Now I'm...
I’m in sunny (truth) central Finland. It’s blindingly sunny over here because the snow cover has a high albedo so there are almost two suns burn your eyes. I’m working for the University of Jyväskylä division of Environmental Sciences. My role is to tweek their Geographical Information Systems (GIS) lab into the funky room it will become and to teach the staff and postgrads how to use GIS. When I arrived the lab had obviously been used by personalities similar to the nerd from Ghostbusters. These peoples deserve respect (for more than spreading the joys of marshmallow over NYC) but they are not decorators in nature. Nor am I, so I invite Maija here to make the place look good while I organise the nerdy stuff.
I’m not getting paid to do this job, instead it counts towards university credits back home making John Howard my official employer. Therefore, I have the chance to take Uni courses ; so far I have taken a Finnish course. Learning a language has been heaps-o-fun. It’s the first time I have dedicated myself to a language and I’m finding it a great experience. The only thing is that the Finnish language is notoriously difficult to learn. Apart from Estonian, no language shares any similarities with it. It slots into the well known Finno-Ugric language group with other famous languages such as Hungarian, Estonian and Livonian (now dead).
So far I have learnt the basics, starting with food. I know how to write a shopping list and order a pizza. I can ask for cartons of juice, a whole chicken and a pizza with stuff on top but I cannot buy a bag of chips without acting like a school boy. Chips are perunalastu and you are encouraged to buy the big bags A.K.A. MegaPussi. Maybe I should just grow up but I’m happy to flaunt the interesting name by asking my friends, out loud, if they too want some MegaPussi? What flavour MegaPussi would they prefer? Are there any other places in the store to get MegaPussi? And the joke goes on until I realise I’m just a dickhead.
I’m not getting paid to do this job, instead it counts towards university credits back home making John Howard my official employer. Therefore, I have the chance to take Uni courses ; so far I have taken a Finnish course. Learning a language has been heaps-o-fun. It’s the first time I have dedicated myself to a language and I’m finding it a great experience. The only thing is that the Finnish language is notoriously difficult to learn. Apart from Estonian, no language shares any similarities with it. It slots into the well known Finno-Ugric language group with other famous languages such as Hungarian, Estonian and Livonian (now dead).
So far I have learnt the basics, starting with food. I know how to write a shopping list and order a pizza. I can ask for cartons of juice, a whole chicken and a pizza with stuff on top but I cannot buy a bag of chips without acting like a school boy. Chips are perunalastu and you are encouraged to buy the big bags A.K.A. MegaPussi. Maybe I should just grow up but I’m happy to flaunt the interesting name by asking my friends, out loud, if they too want some MegaPussi? What flavour MegaPussi would they prefer? Are there any other places in the store to get MegaPussi? And the joke goes on until I realise I’m just a dickhead.
