Minun suosikki harrastukseni: syöminen

Hei,

I know I am late, you should better get used to that - it is part of my concept of breaking with stereotypes (I have said this so often I almost believe it myself).

Let me start with my progress in Finnish language as people are continuously asking me about that. I still am delighted for every word I recognize (that possibly means it can not be all too many) but I am getting more and more into it. Lately I went to the finnish section of the library to find a nice book for me to read there. My teacher had given us a couple of recommendations and I swear I was planning to leave with one of those!

surely some of the most relevant pieces of contemporary literature

Inevitably then I stumbled upon some even more interesting books, including those of great german philosophers, thinkers and writers I had already dealt with or had always wanted to deal with. In the end my choice had to be this though - partly because I know the plot, but mainly because of the fantastic sound of the title:

Clockwork Orange

It certainly is way too complicated for me - perfect!

As indicated in the title I decided this entry will mostly deal with eating and shopping habits. Unsurprisingly mine did not have to change too much, pasta and potatoes are commonly used here - but small things can make quite a difference as well.
It took me several weeks to become aware, but at least theoretically the first thing you notice when entering a supermarket are the slot machines. To me it is a bit curious how everyone appears to care about alcoholism but not to have at least considered gambling addiction since it is almost the other way around in germany.
Reaching the vegetable section you already get the distinct impressions prices are extremely high - and indeed, they are. A welcome exception is pasta (good for me) and a prime example is beer (not so good for me).

nothing funny here

Having passed that you roam around randomly in the supermarket because you do not see any system in the placement of the products and try to make some good guesses concerning the ingredients listings. If you are in a good mood you may additionally start looking up things in your dictionary and ask people like an idiot, so you appear even more ridiculous. I gave my best at this discipline but remained the only one laughing at me; people are simply too nice here.
Well it used to be like that, by now I am usually getting along nicely.

A few words on the assortment:
Firstly, how can finland be considered a developed country if they do not even have wheat beer? Has to be a conspiracy, I suspect the commies. What appeases me is that everything I knew could be made out of apples is simply made out of pears here - it is brilliant!
Then there are immense amounts of milk products and strangely it seems the majority of them is lactose free or reduced (on a side note, you might consider lactose tolerant people to actually be strange for consuming breast milk of other species). Anyway you need to watch out what you are about to buy, which is also the case for cream cheese: Just as back in germany it turned out to be almost impossible to find any not proudly proclaiming its reduced percentage of fat. What the heck is wrong with society to confuse nutrients with contaminants? I take it as a proof for how disturbed the relation to nourishment has become and am wondering why I am the kind of person to suffer from it.
I seriously would love to buy anything that says "80% fat and a crap ton of sugar"* on it, ideally combined with a picture of some fatso - "You're gonna look like this!" - if I could. Would be honest for a change.
Furthermore I can not understand why I was forced to choose from about 1000 different energy-saving lamps instead of being able to just purchase the simple light bulb that I wanted - applause to this great european achievement.


*If my dear audience is too well-bred to deal with this sort of vocabulary, http://www.urbandictionary.com is always there to help: "A crap ton is equal to 4 shit loads." It generally is a reliable source of knowledge and wisdom, somewhat like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - probably it is only less popular since it does not have "DON'T PANIC" written in large friendly letters on it.


That should be enough angry shouting (and should also leave plenty room for discussions, feel challanged), so... hurra, half of my coins are finally useless!

why do Germans love to carry these so much?

Anyway plastic cards are way more popular here, the number of mine has increased by 500%. For some strange reason one of the rare occasions you have to pay cash are the cafeterias. Their food has an emphasis on potatoes but is quite alright - their true expertise, however, lies in producing remarkable queues.
That is all there is to say about the food for now, but I will continue eating at all expenses just to keep you guys informed!

Not to let this entry become all too excessive (bear with me) here are some quick impressions of what else has been going on.

 "can't keep my eyes from the circling skies..."

I went to the ballet and being only half a meter from the actors was very different from what I had experienced in Halle before. Appropriately this time the music came from my old mate Händel.

Händel statue in Halle - long time no see

Next I found out how nicely my flat is isolated when somewhere below there was a party where they smoked sofas and dogs - at least that is what it smelled like in the whole staircase and soon afterwards the flat.
And how cool is this? Is it usual in Finland?

exemplary! see also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekpD06P7kiI

And I was having a look at the town at night.

wish I had a better camera, there was much more to be seen

That reminds me of how tired I am, the finnish course I had today started at 8:30... in the morning! That is almost midnight! So this is all for now, nähdään.

