How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Being French

I have been up to quite a lot. Meeting Finnish University students, going to visit churches and museums and the English paddle boat from the Crimean war (once I get the camera connector I will edit all my previous posts and add the relevant pictures). Also swimming and more sauna, of course. I like young Finnish women because they dress like very stylish yet conservative Russians, but they don't come off as having any attitude like lots of Russian women do--they are very sweet and caring right off the bat. Obviously my impression of young Russian women comes from my encounters at UAA, though. It's possible they are different when in their own country.

Going swimming helped me realize something, though. I am actually glad I am not one hundred percent Finnish. When I was younger I would lament this fact, because it is more common to be of French ancestry and I liked my "exotic" Finnish ancestry. When people would ask what my background was, most of the time I would just say "Finnish". I also connected more with the Finnish in me because it was much more celebrated and visible compared to the French side of my family. But now I am yearning to go to France and make it more visible and celebrated for myself. Not that I am disliking my time in Finland whatsoever... sorry to say, it is much better run and seems to be a more just society than what I have back in America. And I do like a lot about this culture's peculiarities... how bumping into each other is not anything to feel apologetic or guilty about. How your front lawn is not only for green grass but for an individual statement of landscaping. How you eat berries on top of savory foods, not just sweet ones.

However, I have come to see that there are some things about the Finnish cultural personality that I am not very keen on. For you Alaskans, imagine a country full of all the REI-shopping, New Sagaya-lunch grabbing, Subaru-driving, Kaladi-drinking, Cross-country-skiing, Plastic-recycling blokes and gals in Anchorage. There is a lot of good that comes from living a lifestyle in that demographic. There is *gasp* also some bad. Especially with the slightly older Finnish crowd, the parents and grandparents, there is no such thing as enjoying life. Everything is done with a purpose in mind, there is no such thing as an end in and of itself in any activity. Like I mentioned before, the Finns are obsessed with counting calories and fat intake. They are also obsessed with logging exercise. For someone who used to have an eating disorder, this is highly frustrating. And being someone who basically 'self-therapized' herself out of having eating disorders, I think I know what is important when it comes to eating and staying fit. I am not at all saying the Finns all have eating disorders. I am saying they do not know what is important.

You can't just go on a walk because you'd like to, you go on a walk to get exercise. This is evidenced by the fact that almost everyone employs those Nordic walking poles so they "stay fit" on their walks. You can't just go swimming because it is fun, you go swimming to build muscle. You can't even just go orienteering to hone a skill and enjoy nature; it is all for the absolute purpose of staying fit. In my personal philosophy, one stays fit because it is easier to enjoy life that way. It seems to me that everyone here forgoes enjoying simple activities to focus on staying fit. What's the point? I'm not sure. There is also a culture of "live to work" here that I find similarly repulsive in America. Everyone is very focused on careers and everyone ignores their illnesses to go to work until they are too ill to physically be able to even transport themselves to work, when at last they finally call in sick. These things are quite sad to me. There's never any time or thinking power left to enjoy life after all of this working and running around and counting fat content and logging exercise. I used to only worry and concern myself with most of those things, too. It led to an obsession with perfection that gave me the lovely habits of starving myself and self-hurting. Obviously I was not in balance. But then I embraced my "French side", learned that life can sometimes be about eating food because it tastes good and going on walks because the world is beautiful to observe, and I got the heck over myself. If I could, I would mandate that the Finns start using real butter on their toast and all the adults must go to a water park where there are no lanes for swimming laps but there is a giant slide and fountain, and then go dancing afterward without the aid of alcohol. I mean, no wonder Finland has drinking problems. People just won't let their brains enjoy life so they turn them off and let their bodies do the enjoying (until the morning after)! Uh obviously I am making gigantic, humongous, whopping, enormous generalizations. But they are not unfounded. But I will let these observations rest in this blog post, and get back to enjoying my time here ;)