Highway 61 Revisited

Greetings!

The trip to USA is over, and so is our week-long break from classes. As some of you already know, last Wednesday we gathered a fellowship of seven Nordic warriors and took upon the fabled Highway 61 and visited the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Here's some pictures along the way!

City by night

Beer sampler

Unbelievably tasty burger

David's pizza!

Mexican food!

Lousy selfie

Skyscrapers

The most American picture ever 

Government Plaza

Behind a frozen waterfall

Another lousy selfie at the Mall of America, a big-ass mall in Minneapolis

Big-ass robot

Big-ass dinner at Hard Rock Cafe

Big-ass sword

Big-ass beer

Me and a big-ass tank

On top of a big-ass skyscraper

Peanuts statue at St. Paul

Fancy building in downtown St. Paul

Lunch

This burger had mushrooms in it! Delicious.

Cathedral of St. Paul

Modern art. I am confused.

Peace Tea! This was pretty good.

Thanks for the read! 

Over and out,

Teemu

Can we start again?

 What we had just can't be wasted!

Goddamn midterms

Hello readers!

Last week has been quite a heavy one. I managed to almost get the flu that's going around (I say almost because I was lucky enough to get rid of it in less than three days as well while most people seem to have it for two weeks!) and we also had our midterm exams which of course meant a lot of studying. Luckily I think I did pretty good on all of them, and now we have a one week vacation!

We spent the last weekend at the Fort William National Park doing various kinds of activities and learning more about the indigenous people of Canada. We went snowshoeing, crafted our very own medicine pouch made of bear and deer leather, learned some traditional dances and had wonderful native food such as wild rice and corn bread. As a history geek I really enjoyed all the information and how the staff of the park presented it.

Me in awesome native clothing :D

Sheep :3

On Thursday the midterms were finally over and I was also feeling better already, and we decided to celebrate it by heading to the campus bar, The Outpost. It was a great time, and it was nice to be stress-free once again! Next Wednesday we are heading to Minneapolis and the next post will be about the trip! I also booked tickets to visit Toronto for a week at the beginning of April, but more about that later!

Honey Brew <3

Today we will have supper at a sushi-bar and celebrating Valentine's Day by going out in the evening, and it's going to be super awesome.

Squatting around the world!

Thanks for reading, and happy Valentine's Day! <3

I've been listening to a lot of music from the 60's lately,
here's one favorite!

All things Canadian

Hello again!

Time is literally flying. With all the schoolwork and activities I'm rarely bored, and I even forgot to update my blog. Sorry about that!

Last Friday we went downtown to have dinner and a couple of drinks. We went to a pub called Foundry, and I fell in love immediately. They had around 20 different kinds of beer on tap, and all of them were quite reasonably priced (around five bucks for a pint!) I will definitely go there again!

Dinner at the Sovereign Room. I had a Pulled Pork pizza, and it was great! Also, David fell asleep apparently.

On Sunday we went to a Finnish-Canadian restaurant called Hoito. They serve Finnish classics such as Karjalanpiirakka, letut as well as other menu items. The pancakes (letut) were so good, just like at home! We also met a Finnish girl, Johanna, who works at the Finnish newspaper Kanadan Sanomat.

Happy people! :D

Superbowl XLIX also happened on Sunday, and man, what a game it was! The NE Patriots won the game with an amazing intercept at the last minute, even though everybody thought that Seattle Seahawks were going to win. Of course we had some food as well, such as chicken wings, nachos and pop.

Hobos in the corner

Next weekend we are going camping to the Fort William National Park and after that most students have midterm exams. I already had one midterm on Tuesday, and I can happily say that I nailed it. I hope I do well on the other exams as well! After midterms we have a reading week with no lectures, and we are renting a car and heading to the United States of America! More on that on the next post!

I wanted to do something different on this post as well. I will list some great things that are available here in Canada, and not in Finland (or if they are, they are hard to find or expensive etc.)

Great Canadian things:

1. Maple Syrup

You knew this was going to be on the list, didn't you? The iconic Canadian food that goes with everything; pancakes are way more delicious with this stuff, and the best oatmeal ever is maple-brown sugar!

