Friday, April 22, 2005
Finn Facts
Hi Everyone,
First, the most important news of the week in Oulu that may not have reached you in the States yet…
Sunday night for the second year in a row, Oulu clinched the Finnish hockey championship, beating Helsinki 3 games to 1 in a best of 5 series. Tuesday evening 30,000 people gathered in city center when the trophy, dubbed “The Boy”, was presented to the team. And in a ritual that could only happen in Finland, the team’s first act after receiving the trophy was to take “The Boy” to the sauna with them. Anyone who would like a t-shirt commemorating the championship (not the team in the sauna) should mail requests along with the size needed and the U.S. equivalent of 25 Euros to us. Last year’s championship t-shirt can be had for 5 Euros…
Now, on to Finn Facts. These are in no particular order and reflect no judgments; only cultural differences that can be charming, irritating, or simply fun to document.
Eating
Perhaps because Finns get up early and eat humongous breakfasts, lunch is either served at 11 a.m. or not at all. Then at about 2 p.m., every adult Finn on the planet drinks coffee and eats a sweet roll. Dinner is served at about 5 – 5:30.
Finns love sweets! The candy counter at the large Stockmann Department Store always has a line of people waiting to buy treats, and the movie theaters have bins of candy where you can mix and match to your heart’s content before weighing your empty calories and paying a lump sum. And for some reason, Finns are crazy about licorice. There must be 25 different brands in the candy section of the local supermarket.
Finns don’t eat the skin of potatoes. In fact, the very thought of such an act invokes a shiver of revulsion.
There is great formality concerning guests at meals. Guests are always served first, and no one takes a second helping before everyone is done with the first one. Then the guests have a chance to take a second helping before anyone else. This is disconcerting only if you’re the guest and not quite sure what you’re being served, how much you’re supposed to take, and what condiments go with it. As a corollary, it’s better to think small when taking a helping, because if you take it, you’re expected to eat every morsel. If they dish it up for you, you’re allowed to leave part of it.
Generally, you seat yourself in restaurants, sometimes asking a waiter with a gesture and a raised eyebrow if it’s OK to take a certain booth or table. I’ve never seen anyone denied when they’ve done this. And you need to order everything you want on the first go around, because after the food is served the waiter won’t come by to see if you need anything else. That would be an invasion of privacy by Finnish standards. Nor will the waiter bring a bill. You can sometimes signal and they’ll bring you one, but more often you simply go up to the cash register where by some stroke of genius, someone who has never waited on you will know exactly what you had, and even do separate checks for everyone who parades up from your table. At a hotel where we stayed, they even knew our room number when we went up to pay!
There’s no tipping in restaurants. Often you wouldn’t know whom to tip even if you wanted to because the wait staff works as a team, one taking your order, another bringing the food, and perhaps a third bringing the bill.
Traffic, driving, riding, etc.
The speed limit on the bypass around Oulu is 100 kilometers or 60 miles per hour. It was explained that’s because some wanted to go faster since they were using the bypass as part of the expressway and were not going into the city. But others were using the bypass only to go a few kilometers before turning back into town, and wanted an “in town” driving speed. So they compromised at the 100 kilometer level.
I have not seen a stop sign in Oulu. I’ve been told there are very few in Finland. There are stop lights at major intersections, and some roundabouts, but there are only Yield signs – or no signs – at cross streets. Seems reasonable to us. You yield if someone’s coming and go if the coast is clear.
Traffic tickets are pro-rated to your salary. One rich guy in Oulu was fined over 100,000 Euros for speeding.
Instead of speed limit signs, there’s a sign with a graphic of a town’s skyline – a house, a steeple, etc. – that means you’re entering a populated area and need to follow the city speed limit. If the graphic has a diagonal red slash it means you’re leaving town and can drive faster.
Merging cars have the right of way, and buses may pull out any time they want. They’re on a schedule, after all!
And speaking of buses, when Finnish bus drivers change shifts, the first driver says goodbye to the passengers as he gets off, and the new driver says hello. (I told you it was a very civilized country!)
