Foreign to Familiar??

Things are quite entertaining and fascinating here in Finland. When we went to a big store (maybe the closest thing to a Wal-Mart here) and I noticed a few odd things. First of all, outside there were parking spaces for dogs (places to tie them up). This seems really practical. Then there was this entire section for Sauna accessories! I had no idea that going to a sauna could be so involved! Then there was the yogurt… now I have heard Heli talk about some of these things before, and I really thought that maybe, just a bit, she could be exaggerating. Well, the choices of yogurt-type things in that store could put any American Super Wal-Mart to shame! Heli made me buy this yogurty (Viili) stuff and try it. At first when I opened it, I thought it looked just like thick yogurt – then I tried to scoop some onto my spoon. It has the consistency of something akin to (excuse this example) clingy snott. It was quite the adventure to eat it without making a mess!

Here is a picture of the all-important rye bread that is rivaled by none other (in Heli’s opinion… I think it’s good).

Then there was these archaic machines that I had to try and use. They looked like something from either the distant past or something wonky from the space age future :-) I managed to use the orange one to spin the clothes more dry without blowing up the building, so that was a victory!


For those of you from North America... here is a picture out of the window at 12:50 at night.