End of an era

Today is not only the last day of the year for me. But it is also the moment I leave my appartment in Turku. I stay 4 nights at two good friends place befor I move to Kokkola to start overthere a new adventure already on tuesday. But before I begin my après-ski, 19th hole or third half here in Turku for 4 days, I take you all one more time on a quick trip through memory lane through pictures and songs!

 

 

 

Thanks to you all, the amazing people I met in Turku!

Thank you that I may had the opportunity to become a small part in your life for such a small time!

But the honer and the plesure were all mine.

'till we meet again!

The weirdest christmas ever! (With a tear)

While eating my breakfast I realise, this was by far the most awesome and same time weirdest christmas I ever had. Not only because it was a Finnish christmas, but also the weirdest christmas I had. But this was a good one because I spend christmas eve and first and second christmas day with people I like. And what beter celebrations can a person have then with friends?

Christmas eve was by far the weirdest (but at the same time most awesome part) day of my Finnish christmas. I saw the Finnish christmas peace decleration already many times on TV, but this christmas I was there. It was not that hard to attend because it was only 15min walking to the place the where it is declared from my appartment, so it was a small afford to attend. I also exchanged some christmas presents with a friend. Too our enjoyment, also Santa Clause was at the Finnish chrismas peace decleration. He was there, unfortunelly, undercover. So we couldn't ask him for presents or so hi to him, but it was good that he was also attending in this 700 year old tradation. Which was only canceled once in 1939 because of the fear of air raids during the Winterwar. It was nice to be a little part of this long term tradition, long may it last.

After the decleration I said goodbye to some friends to walk with other friends to their place to spend the christmas eve overthere. We ate some food, I made a Dutch soup and they made the Finnish main course and desert. I was glad that my friends really liked the Dutch vermiccelli soup, because it is very simple and fast to prepare. But I can fully understand them when they said they liked, because this soup was one of the things I missed most from the Netherlands while I'm here in Finland. Between the main course and the dessert we had unfortunelly a sad job to do. Nova, their beloved gerbil past away, and it was our duty to give him a proper burial with all the honor he deserves. After 5 attemps we finally found the most suitable last resting place for him under the full moon. When we did our sad job, it was finaly time for the desert. The rest of the evening and night, was hysterical, weird, funny, serious and truth revealing, in the end we end up all drunk.

The first christmas day I spend the whole day with a friend and we just hanged around, like we did for a part on the second christmas day. The second day I had also another sad job to do, saying goodbye to one of the greatest guy I met here in Turku. Altough I was a couple of times on the brink of crying I kept my eyes dry. After we had a drink together it was time for him to leave for the bus that took him to Helsinki. The moment the door of the closes I started to miss already. Although I have great friends we comfort me the whole day, I was a little sentimental the whole. This was enlarged by the fact that I realised that also soon for my my semester in Turku will become nothing more than a great and awesome memory. But I'm also longing to my great adventure in Kokkola. It was also a great comfort that I will see him again, that I know for sure. I promissed him I will hunt him down in Switzerland if I have to and I'm a person who keeps his promisses, because a promise makes a debt. Also I promissed him to explain the weird Dutch educational system and I also bent on furfilling that promise as well.

The last goodbye to my flatmates and Hyvinkää

When I came home from Hyvinkää today I realised for the first time really good, I'm alone in my appartmentfloor for the comming 10 days. And with alone, I mean alone. Everyone is gone and I'm the only one left as the last of the Monicans. I saw everyone comming and I now see everyone leaving. In the beginning not knowing what to espect from my semester here in Turku, now I know what I gonna mis here in Turku. It seemed that behind all 11 doors was a memory, even though I knew one better then the other, but still. The second last door at the coridor is mine appartment and for the comming days it is my floor alone. It felt weird when I wanted to do something in the kitchen and the door was clossed, normally it was always open with the light still on. But now everyone is gone, so there was no one to forgot to close it.

