But that is not what I wanted to talk about really. Living outside of Finland for the second time within a year has given me some more perspective to my dear native country. Let's start with a potentially shocking realization: I do not miss Finland at all. Seriously, there is nothing that I miss about Finland as a country. I do miss some people in there, like family and friends, but when it comes to the country I am surprisingly indifferent. I do not miss overpriced food and living expenses, I don't miss the gray winter and for sure I don't miss anything from Finnish tv, especially not BB.
Tv brings me to my next point - the language. Earlier today I met one other Finn at the university. He is in the same class than me, but we rarely talk. While chit-chatting during an elevator ride today I realized that it was the first time I spoke Finnish out loud in several weeks. I do read Finnish "news" almost daily, but speaking the language is not that frequent for me and I could say that I don't really miss speaking it that much either - living through English (and a bit of Hungarian) comes very naturally nowadays.
Salmiakki and ruisleipä have not come to mind either. Last week when I went to the movies I kinda wanted to buy some Finnish candy (they don't sell that kind of stuff here), but with that exception I haven't missed the food either.
I am really hard pressed to come up with one thing that I do miss from Finland. Maybe the fact that houses and apartments can hold the heat well and that you don't have to operate a gas stove.
I guess it is true that the longer you are away from Finland the less you want to go back. Even though of all this, Finland is not a bad country. It could be so much worse - it could be Sweden :D
