swtdeath (Mariana V.I.P): maakunta means actually a smaller area than lääni but theres only one word for them in english so i had to say province :) ahvenanmaa is a little island between finland and sweden and even tho its closer to sweden and the ppl living in it speak mainly only swedish it belongs to finland. it has autonomy so finland cannot affect on it so much. *
25-01-07 - 14:52:31

swtdeath (Mariana V.I.P): for more info about anything just ask me (preferably here on the forum so it helps the other users too). :) *
25-01-07 - 14:54:06

swtdeath (Mariana V.I.P): a thing that may suprise someone is that finland has four seasons (and we dont have rain season.. monsoon things XD). the seasons are spring, summer, autumn and winter and right now we are having winter :) each season takes about 3 months: spring is from march to may, summer from june to august, autumn from september to november and winter from december to february. :) *
25-01-07 - 15:03:30

swtdeath (Mariana V.I.P): finland has two official languages; finnish and swedish. the majority speaks finnish but because swedish is an official language too, its compulsory at schools. thats why every finn can more or less speak swedish :) also the sami language has a special status in finland (its under protection or something) and the sami ppl have their rights to demand services in their own language in the area they live in. *
26-01-07 - 05:13:44

swtdeath (Mariana V.I.P): once my japanese friend told me that there finland is famous for finlandia vodka and arabia dishes.. it was pretty suprising. finnish design is popular in japan :) and also cartoon characters called moomins are popular in japan! and they are finnish too :D *
26-01-07 - 10:02:59