Summertime Finland

“I’ve got this summertime, summertime Finland”, Adele might have thought to paraphrase her lyrics a bit. Finnish summer is cool and sometimes the weather doesn’t hesitate to show its sadness.

The long and dark winter is replaced by the beautiful late summer with its changing mood and the sun hiding behind the clouds. It teaches us to live in a moment and take advantage of every single sunny day. The sun may even rise in the evening. Finland has just finished to celebrate its midsummer festival called Juhannus.

It’s a time when nobody works, not even bus drivers and shop cashiers. People gather with families in their summer cottages near lakes and enjoy bonfires, sauna and the weather. But this time we had four seasons in one weekend. I’ve seen a funny video about the hot Finnish summer. =)

In this period of time summer schools are quite popular in Finland. It’s great time of studying, networking and social activities. For example, this is the LUT Summer school. Students study in the daytime and enjoy social activities in the evenings which are officially organized by the university.

Honestly, initially I was shocked by such level of informality within the academy walls because I’ve lived in a different environment. So in the beginning I didn’t feel comfortable to attend events which included sauna and swimming. But then I’ve seen that this openness has nothing to do with any kind of forwardness and abandon! It’s part of natural Finnish culture.

Saimaa lake in different time of a day (my friend Markus Auvinen took these pictures).

Finland is nicely called a country of a thousand lakes. The lakes are crystal clear… The landscape is peaceful and plain. Notably that in Finland there are about 180 000 lakes. Honesty, integrity and calmness that’s what I see when I look at the landscape. It says a lot about culture and social values. All emotions and feelings dissolve in nature. Maybe that’s why local people are generally quiet, peaceful and reserved. You don’t need to talk when you see this nature.