Sally, Todd, and I met outside Todd's apartment around 8pm with the goal of finding somewhere to eat dinner. Instead of staying around Kampii where we are all the time we hopped on the metro and rode north east 3 stops. Here there was great debate about where we belonged. Todd had taken the metro to this neighborhood before, but Sally and I thought we remembered the name of the stop. We got off the metro only to have Todd say, "no, no, get back on this isn't our stop". With the Finn's silently laughing at the tourists, we got back on and as soon as the doors closed Todd said, "yea....that was our stop". It made for good fodder for mockery the next couple days. Outside of the metro we just walked towards signs and found a little place that looked like it had food. I do not remember the name of it, but I really want to go back. My food was wonderful - I had pasta with very wide noodles that had mushrooms, pesto, and chicken on it. Fantastic. Todd's meal was meant to be a stew, but looked like a tasty breakfast skillet.
After eating we oriented ourselves on Sally's map (mine seems to have wandered off again) and found the bar with the rap. In Finland it is expected that one check their coat at the door and usually this "service" costs about 2 euros...when it was really cold and we had tons of layers I didn't really mind but now the hidden cover charge is not hidden to me. Due to the band, there was apparently an additional 5 euro cover, but Sally and I walked right past the man taking money and he told us Todd had to pay but didn't ask for funds from us. Quite strange, but a nice treat. The rap was interesting. With all rap for me it's pretty much about the bass line, but even that got a little predictable for me. The most amusing part of the experience was watching the Finns listen to rap. Saori's perfect analogy was that the Finns were like prairie dogs. As soon as the performers arrived they stopped their conversations, most of them stood up and faced the stage. Instead of having the musicians be background noise or something to be enjoyed with your friends, it was like we were at an concert which required their utmost attention. It was also interesting that apparently rap cannot exist without some profanity...those words came through in english quite clearly. As we left, they actually played something kind of danceable. I will not rush for the next Finnish rap event, but it was certainly one of those things I'm glad I experienced once - hilarious in general.
Friday I woke up around 9am and got on my computer to find that DW was still awake in his time zone. I chatted with him until he went to sleep and then got ready for the day. My main activities for the day were reading most of a book about Juha Leiviska (I need to make much much more progress today), doing laundry (seems like I just did it but because we are traveling next weekend it was necessary, plus I washed my sheets!), and eating food. Uneventful but a nice easy day. I wish I would have waited about 10 more minutes to make my dinner because I essentially ate two evening meals yesterday. Sally had gone to the library to study with Todd (and Matt, I think) and came home with a dinner invitation. I went with her to Saori, Matt, and Philip's apartment where they were mixing up tacos. The food looked (and tasted) great. I was just going to go and hang out, but got lured into eating by the tortilla chips first and then the wonderful appetizers Dan brought. He had bought some wonderful bread, a salami stick of sorts, and an assortment of cheeses. I really want to learn where he bought one of these cheeses - I could not stop eating it!
Around 10pm everyone (except Philip) left the apartment. I met a friend of Saori's who came to the dinner party (of sorts), she is also an international student in architecture at Aalto University - her home is in Japan. We all hoped on the train and headed back to the Kampii area to go to a kareoke bar. It was quite entertaining to see the Finns sing. Half of the songs were in Finnish and half were in english - the list of songs made me laugh out loud a couple of times. There were Backstreet Boys, Aretha Franklin, and 50 Cent...quite the options. No one seemed interested in singing, but wanted to guilt others into performing. I thought it would be sad to have us come to a karaoke bar and have no one perform so I put myself down for Shania Twain "That Don't Impress Me Much". The only fun part about it was that three Finn's started dancing to my country song.
What really added color to the bar experience were a couple of guys that came and introduced themselves to the table. Apparently being Japanese is quite an attractant because they were clearly both interested in talking to the two girls who did not have blonde hair. One of the guys was quite a character, but not in the good way. At least three times I nearly asked him to go sit on the other side of the bar. Thankfully Todd ran very good interference. This Finn was a self-proclaimed "union man" and we later learned he is a Communist and believes that America is failing and has been for well over 60 years. At first, I just thought he had learned one piece of American news (he instantly brought up some conflict in Wisconsin regarding the unions) and did not realize that the words he used to describe the leadership of that state was quite offensive. As time went on, however, he went on to yell at Todd for being a Fascist and on the extreme right for having concerns about universal healthcare...it got quite heated. Finally, we left that establishment but had to almost physically pull our new friend away from them because she was so soft spoken and they wanted her to stay with them.
It was quite the evening. Thanks to the group of people I was with I didn't simply walk home (which I would have done if anything had been dangerous) and instead have quite the set of International Experiences - Finnish rap, home made tacos, and an outspoken Communist in a karaoke bar.
Well written. Seems a slow failure if it takes 60 years.
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