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By Matti McCambridge
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Monday, 26 May 2008 |
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 Most instances in life can be regulated. Shops open at 7 am; hospitals admit patients; Kela stamps your allowance. Then come the offbeat moments: that awkward pause, ten minutes late for the doctor; the wine you knocked over getting up to the loo; the shop assistant in a cold sweat. You can tell a lot about a place from its fringe reactions–like the Twilight Zone episode where the townsfolk are just a little peculiar. Recently, I’ve begun to fret. Now, I’m not about to suggest that Oulu citizens are UFOs; at least I hope not. But bigger towns than this have succumbed to paranormal disturbance! One or two incidents have me a little worried. Is Oulu alien?
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By Nina Lah
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
 Having a Finnish boyfriend means that you sometimes have to communicate with his parents - and not having a common language with them can lead to many awkward silent moments where nobody knows what to say. Imagine sitting at the dinner table with your boyfriend and his mum, trying to enjoy a meal. He's reading a newspaper, quiet as a mouse: you are stuck between pretending you're really hungry and have no time whatsoever, and trying to start a conversation.
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By Matti McCambridge
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Saturday, 05 April 2008 |
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We foreigners love to make up cornball complaints, like “there’s too much asparagus in this soup!” or, ”my aunty hasn’t been spoken to like that in years, call this a massage parlour?” If taxes aren’t the problem, it’s house prices or the sweat on frozen chicken. You’d think all the Oulu municipal authorities did was invent new punishments for expatriates gullible enough to buy a homestead in Etu-Löyty. Nonetheless, an item of local culture has offended me recently, and what better way to make more than one person feel sorry for me than to spread the bile around a bit. Comments (1) |
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By Amélie du Bois
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Thursday, 03 April 2008 |
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Between 2006 and 2008, I had a stroke of bad luck and ended up in Oulu University Hospital a number of times. No one would claim that hospital visits are free from stress. On the contrary, my stress levels rose faster and faster while the clock on the waiting room wall seemed to tick slower and slower. We waited and waited and waited for a doctor, a technician, a nurse . . . or just for a simple piece of paper with medical instructions. Comments (1) |
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By Edward Dutton
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Tuesday, 25 March 2008 |
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Many foreigners in Finland start looking for work by sending their CV and a covering letter to a possible employer and are amazed when that company simply doesn’t bother to write back at all. But according to many Finns interviewed for 65 Degrees North, simply sending a letter or an email is not the way that things are done in Finland.
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