This is Edinburgh

You get the picture.

Weather

Awesome...

1000 down

Now this blog has been viewed over 1000 times. Awesome!

We'll see what happens once I've relocated to Scotland - my travel blog (in Finnish), which has been pretty quiet lately, will see more action from now on, so we'll see how much time I have for this one. I'll try to keep my "interesting observations" coming, though - I'm definitely not making this into a copy of my Finnish blog, because I can't be bothered to translate all my texts. (You could say that's a bad sign, considering my career choice, but (believe it or not) I don't get paid for this; I'd happily translate it if I did).

Anyway, what I meant to say was: 1000 views, that's great, and please keep visiting! :)

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Culture Shock Finland #2: Salmiakki

Every country has some sort of strange food that most foreigners can't stand. It's the kind of stuff that you have to be a native to like, or even to understand why anyone would eat it. It's also the stuff that people love to feed to foreigners, because it's almost certain they'll hate it.

Finland, like most countries, has several of these foods, but the one that I think is the most important is salmiakki (salty liquorice). Finnish children don't always like it, but many of them grow up to love it more than anything. It's the thing (together with rye bread) that most people miss when they're abroad (I keep saying 'most', because I don't want to generalise, especially since I'm not one of these 'most people', and I personally side with all the foreigners who hate the stuff).

If you ever meet a Finn, they'll probably try to feed you salmiakki. It's worth a try, because it's very typically Finnish, but I don't promise you'll like it. If you decide to try it, don't worry if you hate it - you're not going to offend the Finn, because that's the reaction they're expecting. It's actually a bit disappointing when someone does like it!

Fazer (the Finnish company that's famous for their chocolate, but also makes lots of other stuff) has recently released a new salmiakki ice cream, and a TV ad to go with it. The ad was titled "The world's most hated - Finland's most loved", and in it you can see the reactions to the salmiakki ice cream by both foreigners (the first half) and Finns (the second half). The Finns' comments included such things as "It tastes Finnish", "It just gets better the more you eat it", "I don't know anything that could be added to this, it's so good", "It's like a party in my mouth" and "Can I get another one of these?". My favourite reaction is the guy at 0:44 :D

Mood swings

YAY! - A new episode of Doctor Who tomorrow!
NO! - It's the last one before the break!
YAY! -  It looks like it's going to be a great episode!
NO! - There's supposed to be some crazy cliffhanger!
YAY! - It'll be back in September!
NO! - How will I make it till then?
YAY! - I'll be in Edinburgh, I'm sure I'll manage :D

I'd still prefer that it didn't go on break, though!

Culture Shock Finland #1: Buying a coffee

I met a Scottish girl the other day who had read the book Culture Shock: Finland on her way over, and it inspired me to write the following post. I might even make this into a series for any non-Finnish readers out there!

This following conversation could be heard in most other countries, but I have chosen to set it in England.

Person 1: Hello!
Person 2: Hi! Could I have a coffee, please?
Person 1: That'll be one pound, thank you.
Person 2: There you go.
Person 1: Thank you. Here you go!
Person 2: Thank you.
Person 1: Have a nice day!
Person 2: Thanks, you too!

Now here's how us Finns do it (translations added for easier understanding).

Person A: Kahvi. (A coffee.)
Person B: Kaks viiskyt. (Two fifty.)
Person A: [hands over money]
Person B: Ole hyvä. (Here you go. [optional])
Person A: Kiitti. (Cheers. [optional, rarely used])

Welcome to Finland! ;)

EDIT: Seeing as some people (Finns) seem to be taking this way too seriously, I'll have you know that this is exaggerated, and supposed to be funny. It's not as bad as all that, but you have to admit, people in some other countries are better at being polite. That's all I'm saying!
Better now? :P

Another truthful picture

This picture was taken in a hostel in London by my friend Aksu, and It (too) Speaks the Truth! Also, it relates pretty well to my last post...

And why not?

Sometimes you don't need a reason for doing certain things, even big ones. Sometimes, when people ask you "Why?", the only reply you can, and need, and want to give them is "Why not?" And I have to say, it does make life more interesting. To be spontaneous every once in a while, not overthink every move, just to go with the flow, to do what feels right, and to just answer questions with "Why not?"

If you'd asked me last Monday "Are you going to spend this summer at home?" I would have replied "Unfortunately, yes".
If you'd asked me on Wednesday, I would have said "Maybe".
Well, today things suddenly changed quite a bit. After a couple of months of getting used to the idea that Barcelona isn't going to happen this summer, I'm suddenly three weeks away from moving to Edinburgh for at least 2½ months - maybe longer, you never know. There's some spontaneity for you!

But this is the way to go, I think. When your life is like mine at the moment, with no strings attached, then, you know, why not?

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Pretty things

I love pretty things, and they make me happy, so to share this happiness with you, here are some of the pretty things I have at home.

Poetic Licence: School Girl, Irregular Choice, UK

Regency Cake Stand, Oliver Bonas, UK

Purse, Marimekko, Finland

Toaster, Pylones, France

PiP Teapot, PiP Studio, the Netherlands

Recap of the past week

First, I was going to write a long post about the Eurovision Song Contest, based on my FB conversation with a friend while watching it, but the whole ESC thing is getting a bit old already. Basically, we didn't do too well, but then we (almost) never do, and the only thing that matters is that Sweden didn't win either ;)

Then, I was going to write about the AMAZING night the entire population of Finland (which isn't all that many people, but still) had last Sunday, when the Finnish team beat Sweden and became world champions of ice hockey, but that's been written about so many times already that I don't think I need to contribute to it at this point. I'll just illustrate by a few pictures of my evening (most of the pics are by Anna, the last one's from Iltalehti):

Finnish supporters

GOAL!

National anthem

A spontaneous gathering at the market square of Turku after the game

Good times...

Seems like I've managed to fill a post pretty well with stuff I wasn't going to write about. I'll just finish this off by telling you about the gigs I went to this week.

My favourite band Fork performed in my hometown this week, and I went to see them with my mum on Tuesday. Fork likes to call themselves an "a cappella rock band", and their shows are always amazing! If you're thinking of normal a cappella, you couldn't be further from the truth, because this really is more like a rock band. Anyway, their show on Tuesday was so ridiculously good that the first thing I did after it was to call a friend and see if she'd join me to their second gig in the same town the next day. So I saw them twice in two days. Best 40€ I've ever spent.
So if you live in Finland and they're performing within a 100km radius of you, go see them! And if anyone's going to the Edinburgh Fringe in August, you can see them there, too!