"I can be whoever I want!"

It’s only the second day of school and I have already made a number of good friends. I think I'll enjoy it here! Who said that it would be hard to become friends with the Finns?! My experience has been quite positive so far. Despite what I had read, people do talk in trams and the famous silence everyone wrote about seems to be something of the past!

A big group of us went out tonight. It was the famous “Night of Arts” in Helsinki. Held since 1989, this event is the highlight of the Helsinki Festival drawing tens of thousands of people to the night's various events. On this night, Museums offer free admission, galleries remain open until midnight, music is played in parks and churches, dance groups and orchestras perform on street corners and various events are held in bars and restaurants in the city center.

We met at the entrance of the central railway station and after an hour of walking around and checking out few street performances under the rain, we went to a pub. In the basement of the pub you could catch a performance by a group of young actors who improvised short comedy acts based on the words the audience provided them. My Finnish friends, Ville, Andrei and their girlfriends kindly acted as my personal translators. We stayed there for couple of hours and then Ville, suggested checking out a cocktail party at Ylioppilastalo. There, you could purchase drink tickets for 6 Euros and enjoy cocktail drinks mixed by renowned Finnish bartenders and see live performances by various Finnish bands. After catching an energetic performance by a group of young Finnish Reggae musicians, it was already passed 1:30 am. Mikki Väino, Ville’s brother, and two German friends, who also stayed at the same hostel as I, were not yet ready to call it a night. Mikki asked us if we wanted to join him for a drink of wine at the Helsinki harbour. To my surprise, he had a bottle of Spanish red wine and a big corkscrew in his pocket! We walked to the harbour, sat near the water and opened the bottle. We chatted for almost an hour and discussed many things from the fall of the strategic Island of Suomenlinna to Mikki’s school and his study plans. He talked about the Finnish education system and the country’s social values and how the young Finns have the opportunity to pursue any career they wish. “In Finland,” he said, “I can be whoever I want!”

What a powerful feeling.