Fulbright Adventures in Finland

If you have ever spent time on a lake, there are moments on blue sky sunny days when nature comes into alignment.  The birch leaves with the sun shining through are sparkling emeralds.  The water, reflecting the sun, can be mistaken as a sea of shimmering sapphires.  This is a special time of day – and I had the privilege of experiencing such a moment on these last few weeks of our time in Finland.  Everything felt in alignment, but I know this comes on borrowed time.

This moment was courtesy of my Fulbright buddy Hanna – who invited us to spend the day with her and visit her friend’s family who has a summer cottage.   It was a beautiful day – the sun had finally come out after a week of rain.  Spring was in full bloom.

The summer cottage is situated on a lake where they are the only human inhabitants.  Slowly, lovingly, they are built a haven to unwind from the day to day life (with plenty of projects).  Beyond the vistas of the lake they also have an authentic Finnish smoke sauna where we went in and out several times (the kids loved it).  I was able to jump into the cool lake after the sauna several times.  This experience was uniquely Finnish, and it was a gift.

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Hanna remarked to me recently that they move in two seasonal rhythms – “winter time” – a more inward focused time where they tend to stay home more, cook, catch up on reading and “summer time” – as you can imagine is the opposite: the social calendar is filled, with visits with friends, enjoying the outdoors, swimming, gardening, hobbies, etc.  Naturally the contrast between these two times align with seasonal rhythms (which I can appreciate living in Minnesota).  Right now in this moment there is so much light that you can’t help but be energized by it.

This “summer time” during this year does seem extra special because there is hope – vaccinations are progressing in Finland (currently 40+ can book a vaccine), COVID-19 infections are receding (which almost seems at parity with Minnesota).  I’ve heard a lot of comments that things are getting “back to normal”.  In many ways, winter time has lasted for 15 continuous months and people are ready and eager to shake off the vestiges.

I’ve received several gifts from Finland during this Fulbright experience: networking in an outdoor fireplace during a blizzard, crossing the Arctic Circle to visit Santa Claus, visiting a castle from the 1400s.  These experiences help me reflect on what it means to live a life with some measure of balance (or harmony).  I’ve been at my career for fourteen years, and this feels very much like a midpoint (or some inflection point) – and for the long haul some degree of sustainability intersection of my career, personal life, family, and my own anxieties needs to be achieved.  The Finnish work ethic does help support the intersection.  Boundaries for working hours are respected, July is a month where people are on holiday (at the lake!).  Mental health is taken seriously. Access to nature (for everyone) is a right.  Like this video urges, it helps to see the forest for the trees.

These things (in addition to all the other uniquely Finnish things we’ve accumulated) return with me.  Now excuse me as I go soak up some more experiences before we return.

As our time in Finland draws down to an end I’ve been focused almost exclusively on wrapping things up here, which included getting my manuscript prepared for submission.  I know this goes without saying, but writing is HARD.  It has taken a lot of my mental energy and concentration to get this manuscript written.  I am extremely proud of it as well.

Update on the project, but feel free to skip down a few sections if you aren’t in the mood to geek out with me! 🙂

Here is a snapshot of two figures that summarize the work that I have done – they might seem simple, but they took a lot of hours of coding on the computing and patient persistence.

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A little more on these figures: my time here has really developed my skills in R and the tidyverse – learning how to iterate using the purrr functions, creating and customizing ggplots, and learning how to make nice tables with gt and sparkline plots (with ggplots).

Here is the good news: I * think * the hard part is done, so I can breathe a sigh of relief and open my creativity to other pursuits.

How is life right now?  Well there is SO MUCH LIGHT.  Sunrise: 4 AM, sunset: 10:30 PM (and increasing).  It really has made my internal clock out of sync.  Sleep masks have helped thankfully.  Just like I found it odd to have 3 hours of daylight when we arrived, it is equally odd to have the amount of darkness in the single digit hours.

This is, in my mind, the best time of year here.  We finally became convinced that the snow was gone for good by Mid May.  And just like that – it was spring.  We eagerly awaited leaf out on the trees (hence to updated banner image), and now it seems like the trees went full on.  (I guess because growing season is so short – time is a wasting!).

