It is my fifth week in Finland and although it seems to me that I have lived here far longer, it is only now that I have had more opportunities to experience the culture. My student tutor invited me along with the other tutor and two exchange students to her apartment at the weekend for a DVD and snack night. This was enjoyable as it was a more relaxed atmosphere, where I could get to know about the Finnish people rather than them helping me with practical things all of the time! During the evening we were able to engage in conversation ranging from University life to personal life. It seemed that we were all intrigued about one another’s culture. An example of this is that although my tutor gains course credits for helping me, she expressed that she also wanted to learn about me and Belfast.
We also discussed sauna and my tutor explained it was normal for most homes to have a sauna and for people to use it Finnish style (unclothed). As a family, everyone can go together and that the only awkward part for her personally was during puberty, going into the sauna with her brother. She invited us all to go to a sauna, and I look forward to joining some Finnish people for this experience.
As part of my ‘Get Finternational’ course I attended the Luostarinmäki Handicrafts Museum, which is the only part of Turku to survive the fire in 1827. This was an interesting experience to learn a little about the history of Turku in its original form. It was an outdoor tour including looking inside some of the wooden houses. I was informed that in those days families baked bread twice a year as a batch could hang from the ceiling and be edible for six months. In addition to this I saw an old printer’s office, which apparently is still used today for making wedding invitations.
Finally my last experience involved the ‘Understanding Cultural Diversity’ workshop. I was amongst a group of mainly exchange students and three Finn’s. The tutor was very engaging, using ice-breaker activities to involve everyone from many different countries, speaking various languages. This workshop was interesting with numerous examples given to stimulate my thinking about my own identity, beliefs and values, and that of others around me. It has prompted me to keep an open-mind regarding other people and how their culture may differ from my own; with a reminder that although this is the case, everyone should be respected equally.
Picture: An original Turku house in Luostarinmäki Handicrafts Museum.
No comments:
Post a Comment