Background: Finland was a province and then a grand duchy under Sweden from the 12th to the 19th centuries and an autonomous grand duchy of Russia after 1809. It won its complete independence in 1917. During World War II, it was able to successfully defend its freedom and resist invasions by the Soviet Union - albeit with some loss of territory. In the subsequent half century, the Finns made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy; per capita income is now on par with Western Europe. As a member of the European Union, Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January 1999.
April 8th 2008Europe » Finland » Vaasa I've finally gotten around to writing this entry. Now that I'm sick and all I have plenty of time.
So, on Tuesday, April 8, I made the 5 hour train journey to Helsinki. I got there and met Mom at ... 2 photos[full story]
April 6th 2008Europe » Finland » Vaasa Hey everyone. Wow, it's really been awhile. Sorry, I guess I've just been busy. It's really hard to find time to write in here these days. Between school, basketball, and hanging out with my friends I ... [full story]
March 27th 2008Europe » Finland » Vaasa It's cold. Very cold. Too cold. It's windy. And it makes it even more cold. To make things worse, one of the biggest snow storms of the year, supposedly, hits the country. Yippee!
So it's cold here ... [full story]
March 10th 2008Europe » Finland » Vaasa So, I guess it's been a while since I've updated. Sorry, I've been busy. And sorry that there are no pictures this time, but I just got kind of lazy. So, anyway, where was I.....
The weekend after ... [full story]
February 14th 2008Europe » Finland » Vaasa So, the last couple weeks have been really great. I've been super busy. I feel like I always have something going on! Anyway, to begin where I last left off......
On Friday, February 1st I went to ... 20 photos[full story]
January 27th 2008Europe » Finland » Vaasa New family. New year. New school term. Everything is starting again.
Hey everyone, sorry it's taken me so long to update again. I've moved to my new host family and I can't use my own computer here ... 6 photos[full story]
January 1st 2008Europe » Finland » Vaasa Hey everyone. It's been awhile since I updated, sorry. I just got busy with my birthday weekend and then school, and then with every day that passed it became more and more that I had to write about. ... 21 photos[full story]
November 25th 2007Europe » Finland » Vaasa Hey everyone! It's been a couple of weeks since my last entry, so here it goes!
I believe I left you all at November 4th. So, on Monday November 5th I only had my Finnish class since my normal scho ... 10 photos[full story]
Map of Finland
Finland's Flag
