Observations

On Finnish women: Finnish girls are really independent. To the point that I sometimes wonder why do we even bother dating men. They are a nuisance most of the time anyway. I read an article when I was in Finland where foreign men commented on their views on Finnish women. And they all said the same, Finnish women are really strong, independent sometimes to the point of being a bit selfish in the sense that we insist on doing everything ourselves as we do not trust others to do it properly. Essentially everything I could relate to myself, rather scary as I've been thinking that I am special having lived abroad and assuming that has rubbed off some way. And then when we went out on Wednesday I observed that all the girls there were really good-looking and all had to make the iniative whilst the men just sit around and wait for the girls to come to them.

On Finnish men: Like already mentioned, they have a very easy life. They have women who do everything (women have to be masters in professional, social and family life) and all they have to do is to look sombre and sullen. Because I made a really brilliant observation - at least it was so to me - that on Finland a man is a man when he is distant, man of few words and more prone to action. This explains why there persists this gigolo-prejudice to foreign men; men who compliment women and take iniative in talking to girls are actually doing the opposite of what Finnish sense of masculinity dictates.

On Finnish mentality: It's sometimes difficult for non-Nordic people to understand to understand the fundamental difference here. Compliments are a non-entity in Finland, they are treated almost as nonsense but at least pointless. If a man would say to a woman that she is beautiful she would just be embarrassed, not believe him and start questioning his motives. On a related note, if generalised on a more societal level, in Finland if you are rich then you hide it, you don't flaunt it. You can wear brands but nothing ostentatious because that would seem like bragging. A typical, wealthy citizen would never wear a shirt with "DIOR" reading in big bold letters nor would they drive a flashy car, Mercedes is about as far as you can go.

I think especially with women this leads to a nation filled with high-achievers, superwomen who never realise the extent of their superpowers because they are expected to do all this and are never complimented on any of it.

So excuse me for being americanized here but just as an FYI: I like compliments.

On to a more personal observation, I realised how much I love writing. I love writing creative pieces, reports, articles and even text messages (though the actual act of writing them I am not too keen on). But nevertheless, this helped me to solve my existential crisis I have been struggling with lately. Though I love politics, studying theory is not my thing nor is bureaucracy. So it seems like journalism is the logical next step. I'm hoping to get into a Masters/diploma course on it that would actually equip me with vocational skills rather than useless theory so that I could then pursue it as a career. Fingers crossed it works out, so far all the good courses that I've found have already had their application deadline but I'm hoping to talk my way in...