House amenities
Finnish homes have scalding hot water. I mean “coffee brewing” hot! But you can only access scalding water by pushing a red button down on the faucet – a feat that toddlers can’t manage. Up to the button pushing stage, all you get is nice lukewarm water, perfect for washing little hands.
There are few clothes dryers in Finland. Why use electricity for something that can happen for free? However, no matter how much softener we put in the washing machine, the clothes always look like they’re standing at attention after hanging to dry overnight. Unfortunately, they feel that way too. And since the clothes are dried in the basement, they don’t even have that outdoorsy smell that line dried clothes had when I was a kid. A clothes dryer is what I miss most (besides family) here. I think Roy would say he misses peanut butter and Quaker oatmeal most.
You always take off your shoes when you enter a Finnish household. It particularly makes sense in the winter when you don't want to track snow all over. But the Finns take off their shoes year around. It really cuts down on carpet wear and tear, and the house does stay cleaner! Even at parties when everyone is dressed up, the shoes are left by the door. Children take their shoes off at school too.
Finns don’t throw stuff away until it is beyond hope of repair. In our flat there is a reel to reel tape player, a record player, and a great collection of albums from the 70’s including one Joan Baez album which is Roy’s favorite. Eight track tapes are still sold (and bought!) in flea markets. It’s the same “make-do” mentality I saw in my parents’ generation. Here we believe it is because of occupation, civil war, World War II, and having to pay an unjustified war debt in the 1950’s to the Soviet Union.
Personal quirks
There is a penchant for hair dying in Finland. Henna seems to be the color of choice among the over-25 crowd, while the youngsters have gone goth with jet black hair, sometimes with fushcia and green highlights. Perhaps the most perverse teenage craze is the gorgeous, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavian damsels who dye their hair jet black and then let it grow out an inch or 2, giving them a decidedly skunk-like appearance. Or am I just getting old and crochety?
Finns are always prompt, sometimes to a fault. A 6 p.m. dinner means your company may show up at 5:45, but never at 6:15. The buses and trains are prompt too.
However, television shows are maddeningly off schedule. One reason is that the Finns don’t have enough commercials to fill the gaps in the American shows they televise. There’s always an 8-10 minute gap to fill at the end of “Friends” or “ER”. But even then, the next show may start 2, 3, or 4 minutes after the hour – just when you’re about to give up on seeing it. Roy has 3 Finnish TV schedules as “Favorites” on his computer, and he spends the evening surfing with the remote trying to outguess the system. As an added challenge, American and British programs are scattered over 5 or 6 channels, so TV watching is always an adventure, with the occasional gem that makes the effort worthwhile.
Another television (and film) Finn Fact: Finns believe that it is important to see a television show or film in its original language. So programs are aired exactly as they were filmed with the addition of Finnish subtitles. We thought this was a particularly high-minded practice (once again illustrating the cultural ethics of the country) until last week when one of our very favorite movies was on television. We couldn't wait to watch it. But when we tuned in for "Cinema Paradiso" we found that it was in (of all things!) Italian with Finnish subtitles! Cultural ethics met our hegemonical American world view head-on, with Italy and Finland coming out the winners and us switching to "Night Rider" for our prime time viewing.
Finns walk everywhere, and they walk really fast! Roy says that he now can overtake septuagenarians on his walk to school, but only if they’re using a cane. There are few gyms or workout facilities. Why spend money for machines when a bike, cross-country skis, or tennis shoes can give you the same results?
Finns can talk both inhaling and exhaling. I’ve tried several times to talk on the inhale, and choke every time. It is definitely a skill developed at an early age. The most common inhaled utterances are “joo” (yes), “ei” (no), or “no niin” (oh well, or OK then), but one friend can spout whole sentences on the inhale! One Fulbrighter said she thinks they’ve learned to talk like a harmonica because their words are so long you can’t get them out in a single breath…
Raising babies
What we call an “oops” baby in the States – one conceived when his or her siblings are teenagers – is called an “Evening Star” here. A little more graceful distinction, don’t you think?
Babies aren’t named for some time after they’re born. In fact, Finns think we’re weird to know a baby’s name before it’s born. “How can you name a baby before you get to know them?” they ask. A formal name is given when a child is christened, and must come from a state-approved list. So there are no Finnish kids saddled with names like “Ima Hogg” or “Aloda Manoor”.