So as time winds down (2 weeks more of school for the kiddos, one week of soccer camp, off to Helsinki for a few days, and return on June 16^th), I’ll be soaking in this daylight, as well as sharing some final recollections.

There is still plenty of time to see and experience the bounty of Finland.

Finland has given me plenty of gifts and several lessons learned for both my personal and professional life.

Stay tuned.

Time has been on my mind lately.

I am starting the final third of my time here – so it feels very much like the 3^rd period of a hockey match.  Who’s winning?  Who knows?  More important: accepting the fact that this time in Finland will soon draw to an end.

It’s been quiet on the blog (thanks for the reminder Mom!).  One thing that I have been ruminating on is a recent report that ranked Finland as the happiest country in the world (again!).  This was actively commented on in Finnish social media and the news.  One common question is why?

I can see why Finland was ranked in the top spot again. The country by and large has a stable economy.  New families are supported with parental leave.  There is access to health care. Mass transit is accessible and affordable.  There is convenient access to nature (we visited Helsinki and Tampere, the two largest cities in Finland, and were minutes from large parks).  A lot of these points and others are comprehensively discussed by Anu Partanen in The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better of Life), which I talked introduced in a post about sisu.

I suspect the happiness measure would not be the same across different groups in Finland.  The same week this happiness report came out, two news articles in the Finnish media described harassment and discrimination by female Cabinet members and how non-white (non-blonde) Finns are routinely asked “are you from here?” (sound familiar?).  COVID 19 cases are increasing here again, leading to talk of a partial lockdown. There is work to be done, even in Finland.

Personal experience with the health care system confirms how Finnish society is structured to support the ranking on the happiness report. I had to renew a regular prescription – which meant calling for an appointment.  The doctor was able to approve the prescription over the phone, which cost 15 dollars for a 90 day supply.  I recognize that might have been an exception, but it is line with a similar process for my spouse.  She had to visit the doctor (25 euro office visit) before refilling her prescriptions.  We don’t have a “health care plan” – the country has universal health care.  What we had to do is call a central number that routed me to a care team based on our residence address.  When compared to the US, a visit to the doctor runs $250 + prescription – all part of a high deductible plan that can reach to $10K annually.  I am not even factoring in the monthly cost for a plan.

It did take some time to get connected to the correct place (a lot of calling around, etc) – and not speaking Finnish made the process harder. I recognize that I may not be taking in the full cost of the visit – it seems that health care is paid through taxes – so ask me again in a year. ( :-0 ) To be fair, based on the chapter on taxes in Partanen’s book, I don’t think taxes are as unreasonable as you would imagine (in other words, it is not the “dreaded socialism”!).

The experience with the health care system contrasts the difference between freedom from and freedom for.  I perceive Finnish society is set up to value freedom from worry – worry that you won’t be supported in your old age, worry that you won’t be able to pay your health care expenses, etc.  U.S. society is structured around freedom for choice – that you can choose the type of coverage in your health care plan, you can choose how much you want to save for retirement, etc.

Understandably this is a simplification with a continuum between the two. I do enjoy having choices (most of the time – it can be overwhelming).  It does make me wonder how we could change intended outcomes by applying some of the Finnish mindset (freedom from) towards some of the pressing societal issues the US faces. What do you think?

A week ago I posted the following question on Twitter:

A bit of context.  St. Urho is the so-called patron saint of Finland, who saved Finland from a scrouge of grasshoppers.  It is celebrated on March 16, the day before St. Patrick’s Day.

I grew up in Northern Minnesota, which has one of the largest enclaves of Finnish immigrants to the United States. Growing up I remember people wearing purple on St. Urho’s Day, as a point of Finnish pride. Finland, Minnesota has an annual celebration

To be honest – St. Patrick’s Day was just that … a day.  I would call it good if I was able to eat a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal on that day.

Reading the history of the St. Urho’s day, it doesn’t take long to see that, this holiday is decidedly a modern fictional creation.   Perhaps some of you reading this may laugh and scoff at those silly Rangers (people from the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota).

