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My first experience with Finland has been almost two years ago now, when I visited my girlfriend for the first time. Before finally deciding to move and study here, I had been visiting Finland on and off for over a year. In this time I learned a lot about Finland and how everything works in this country, how difficult and different the language is, how different the people are compared to west European countries and of course, how great this country actually is.

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Of course, on the first day of visiting Finland, I had my first sauna experience. I knew what to expect, I just hadn't experienced it before. After closing the door behind me I was greeted with a pleasant feeling of heat, and upon throwing water onto the rocks the humidity became a bit too much for me and it became hard to breathe. I have since then found a solution to that - just breathe through your mouth and everything is fine! :)

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I already knew that Finnish people were often categorized as "shy" people, but I didn't know to what extent. I learned that chit-chat is frowned upon, speaking to strangers in public is often a no-go, as is smiling at strangers. This causes a feeling of distance, even when hanging out with friends. As a foreigner this feeling is even more present, as it felt and still sometimes feels like other people are not approachable whatsoever. All of this however gets so much better when alcohol is involved! Everyone suddenly becomes super sociable and starts talking about all sorts of things that would never be discussed when sober.

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Personally, communicating with people since I have been living in Finland has been quite a roller coaster. I am not a very social person myself so in that regard, I feel like I fit in pretty well here. But on the flip side, my Finnish language skills are no where near as good to understand conversations. I pick up some words here and there but that's about it. It has been a hard time making friends in this country, and the only people who I would somewhat call my friends are the friends of my girlfriend. I have had tons of laughs with them, but of course this was only when alcohol was involved. Communicating with them is no where near as easy when I am sober, and probably vice versa too.

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Living in Oulu has been absolutely great. Even though it is a big city, it is so nice and quiet, especially during winter time. That is what I appreciate the most about living here, I never feel like I am in a rush to do anything and I never feel pressured by big crowds on the street. That is completely different in the Netherlands, where the population is over 3 times as large compared to Finland, but the country fits 8 times in Finland. It is so dense and horrible that I never want to move back there. And even when the city life here is too busy, we can retreat to Alavieska, where the parents of my girlfriend live. It is a very small town and the feeling of peace and quiet is even more prominent there, as is the feeling of being free in nature.

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Of course there have been some funny moments, moments of surprise or shock or moments where communication is just very hard. Stereotypes are stereotypes, but some people actually believe in them. Ever since I have moved to Finland, I have already had a handful of people asking me if I brought any weed or have any weed, considering I am from the Netherlands. I usually just laugh and brush it off, but in one case someone replied "I'm serious". For a second I had no idea what to do or say, I wanted to make a joke about it but considering the person was being serious, I just said that I don't have any weed, and that even though weed is legal in the Netherlands, there are many, many people who don't smoke it or have never even tried it. The person replied in awe and was completely baffled by what I just told him. He was convinced that all the stereotypes are true and that every Dutch person is a complete pothead. The whole situation was quite humorous in hindsight, but at the time it felt very awkward to be a Dutch person.

The second critical incident is something I experienced on an app called Jodel. Jodel is a geosocial app that allows you to share messages or photos anonymously to people in a certain radius around you, I'd say around 10 kilometers. It is quite a popular app in Oulu as people post a message pretty much every few minutes or so. I thought it'd be a great opportunity to socialize anonymously or ask some questions about the city. I posted something in English, wondering why there are no so called Easy Order terminals in McDonald's restaurants in Finland that you can use to make your order on a touch screen, considering people in Finland tend to avoid social situations. They are all over the place in other countries, so I though this was a bit ironic and funny. The post was soon filled with anonymous comments such as "learn to speak Finnish before you post", "close the borders", et cetera. This came as quite a surprise to me. I didn't know people would be racist if they had the chance to do so anonymously and it definitely was not a fun experience. Afterwards, I learned from some Finnish people that have used the app that many people on there are extremely rude, racist, hate women and basically value only one and the same opinion, and will bash your opinion if it differs. I uninstalled the app and probably will not use it again, but it is still a scary idea that people like that walk around in Oulu.

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I am studying Information Technology at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences. So far I have completed my first year and I must say, it is so nice and so different from what I am used to. It feels like I can do tasks at my own pace and everything is much more personal, less strict and more oriented on actually having fun. In the Netherlands, addressing a teacher by their first name is NEVER a good idea. Exams there happen on one and the same day and if you miss it, you have to wait an entire term to do a resit. In almost every course there the exam determines 100% of your grade, so if you mess up the exam because you felt sick or had a horrible blackout, you will fail the course. In Finland, exams are very flexible and so are the opportunities for resits. Course grades also usually consist of multiple parts, such as attendance and online tasks. This means that I could pass a course here just by attending the classes and doing the online tasks, and scoring maybe a few points on an exam if I felt really sick. That is a much better system than in the Netherlands. Not to mention the cheap food, and the fact that studying is free. It has been a blast and I hope the second year will be as well!

