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Shadow
Jun 25, 2002

Free Market Mambo posted:

I'm an American who moved to Finland, it is good. I revel in the cold and darkness. I have learned to feel nothing.

How cold is your typical winter?

How many days do you live in complete darkness or complete sunlight?

Tell us something that as Americans we'd find most interesting.

AND HURRY.

:page3:

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DeepQantas
Jan 13, 2008

Ah, to be a Hero... Keeping such company...
And just to be clear, they may be actually true facts too. For the same reasons.


^
Usually bottoms out at -20C. The fullbright/dark only applies to lapland. Think it's like a month or two at the northmost point.

DeepQantas fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Sep 25, 2015

hard counter
Jan 2, 2015





Gumdrop Larry posted:

Finland seems pretty cool but apparently the people there like to kill themselves a lot.

Here's a passage from a piecce of finnish classic literature known for its humor

"The Lord made the world to test the strength of people's faith."
"The strength of faith? He tries and tests men but that testing sends souls swarming thick as mosquitoes to that everlasting hell, to a place where even I wouldn't send a snake, the vengeful man that I am."
"Life on this earth is a hard game, there's small hope for mankind when only two were chosen from six hundred thousand to see the promised land."
"Right, what is life? The doorway to hell I say."
"In my darker moods I even see life as hell itself, where I'm a soul in torment and our 'neighbours' are pitchfork-wielding devils. All of mankind behaves just as hell's evil spirits do anyway."

Erethizon_dorsatum
Nov 14, 2009

Erethizon_dorsatum posted:

I saw a really good Finnish horror movie called Sauna

80% of what I know about Finland I learned from watching that movie

seriously though, it's good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jcKVsrgslM

Shadow
Jun 25, 2002

hard counter posted:

Here's a passage from a piecce of finnish classic literature known for its humor

"The Lord made the world to test the strength of people's faith."
"The strength of faith? He tries and tests men but that testing sends souls swarming thick as mosquitoes to that everlasting hell, to a place where even I wouldn't send a snake, the vengeful man that I am."
"Life on this earth is a hard game, there's small hope for mankind when only two were chosen from six hundred thousand to see the promised land."
"Right, what is life? The doorway to hell I say."
"In my darker moods I even see life as hell itself, where I'm a soul in torment and our 'neighbours' are pitchfork-wielding devils. All of mankind behaves just as hell's evil spirits do anyway."

lol

you have to wonder why some places on this earth were even inhabited.. they were miserable! what was Finland's pre-Vatican religion? Shared with the Norse Vikings, or something else entirely?

H.H
Oct 24, 2006

August is the Cruelest Month
Whenever I hear Helsinki, this comes to mind: http://www.somethingawful.com/fashion-swat/hel-looks-swat/1/

etalian
Mar 20, 2006

Shadow posted:

lol

you have to wonder why some places on this earth were even inhabited.. they were miserable! what was Finland's pre-Vatican religion? Shared with the Norse Vikings, or something else entirely?

not really they had their own religion and myths.

It's another thing that inspired Lord of the Rings.

Junkfist
Oct 7, 2004

FRIEND?

H.H posted:

Whenever I hear Helsinki, this comes to mind: http://www.somethingawful.com/fashion-swat/hel-looks-swat/1/

It's like a proto Tumblr thread on GBS.

True comedy pioneers.

Fushigi Yuugi fansub
Jan 20, 2007

BUTT STUFF

Shadow posted:

lol

you have to wonder why some places on this earth were even inhabited.. they were miserable! what was Finland's pre-Vatican religion? Shared with the Norse Vikings, or something else entirely?

shamanism

Idiootti
Apr 11, 2012
i love my dead gay country. move to finland if you like following hobbies: suicide, depression, alcoholism, darkness.

DeepQantas
Jan 13, 2008

Ah, to be a Hero... Keeping such company...

