aggressive behavior or what you can do to prevent it. I really gonna mis our discussions because for me they where the most usefull during the entire course.

Also at my practical I shocked the Finns with some good old Dutch tabooless conversations. The youngsters wanted to play a board game which also is used in sexual education. This sparked the discussion between me and two workers overthere about sex in general and how it should be educated to the youngsters. In the Netherlands we prefere to enter this conversations with an open view and to be as honest as possible. This is possible because there is almost no taboo about sex in the Netherlands. While I was telling al this I noticed that the workers turned a little bit red. When I made the comment "Don't say Finnish man doesn't like sex" it was to much for them. For me it was a completly normal question even when the youngsters around. But for the two workers it was somewhat diffrent. They say that the Finns want to be as sectret about sex as possible. Of course they have no problems with it in a didactical setting, but they use the bordgame to avoid indepth discussions about it and keep it is real as possible without personal emotions. This suprissed me again because one of the cornerstones in Dutch sexual eduaction is that the teacher, or who ever is giving it, express that sex can be good and it doesn't matter if you are straight, gay, lesbian, bi or aseksual. Sex is good and fun if you do it in a safe way. The Dutch mantra is: for sex you need two persons, so be sure they both liked it so you can do it together more often. They laughed about it, but finded it a good mantra. But then one of the workers began that we Dutch have strange habit towards gays and lesbians and he is supprised that we find it so normal they are there and we even incoperate it in our sexual education that the teacher also explains how they can have save sex. Something I (as a Dutch) find completly normal, because it is good to know for the youngsters what viaries there are in world and they know wat to do if they wanted to experiment with it. But the 2 workers findend it strange and tried to make jokes about it. Which I slammed down. Because why be shy about sex and all it's viarities when you go naked into sauna on every occasion you get?

Islanded in a stream of stars

I made a deal with myself to write a blog every day about my adventures and discoveries in the mythical and magical place called Finland. But I notice more and more that this deal is sometimes hard to held up. I don't experience something exited every day. Sometimes I just go to practical and that is it, nothing happend there. Just the normal day in a social work students life. Or I go to school, not that  have much school. After tomorrow I only have Finnish, the rest I have no school anymore.

Today I did litterly nothing special. I went to practical training and the youngsters were behaving nice. I helped them with some schoolwork and explained a thing or two about the English language. After that I played cards with them and I learned a new cardgame. Although there English skills aren't that good, they do their best to talk to me or invite me into games. The affort I greatly appriciate. We Dutch appriciate atemps more then someone who is showing off. I tell the this the youngsters everytime but still they are a little shy.

I could also write an amazing blog how I learn for Finnish right now. I study hard on introducing myself,  verbs, weather, colours, food, clothes, days, months and the time. But that would be boring. All I do is staring at my notes, repeat the sentences in Finnish and write it down in English or Finnish with only the oppesite language showing. In the meantime I listen to Finnish music. I really like the sound of the Finnish language and it never bores me. Also Finland has some very good artists in my opinion. Maybe I should write a blog about them very soon, because they deserve a little attention. But not now. They need their own blog, not a place in mine complaining blog how boring my life is.

Sometimes nothing happens but then you just have go with the flow. Dare to lie down in the river. Even a river that flows slow brings you somewhere. Keep you head up and you mind set. There is always a new story at the turn. But it takes some time to get there, if you are riding the slow flowing river. You can swim to make it there faster, but then you don't see the suroundings of you journey. Never forget that the suroundings of a journey makes the memories. Behonest, how many memories do you have of your own and how many do you have which futer other people. Just flow with the stream, sometimes it takes a while to make new memories. In the meantime, enjoy the ride and the view.

Dutch nightmares

The blog is inspired on the recently trent on social media, Finnish nightmares. You all should check out her blog: http://finnishnightmares.blogspot.fi/. But I was wondering what are the horrors we Dutch face when we encounter a foreigner or go abroard? What are our nightmares?

