+ I just spent the last fifteen minutes sitting in a McDonald's in a little indoor shopping center off one of the main streets in Helsinki, eating french fries with some strange hot chili sauce while the best hits of Bob Dylan played. It was pretty funny. It's a rare day when I find McDonald's comforting. The walk to the reception was nice, along big pretty boulevard-like streets with lots of people out and bistros and two Marimekkos, and City Hall is right by the water. The reception was in a huge gorgeous room that looked like a St. Petersburg ballroom, with an elaborately detailed pastel ceiling and lots of gold. I stayed for probably twenty minutes. I had some olives and a glass of white wine and stood like a dead weight next to I. and D. while they were talking to some woman about setting up a meeting and basically ignoring me the entire time after slightly nodding hello. If I cared more maybe I would have just bloody introduced myself to some random person, but there were literally hundreds of people and I just couldn't muster up the energy. Some days I feel punchier than others. It certainly would have been nice if the only people I know made at least a vague effort but they are a) Swedish and b) scientists and while I'm sure there are Swedish scientists who are good at being socially inclusive, it's not the most promising combination. So I left and ate french fries.
+ Finnish is a cool language. According to wikipedia it's a member of the Finno-Ugric language family. I notice some of the cross-over with Swedish, but the words are really, really long and there are so many double vowels and double consonants. Here are some of the menu options at McDonald's here:
Tuplajättijuustohampurilainen
Rouheciabatta salaattileipä
and, my favorite, Chili McFeast
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1 comment:
People should read this.
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