{"id":41,"date":"2020-12-22T15:56:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T15:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/?p=41"},"modified":"2020-12-22T16:00:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T16:00:12","slug":"why-finland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/2020\/12\/22\/why-finland\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Finland?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cSo, Finland \u2026 huh \u2026 Since you are from Minnesota, don\u2019t you\nwant to go someplace a little <em>warmer?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So goes a conversation I have with people about why I would\nwant to go to Finland.&nbsp; I get it; winters\nare endless in Minnesota.&nbsp; It seems odd\nto be going to a place that is as cold, as dark for as long as where I\ncurrently live.&nbsp; To be honest, that\nreally wasn\u2019t a factor in the thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>First and foremost, I picked Finland because of the\nresearch.&nbsp; I\u2019ll be working with a\ncolleague at the University of Eastern Finland doing modeling of soil\ncarbon.&nbsp; That is technically in my\nwheelhouse \u2013 I have done similar sorts of work in the past.&nbsp; Augsburg is a teaching focused institution; having\nthe opportunity to focus on a research project for an extended period of time is\nrevitalizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, I wanted to go to a place where my family could be\nsupported.&nbsp; Traveling by myself is a\nnon-starter, and I wanted someplace where my kids could attend school.&nbsp; My spouse is an elementary school teacher \u2013\nso we needed to make this work financially.&nbsp;\nThe Finnish school system is constantly ranked highest in the world for\nquality of education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Finland&#039;s schools outperform most others across the developed world | 7.30\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7xCe2m0kiSg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Third, and perhaps most importantly, aspects of Finland have been part of my life.\u00a0 I grew up on the Iron Range in Minnesota, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mprnews.org\/story\/2017\/01\/14\/history-documentary-finns-in-minnesota\">one of the largest enclaves of Finns who migrated to the USA<\/a>.\u00a0 Finnish sounding last names permeated the telephone book of my youth. I knew what a sauna was, the notion of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Finnish-Way-Finding-Wellness-Happiness\/dp\/0143132997\/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0\/140-9698745-0507031?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=0143132997&amp;pd_rd_r=7c88fbde-d074-4c68-bd54-3a69e70ff27a&amp;pd_rd_w=Zkp2v&amp;pd_rd_wg=EtpAn&amp;pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&amp;pf_rd_r=RT4J3Y8G8Y12JRK0PXT9&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=RT4J3Y8G8Y12JRK0PXT9\">sisu<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sainturho.com\/\">St. Urho\u2019s Day<\/a>, and perhaps other distinctly Finnish traditions and customs that I didn\u2019t know were Finnish.\u00a0 So I am curious to see what is similar, different, or modified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are all ruminations before I depart, but I can&#8217;t believe it is getting closer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSo, Finland \u2026 huh \u2026 Since you are from Minnesota, don\u2019t you want to go someplace a little warmer?\u201d So goes a conversation I have with people about why I would want to go to Finland.&nbsp; I get it; winters are endless in Minnesota.&nbsp; It seems odd to be going to a place that is<\/p>\n<footer class=\"entry-footer index-entry\">\n<div class=\"post-social pull-left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fengage.augsburg.edu%2Fzobitz%2F2020%2F12%2F22%2Fwhy-finland%2F\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"social-icons\"><i class=\"fa fa-facebook\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=https%3A%2F%2Fengage.augsburg.edu%2Fzobitz%2F2020%2F12%2F22%2Fwhy-finland%2F\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"social-icons\"><i class=\"fa fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fengage.augsburg.edu%2Fzobitz%2F2020%2F12%2F22%2Fwhy-finland%2F&#038;title=Why+Finland%3F\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"social-icons\"><i class=\"fa fa-linkedin\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/2020\/12\/22\/why-finland\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">\u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/footer>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[3,9,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/zobitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}