1. The sun are somewhat rare to spot especially in winter, it is 50/50 chances
I remembered the first time i spotted the sun is after one week I'd been in Finland, and we were so excited to take the picture of the sun and shared it among the exchange students in Finland. Mostly the weather here (winter) is cloudy or gray, the day time is still as bright as normal, but you just can't find where the sun is.
2. The snow is cute, but evil too
Before this, I never encounter snow before, hence for us (or maybe just me?) snow is often associate with romantic, pretty, fluffy(?)... as you can see, it is all positive traits. Well, indeed I still love snow now, yet when I think of the icy road that appear after snow melts, it never fail to upset me. I wonder HOW can local people walk so fast and even walk with high heels on the ice, while I fell frequently in a winter boots. The road is an ice skating park for me, especially when the road incline up or down, either one is worst! And I live in Turku which build along the hills, it is normal to have incline road than a flat one. I can say that I was actually sliding rather than walking.
3. Finns are cold, but helpful
This is from what I observed and also personal experience. What will you do (or people in your country) when someone is falling? Well, perhaps people will approach and ask "Are you ok?" such a typical questions, and reach out a helping hand. People in Finland just won't care to give help if you fall, they will have eye contact with you, to make sure you did not break your body somewhere, then they will walk away. Sounds terrible, right? But actually they are looking whether you ask for help or not. If you do, they will be very happy to help. Bare in mind that do not scared the Finns (*laugh*). If you suddenly approach them in fast speed or with a huge gang, they might feel terrified and eventually refuse to help because they are too scared. (in some cases, they will run away). Exception case is when they are in a bar/pub/party/disco/karaoke something like that, they will become more open and talkative, more easy to approach. If you want to have a real good start of friendship with Finns, you can start with party, and they do held a lot of parties during orientation week. In my opinion, Finnish speaking Finns are more reserved in some cases, and Swedish speaking Finns are more open and friendly. No matter what language they speak, once they know you, they are very kind and eventually the "coldness" disappear.
4. Self-study all the time
I know that the education system of Malaysia vary from Finland, but I don't exactly know how it actually varies, ...until I encounter it. Basically, the reference book I bought in Malaysia is just a decoration for my bookshelves, but in FINLAND, I would say I never been so hardworking before. The lecture is just like a summary of the chapter, so you need to revise it beforehand or otherwise you could not catch up the class. It is insane in Malaysia if we study three or four chapter in one lecture, but it is possible in Finland, because they just summarize it. When you go back your room, it is your responsibility to read it on your own. Besides, they will upload a few articles to read, and they won't inform you, you just need to check the portal often and read it on your own. In short: READ IT ON YOUR OWN!
5. They are so digital...
Everything in digital! They pay using cards rather than cash, even 1 euro of coffee. They scan the books in pdf and make it e-book, they make the library become e-brary and you lend and return the ebook just like how you do it with real book. Just a small fact: when you want to withdraw money from their ATM (they called it otto), you need to pay some charge. I am not quite sure how much, but it depends on the bank you have. On top of that, cash is still king. You can't pay cloakroom fee in a pub by card, you can't buy coffee from vending machine by card too. You can't pay travel fee if you follow student trip with ESN or any student organisation by card either. Despite all the digital access, cash will be so handy in some cases.
6. They use a lot of websites for academic purpose.
In Malaysia or if only UPSI, we only have myguru for academic purpose, all the study materials of different subject are in one website, but in Finland, mostly use moodle (for abo akademi), but some use psykonet, some is nettiopsu... depends on the subject you are taking and the preference of the lecturer. Some of it even use a facebook group... so it is crucial for you to write down or at least memorize every password and account name for different website, or else you will be in trouble when you are lock out.