Rakastan Suomea

Terve!

I am beginning to think I made a mistake by creating this blog - it is turning out to require some effort. But no worries, as everyones expectations (including mine) are so high, this entry also will be longer than two sentences.

To start with the most important news: My skates finally arrived!

nobody would steal my old skates, they just looks funny like this

Actually what I got in the first place was a sheet of paper on which it said I could pick up my package - that is what I guessed at least, because it was in Finnish and I did not really understand a thing. So I searched for the main post station in town where they told me I was always welcome to pay them a visit there - my package had to be picked up at a kiosk around the corner of my flat though.

After this unnecessary delay finally holding my skates in my hands felt a bit like christmas eve, but obviously that is nothing compared to the sensation of driving them. Despite the over all bad weather, they enabled me to easily take a couple of pictures in and around Turku.

either Finns are generally very small people or the dome is pretty immense...

Undoubtedly the most striking building is the dome. I am sure it is totally interesting in many other ways - not for me though.

Aurajoki yöllä

Right next to it flows the Aura, coming from the seaside, which also provides some fantastic view.

you can not actually see the sea because there is tons of islands in the way

For that I only had to take a few steps from my flat and surely was delighted from what I saw. You can find pretty much whatever kind of landscape your heart desires: flourishing swamplands...

imagine the number of warning signs and the height of the safety fence

a "road" through swampy ground like this would have in germany

... next to perfectly climbable mountains within a beautiful forest.

the camera is crap, but the view is great!

And then there is my flats building.

likely to be the most advantageous picture you can take of it

I live in the sixth floor and at first I thought I was going to die of acrophobia, but surprisingly it appears to be way less problematic than for example the third floor. Considering that I do not mind flying in several thousand meters height either, I guess it is due to the fact that I start to lose relation to anything on the ground already.

Also after having postponed it for almost ever, I finally dared to wash my clothes and it was just as adventurous as rumors had made me expect. Before using a washing machine you have to make an online reservation (of course you can not be sure everybody complies with those). Next thing you need to do is learn Finnish (sometimes there even is a swedish translation attached - nice!). That done you can follow the instructions to use one of the washing mashines.
Luckily there is always someone around who has already figured out how it works (usually by pushing all buttons randomly) or at least someone who is lost as you are, so it never gets boring.

Thanks to the help of the washing machines my Finnish is making good progress, I manage to cope with more and more complex structures - by that I mean I sometimes amazingly happen to understand and create full sentences that people would actually use, my skills are still far from being good.
Some days ago I finally met someone who did not speak english and had a fantastic conversation something like this with her: "Puhutko englantia?" - "Ei." - "Uuuuuuuhm".
That was all I could say to express my concern.
As I already caught myself thinking mostly in english by now, my next goal is to start thinking finnish. Actually it is already working partly (for certain things of daily use), so I am very confident that it will be only a matter of years.
The finnish course has yet to become interesting, but biomimetics has proofed to be great fun. The subject is highly thrilling and the professor is kind of mad: Apart from being always barefooted he likes to distract us by making handstands or fighting against the air with cardboard rolls whenever we are busy with a task, it is hilarious.

Moreover lately there was the Erasmus student network 25 years anniversary. International students from all over Finland were invited as well as some australian comedian, Pekka Haavisto (yes, he is famous) and a band. Looking at the place it could have become one hell of a party, it was enormous and the organization clearly was a professionals job.

behind the stairs you can find a huge stage

But then came the comedian. He mainly made fun of the Finns - which is a bit too easy if there are none in the audience - including even the joke about someone trying to commit suicide on the tracks but waiting for the train in vain. A gag almost older than industrialisation, how witty. Strangely nobody seemed to agree with me though, many people even laughed and applauded while only politeness kept me from booing.
He even missed to point out the actual joke of the evening: inviting students and charging 6€ (!) for 0.4l (!) Carlsberg(!).
With at least my mood ruined Pekka Haavisto said something more or less meaningless about the importance of exchange programmes for the european project.
Then the band entered the stage and turned out to be the best part of the programme.

oops, wrong concert

It played some unique sort of new metal with an interesting set of instruments...

making the crowd go wild with the flute

To make another evening full of opposite opinions complete, I was the only one cheering when the singer at some point said: "Whoopwhoop, that's the sound of da police" (indeed, simply because of this scene from an excellent movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qo3EwozH0Y).

Afterwards the party continued (or rather started) in Klubi, but it was not too spectacular and I have had more than enough self-reference for today.

Nähdään!