RUDE!

No, not like that...... 

There are stereotypes of most nationalities; passionate Italians, gourmet French, skinflint Scots, stupid Irish, uptight Brits etc etc etc. I have heard time & again that the Finns are rude and on the whole (as with most stereotypes) it's just not true but today I encountered one of the most extreme examples of the rudeness of the Finns!

In general the Finns are a very quiet, reserved peoples. They tend not to get involved in other people's business, they avoid confrontation. They are often stunned at my outgoing personality ;D but usually in a nice way... They know how to queue (using numbered ticket where available) and rarely queue jump in shops. On the street bike lanes are strictly observed and pedestrians always keep to the right on a busy footpath. Jaywalking laws mean that no-one ever crosses the road on a red light, or where there is no crossing.

The one place all this respect for others seems to vanish completely is on the bus. For some reason this observation of others personal space and needs doesn't apply once you set foot on the bus.

Maybe it's because I was brought up to offer my seat to those who need it more than me. Maybe it's because I grew up in London where the front of the bus downstairs is always for the elderly, the less able-bodied, pregnant women, mothers with young children.... Young, fit, healthy people automatically sit at the back, or even upstairs. Whatever the reason, these simple rules of respect for others simply don't apply in Finland. There are only 2 seats marked as for "less able bodied" passengers and they are located next to the middle doors.  The seats at the front of the bus often fill up with young, fit, healthy and usually noisy school children, often with bags, hockeystick, skateboards and allsorts. 

I regularly see elderly people left standing in the aisle between these children while they chatter away, oblivious to the standing passenger. When I was pregnant I suffered the same fate... when I didn't have Monkey in the buggy I would often end up standing while school children sat and once I even had to push my way past someone to get off the bus. Despite my best Finnish "Anteeksi" or excuse me and a large bump pushing in her back, this one woman just would not move, so I pushed past and actually hurt my bump! Poor Mouse must have wondered what was going on!

Opposite the middle doors there are 2 or 3 spaces often with flip down seats, where buggies, wheelchairs & luggage take priority. This is a real plus to travelling on the bus - a person travelling with a child in a buggy travels for free! Rather than an act of altruism this is purely a matter of safety... the mother (cos it usually is a mother) with buggy enters through the middle doors and then does not need to go to the front of the bus to pay. The buggy is not left unattended and the passengers are not fighting to get past each other. Of course there are some who take advantage of this free travel - squeezing children who are obviously too old and too big into a buggy to get on, then taking the child out of the buggy and taking 2 seats, leaving a buggy space full of an empty buggy!! Even more frustrating on a busy bus when you can't get on... 

Anyway, back to my point.

Today on the way home from school there was a small child crying on the bus. I heard him as I stepped on and he cried the whole way. He was probably about 2 years old, obviously tired, fed up, hungry and generally miserable - I imagine he had a long day out & about with Mummy and had enough. His mother was doing her best, wiping his tears and talking gently to him. In a very finnish way, she was not demonstrative about it - just quietly soothing him as best she could. I imagine she was fed up, too! Anyway - this was not the problem. Only 2 stops before I got off, the mother and child got off the bus, it was their stop, they were going home. ...and, this is what insensed me.... an older woman, who had been chatting with her friend the whole journey - watched the mother get up and get the buggy ready to leave and as she stepped off the bus ....she clapped!!! SHE CLAPPED!!! As if that poor mother was finally taking some applaudible action, as if she was not already bothered by the noise of her child and the embarrasment of the full bus.... I glared... my best Paddington Glare!

Had I spoken better finnish I would have a. tried to help with the child and b. really had a go at the older woman. I wanted to ask her if she had children or grandchildren of her own, had she forgotten what it was like? I wanted to tell her how completely rude it was of her to behave in that manner. But instead I used a glare of incredulity at her total ignorance and shook my head in disbelief. Had I been more finnish, I might have even tutted! 

Of course I then fumed my home from the bus stop and ranted here to you instead. 

Thank you for reading and sorry for the rant....

I was originally planning to write about Naistenpäivä and going back to school..but I'll do that another day. Hyvää Naistenpäivää!