Hello Everyone! Today I stayed home sick and just to entertain myself I decided to tell you guys some differences I've noticed between Finland and Colorado. This time I'm only gonna write in English since it's a language everyone reading my blog understands and I'm too lazy to do more work and write in two languages which is btw frustrating sometimes because it makes me switch my brain between my Finnish and my English mode). Anyway, let's get into it.
DRIVING So, in Finland we can get our licence when we turn 18. Here in CO, most kids start driving at 15 and get their actual licence when they turn 16. It's pretty cool when pretty much all your friends can drive and it's easy to go out for lunch and just simply drive to places. In the other hand, I have never seen as many car crashes in my life, than I've seen during these past 9 months. Not necessarily caused by the high schoolers though.
DRINKING Almost everywhere in Europe, you can legally drink alcohol when you turn 18, some places even earlier. Here you have to be 21. I know it's just three years of a difference but it's actually a long time. Also, in Finland you can't basically have had any alcohol to drive, but here it's not weird that you go to a restaurant and your parents get some wine or beer and are still totally allowed to drive home.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION It has been kinda interesting to be here during the election year. The candidates are everywhere. There are signs on people's yards, stickers on cars, flyers and posters everywhere, videos and podcasts everywhere etc. You can't have a day without seeing/hearing something about the election. In Finland I usually get to know who the candidates are on the week of the Election day.
WEATHER Before I moved here, I was told that Colorado has all four seasons. My reaction pretty much "Oh, so do we in Finland." Well. In Finland, you experience the different seasons when the year goes on and all of them last two to 3 months or so. Well let me tell you about the Colorado weather. We get all four seasons during a week of sometimes even a day. We get rain, snow, sun, wind. cold and warm all together! Fun fact: I've been skiing when it's +20C outside.
SCHOOL I feel like in America school is everything. Sports, clubs and pretty much all activities are somehow related to school. I love the school spirit so much and even it sounds really cheesy, the whole school is like a one big family. Sometimes I could take a little break because it means that the school rules apply to everything and sometimes I just feel like it's all about attendance, points and school representation. Most of time I still like it though.
MOUNTAINS All I have to say for this is .that I need mountains to Finland. Yes, we do ski and hike and do all kinds of cool stuff in Finland, but the hills that someone might compare to mountains are nothing like the Rocky Mountains. And yes, that's one of the biggest things I'll miss (besides all tha people of course) when I go back to Finland.
Obviously, that's not even close to everything I've noticed during these past 9 months and I would love to tell you more so please leave a comment and let me know what you'd like to know. For example school is a thing that I could easily write a whole list about! Thank you so much for reading all the way here and have a great week!
