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Prehistoric Human Response to Climate Change

Michael- I also have loved reading your journals. It is as if have stepped back in time to when I lived in Finland 25 years ago. Finland is truly captivating and you have captured the spirit in your journals. As your trip is coming to a close, what has surprised you the most about Suomi? Deanna Wheeler

Wed, 05/27/2009 - 10:55

Michael Wing

Hi Deanna:
I'm still here so I am still processing my experiences.  I think the thing that has surprised me the most about Finland is something intangible - it's hard to put it into words, but an undergraduate I know who has lived here almost a year put it best:
"Finland's not Europe.  They don't feel a part of it."
That is really true.  People talk about taking the ferry "to Europe."  Finland feels like this medium-sized island sandwiched between Russia and Scandanavia and not feeling particularly close to either.  The only other country for which Finns feel any affinity is Estonia, which is smaller and equally peculiar.  The Finns just have their own way of doing things, which is part communal and part private, part orderly (government, trains, manners, traffic, actually most things) and part disorderly (litter, drinking in public).
The landscape and build environment where I live (Oulu) resembles Alsaka far more than it does any European country.
This same student remarked "Finland accumulates cultural driftwood" and that also rings true for me.  The Finns where I live do not strongly identify with their traditional culture. They pick and choose from elements of many cultures, like Americans.
yours, Mike Wing