7. Flexibility of the course and also inflexibility
There are no "only one lecturer" for one subject, you could have two to five or more lecturers for one subject, and each of them represent different topic, so it is better for you to write down which lecturer are responsible for which topic, so that if you have any questions you can ask the correct lecturer. Their timetable (or maybe only Abo?) are not the same every week. This week I might have full class for the whole five days, but next week maybe just two classes on Tuesday. They are not very stick to one way of teaching, rather they substitute lecture to research seminar, self study and so on. Not as Malaysia, we can depends fully on lecture. Some of their subjects are not stick to the typical study duration, such as my social psychology, it started yesterday, and the last class is next monday. The duration of the class is only one week, more or less. Each of the subject works independent to each other, which means they do not have prior agreement in negotiating class schedule, so it is possible to clash courses, and here is where inflexibility is. In UPSI, you can negotiate with lecturer to change timetable if it clash with other subjects, or we are not satisfied with the time arrangement, but here it is a MCQ, you can only pick one and skip the another. More hurt is, sometimes the class you decided to skip the lecturer might have a test on that day. There is nothing called substitute test or late test, if you miss it, you missed it. You have to be good in organizing too, count correctly the number of class you skip per subject, or else you will be banned for exam.
8. They have two official language
Swedish and Finnish, depends on where you are, you need to know at least one of them if you want to live easier here. In Turku, Finnish are more than Swedish, but because my institute is Swedish based, so they use more Swedish in the school compound, but Finnish outside of the school. Their signboard is also in bilingual, so knowing one of them is enough. How to know which language is majority in your city? Simple, just look which language is the first one / at the top of any signboard.
9. They talk Finnish to you, although you look like a tourist
For them, it is consider rude if they assume you don't talk Finnish at the first hand, so they will try to talk Finnish to you even though they thinks you come from a different country. I feel offense a bit before I understand why they keep on talking Finnish to me when I look exactly like a typical Asian, so bare in mind that they do this because they respect you. You can say politely that you don't speak Finnish, and they will speak English. I tried to understand their language but judging the situation and content of the surrounding, and answer back using their language, this really helps and they will be so happy when you are able to response to them in their language. Basically, you can start with saying kittos every time, which means thank you, or in Swedish is tack. Or in the other case, they just don't want to talk English because they do not feel confident to their English, so they might refuse to talk to you in English. Do not assume they don't understand, they do, just don't want.
10. Buses are expensive
Yupe! For me it is expensive. For in-town bus, it costs you 3 euros no matter how long the journey takes, and the ticket last for 2 hours without any limit of transit. For long journey it counts according to kilometers, but you can get a cheaper one by Onnibus. From Turku to Helsinki cost about 4~8 euro depends on time section. Peak hours are more expensive and vice versa. Shockingly I never seen a motorbike here, the most common transport in Turku is bicycle, or walking hehe. Cars also have, but there are quite amount of place where you couldn't reached by car, only have pedestrian and bicycle track.
11. You won't die if you cross the road
Finland are so safe that even if you want to cross a road, you no need to pay much attention and you won't die (technically please check the road before crossing😁). It is written law that let pedestrian walk first before any vehicles, and the people follow it 100%. I tried to stand by the road and pretending I was going to cross the road, and every car that I had tested really stop in front of me and let me cross the road. Not to mention, bicycle stops too. I tried out in Helsinki also, and except highways, they still stop for you, even bus or lorry that are so difficult to accelerate back to the previous speed. So if you want to cross the road and you see a car is approaching, never mind, just cross, because even you want to wait for the car to pass before you cross, they will still stop and let you go first.
12. Salesman/Promoter are just nice
It is so annoying when you encounter any salesman or promoter on the streets and they keep on harass you while you still walking. You have to repetitively tell them "No, thank you" until you are in rage and tell them to get lost or begging them to let you go. In Finland, the first time when i spotted two promoter, I was thinking "Oh God not in Finland please." and I actually stood there and try to find a way to avoid them, but I realised that is the only way to supermarket and they are so clever to stand there. No choice, I accelerate and tried to avoid eye contact, but sooner one of them spotted me and smiled at me, waiting for me to jump in the trap. Miracle happens, when I waved my hand and tell them "No, thank you." they stepped back and said "Thanks." and continue looking for the next one. I was so impressed that they respect your will and so polite even they were rejected. So next time if you are in Finland, no need to be scared of promoter, they are just nice and respectful.
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