October 3, 2011

And...I'm Spent

I'll tell you one thing, Finland really isn't helping me out much with writing material!

Sure, sure, Finland sounds more 'exotic' than Germany. I mean, you probably know someone who has been to Germany, or maybe even had the opportunity to see the beautiful country with your own eyes.

But hardly anyone has been to or knows much about Finland. Which at first was a great thing for the blog in my mind. I thought "Aw man, people are going to love all the foreign stuff here!"

Until I realized that Finland is not that different than North America. The people are friendly, they mostly all speak English, they are helpful, blah blah blah and all that other boring stuff :) Sure, the random Euro coffee shop or occasional language barrier might bring you back to reality. Not to mention the inflated prices. But other than that, I might as well be back in Canada!

So dang you, Finland, for being so 'normal'. Sheesh, now I actually have to brainstorm things to write about. That's no fun.

But until my mind wakes up today (the haze and gloom of late fall/winter and heeerrreee! blech), I will just recap the weekend.

With the in-laws in town, we had an excuse to do the few touristy things around the town. Climbed up this in-the-middle-of-nowhere tower and saw the whole surrounding area. Quite beautiful. And eerie. We were the only ones out there. We like to take the folks to places that are completely random. 




And we also ate our way through the town. One thing the hubs and I love when his parents come to visit, is all the great food we eat while they are here.

Except for maybe this menu. Which does have some fun descriptions of the dishes, such as "Generous pieces of smoked salmon crowned with crayfish..." and "marinated chicken breast with gentle mozzarella frosting." Mmmm, mozza frosting. Every cake should be so lucky.

But then there is of course the highlighted section below that got us giggling. And I don't dare write it up on the blog, google hits would have a field day with that one!




Rando McRands a lot. Learned how to use one of these. No, actually I learned what one of these did. Somehow did not slice off a finger and opened a can with it.


(source)

And one last thing that makes it so hard to 'weirdofy' Finland. They freakin' love TexMex and everything Texas. No joke. Every grocery story has a large TexMex food section. Salsa, tortillas, taco supplies. And restaurants try to cash in on the action too. Here is a photo of a promotional menu at a place we visited on Saturday. Everything really IS bigger in Texas! Love it.




Although our server did not seem too impressed when I enthusiastically told her that I was from Texas. Like, hello, lady, that is pretty rare. There are only 25 million people in the world able to say that!

Wait a sec...carry the one....divide by the largest common denominator. Then those numbers would make it 5 times more likely to be from Texas than from Finland.

Fail.

Even their hit songs are about U.S.A.

No, not THE U.S.A., just U.S.A. No 'the's are needed here.




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28 comments:

  1. Hay There - Well, that is kinda strange, with your descriptive passage in regard to Finland - very much like America, even with the fantastic views, etc. etc. I think had I been the waiter/waitress in the restaurant, I would have been thrilled to meet a REAL TEXAN. Glad you are getting to experience all the food places with Hub's parents.
    Do you have any snow yet. Our's will come this month most likely mid Oct....maybe. Do you have your winter attire aboot and ready ltl Tex. :)
    Take care and look into the history/artsy side of Finland and give us some of that.
    Ta Ta for now, hugs to the "HUB"
    Lilly

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  2. Ooooops, "P.S.", do the Finns do "Halloween" ?

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  3. Who knew things like texas are so popular abroad?! That alone made for an interesting post.

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  4. They love Tex-Mex? Well who doesn't?! I'm getting some for lunch today.

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  5. Glad you had fun with the in-laws. At least the menus are in English, even if it's creative English. It's better than when I went to Italy, didn't speak Italian, and had to order food by best guess as to what wouldn't contain meat.

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  6. I love the menu item. I hope you ordered that! How chubby were they?

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  7. Well who wouldn't want the chubbiest breasts? (sorry for the extra hits but it could not go comment-less).

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  8. I would love to go out to eat! Send your in-laws to come visit us! Wait, do they baby sit?

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  9. Finland DOES sound more exotic, but it's interesting to know that it's fairly North American.

    I am from Texas too and your blog is really fun.

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  10. So funny how that works out isn't it? I thought the same thing when we travelled to europe this summer. Mr. Mean Girl was all brushed up and ready to use his French. We got in a cab in Belgium and the driver was like, "Where to?" In a New York accent to boot. Disappointment for sure.

    Maybe Finland will have a festival of freaks in October or something equally as blog worthy? :)

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  11. I ave a feeling a bit of a love/hate relationship is beginning with Finland here? Am I right? On the plus side for their tourist board you are making me want to visit the place haha!! Maybe you should contact them and tell them how flea market porn, giant mushrooms and icky liquorice promotions would bring the world flocking hahaha!! Glad you had a great time with the inlaws and good luck with the brain storming. Your package of treats is winging it your way!!

