Miguel F, in Finland since 2002

Interview with Miguel F, Solutions Architect at AWS

1.⁠ ⁠What brought you to Finland, and what were your first impressions?

It was during the heydays of Nokia, Finland was at the forefront of telecommunications and mobile phones technology. I was studying in Portugal and applying for the Erasmus exchange program to work on my final thesis - my requirement was to go somewhere completely different and that I knew nothing about. Most of my uni colleagues would default to Spain - but I thought that was a boring option. I remember thinking that I don’t even know how Finnish language sounds and how cool it will be when I listen to their speech for the first time.

My first impressions of Finnish people were that they were quiet and kind - in contrast to the noisy groups of international students that took over public buses to the city centre on weekends. With respect to nature, I was amazed with the closeness of the forest and the beautiful around the lake trails (Suolijärvi in Hervanta remains my favorite).

2.⁠ ⁠What’s the biggest challenge you faced when adjusting to life in Finland, and how did you overcome it?

The first challenge was creating a social network - that was greatly facilitated by being in the student life, and the extent to which Finns and other international students were actively helping us integrate via programs like ‘student mentors’ or ‘buddies’. Another challenge I can remember was to run my life independently, shopping, washing, cooking, etc. I was on my own - shopping wasn’t easy at first not being able to read labels in either Swedish or Finnish. The last one was learning how to dress properly according to the weather. In Portugal I never gave much thought to the clothes (or amount of them) I wore in day to day - in Finland, that provided me with some testy moments, like barbecues by the lake in early Autumn where around 17h the temperature was still comfortable, but by 19h I would be freezing and not able to maintain a proper conversation.

The second challenge came later as I adjusted to long-term living in Finland. By now, my groups of friends had changed, many had moved away and only a handful long-term relationships remained. I had relied too much on befriending people who were in the short-term exchange or research programs, living in Finland for only a few months. As I prepared to put a close to my 3 years living in Finland, and move back to Portugal I met Mari who became my long-time partner, and made sure I would be back after a couple of years of ‘commercial break’.

3.⁠ ⁠What’s your favorite thing about living in Finland that you didn’t expect?

There were a lot of favourite things that I did expect, like nature, saunas, a progressive and equal society, technological development, little and effective bureaucracy - and which didn’t disappoint. But maybe things like coming to enjoy cross-country skiing so much, enjoying culinary delicacies like lohikeitto, ruisleipä, mämmi, karjalanpaisti, those were things that I wouldn’t have thought about before moving here.

4.⁠ ⁠If you could give one piece of advice to someone considering moving to Finland, what would it be?

I’d say think hard about your plans for staying in Finland. Are you sure it’s going to be a short-term thing only? In that case, sure you can get by with English, and you can get a lot out without ever learning Finnish, both in personal and professional life. However, if you like me end up staying longer, I’d really suggest seriously putting some time aside to learn the language - this will put you in such a better position in terms of enjoying life here: 1) More and better work opportunities, 2) Talking to older relatives of your loved one (if you happen to fall in love here) 3) Deeper friendships and understanding surroundings 4) casual talk in daily interactions (it does happen here as well, and is usually good-natured), …. Also, book your holidays and short breaks well in advance! Many people enjoy their breaks at the same time here (especially if you have kids) and popular places and activities sell out really fast for those common dates.

5.⁠ ⁠What is your favourite Finnish product?

My favourite Finnish product is their society. They’ve managed to create a society built on trust. People are active and have a great sense of ownership for the common good - apartment building associations, sports clubs, hobbies, student and work life, everyone plays an active role in nurturing the common good and don’t take it for granted. Also libraries - the public library system in Finland is a must, I’m just rediscovering it and getting delighted by it again.

6. Last but not least - Why do you think Finland is the happiest country in the world? Finns definitely do not believe that.