Finnish people amuse me

There hasn't been anything very notable for me to write about this week. Everything's been very normal and quite calm. Finally! We're having a housewarming party on Saturday, and the anti-social member of the household decided to stay at her mother's house that night. I can't think of many 21 year olds who'd rather hang out with their mother than go to a party, but each to their own.
Lately I've noticed some things that make me laugh about some Finnish people, so I'm writing about that intead.

1.) Accents. Most Finnish people obviously have a Finnish/Scandinavian accent when they speak English. However, I've met a lot of people who also have perfect American accents! I went to the bank on Tuesday, and the very nice man who served me had this accent, and if I had only heard him speak English and didn't know he was from Finland I definitely would have assumed he was from America. One of my flatmates also has a very American accent, another one of them sounds slightly American, and on one occasion in the post office I was also served by a man with a strong American accent. It's strange, and my only guess about why this is is that maybe people pick up bits of English from watching TV. Foreign shows on television have subtitles, not dubbing, so maybe they watch American shows, copy what they hear there, and end up with American accents. A couple of weeks after I came here I spoke to a barman who had a really Irish accent, he asked which country I thought he was from and I said Ireland before Finland! He said it was because he'd lived in France as a child and there were lots of Irish people, so when he first started to speak English he heard lots of Irish accents, and it stuck. It's still a bit of a surprise when someone goes from sounding very Finnish to very American in a split second.

2.) Sweden. What is the deal with Finnish people and Sweden? Several different people, on different occasions, have been telling me how much they hate Sweden, Swedish people, and the Swedish language, and then invite me to go to Stockholm because "it's such a nice place, we'll have a really good time." Then they complain that they go to Sweden and have to speak Swedish. I'm confused, although I would really like to go to Stockholm. I even know a Swedish speaking Finn, who also expressed hatred towards Sweden, in his case because "it's too nice. Everyone in Sweden is so nice and very good-looking, and it makes me sick." Maybe Swedish people are genuinely better than the rest of us, like the Dutch people. I've been to Holland twice, and it's lovely, but you can't help but notice how everyone is taller than you, better looking than you, more intelligent than you, and speaks more languages than you.

3.) Military service. I've been told some stories about the military service that men have to do here, and this is the first time I've heard about it because my ex boyfriend didn't want to do it, so he pretended to be crazy. It sounds so horrible, and a bit harsh considering that Finland doesn't seem to be that into joining wars, certainly not in comparison to my country or America. I have been told there are some Finnish soldiers in Afghanistan, and I hope they get some credit for what they're doing, just as British and American soldiers do. However, I'm very glad Finland can't ever enlist me for their army, because camping in a forest in -30 isn't very appealing. With 5 hours sleep in the whole week. No thanks. I want to go to Rovaniemi, find this forest and rescue those poor men. However, I do like hearing about men being in the army. Makes them seem a bit more manly.
On that subject, I hven't really been reading English news whilst I've been here, but I've heard they're sending people to Libya, and I think it's very sad. I understand something needs to be done but it would be nice if the British government stopped thinking that getting into wars is the answer to everything.

Finnish films and flats

I just went to view the flat we found. They do things differently here - everyone who's interested turns up at the same time and looks together. It was very nice, and spacious, and the other people were all girls around my age or a bit younger so that would be fine. It's 30 seconds walk from Emma and Tommi's front door, and would make no difference at all for getting to work or the shops. I hope that my foreigness won't be a problem and that they wouldn't purposely choose a Finnish speaking person over me. In all other ways I'm just as suitable as anyone else - I have a job and an income and would be responsible about it all. Right after that I got a Finnish bank account! It was much more straightforward than opening an account in my own country for the first time, so I'm proud of Finland for being simple for once.
Yesterday we were planning to see a Finnish film, Rare Exports, but ended up watching Twin Peaks for seven hours instead. The film is in Finnish and English, and is a slightly strange story about hunters capturing wild Santas in Lapland, and training them to be nice to children. There are two short films which are meant to be seen before the full length one, you can see them here. Youtube says you have to be a grown-up for that.
There's another Finnish film I'd like to see, which I think will be released soon, called Iron Sky. It's about space Nazis. Excellent.
The first Finnish film I ever saw was Paha Maa. For reasons that remain unclear, that film was what made my friend Katie want to go to Finland, which in turn lead to us boarding a flight to Helsinki in August 2009. I only saw the film after we'd been there and Jussi had come to London, and if I'd seen it beforehand it would have convinced me to never, ever go to Finland. It's one of the most miserable, depressing things I have ever seen. Why it had the opposite effect on Katie remains one of life's unsolved mysteries.
Whilst Jussi and I were together he showed me a few Finnish films. I would advise everyone to avoid Mosku at all costs. It's basically five hours of a miserable Finnish bastard hunting reindeer and moaning about Russians. Nothing actually happens. Matti is hilarious, but then Matti Nykänen is quite a hilarious guy. It's funny but tragic the way things turned out for him. I also really like Pahat Pojat, which I understand to also be a true story. Another film I'd like to see is Saatanan Radikaalat, which is about four dead Finnish guys who have such a great time in Hell they get sent back to Earth as a punishment. It's from the 1970s but it would be nice to find a subtitled copy or download.
Of all the films I've seen, only one did not have Jasper Pääkkönen in it. He's quite nice though. Not so much in Matti but in Paha Maa he was quite tasty. Ding dong.