    Don't forget...America is A-OK!! I am gonna be singing this all night now.. thanks!

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  12. As a child, I always imagined that all the world's sea monsters lived in/around Finland. I don't think I'm ready to outgrow that one yet.

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  13. That is too funny! Can't blame them though can you... Pretty sure tacos are the BEST food on the planet. haha

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  14. chubbiest breasts...ha!
    that's the best phrase I've heard in a long time

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  15. Haha Finland seems great. I was almost going to head out there in January! Butttttt I figured it might get really cold at that time. You'll have to let us know. Also now I really want TexMex.

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  16. Over here in China, anything American is popular. Which basically means that you see a lot of people wearing shirts with "maed in americ" written on them.

    I am, however, curious as to why the Finnish are so Texan-obssessed.

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  17. haha, there are endless opportunities to be had to make jokes when referencing chicken. I like your find haha.

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  18. hahahaha LOVE that menu... I might have kept it

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  19. Oh my goodness you're hilarious! The highlighted part was super funny, can't say I've ever seen something like that on a menu before!

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  20. Ahh! I have a good excuse for not being around yesterday, I promise ;)
    @Saucy - nuh-uh, very much like Canada! Seriously, so much like. Haha, well glad you would have been excited :)No snow yet. They said late Oct or early Nov. Its a coming! I am covered for winter attire thankfully. And no, no halloween here, boo right?! You are too sweet Lilly. Your comments always make me smile!
    @Angela - I know, right?? And it is clearly not Mexican food, they call it TexMex!
    @Meg - we are just so mature, aren't we?! haha
    @Joshua - right on you are! I am making fajitas here soon, can't wait either.
    @Jordan - every restaurant has a menu in English. Which is really nice. Oh, that sounds fun. Can only imagine the hand gestures involved in that game of charades, lol.
    @Kyria - haha, no, but next time for sure. And I will report on their chubbiness, lol.
    @TriGirl - Yes! I am going to have great ones today! I will actually start ordering 'chubby breasts' at every meal, regardless if they are on the menu or not, haha.
    @Marie - haha, they are pretty adventurous with their travels, so they just might!
    @Abby - well thanks girl, and always nice to meet a fellow Texan :)
    @Rachel - No fun! Exactly the same here. I try to say anything here, and they respond in perfect English. And we don't even live in a big city here. Oh, if only! Apparently they don't do Halloween here. But we will see, we will see :)

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  21. @Missy - SOLELY because of the fact that it isn't giving me funny things to write about ;) Actually, I was just tired yesterday, haha. Lazy. That could be fun! Yeah!! I can't wait for treats. I keep finding good stuff here I wish I had put in your package.
    @A Beer - Very interesting little tid bit. There are tons of lakes here. Maybe I will do some investigating for you, lol
    @Kassi - for sure they are! See, you would love Finland too.
    @Not a - haha, isn't it?? Who doesn't want those?!
    @Jackie - Buutttt is right indeed, might be a little chilly and dark. I am sure I will complain about it enough on here, lol.
    @Lemons - Haha, can we do a blog swap and you send me one of those awesome T-shirts, too funny! Who knows, I think I need to look into that. Good idea!
    @Meri - It was my cough, cough, father in laws find, cough cough ;)
    @Kristin - oh, it is a local place. Might have to hock a menu or two soon enough!
    @Bri - Can you imagine seeing something like that back at home? The towns people might riot and shut the place down!

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  22. I have major Tex-Mex envy. Don't tell me it's even half as good. When my mom was in town, she brought me Velveeta and Rotel, dream come true. Anyways, hope you had a blast with your in laws! I just had my 3 week stream of visitors - too spoiled. Back to reality....

    I am also cracking up about the normalcy of Finland. Definitely not having this problem here in Germany because even the German I can speak no one can understand it, bleh.

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  23. I would kill for velveeta right now. Not kidding ;) Isn't that funny that they have NO ear for it??

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  24. Ooooh, I would love a little Tex-Mex right now. As you know, not very common over here.
    Love the videos that you post!

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  25. "Mozzarella frosting" sounds strangely delicious. So you are in Finland and you have a very English like menu. I'm liking this trip of yours so far. Glad they take Euros. I think I still have enough from my last trip for a plate of chubby........ nope, just can't do it.

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  26. The Fins love Tex-Mex stuff? How random :) I guess that makes it easier for you to cook things from home!

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  27. LOL Tell that waitress to get with the program. Every time I say I am from Texas, people here in DK think it is SOOO awesome! :-)

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Whoomp, there it is!