Juhannus report

I was trying to be sensible and managed to come back. Now I have to say that this Juhannus isn't something that I could call typical Juhannus. When I was invited to go to a friend's cottage I assumed that we go there, upack, relax, chat a bit, set a camp-fire, grill some sausage, have a drink or two, have sauna, swim in the lake and go to bed. I have to admit that I actually did all of that but the relax-part was not what I expected it to be - nothing like sitting on the pier or around the camp-fire. If you are curious to find out why - check the following paragraphs!Everything worked like I thought it would until the point when I arrived in the island where the friend's cottage is located. I was immediately told to take something for grilling with me and we are leaving. Nobody told me where are we heading, when are we coming back. For usually very well organised Finns it was a bit unusuall behaviour. Especially that I have not been told to prepare for anything particular.

Anyway we set out. First we spend about an hour in a motorboat to get to some point. Then we took our backpacks and started to climb up the hill, then down the hill, then up the hill again... And then one of us said that he is not going any further because he hasn't got proper shoes. I was wondering where is the famous Finnish "sisu", especially that we were almost there... Anyway we didn't want that he spends Juhannus day just by himself and we turned back according to his will.Nearby where we left the boat we set up a camp-fire, grilled sausages, and got some rest. After that we went down to join crowds gathered around big after-ski (in summer after-golf) centre to see a bigger camp-fire set on the waterand feel the atmosphere:The weather was astonishingly good (sunny and ca 15 Celsius degrees) in comparison to last two weeks when it was raining most of the time. The atmosphere around the after-ski centre was dizzy and drunk in general but very friendly. For some it was even a way to earn some money.








Filled with this atmosphere we came back to the cottage, had sauna and swam in the lake like all other "proper" Finns ;)

Midsummer celebrations

Because it is June one of the"hot topics" in Finland apart from holidays is currently Juhannus - Midsummer celebrations.

Midsummer celebrations in Finland are one of the most important festivities during the whole calendar year. Finns celebrate beginning of the summer. Name Juhannus is said to originate also from religious background, namely bitrh of John the Baptist. Normally it would be 26th of June. The information about Juhannus origins are widely available in the Internet (e.g. in Wikipedia) so it is not the point to repeat all of that information. Let's see how it really looks.

Finns decided that Juhannus will be celebrated between 20th and 26th of June, so that the Juhannus day is actually on Saturday.

Have you ever wondered why the celebrations have been moved to take place always on Saturday? It seems like Finns like to work a lot and they wanted to avoid a situation when 26th happens to be a working day and they cannot work. This is actually the case with some other "national holidays" - they are moved to Saturday not to lose any working hours. Very good for the economy indeed. However - Friday before Juhannus is actually non-working day, because of coming Juhannus :D Sort of funny case.

Of course Juhannus is also a celebration of the longest day in the year. The normal activities include going to summer cabin, setting a huge camp-fire, going to sauna and for many it is also an occasion to drink loads of alcohol.

What about the weather? Well, it is supposed to be the beginning of the summer, but it does not mean that there will be at least 20 degrees and sun... Especially this year... Anyway some Finns say that there is nothing like a bad weather - there is only bad clothing. So I'll try to be brave tomorrow, put on several layers of clothing (today it was 7 degrees...) and set out to visit friend's cottage.

The sad part of this event is many drownings happening during Juhannus weekend. Despite warnings it seems to be unavoidable part of those celebrations.

Nevertheless I plan to come back in one piece and write down my report from Juhannus and maybe occasionally add some more posts. See you later then and hyvää Juhannusta!

Pics by Piotr Rutkowski

Working life - part 1

Information about working in Finland is available in abundance. You can read basically everywhere that:
- it is difficult to find a job here if you don't know the language and that
- the taxation is high.
I would like to mention one more issue which is less popular. But this comes after the basic stuff.

If you manage to find a job without knowing Finnish language and you are fine with paying high taxes you need to visit some offices. Of course one of the first ones is the taxation office (http://www.vero.fi/). You need to know how much you are going to earn till the end of year, provide this information to get a tax card. Of course tax card has to have your social security number, which you can get in Maistraatti - local register office (http://www.maistraatti.fi/). If you have just arrived in Finland you need to visit also police station to receive residence permission if you intend to stay longer than 4 months. This is the procedure I went through ca 3 years ago. Maybe some rules have changed but probably sooner or later you will have to go to those offices for various reasons (Maistraatti for example deals with voting permission).

