She's a star?

Before I left for my exchange program to Helsinki, I was warned that I would experience something known as "culture shock". As a Canadian, I have been accustomed and privileged to live in a multicultural city (Toronto) so I was sceptical about the notion of culture shock. I thought that I would certainly be immune to this phenomenon since I was used to experiencing cultural differences.

Besides being warned about culture shock, I had also been told that Finland was not as progressive as Canada in terms of their race-relations. This notion made me a little bit nervous and I was quite relieved that there was another student from my school also participating in the exchange, who coincidentally, shares my ethnic background, Guyanese-Canadian.

My initial impression of Helsinki was that it was an incredibly clean and beautiful city. I spent a lot of time exploring the city by myself. During my first few days, I felt like I was being stared at. I did not know why people were looking at me. I found myself adjusting my jacket, fixing my hair, and checking to make sure there wasn't something amiss with my appearance. I assumed that there must have been something wrong with me if people were looking at me so strangely. I started to feel very self-conscious. My family and friends wrote me sympathetic e-mails telling me that I was probably just being paranoid. I started to get angry. Nothing was wrong with my hair or clothes, so why were all of these people looking at me?

My only conclusion was that it was my colour. These thoughts persisted with every odd look or comment I received on the streets and this soon grew into fear. I did not want to walk anywhere by myself. To add to my fear, some Finnish students told me not to travel by train at night as there had been some racially motivated attacks taking place there. As well, I was told that there were riots going on between the Finns and Somalians in Vantaa. I started to wonder why I had left the comfort of my home where my ethnicity was really nothing special in a land of so much diversity.

One of my friends sent me an e-mail saying that perhaps people were staring at me because I was an "exotic beauty". This made me laugh, but my friend's comment gave me an idea and I developed a coping mechanism that probably sounds very silly. My Canadian friend and I started to pretend, whenever we felt people were looking at us, that we were famous movie stars.

In the midst of my self-consciousness, I gradually started to learn more about Finnish culture and began to appreciate my surroundings. I loved living in a city surrounded by the sea (Toronto is surrounded by Lake Ontario, which looks nice but unfortunately it is quite polluted). I appreciated that the streets were not crowded with people and that I might actually run into a friend downtown (this is virtually impossible in a city like Toronto with about 3 million people). I enjoyed walking downtown on Sunday when it was quiet because all of the stores were closed (everything stays open in Toronto, 7 days a week). I loved going to cafes and eating delicious Finnish pastry. I liked my classes and studying with my friends at the University. I especially loved the social life I had with my Finnish friends ? lots of late nights, Finnish concerts (not just Nylon Beat, but also classical music at Finlandia Hall), hockey games (something Finns and Canadians definitely have in common) and much more. I even grew to appreciate the presence of cell phones - everywhere.

In retrospect, I am pretty sure that much of what I experienced in my first few weeks in Helsinki was what I had been warned about, but thought that I would be immune to, culture shock.

For example, the first time I met my faculty advisor, I was very uncomfortable. I thought that there was either something wrong with one of her eyes, or that she was just a rude person. Whenever I spoke to her, she did not look at me. She looked away every time I made eye contact with her and when she addressed me she looked anywhere else but in my eyes. When I left her office, I asked my Canadian friend if he had noticed the same thing. He explained that he had read somewhere that Finnish people, unlike most North Americans, believe that eye contact with a complete stranger is rude. I was so ashamed of my ignorance. I had judged her by my North American standards of what was considered polite. In Canada, I had grown accustomed to a certain level of eye contact that I perceived as a sign that someone was listening and understanding what I was saying. This experience made me wonder if it was the level of eye contact that I was making with people on the streets which made them feel uncomfortable, thus the odd looks.

It is so tempting to only associate with people from your home country when you are in a foreign land because they share your language and understand your culture. I found that I succumbed to this temptation in my first few weeks in Finland. While I was anxious to meet other people, it was easier to hang out with my fellow Canadian friend because we both spoke English. I noticed that a lot of the other students were doing this as well. There were small cliques forming where the Finnish students stuck together, while the exchange students formed their own groups based on their home countries. To combat this problem, the university thankfully had a helpful service, the Exchange Student Network. I met so many interesting people from all over Europe. I made some very good friends that I still keep in touch with.

Having a tutor was like guaranteeing an exchange student at least one Finnish friend. My tutor was exceptional. She had spent time in Toronto (my home) last year on exchange so she could relate to my experiences of culture shock. She planned some fun events for our group, such as Finnish baseball, a guided tour of the city, and of course, parties. The tutor system provided a friendly person to discuss adjusting to living in Finland. My tutor could tell me where to eat cheaply, explain the tram system, recommend a good grocery store, and basically provide general knowledge that made my life a lot easier.

This essay is not intended to make broad generalizations about Finland or Finnish people. I have written about the experiences that I encountered over four short months. Culture shock is definitely a challenge for studying abroad. However, my experience in Finland is my most cherished law school experience and accomplishment.

By Nadia Chandra

Nadia Chandra is studying law at York University in Toronto and was an exchange student at the University of Helsinki for the fall semester of 2000.