Thursday 10 June, 2004
Missing things
People often ask me if I miss Finland (or sometimes they ask if I miss home - but that's just semantically wrong as home is currently in Southsea). My answer is always: no - but I continue to say that I miss my friends and my family.
I mean - how can I miss a complete country? I'm proud to be a Finn - but I'm not patriotic enough to miss the abstract concept of Finland containing all things under the sun that are Finnish. I don't even miss places that much - my parents don't live in my childhood home anymore, and we never had a summer place to go to - in any case I've never grown attached to places for the places' sake. I don't especially like Finns either - although generally honest and well-meaning, they can be rude and inconsiderate.
People, individuals - they different. For me, it's people and sharing experiences with them that make a place or an event and memories. My friends and family are what I miss, they are the reason I keep coming back to Finland every holiday. I have been blessed with many friends who I have been able to maintain close relationships with, despite the fact that we rarely meet in person. Friends who are still always there for me if and when I need them, who tell me every time we meet how much they missed me, who care for me and want me the way I am.
You know who you are, and I love you.
Posted by kolibri at 10 June 10:27, 2004When I lived in Australia for a year I did miss Finland. More precisely, many of those funny small things that are something in Finland and something else in, say, Australia. What shops are like (layout, the double doors, what they sell). How people do things and how they behave (especially in public). How people talk to each other and react to things. Such things you might not ever note until you go somewhere where it's different.
I still miss Australia, too =)
# 2 - Kolibri (on June 14, 2004 12:26 PM):
That's a good point - I think I was missing Finland more acutely when I had been in UK for a year or two. I seem to recall that it all changed around year 3 or 4 and I started liking things (especially those small things you talk about) better where I was.
Maybe there's some kind of cultural adjustment period that you need to get past before you start to feel completely at home.
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