I was asked to write about the cultural differences between Finland the country I live in right now and Russia the country I was born and had been living most of my lifetime. I said: yeah, sure, guys, it is not a problem, not at all. I have decided that as I really know solely my own generation, I have the right to speak only about it and won't go further than that.
Then when I sat down in front of the computer screen, I started engrossing in thoughts, what those differences actually are (I bet many have experienced this feeling of a shady-looking blank Windows, staring at you with an obvious condemnation). In the beginning of my incredibly diligent attempts to justify myself in front of my lap top, I had only one thing in mind (to finish the article as soon as possible, just kidding). That both Russians and Finnish youth we are young, beautiful, we laugh the same, love the same, rejoice the same, mourn also the same. We try to study, to learn something new each day (well at least once a week), we fight with the difficulties that appear on the way of young and talented guys like us, you fellows know what I am talking about, yeah-yeah, like searching for our identities, trying to understand what is going on around us, how to build our lives in this pretty but sometimes a bit confusing world, how to survive through another hangover after another wild party...
Ok, it's obviously the right time for a confession. When I was coming here, I was scared. People who know me will be a little bit surprised to read those lines, but here I am. Yes, my friends, I was afraid to be lonely, to have difficulties to find friends, buddies, to sit most of the time at home exactly for the reason of loneliness. But hey, cut off grinning, I had the reason to fear it. Look, I am 21 years old, most of the people I study with are about my age or older. Human beings at this age usually have already made all possible and impossible friends, formed their own companies and enjoy them at the full, do not really need to "make new friends". I also knew about prejudices that Finnish people have against Russians… won't go into details here, if you don't mind. And it didn't bring any relief to my worries. But guys I agree with you, all of this nervousness was absolutely unwarrantable.
I must admit that I did meet one really aggressive Finn here, who truly offended me with his hatred towards Russia and disrespectful behavior towards me personally, but all other people I met so far were and are great! And I am talking about those who I have just accidentally bumped in, randomly met and haven't heard from ever since, as well as people who became my real friends, ystavat. These guys are nice, kind, giving, caring… I can go on and on speaking about their personal qualities which always keep gladdening me. And if you want to know my personal opinion about this only one hating guy, this hatred is not about his nationality or his acquired somewhere somehow prejudices, this detestation is just him, the way he is. I had some difficult times to digest this guy and his constant insults, but I came to the conclusion that it is no use, because it won't bring me anywhere. When I lived in the States my host mother once told me: "Katja, how often do you find pieces of gold on your way home and how often pieces of faeces?" That question of hers made me really ponder over it back then and it came to my mind during those digesting times. And I realized that much more often I step into faeces on the streets, you know, gold on the roads is not that common nowadays. But here in Finland for some reason this general rule was broken: so far fortunately for me and surprisingly for a "general rule" I treaded on this mentioned above faeces only once, at the time of leisure hours, free of stepping in … I have been finding only gold a long my way. But I looked a little bit aside. Yeah differences between Russian and Finnish youth… well I remembered we have different citizenships, passports, different childhoods (we Russians had to grow up in the times of the Soviet Union and Finnish had to grow up in the country which was next to the Soviet Union), different languages, etc. I think that is about it.
And the last thing I realized, while being here, was - when you speak about a certain country and particular nationality, you should always keep in mind that within one nation you can always find good people and bad people and you should never judge a nation relying upon an impression made by one or two losers (like my ill experience), you can build your impression about them particularly, but never generalize. You can miss many beautiful people...