Hold on for your Life!

I've already told you about the 4th car of my host parents: the Triumph (a British Oldtimer from 1973, I think). Tommi had offered to me to drive it and the first time he offered it I was very sceptical. But since I'll be working in New Zealand for a year in 2010 I though that I should at least try to drive a car which has the steering wheel on the right side. So, when he offered me to drive it for the third time, I was finally brave and sober enough to do it. (The second time he had asked I had just had a big glass of wine and didn't want to risk anything.)
So, after finding out that the order of the clutch, break and gas pedal was the same, but the turn signal was on the other side, I tried to leave the drive way. I killed the engine twice because I forgot that it was a sports car and that you actually have to use the gas pedal quite a lot. Changing gears with my left hand would not have been so bad if the gears would have been easy to change like in a new car, but they were kind of stiff and hard to find. Finally on the road, Tommi asked me if I wanted to go to Nummela which is 15 km away. However, I suggested that we'd just turn around in Ojakkala which is only 6 km away. Tommi didn't like this idea and made me turn onto a bigger street where I could drive a bit faster. It was quite a good feeling driving a convertible, but driving it cost me more concentration than I needed in my final oral English exam for my Master's degree. (And no, this 60-minute oral exam was not easy at all!!!) And I held on to the steering wheel so tightly that my index finger hurt for the next two days. When we were back at the house and I out of the car, I had continued to shake for another half an hour. I just hope that the car I will get to drive in New Zealand will be a modern one!!!

Being picky makes my Life hard!

All of my friends know that I'm a very picky eater. The list of things I don't like or eat of certain reasons is long. For example, I do not like red sauces, especially the ones made from ketchup or tomatoe puree. I don't eat potatoes (I think they taste like earth.) and after returning from Ireland, I have also given up french fries. After travelling a lot and mostly eating fast food, I refuse to eat hamburgers. Furthermore, I do not like white bread. I don't eat butter, margarine, honey, marmelade or jam. And I'm intolerant to lactose, so that rules out nearly all milk products (unless I buy the very expensive lactose-free products). But I also won't drink the lactose-free milk because the taste of milk reminds me of cows and I'm scared of them. Furthermore, I only eat animals that I deem ugly, i.e. pork fish, poultry, and beef. I apologize to all the pigs, fishes, birds, and cows here. But then for some reason I don't really like the taste of beef or turkey and I only like chicken when it still has the skin and was grilled on a bbq. I also don't like any kinds of salats and I'm not a big fan of white bread. Bananas are something else I detest. But that even has a reason: As a child I would only eat bananas and a certain kind of sausages for about 2 years. I guess, I simply over-ate on bananas and now I can't stand them anymore. As for sweets, I'm not quite as picky, but I want to mention that I don't like gummy bears and hate licorice. As a conclusion one could say that it's nearly impossible to cook for me and it's not a surprise that I'm so skinny! :-P But my host mom still tries. However, since I'm so super picky I told her that she does not have to be concerned about my eating habits because that would just be too difficult. I can usually always find something to eat. But now it looks like that I'm being treating like one of the boys. They are also quite picky and Sari always makes them eat their food, even if they don't like it. And now I'm also forced to eat at least one potatoe and have a certain amount of salat (which unfortunately, we have every day). Furthermore, Sari hates pork and therefore always uses minced beef instead of minced pork and that I also have to eat. All of that actually reminds me of home where I'm a still forced to eat my potatoes although I'm already 23 (turning 24 soon). And for the last 10 years they blackmailed me with the words: "If you don't eat your potatoes, we'll turn off the internet." and it, unfortunately, still works. I'm sure that my Finnish host parents will soon say that as well and my mom would be so proud of them!
But since we are talking about food I want to mention that I love backing! And so far I have made a German cake called Schneewitchenkuchen (it has a vanilla and chocolate dough base filled with cherries and a vanilla-cream toping), an apple pie (which I didn't eat myself since I don't like apple pie; but the boys loved it), and tirasmisu. The tiramisu was absolutely amazing and so much better than the stuff you can buy! And my next project is the bake some sweet rolls filled with vanilla custard which supposedly are typical Finnish. Let's see how those will turn out!

An Expensive Place

Last weekend I visited Helsinki, small for a capital (only half a million inhabitants), but a decent size for a city. And with its location by the sea, its many island, and its cleanliness, it is fairly pretty! However, it is also very expensive: entrance fees for museums, boat cruises or just getting some food or a beer will reduce your funds quickly.
Unfortunately, it rained on and off last Sunday, so we couldn't just sit in a park or go to the jazz festival. However, my friend Päivi (who lives in Helsinki and showed me around) and I spend the day in the National Museum, going on a boat cruise around the islands and doing some shopping (Nearly all the stores had some kind of sale going on! :-)). I think I won't say anymore and will let the pictures speak for themselves.