My mandatory military service in the Finnish army (called Defence Forces because "army" sounds more hostile I guess) began on the 6th of January 2014. By default it will last for 347 days until otherwise ordered. Other possible service times are 255 and 165 days. The service time will be decided around early March I think.
Finland has mandatory military service for all men aged 18-29. During that time frame all men must complete their service unless they have serious medical reasons not to start/finish/continue the service. Women are allowed to do their military service too if they apply separately but this seems to be fairly rare. During your time in the army you are paid 6.77 USD, 11.30 USD, or 15.83 USD daily depending on how long you serve.
Military service starts twice a year (January and July) during which thousands of Finnish men and a handful of women step into service.
After completing your military service you are moved the to the reserve until you are 60. While you are in the reserve you may be called in for military exercises for up to ~100 days at a time depending on things. These exercises are held twice a year but some people are never called in for exercises.
Mandatory military service means you will go to jail for 173 days if you decline from starting your military service. An alternative to the military service is civil service which is essentially regular work for 347 days except you are not paid any money during this time. The government will decide where you will work but you can express your wishes for the place to work to the government which may or may not be taken into account when your work place will be decided.
As me anything about the Finnish Defence Forces and I'll do my best to answer your questions.
We live in barracks with up to ~12 (varies even in my garrison, I can't guess anything about other garrisons) men sleeping in one room. Every day is filled to the brim with various lessons about warfare and there is usually very little time in between lessons to change your clothes/prepare for the next lessons. The lessons may be school-like lessons where some higher ranking person talks to the class or more practical ones like digging mines into the ground.
I've been in service for 10 days. (Ie. I've barely started)
The entire first day went into getting ~30 kg of gear, dragging that around the garrison, checking and sorting it, and somehow fitting it all into a small locker.
On the second day we were taught general firearm safety among other theory lessons.
On the third day we were all given our personal assault rifles. The Defence Forces use an AK-47 painted black and imaginatively renamed to
Rk 62 or Rynnäkkökivääri 62. (Which means Assault Rifle 62. Manufacturing of the gun began in 1962.) Check the link for more technical info if you're interested.
On the fourth day we took the gun apart.
On the fifth day we practiced a shooting position while laying down.
And on the sixth day we were given real bullets and fired 20 shots.
So far I've had 4 shooting classes, fired around 100 shots, taken the gun apart some 10 times, and cleaned it 5 times.
I believe we're supposed to shoot with blanks next week and practice with laser tag the week after that. Yeah I have no idea either why the shooting practice is so reversed.
