Finnish is really difficult to learn, but for Spanish people, most of the vowels are the same: a, e, i, o and u; then they have a different pronunciation for the 'y' and they have also 'ä' that we don´t have. I´m going to write some basic words that are useful to know: moi: hi: hola moi moi: bye: adiós kiitos: thank you: gracias anteksii: sorry: perdón ale: sale: rebaja ravintola: restaurant: restaurante poro: reindeer: reno olut: beer: cerveza vesi: water: agua hyvä: good: buen/bien With the three first words, you can live here without problems for a while if you speak English because most of the people know English and can speak it well. The most difficult issue about the Finnish language is the fact that you add a suffix to the words to make sentences, so words get bigger and bigger and they can have a lot of different suffixes.
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Finally, we can say that spring is coming to Finland, these last days the sun is shining (not as in Spain obviously), but at least it´s sunny! It´s still cold, but we have more than 0 degrees, so it is a good new. I still wear gloves and scarf but I left my boots at home and I can wear sneakers so I am really happy with that. I think that sun is very necessary for everyone and it makes you feel happier and more active with your daily life. So, I had some stuff from university to do but I wanted to enjoy the sun so I went to Naantali (it´s a very beautiful and peaceful place), to Kaarina, and I spent more time in the street with the warmer weather. I also went to Helsinki because I had to go to the embassy and it was snowing in the morning but then the sun was shining so it was a very nice day. I am looking forward to the warm weather and go outside without gloves or scarfs, but now I feel much better with the sun in our days. I hope it will continue like this more time. Let´s ...
I found these bullets quite interesting because these scenes are really embarrassing and worrying for them so you can try to understand better this culture if you know what kind of things scare them. There are a lot of bullets but, obviously, some of them are common in more cultures, but these that I post I realized about them in this time I have been living here. They represent very well how shy Finnish people are, in general of course, being afraid to see their neighbour in the hall, that someone sits next to them at the bus, touching someone hand by mistake... It´s funny for me because in Spain these scenes are pretty common but not embarrassing at all, it´s completely okay is the cashier touch your hand by mistake, actually (mostly old people) talk with the cashiers who they don´t know about anything.
One of the most typical activities here in Finland is going to the sauna. Most of the buildings have a sauna, even some houses have a private sauna. It´s very important for Finnish people and they go very often. I have tried several times and it´s really relaxing if you go after a long day. I haven´t done ice swimming yet and I´m very sad about it, but for some reasons, I couldn´t find the moment, but I know I have to do it soon! About rules, you have to go inside the sauna naked (unless it´s a mixed sauna) and a towel to sit on it, you should take a shower before and then go inside and be there the most time you can bear, when you feel very hot you can go out and take a cold shower and go inside again. If you are in a cottage or something like that you can go outside (to the snow) and then come back; also there is the ice swimming, so after the sauna, you go to the sea or lake (frozen most of the time) and then you come back to the sauna. Usually, they go with friends or family ...
Today I had an event for one of my courses: get Finternational. We went to the VocationalInstitutee of Turku to bake some traditional Finnish food and it was really interesting! We cooked three different things: rye loaf, karelian pasties, Finnish cinnamon rolls. We were in groups and cooked all of them. I started with Karelian pasties (and also I would say that they were my favourites) and it has a technique for doing the size but we tried several times and I can say that I know how to do it (it doesn´t mean that I do it well). Then we put them in the oven and after that, you have to brush them with butter and wait and it´s done! It was new for me the fact that we eat them with scrambled eggs on top, and it´s so much good with it. We also mash the dough of the bread (rye load), it was very difficult to get the good size; but this was the one I didn´t like so much, because I usually don’t eat this type of bread, it´s such different of the one from my country. After that, we made the F...
I think I haven´t talked about overalls yet. It´s one of the first things I learn at university, and I found it very funny and a creative idea. Here, university students have overalls (you can also buy one, it´s around 25€), the colour of the overall depends on the degree you are studying, they wear it at parties and events. The funny thing of this is that they have to "collect" patches for it, you can get patches in events, mostly in parties, in some university workshops, etc. Also, you can buy them at universities or some shops, even there is a kind of flea market on the internet where you can buy them! Personally, I don´t have the overalls because I don´t see me with it but I really like the people with it, I think that it´s a funny idea and you have a lot of memories on it. Anyway, I am collecting them because I think that is a good memory and I´m thinking of sewing them in some clothes when I go home.
I have to dedicate one post to the alcohol because it´s really expensive here! First of all, you can´t buy "hard" alcohol at the supermarket, as you can in Spain. Here, at the supermarket, you only can buy some beers or cider (maximum 5% of alcohol) but nothing else. So, if you want to buy wine, vodka, gin, or beers with more % of alcohol you have to go to a specific shop, called Alko, they are near supermarkets normally, and for example, in Turku city centre there are two. But, remember this: if you want to buy alcohol you have to show your ID card, but also the people who go with you have to show it (one time I went with a friend but it was me the one who was buying and I couldn´t because she didn´t have it). They say that they do it to have control of the alcohol, but they don´t count the consuming of each person or something, it´s just a different shop because it´s from the Government so it earns money with that. Furthermore, they have another restriction, if you are 18...