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Quote: <BR> <BR> <BR>"I have lived in Finland for almost three years now. I still do not know my neighbours any better, but I do understand a lot more about the people and life here. Previously, the only things that I knew about Finland were Nokia, Santa Claus and the fact that it was a long long way from Hong Kong, where we had been living. <BR>................ <BR>The people are so quiet and softly spoken that mum is forever telling us to speak softly. Even the dogs are quiet here. There is a saying that the people here are “silent in two languages”. That is because most people speak both Finnish and Swedish – and even English actually. <BR> <BR>Nonetheless they tend not to use any language if they can help it. I wonder if that’s why Nokia came up with its slogan of “connecting people”. Another thing I like, and which our family follows, is the concept of the “summer cottage”. A house for the summer – a place to get close to nature. <BR>............ <BR>............ <BR>We have become quite Finnish in some ways – now we know that Sundays are truly rest days – not days to go shopping, because most of the stores are closed anyway. Our front door step resembles a shoe-shop and we use the sauna quite often (at a comfortable temperature of 50 to 60 degrees). We eat a lot of traditional Finnish food like Karelian pasties and ruis bread, and tell everyone how good the tap water is here. But I still do not like salmiakki, a sort of licorice – and cannot bear the idea of salmiakki ice cream! Overall I am happy with life in Finland – not surprising, since Finland was rated the best country to live in, by Readers Digest in the October 2007 issue. <BR>............... " <BR> <BR> <BR>Source: <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5047:living-in-finland&catid=911:expat-view&Itemid=224" target=_top>http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/index.php?optio n=com_content&view=article&id=5047:living-in-finla nd&catid=911:expat-view&Itemid=224</a>
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Some Finns, like our family, is in "trap of two summer cottages". <BR> <BR>A real pain in the neck...
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