Ok, so I am in Helsinki, Finland right now, but it is definitely not hell… although I have kind of felt like hell since being here :( The quote in the title is actually what my funny teacher said over the bus intercom when we arrived. We all started cracking up laughing, but it could have been the free wine and beer on the ferry that made it funny.
But let’s back up to where I left off… in Tallinn, Estonia! Last time I blogged was Monday night, so Tuesday morning we visited the National Institute for Health Development. Their main mission is to promote the health of Estonians and continue the permanent rise of the quality of life through knowledge-based development and research activities.
Basically they talked about a lot of the statistics and surveys they conduct, and about half of the presentation was targeted toward HIV/AIDS because there was a huge increase in the number of people with HIV in Estonia during 2000-2001. They mostly attribute this to IV drug users, and now 57% of the organization’s budget goes toward HIV prevention. I thought the content of the presentation was very interesting, but the way it was delivered was dry and boring… this is been a common theme for our academic presentations on the trip. Also, and I realize this isn’t their fault, it is hard to listen to an Estonian accent and actually pay attention for almost 2 hours.
Then we grabbed a quick lunch at a mall cafeteria type thing. Funny side note: the bread was free, but you had to pay for tap water! I wonder if I can get a free glass of water anywhere in Europe (where it is safe to drink at least!) However, the food was about 1/2 the price I would pay in Copenhagen, so I can’t really complain.
After lunch was our second academic visit of the day to Pirita Family Doctor Center. It is basically a private practice of 5 doctors, 5 nurses, and 2 physical therapists. Two young, female doctors told us about general practice in Estonia and showed us around their facilities. Fun Fact: Apparently about 70% of doctors in Estonia are women. Just like in Denmark, Estonia has a gatekeeping system, so all patients have to see their family doctor who then can refer them to a specialist if it is necessary. Of course there are exceptions, like the gynecologist, dermatologist, psychiatrist, etc. The weirdest thing we saw at this visit was a salt room, a room full of salt and you are supposed to sit in there and breathe in the salt. They even have kids toys in the salt so they can get the supposed benefits, which include helping skin conditions, allergies, colds, asthma, etc. It is a big thing in Eastern Europe, but when our teacher asked if there was any scientific evidence for its benefits, the doctor said “no, they really don’t do scientific experiments in Russia.” Alright. I don’t buy it.
We had a little bit of free time before we departed for Finland, so we decided to check out this café that supposedly has the best hot chocolate in Europe. This place had the weirdest décor I have ever seen in my life… it kind of reminded me of Bollywood. We all decided this café would never exist in Copenhagen because it was way too much for the Danes haha.
The hot chocolate was not the best I have ever had to be honest, but it was good! Chelsea and I thought the purple velvet chair looked like something that would be in an evil princesses room, so that' is a picture of us being snobs :)
Next, we picked up our luggage at the hotel and walked to the ferry terminal. When we heard ferry, we were all picturing a tiny boat, and we were not excited. But then we saw this!
It was pretty big, and it had to be considering we were cutting through ice the entire way to Helsinki (about a 2 hour ferry ride). We had a buffet dinner on the ferry, but I started getting motion sickness as soon as we started moving.
You could definitely feel the ice breaking beneath us! Not fun. The food wasn’t that great either because it was a buffet. I just ate as much salad/veggies as possible because I had severely been lacking them the last three days! Let’s just say I was very happy to be back on dry land when the cruise was over.
By the time we made it to our hotel room, it was after 9pm, and I was super tired and still not feeling great. Therefore, I went to bed asap.
On Wednesday, I woke up around 6am with my left ear throbbing because it wouldn’t pop, and I had really bad sinus pressure. It hurt so bad that I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I just laid there until it was time to get up for the day. I found some Tylenol cold medicine in my make-up bag from home, but I am pretty sure it was for nighttime because I was pretty out of it for the rest of the day. The hotel in Helsinki is 10x better/cooler than the one in Estonia, although we still have twin beds, which I find super odd for a hotel. Anyway, the breakfast actually had breakfast food, unlike in Estonia where they had lunch sandwiches and mini hotdogs. They have those here in Finland too, but also yogurt, fruit, cereal, porridge, etc. Also, there is a sign on all of the tables that the charge to take any food out of the breakfast room is 14 euro. Guess I won’t be packing a sandwich for lunch! Oh, I just remembered, I also paid for my first bathroom when I was in Tallinn, 0.20 euro.
After breakfast, we had a 2 hour walking tour of Helsinki, which I almost skipped because I thought I was about to die. I ended up going because I didn’t want to miss out on seeing all of the sights, and when would I be in Helsinki again!?!? Probs never.
I love the picture above! A cute little Finnish man with the train station in the background. Anyway, our tour guide was a nice little old lady, but I couldn’t hear anything she said (which I cannot attribute to my unpopped ears because no one else could hear her either!). Also, she pretty much only told us the dates the buildings were made and which architect designed them… both of which mean absolutely nothing to me. I wanted to know what they were used for today and in the past! Oh well, I took a lot of pictures because I thought the buildings were pretty. I am just going to put up pictures that I can remember anything about or that are super beautiful.
Our tour guide.
Weird statues on a restaurant.
Stockmann: A super expensive department store (aka I will never go in there) that is owned by a German guy. Apparently he has stores all over the world, even in Brazil!
