Friday, December 22, 2006

Things I Miss

As I was riding the tram to work this morning, I thought, "What do I really miss from the U.S./Oklahoma that I can't get here in Finland?" The answers lie below. . .
  • pancakes and sausage: you can buy maple syrup in the store, but not pancake mix or sausage.
  • Greek House: there are lots of kebab joints here, but none serve heaps of the melt-in-your mouth meat from Norman's Greek House at a price you can't beat.
  • cheddar cheese: sounds silly, but you can't get good sharp cheddar cheese here. If you get nachos at a "Mexican restaurant" here in Helsinki, they either use tasteless white cheese or that liquid queso stuff. (They are also pretty stingy with the chips.)
  • my king-sized pillowtop mattress
  • my comfy couches
  • good hearty belly laughs: I haven't found anyone that shares the dark, silly side of my humor here yet. I think the subtlety of the English language also is a problem for communicating my sense of humor with them.
  • my reprint file and journal collection: I find myself wanting rare scientific articles from my collection from time to time that I didn't bring with me.
And, of course, my friends! Here's hoping they visit me! (I will be in Norman Jan. 10-11 and 16-17. I'll be giving a seminar at the National Weather Center on January 10.)

If you know me, you may recognize one thing missing from the above list: Comedy Central. Surprisingly, I don't have a craving for missing The Daily Show and Colbert Report like I thought I would.

3 Comments:

At 9:40 PM, Blogger David Schultz said...

Update: Today I found pancake/waffle mix in one of the grocery stores. Yeah! Now, find me those sausages!!!

 
At 3:09 PM, Blogger Ex-Expats said...

Have you tried the S-Market under Sokos (between railway station and Forum) ? They sell Wotkin's Sausages. Texmexmakkara or Ryynimakkara could do. And Pilgrim's Choice Cheddar.

Do you see a connection of Finns eating tasteless cheese and no sausages for breakfast, and being stingy with chips, and the small number of fat and ugly people ? Perhaps it's no pain no gain ? Perhpas just big brother watches you and your cholestrol...

Cheers, EEP
ps. avoid the 5% so-called-cheese !

 
At 1:03 PM, Blogger David Schultz said...

Thanks for the recommendation on the market. I haven't been there, so I will have to try that.

Your observation about the what you Finns eat and their relative health is a good one. I hadn't thought of that. ;-)

Kiitos!

Dave

 

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