We’ve been living in Helsinki, Finland for a little over 2 years now. That’s not super long, but it’s long enough that our lives have drastically changed to fit our new environment.
I still remember the first day we were in Finland in our temporary apartment, suddenly in a record breaking heat with no air conditioning, trying to figure out how such tiny grocery stores could possible have all foods we were used to, and completely forgetting that we actually had to carry our food home. Never mind the fact that my Finnish was limited to hei (hey), kiitos (thank you), and anteeksi (excuse me/sorry), which does not help you at all when trying to read food labels for allergens.
We didn't have any bags, so S had to carry our groceries.
It’s strange to think about those versions of us. Raising kids in Finland has forced us to adapt and conform to Finnish norms faster than we probably would have naturally, and I love that. I love that I’ve changed in many ways that will probably be permanent.
At one with the weather
Part 1: Temperature
When S was born in the United States, a doctor told us that the ideal temperature for a baby was 74 F (23C). So we set our thermostat to that temperature night and day. We lived at that temperature only. (I actually remember constantly being a little cold).
That feels INSANE now. It was a little paranoid even then, but here it’s not even possible.
We don’t have air conditioning here. Actually, air conditioning is pretty much only in grocery stores. And where air conditioning exists, it certainly isn't blasted as cold as the average American mall or office. No need for that indoor sweater I used to keep in my car because it was always too cold inside.
We also have less control over the temperature here. Our apartment building only turns the radiators on if the daily high stays below freezing. Last year it never turned on. We weren’t cold, but it’s a very different life from controlling a thermostat. We instead must pay close attention to when we open windows and curtains to control how well the sun comes in.
When we dress the kids in pajamas for the night, we have to check the weather to see how cold the low will get. I check the weather on my watch more often than I check the time. And yes, I keep it in Celcius!
Part 2: Rain and snow
In America, my interaction with bad weather was literally determined by how close I could park to things. I could get into my car without leaving the protection of the garage, and I rarely walked more than a minute from my parking spot to a shop or the office. I didn’t really own a rain coat, just a car umbrella. My winter coats were optimized for how comfortable they were to wear in a car, where most of my warmth came from the heated seats.
The first thing we learned in Finland was how pathetic our winter coats were. You’d think that, coming from an area with similar temperatures, we’d be prepared. But dashing through rain and snow and cold isn’t the same as spending a few hours chasing a toddler through puddles!
Even if we take the metro somewhere, we have to walk at least 7 minutes outside to get there. And then walk more on the other side. It’s not a lot, but it’s nothing to sneeze at when there’s harsh winds off the water and pouring rain. Plus toddlers love time at the park in any weather, so we spend a lot of time outdoors! We wear a lot more layering items - rain pants, wool under layers, and often our hiking shoes.
The summer has its own new challenges. Because I am nearly always pushing a stroller, my hands are always out in the sun. In the winter, my mittens are more important than ever. But in the summer I need to carefully apply SPF to my hands even more than my face.
The toddler has the most complete weather preparation, since he goes outside at daycare for hours in almost any weather. He has different one piece jumpsuits (halaari) for autumn and winter, and under layers for extra winter warmth. Picture a snowsuit, but with the fabric of a windbreaker in the fall - it’s great for all the crawling and climbing of young kids! In the stroller, we have footmuffs that protect the legs from wind and rain, and insulated stroller bags for short trips without fighting a small child into infinite layers. As the saying goes, there no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
Part 3: Endless days and nights
The biggest difference between the climate in Finland and Wisconsin is the sun. The temperatures really aren’t that different, but the Nordic sun is a drastic change.
I can’t really say we’re used to it. Can you ever get used to it?
We moved in July, the peak of summer. The night was only a few hours long. And it was a good thing, because it took us a while to buy light fixtures, and our apartment only has a few built in lights. We simply made the rooms dark and light by opening the curtains. But, of course, that didn't last. In the winter the daylight is only a few hours long.
Every time the seasons change I feel lost again. It is hard to learn to ignore if the sun is up or not. In the summer it’s easy to forget to go to sleep or make dinner. If I wake up at 4am to feed the baby, it can be hard to go back to sleep in the bright sun.
But the winter is the hardest. We walk to work and daycare before the sunrise, and it sets again by 3PM. If you have an office job, you might never see the sun at all. It feels really strange to go to the playground by the moonlight. And strangely, because it’s dark for so long, it becomes equally hard to remember to go to bed!
When we lived in Wisconsin, I often stopped doing things in the evening in the winter. It felt wrong to leave the house in the dark, even if it was only 5PM. I might not be well adjusted to the dark here, but I don’t think I will ever return to that habit, especially when traveling in the city where it is so well lit!
One surprising plus of the shortened day is that the sunrises and sunsets seem to last much longer, and are much more dramatic in color!
Waste
Part 1: Shopping differently
One of the biggest changes we made living in Helsinki was choosing a car free lifestyle. We use public transportation for everything, and we can because Helsinki is such a well connected city.
But it really changes the way you shop.
For example, I often shopped for a week of groceries in America. That didn't mean planning out a week of meals - I just bought everything that looked good, stocked up the freezer, and made sure I had the staples. I often had 3 or 4 paper bags full of heavy food, and I never once considered how I was going to get it home. I also had a bad habit of stopping at target for one thing and coming home with clothes, a bunch of food, and a piece of furniture.
