the police moves up my list of favoured finnish government departments to #1

[cimorene]

in an historic event, an employee of the finnish government spontaneously called me today for the sole purpose of offering helpful advice!

(it's not that finnish people aren't helpful - they're usually pretty earnest and nice provided you're following the rules and all. it's just that when they're in their bureaucracies, even school ones and club ones, they tend to be overworked, and leave the uninitiated to figure everything out for themselves.)

apparently i can apply to renew my visa as a family member of a finnish citizen instead of as a student now that wax and i have been living together (nearly) two years. the application is easier and only has to be renewed every four years instead of yearly. the minus side is that wax has to go to the police station in person too, but in the long run it's much less work.

now that i think of it, the police have a very cool logo too.

Comments

[wild-boys.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, yay for Finland.

[revulo.livejournal.com]

That's actually really neat!
That must have been a pleasant surprise.

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

...That is of the awesome. :: moves to Finland immediately ::

[schonste.livejournal.com]

That's pretty awesome. Finland rules! (Perhaps more than Sweden, in which all the (apparently) gay people (apparently) live (according to the Fins).)

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

Aww. That's so cool! And the Finnish police are sometimes rather adorable. :D

[hollsh.livejournal.com]

Oh yay! That's awesome news!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

hahaha i know. actually i love the police station - almost everything about it is kind of cute. especially the advertising posters. and those little nylon jumpsuits the police wear. :x

[cimness.livejournal.com]

oh well, sweden is giant! plus i suspect they're more out and proud there. i think helsinki is like the only city big enough to have loudly gay people. but sweden is like the big brother country - finland is touchy about being up to date with their laws and social services, not being backwards compared with them and the rest of the nordic countries. finns are faintly embarrassed about how gay marriage was legalised last here.

plus, to make sweeping stereotypical generalisations, sweden is a somewhat colourful, funky, and cheerfully well-organised country: like the ikea of countries (you know, with reason). and finland, in comparison, is very well-organised but as opposed to colourful, funky and cheerful, it is grey (or natural wood-coloured, perhaps), practical, and kind of monosyllabic.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yeah, and really not what you expect when the person on the phone says "i'm from the police station..."

[schonste.livejournal.com]

Sweden: The Ikea of Countries. Awesome. You know your Nords. XD

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i wonder if it's policy or just the one policewoman being extra nice.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

hahahahah, well. remember sweden is about as far away from me as florida is from alabama.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

it deserves a cookie.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

true! plus i can save some money on the reapplication permits this way, i bet!

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Finland deserves... sparkly things.

Or something. :D :D

[shadows-in-mind.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a first. ^^; Whatever bureau I remember visiting for the last ten years have usually made me very depressed with the not helpful attitude and difficulties in the procedures. ^_^;; I've had even a snark fest with a social worker who decided it's their business to tell me how we should balance books within the family.

[folk.livejournal.com]

I thought Finland was very Zen when I was there. Admittedly, it was Easter weekend so everything was closed so I spent most of my time on trains and drinking Lapin Kulta and going "man, the monochromatic mellowness of the birch/pine/spruce/lake/snow".

Perhaps it's a Zen sauna. Like, a sauna with gravel and rakes. That would be awesome.

(PS Finland > Sweden because it uses the Euro.)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

everyone's always been nice to me in the turku police office (not so much in the other places i've had to go to ask for things...), but this is still definitely a first. and wax is thirty and has never had a government employee be spontaneously helpful in her life so i'm thinking this is a really unusual police officer.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i definitely agree. there is a faint aura of zen in finland. there are a surprising number of things it has in common with japan, in a very weird way. and while all the beer-drinking isn't very zen, it still definitely fits in the national character - which is a kind of morose, solitary, drunken, nature-loving zenness. one which is really fond of club activities.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i'm getting from my finnish people that this behaviour is very unusual for finland! i'll have to thank the lady as profusely as a socially inept misanthrope like me is capable of, when i go to change the forms.