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The nature in this country is absolutely stunning. In all four distinct seasons, there is always something beautiful out there. From the autumn colors to permanent snow cover in winter, to bright blue skies and blinding sun rays reflecting from the slow-melting snow in spring and incredibly long, green, mosquito-filled days in summer. I get why Finns have such a good bond with nature, it is too pretty not to love it. It also must be a great feeling that no matter how bad you might feel about the daily hustle, there is always a place in nature to retreat to and just wind down and relax. And if you really need some time for yourself, you can always retreat all the way up north to Lapland.

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This column will be stuffed with photos I have taken and descriptions of what I have been doing. There are dozens of other fun things I have done in Finland, but I will share my highlights below.

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This was a great experience and it was incredibly beautiful. Snow and ice sculptures, drinking hot chocolate with liquor at a table made of ice and beautiful icy hotel rooms you can actually stay in for multiple nights if you wish. After checking out the snow castle we went for a walk on the frozen sea for about a hundred meters. It was funny to see even cars driving around on the frozen sea.

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I went skiing with my girlfriend at the start of May at Ruka Ski resort. Yes that's right, the start of May and you can still ski there just fine. More southern countries are enjoying the warm temperatures while we were sliding down the mountain in the freezing cold. It was my first skiing experience ever and it was great fun. Prices are really expensive there but it is more than worth it if you just go for a weekend. Luckily I didn't hurt myself, so my experience was completely positive! The view at the top was truly amazing and you can basically look at Russia in the distance. Good thing you don't need a visa for the stunning view.

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I am not entirely sure about the correct definition of a laavu, but as far as I know it is a shelter cabin usually found in forests. They are built by other people and they are pretty much available for use to the public - as long as you don't litter the place and don't vandalize. It usually comes with a fireplace and sufficient wood for you to light your own fire. We stayed at a laavu an entire afternoon in the middle of a snow-covered forest and grilled sausages on the fireplace, drank warm coffee and nice juice. It was a great afternoon to just sit and relax there and enjoy the heat from the flames.

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Even in the winter time when there is over a meter of snow covering the forests, it is great fun to go for hikes. It is so nice and quiet and it is definitely good exercise to struggle through the snow. As long as you dress appropriately, it is a lot of fun! It has become one of my favorite things to do here. The photo below was taken before we went into the woods, and I also used it as the background for this padlet as I really like the photo.

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This wasn't really an adventure, this is just a photo that I wanted to share because it is absolutely stunning. It was taken in February, and it shows fog covering the frozen river of Kalajoki.

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When the Gulf of Bothnia turns into 40 centimeter thick ice, what better activity could you think of than ice skating on the sea? We rented skates in Kalajoki for a very cheap price (I think it was 16 euros for the whole day) and spent hours ice skating towards complete nothingness. They cleared a very nice path on the sea so you could skate there and it was a very healthy and peaceful experience. But once again, dress appropriately! It was about -20 on this day.

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Even though the winter and the start of spring may feel like there will never be an end to the snow, before you know it Finland turns into a lush green country full of birds, insects, and all sorts of other wildlife, and you'll be looking at something like this.

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I have been seeing reindeer everywhere - walking on the road, trying to cross the road, alongside the road, or just walking past you when taking hikes in a forest. I have never seen them just walk around a hotel yard, however.

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I have gone rafting in Oulanka, unfortunately I do not have any photos as I didn't want my phone to get soaked. I have this nice shot however, taken in the Oulanka National Park.

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All of the hotels and everything are still open in Ruka in summer because there is -a lot- to do there in terms of hiking and all sorts of other activities. I decided to check out what the skiing slopes look like in summer and.. it looks like an abandoned amusement park. There was nobody to be seen, just reindeer and nature. Quite an amusing sight, knowing that it is so stuffed with people in winter time! It was hard to take a good photo because of the position of the sun, but if you look closely you can see the half-pipe slope and you can see reindeer all over the place.

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I have made up my mind ages ago - I want to stay in Finland, preferably for the rest of my life. This means that I will have to find a job here after my study, which hopefully will not be too hard in the field of Information Technology. It also means that I will have to put more effort into learning the language other than the courses that are offered in my study, even though it seems like an impossible task. It is my goal in the end to adopt the Finnish nationality and become a Finnish citizen. There are some strict requirements to that, the "hardest" one being the fact that I have to have strong Finnish language skills. Fortunately I have years to practice, so I am not all too worried about that. I am convinced I can live a happy life here, and all it took was a year of living here to convince me. So thank you Finland, you are great. One last photo below of a stunning sunset in Oulu.

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This is arguably the best time of the year. Just picking berries all day and accidentally eating just a few of them. You can use them for all sorts of purposes, you can make your own amazing juice or eat them with some nice porridge. Remember to stash some in the freezer for the darker days, so you will be reminded that summer will come back at some point!