Shopping in Finland takes much more intent. I have high quality reusable bags, after I broke a few cheap ones in our first months here. I generally try to shop with an empty stroller so that I don't need to carry everything by hand, but I still have much more constrained space. I will buy a different product because it has lighter or smaller packaging. We also have much less space in our home, with no garage or basement to keep things "just because." I am a lot better about buying the right thing the first time, or selling the old version promptly.
There's another side of this, which is that I'm BAD at shopping in Finland. I can't rely on Amazon (we use the german and UK versions, but shipping is slow and expensive), and there is no single giant vendor that compares. It took me a long time to learn the various stores I needed for essentials, and even longer to find some of the online ones. I also don't have even basic measurements memorized. I can't impulsively buy clothing online because, between pregnancy body changes and a completely different sizing system, I can barely figure out my size.
Part 2: I waste less
Learning to shop different really highlighted a problem with my old habits. I didn't really count waste as waste if I was donating it. We took SO MANY trips to Goodwill with clothes and furniture that didn't work out. I also had accepted that recycling wasn't really functional - I'm reasonably certain that most of my recycling in the US was put in a landfill regardless.
Things are so different here. Sure, I can still donate clothes, but it's not a drive through on my way home from work. And I'm buying less clothes, so there's little to donate. I also have been making a point to sell directly when I can rather than donating. For specialty items, like baby and maternity items, I know it ensures that the items are going to someplace they will actually get used and not go to a dump.
The other issue is that, just like I have to carry everything home, I have to carry everything out. In the US we had one giant recycling bin and one giant garbage bin. We didn’t even need to take it to the street, just outside the garage door. It didn’t require much effort.
Now, we actually live in a unique area of Helsinki regarding waste. Kalasatama has a special garbage collection system through a series of pipes, so that garbage trucks only come into the area to pick up the large recycling. Otherwise it is collected underneath the buildings in a central station. We can recycle paper, all plastic except BPA, and all food waste (yes, even cooked food and meat). This is because plastic is processed locally and the food waste is industrially processed into bio fuel.
Do you see what the big problem for me was right away?
Do you see the SIZE of those chutes?
Let me show you how most Finns (or just not Americans?) collect their garbage.
Now let me be clear. We don’t do this. This was too big of a jump. We got a giant American style kitchen trash can that takes bigger bags. But we still can’t make the bag too full or it won’t fit. We use the little bins in the drawer for all our recycling categories. It has forced me to really be aware of how much we threw away on a regular basis.
Our biggest waste saver? We started using rags. So simple! In America we used paper towels for all of our cleaning, which made a little more sense when you consider that American paper towels are bigger, thicker, and cheaper. We now have a bunch of different cloths for wiping counters and toddlers, cleaning bathrooms, cleaning windows, and washing dishes (no more germy sponges!).
Being an Outsider
Before we moved to Finland I had only once traveled to countries that didn’t speak English. It was a one week trip and I called it a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. It’s hard to travel to Europe from America. There’s a lot of things you take for granted when you can drive for 6 days straight and never reach a border.
To be fair, Finland is a relatively easy country for an English speaker. Everyone learns English in school, so almost anyone you talk to can understand you. Roughly half the Finns I talk to appear near fluent.
But there’s a strange overwhelming sensation when you start to live somewhere where you don’t speak the language. First, you overhear noise with no words. The background conversations becomes a blank buzz. You can’t even hear distinct words in the language. You can’t read the signs or the advertisements. And of course you can’t search the internet in Finnish so all your results are for the wrong country. Thankfully we live in the time of Google translate, which is terrible at Finnish but good enough to be a major crutch for me.
It took me probably most of the first year here to stop hearing Finnish as an incomprehensible mush and to start hearing words and concepts. If you aren’t familiar with Finnish, not only does it have sounds that aren’t in English, but the length of a vowel sound matters, and words can be glued together into massive complex words. It’s a truly intimidating language. But I’ve made a lot of progress, especially since Duolingo Finnish launched. I can read most signs now, and understand the shouts of children on the playground. I don’t speak very well, but I can understand basic conversations and even occasionally understand an overheard topic.
Living as a minority - even only in language, not in appearance - has been enough to change the way I interact with the world permanently.
I no longer assume everyone can understand me. I’ve learned to drop any racial assumptions of who will be able or unable to speak English. I speak slower and quieter, avoiding unnecessary complications in my speech, unless I know the person very well. I avoid idioms that don’t translate well, as well as shorthand words (‘cuz, whaddya). I always ask if someone speaks English, even if they probably do, so they can prepare.
I have grown to appreciate the art of good signage. Finns are quite good at this most of the time, probably because they have two legal languages to fit on government signs. At the airport most signs have 4-5 languages. Symbols are better, and they are used whenever they can. I never realized how language m-based American signs are until we visited in Chicago and the signs said “Way Out” instead of Exit. How confusing if you don’t know a language well!
I’ve begun to appreciate how lucky I am to be a native English speaker, considering how many words have been exported into the the world’s lexicon through media and the internet. English has so many complex rules, so many subtle ways to say the same thing, and such ridiculous spelling! Every time I learn a new concept in Finnish, I realize more how insane it must be to learn English. I have a much bigger appreciation for immigrants to America, trying to communicate in a culture that does not accommodate foreign languages while also speaking a language filled with inconsistencies.
Finally, I understand the the internet is less powerful than I once imagined. If I search for something in English I still get American shops. Like all tools, the internet is only as good as your ability to use it. And if you can’t speak the language of the website you want to find, it may as well not exist.
That’s all for today. Anything you want me to elaborate on? Let me know!
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