2. Poutine

French fries topped with gravy and cheese curds. Greasy, salty and delicious; the perfect drunk-food!

3. Chocolate peanut butter cups

I think I mentioned that I love peanut butter in a previous post. These things are not necessarily Canadian, but available everywhere and in many brands and flavors. I only found these once in Finland, and they were super expensive. Pictured is my favorite kind so far. Addictive, delicious and dangerous as well, because I just have to finish the whole bag at once...

4. Rush

The pioneers of progressive rock music. One of my favorite proge-rock bands, made in Canada!

5. Stephen Amell

Green Arrow, king of Facebook, and the front-man of  charity campaigns such as F#ck Cancer and Sinceriously ran by represent, this Canadian-born actor deserves a spot on the list

6. Scott Pilgrim

Comic series written by Bryan Lee O'Malley about a Canadian slacker/brawler/part-time musician Scott Pilgrim, who has to defeat the seven evil exes to get the girl, Ramona Flowers. Available as comics, movie and an amazing 16-bit video game

7. Milk in bags

what

I hope you guys liked the post! Next post will include some photos of the camping trip and also more information on the upcoming trip to the U.S!

Thanks for reading!

-Teemu

Invisible airwaves crackle with life

 Bright antennae bristle with the energy

 Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength

 Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free

Culture shock? Nah.

Dear Internet,

You've all probably heard of a phenomenon called "culture shock". Supposedly it means the initial shock that you get after the "love at first feel"-phase when for example moving abroad to live within a different culture. During my two-and-a-half-or-so years of studying International Business in Finland we have been going over the infamous culture shock and its effects countless times, and the culture shock is supposed to include symptoms such as home-sickness, rejecting the local customs and the general feeling of loneliness and anxiety. I have now lived in Canada for one full month, and supposedly I should have experienced to shock in its full effect by now.

Canada, of course, is one of the most developed modern societies in the world. When it comes to technology and living standards, Canada is pretty much at the top of the list along with U.S.A and most of Western Europe. Yes, we even have electricity in Canada, and even though bears and wolves are a constant danger, the local infrastructure is very sophisticated. Of course, there are some things that are just different, but not always in a negative way. Below are a few examples.

-Sidewalks are basically nonexistent. Usually sidewalks are only on one side of the road, and some roads have no sidewalks at all. They are usually quite narrow and slippery, a far cry from the constantly maintained sidewalks and cycling roads in Oulu. Not many people walk on them anyway; most people drive a car or take the bus instead.
-Tap water tastes different. Unless you run the water for a few seconds, you will get a mild chloride taste. I already got used to it, but the first times drinking local water was strange.
-You cannot find quark anywhere. This high-protein/low-cost dairy product is a Finnish favorite, but In Canada it seems to be nonexistent. Well, at least cottage cheese is sold in jars of 1 kg!
-People talk a lot. The common stereotype is that Canadians, just like Americans, talk a lot, and this is very true indeed. It is not extraordinary that random people just start chatting to you in a grocery store and if you happen to bump to someone, people always apologize and let you know they're really sorry (another stereotype confirmed, Canadians say sorry a lot!) This is of course only a positive thing, but as a silent Finn, it threw me off in the beginning. Well, it still does. Sometimes I prefer silence over small-talk.
-The local chewing gum sucks. They are all sweetened with artificial crap such as aspartame, and most of the people don't even know what xylitol is.
-Peanut butter is everywhere. And it's awesome. Why don't we have it in Finland?

I honestly couldn't think of anything that could be truly classified shocking. Sure, I occasionally miss Finland, my friends and family, and Finnish foods such as proper Finnish ruisleipä, Fazerin Sininen and salmiakki, but other than that, all the new experiences are just great.

So, I suppose culture shock does exist, but it didn't hit me very hard.

The past week passed by way too fast. Aside from school I had some time to do the occasional weightlifting, swimming, rock climbing and rugby, and I'll tell you; I was so tired on Sunday. Five workouts, a couple of rugby sessions and the climbing and swimming really pushed me to the limit! We also went to the movies, had some dinner in a Portuguese restaurant, went for a few tankards in the Outpost and generally had a good time.

For the next post I'm thinking of listing some of the greatest Canadians of all time. There are a lot of famous Canucks out there that some of you might not even know!

