Long time no post! So, there is a lot of people now going to start their studies in Finland, because studying here is tuition free(!), so here is my black humor laced but not satirical list of
10 extremely honest things you will learn to love or hate about Jyväskylä (and Finland). Click on all the links for extra fun and reading. Use Google Translate to read if needed.
If you are coming to Finland to study, work or live, but have never lived or visited Finland; here are a few things that you can expect, and will most likely either love or hate about Finland. This blog post is mainly aimed towards the people who are coming to Jyväskylä to study, but excluding the most remote areas of Finland and Åland, all this applies to most of the country.
Being an expat is hard, especially in the beginning. In addition to living for 30 years in Finland, I have also travelled the world a lot and lived in Minnesota for five months, so I know how it feels to live in a totally new environment in a strange culture. In Finland I've lived in the capital, in a small town middle of nowhere and now in the middle of Finland here in Jyväskylä, and toured the country with a bunch of musicians, and with the slight dialect differences, people are pretty similar thru out the country.
Do notice that this list is written more from a pessimistic point of view: This is more of a warning, similarly as "there are lethal snakes in Australia". They are not saying that just to scare you - the fact that they are there, is real. So take this list with a grain of salt, but prepare for the worst. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Let's start with the most obvious ones:
1 - Finland is EXPENSIVE
Unless you come from the handful of privileged countries like Switzerland, New Zealand, UK or other Scandinavian countries; Finland will most likely be REALLY expensive country for you. For reference: It is cheaper to fly from Helsinki to Copenhagen than it is to go from Helsinki to Jyväskylä with a train. Also, price of Toyota Prius in USA: $25k. Price of Toyota Prius in Finland?
Starting from 35k€ (~$48k), aka almost double the price.
But on the other hand, things like cellphone plans are really cheap, and
pretty much everyone has a cell phone. That's why there has been no
public phones in Finland for about 15 years, so don't even bother asking
for a calling card. I suggest you buy a prepaid sim card from R-kioski
pretty much immediately when you get to Finland. I think that at least
in Jyväskylä University they handed them out to all expat students on
the first week.
2 - There is no sun, only clouds and winter
If you are a farmer, Finland has 4 seasons; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. But if you are coming to study, you will most likely arrive some time during the Fall or in January. And for a students, there pretty much is only two seasons: Winter, and the Summer (that you will most likely won't even spend here, but go back home). Even tho this one sounds REALLY absurd, this one is not a joke: The fall or "end of the summer" doesn't last more than 2-3 months when you get there, and it will most likely rain the entire time, but the winter will last pretty much the rest of the time you have classes before the summer break.
And believe me: Winter in Finland freaking SUCKS. It's long, it's cold, and it's dark. And there will be a lot of snow. Average amount of sun per day you see in Jyväskylä during the winter is
none. You wake up, it's dark. You go to classes, it might be "bright" outside for a while, if you are lucky. You get off from the classes, it's dark again, and stays like that the rest of the day. Getting a good set of winter clothing should be quite high priority for you pretty early on.
Winter starts in late October to early November, and snow melts away in late April to early May. Oh yeah, totally forgot... It snowed
this week. On June 16th. Let me tell you - it felt
REALLY cold. During January-February-March average temperature is -20°C (-4°F), and seeing in Jyväskylä -30°C and -35°C is not uncommon. And schools won't be closed because of the weather. But at least when it's that cold, there usually is no wind, so it doesn't feel like -60°C like in Canada.
To continue on the weather… If you can see the sun in the clear sky in Jyväskylä any other time than in the summer: You are lucky. This is not a joke nor exaggeration either. Jyväskylä is surrounded by so many lakes, that there is ALWAYS clouds in the sky. It will rain, snow or at least be extremely cloud pretty much EVERY SINGLE FRIGGING DAY in Jyväskylä, because there are so many lakes around that create humidity.
Don't believe me? Check the satellite view of Google Maps. What do you see?
Clouds. But on the positive side, Finland SMELLS really nice compared to say New York, Teheran, Dublin or London.
3 - Finnish people will not talk to you
Finns are often very punctual and honest people, and once you get to know a Finn, they will open up really easily and be friends for life. But if you don't know them, they won't even look at you. It's not them being rude, but them being polite; and respecting your personal space. If you are a super-social person, you will hate this feature about Finnish people. But if you are shy, introvert or otherwise prefer to be alone, you will love this.
