Finnish Traditions

PENKKARIT AND VANHOJEN TANSSIT

 

 

Last Thursday was the Penkkarit celebration in all the cities of Finland. Penkkarit is a yearly tradition for Finnish upper secondary school students. The event is celebrated in their last year of school before the start of the matriculation exams. This celebration consists in a small parade around the city center, the students are dressing up with funny costumes and they are throwing candies to the people.

It was really nice event, I had lot of fun and I got many free candies. What I don´t understand is why is before the exams and not after, when everything is done and you are not  stress about exams.

The next day of Penkkarit celebration, Finnish students do their traditional dance ( Vanhojen tanssit),is a formal prom

for upper secondary schools students during their second year. It is a celebration of when the second-year students become the seniors of the school.

The prom celebration  last approximately one hour, during that time the students are dancing some traditional Finnish dances, that they have learned during the first semester. As you can see from the picture the students look very elegant, the male students wear black suits and the girls long and colorful dresses, the families of the girls can easily spend over one thousand euros in the dresses, hairdressing  and make up. I was very jealous to see those beauiful dresses, we don´t have this kind of event in Spain, but anyway I don´t think that my family could affort to buy me such a expensive type of dress. The most surprisingly part was when the students were dancing "Tango". Tango is a very sensual dance but the Finnish students didn´t know how to dance it properly, they were dancing it very mechanically.

 

 

 

VISITING HELSINKI

HELSINKI

 

 

Last weekend I went to Helsinki with my spanish friend, he came to visit me and also to get to know Finland and Finnish culture.

We took the bus on saturday morning at 7:40 am, and we arrived to Helsinki at 9:00 am. We visited first the Hietaniemi Cemetery and the beach. We were very surprised how close each other are, in Spain the beaches are far away from cemeteries, in my opinion a beach should be a place where you can chill and relax, not a place where you can hear the bells of the church because of someone die. I seriously didn´t like the location of the cemetery, this fact could explain why there is so many Finnish tourist in Spain, besides of the weather.

We went next to The Rock Church ( Temppeliaukion kirkko). I think is a bit overvalued, is just a church made of stones nothing else special. After it we went through the Ullanlinna street to St. John´s Church (Johanneksenkirkko), it´s not the most popular place to visit in Helsinki but is very big and pinteresque, I liked it more than The Rock Church. Later on we visited  The Old Market Hall ( Eteläranta), I was happy to see a spanish shop inside selling Chorizo, spanish cheese and of coruse Jamón Serrano.

After all that walk we went to have lunch at a restaurant, it was a bit expensive but the food was delicious. After it we visited the port and the market.We also went to the Orthodox Cathedral ( Suomen ortodoksinen kirkko) and to the St Nicholas´Church ( Helsingin tuomiokirkko).    

This one looks amazing from the outside, is very big and impressive, but the inside is very normal, all the walls are white and there is not much old decoration. 

 

 

   

 

This one is my favourite one, it looks really nice from the outside, very different looking than catholic ones and the inside is even nicer, it reminds me the cathedral in Russia, is very colorful but a bit small, it looks bigger from the outside than from the inside.

  

Despite Helsinki is the only "big" city in Finland, the size of the city are quite small. When I was in Helsinki I felt like I was not in Finland anymore, the rest of Finland is full of nature and lakes, not so many people around, totally opposite of Helsinki, but it was really nice trip anyway.

 



How to conquer a Finnish man

FINNISH MEN

 

Do you like Finland? Would you like to stay in Finland but your finnish skills are not the best? Can you survive a finnish winter? If your answers are affirmative then don´t be worry here it comes your solution!! Have a finnish boyfriend!!!

Today I will give you some tips about how to conquer a Finnish man.

The first step is find a finnish man, Finland is the paradise of blonds, finnish men are very handsome, at least for me, finnish men are very exotic in many countries like for example Spain. So it is not a big deal if you don´t have any on mind right now , you will find him soon.

Do you have someone in mind now? Perfect the next step is become his friend, try to be patien, at the beginning finnish people are not so open and is a bit hard to get to know them well. You can gain his friendship by showing him that you really want to be his friend, show him that you are a good and trustable person.

