2011 Blogs

Getting Fat in Finland...My Detailed Finnish Experience

01/23/2012

I survived the first week of second term and I have a feeling that this will be my favorite semester yet! I am continuing my two Bioscience modules and am then taking Religion and Sex and American Performance, a drama class where we analyze and discuss American plays from the 20’s on. But let me back track, because I still haven’t told you all about my amazing experience in Finland!

Finland

The Church!

I stayed with one of my good friends from Uni, Maija, and her family. We stayed with her sister and brother-in-law for most of the week, and their apartment was so cute and TINY! One of the first things Maija and I did when I got there was go and visit Hakaniemi, a market in Helsinki. There they have fresh fish, meat (they were sawing cows in half in the open?!), pastries, a little soup kitchen and some small market shops. In the outside part of the market they sell potatoes and some flowers and other things that I can’t remember because it was freezing and snowing while I was there, so we didn’t spend much time outside! But the market was wonderful and it was amazing to have such fresh food everywhere since I’m so used to the American Wal-Mart delivery of chemically prepackaged, imported foods! Gross. After the market, we spent the rest of the day in the city shopping. They have MALLS in Helsinki!  Nice malls! I haven’t seen any malls in England and have felt deprived! Everything was so big and organized and clean. Ugh! I was in heaven! They have this store in Finland that’s called marimeko. It’s named after the Finnish designer who uses clean lines to create dresses and scarves and purses and EVERYTHING you could imagine. Every item is very structured which is cool because the patterns are so bright and lively! Marimeko uses the same fabric for many different items so you could have a matching collection of one fabric. I loved it. I bought a little coin purse! There is also a store called Kalevala. The Kalevala is a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology and consists of 50 runos or cantos and 22,795 lines of poetry. The poem tells the story of a people, from the very beginning of the world to the introduction of Christianity. The store has pieces of jewelry created for certain aspects of the folklore and mythology. Maija has some of their jewelry that represents blue pearls which were found by ducks and became the most magnificent pearls, more wonderful than anything on earth…or something like that. Ha! We also visited the huge church in Helsinki, and Maija’s grandfather actually used to hold services there. It was beautiful and the church is Lutheran, practicing and basing their beliefs off of Martin Luther, the German reformer who posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg. Remember learning that in freshman history? Anyway, the church was beautiful and according to Maija, any resident of Helsinki can get married there FOR FREE! The waiting list is just 2 years long, no big deal. Ha! The next day I was there, Maija, myself and her best friend Julia went to Estonia, a nearby country that has plenty of shops and cheap alcohol. People in Finland go to Estonia to buy alcohol in bulk because it’s so much cheaper than in Finland. Because of that, people (and hilariously enough, OLD people) go to Estonia (you get there by a cruise ship- like boat), get loads of alcohol and get drunk in the process. As we were sitting on the upper deck of the ship on our way home, a guy (who had had WAY too much fun, apparently by himself) in Estonia, crashed next to me and had passed out, managing to snore so loudly and simultaneously foam at the mouth. It was both frightening and entertaining. While in Estonia, we went to a cocktail bar where we played like we were in Sex and the City, drank cosmos and enjoyed the awesome layout. The bar was SO nice! Very chic! They were playing Milan’s Fashion Week on all of the TVs. Ooh la la! For one of my last days in Finland, Maija and I went back in the center of Helsinki to shop and go to Hesburger, which turned out to be a life changing experience. Hesburger is like Finalnd’s McDonalds… but SO much better. Maija’s dad, Jukka (cool name, right? Pronounced like: You-kuh ) told me that Hesburger started out as a hot dog stand and became one of the biggest food chains in Finland. They have regular fast food fare but include some special mayonnaise sauce for their French fries that is UH-mazing. After stuffing our faces with burgers, we then went and got some Arnold’s donuts. These donuts are freshly made and are massive, just like the ones in America! After consuming enough saturated fats to cause atherosclerosis, we went back to Maija’s parent’s apartment where they made a big meal. We had MOOSE(!) and bacon patties, moose stew, smashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower bake, wine and some fresh pastries from the market. One of the traditional Finnish pastries we had was a donut filled with apple jam that translates into English “The Fat Pig Man” which is how I felt after all of the eating I did that day. Later that night her mother was offering me MORE food…chocolate, ugh, I could’ve exploded! Haha. It was the first (and probably last) time I will ever turn down a piece of chocolate.

Overall, my stay in Finland was wonderful and I am so glad I had such a welcoming and warm home to stay at while there. When I first arrived in Helsinki, Maija was waiting for me at the gate with a sign that said my name! Awe!! I can’t wait to travel more this term and hopefully have as much fun as I did in Finland! ‘Til next time-

Kels

Finland

The Church!

Estonia!

Estonia!

 

Maija and I in Estonia!

This guy had too much fun in Estonia...

Freezing on our way to Estonia!

HESBURGER!!

Burger bliss.

The best dessert of my life, BeBes from Hakaniemi!

Donuts from Arnold's!

Worth every calorie...