Finland, the world's most prosperous nation

The above pictured article was in the November, 2009 issue of the Finnish American Reporter.

New Valamo monastery

The above picture is of the new Valamo Monastery, which is located near Heinavesi, Finland. Sources show the spelling of the name of this monastery is slightly different than the old one (posted previously).

Vaalam orthodox monastery in Finland

Pictured above is the old Valaam orthodox monastery in Finland. It is on the island of Valaam, which is located on Lake Ladoga.

Finland's 15-year old students excel in math and reading

According to the above table copied from an issue of Time magazine, Finland's 15-year old students lead the world in math in the year 2006, and reading in the year 2003. Nearly 100% of the citizens of Finland are literate and have at least a high school education.

70th Finnish-Canadian Grand Festival (Suurjuhlat)

The above picture was copied from the front page of the August, 2009 edition of the Finnish American Reporter. This picture is of participants in the Finn Grand Fest parade held in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. People of Finnish descent from all over North America attended the festivities commemorating the 70th anniversary of the festival.

Finnish tabloid newspaper

Above is a picture of the front page of a Finnish tabloid newspaper. I can converse a little in Finnish but I can't translate much of what is printed into English. Perhaps viewer of this post who is fluent in the Finnish language will provide a translation of the headlines.

Traffic fines in Finland.

Finnish-American humor

The following humorous story is from the July, 2009 issue of the Finnish American Reporter.

Heikki, a newlywed sailor is informed by the Navy that he is going to be stationed on a remote South Pacific island for the next two years. A few weeks after he gets stationed on the island, he really misses his new wife, Hilma, so he writes her a letter.

"My darling Hilma," he writes, "it looks like we are going to be apart for a very long time. Already I'm starting to miss you and we are constantly surrounded by young and attractive native girls. The temptation is terrible, I need some kind of hobby to keep my mind off them."

Hilma sends him an accordion with a note reading, "Why don't you learn to play this?"

Eventually Heikki's tour of duty comes to an end and he rushes home to Hilma. "Hilma darling", he says, "I can't wait to get you into bed so that we can make passionate love."

But Hilma stops him with a wave of her hand. "First, let's see how well you play the accordion."

First Finnish settlement in the U.S.

The above picture of a sign is from my file of pictures that I used on my Yahoo blog. The sign is a historical marker that designates the first Finnish settlement in the United States.

Getting started on a new blog site

I've been learning how to work with my new Google blog site and have had to start over because of something I did wrong. Maybe I will find out later what I did wrong, meanwhile, I will post new blogs on this site.

The above picture is of a giant bear trap on display in a small town in Upper Michigan where most of the residents are of Finnish descent.