When you know him enough to know his likes,his hobbies then propuse him a date, spend time alone with him is the best way to get close to him. As an advice I recomend you that you should look naturally, don´t put much makeup!!

During the date with him, you should show him that you are interested to be more than friends by smiles, glances, a bit of human contact, but not too much or he will be scared. If you feel that he is not answering back your signals it can be because he is shy or because he is not interested on you at all. In this type of situation you have two options or be enough brave and kiss him, you will probably regret if you don´t even try it, don´t be embarrased if he doesn´t like you, it is always better to try and fail than fail to try. And the second option is keep him as a friend and try luck with another one.
In case you succeed keep the relationship alive by truly loving him, make him laugh, talk a lot with him about any topic and cook for him something delicious of your country, trust me the best way to conquer a men is trhough their stomachs, he will be the happiest man in the world if you cook him something tasty.
I hope my tips helps you in your future conquests. Love is in the air!!



HOW A SPANISH CAN SURVIVE FINNISH WINTER

COLD IS HERE

 

Here I am back to work after a wonderful Christmas holidays in Spain. Today I will talk about how hard is finnish winter for a spanish.

We got finally a proper winter after one year with quite warm temperatures ( That is what finnish said, for me it was enough cold).  I just returned from Spain where the temperatures were about 10-15 degrees, is like 25-30 degrees more than in Finland, I can tell you that I am totally freezing cold, I guess I will get use to this temperatures after a while.

During this time of the year the lakes of all Finland are frozen, you can walk, do ice fishing or skate on it. I was very surprised how fast the weather changed, just couple of months ago it was water and now it is ice. It was nice experience walk on the lake, I haven´t done it before and I can tell you that is very impressive, the fact that under you there are fishes swimming is a bit scary but nice experienced anyway. I am not brave enough to go walking on the lake if I don´t see someone else around, just in case I am too heavy and the ice breaks, I don´t want to die yet, I am still young. I found funny the fact that when you  go out for a while your hair turns white, but don´t worry, you are not getting older is just the cold.

What I normally wear for this cold weather is a lot of warm clothes, I wear two pair of warm socks, two pair of tights, a trouser and good boots, for the upper part I wear one thermal shirt, another shirt, a hoodie and a jacket plus my coat, don´t forget to wear good gloves, wool hat and a scarf, after all this clothes, I am finally ready to go out. I am not generally cold when I wear all this clothes except when is windy, the wind in Finland is very cold and it can be very annoying if  is snowing at same time, sometimes I can´t even open my eyes. 

In conclusion to survive a finnish winter you have to wear thousand of clothes, try to leave your house as less as possible, and get a finnish boyfriend/girlfriend that warms you during the cold nights.



THE SPANISH AND THE SNOW

SNOW

 

 

And finally the real snow came to Finland!! It was a huge surprise when l woke up on a Saturday morning, like any other day and find out that it has been snowing the whole night. I love when the city is cover by the snow and it is totally white.

I get dressed, had quick breakfast and got out to play with the snow, yes you read right, play with the snow, not only kids enjoy playing in the snow, spanish too.

 Is not true that in Spain  is summer all year, in some spanish cities snows also at this time of the year, specially if you live in a mountanious areas. In Madrid, the city were I am from, it snows only once or twice per year, but not as much snow as in Finland, normally the snow doesn´t last more than two days, and it is a big chaos at the city.

I like snow fights a lot, I normally lose, I have to recognise that I am slow making the snow balls  and also a bit clumsy, is hard for me to walk on the snow, I normally fall down many times, my friends make jokes about how I walk on the snow, they think that I am walking like a penguin, but I don´t agree with them. The activity I like the most is make a snowman!!!! Is not so easy at the beginning, you need lot of patience and a right technique.

This was one of my first time making a snowman, as you can see the result was not so wonderful, but I had lots of fun making it. I didn´t know well how to make a big compact snow ball for the body. I am pretty sure that with practise I will make a nice snowman some day. Please Finnish people don´t destroy snowmans at the street if is not yours!!! It is not nice to find out the next day that your snowman is not there anymore. 

