Surviving Beergardens In Close Proximity, Day 1

[kyrasantae]

I was really really bored this morning and my Internets weren't working, so I actually took a shower and even (*gasp*) put on makeup before I went to class. But I'm sure it was more about looking tidy in anticipation.

I made a really big deal about taking detours around campus and stuff like that today so that I could avoid walking past the Beergardens. Unfortunately, it seemed as though all of my instructors wanted to go there right after their class. Fortunately, only the drunk-people issue and not the live-bands issue popped up and so the detours were still useful, but not as (or perhaps more) necessary.


Since Otto's phone was out of service, he couldn't notify me right when he showed up for me to come down and open the door to let him in. Instead I waited outside for him to show up. Then I ushered him straight to the piano room and played a whole bunch of stuff (including this interesting version of "Walking in the Air"). He played, briefly, an odd improvisation (he doesn't really know how to play piano).

He then gave me a box of Salmiakki in exchange for the bag of Turkish Pepper from DLS, and when we went up to my room I also autographed for him one of my Homecoming Tour posters. He laughed a lot at Finnish grammar books and I talked far too much about music for my own good (like myself, it's not one of those topics that he's comfortable talking about around anyone too much).

We attempted to go to a few places for dinner but it was just around dinnertime and the first few places we stumbled to were full. (And in usual German style we didn't wait around.) Another had seats but only took cash (which I didn't have with me). Eventually we got some sandwiches.

I asked him to pick something for me to paint and I worked on that (above) while I showed him Star Wreck on my computer. Sometimes the subtitles would break, but I wasn't really watching, and he, well... is Finnish, so whatever. He hadn't seen it before but it sounded like he enjoyed it.

He then laughed at the surrealist story about Herr Müller being eaten by a talking shark named Bob which I wrote on one of my German tests. (He's studied German for a while.)

I just think it's somewhat remarkable that we are both so terribly homesick for Finland in our own ways. It's just... I dunno. He assures me that people there really are very nice (but maybe just a little shy around foreigners) and nothing like those horrible bastards that DLS would like to make me think they are. Is it a matter of Otto's youthful innocence vs. DLS's adult cynicism, or something else? It could be many things. I don't think it matters to me.

And then there was random chatter. Y'know, he laughs and smiles a lot for one's typical impression of a Finn. At 11-ish I walked him back to the bus stop just in time, for the bus was right there. Yes, there was a hug¹. Sigh. We are so tired after everything.


¹ He wouldn't be "Hug-A-Finn" without one. Wait... does this mean that International Hug-A-Finn Day is about him...? ...! No, no it doesn't mean that at all.

Comments

[fakiiri.livejournal.com]

Hee, you've got a finnish loverboy ;^P

[kyrasantae.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was such a non-date :p

I'm content to think that certainly there are more equally handsome men where that one came from ;)



Random paraphrased chat snippet:
DLS: So you now have innocence and cynicism. Which do you choose?
Me: Neither. I choose experience.

about the innocence/cynicism issue

[ekkkho.livejournal.com]

i would think its more a matter of both him not being finnish-born (right?) and on the other hand me having spent such a long time outside finland. i grew up amongst finnish people, so them being nice or not depends on different things for me as it does for someone who comes there as a foreigner. also our opinions are definitely influenced by the people we spend time with. now, i dont know about dls's personal motives for making you think something, but this is what i think. however, the main reason for me telling you how nice they are is that id be too scared, on my own behalf, to say they arent, cause my image of finland is so fragile. if i was there right now, with the people i know, i would be ten times as cynical. im afraid to express my opinions about finland or its people. plus, im ok at stereotyping people, but not peoples. so i just want to tell you that with time, you will find most wonderful friends. it might take time, bt eventually, you will.

=)

[ekkkho.livejournal.com]

i guess kyrasantae knows better than to date someone 7 years younger :) i might be the only finnish guy around but im not the one she should be most worried about :)

Re: about the innocence/cynicism issue

[kyrasantae.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where DLS was born, but the fact that DLS didn't grow up there and you did was one of the "many things" I alluded to. As much as I would rather love to believe that your kind image is the one I'd prefer to have (since I would not treat myself as a foreigner in Finland even though that is the reality), I often fear that my appearance as a foreigner will influence people to treat me in a way that may lead to the feelings that DLS has. (DLS may technically be a foreigner but he looks and speaks Finnish.)

The cynicism of the born-and-bred native is different from DLS' cynicism, I think, but I may be assuming too much about DLS at this point. I am not bothered by 'native cynicism' - everyone has it, even Canadians about Canada - but it only reinforces my opinion that I can neither accept innocence or cynicism about this - only experience.

I know what you mean by the whole 'fragile image' thing. It's so easy for me to say that 'uggggh Hong Kong really sucks' at home with my family but when I'm telling people here at school about HK I make it sound like a place that I like. But at the same time, there is no fragility there for me...

The image that I carry of my home is probably just as fragile as yours, if not more so. It is one thing to be separated from there for a number of years, and another altogether to have been separated for the entire life you have ever known. ='(


P.S. Hey! Matching crying-face icons!

Re: =)

[kyrasantae.livejournal.com]

I'm not *that* much older than you... maybe 5?