• People realise that we speak better German then we pretent.
• People realise our English is far more worst then we say
• We can't put sweet stuff on our sandwiches
• A foreigner has basic knowledge of Dutch
• People from other countries then the commonwelth of nations are idolate of the Brittish royal family
• People who don't find our Queen Máxima gorgous
• Foreigners who think that the Netherlands are a province of Germany
• Americans who think we speak German and let Dutch characters speak German in their movies
• Weed and prostitution are the first thing people think of when talking about the Netherlands
• People not knowing we are host to the international criminal court.
• That it's in The Hague like the international palace of peace and all countries contribute to the construction of it.
• Explaining our educational system to a non Dutch speaker.
• Have to explain the diffrence between Belgium and the Netherlands.
• Foreigns who don't get our fontness or the colour orange.
• People who don't like LGBT's
• People who don't talk about sex and related stuff.
• Seeing each other naked
• Too polite foreigners.
• People who don't get to the point.
• People who show their emotions instead of talking about them.
• We are constantly checking if our money is well spend and people think we are greedy because of that.
• The semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Will we get pas it our not. Most Dutch don't like the thing. But they all how close we where to the final. Or our placing in the final.
• The European and World Championsship of football as a whole. Somewhat we always end up traumatized by it.
• Encountrering a fellow Dutchie on holiday. We go abroard to avoid them...

Raw in the dipsauce

After been party hardy in Helsinki to explore studentlive there once again, I want back to Turku to explore and observe more of Finnish culture and costums. Because a movie night was awaiting for my, well it was more like a move late afternoon but who cares. There was a Finnish (musical)movie, there were 4 Finns, it took place in Turku Finland so it was a Finnish movie gathering. Although I very used to Finns and their habits, they never fail to amaze me.

For instance, they dip their vegatables in dipsauce! In the Netherlands dipsauce is exlucively used for chips, not for any other things. But they used it for the cucumbers, carrots and cauliflower. Which they eat raw! I repeat: they eat it raw! I'm used to eat it cooked or warmed in an other way like a oven. But not raw and unkooked, never! Never! NEVER! So you could all gues what I didn't eat. That's right, raw cauliflower or cucumber and carrots with dipsauce. Although I eat them without the dipsauce, I left the dipsauce dipping of vegatable to the Finns, they like the idea more then I do more. Lucky for me, they had also tortilla chips. So I dipped them in the dipsauce.

Speaking of the dipsauce, I find it funny that the Finns prepare it with a kind of sour cream. I knew this already from my past experiences in Finland, but still I find it different then I'm used to. In the Netherlands we prepare it with butter. We stir it as long as it as it is well mixed with the dipsauce package. Somethimes we heat the butter so it gets fluid, so it mix more easily and then cool it of again a little bit so it sticks better to the chips. But Finns do it with a kind of sour cream and I have to admit that I also like that viarity, as long I don't have to engage into weird practice of doining it also. I just leave that for the Finns and I stay with the chips.

The Finn inside of me

As I pointed out before, traveling with public transport is completly diffrent in Finland the in the Netherlands. In Finland, all Finns are silent or have a conversation you hardly hear. In the Netherlands we discuss our sexlife, personal troubles, gossip or what ever is in our mind in public transport. We don't care if anyone hears us. We just pretent we are the only ones there.

 

Unlike Finns, we like to talk to strangers. So if we want to talk but travel alone, we talk to strangere. Because why wont you, traveling with someone is much more fun, even when you never saw that person before. Finns are dying if someone does and they want to dissapear in the chair. The Dutch see it as an oppertunity to meet new friends or have a good time while using the public transport.

 

Writing all this, I have the feeling that I'm more Finnish then Dutch in this case. I like the silent when traveling by public transport and I want listen to music. I surely don't want to hear the livestory of a stranger or that a old couple shows me pictures of their grandchild who shits on the toilet for the first time. Maybe we can fill one half of the train with Finns or the other half with Dutch in a social experiment. Do the Finns stare and ignore the Dutch to silence or do the Finns get loose and talketive thanks to the worshippers of small talk? But on the other hand, if Finns get talketive I can't travel in silence anymore in Finland. But then Finland can also introduce silent compartments, where they fine you when you talk or make noice. After the famous (Dutch) warning that they will fine you the next time.

Whoppa Finnish style

At my practical, I experience Finnish culture in the nornal life and I experience how the Finnish social welfare system works. I see how the Finns interact with each other and I also see how their food looks like, how it tasts and the eating etiqette. They eat a lot at my practical training, every  2 or 3 hours, so there is a lot of food. I get much influenced by them because everything is going the Finnish way. This means that we talk a lot of problems and everything is quite formal. Even tough Finns them self claims they are an informal folk. It is true that they quite easily switch to the use of firstnames. But with my happy Dutch view I still find them more formal then we are. Prehapes this is that Finns lack the skill of small talk and we Dutch are champions in small talk. Al talks are formal as hell, although Finns begin to learn them.

