10 Things That Make Finland Different to Australia - Part 2!
January 22nd 2010 15:56
Time: 5:23pm Date: 22/01/2010 Location: My Apartment, Helsinki
1. We start uni here at quarter past the hour eg. 10:15am - also known as the 'academic quarter'. Therefore my timetable states that we start at 10:00am but in Finland; this really means 10:15am. The reason why goes back to like the 1800s where the Finns would always refer to the clock tower in the city centre for the time. When it struck the hour, their work bosses knew that by the time they got to their office and took off all their jackets, scarves, beanies etc....they would really be starting work at 15 minutes past. True story!
2. In the city centre, the sidewalks are actually HEATED!! This helps the ice to melt, thus making it not slippery for the pedestrians.
3. Inside is all about insulation. There are always double windows and radiators in every room!
4. Every building that you walk into and plan to spend time there has coat hangers. It's like you walk inside and the first thing you see is a big area for you to leave your coats/jackets!
5. Cans and bottles are meant to be recycled back at the shop where you purchased them from. This is not all bad...You get like 30 cents for each can!! That's totally better than S.A!!
6. Everything is opposite in terms of the side that you drive on and even the side that you walk on. They drive on the right side here (I have almost been run over a couple of times because I automatically look left when I should be looking right) and they even keep to the right when walking in the streets and up elevators!
7. Finnish is bi-lingual so most people can speak in both Finnish and Swedish. Therefore, most food items and all the street names in the city centre are in both languages.
8. This is one of my favourites...uni lunches are like 2,50 Euro which is like 4 Aussie bucks and it's seriously MASSIVE!!
9. They seriously separate all their rubbish here...there is a bin for:
- recyclable cardboard
- recyclable paper
- biowaste
- mixed waste and;
- glass
10. You don't need to dry your dishes because they have like a drying rack over the sink where you just place your dripping wet dish on the rack and the excess water just drips into the sink...magic!
Just a taste of one of the AMAZING, full of AWESOMENESS uni daily lunches!
1. We start uni here at quarter past the hour eg. 10:15am - also known as the 'academic quarter'. Therefore my timetable states that we start at 10:00am but in Finland; this really means 10:15am. The reason why goes back to like the 1800s where the Finns would always refer to the clock tower in the city centre for the time. When it struck the hour, their work bosses knew that by the time they got to their office and took off all their jackets, scarves, beanies etc....they would really be starting work at 15 minutes past. True story!
2. In the city centre, the sidewalks are actually HEATED!! This helps the ice to melt, thus making it not slippery for the pedestrians.
3. Inside is all about insulation. There are always double windows and radiators in every room!
4. Every building that you walk into and plan to spend time there has coat hangers. It's like you walk inside and the first thing you see is a big area for you to leave your coats/jackets!
5. Cans and bottles are meant to be recycled back at the shop where you purchased them from. This is not all bad...You get like 30 cents for each can!! That's totally better than S.A!!
6. Everything is opposite in terms of the side that you drive on and even the side that you walk on. They drive on the right side here (I have almost been run over a couple of times because I automatically look left when I should be looking right) and they even keep to the right when walking in the streets and up elevators!
7. Finnish is bi-lingual so most people can speak in both Finnish and Swedish. Therefore, most food items and all the street names in the city centre are in both languages.
8. This is one of my favourites...uni lunches are like 2,50 Euro which is like 4 Aussie bucks and it's seriously MASSIVE!!
9. They seriously separate all their rubbish here...there is a bin for:
- recyclable cardboard
- recyclable paper
- biowaste
- mixed waste and;
- glass
10. You don't need to dry your dishes because they have like a drying rack over the sink where you just place your dripping wet dish on the rack and the excess water just drips into the sink...magic!
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