What I miss from Finland in France

My main address has been in Paris for almost 1,5 years by this time. Living in a city of over 2 million people is surely different from what I'm used to in Finland. Nevertheless, travelling and living abroad also before has made it easier for me to integrate into the life here. Yet, there are certain things I wish I could have here and things I am always looking forward to when I visit Finland. (I actually traveled there during the last school holiday at the end of April. One week in my own home land made so good!)

1) My social connections

Of course anyone who moves abroad is going to miss their families and friends back at home. I have made some friends and I'm not feeling lonely here (having 40 kids around me all day long, H to meet often and hardly much of free time to worry about this anyway), but most of my dearest people are still back in Finland. Luckily, it is easy to call in Skype or WhatsApp, even to Sunday services of my home church.

2) Forest and nature

Having nature basically everywhere in Finland is one of its best sides. Also my home town that is one of the biggest cities in the country, gives so many peaceful and refreshing nature places all around. My parents happen to live in a nice area almost next to a lake and forest, so spending several days there would make anyone forget their stress, I say. In France I can go to a park - that is more or less full of people - by a metro. That's not my idea of a relaxing nature. Another option is to go to a forest. I love that! But I would need to travel for over an hour by a train and that's why I hardly do it. (Though, I think I should do it more often. It's totally worth it.)

And talking about the nature, I also have to mention about the climate. There are a lot of times during the year when the weather is almost the same in France and in Finland, mostly just a few degrees warmer here. But even though I do enjoy sunshine and warm days, there are times that I wish I had the Finnish weather here. Firstly, having a REAL winter with more snow than just a dirty 2-centimeter layer on the roads and parks for a couple of days. Secondly, the summer is getting uncomfortably hot sooner and more often than in my home country. Travelling in trams and trains full of people or working in a small school are not pleasant at those times. Luckily, I am going to travel to Finland for the hottest time again.

Enjoying the sunset next to a big lake in my home town center area.

Having this almost at your back yard.
How could you not feel peaceful?

3) More peaceful public places

Having nature nearby is important for me but honestly speaking I wouldn't mind having a little bit less people also on the roads of the city itself. Especially during the rush hours it is not so comfortable to walk among a huge crowd, also because there are way more pickpockets here. (Luckily I have never been a victim of them but once my friend almost ended up losing her wallet in the metro station stairs and once I overheard an American tourist calling his bank to cancel his card that was just stolen a few minutes before.) Equally, I don't fancy squeezing myself to a tram that is chockablock when I am returning home after a long day at work. Even though I live(d) in one of the biggest "cities" in Finland and I used to think that there are quite some people there, its streets looked so empty during my visit now that I am used to a quite different level of throng.

4) Food

Surely, Paris offers a lot of options for eating and French cuisine is somewhat famous around the world. Yet, it cannot satisfy all my desires. Believe it or not, the first thing I have to mention is bread. The country known for its baguettes has left me wondering how Finland can offer so much more versatile scale of breads at markets. Even what it comes to baguettes themselves. In Finland I can find plain baguettes, multi-grain baguettes, cheese baguettes, garlic baguettes... Whereas the markets and bakeries in France offer so often mostly white baguette, white baguette and white baguette. My solutions to survive here are bringing bread from my Finland visits, bake it myself and buy the best bread that I have found here: Lidl's nut bread.

There are also other foods that I sometimes wish that I really had here. For example, ice-creams can be found only in one liter boxes or boxes of four or more cornets. Single ice-creams are hard to find. What do French people do on a warm day when they want to just get one cornet and not to carry a full box that will melt before they are able to destroy its inner? Well, I guess they go to a cafe or kiosk then. That's what French people are good at, after all. Sitting for hours in cafes and restaurants.

I still have some Finnish bread in the freezer here.

5) Communicating without language problems

I mostly communicate in English here: I speak English at work with the kids and my teacher colleagues and I use it also most of the time when meeting friends. But as you might expect, there are many people here who don't speak English still. Also at my work in the bilingual school I face these persons. I do speak more French than a year ago and many times I manage to say enough to be understood, but I am nowhere near to have long conversations completely in French. Google Translate is still a good friend of mine to ensure that I can express a longer thing. Even if I cannot use Finnish, I wish English would be enough sometimes. And when I am tired, there are some Finnish words slipping even into my English language accidentally...

And the problem with the language is not limited only in the conversations. Buying things at stores might be a challenge if you want to know more precisely what the products are made of or for what use they are. Also when I have to take care of some stuff and fill in documents and such, Google Translate is not always even enough. Sometimes I need extra help from people, like H or my landlady who is always helpful.

Last week was the deadline to fill in my tax information about last year.
Oh dear, it would have been a real head-ache without my landlady!

6) More understandable bureaucracy

Ahhh, what more do I need to say about this!? I don't get it how France has managed to do everything so complicated and difficult and how long everything can take. Getting an insurance card, moving, contacting the services, applying for something.... I have only experienced some on my own but I have heard so many more stories. And of course there is this extra difficulty for me that everything is in French. Again, I'm lucky to have helpful people around me to explain and translate stuff. It is so difficult to find clear explanation in English (or Finnish) about many things in France from the internet.

Changes in my life

So... There are some things that I wish I had here in France - also other than the ones listed above - but somehow I have managed to live here for these 1,5 years. And it looks like there will be at least half a year more to come. But my life won't continue as the same. There are going to be some bigger changes for the next semester since I am changing both my job and my residence. I don't know yet for sure where I will move to or where and what I will do for my work but the process is going on and the plans are becoming more and more clear. At the moment I am very trustful to find another good job among children and I hope to find a nice apartment a bit outside Paris, as well. I just have to prepare all the documents about me working and earning money at the moment, me already living in Paris, who would guarantee my rent etc etc. Wish me luck!