Shadow posted:

lol

you have to wonder why some places on this earth were even inhabited.. they were miserable! what was Finland's pre-Vatican religion? Shared with the Norse Vikings, or something else entirely?
http://unrealworld.fi/

Random pagan hunting/fishing/whatever deities

TacticalUrbanHomo
Aug 17, 2011

by Lowtax
why didn't the evil dictator want to invade finland?

he did, he was just stallin'

poopzilla
Nov 23, 2004

Shadow posted:

lol

you have to wonder why some places on this earth were even inhabited.. they were miserable! what was Finland's pre-Vatican religion? Shared with the Norse Vikings, or something else entirely?

they were literally white walkers until the church rolled in with jesus and cleared all that poo poo out

TwoFire
Sep 11, 2001

by Ralp
Lilyhammer itt

poopzilla
Nov 23, 2004

Idiootti posted:

i love my dead gay country. move to finland if you like following hobbies: suicide, depression, alcoholism, darkness.

this is unironically what im all about

Free Market Mambo
Jul 26, 2010

by Lowtax
I'm on the realatively balmy west coast, average winter temps are around -10 celsius, and we get about 4 hours of daylight at the solstice. Once you get further north and inland things get much more fun.

I like it a lot here actually; I picked up the language fast, run a small business, and have had a very positive immigration experience. I actually drink significantly less than I did in the US, because the beer is both pretty bad and expensive.

A big thing that stuck out to me as an American was that the class I was in during my vocational training was the first I had ever been in where I definitively knew what everyone looked like naked. I've had some weird culture shock moments, but nothing too bad. I've accepted that "Now is the time when we drink coffee, we do not talk," is totally ok. I have a Mr. Sparkle situation with one of the local bread mascots, it's great.

Free Market Mambo fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Sep 25, 2015

The Brown Menace
Dec 24, 2010

Now comes in all colors.


hard counter posted:

Here's a passage from a piecce of finnish classic literature known for its humor

"The Lord made the world to test the strength of people's faith."
"The strength of faith? He tries and tests men but that testing sends souls swarming thick as mosquitoes to that everlasting hell, to a place where even I wouldn't send a snake, the vengeful man that I am."
"Life on this earth is a hard game, there's small hope for mankind when only two were chosen from six hundred thousand to see the promised land."
"Right, what is life? The doorway to hell I say."
"In my darker moods I even see life as hell itself, where I'm a soul in torment and our 'neighbours' are pitchfork-wielding devils. All of mankind behaves just as hell's evil spirits do anyway."

here's another classic finnish joke:

The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.

Shadow
Jun 25, 2002

Free Market Mambo posted:

I'm on the realatively balmy west coast, average winter temps are around -10 celsius, and we get about 4 hours of daylight at the solstice. Once you get further north and inland things get much more fun.

I like it a lot here actually; I picked up the language fast, run a small business, and have had a very positive immigration experience. I actually drink significantly less than I did in the US, because the beer is both pretty bad and expensive.

A big thing that stuck out to me as an American was that the class I was in during my vocational training was the first I had ever been in where I definitively knew what everyone looked like naked. I've had some weird culture shock moments, but nothing too bad. I've accepted that "Now is the time when we drink coffee, we do not talk," is totally ok. I have a Mr. Sparkle situation with one of the local bread mascots, it's great.



What is this about knowing what everyone looks like naked? And no talking during coffee?

I can imagine that in a place as cold as Finland, a warm beverage was when you finally felt human again and it was a special, almost religious experience, so talking and taking away from this was discouraged.

Fushigi Yuugi fansub
Jan 20, 2007

BUTT STUFF
mongols are the only nation to invade russia. finland is the only nation to repel russians. coincidence?

Free Market Mambo
Jul 26, 2010

by Lowtax
The sauna is a big communal thing, so it was common for us all to sauna together, and the not talking thing isn't specifically anything to do with coffee, more that silence is something Finns are more comfortable with than many other cultures, there's not a ton of pressure to engage in small talk.

I've had a few moments where I wonder if someone hates me or is autistic, then I realize, "nope, just Finnish."

Pakistani Brad Pitt
Nov 28, 2004

Not as taciturn, but still terribly powerful...



Isn't Finland the country where all of the freegan dumpster divers come from and insist there isn't anything dirty about it, unlike awful American dumpsters?

Shadow
Jun 25, 2002

DeepQantas posted:

http://unrealworld.fi/

Random pagan hunting/fishing/whatever deities

funny how the older religions were so similar with these gods, men-turned-gods, and heroes.

Free Market Mambo posted:

The sauna is a big communal thing, so it was common for us all to sauna together, and the not talking thing isn't specifically anything to do with coffee, more that silence is something Finns are more comfortable with than many other cultures, there's not a ton of pressure to engage in small talk.