There is no small talk in Finnish culture, and Finns are extremely xenophobic of strangers. This has nothing to do with nationality or racism, but even natural born Finns who are strangers will get the same treatment. Finns will not "bother" you, and they will not talk to you on the streets. If someone talks to you on the streets, the chances that they are either drunk or trying to sell you something is extremely high. Especially during the summer you will see a lot of "feissari" people, people doing street fundraising for companies like Greenpeace, Unicef etc. If you want to try to avoid them - don't go to city centers.
If excluding some
Romani people in central Helsinki, you will not see beggars in Finnish streets. You might see street musicians, but no beggars. And beggars are pretty much frowned upon by the Finns, because the social support here is so good, that the need to beg is next to none.
Once again, curse for social people, blessing for the others. In other cultures there is awkward silence, in Finland there is only
silence. And Finns don't mind it. It's not them being rude, it's just them being Finns. Also Finns love their privacy and silence - If someone causes a disturbance or is having a party after silent hours (usually after 10 or 11 pm), the chances of them interfering or knocking on your door and asking you to be quiet is much smaller than them calling the police to end the party.
4 - Finnish language is hard
Most Finns won't admit this to your face, but they are most likely
extreme grammar nazis. We moan if there is a typo in almost anywhere, especially if it is funny (eg. "kusi" instead of "kuusi"). In Finnish there is a term called "
pilkunnussija", which pretty much translates to "grammar nazi" in English, but literally means "comma f***er". Finnish language doesn't share grammar rules with most languages, and it is riddled with extremely long compound words like "
kilowattituntimittari".
Personally I kinda feel bad for people who come to Finland just for 2 years to study, that they are forced to study Finnish. Most Finns younger than 50 years old can talk and understand English and if you have no plans to stay here, Finnish has very little use outside of Finland. And Finns are VERY adamant when it comes to grammar, because Finnish language is
extremely hard language to learn, and if you pronounce things funnily or make a mistake, it's often really hard for a native speaker to understand what you said, and it is easier just to switch to English to understand each other, and that sort of mentality also discourages many Finns to study other languages.
Pro Tip: If you even think that you will need directions to get to Jyväskylä - Go to
google translate, type "Jyväskylä" and press the speaker icon on the Finnish to hear how it is said. It's not said the way most foreigners think it is supposed to be said. Also one the first words that you will most likely learn from a drunken Finnish person is one of these:
vittu, saatana, perkele, paska. You're welcome.
5 - You don't need to be a math wizard to know the price
If you come from USA, you will love this. Even tho our prices and taxes (VAT is 24% for most items) are pretty high, at least everything is told at the final price, when in USA all the prices are announced tax free (so if a price says $10, the end result is $10 + tax ~= $11). So unless you are a math wizard, you will have no idea how much the end price is. In Finland, if the price tag says 10€, it will cost you 10€, because the tax is already included in the price.
Also tipping
is not part of the Finnish restaurant culture. If you come from somewhere like USA, this will most likely seem really alien to you. In Finland the waiters actually get paid a decent salary (average is almost 2000€ per month), and do not even expect you to tip. If the bill is 9€, it doesn't mean 12€ with the tip; It means 9€. Tipping a taxi driver often is alright, but once again, not expected.
Also in Finland we don't use the 1 or 2 cent coins, so everything is rounded to the nearest 5 cents. Like you really needed that extra 3 cents pocket change?
6 - There is no "sophisticated drinking" in Finland
Because the alcohol in Finland is so expensive (5-6€ for a pint in a bar is pretty normal), and
Alko has a monopoly on hard liquor and wines. Because of this, their prices are extremely high because there is no competition… IN FINLAND. But it literally is cheaper to take a van, fill it with 5-8 people, take the ferry to Estonia, and bring maximum legal amount of alcohol, and come back, than to buy it from Alko… Even if you live in Lapland.
So "casual drinking" is pretty much not a thing here - when
real Finns drink,
they drink hard. Some drink until they puke, and then they drink some
more. Usually on Friday and Saturday. And if they feel like it; Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday too. But on the other hand, people do not go to
the bar with a car, because it is EXTREMELY frowned up and you will get
treated so badly by your friends and peers if you drunk drive.
