All tagged Finland
Water evaporates, twirling and enveloping me as I look out over the snow-covered lakeshore: my skin prickly, breath foggy and limbs immobile in absolute relaxation--the post-sauna nirvana. Summer twilight--blue and purple hued--the city is asleep as I bike on cobblestones. I'm a little drunk on wine but mostly the light. Feel familiar? These are my memories of Finland. Sensations of home etched into my skin. Yet they are collective.
Empathy is a personal trait that is inert to all humans, yet taking a look at two modern European democracies we can see that empathy is also a societal norm that manifests itself in very different ways between cultures.
I began to wonder my culture’s take on being proud whilst walking down the streets of Helsinki and spotting a couple of University of Helsinki cotton bags.
In September, I moved from the Helsinki metropolitan area to Jyväskylä in Central Finland. To add to my normal moving angst, all kinds of small town girl nightmares were running through my mind. I mean every small town in Finland is the same, right?
I wonder what this culture looks like through her eyes and whether she feels at home here. Does she view our social reservation as a form of segregation or our diffident demeanor as indifference? I start rewinding the events of the past 20 minutes, feebly attempting to see the “normal” every-day occurrences of my bus ride as something strange and unfamiliar.
