SIN to HEL and (soon to be) back - random thoughts

As i'm typing this, i'm sitting in a Finnish train headed south from Oulu to Tampere. Rather nifty methinks that the trains (or at least the more atas trains like the one i'm on) not only have power sockets for you to charge your laptops/mobile phones and what not but also free wireless internet access.

Although it's already my fifth solo Europe backpacking/couchsurfing trip (ok i can understand if that sounds more than just a tad excessive/indulgent), there had definitely has always been something new on each trip. I'm not in the business of writing a travel blog so i shan't attempt to expound in grandiloquent detail on how this has been the case on this trip, but suffice to say, while certainly similar to its Nordic neighbours (the high cost of just about everything, except perhaps dairy products and some fresh produce, for starters), there also are ways, albeit oftentimes nuanced, in which Finland is different.

Being, however, in the business of education in Singapore, i, together with all my colleagues, am aware that Finland, together with South Korea and of course, Singapore, has performed well in certain international math and science tests. And being admittedly paiseh to tell them where i was going for my break, i jokingly said that i'd be studying the Finnish education system *score points*. However while, it being the start of their own summer holidays here, i had no opportunity to actually visit any schools, through couchsurfing, i did talk to some people who are in at least some way plugged in to the education system here. Additionally, i did of course encounter some of the local youth. My conclusion based on this limited observations? There's nothing special about the education system here - like in Singapore the teachers are dedicated (and reasonably paid) and the students are increasingly rowdy and disrespectful. I do get the sense though that unlike many teachers in Singapore (or at least unlike me), the teachers here do enjoy most , if not all aspects of their work and are not tired out by it. They too have increasing amounts of administrative and other work to do, and are getting assessed regularly, but the passion to teach within the public system (it's virtually all public schooling here) remains. In other words, perhaps it's just me... Heh.