French or Finn?

Do you want to know how does it feel to live in France (FR) and Finland (FI). Take a look at my article below and you will find how much different they actually are.

Situation 1: Greeting people

• FR:  French people are known to be warm, so greeting people has been part of their custom to  shows their courtesy.  If you meet your friend, you will hug and kiss him/her on the cheek. So suppose if you enter a room and your friends are already there, you will have to do those things (hug and kiss) to each and everyone there one by one. When you meet some strangers on the street, you will great him/her by Bonjour (Good Day), Bonne Soirée (Good Evening), or Au Revoir (Good Bye) even though you don't even know them.
• FI:  Finn people are known to be quiet. So first of all, you don't expect to be hug or evenmore be kissed. You just simply give a friendly handshake to your friends when you meet them. In case you meet with strangers on the street, just be quiet. They will not greet you, and you are not suppose to greet them as well. Here silence is golden. So by being quiet (not making any noise) means that you appreciate people around you because you are not bothering them.

Situation 2: Understanding class schedule

• FR:  When it is written that the class started at 8 AM, it literally means 8 o'clock. So you should come to class by 8 or even better before 8 if you don't want to miss the lecture. Same thing goes with the end time of the class. If the schedule said it ends at 10 AM, then it will end at exactly that time.
• FI:  when it is written that the class started at 8 AM, it means that the class will start at 8:15 unless you are told otherwise by the Lecturer. So you don't have to be worry when you got up late, since the Lecturer will not come until 15 minutes later. But the more awesome thing is that even though it starts 15 minutes late, surprisingly it ends 15 minutes earlier. So if the schedule is 8-10 AM, it means that the class will be over at 9:45.

Situation 3: Taking Bus

•  FR:  The bus price is cheap, only 1.3 euros per trip and if you travel during 1 hour and change the bus during that time, you don't need to pay additional fee. In France, you can wait the bus at the bus station, just stand there or sit if benchs are available. The bus will stop at every station, so if you are familiar with the station where you suppose to get off, you will not miss it. Just look at the panel that display the next station, and get off when you reach there.

• FI: The bus ticket is expensive, it is 3.3 or 3.6 euros per trip depending on the bus number. So if your apartment is quite far from the university (just like mine T_T), you will spend at least 7 euros every single day just to go to university and come back home. In Finland, if you want to take bus, you should wave your hand when the bus is approaching the station, failed to do so, the driver will not stop at your bus station and you will miss the bus. Here, the bus will not stop at every station unless there is someone waving at the bus station or there is passenger who push the stop button. So if you want to get off the bus, you must push the stop button just before the bus approaching your destination. Otherwise, the driver will never stop, and you have to get off on the next station which is pretty far.

Situation 4: Eating

• FR: French people can not be separated from cheese and wine. It has been an integral part of their daily diet. So don't be surprised if you find exceptionally lots of cheese variants in the supermarket, and it's actually common to see French eats cheese just like a snack. Another visible nature of French cuisine is the sauce. They love to put sauces into the food, but don't mistakenly think as if it is a chilly sauce or anything spicy like that because trust me they don't really eat any spice. So they use sauce to enrich the flavor of the food but they don't go extreme, so the taste is much more plain, a bit salty, and sometimes cheesy. Lastly they usually have some baguette (bread) to accompany their meal.
• FI: The flavours of Finnish food is characterized by its the exotic northern nature. Being close to the nature (70% of Finland areas are forest, they have lots of lakes and particularly the 2nd biggest lake in the whole Europe, which is why the country is called Land of Thousand Lakes) has somewhat a lot of influence into their gastronomy. It is kinda mix of variety of pure products, such as fish, vegetables, grain, mushrooms, and fruits. They care of the nature and they preserve this spirit when they prepare the meal. One thing I notice is that the food here is expensive, I think it's because of the harsh climate that makes fresh fruit and vegetables were unavailable during most time of the year.

Situation 5: Being a Guest

• FR:  In France, if you are close to someone or some family, they will invite you over a dinner in their house. A dinner invitation is valued as an honor that bonds a relationship between people. So if someday you are invited by a French people over a dinner in their house, don't forget to bring some souvenirs or gift (like wine or flower for example) to show your gratitude to them.
• FI: In Finland, sauna is not seen merely as an bathing activity but it is somewhow a social activity that fused and unseparated from their live. A typical Finn will go for sauna at least one or two times a week regularly. So if a Finn is wilingly to spend their sauna time together with you, it means that they really regard you as close friend to them because normally only a couple or a family take a sauna together.