After one full week here in Finland, I can say with absolute confidence that it is quite different from life in the States. One of the first things that really caught my attention as different from back home is that here, cars actually care about pedestrians. Most cross walks do not have anything to indicate when you should cross, so you simply walk across. The weird thing is that the drivers here will often stop for you even if you are still on the sidewalk, whereas in the States if you try to cross the road without a green light, you will most likely need to dodge a car.
A second big thing is eye contact with strangers. Back home (at least where I am from) if you make eye contact with a stranger, you usually do a little nod and then both of you go on your merry way. Here in Finland, if you do that, they will look at you like you are gonna try to mug them and speed walk away from you. More than once, I have done this and freaked out a local. Beyond that, oh boy things are expensive here. Not a big fan of that one. Also, public transportation is a really big thing here, particularly compared to back home where public transportation is practically nonexistent.
But one of the biggest changes from home is definitely the way that academics are scheduled here. Here, the semester starts on September 1st but some of my classes don't actually begin until November. During my first week of classes, I have two classes on Monday and one on Tuesday, and that is it for the entire week. One of those classes does not meet again for about 2 weeks. This is gonna take some serious getting used to.
Beyond that, I am genuinely enjoying being here and I feel so blessed to have this wonderful opportunity!
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