Falling Hard for Finland

I've been smitten with Finland since the minute I landed. My very first Uber driver looked exactly like Santa Claus and greeted me with a warm "你好（means hii in Chinese）." I blurted out, "Whoa, you can speak Chinese—so cool!" He just pointed at his license (maybe to prove he was a real driver because I was fangirling so hard). When we reached my stop, he admitted he didn't speak English at all. I kept saying, "My bad," and he laughed, just as lost as I was. For that moment, we were simply two people from the global South figuring out an English-centric world together—instant solidarity.

Every shop I passed that day felt the same sort of gentle: owners looked me straight in the eye, said "hi," and still waved me off with "bye, have a nice day!" even when I didn't buy a thing. We weren't locked in a buyer-seller script; we were just humans briefly crossing paths. Nobody here obsesses over "scalable" business models. The vibe is all about uniqueness, hand-made craft, and taking real care.

The museums tell the rest of the story. You can literally watch culture evolve on the walls—from painting "others" to painting oneself. Humanity's walked a long road and yet self is still the headline act.

Maybe this feels extra magical because Finland is so far—psychologically and geographically—from my day-to-day world. Friends keep raving about Tallinn and Stockholm, too. Next trip, I'm definitely hopping over to feel those cities firsthand.