SHOCKING THINGS IN FINLAND

                     FINNISH DIFFERENCES                 

 

Today I will talk about the shocking things for me in Finland, so let´s start:

 

1) Last Thursday i went to a mall at the city center, I saw that there was a conference in the first floor, i went there to have a look and try to find out what was going on. The man who made the speech was one of the ministers of Finland, I am not sure in which minister he works, but he is famous. The shoking part of it was that there was not so many cops around, just two, and everyone could participate and speak directly with the minister. In Spain that is something unbelievable, all ministers or politicians are very well protected by many cops and bodyguards, and you can´t talk to them.

 

2) One of my hobbies is swim, I have been swimming almost all my life, so I decided to buy a ten times bonus, being honest a bit expensive but I have to do some sport or I will become a hippo, anyway, I went there like two weeks ago for first time, at the entrance there was a paper with the rules of the swimming pool, I was very surprise when I read that i have to take a shower naked before go to swim. The astonished part for me was that finnish people are normally very shy, they don´t say hi to you even though they are your neightbours, but they are not shy to be naked in the shower or in the sauna, I don´t understand it. I was very embarrased being naked with people that I don´t know although they were from same sex. Another fact that surprised me too was that anyone was wearing flip flops,in my point of view that is unhygienic, you come from outside with your shoes and walk around the changing room with those while other people are not wearing any, I felt like an alien wearing my flip flops.

 

3) One key, they have only one key to open every door, from the outside door of your building to the storage room. I was sharing my apartment with another spanish when I was living in Jyväskylä and he could open the outside door, our apartment door and our storage room with just one key like me but he couldn´t open my room.What kind of witchcraft is this?
 

 

FIRST MONTH, FIRST EXPERIENCES

                    MY FIRST MONTH

 

Is incredible how fast time goes... I still remember my last day in Spain saying bye to my family and friends, I was very nervous and enthusiastic at the same time, it was really hard moment leave my dog at the airport, but sometimes you have to be brave and don´t look back.

While the plane took off I was thinking if my decision was the right one, what would had hapenned if i had stayed in Spain, and after a month i have found the answer.

I was very confused in Spain about my future, my family was forcing me to study a master and find a job as accountant but Is that what I want? I needed  time to think about myself, my future, my relationship, about EVERYTHING!! my life in Madrid was like a routine, I needed a change in my life, so what ´s better than a volunteer where I can help people and feel useful? I am happy with my decision, I think is the right one.

 

My first weeks here were the hardest ones, I was completely lost, everyone knew about me but i didn´t have any idea of who they were, but i felt very welcoming, all of my workmates were very nice and kind with me.I visited my work place, i really liked it from the beginning, it was totally different than I was expecting, i visited also my house were i am living now and also the city, where to buy food, where to go party and so on... 

My work is a bit chaotic, I am not sure what is my everyday task, some days I am very busy and some others not, sometimes our events are very successful and many people come to join us and sometimes there is nearly no one coming...  

I have been living in Finland before but i felt like everything is new for me.

The hardest part of live abroad is the loneliness,is very hard to find good friends that will support you in your ups and downs moments, luckily i am not completely alone my boyfriend is from Finland but he lives about two hours far from where i am, so we can´t see each other as much as i would like to see him, public transport in Finland are very expensive if you are not student so I can´t afford to go every weekend to his place. And I am the only volunteer here the closest ones are 30km away, and there is not any public transport to reach the place where they live. As you can read my chances to meet friends fast were not so high, but i managed to meet people in our events and now i am happy with my friends.

 

But remember don´t be afraid of changes!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVS USEFUL INFORMATION

    HELLO HELLO!!! I AM BACK!!!

Today i will talk about what i am doing in Finland. First at all i am here living in Lahti doing the EVS programme. EVS means "European Volunteer Services", there is many kind of volunteer services from work with disable people to build a boat, you just need to find the one you like the most and apply for it,mine is about multicultural respect, we organize event for foreign people from all ages, in this events you can get to know people from all around the world and make new friends having fun.
How can you apply for it?- first  have a look in the list of the projects as i told you there is many so is not easy task to do, and also take in consideration the country that you would like to go. After that you need to find your sending organization and receiving organization. I recommend you find first your sending organization, they can help you to find your project. 
 You can find the list in this link:
http://europa.eu/youth/evs_database

As you can see in the website there is many organization and countries make sure that the organization that you chose is a receiveng organization, (not all the organization offer projects.)

How to apply it?-You need to send an email to the SENDING organization of your city, if not of your country in the email you MUST include your CV and a motivation letter telling a bit about yourself and the reason why you apply for that project and why you are the best candidate for it, (both have to be in english language). When you get the email confirming that you have your sending organization start sending the same email to the organization you want to work for, this is the hard part of it, some organization doesn´t answer you back, others have already volunteers...you have to be patient and never give up!!!

I totally recommend you to do it, you will feel better with yourself helping other people, you will learn a lot, is a unique experience that you should live.

Introduction

 

MYSELF

In my first post i will just introduce myself to know me better and i will also explain the reasons of 

 why i decided to start this blog, and  what will be the content of it.

 



 



 My name is Patricia  from Spain but I am  currently living in Finland, thanks to the crisis and the actions taken by the Spanish government I was forced to go abroad to have a better future like many others spanish citizens.

 

I always wanted to write a blog but because of many reasons like studies, work and so on... i couldn´t find enough time to do it, thanks to my new work i have a lot of spare time that allwos me to write it, and here i am writing my first post!!!

I would like to share with you what comes to my mind, my feelings and ideas and i will be really glad if you guys participate on it, write down as much coments as you want but always in a constructively way.

 

The content will be full of variety in my opinion is quite boring if i speak about the same topics all the time, you can also propose some topics that you consider interesting for the rest of the people. I will make a post weekly, sometimes two depends on my inspiration and my time.

 

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!!!