I want to know more about the world today. What is the best / worst thing about where you live? and should I come visit?

Be as specific as you want ie. country, region / state, city etc.

I'll start of course: Finland

Best:

• Everything here works. We almost never have power cuts, water shortages, public service breakdowns, snow-ins etc. Some people have become rather spoiled about this eg. we have a meter of snow (over 3ft) fall in one night and people bitch "ugh - I can't believe the train was a WHOLE HOUR late - stupid people in charge" whereas the rest of Europe practically shuts down.

• top notch education (and appreciation thereof) without brutal obsessiveness - by this I mean Finns get the best school marks in the world even though they start school a year later than most, have almost no homework / tests, and spend less hours in school than most. Plus no one commits suicide if they fail an exam.

• the love of nature - everything here is spread out and green is everywhere. You are never more than 10 mins from a natural forest (unless in the very center of the largest towns, then maybe 20 mins). Definitely nicer than some concrete jungles i've visited.

• santa claus lives here

Worst:

• the variety here is shit - this covers practically everything like culture, food, brands and what have you. It gets better every year but i'm still insanely jealous of the average US/UK megamart or French/Spanish/Italian markets. Don't get me wrong, the local stuff you DO get here is usually great, but internationally we still lag compared to even Sweden.

• the long cold dark winters - the shortest day down here in the south is 5 hours, conversely the summers here are wonderful (which is why the cities are deserted and everyone runs off to the countryside)

• poor connections to the rest of Europe - seriously it sucks compared to most euro countries. The only good connections are to Tallinn, Stockholm and St. Petersburg. You have to fly everywhere else (which is a hassle), and yes this sucks when you have friends in Sweden who DRIVE down to Italy for the weekend because they bloody can.

Is Finland worth the visit though? yes if you plan to travel around a bit and take advantage of the local idiosyncrasies eg. rent a cottage by a lake in summer, sauna etc.