Beautiful Helsinki, which I imagine is even more beautiful in the green summer. There are a lot of parks and green space in the city, and Finns really respect nature. One of their “main concepts is called Everyman’s Right. Every woman's too. This gives you permission to roam freely, pick berries and mushrooms, and enjoy the peace and quiet of the forests, lakes and rivers.” Source <—More great information about “Everyman’s Right”
Lots of snow and ice like in Tallinn, but less ice! I did fall once yesterday though, big surprise.
Helsinki Town Hall. The orange thing in front is an outdoor café in the summer, but they put a cover over it in the winter so it can stay open.
Finland’s Presidential Palace where President Tarja Halojen resides. The only thing I know about her is that she looks like Conan O’Brian.
Haha!
This is Upensky Cathedral, the largest Orthodox chruch in Western Europe. It was built when the Russians controlled Finland.
This is Helsinki Cathedral, a Lutheran church in the center of the city. It is massive!!! It was super sunny when we were there too, so it looked so bright white, it almost blinded me! It was first built as a tribute to the tsar of Russia, Nicholas, so it was called St. Nicholas’ Church until 1917 when Finland gained independence. It is so beautiful on the outside, that I thought the inside would be super extravagant. However, since it is a Lutheran church, it doesn’t have all the ornate designs like the Orthodox one. I didn’t take any pictures of the inside, but it was clean and normal looking.
I have absolutely no clue what this building is, but I do know it’s pretty!
After the walking tour, we grabbed lunch quickly, and hopped on a train to visit the Health Center of Kirkkonummi. In Finland, healthcare is really decentralized, so the cities are in charge of maintaining primary care (family doctors, dentists, physical therapists) and hospitals. They are also responsible for financing them, so local taxes and state money is used. The health center has about 28 doctors, 32 nurse practitioners, 30 nurses, counselors, social workers, nutritionists, 10 physical therapists, and 14 dentists. Basically everything is under one roof! I am not going to explain everything we heard, but I thought it was interesting that they actually do have yearly check-ups even when you are healthy, unlike in Denmark or Estonia. Overall, I really liked the visit because their system is so different than any other country’s. Too bad I was sick and sleepy, which made it hard to really pay attention carefully for the whole 2 hours :(
Then we headed back to the city for a lecture from Simo Kokko, MD, PhD. He literally talked at us for 2 hours about the Finnish healthcare system. I was tired, hungry, sleepy, not feeling well. I wasn’t the only one bored and falling asleep. It just really wasn’t that interesting, and I think he could have been more engaging and cut his talk down to 1 hour instead of 2 because he got off topic a lot. One thing I did find interesting though is that waiting times are a big problem in Finland. Sometimes, for not urgent care, people will have to wait 3 months to get an appointment to see their doctor. THREE MONTHS! So people have obviously figured out how to skew their symptoms to make them sound more urgent, which isn’t really helping the system at all. The Finnish healthcare system is most likely going to be reformed continuously and quite drastically.
After the lecture, we went to a buffet dinner, where I had reindeer, 3 kinds of potatoes, soup, bread, salad, macaroni with unknown meat, salmon, and some other unknown fish. It was actually really good for a buffet, probably because it was smaller scale and authentic Finnish food. I really enjoyed it, even the reindeer! However, I still felt like poo, especially after such a busy day, so I went home early, skyped with Mom for a bit, and slept like a rock. I woke up this morning feeling better, but still not amazing.
Thankfully, today was a take-it-easy kind of day. We ate breakfast, then we had a lecture by the DIS professor who came on the study tour with us named Marie. She is Danish, but has lived in Pennsylvania for many years and teaches at Dickinson College there. She is a visiting professor for DIS for one year where she teaches a sexuality class, so our lecture this morning was about comparing sexual education in Denmark/Estonia vs. the US. It was a lot of fun and super interesting. Although it was 2 hours, it flew by because she was very engaging and we got to participate! At the end, we divided into small groups and created our own sexual education class for a school in the US.
Then we had free time starting at 11am, and we don’t have to be back with the group until 5:45pm for a hockey game tonight! I planned on spending my entire afternoon on my own because I just needed some alone time after being with the same group of 40 people since Sunday afternoon, but I was feeling less sick, so I decided to walk around with a group of 5 friends. We went inside a church and the National Library, and I was already starting to feel sick again from how we were jumping from one thing to the next. Not to mention, I was getting hungry, aka crabby, so I decided to venture off on my own for the rest of the day. I stopped at a healthyish looking sandwich shop, and I ended up just getting the first thing I saw: two baked potatoes with some yummy sour cream-type sauce and smoked salmon on top with a hunk of bread. It was tasty. While there, I decided I was going to visit the National Museum of Finland because I am an anthropology nerd and like archaeological artifacts and all that jazz, but when I started walking toward it, or so I thought, I ended up not where I thought I was! Thankfully, I ended up in the shopping area, so I spent 2 hours window shopping and trying cute clothes on instead. Although I didn’t make it to the museum, it was still nice to be alone for awhile and just moving at my own pace. At first, I kind of felt bad not wanting to tour the city with people from my class, but in the end, I am glad I took time to myself. This whole trip has been nonstop doing stuff, which is great most of the time, but the break was really appreciated!
One other thing I have realized, I have an absolutely terrible sense of direction. I think I can attribute some of this to my completely unobservant nature, and the fact that I am not from a big city. I can navigate Solon and Iowa city! That has to count for something :)
So now I only have about another hour left of my break until I meet everyone for the hockey game. Time for a shower and a bite to eat, then it’s game time!
Hei! (that’s ‘bye’ in Finnish!)
Emily
