Hetalia OC-Helsinki

Population:599,676 (2012)
Human name: Sofia Korhonen (I’ve noticed that most Finnish names come with two  syllables.)
Birthday: June 12th is known as ‘Helsinki Day’
CITY Age:  Established since 1550, currently is 466 years old.
Age Appearance: 19years old 
Languages: She speaks fluently in Finnish and English.

She speaks a good amount of Swedish, but nowadays she doesn’t really have any need to speak it since it’s a very small minority. She’s slowly forgetting it.

Swedish  used to be the main language spoken in Helsinki until the late 19th century. Currently the number of Swedish speaking Finns in Helsinki is 6.1%.

Hair colour: Dirty/ dark blonde which is slightly wavy. Like a lot of Finnish people it use to be really light blonde when she was younger, but it’s gotten darker with age. Her hair goes up to her chest. ( younger Helsinki - 
Eye colour: Her eye colour used to be a dark blue when she was a toddler but now it’s a light hazel/brownish colour 

*Explanation: I know that eye colour and hair colour changing as you get older may sound impossible to some of you, but actually it happens to a lot of people. www.youtube.com/watch?v=REVpwK…

Skin Colour: She has an ivory skin tone.
Height: 165.3cm/ or 5ft 5 (Average height for women in Finland.)

OUTFITS:

**MAIN OUTFIT  
Hat: Similar to the one Finland wears, it represents the strong bond between Finland and it’s capital.

Shirt: Dark blue button up shirt with white cuffs and a black bow.

Skirt: Brown/redish skirt with ruffles at the bottom. She likes to wear skirts, during summer. (Which is undoubtedly her favourite time of the year.) During colder weather she wears pants of course.

*CHRISTMAS OUTFIT  fav.me/d9l45tm 

Her Christmas outfit is nothing really special. Usually during winter she stays inside because she doesn’t like all the snow and cold. She’d rather spend her time snuggling up next to a fireplace...

But Helsinki loves Christmas, it’s one of her favourite holidays. Some people even call her ‘The Christmas City!’ because everyone is so festive. She loves seeing all the beautiful lights and decorations people put around the city and the huge Christmas tree they put up in Senate Square, along with the Christmas markets where people relax, enjoy good food and drinks, and spend time with their family and friends.

BRIEF PERSONALITY:

When you first meet her she may seem very reserved and quiet.Cold even)  

But that's totally not her true personality- she's a total sweetheart ,is actually very friendly,and loves helping others when they are having trouble.

The only reason she is distant at first is because she's scared she'll bother or annoy you.   She often doesn't approach people in conversation unless she has a reason or knows them.

She is very awkward  (she’s always paranoid she’ll get on your bad side and make a wrong impression)  and doesn’t go out of her way to socialize with people unless she has to.

Because of this she doesn’t have a ton of friends, but that doesn’t really matter to her because the ones she does have are really close to her, when she is around them she feels like she can be herself and be more open, she becomes more talkative and even jokes around a lot.  Her friends describe her as a honest and a mostly- reliable person.

Overall she is a very happy girl with good intentions who can take some time to come out of her introverted shell.

LOVES: Is very attached to Finnish metal (no shame), adores her dog Aapi, coffee, outdoors, art

HATES: When people make empty promises or visit without calling first.

Extras:
~When she gets nervous she bites her nails.
~She doesn’t know how to take a compliment. She’s very modest/ humble.

Short History: 

She was founded by Sweden in 1550 to compete with Tallinn for Baltic Sea Trade on the mouth of  Vantaanjoki River. She grew slowly however, she was always a very sickly girl when she was younger, there was lots of war, poverty, and diseases making it a hard environment for her. Helsinki was moved to it's current location in the 1600s. Then the plague of 1710 struck and killed many of her inhabitants leaving her weaker.

Helsinki was always told to fear and stay away her neighbor, Russia, which she sure did.

In 1748 Sweden began construction of the Suomenlinna Maritime Fortress (Sveaborg) off the coast of Helsinki to counter the growing threat from Russia. The massive project brought additional wealth, inhabitants and merchants to the town, from here she became stronger and grew larger.

During the Finnish war between Russia and Sweden, Russia attacked Sveaborg, Swedish authorities tried to defend it but were forced to surrender.

To much of her horror Russia conquered Finland in 1809. The status of Helsinki was raised to capital of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland three years later. A monumental Empire-style city plan was drawn up to reflect the power of Russia and the Tsar. During this time period Finland and Helsinki began to promote Finnish culture behind Russia’s back.

Their goal was to get the Finnish people to unite together to gain independence  from Russia.

Finland became independent in 1917, and Helsinki assumed the demanding new role of capital of the young republic.

Recovering from the hardships of war, Helsinki hosted the Summer Olympics in 1952. The games created an international reputation for Helsinki as an efficient and friendly host city.

Helsinki is recognized as a city in which many differing views can interact in a constructive atmosphere. The Finlandia Hall has hosted many international summit meetings, including the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 1975. Finland became an EU Member State in 1995. Finland has held the EU Presidency in 1999 and 2006. Also in 2006 Helsinki hosted the ASEM 6 Summit, the largest meeting held in Finland to date.

Helsinki was one of nine European Cities of Culture in 2000. Helsinki received additional international cultural visibility when it successfully hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007.