Also in addition to the
regular beer and vodka (or Koskenkorva, which technically isn't a vodka), Finnish drinking culture is riddled with "girly drinks". There is plethora of ciders and long drinks (aka "lonkero"). The most traditional lonkero is cloudy gray colored "gin + grapefruit" flavor, but there are plethora of other variants like cranberry, mojito flavored etc.
edit: Thanks to Henri for reminding of this:
"All
alcohol sales outside pubs, night clubs and restaurants is prohibited
between 9pm and 7am, so make sure to get those beers early enough. Not
once or twice that I've felt like having a beer or two, just to notice
that my fridge is empty an it's 9:30pm."
7 - Finnish food in general is bland and awful
Because Finland is such a remote place, growing any sorts of crops all year around was impossible for hundreds of years, so a lot of traditional Finnish foods don't taste like anything other than salt and pepper. Potatoes, meat, rye bread and other bland flavors like carrots are really common in traditional Finnish dishes. That's why if you see a commercial that says that the food is "
made for Finnish taste", it means it tastes like nothing. Spicy food is not very Finnish thing, but if you like your food with flavor, there is a good variety of
restaurants in town.
But evil Finns will most likely also (try to) feed you
Salmiakki, just to see how you react to it. Other than Swedes and Dutch, most people don't like it and it requires a particular masochistic features to enjoy it the first few times you try it, but some will learn to love it. But at least the Finnish
pastries, chocolate and candy are good, and there is a chocolate factory for a company called
Panda in Jyväskylä.
Fazer is also a really popular brand. Also you have to try Finnish
rye bread, it's pretty awesome.
8 - Everybody cycles in Jyväskylä, and it's pretty much all hills
The central Jyväskylä is quite small - If you go Vapaudenkatu from end to end, that is the entire length of the city center; about 1.5km. And it is only 3 blocks wide. Everything else is a sub-urb of some sort, and all of the student housing are in ~5km radius of that, so that's why pretty much no students uses a car, and everyone has a bike. And the parking spots are really expensive too.
If you are a "rich" student, you will get the
overpriced bus card (Student price is 55€ for 40 rides or 52€ for 30 days) instead of a bike. And if you are fat, poor and out of shape like me, you will LOATHE Jyväskylä. No matter where you live, you will most likely always bike uphill to the university or to the polytechnics; back and forth. The city is extremely hilly, and the entire main campus of Jyväskylä University is on top of a fairly steep hill. If you want a good challenge, pedal the shortest route from the international office at Mattilanniemi "MAD" to the main building "C". It's about 250m rise in 800m distance.
9 - Finland is EXTREMELY safe country
To extend number six: Only day that is kinda scary to go outside especially in Helsinki is
Vappu aka Labor day, on April 30th and May 1st. That is a national holiday and it's the day when all the "amateurs" who normally don't drink in public are drinking too, with a stupid white hat on showing that they graduated from lukio (kinda like high school). These amateurs often don't know how to behave themselves when drunk and can be very unpredictable.
But other than that, at least from a man's point of view, Finland is an extremely safe country. Your chances of committing a suicide is much higher than getting killed by a criminal (per 100k population: 24 suicides and under 1 homicides). Your chance of getting killed, shot, stabbed, mugged, raped, assaulted, kidnapped or to be a victim of any other sort of crime is
really slim. Except getting your bike stolen, which is fairly common in Jyväskylä. My bike seat was stolen last month by some vandals, and several of my friends have gotten their bikes stolen.
BUT - if you are in distress, the emergency number is
112, and it's free to call it, and you can even call without a sim card.
10 - There is A LOT of heavy metal and live music in Finland
If you are a friend of metal music, there is a lot of it in Finland, and it reaches the
top 40 list every week, except on the Christmas holiday times. In Jyväskylä you can check out live music in
Poppari,
Musta Kynnys,
Lutakko,
Rentukka,
Katse, + almost every weekend on Fri/Sat in the night clubs on Kauppakatu. There is plenty of resources online to check upcoming gigs, like
meteli.net
Did I miss something? Write them down in the comments below
But don't feel down, you will still most likely have a good time here, and most likely will be at least a little depressed during the winter. But that is totally normal :) Also, try to learn to be love
sauna. And yes, you are supposed to go in naked, not with a bathing suit.
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