Now facebook and whatsapp is full of pictures and messages of people I know comming home, arriving on homesoil and thanking everybody. With every post I see, I see also a memory, a thought and experience an emotion. I realise: Damn, it is on 30-01-2016 that I see everyone again back in the Netherlands. I'm not homesick, absolutely not! But I get a little sentimental by the thought of being here alone and that I have to miss great people I had an awesome time with. But I also realise, one part of one the greatest adventures in my life is comming to an end. With one thing coming to an end, another is about to begin. Because I'm leaving in January too Kokkola to make also some amazing memories over there and get some awesome experiences there as well.

Luckily I have somethings to look forward to so I forget that I'm here now all alone at this floor.
Today, I visit my friends in their birthtown of Hyvinkää, a city close to Helsinki. They warned me not to expect much, but I think it is a nice city and it could be worse. It was funny that the people in Hyvinkää still have an obsession with wool, even though the woolindustry is already gone ages ago. Still, they name everything after wool, the shoppingcenter, streets, schools, old factory buildings and their childeren. It is wool all over the place. Ironicly, the only sheep I saw in Hyvinkää was a fake one in the christmas crib at the chruch. The church is piramid shaped and the first mordern architecture build church in Finland. The inside of it looked more like an concerthall then a church to me, but the altar, the baptizing pound and the organ made it church enough. It was also great to meet the mums of my 2 friends, they already saw my parents and now I also no a little bit more where they came from. Maybe I go back to Hyvinkää one day, maybe not. But I liked the place a lot, even though we were sometimes wondering what to do. But still, maybe we can go next time exploring the forest area's of Hyvinkää.   

Slipping through my fingers

It feels like yesterday that I first arrived in Turku to start my international semester. It was awesome to meet my friends again and make new friends. I can still recall it like it happend 5 minutes ago how it went. Actually it seems that my whole Finnish semester was one week.

And now i'm already in the closinge fase of the semster. The last reports, the last parties and the goodbye dinners. It seems to me that I could do so much with so much wonderfull people, but the time is running out. But I glad that I'm one of those wo can say that I 've done all that I wanted to do here in Turku, of course I could do more but I have no regrets. Because regrets would be a sad strain on my awesome time here and the more awesome people I met. I've undertaken wonderfull hikes to places straight from a fairytail. The hikes in Lapland and in the national park were my favorites. But every hike was great in it's own way. Although I'm not a club person, I enjoy bars more, I found the party's here in Turku great. But my most favorite was Koulu, I gonna miss that bar and it is shame we don't have that kind of bars. There are still some bars to explore and lucky there is still some time for exploring them.

Now everyone is packing and preparing for their return too their home country. I, as last of the monicans, stay a little longer. In January I go Kokkola to learn more great stuff and experience Finland a little longer. But the fact that everyone is going and I'm staying makes me a little sentimental sometimes. Turku stay as amazing as it is, I still have awesome friends living here with who I will have great adventures. But I will with no doubt also mis people, Turku will not be the same without them. But it greatly comforts me that some of them I will meet again to make great new memories in the Netherlands or in their home country. Because the best thing of memories is making them. For sure I will carry them with me in my heart, the persons I'll meet again for sure or I maybe meet again.Even the people I didn't hang out that much, are stored in my memory forever. In one way or another they too contribute to the awesome and great experiences I had in Turku and in Finland.  that more great experiences may come during my stay here in Turku till January and in Kokkola till February!

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
 

Dancing tomatoes and a chicken on a dress: Finnish independence day.

Yesterday, the highlight for most Finns was on. It was itsenäisyyspäivä, or independance day for the non-Finns among us. While during the day nothing really special happens, because the fun starts in the evening, I was looking forward to this day. Because me and my friends would make a special dish from our home countries. So we had a Dutch starter, a Finnish main course (it is their day after all) a German side dish and a Swiss desert. The combination of the dishes was perfect, although we didn't knew that before. Between the preparing and the actual dinner, we went all together to sauna. As is a custom on this day. (and every other average day in Finland.)

