The News & TeleGraff

Here's a photo I took yesterday of the Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral as part of our whirlwind tour of Helsinki. I joked that it was a very American tour of the city—the bus we were only barely slowed down and we almost never got off it. It's how I think many Americans see national parks: "Off to the right kids, that's the Grand Canyon. Now on to McDonald's."

One amazing culture shock has been the Nordic emphasis on being on time: Everything here starts and ends on time to the minute. If a panel is supposed to start at 2 p.m., you better be in your seats at 1:58 and if it's over at 4 p.m. you can count on the moderator will be doing closing remarks as the clock touches 4 p.m. Yesterday's tour began a half-an-hour (!) late due to bus difficulties and the tour guide seemed to think it was a national scandal, apologizing profusely and explaining "Murphy's Law" and the "Snowball Effect." The two-hour driving tour of Helsinki, which was extended an extra half-hour, had us pulling into the Hanasaari driveway exactly one minute after the intended end time. The Finns among us get very agitated at anything that is more than a minute or two off schedule. The eight-minute late start to the afternoon panel—mostly caused by us Americans—was enough to provoke a chiding.

For us Americans, used to things starting ten minutes late and ending whenever they come to a conclusion, it's an impressive (and quite appreciated) feature—although so far every one of us has a story of wandering into something two or three minutes late only to find it well underway. Thursday night, just before I left the States, I attended the National Press Foundation dinner, which I noted was impressive for only wrapping up seven minutes late—an unheard of feat for a Washington gala—but I can imagine that if it had been in Helsinki it would have been over seven minutes earlier than it was.