I know some cute couple who are good in smal talk, one of them can easely compete with the Dutch. Altough we Dutch have little to no taboo of subjects, as long as you time them right and bring them right. With this tabooless attitude she has a strugle and as often somewhat shocked but she is nowadays more used to it. But something that sometimes goes wrong when we hangout together, that is how we treat traffic lights. As a happy Dutch, I regard traffic rules as mere guidelines in case something goes wrong. So most of the time I draw my own plan and walk through red, to the great shock of the Finns who paticient wait till the traffic light goes green. They do even so when the street is empty like my wallet (I pay almost everything with debitcard) and I even cross the street when there is traffic, because there is almost always enough time to reach the other side when a car comes and otherwise they have breaks.

Another strange diffrence is between the Finns and the Dutch is that Finns really like there language. Even the teens listen to Finnish language music. In the Netherlands, only old and drunk people listen to Dutch language music. Even most Dutch artists sing in English, but not in Finland. There the artists who sing their own language and the even top the charts with it. In the Netherlands it mostly the end of your carrier as artist. Also the Finns are happy to learn you Finnish trough Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc etc. We Dutch learn as much languages as possible so we can avoid useing Dutch as much as possible. A typical Dutch speaks at least 2 to 3 foreign languages so we can avoid using our own when we are not with fellow Dutch. Also when a foreigner is around, we keep sturdley on to English and don't use Dutch in any circumstances. So if you want to learn Dutch, we won't help you because we find it annoying to here it. Try Finnish, Finns talk Finnish all the time and hardly notice that there is a foreigner is around. Also they are more then happy to help you, because they want to prove that it's impossible to learn. That is a lie, it is hard and strange but Finnish isn't impossible to learn. Think that even babies learn to speak it. And remember that in Finnish everything is pronouced as it is written. In Dutch you don't have clue how written words are pronouced.  

The life of Posse

Today was the first day my parents weren't here in Finland. Yesterday morning they left quite early, but still they where there that day. My mom warned me before I left that for me everything will change and life for them will continue as normal, but without me. How strange it is for some, I have the same strange feeling now. I found it wonderfull to see my parents and to show them the country and people who stolen my heart, but now they are gone again life continues as before. I went to school, I hang around with friends, go to sauna, I still have a struggle with my Dutch flag on the wall (it doesn't want to stay next to the Finnish flag) and I go to my practical training. So life is normal again and nothing special happens.

Although, I still suprised evertime how normal it is regarded to bring your dog to work at my practical placement. They told that is very common in Finland that if you work in a child home facility where childeren with behavior problems live, to bring a dog with you as personal every know and then. At my practical this meens that we have a dog visit at least three times per week. Of course this is als paired with a couple of rules. For instance if some one is allergic for dogs, the dog can't come. This applies for the youngsters and personal. Also the dog has to be social, so it doesn't harm the youngster. But also the child has to  threat the dog well, so it doesn't harm the dog. To assess the later, they do it by simply observation: How do the dog and the youngsters when they are together. A worker there who recently get her certificat as dogtrainer said to me that she saw a lot of cases where the youngster where very violent and aggressive, but are very kind and welbehaved towards the dog. This suprised me a lot, because they teach us in the Netherlands that violent youngster are violent against humans and animals. She said this is sometimes be true, but only in a minority of cases. Most kids and youngsters are very social to animals because they trust them more then humans. She learned how to respond to this conflict of behavior and to copy the good and social behavior the youngster has to dogs to correct behavior towards humans. She does this with our new colleage who als was today at my practical training for the very first time.

The moment he came everyone was sold. He greeted and cuddeled everyone and everyone liked. And for the record they are all Finns! I'm the only foreigner around there. He made a good impression with everyone and everyone is waiting for the next time he comes around. And he will become very often, first to get to know the place and later on to start the big work and therapy sessions. He also amazed us with some few tricks and now the girls adore him even more and also the boys like him. All the personal was sold already. But yeah, how can you resist the cute puppy eyes of a French Bulldog? Personally, I can't wait to see the dogtherapy in action, because I never heard of it before and take a dog in a special care unit for youngsters in unheard of in the Netherlands. My colleage assured me I can observe it when she starts. She is also trying then to explain the exact purpose of the therapy sessions, although she finds it very hard to do so in English. I appriciate this a lot, because I know how struggle she has with English. She tries and she does her best, and that is what counts. I also hope to learn something from the little dog, because he is probably the only worker at my practical placement all youngsters instantly like.  

Sometimes words are not enough...