As expected I was quite busy with some work in my new office.For the reason I didnt get much time to write.Well today my boss is on leave.. :)
Its been raining here for some days.. i do get nostalgic abt days in Kerala where it rains everyday.. the situation here now is no different.It rains(prob u can call it drizzling coz i can go out without umbrella too) almost all time.Natives use umbrella and have strted buying big shoes(which would protect the feet from snow ).. am just waiting for the snowfall to come!
Speaking of natives,there are some things here which u cud say are quite finnish in nature.
1. Finnish coffee:
I was offered this on my first day to office."Its a well known coffee here.people like it very much" - those were the words of the finnish person who greeted me in office.I just siped it.whaaa... It tastes so bad !! Then rest of my first half in office was to find out a restroom where I can throw that coffee to washbasin.Later I realised that only natives like them,but I just found out a new way to drink it.Use honey along with cofee.It tastes really good and you wouldnt get the taste of coffee at all..
2. Sauna : For better understanding of sauna go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
To make it short ,its just a steam bathing method done in finland to heat your body from cold climate.People take it to refresh your mind.Normally you can stand for 10 mts but of course it depends on the temperature.I just wanted to taste the finnish culture and decided to take it .In eurohostel ( company accomodation ) we have a free public sauna and private charged sauna.I decided to go for public one as I dont know how to operate it ,and of course it was free of cost... yeah reaching there I realised the region where sauna happens would be very small where three people could sit without touching each other.Rest of the whole room was partioned for showers/toilets facility.You would feel embarrassed sitting naked with other guys!! to make it worse they would talk to you casually about work,climate and discuss all the things under the Sun.So I was sitting in between a russian and a german guy talking about the rock show which was happening that weekend! But the sauna feeling is refreshing..So i decided to go for it for the second time, and this time there were 2 guys from Spain.I hardly sat for 5 mts in the hot sauna (those guys raised the temperature very high and my ass was on that hot wooden plate ) and another guy came in.. I walked of the place as I didnt want to sit there touching some guy!!
3. Language :
People do know english well but everthing written is in either swedish or finnish. I was wondering how do they pronounce ä and a.a should be always pronounced as in "amma" , "aanna" and ä should be like in "ae" .. So they write "a apple" and "ä boy".well å is just swedish letter for ä.Still speaking to natives is a prob. I cant speak (till now) as they say it,esp place names,so we prob write them down and ask for routes.Later I realised that there is no finish word which uses the letter Y,instead they use J.. which means "Jo" shuld be said as "yo"."Kathajanokaja" should be pronounced as "Kathayaaaanokyaaa".My teammate had a nameplate "Jani" and was called "Yaani".That solved a lot of problems.I guess Indians prefer to speak a bit fast.Once it so happened that I asked something to a guy in a shop,and he replied "Am sorry, do you speak German? I cant understand a word of it" :(
Here I have to be lil slow to make them understand what i mean.(Somthing like the chineese I have seen do ,they think for the appr english word for a while and then speak it out).Understanding their accent is also difficult but you can manage it.My new home is in "Poorvonkattu Street" and none would understand if I say the place name.Once I lost my way to home while roaming and none was able to understand the street name.Finally I had to twist my tongue a lil bit to get that accent :-)
4. Cars :
Well as far as I know,abroad there should be so many good cars.finland is no different.You can see Maruti 800,Maruthi Swift and Skoda Fabia( both which run in inidan roads) to Limo,BMW,Ford.I can see 1960 model old cars to latest new cars.Even taxis here are BMW cars.
5. House doors :
To protect from cold climate they have heavy doors,but now i realised that everywhere there are 2 doors.The two heavy doors would help you protect from cold climate.Well the temperature has been reducing each day by 1 or .5 degrees.the least which I saw was 9 degrees celsius.
6.Pets:
Dogs are the soulmates of Natives.I have seen so many breeds ,cross breeds of dogs.Some are so big (till my chest) while someother are so small that they would be running fast to be in pace with their masters.)Dogs are not house guards.People have pets here to get out of their boredom or to recover from their split up with partner.They take out dogs everyday for an outing.So be it trams,metros..everywehre you can see a person taking a dog.The peer next to my cube even brings his dog to office everyday.Dog helps him to open the security doors and will be always there with him.Well dont worry.. they wont bite you.Even if you put your hand inside its mouth I dont think they will bite.Dogs are given a special training where they are taught to behave.Even if the food is in front of them,unless the master says to have it ,they wont even move out of their place.I havent heard a dog barking since I came here.Sometimes I wonder if they really know how to bark.Once my friend while getting out of tram hit a small dog(as it was so small to be visible in that busy tram),but it didnt even bark!! Speaking of other pets,after this long I have seen only one lady carrying a cat! Pigeons and doves will always be near you when you walk the streets.They are not afraid of anyone.You can feed them if u want.I have even seen squirrels eating food from hand.
7.Work
People work only from 8 to 4 or 5.After that they go out to do shopping Coz during weekends,even shops are closed(or mite open for hardly 5-6 hrs).That means no shopping malls work on weekends.My id card can open doors only till 6,which means my work ends by 6,which also means if I dont get out of office by 6 I am going to have a tough time inside the building waiting for some people having access to get me out.I didnt know this and on my first day,I had to struggle finding a security person to get me out of the office premises.
I've always loved to see fullmoon and walk in moonlight.The other day I saw one,but it was so big that initially I thought it was a street lamp post which was ON.But still it was beautiful..
These are the things which I could write in one day.Prob I will attach some photos this time. As I am the only one taking the photos,I mite not be visible in them :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/rakeshcherian/Helsinki#