The highlight of this day and for most Finns of the year, is the presidential reception and in particular the red carpet ceremony. In this ceremony, the president shakes hands with al the 2000+ guests. This whole thing is so boring that is really fascinating to see. The only thing they do is shaking hands and walk away and then wait till everyone is in, meanwhile they broadcast the whole handshaking thing. All man where costumes, all women dresses. While the African woman were awesome as always, most Finns wore black dresses. While some Finns felt like a tomatoe and dresses herself up to a tomatoe. Also a woman felt like she was still a chick, so she wore a black dress with a giant chicken. This was the highlight of the whole thing in my opinion, for the rest it was plain boring.

Even the afterparty was boring, were some Finnish artists sang some songs there were a lot of discussion about the dresses. Unfortunelly, not with the chickendress. After the afterparty, we shut down the tv and all 5 of us went into living mosaic mode on the couch. While we lay there for more then 90 min, changing positions in our living mosaic piece.  

Graph: Netherlands VS. Finland

On this blog, Im pretty often whining of how the same Dutch and Finnish culture are. Now thanks to my fellow Dutch Geert Hofstede I have proof that it is actually true. Luckily there are some diffrences, so we can also dive into them as well. If there is only a 5 point diffrence or less, it is too insyncnifinant to mention.

But lets start with power distance, we Dutch and the Finns love equilty and we don't like hiearchy. We both like that our employer consult us on what changes are needed in a company. It also makes us proud that our manager or boss trusts us and values us. Also we like that our manager is excesable to us, in case we needed

Induvalism is one of the prides of Dutch cultures, even it personally saddens me that is. The Dutch think that people should take care of their own problems. Only when they really need help, they can come. And even then it is up to us if we decided to help. If you ask a Fin for help, they do everything in their power to help you. Even if they are not fully able to do it. Also when a Finn calls you a friend, you never get rid of them again. In Dutch sociaty there are 3 diffrent levels of friendship: friends, good friends, best friends. The higher you get, the more we like and trust you. If a Dutch calls you a friend, it most often means that they like to hang around with you but nothing more. When you are in a higher level, we are more willingly to help you with your problems. Never asks in which level of friendship you are, this is the de-friend question. You will notice it in how kindness and willingness to share with you. Like Finns, we Dutch see people as individuals not as part of the group. Thats why we don't like to put in to boxes or be compared to others. We both don't feel responible for actions of others, only for the action of ourself. If you blame us for something, we feel guilty and want to repair the thing we accuesed off

We Dutchies are also much more feminine then the Finns. We reallly love to talk in contradiction with the Finns who like to be silent. Also Finns normally live with descisions giving by their management our school. They complain silently and learn to live with it. In the Netherlands, descisions are normally taken by compromise and negotiation. No other way is accepted by the Dutch. Even our goverment does so, if changes or budgetcuts have to be made they start negotiations with trade unions and/or other organisations before the final descision is made. We can't stand that descisions are made for us without consulting us. It is therefor suprising we have an advisery referendum since 2013. Before that, referendums where not posible by law. But we don't need them that much, because normally a year or more of negtiations take place before the actual change. We even have a special verb for this "polderen". Like the Finns, we like to have our working and privat live in balance. We don't need to stand out from the rest. A good quality in life is seen as a better value in life than being the best of the rest. We Dutch and Finns value equality, solidarity and quality allike.

Finns, like the Dutch, have slight tender to avoid uncertaincies. Although we both welcom new idea's and new way of thinking, we also are not very willingly to give up what we already know and wre we used to be. But unorthodox idea's are welcom from time to time. We both value to be busy and work hard, precision and punctuality. And for some odd reason we also like rules.

