Whenever I'm abroad for a longer period of time, I start to miss rye bread and zalmiak. It's weird, though, 'cause whenever I'm in Finland, I tend to eat toast and avoid zalmiak. I'm also a milk-drinker, like most Nordics, so unless it's the UK, milk is sometimes hard to come by. And it's pretty much a given you won't find a proper sauna outside of Finland/Sweden/Russia. I can live without these things, of course, but in a way they are symbols of Home. As for Christmas, it doesn't feel right without snow. I think I'd feel pretty much at home in Minnesota, Michigan, Vermont, or Canada because of the climate, and also because of the immigration waves in the 19th and 20th century, some imprints of Scandinavia/Norden are still teeny bit visible in those parts of North America.
At times like this, my mixed nationality becomes really confused. Part of me is laughing at the English, the other part IS English.
I bet you would. In my hometown, many people still fly Norwegian flags. It's just a shame that the Finnish saunas didn't catch on. That would be lovely on a cold winter's night.
Finns didn't immigrate in hordes, so I'd imagine their influence was lesser than that of Scandinavians. But summer or winter, I'm definitely a big fan of saunas (quelle surprise!). There's nothing quite like running from the hot sauna into the snow or a hole in the lake. Heart-attack inducing, maybe, but it's part of the culture.
Color me surprised and impressed. How'd you know the term? But yeah, either it's sisu or utter lunacy.
The benefit of a lot of travel, known it for years, it come up again when I worked with a Finnish woman about 4 years ago in Hawaii. She was just as surprised as you that I knew the term.
Cool! And it is quite surprising 'cause as far as we're concerned, the rest of the world is completely unaware of one small country of saunas and sisu nestled in Mother Russia's armpit (or alternatively, stuck on her butt, depending on how you view it). However, if someone outside, out there in the real world notices us, even if in a negative light, we're overjoyed. Case in point, there's a Danish comic with a Finnish character whose a knife-wielding, drunk mute, but no matter, we're just glad our existence has been recognized.
That's slightly (but not much) better than the Czech perception of Brits as knife-wielding, drunk AND loud-mouthed! - based largely upon a small percentage of football hooligans.
... but are you flattered? Though I must admit, the drunken Brit is a fairly prevailing stereotype in every place I've ever visited -- even the UK . But then again, so are drunken Poles, Russians, Irish... Finns. Anyway, it's almost Christmas, which means SAUNA TIME!