lista

believe it or not, that means list.

Eight things the guidebooks didn't tell me about Finland:

1. Mocking Canada and Morgan Freeman jokes are universal sources of amusement. (thanks, South Park)

2. The word kebab does not mean "delicious skewers of meat" here. Dinner at a kebab place means handing over 7 euros and watching in horrified fascination as they shave the meat-on-a-spit into long strips with what definitely looks like a beard trimmer. and serve it on top of french fries. Delicious, as long as you know where to go (some of these places have been caught putting catfood into their meat...)

3. The Finnish musical scale goes A H C D E F G.

4. The bathrooms at home have heated floors. If I could live in my bathroom I completely would, but I think my host brother wouldn't dig that so much.

5. Their ice-cream comes in blocks, so you can fold away the cardboard wrapping and slice it with a knife. Much more efficient than scooping. If you want icecream at McDonalds, well, Oreos don't exist here. But salmiakki McFlurries are SO GOOD.

6. The language is very blunt - extraneous please's and thank you's just don't happen. They see no use for euphemisms, either. You wouldn't say "I'm afraid this wasn't your best test grade...". It would be "This was lousy." Taking offense seems to be an unnecessary American invention.

7. Wearing dresses over jeans isn't a nightmarish tween fashion choice that will haunt you until your early twenties, it's completely acceptable.

8. Spitting in public is constant. Little girls, teenagers, business-people, elderly men. No matter who they are, Finns spit whenever and wherever they feel like it. My theory is that all the 200,000 Finnish lakes are just good-old-fashioned Viking spittle. By the looks of it, the college kids in my neighborhood are trying to create a minor pond by the bus stop.