Worrying about things that may come is not something for a Finn but more a thing for a Dutch. But than, we live in a country which can get devoured by the sea at any moment. Unlike you might thing our discussions and conversations take a long long time before we finally come up with something, we can be very fast descisionmakers. We trust the knowledge of others so if quick descions have to be made, we making it with the people who know most of the subject. We Dutch are really long time thinkers and we also don't really mind to change plans if the situation or context changes. Finns are a little bit more conservative in this point. Once a descision is made, they stick with it till the end. Which has some positive site also, because they are more often a little bit more self confinend than we Dutch are. We can very easy change plans to adjust. Finns do not adjust, their plan is good is it was before.

While the Finns are shy, the Dutch follow their impulses. Because why wouldn't we? It is fun, brings new idea's and you do something weird. Quality of life is importend and for that, sometimes you need to surender to you inner child and let go te boundries. If nature calls, you have to awnser it. So Finns you can be more rule sticken then we are, but there is deep inside of you also a little Finn who wants to come out and play.

Report: how my practical placement fits in the Dutch system

It is for me really hard to compare the EHO unit of Lauste with something in the Netherlands. This is through the fact that we don’t have something like it. However, we have places who have a similar function like one of the many things EHO does. There for  I shall mention in this task multiple institutions in the Netherlands. Also the way child welfare is organized is different  in the Netherlands then here in Finland. Therefore I shall first handle the differences on a macro level, before I go to the meso level. The micro level is to specialized and too hard to explain in general for the size of this report so I shall leave this out.

The child protection and child welfare system is currently in transformation in the Netherlands. In 2001 and 2004 the Netherlands faced major accidents in the protection of children and youngsters. In 2001 we had “the case of the girl of Nulde”, (Meisje van Nulde in Dutch). Her head, torso and limbs were found on the beach of Nulde, a small village in the Netherlands. Her stepfather beaten her so heavily she died. The child protection board just conclude in a report some weeks before the first part of her body was found that she was not in danger and she wasn’t enrolled in to child protection. The biggest and heaviest blow came in 2004 with is now known as “case Savanna” (zaak Savanna in Dutch) were both her parents beat her often, transport her in the cargo hold of the car. And when she died, they try to hide the evidence by putting her body in a plastic sack and put it with the trash. While this all happened, a social worker from the Dutch child protection services visited the family once per week. Because of these cases, child protection and welfare are very high regulated by the government and inspections are much more frequent then it was ever before. Also the Dutch government sought a way to overhaul the whole system and looked behind the borders for solutions. They found this in the Finnish child protection and child welfare system and the whole system is now in progress to become more like the Finnish way handle child protection matters. Our minister of Social affairs called when the change was first announced “A Finnish renovation for Dutch buildings”. Meaning that we don’t shut down the old system and copy the Finnish system exactly, but introduce the Finnish way in to the old system and change it so could handle the Finnish way. Therefore, it is actually funny for me to notice that in Finland, the system also get an overhaul due of budget cuts. Because laws change every year due the transition, I use the situation as it is now. Because that is what I know best at the moment.

Like I said before, the Netherlands doesn’t has places like EHO or Lauste as whole. Instead of that, the child or youngster go into foster care or to an institution if they can’t live at home anymore. These two option are seen as a last resort, in most cases a social worker enters the family and he or she works with to ensure that the child can stay at home. In recent years, they main topic in this became: how can the environment and the family to be as safe as possible for the child. This means that not the behavior of the parent(s) but the situation as whole has to be safe. For instance: If the Father has severe alcohol problems and has even an addiction to alcohol. But the child gets proper food, is properly dressed and gets all the other basics needs. The child can stay at home, because probably the mother is capable of taking care of the child. Child protection then aims to support the mother so she able to do her motherly tasks and they try to control the father alcohol addiction. Main viewpoint is that the child stays at home as long as possible. In general this is the same as in Finland, but difference is that a judge has to decided it a social worker is placed in the family or not. This is unlike Finland were the help is voluntary in some extant.  A social worker is always entitled by a judge in the Netherlands, because he or she takes part of juridical position of the parents. They can’t make legal decisions any more without notifying and the acknowledgement of the social worker.  For some parents it is a blessing that someone is helping them and the report themselves at the proper place, but most parents don’t want this at all. They don’t like that a judge had decided that they aren’t good parents and help is required. In Finland there is no judge and the municipality and the social workers can decided this.  