I've had a few moments where I wonder if someone hates me or is autistic, then I realize, "nope, just Finnish."

Got it. I still attribute it to the weather. The snow's falling, everyone's miserable and cold. Not much to talk about. The sauna thing is cool. I wish that was a bigger thing in the US instead of by and large attracting rich, old, white men sitting around naked.

Free Market Mambo
Jul 26, 2010

by Lowtax

MrChupon posted:

Isn't Finland the country where all of the freegan dumpster divers come from and insist there isn't anything dirty about it, unlike awful American dumpsters?

Strangely, all the dumpster diving, greenpeacey types I encounter here are Swedish and German, but ymmv.

hard counter
Jan 2, 2015





Shadow posted:

I can imagine that in a place as cold as Finland, a warm beverage was when you finally felt human again and it was a special, almost religious experience, so talking and taking away from this was discouraged.

that's why finns love saunas

in the book I quoted earlier some finns got the poo poo beat out of them, literally by some probable ruskies and then metaphorically by polite civilized life. They go to a sauna but they warm it up too hot just to feel something again and it burns down. They watch naked in the darkness as the smallest shred of happiness there was in their world crumbles to ash

lol

The Brown Menace
Dec 24, 2010

Now comes in all colors.


do finnish people get offended irl if you imply they aren't white but rather mongolian

Free Market Mambo
Jul 26, 2010

by Lowtax

Shadow posted:

The sauna thing is cool. I wish that was a bigger thing in the US instead of by and large attracting rich, old, white men sitting around naked.

My first winter here I reffed a post-sauna nude fight between a Finn and a Swede in Lapland. Such is life.

Fushigi Yuugi fansub
Jan 20, 2007

BUTT STUFF

The Brown Menace posted:

do finnish people get offended irl if you imply they aren't white but rather mongolian

that's a slanderous myth made up by gay swedish fags

Cake Smashing Boob
Nov 5, 2008

I support black genocide

kikkelivelho posted:



The greatest mystery of our time.

Well that settles it then. They're inbred.

Explains a lot.

e: literally! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_heritage_disease

etalian
Mar 20, 2006

Nauta posted:

that's a slanderous myth made up by gay swedish fags

The Brown Menace
Dec 24, 2010

Now comes in all colors.


Nauta posted:

that's a slanderous myth made up by gay swedish fags

poopzilla
Nov 23, 2004

Free Market Mambo posted:

My first winter here I reffed a post-sauna nude fight between a Finn and a Swede in Lapland. Such is life.

who won?

etalian
Mar 20, 2006

Was it better than the Borat wrestling scene?

hard counter
Jan 2, 2015





Cake Smashing Boob posted:

Well that settles it then. They're inbred.

Explains a lot.

e: literally! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_heritage_disease

quote:

In Finland about one in five persons carries a gene defect associated with at least one Finnish heritage disease

2/10 just date swedes instead

Fushigi Yuugi fansub
Jan 20, 2007

BUTT STUFF

this is what swedes actually believe

Free Market Mambo
Jul 26, 2010

by Lowtax
The Finn won.

Date a Finn-Swede and get even more bottlenecky, them folks is all kin.

TacticalUrbanHomo
Aug 17, 2011

by Lowtax

Cake Smashing Boob posted:

Well that settles it then. They're inbred.

Explains a lot.

e: literally! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_heritage_disease

quote:

It is attributed to a population bottleneck among ancestors of modern Finns, estimated to have occurred about 4000 years ago, presumably when populations practicing agriculture and animal husbandry arrived in Finland.

okay I guess technically they are in fact literally inbred but when you say it like that it makes it sound like modern finns are loving their sisters and uncles

Free Market Mambo
Jul 26, 2010

by Lowtax

Nauta posted:

this is what swedes actually believe

Watching Swedes clutch their pearls when they come here is really funny.

Fushigi Yuugi fansub
Jan 20, 2007

BUTT STUFF
also if you speak finnish in a swedish crowd you get really dirty looks

poopzilla
Nov 23, 2004


drat right

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Dick Fagballzson
Sep 29, 2005
Can I take one of their spots in Scandanvian socialist paradise?

I know Finland is like the Scandanavia equivalent of Alabama, but I'm sure it's still way better than living in the US.

Dick Fagballzson fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Sep 25, 2015

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