Outlandish

Most people here return to their home cities/countries during weekends, but since my home country happens to be a couple thousand kilometers away spending my weekends there is quite impossible. So, this time it was super nice when everybody decided to stay in Bratislava and we had a proper shopping spree in the city's biggest shopping mall, Aupark. And because shopping, when done properly, is hard work we needed to fuel ourselves up before getting down to business and sushi buffet was the perfect lunch option. I have a hard core love-hate relationship with wasabi: even though it literally kicks me in the face in every mouthful I have to take more and more each time because it's just sooo good! After lunch we were ready to roll. And I don't know if it was because of the brilliant lunch but the very first shop we stepped into provided me with the kind of skirt that I have been looking for for ages, a leather midi skirt! This spring and summer is all about bringin...

There was  discussion  about jealousy on the blog site that I follow.The sin that all human-beings have a love-hate relationship with. Love in a way that it gives us some sick satisfaction to wallow in the unfairness of life, thinking how wrong it is that somebody has a straight nose when you don't, another one has more followers on Instagram than you do, or somebody else is climbing the corporate ladder faster than you are. On the other hand we hate being jealous because I don't think anyone actually enjoys that feeling. The subject was interesting because Finnish jealousy has been scientifically proven to be different from jealousy anywhere else. In Finland we don't just feel jealous, but also hope for the worst for whoever we are jealous at: for example, my neighbour has a new, fancy car... I hope he crashes and injures himself! :D As a teenager I had a lot to be jealous for: my best friend was an A-student, I was average. She was beautiful, I was ugly. She ...

In most of the Western countries florists are rubbing their hands together happily because the day when they sell the most roses (or pink and red flowers) is upon us. Valentine's Day, or the Finnish version Friends' Day (Ystävänpäivä). Couple interesting facts about Valentine's Day; in the USA 19% of women buy and send flowers to themselves. And in Japan it is traditional for women to dote on men with chocolates etc. unlike in Europe or the United States where it's the other way around.  Anyway, while Valentine's Day has become little more than an excuse for women to demand their counterparts to present them with whatever from expensive jewelry to huge boxes of chocolate, I also think that is a very discriminating day. It celebrates couples, and only couples, even though many people these days don't even want to engage in a relationship when the social pressures (family honour, etc.) are in most countries gone.  I would much rather like to see t...

I love cafés; going there with friends to enjoy the atmosphere and gossip, or going alone with a good book or a magazine. The best thing is if you can find a table by the window so you can watch the life go by. People-watching is an undervalued way of passing time. I came to realize how great having proper cafés really is only when I moved abroad. In my home town, Turku, proper cafés were extinct still in the beginning of the 21st century. Most of them were service station-like diners which were part of some huge super market chain. They kind of killed the idea of a proper café culture before the idea even came up. Thankfully my city is waking up with this matter and it already has some of the best cafés in the country with more opening all the time. Moods In most European countries cafés are places where you can go relax with friends or alone. Nobody would give you a second glance if you sat in the centre of the space alone reading a book. Quite contrary in Turku, ...

Another funny thing came into light again this week where Finns and Eastern-Europeans differ a lot. OK, I can't say this applies to most Slovaks but definitely to most of my team here. Holidays.  In Finland we work for the sole reason of having a long, lazy summer vacation. I started here last summer and people were being   told  to use their vacation days from 2013... I can't imagine how that is even possible?! And still, before Christmas people were really being told that you   absolutely HAVE to   take days off. I mean, if people here really aren't that eager to have days off I volunteer to help them by taking those days from them! But anyway, we had a funny incident in a grocery store this week with my neighbour/colleague: we were queuing behind an elderly woman talking in English, of course. When the woman got to the counter she started talking to the salesperson about us. My neighbour translated to me: according to the woman it is so important...