I know what everyone’s thinking, why Helsinki? Well, I met my husband at my university back in Alabama. He’s Russian, but has been living in Finland for most of his life. He was at my university doing an exchange when we met in my English 102 class, and the rest is history 🙂 I moved back to Finland with him after his exchange, and we got married! We’ve been happily married now for 3 1/2 years. One day we’ll move back to the States- it will be after we both graduate. In case you didn’t know, all education here in Finland is free! Yes, you read it right, 100% free. There’s no way I’m leaving this to get buried in student loans in the US! I definitely consider myself extremely lucky.
Oh the first year here was tough. “Why are these people so rude!!!??”, I kept asking myself. Coming from the southern US, I grew up around southern hospitality and considerate strangers. Here in Finland, it’s the complete opposite. They simply speak when there’s need to, and nobody’s giving out smiles. However, I’ve learned over time that they’re really nice people; they’re honest and hard-working, with no tolerance towards bullshit crap 😛
Now I’m amazingly happy to be an almost-citizen of Finland! I’ve reached conversational level in Finnish fluency, I have a great job at an English kindergarten, and I’m studying social services and early childhood education in an English program here in a Finnish university (as you can see, the English speaking population here is greatly catered to). All in all, moving here (oh and marrying my hubbs 🙂 ) was the best decision I’ve evermade!
healthy in helsinki 