I get unusually excited about mail.
Apr. 22nd, 2010 05:33 pmAfter three weeks in customs and one week on a cross-Canada road trip (and six full weeks of this xkcd comic), my package of Finnishness finally showed up. I had to pay (Canadian) sales tax on it, but the processing fee was more than the tax they charged. Oh well. It's a welcome burst of energy to get me through the last bit of this otherwise dull week.
THEY TAPED OVER THE FINNISH PACKING SLIP POCKET!! tsk tsk. I need to get past it to open the darn thing.


First, that's a miniature Mölkky set (for the uninitiated, it's kind of a cross between lawn bowling and bocce).
The picture book -- Tatun ja Patun Suomi ("Tatu and Patu's Finland") -- is a...modern classic, I guess. It's also freaking hilarious; the illustrations are full of detail. My Finnish teacher recommended it to us (I think it was pretty new back then) and I remember seeing it in bookstores there. It's also available in English (as This is Finland), but Finnish books in English translation are very expensive, and wouldn't that kind of defeat the purpose? :P
It's kind of pathetic that I recognized the book, a couple of weeks ago, as the one that's shown being read at 5:30 in this BBC video
Can't ever have too many grammar books. The author writes that this book is written for those "whose first desire is to be able to read and understand written Finnish." That's me. I'm glad that there's someone out there who appreciates that some people aren't as interested in practical spoken language right at the beginning.

^- first time I've seen a legible Finnish signature. Interesting.
She is completely speaking my mind here:

I'm so excited about going to Crimson Lake with my friends next weekend that I'm already packed and ready to go. Well, I kind of have to be, since I'll be in Calgary on Saturday and I'll be going to the camping trip directly from there, so I need to take everything with me.
THEY TAPED OVER THE FINNISH PACKING SLIP POCKET!! tsk tsk. I need to get past it to open the darn thing.


First, that's a miniature Mölkky set (for the uninitiated, it's kind of a cross between lawn bowling and bocce).
The picture book -- Tatun ja Patun Suomi ("Tatu and Patu's Finland") -- is a...modern classic, I guess. It's also freaking hilarious; the illustrations are full of detail. My Finnish teacher recommended it to us (I think it was pretty new back then) and I remember seeing it in bookstores there. It's also available in English (as This is Finland), but Finnish books in English translation are very expensive, and wouldn't that kind of defeat the purpose? :P
It's kind of pathetic that I recognized the book, a couple of weeks ago, as the one that's shown being read at 5:30 in this BBC video
Can't ever have too many grammar books. The author writes that this book is written for those "whose first desire is to be able to read and understand written Finnish." That's me. I'm glad that there's someone out there who appreciates that some people aren't as interested in practical spoken language right at the beginning.

^- first time I've seen a legible Finnish signature. Interesting.
She is completely speaking my mind here:

I'm so excited about going to Crimson Lake with my friends next weekend that I'm already packed and ready to go. Well, I kind of have to be, since I'll be in Calgary on Saturday and I'll be going to the camping trip directly from there, so I need to take everything with me.