However since I am in Finland this spring, I decided to pose this question on a local Facebook community group in Kuopio:

Being in the time of COVID, this was the best that I could do in terms of local, on the ground research.

Here is why I am interested in this question.  I know that immigrants adapt elements of their home culture in unique and perhaps distorted ways.  Very rarely does the home culture re-appropriate those elements.  St. Urho’s Day would be a unique case where this occurs.

Posting to the facebook group exceeded my expectations. (This is a very positive facebook group in general.)  Someone even pointed to a documentary made by the Finnish TV service about Finland, Minnesota.

The general sentiment is St. Urho- as I know it – is not celebrated in Finland, but several people seem to be interested in the holiday.  (As someone said – if it gives you a reason to celebrate, why not?)

And perhaps a “Saint Urho” may not seem that farfetched and could have its own mythology:

• Urho Kekkonen is the longest serving President of Finland – and is well-regarded in Finland (and perhaps by Finnish immigrants).  They even celebrate him at St Urho’s Pub in Helsinki.
• I was told the local Kuopio soccer team was founded on this date (March 16) in 1923;  one of the best players in the squad is Urho Nissilä. 

Coincidence? Perhaps not.

I may have unintentionally started a new holiday in a country that I am visiting. If that is the case, I declare it probably should have a unique pastry associated with it.  I would certainly welcome an encore performance of the Runeburg torte or laskiaispulla (perhaps with blueberry?)

So whether or not you choose to celebrate St. Urho (or it’s more well-known cousin) St. Patrick, I wish you a happy spring. Lord knows we all need it after this past year.

Hard to believe that we are approaching halftime of our stay here.  One obvious change: the days are getting longer.  There is light in the morning when we wake up and later in the evening.  One interesting thing: it starts to get light for about an hour or so before sunrise – almost like a gradual transition to day.  The change is noticeable – and energizing.

Temperatures are warming up too – after several weeks of colder temperatures we reached above freezing for a stretch of days.  Sweet!  The one downside to this weather:  refreeze.

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Navigating this for me can be trauma inducing.  In college I slipped on ice walking back to my dorm and had to have knee surgery a week later, so yeah, it makes me nervous.  The Finnish Meterologic Institutue issues pedestrian warnings (so another thing to check for a weather junkie like me …).

I purchased grips for my shoes to help navigate, but until the temperatures warm up more, please excuse me while I penguin walk.

I believe that one way to know the heart of country is to travel its length and breadth. At the same time, you can know the soul of a country through its food.

We all have certain regional or national dishes that could be classified as distinctly ours, no doubt. These specialized dishes are one marker, but another way is a walk through a grocery store.

How do our grocery stores in the United States compare to Finland? At first glance, there doesn’t seem that much of a difference. You walk into fresh produce and vegetables, a self-service bakery, rows of coolers with quick meals.

What about the pasta isle? I offer for comparison two pictures of a typical pasta sauce aisle from the United States:

Wife sent me to the store for spaghetti sauce. Nothing prepared me for this… from funny

Or the salsa aisle:

We all have our favorites, and the of spaghetti sauce choices seem to cater to every differentiation of tomato / chunky / smooth / roasted tomatoes / vodka sauce or for salsa heat / no heat / chiles / etc.

Meanwhile in Finland let’s look at the spaghetti sauce and salsa offerings…

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(I should note these photos come from S Market, a reasonably sized grocery store you can find throughout Finland. Definitely not as large as a supermarket in the United States, but has the proportionate amount of items given its size. No, there are no Aldi’s here, but there is Lidl which is a tiny bit larger than an Aldi with a similar design / layout.)

Yeah, I am missing a good Prego Heart Smart sauce. The sauces here run a little too sweet for my liking. The salsa – well if I can tolerate the “Hot and Spicy”, that says something.

But hey, what is up with the mustard aisle (sinappi)?

