In short, it was frustrating and painful.
But hey, that is what it is like for everyone! However, it did come with some extra hardships, although any idiot can go through the army without knowing the language (army training is designed that way for a reason), it can be hard in understanding what's going on, and in terms of social dynamics within the group. It was cool though, most young Finnish guys can speak pretty good English, and if they can't, wait till they're drunk.
I wasn't the only one who couldn't speak Finnish, in my training group, we had 2 Germans, 4 Austrialians, 4 Americans, and one dude from Mexico who couldn't even speak English. It was awesome. It was quite an adventure, no matter how miserable now that I look back on it. We camped in the woods, choking on tear-gas, ran through blazing napalm, used all sorts of explosives like rocket launchers and grenades, shot automatic weapons, played war-games, learned some martial arts, went on really long hikes, and had a generally testorone-filled time of "fun". I have plenty of army horror stories to tell people about now, things I never could imagine myself doing on my own. When I wasn't on base, I took trips to Estonia, Sweden, Lapland, and Germany on my vacation days, making it a cool time to travel Europe as well. I made alot of friends and connections that will last a life-time.
I learned quite a bit of Finnish, I discovered I have a talent for languages, since I caught on alot faster than any of the other English-speaking guys, and I continue to study Finnish now with my mother, although my dialect is very inflected with army slang. Here are some things I learned about Finland:
1) Finland is cold.
2) It's also very dark.
3) It's very wet.
4) I now understand why Finns like summer so much.
5) I also understand why they drink so much.
6) Finnish women are beautiful, but complete ice queens.
7) Everyone is a racist.
Finns are some of the crudest, yet most honest people I've met.9) When going to a house party, you must bring your own alcohol for consumption.
10) Swedish people really are gay.
Even though it was painful, hard, and often boring at times, it was WORTH IT. You learn so many new social skills (you live in a room with 12 other people), you discover alot more about yourself, and how about other people. If any of you guys live outside of Finland are considering doing your service, I highly encourage you to do your service. If you have kids who have Finnish citizenship, I reccomend introducing your kid to the idea of it, and keep the option a active factor in their life. I really gained a cemented a connection to Finland with my military service, alot of the guys who teased me at first for coming later came up to me and told me that they really respected and admired that I came all this way to do my army service, and I've made everybody in my family proud. At the end of it all, I sensed that people really considered me to be a Finn rather an American, which is a cool feeling of gratification.
Anyways, if you have any questions about my service, or the specifics of what army life is like, ask away and I'll explain the best I can. I'm at work right now, so when I am at home, I'll write a more descriptive detail of my service on Santahamina, with plenty of pictures.
same as I... only I was double jeopardy I was a medic for the MP. Did you go do your special training to Hämeenlinna? Did they still have the surplus bangdages from 1935? Did the red cross badge on the lomapuku work as a "pillumagneetti"?