This is more or less about initial phase when entering Finnish working life. The issue I wanted to bring up - not so often mentioned is labour unions. Some years ago it used to be quite natural for Finns to enter labour union already during studies period. Nowadays it is slightly less popular for various reasons. But because for many Finns it seems natural that everyone knows about unions they may forget to mention that such a possibility exists. Here I wanted to provide some basic information about labour unions - so that the reader has a possibility to decide for himself/herself - is it worthwhile to join or not.

The main reason to join labour union is usually unemployment benefit (apart from the basic one provided by KELA www.kela.fi) awarded in case one loses a job. In order to receive that benefit the monthly payment needs to be paid usually for 10 months before unemployment takes place. Different labout unions may have different rules so I recommend to check it separately. The monthly payment varies from 1 to 2% of the salary and can be deducted by the employer or paid as other bills by the union member. Other benefits include discount for renting summer/winter cottages, fuel discount or some ferry discounts. Union member can also get lawyer's consulting. Those were just examples, benefits vary from union to union. The decision which one to join is limited by educational background and currently performed occupation of the applicant. Even with those limits there is still some choice. An example here can be Akava (http://www.akava.fi/) - being a network of unions related to academic life.
It has to be noted however, that not all of the Finns join labour unions. The main controversy causes the amount of money paid and real benefits received. For many of those that I talk with it looks so that they pay several hundreds of euros and getting just a calendar. It means that during normal year they are not benefiting from union's membership.

The point is that you need to consider for yourself - are you going to benefit much enough to join? Or maybe it is worth to pay in order to get a higher unemployment benefit? It is sensible to answer those questions for each person individually.

There and back again

I have just returned from a work related trip to Poland. I just had to write down my impressions - could not resist!

It felt weird to be there. The weather was great (unlike in Finland) and I did not feel like coming back yet (quite exceptional). The atmosphere of the meeting was very positive and felt somewhat more European than Polish, despite mostly Polish was spoken. I would hope for Polish business to develop further in this direction. Business should be about win-win situation, fair play and "find solution" attitude rather than finding ways of "how can I trick them" or "I will promise more than I can actually do to get a better deal".

Each time I go back it is good to notice that the country is developing. The construction work is going on, the buildings are being renovated, roads' quality is improving. There are even attempts to improve railway connections which is close to a miracle ;)

Food suddenly felt very oily and rich in calories. This impression stems probably from eating very healthy, "no oil-lots of vegetables" food served at Finnish canteens. But even if rich in calories the food was delicious :D

The economy does not seem to be very heavily influenced by the crisis. Shops, streets, railway stations have been full of people hurrying somewhere. Some say that when the economy train has been started in Poland it is difficult to stop it. When Polish people have learned how to spend money they are not so willing to cut spendings. Therefore the consumer spendings keep the Polish economy rolling. Good for Poland!

Or maybe this positive impression stems from the cultural shock only :) I will check that out next time I visit.

"In the beginning there was nothing...

... which exploded."

The quotation from T. Pratchett shows very well how my attraction to Finland evolved when I learned that I am going to be an exchange student there (attraction level = 0%) and after spending 4 months in Kuopio in Finland (attraction level = 100%).
I cannot say if it is the experience shared by most of exchange students coming to Finland, but it definitely happened to many of those who came to Kuopio.

This explosion of attraction for Kuopio and Finland can be easily explained by a phenomenon known as cultural shock. There is however a difference between the regular cultural shock which lasts for few months and an abnormal cultural shock which lasts in my case for almost 5 years now. Kuopio has some kind of magnetic power which attracts many foreigners to come back and live here.
What is that power? For those who are interested, want to know more, and have a sense of humor I recommend R. Schatz's book titled "From Finland with Love". I don't recommend this blog as a source of information as it will be seriously biased, written from one perspective only, will not provide comprehensive knowledge, and the systematic posts are highly doubtful (if there will be any at all).
Nevertheless I will try to continue writing as I am very prone to do things I am not good at (Like writing. Writing in English in particular). At the same time I have to declare that I will not take any responsibility for those who decide to visit this blog. You do it at your own risk.