This is crazy overwhelming! You can purchase mustard for each of your tastes. Based on some cursory research (thanks Wikipedia!) here would be one reason why this is so extensive here: LINK

It does seem weird to purchase a condiment that looks like a toothpaste tube, but this mustard isn’t the standard flavor we would find in the US. I don’t know if we will make it through ALL the different varieties of sinappi but nonetheless

Here is a more pointed question, what does all this sinappi mean?

Something to ponder ….

This is the third (of a continuing) installment on exploring Finnish pastries.  Today’s pastry is laskiaispulla – is only available on shrovetide (the days before the start of Lent).

The verdict: delicious.  Basically it is a (not too sweet) roll with the top cut off, and then stuffed on the inside with whipped cream and either raspberry filling or almond.  (There were other flavors, but these seem to be the most common).  The raspberry one was like eating a raspberry cake, and the almond smooth and nutty.

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In addition to eating greasy food leading up to Lent, shrovetide here has the tradition of sliding on the Sunday before Lent begins.  Yep, we headed out to Puijo Tower to go sliding, where LOTS of kids were sliding. Some pics of that are here.

As the proverb in the article says, if the “If the sun is shining on Shrovetide, it will be a good year. If it snows on Shrovetide, it will snow every day until Easter.”

It was definitely sunny on Sunday.  Looking forward to it being a good year.

We’ve been in Finland for about 6 weeks now – and by the outset we are all settled.  But, I still can’t shake this feeling of late: What if I fail at my project?

With words I sound dramatic – but in many ways, also good to acknowledge.

I have become dispirited of late because the data I am working with is sparser than what I am used too.  Many of the processes I am modeling are observable – to an extent. However the methods that I have been working with (going technical here: MCMC parameter estimation, coding in R) either are too computationally slow or not robust enough for me to produce meaningful results.  This is not an easy problem to solve (which is good, challenging, exciting, all at the same time).

But yet, being here, in Finland, is such an investment in me – by my family, by my colleagues at the University of Eastern Finland, by the Fulbright Finland Foundation, that failure is not an option. 

Once I pull on the thread of “I am going to fail”, it spirals downward.  I know these moods for me are like the polar vortex: when it settles in, it is here to stay. 

It is easy for me to provide a pep talk to myself, which in my internal monologue sounds something like one of the following: (a) “You will be fine, don’t worry.” (b) “Well you have all this time in Finland, you will figure it out.”  (c) “At least you aren’t teaching.”  Yes, those are all true, but ….

I am not the only one who feels this way (imposter syndrome for example). Science, (and probably more broadly) needs to normalize the discussion about failure.  Showcasing more stories of persistence and resilence (such as here) are an important first step.

Intersecting this conversation is also a critical discussion about justice, diversity, and equity.  As a white, cisgendered male I come from an extraordinary place of privilege; the impact (externalized or internalized) of failure is non-uniform across different identity groups.  I need a laser-focused equity lens to support and nurture my students – and to help them realize that failure is not a dead end.

Perhaps two lessons could be learned from Finland.  The first – the Finnish concept of sisu – is the quiet persistence through obstacles (internalized for me in this discussion I said to myself “Well if what you are doing isn’t working, find another way.”)  The idea of a growth mindset and the power of the “not yet” is a natural offshoot of sisu. I preach the growth mindset this to my students, and perhaps need to internalize my own lessons more.

However is there a broader societal role as well?  The second lesson is related to what the author Anu Partanen in The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better of Life calls the “Nordic theory of love”. (A longer explanation and analysis into the lessons learned from that book is needed – soon hopefully!).  But let’s start.  Allowing oneself to fail is related to the ability to take risks.  Innovation – which includes the freedom to take risks and fail – is permissible in Finland due to how society is structured.

For example, companies take a long-term view of their employees. There is a broad societal understanding and appreciation in an appropriate work-life balance (and health care is considered a human right).  In summation, this structure frees employees and companies to take risks, and perhaps normalizes failure.  As Partnanen states “A more humane pace, and flexible work practices, nuture it [innovation] as well” (p 293).  There is something to be said about how freedom from worry about health care, retirement, education allows more freedom for innovation.  But perhaps there is more to that story, which is for another time.