Thank you for reading and have a great week!

Yours sinceriously,

Teemu

Silvercity cinema

Some sweet arcade game consoles!

This is The Bar in Canada, the famous one. It is old because it is not new, and there is beer inside and people drink beer and become happy and that makes it a good bar.

Finally had some KFC! So greasy, so good.

Awesome peanut butter. Just like Guile's theme, it fits with everything!

Dinner at Churrasquiera Galo, a local Portuguese restaurant!

I received a package from Finland :) Thank you!

Having a couple of beers at The Outpost. I only had three (three liters, oops.) Picture by Mette (IG: @jagmette)


I watched Scarface last week, and this song has been playing in my head ever since.
Push it to the limit!

Thunderwolves Howl!

Dear Internet,

Yet another week has passed, and as they say, time flies when you're having fun. Last week was full of activities and school and I got to try out a lot of new things!

I had a day off on Monday, since all my classes were cancelled. The other class' instructor was ill, and the other one was cancelled because a water pipe broke down in the building, bringing the fire extinguishing system down, so they had to evacuate the whole building. A water main also burst near the Sanders Fieldhouse (gym-building) and they closed down the gym as well for a short time. The cold weather is taking it's toll, it seems. This week has actually been pretty nice when it comes to weather, the average temperature being somewhere between -5 to -10 Celsius.

On Tuesday I went on a dog-sled ride! It was a great experience and definitely worth trying! The person who owns the dogs told that sometimes the dogs go through races that are up to a hundred miles long in total! Of course it includes breaks, but still, must be tough for the doggies!

Who needs a car when you have a dog sled?

In the evening we went to see a movie at the local Silver City cinema. The cinema itself was actually pretty cool; it looked more like an amusement park of some sort with bright neon-lights, statues and several restaurant desks in it. Unfortunately I didn't bring my phone, so I don't have pictures from there, but I will take some shots the next Tuesday when we go again; tickets are only 5,25 bucks on Tuesdays! (that's about 3,7 €) So, it's basically a waste not to go there! We saw The Imitation Game, which was honestly one of the best movies I've seen in a while. It tells the story of Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), a British mathematician who broke the German Enigma-code used to encrypt their communications during WWII.

On Wednesday I went on a skiing trip to Loch Lomond, a nearby ski-resort. It only cost 29 bucks and included equipment rental, ride on the bus back and forth and the skiing ticket as well. It wasn't the biggest place, but there were practically no other people other than us LU students, and there was plenty of room to ski! 

View from the bottom of one of the slopes.

The mountain had two sides to ski on, but some of the routes were closed.

On Friday and Saturday we went to watch some hockey. The Lu Thunderwolves played against UBQTR Patriotes (which my friend referred to as a "bunch of French faggots") on both nights. The games were really fast-moving and intense, and the general quality of the games even on the University-level seems to be really good, despite the players being young. We lost both games, but it was still loads of fun! On Saturday we got to sit in the VIP booth with free beverages and snacks and of course the best view of the game.

Friday was also the day that LU kicked off it's 50th anniversary celebrations. There were lots of activities and free stuff at the campus, and we got to try the Canadian bonfire treats, S'mores. A S'more is made by assembling a roasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. It's actually a really nice treat to make over the bonfire, try it out! They also had some surprisingly impressive fireworks in the evening.

Selfie taken by Z, our very own designated driver from the International Office :)

Wolfie!

Like I said, the players are young. Nah, just kidding, just some amusement during the break.

School's also starting to pick up, and the first assignments are well on their way. I've been trying to do as much school stuff during my free time so that I won't have to panic with it at the end of the term.

I'm just going to finish this post with a couple of pictures from along the past week.

Have a good one!

Yours sincerely,

-Teemu

My way of spending a Friday-night at the bar

The Wolves Den, my second home.

Reino, the national hero of Canada and Finland. Torilla tavataan!

GAY BACON STRIPS!

Sunset over Lake Tamblyn

Dinner with Cajsa and David

Winterfest celebrations on Lake Tamblyn.

Reach A Higher Ground

That Reveals The Realm

Under Your Might

White Kingdom Of Frost And Ice