More snow!

/ michelepelkonen

We got snow again, yesterday. The kind that comes down in big, fluffy puffs of white, and actually sticks around for a while. Not that anemic, dandruff-y looking stuff that I’ve seen a few times in the past in Southeast Louisiana! I have a few photos and videos to prove it, although sadly, it was all gone by this morning.

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As mentioned, it was pretty much all gone by this morning, leaving behind just wetness. But even though I was a bit nervous about going out in it, it wasn’t all that cold, considering. I actually just wore a sweatshirt and a windbreaker, and was fine.

I trudged out in the wet to go grocery shopping, where I decided to take a photo (surreptitiously, of course), of another oddity for me here: gambling in the grocery stores! Back home in the States, we have pretty strict gambling laws. Other than a few places (Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Indian reservations, some places on the Gulf Coast), we don’t have gambling, and even in those place20141107_141140[1]s, it’s pretty restricted, especially from the young’ns. Most places are 21+ just to enter, and other than Las Vegas, all are in their own buildings or closed off rooms. It’s apparently 18+ in Finland. And in this SMarket (as well as other places), folks have their grocery carts next to them, and are just spinning away. It’s just something odd for me to see.

Of course, it’s just a gamble for me to go into the grocery store and try to figure out what I am supposed to be buying! I went today to buy some meat, and must have texted a half-dozen pictures to Wellu at work, asking him to clarify what animal I was contemplating purchasing. Fortunately, I was able to get the appropriate counseling and purchase the correct beef. Naudan ulkopaisti. Although I really wanted to buy the naudan entrecôte for myself. 🙂

Spent some time yakking on Facebook with a new Brit friend of mine about the costs of goods from ‘back home’. There is a place here that carries them, but, bloody hell, the prices are enough to make you happy to just wait until you can get a trip back home. I do foresee that my kids will be traveling here with suitcases laden down with ‘back home’ goodies, and can return with ones filled with souvenirs. 🙂 An example is that a box of Jiffy cornbread mix, that we pay something like 29 cents for back home costs around 3,99€ here. That’s over $4 in comparable US dollars!

Just want to give a shout out to Anh Le and her blog “Hello Helsinki”. She’s doing a cool business idea, with a ‘coffee bike’! I wish I liked coffee so I could look for it, but for now, I’ll just do that service for the actual coffee drinkers who read here. Go find her and buy a cup of coffee from her bike!

Just 15 more days and I get to see my ShivaDiva! ❤

5 thoughts on “More snow!”

  1. Thank you so much for the shout out Michelle! 🙂

    This kind of mobile business is really dependent on weather. If it is rainy or heavily snowy, I can’t make my coffee bike run :S I will try to work it out until at least December and after that probably the buy will sleep till next spring. It’s so hard to get a job here so I need to make something on my own. Wish me luck 🙂

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  3. I read somewhere once that Finns like the lotto (gambling) because everyone is equal, no one has an advantage. Interesting take. But yeah, I still get a giggle out of the grandma buying her groceries and then taking her change straight over to the slot machines…

    And, yeah, 3 years here and I still have trouble with the grocery store. Last week I bought a pork roast, and when I got it home, it wasn’t a roast it was pieces of pork. *sigh* Whatever. (totally checking out those links on Finnish cuts!)

    I’ve learned to make a lot of “box” stuff like Bisquick and even Jiffy corn muffin mix – go to food.com and look up copycat Jiffy mix. I use it every year when I make broccoli cornbread for Thanksgiving. You can find recipes for DIY condensed soups and a lot more if you just look. I’ve gotten quite skilled at that kind of thing! 🙂 And of course, my number one tip: if you want Kraft Mac&cheese, just go to Costco, buy a 15 pack, and break the boxes down. Pull out the cheese packet and just pack that – you can buy noodles here. We don’t eat it often, but I get a craving every once in a while.

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    • Shucks! I didn’t think about that before I left home. I’ll need to see if I can get my daughter to bring some with her. I’m with you…it’s not an everyday sort of thing, but a comfort food craving that comes up once in a while. One of the first times we went shopping, I wandered off to find some sandwich meat, and apparently came back with something akin to brains or other organ meat. Fortunately, he saw it in the basket, explained what it was, and I could put it back in the cooler. No thank you! The app has been a lifesaver since then!

      I put your blog on my page. I can’t keep track of all the blogs I’m following, so this way I have them all in one place and other peeps can read them, too! 🙂

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