Winter temperatures are really low (and the minimum are even lower than those of several Central European capitals) and frosts are frequent. But it doesn't snow often, except for the past five or four years (so people make the typical jokes on the "global warming" and all that). And in summer, heat is suffocating (July-August). More than 30º C (86º F). I mean it is one of the places in Europe where the contrast winter-summer is most marked.

Are there any open questions for the british?

I once heard that loads of young girls (aged 12-16) get pregnant in britain because they don't know or don't care about anti conception. And that it's a rather common thing there. The parents then just raise their children's children as well.

Is that true in any way?

I should probably mention that the person I know this from has had a Welsh girlfriend for over two years. Maybe it's a Welsh thing, I'm not sure.

The first part yes, our teen pregnancy rates are sky high. Our youngest father was a 13 year old at the time. The other part...not really true in my experience, the parents tend to raise the kids as scummy chavs on council estates, with a lot of HELP from their parents but living on their own.

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Listening to: Nobuo Uematsu - ["Final Fantasy IX" Original Soundtrack, Disk 2 #05] Hunter's Chance [foobar2000 v1.0.3]

If you have any questions about Finland I'm happy to answer them.

I would say that a lot of our kids don't know much about contraception. I can say that MY sex ed at school was pretty much non existent. Technically we had it but it was rubbish.

Is Finland a winland?

Haha! A good question. It's good to live in finland but I'd rather call it "moderatelyokland"

It's difficult for me to understand how you can not know such a thing.
It's so common overhere. I probably already knew what a condom was when I was like... 8 years old or so? So that's... 1992. And sex education only took of a couple of years later here. I guess people are pretty open about that, I dunno.
I remember getting a little sex ed and condoms at school when I was twelve.
Can't remember they really tought me anything new. Well I guess that's a good thing :)

If I attend just one soccer match during my time in Europe for the experience, where should it be? This ought to be fun...

do you know any more awesome Finnish electro pop like Husky Rescue?

Go to a derby match.

If you want footballing skills it has to be Real Madrid vs Barcelona.

If you want sheer hatred to go Celtic vs Rangers.

Combination of both ... Man Utd vs Liverpool

This is all total truth. Nobody outplays, outhates, or out-rivals any other football teams on earth.

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Listening to: Jethro Tull - [This Was #09] A song for Jeffrey [foobar2000 v1.0.3]

And you'll probably have to sell your kidney to buy a ticket.

Do this. I'll stab you.

Alright, well just how much are these tickets going to cost me? And will they be playing this Spring? I'm completely clueless on this subject, by the way...

Do this. I'll stab you with skill.

Some Champions League's match could be interesting too. Without Italian teams, to avoid the predictable boredom. ;)

Avoid Soccer.

I just want a taste of the culture...

I left it behind in 2001.

I never had the idea soccer was adding anything particularly good or useful to our culture. I really really really despise it. Not what you'd call unbiased, eh?

Both my eldest son and nephew play soccer. No interest here though.

be sure go get a bacon roll while you're at the match then ;)

^ Do you mean "in case you're in Hungary" or just "in case you're hungry"?

Okay i have a few questions.
I’m doing a project on the conflict in Ex-Yugoslavia and international politics so I’m curious and i’ve noticed that there are members here from that area. They might be too personal – so feel free to ignore them if it is too tactless.

Is the conflict still an important part of life in your area?
Are the ethnic groups still divided or can you live side by side?
Are the animosities created during the war (for example the relationship between Serbs and Muslims from Bosnia) still there? Or have you forgiven each other?
Is nationalism still an important part in politics is Balkan countries?

Is this thing still on? Sweden, anyways. Ask me about anything except sports.

Can you describe the nature of the Swedes, their character?

Sweden is very familiar to me so I ask you how you like living in there. Also what do you think about us Finns? I think Sweden is a little better than Finland in almost every way.

I don't really have that much to compare with so I guess I kinda like living here. In the end it all depends on what you do yourself rather than where you happen to live.

From what I've seen of Finland it seems to be quite the same as here. What exactly do you find better with Sweden?

You're asking someone from inside the box, very hard to tell but I'll give it a try.

The stereotype of quiet and withdrawn people is probably true applied to the northern swedes but in the more urban half of the country people tend to be more open. On the surface, that is, because a lot of people are very opininated. In the smaller towns and communities people are often very close-minded, conservative and not keen on changes. In the bigger (relatively) towns like Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and maybe even Västerås, Örebro, Linköping, Lund and so on, people at least try to act out a more continental aura of openness but the truth is that the general swede is a very collective person who stick to certain ideas and conform to one common stream or another. And the infamous "Jantelagen" is still prevalent - you're not supposed to be anything special. These days however, when some try to point out that individualism is (and has been for a while) on the rise, I just don't see it. What I see is yet another collective stream trying to outsmart the surrounding streams by lauding the uniqueness of the individual, albeit in the process instead forming a social conformity in which you're still not supposed to deviate from the norm within.



Did that make sense? :confused:

The music scene is in many ways better than Finlands. Also I hate the general drunken retardness Finland seems to be almost proud sometimes. Other than that Swedes and Finns seem to be really similiar.

I guess it does.
Strange thing though, as I get the idea that the people from norway and finland tend to like sweden better than their own countries.

I have a question for you, Folkslave.

What's up with the salty licorice? BLEUUUUGHH.

Sweden's musical legacy is definitely something worth mentioning, I agree upon that. The drunkenness however is not absent here either. In Sweden people get drunk every weekend and alcoholism is not uncommon. Maybe it's even worse in Finland, I don't know.

I think that drunkenness is inherent in every first world country.

We have that here, too. I don't think it's all that groce. But then I'm not really in to licquorice. Don't really like the sweet version either :)

The norwegians probably do since they can live near the border and drive over here when it's shopping time. :D

s_k: I've always been fascinated of the ingeniousness of extending the land, with all the ocean barriers and cities built on poles. I recall from long ago some documentary or whatever that Amsterdam had problems with buildings tilting and slowly descending into the ground. How is all this working out these days?

(Well, maybe you don't even live in Amsterdam so that should probably be my first question, but in any case I figure you might have some insight)

Oh my god! Salty licorice (Salmiakki in finnish) is propably the greatest thing since sliced bread. Love eating it :D

I think the drinking is pretty same everywhere but it sometimes sickens me that people here find our drinking culture to be something that is worth bragging about. It's actually quite a problem here. Personally I don't drink at all anymore and I don't care if people drink but it's a shame that people here seem to think taht finnish people are the biggest drinkers in the world and are proud of it and try to keep that illusion up.