A Heartfelt Apology...sniff sniff. Plus some cool stuff

My family and others have pointed out (and it's entirely true) that I have been writing lots about what I've been doing on weekends (where I've been traveling and so on), but not so much about what life in Porvoo is like. The reason for that, I think, is that I am now so accustomed to life in Porvoo that I don't think about it any more. BUT now I realize that all you followers of my blog don't live here with me, and you still may be interested to learn all these Finnish cultural things that I already take for granted.
So: I will begin to write about (and take pictures of) life in Porvoo more, and will think more about my exchange, and how I felt at the beginning of it as compared to now. For now, here are some interesting facts:

Finnish toilets never have levers to flush them. Most have two buttons on the top: one triggers a large flow of water, the other small.
There are no chocolate chips in Finland.
There are no doorknobs in Finland, only handles.
Finns consume an incredible amount of potatoes, fish, milk, and rye bread.
Pretty much every person here chews Xylitol gum (look it up, it's pretty cool).
Every Finnish home has a sauna.
Most families have two homes - one in the city in which they spent most of their time while working, and another in the country by a lake to spend the summer in.
Salmiakki, a Finnish black liquorice, is really big here.
The Finns have an amazing system for their blankets and comforters. Everyone knows it's a pain to wash them (a pain to wash comforters, not the Finns). That's why we use top sheets. But I personally don't like top sheets - they come untucked quite easily and they always end up jammed down at your feet. So the Finnish system: you have a comforter-case, much like a pillow case. That way you can sleep right against the comforter and not worry about having to wash it - because Voilà! you can just wash the comforter case.