Text: Sofia Ziessler

Last summer I moved to a student dorm in Otaniemi for a couple of months before getting a permanent address. For most of the time I had no idea who the 10 other people were with whom I shared the kitchen.

Then it happened. One week before I was about to move out again I found two of my flat mates chatting in the kitchen in front of a full plate of dumplings, cooked by the Chinese girl. I think all of us were pleased to finally know each other and I quickly found out two things: firstly, the Pakistani boy was for the first time in his life abroad and, secondly, he felt sad for never seeing anyone in the dorm or actually anywhere. Finland is so silent, he said. For a while the boy, nowadays already my ex-flat mate, bombarded me with hang-around requests though realizing soon that I'm simply too busy to meet.

This is an utterly typical situation illustrating how cultural clashes become alive when Finns and foreign students meet and become friends. Even though it might seem quite a rough generalization, I dare to claim that in general we Finns tend to be focused on our own business and once we miraculously happen not to be busy, we enjoy rare, peaceful moments with our closest ones or even alone.

Quite the opposite seems to be the case in a place such as Indonesia. Last year I was working in a village development project in rural Java, and the other local students working in the same project were just fine about sharing one small room with 5 other people for a month. They happily hung around together for a month whereas I got withdrawal effects of being forced to calm down and settle for a life in which a minimal chore like walking 500 meters to a kiosk sometimes was a day's core activity. I also was forced to be social and talkative all the time. Nevertheless, I somehow got used to the lifestyle and managed to see it as an upraising opportunity to socialize with people instead of hurrying pointlessly around and efficiently doing not-so-important stuff. After all, aren't we here to love and care for each other rather than to ignore and push away?

But what to do here in Finland if you find it hard to contact with native Finns who want to keep hurrying up? For example: try to integrate your activities with the ones of the Finns. Let’s take one Uruguayan friend of mine as a paragon. This friend of mine started immediately after arriving in Finland hobbies where he could meet people – not just for the sake of meeting Finns, I guess, but for doing the things he's interested in.

Having lunch and doing sports are examples of my daily activities and sharing these natural parts of living would bring tons of joy to my life. While jogging in November rain or having a cheap meal I could effortlessly get to know someone for example from Pakistan or China. And once I go to these countries I try to do what Pakistani and Chinese tend to do and learn something from that.