Finland was the reason for first travelling overseas - to present a conference paper for my PhD. I spent ten weeks studying Finnish for a 5 day trip. I experienced the midnight sun in Oulu, just below the Artic circle, ate Reindeer one night, and made good friends that lasted for years. I have a lot of time for Finland, a country that repaid all of its debt and rebuilt a nation. Flying from Helsinki was superb with the flight over the lakes and forrests. I learned that Sauna is a Finnish word in the English language and most importantly, how to chat up women in Finnish "Sinut un kauni neiti" - came in handy in France once.
