April 2000

This was the third time Anna was visiting me in Holland.
I took a week's holiday off from work, so that we could spend the whole time together.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and we decided to go out in the afternoon to take a walk.
At that time I was still living at my parents' house and they live like 10 steps away from the forest. And since both Anna and me are such nature freaks, what would be better than to go out into the forest?
We went out and walked across the street up to the lane that leads up to the forest. When we were half way up the lane we encountered an older couple, coming out of the forest.
As we passed them I nodded and greeted them and they greeted us back.
When Anna and me walked into the forest, she asked me: "Who were they?"
I shrugged, never questioning why she would ask that question, and replied: "I don't know..."
Then she asked: "But why did you say hi to them then, if you don't even know them?"
Only then I realized that we come from different worlds, in a way... We talked about the difference in both our cultures and in our habits and Anna's told me several times that Finnish people are a bit grumpy and distant if you don't know them, or if they don't know eachother, but I never thought about it in a way that they would pretty much ignore eachother when they would pass eachother on the street.
Not like I would say hi to every single person I run into on the street, but in places like this, forest lanes or walking routes where you don't encounter too many people, I do. And I think it's the most normal thing in the world, so common and so selfevident in what I am brought up with that I do it even without thinking.

Why do you say hi to them, if you don't even know them?
It's going to be interesting to see how people in Finland are going to react towards me, if I do such thing when I live there.
A nod and a greet, something so selfevident for me, versus the distant and ignoring nature of the Finnish people...