 



 

INDEPENDENCE DAY IN FINLAND

INDEPENDENCE DAY

 

 

The 6th of December Finland celebrate it independence day, as all of you know Finland was conquered by Swedish and later on by Russian. Finland became independent in 1918, and became a european member in 1994.

Each city have a different way of celebrating. Last year I was in Jyväskylä for the independence day, and the tradition in this city is made a kind of parade full of finnish flags and candles around the city center, everyone can participate in this parade, you just need to carry some candles. The parade ends at the old cementery, many Finns leave candles at the cemetery in memory of those who lost their lives in war, then there is a chorus singing some sad finnish songs (that is what my finnish friends told me, unluckily I don´t understand much finnish yet), when the chorus finish an old soldier from the war do a speech about how he lived the war.  

This year I celebrate the independence day in Lahti, the

tradition here is quite different than in Jyväskylä, all the people go to the small lake close to the harbour, instead of the city center like in Jyväskylä, there is a light show in the fountain that change colors depending on the music that is playing, it last around ten minutes, even though is a bit too short it worth to see it, my favourite part was when ithey were playing the finnish anthem with the different lights  it  was very emotional. After it there is some nice fireworks.

But there is some common things for all the country, most of the finnish families light two candles half blue and half white ( finnish flag colors) during this day, and watch on TV the program Linnanjuhlat ( the finnish prime minister celebrate a huge party and all the finnish celebrities go there). I am not agree with this last "tradition". Independence celebration should be more related with the war not with a party, I don´t see the point of it.



FINNISH WEATHER

SEASONS

 

Today I will talk about the Finnish weather. What I have learnt during my time in Finland is that the weather can change easily from one year to another, one year can be very cold and the next year quite "warm", you never know how the weather will look like. So let´s start with the seasons!!!

Autumn : In my point of view Autumn is the most depressive time of the year, is true that the trees can look nicer than in other seasons with all those colors, but when the leaves fall down it looks very sad, the best place to enjoy the finnish nature in this season is lapland. About the weather is always cloudy and grey is a miracle if you can see the sun once per month.Not everything is bad during this season, there is also good things too Autumn and Spring are the best moment to see northen lights, for me the most beautiful thing I have never see in my entire life.

Winter: Is the coldest season of the year, temperatures can reach easily -20 and sometimes also -30, but as i told you before it depends on the weather some winters are quite soft and the minimum temperature can be -15. What I like the most about this season is the snow, winter is not as dark and depress as autumn because the snow give some brightness. But is true that it gets dark soon during January and Frebuary is normal that obscured at three p.m.

Spring: Is my favourite season, forests are full of flowers and is very colorful, is the best moment to pick up some delicious finnish berries, but be careful and check that there is not insects inside it. The days are getting longer and you can finally enjoy the sun, the surprised part for me was when I went to sleep around twelve pm and the sun was still shining, it can be a bit annoying if you are not used to it like it happened to me, Finnish people don´t use blinds like we do in Spain so is quite hard to sleep when the sun is shining and the light come inside your room through the windows, nut you get use to it, what I recomend for those who can´t sleep well is to buy mask. Spring seems the best time of the year for travelling to Finland, but there is also bad things about spring, INSECTS!!! is full of insects and some of them can be very annoying, my advice is buy protective creams against insects ( some of those are a bit expensive comparing with spanish prices but trust me it worth) and also insecticides for your house.

SUMMER: Summer has many characteristic as spring. summer, evenings can be eternal, feels like will never finish. Even the birds are singing baffled.If you're on the road in a  summer day in Finland, it is not rare that you wonder what time it is and see it's already midnight. Is the warmest season, temperatures can rise over 25 degrees, is the best time of the year to swim in the lake and have a lovey picnic at the forest. In summer you will have also problems with the insects so be ready. The mood of the people is different and you can feel it in the environment that the happines is all around the city, you can actually see people walking around not like in winter time where everyone is at home.