Perception of Finland

I’ve been living in close proximity of Finland for all of my life. So what are the things I know about Finland? What are the first thoughts that pass my mind when I think of Finland?

* Firstly, it’s the nature. When I think of Finland I have this picture of wild northern forest in front of my eyes. Pines, lakes, moss, lichen, blueberries, cloudberries, bears… Nature (at least in the southern part of Finland) should be quite similar to the one we have in Latvia. However I’m willing to see also the northern parts.

* Sports. Finland has a number of sportsmen that I know. Finland is home to many great drivers – Ari Vatanen, Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen, Keke Rosberg, Tommi Makinen and many more. I also know some javelin throwers, ski jumpers, footballers and of course – ice hockey players.

* I know Finland for its brands – Nokia, Rovio, Iittala, Fiskars and some others.

* Then there is of course the image of highly developed education system. At least here in Latvia, Finnish educational system is kind of a paradigm.

* Language. I know that it’s from a completely different language group than most of European languages. Thus my knowledge of Latvian, English, German, Russian and Italian won’t help me in any way to learn Finnish faster.

* History – I know a bit of Finnish history – mostly about WW2. However I’m a bit confused about the post WW2 period – it looks a bit strange to me that Finland remained semi-pro-soviet for a decent period of time…especially taking into account the outcome of the war. I promise I’ll try to look more deeply into this part of Finnish history.

* As an economist I know about the crisis that hit Finland in the nineties. I know the current state of the economy, the wage agreements etc.  

* I know that Finns are sauna fans. But that’s quite the same here. :)

* Lately a lot of Finns are coming to Latvia to buy some alcohol, which in Latvia because of the excise tax differences is notably cheaper than in Finland and even Estonia.

And that’s almost it. As I wrote in my previous blog – there is nothing much I know about Finland. I’ll try to correct this already prior my arrival to Helsinki.