After the decision is made a child goes to temporary foster care or permanent foster care.  They go actually almost always first to the temporary one, because everyone is hopeful the child returns to the parents. If it is unlikely or the child goes to a permanent foster family. If this happens the parents have no longer the legal right to parenting the child. Only a judge can decided revered this. If the child is going to a temporary foster family. The legal right for parenting is also temporary abolished. This is unlike Finland where parents always have the right to parenting the child they have to be included as much as possible in decisions regarding the child. In the Netherlands we want this also, but the laws curtly still says that if a child is removed from home, the parent(s) greatly lose their parenting rights.  This means in general that decisions can be made without notifying the parents. Only the legal guardian is informed, because by law, every child has a legal guardian. This can be the parent or the social worker involved in the family. Another possibility could be that a child goes to a family replacing home (gezinsvervangendtehuis). These are more intuition like, but can be compared most with places like Lauste in Finland. Mostly kids and youngsters  go their when they have severe behavior and personality disorders or, sadly, temporary when there is no place in a foster family and they aren’t entitled for crisis care. The these are far more intuitionalized than the ones in Finland. The youngsters still have their own room but they have a common living room, like in Finland. But the difference is that it is stricter with more rules. They can’t roam the premises freely but they have to say where they are the whole time. Most often they only leave the place on guided activities. Also common sessions like discussion groups and dinner is done together. Not following the rules means that they get sanctioned. In Finland they want to be as home as possible. In the Netherlands, the main thought is that the youngster will be responsible adults. This might give you the idea that youngsters are in closed settings when they are in a institution. That is not true, because everyone has the right to go outside unless a judge decide that they have to be placed into a closed because of sever personality or behavior problems. Even then going outside is restricted but not prohibited. In the Netherlands this can only be prohibited if a youngster commits a criminal act and is send to jail.

Finland doesn’t have youth prison like the Netherlands does.  Although a prison and EHO are two completely different institutions, they are compatible in some extant. If I compare EHO with the Dutch youth prison system. In both the youngsters are prohibited to go outside, except a small fenced area where they can go  to get some fresh air.  Also their contact with the parents is restricted. They can meet them once per week, but can call them on more moments per week. A difference in this that in the Dutch jail system the phone calls and parent visits are a right of the youngster. In EHO this can be prohibited if it is better for the youngster because he or she is a rape victim or was otherwise abused by the parents. In other places in the Dutch welfare system this is possible, but the jail is mainly for punishment and also in providing help so the youngster will never return to the prison. EHO is mainly to determine what the best course of action in the Finnish welfare system. But also as a wakeup call that something has to change in their behavior in some cases. In both the Dutch youth prison system and EHO, the youngsters have to go to school. And both cases the school comes to them, because they can’t leave the building. A minor difference is the legislation. In the Netherlands youngsters have to go to school till they are 18 years old, in Finland it is 16 years old. But they can still receive education in Finland beyond that if they want continue their studies.

As pointed out in this essay, the Netherlands have a diversion in youth legal issues and youth welfare. This division became into effect in 2004 by legation, but was already in effect in daily situations. The reason for this was that most institutions prisons had already a branch which was more specialist in to helping youngsters then was possible in the legal system. As of 2004, the separation was also put in effect in law so they became different institutions. Therefor a place like EHO cannot exist in the Netherlands because it combines two things that have to be separated by Dutch law. Namely the caring task and the freedom prohibiting and restricting tasks. In the Dutch system you cannot put both accents on one intuition, it has to be two different once. So they can specialize in their task given and support the child the best way they can.