Of Finnish Nicknames and Finnish Bars

Is it lazy of me to number unrelated paragraphs in an effort to excuse a pretty blatant lack of cohesion? Maybe. And yet I'm still going to to do it.

1) Ever since about the end of last semester, I've been called exclusively by my Finnish lempinimi  in class. Rami and his family have called me "Ellu" for ages now and, when we were asked in a much easier stage of the course what our nicknames were, I said something like, "Ellu Suomessa ja Lane tai Lena Amerikassa." That lesson was forgotten for a few months, until our teacher suddenly began calling me Ellu. It has turned out to be incredibly useful; the class topped out at 4 Elenas, and dropped to a measly three sometime before winter break. As an added bonus, it makes me feel a bit like an honorary Finn.

2) Last Saturday, we went with some of our family to Teerenpeli Distillery and Brewery. It's a chain that opened a branch in Lappeenranta 6 or 7 months ago. They have a greater variety of booze than most bars here in LPR. The atmosphere is just cool enough to be pleasing, and not quite so cool as to make you want to punch hipsters. I particularly enjoy their dark beers, though I cannot claim to know much about what constitutes a "good" dark beer. I only know what my taste buds like. Now, please take under advisement that my taste buds appear to be, ahem, "insensitive," so one should rarely take my advice regarding anything that involves flavor. That said, I think beer connoisseurs will enjoy what Teerenpeli has to offer.

There were fewer people there than usual that night, I think because it was nearly -30 C. Luckily, I was moderately yet deliciously drunk during much of the time that I spent outside.

Well, I must forego the English language for a while now, as I have homework to do.