I miss many things about the start of the school year in Finland. So many things. I have had the pleasure of experiencing three back-to-school seasons in Finland. One in Tampere and two in Oulu. As you may have gathered from previous blog posts, I have really enjoyed getting to live in Finland and study there. In this post, I share 5 of the things I miss the most about back-to-school season in Tampere and Oulu.
My mom and grandmas always maintained gardens, but as far as simply encountering things to nosh on out in the wild, this pretty much so never happened prior to living in Oulu, Finland. I just wasn’t really in tune with what was available in my communities to eat plant-wise. Part of that was my healthy dose of fear of getting poisoned by eating something not quite edible - I mean that is what happened in books and movies and such!
For a number of years various news companies have attempted to rank the world’s happiness country by country. You’ve probably seen the numerous reports that I am referring to. Through the course of this, Finland has either ranked near the top or at the very top. This is great for Finland’s global brand, bringing more attention to this small, but mighty country, but with that it also adds to tourism, research-funding, business interest, etc. Most importantly of all though, is that it is good for the people of Finland to be happy (and know it) and it allows people like me to point out that clearly Finland is doing something(s) better. I love to debate – especially when it involves sharing with people how awesome Finland is!
