With only slightly more then two weeks left in Finland; its time to reflect on my time here and what I have learned this document will deal with Finland and what I have learned about Finland. The first thing I find the people in Finland are never in a rush to get things done everything is done at a slow pace something like the pace of small towns in Nova Scotia Canada where I grew up and not like Calgary at all. I have taken advantage of this and have explored Espoo and Helsinki on foot. I have spent a lot of time lost and trying to find my way back to Leppavaarä. These are some of my adventures.

The first few weeks here I spent a lot of time exploring Helsinki. The first few days were spent admiring the buildings of Helsinki from the 1800 century. The narrow streets and style of the buildings make it a lot different then in Calgary AB. I was also impressed by the styles of the Churches in downtown Helsinki. The Church which was Build into the hill (Temppeliaukion kirkko) was very impressive on the inside. All the other churches I Just seen from the outside including the Two Steeple Church (Johanneksenkirkko)and The Lutheran Cathedral. There are other beautiful Churchs in downtown Helsinki but are unsure of there names the one along the harbor was also very nice looking and very old.

The Harbor of Helsinki is particularly interesting with the large amount of boat traffic along the Harbor you can see little fishing boats ice breakers, sail boats, cruise ships and ferries. Living in Calgary Alberta where the ocean is thousands of KM away it felt nice to be near the ocean again with the smells and the sounds that come with it.

The other important thing about Helsinki is the way it is designed it has no tall buildings and it has the feel of a small town not a big city; everybody moves at their own speed. The people of Helsinki are very friendly and helpful which is very useful when you are lost.

What did I do I Helsinki The first week I was in Helsinki I walked in to this out door museum which had pictures from all over the world, I spent a few Hours looking at all the works of art, Trying to find a picture from Canada I finally did find a picture of the Canadian artic.

I went to quite a few bars in Helsinki with members of my classes and other friends I meant along the way. I found the bar life similar to what you find in Canada except they don’t have ’bar maids’ going around trying to sell you drinks. If you want something to drink in Helsinki you go to the bar and ask for it. It took a little time to get use to that.

Although I haven’t bought very much In Finland Helsinki has a very good shopping district.  The store Stockman’s has every conceivable type of men’s clothing I have ever seen in one place. The store says it has everything you could possibility need if they don’t sell it you don’t need it. Even the prices on the stuff I look at were reasonable.

The last way I explored Helsinki was the Walk from Leppavaarä  to  Helsinki . Most people think I was crazy it took over 3 hours. It was close to when I first arrived.  I learned a lot from the hike. Examples like what type of trees grow here, the type of ground Helsinki built on., the of  types of building people live in Helsinki. Helsinki has very good walking biking and hiking trails and you don’t have to share you space with cars.

The other place I explored was around where I live in Leppavaarä. I was interested in the park in back of the apartments it looks like it was at one time, some type of army base with trenches and other military looking things I was wondering when it was used. It to to me looks like it was build near the second world war but there is no signs or anything to explain what or went it was built so it remains a  little mystery to me.

The other thing I did when I was in Helsinki was visit two museums 

National museum

When we arrived inside we headed to the lower floor started by looking at pottery a whole room dictated to one company hundreds of different items from late 19^th and 20^th century.

We headed to the next section which contained hundreds of coins from the past , including a fur which was used for cash hundred of years ago, I must have spent an hour looking at the different type of coins I could have spent the whole day just looking at old coins and metals.

The next room I entered contained weapons from the past including lots of swards knight clothing, guns ect. There was a knight uniform used for burials. I spent a short time in this area trying to catch up with everybody else. That I was with another room which I could have spent all day exploring the different swards, knives and guns

 As we keep going we seen pictures, clothing and furniture which showed what life from 17^th to the 20^th past looked like (At least for the rich there was little of what the poor lived like). It even had an old house which actually has the smell of the time period. We couldn’t go in at the time. I tried to get the smell by putting my head in the door. It smelt like homes which I been in N.B. Canada which heated their houses with wood.

After two or three hours of exploring the museum we found a place to sit down and we watched a movie about the events of the 20^th century; which showed actual video from that time period.

After spending over half a day there we decided to go, with seeing only about half the exhibits. To see the museum completely you could spend days looking at everything.

Design Museum

Korkeavuorenkatu 23
FI-00130 Helsinki

We wanted to see looked at the history of innovations in Finland we spent about a half a day there. It was in early October. The highlights were

• Tracing the developments of Nokia from a pulp and paper company to one of the largest cell phone companies.
• The exhibit on how the equipment for crushing rock developed over the last 100 years.
• The development of the ski pole.
• The story I that was told on the audio equipment where you were supped to help you creatively think.
• The bicycle exhibit was interesting.