Report n°2 : from 9/10 to 16/10

by Stella, Emilien, Roxana

The hidden face of the land of Santa Claus

During these last two weeks we’ve been in Oulu, we have been able to discover a whole new culture and we have met wonderful people. This country, its sceneries, its traditions, and particularly its inhabitants are very different from ours. Indeed, if we had to speak about a huge difference between Finnish people and French people, it would be at the social behaviour level.

We have noticed that Finns are very shy and reserved. From what they have told us, most of them are scared to go talk to other people : since our arrival, only a few people have come to us by their own will. This shyness is a characteristic of the Finns, who consider themselves like not very sociable. This behaviour is creating isolation in high school : all day long we can see quite a big amount of people alone, most of the time concentrated on their phones. Talking about this, telephones seem to be a big problem in a general way in the country, children already have one at 6 years old. 

However, we’ve never once experienced wickedness or rejection when we were talking to them. They are always kind and respectful.

In the High School, we have also seen non-mixity between students, boys stay with boys, girls stay with girls. This problem does not seem to be taken care of by the school: Physical Education class are not mixed for example. 

Finns are always caring and generous. And when talking about integration in our host families, it has been easy : they have all brought warmth in our hearts in this nordic country.

These two first weeks have consequently been for us the opportunity to adapt into the Finnish way of life and this by going to highschool, by living with our host families and by going out the most we could.