Most Finnish given names have no meaning like ours have in the States. They are simply picked for the sound of them. And as you’ve been able to tell from the blog, most names don’t bear any resemblance to ours! For a list of the most popular given names, click here. Note: Since both Finnish and Swedish are official languages here, they also include Swedish names in this list.
Names are so important here that the Finnish (and Swedish) calendars have a boy’s and girl’s given name on each day of the year. You might be born on February 5th, but your Name Day might be September 7th. Older Finns place a higher importance on a child’s Name Day than on his or her birthday and celebrate the Name Day with a party and gifts. Nowadays, the original names on the calendar are deemed old-fashioned and new names are being added so the tradition will continue, although most younger Finns celebrate birthdays, not Name Days.
Babies and children really seem to be treasured here. I’ve been asked twice about babies being stolen in the U.S. Those who asked were horrified even at the thought of such a thing. I'm pretty sure if a baby were stolen here, the perpetrator would be lynched.
And because babies would never be stolen here, parents are encouraged to let their babies sleep outside, even in the winter. Roy thinks the habit started when the Finns lived in chimneyless houses where the smoke rose to the ceiling, but it was always a little smoggy inside. It was much healthier for a tiny pair of lungs to breathe in the cold outside air than the smoky air. These days, babies are bundled in buntings and sheepskins, the opening of the carriage is covered with a thin receiving blanket, a baby monitor is placed nearby, and little tykes seem to thrive even when the temperature dips to 15 or 20. (Below zero outside sleeping is discouraged.) At first I was really taken aback by this practice, but then I thought of our early ancestors whose babies survived (and thrived!) for centuries sleeping in cold conditions, and decided that this might be preferable to dust mites and gas forced-air heating, but only if we didn’t have to worry about stolen babies and what the neighbors might say.
More Finn Facts next week. Hope this finds you enjoying spring! We now have well over 18 hours of daylight (4 more than Denver), and the “blue moment” doesn’t occur until 10:30 p.m.
Cheers!
Sarah
Here's an e-mail we received after posting this entry...
From: Sami Makelainen
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2005
Subject: Finn Facts & the blog
Hi Sarah & Roy,
I've enjoyed reading your blog at http://rclariana.blogspot.com/ for some time now (count me in as one of those strange Finns who love to know what other people are thinking about us ;-) and really like it. It's been fun reading about your big and small "adventures" in Finland. The latest Finn Facts-post was great and I just thought I'd comment on a few things - for additional insight or just for fun,whatever.
I think Finns are crazy about sweets for the simple reason that they're really good here. When we (me & my wife) lived in the US we learned to avoid most candies there - they didn't taste nearly as good! And we found out why, too: turned out sugar is (relatively speaking) extremely expensive in US compared to Finland. The manufacturers thus often used mostly or partly artificial sweeteners. And you could taste the difference.
The bus drivers are polite everywhere else except in theHelsinki-area. Very rarely do they say hi or goodbye when changing shifts here.
The reason for movies and TV series being in the original language is not just the desire of the viewers. It's because dubbing is expensive and Finland is such a small country it's not worth it. But it's also a preference - for example, watching a movie in Germany is royal pain for me since you can hardly find anything with the original soundtrack.
What comes to Roy missing peanut butter, you should be able to find the real thing from Behnford's when you're in Helsinki (it's at the Kämp Galleria shopping center, see http://www.behnfords.com/) They specialize in importing all kinds of american foodstuff.
On hot water, there was once an interesting incident where some Asian students lived in a student apartment in Espoo. The hot water consumption was abnormally high for some time, so the building management did some digging - it turned out the students, delighted that they got so hot water from the tap, were cooking potatoes by constantly running hot water over the potatoes for a couple of hours!
When naming children, the names do not have to come from an official list. They cannot, however, be "against good manners" - so unique and foreign names are possible, but you cannot name your kid something completely stupid like "XQ".
Anyway, thanks again for a great blog. I'm looking forward to the next "Finn Facts" part!
Best regards,
Sami http://www.groundswell.fi/sim/
Ps. I hate coffee, so not every adult does the coffee-thing :-)
