I used to think that eating a sandwich for breakfast was truly bizarre. I remember the first time I took the Finnair flight from New York to Helsinki, I was sort of bemused to find that what they were calling "breakfast" was what I'd call "lunch": rye bread, ham, cheese and, totally out of my realm of experience, butter.
Now I'm writing to all of you at 8.00 over coffee, rye bread, ham, no cheese, and tomato.
How I've changed.
Earlier in the week, I went with a very special friend to Jyväskylä, where I had a few hours to myself in which to explore the center.
I haven't traveled nearly as much as I'd like within Finland (due to lack of funds, travel companions, etc.) so it was nice to broaden my horizons so to speak. Firstly, I was sort of amazed at how much shopping there was to do. Being right on the border, Lappeenranta is known for attracting Russian tourists with promises of shopping sprees. It made me chuckle to see just how much more there was to consume on Kauppakatu in Jyväskylä than pretty much anywhere in Lappeenranta. I've mentioned before that I'm not much of a shopper, but there's something about doing it alone, with the music in your earbuds subsuming what plays over the loudspeakers, that I really enjoy. I even bought a skirt! I think that proves there's a normal human lurking somewhere within me.
Because this winter has been unbelievably mild, it was pleasant to hang around outside, too. I found the kaupunginkirkko and the kirkkopuisto, where I sat for a while and scarfed a Mars bar.
And, finally, I found this gem in H&M:
I'd like to title this photo "Adventures in Getting Old". You see, a large percentage of my friends had both this shirt and this album when I was about 10 years old. It's now a retro item, something "the kids" wear for its nostalgia or its irony or just because they see it in H&M. On a related note, this is Finland. Was TLC even a thing in Finland? Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
And now, powered by coffee and ruisleipä, I'll take my leave and run on the snowless streets of LPR.
Now I'm writing to all of you at 8.00 over coffee, rye bread, ham, no cheese, and tomato.
How I've changed.
Earlier in the week, I went with a very special friend to Jyväskylä, where I had a few hours to myself in which to explore the center.
I haven't traveled nearly as much as I'd like within Finland (due to lack of funds, travel companions, etc.) so it was nice to broaden my horizons so to speak. Firstly, I was sort of amazed at how much shopping there was to do. Being right on the border, Lappeenranta is known for attracting Russian tourists with promises of shopping sprees. It made me chuckle to see just how much more there was to consume on Kauppakatu in Jyväskylä than pretty much anywhere in Lappeenranta. I've mentioned before that I'm not much of a shopper, but there's something about doing it alone, with the music in your earbuds subsuming what plays over the loudspeakers, that I really enjoy. I even bought a skirt! I think that proves there's a normal human lurking somewhere within me.
Because this winter has been unbelievably mild, it was pleasant to hang around outside, too. I found the kaupunginkirkko and the kirkkopuisto, where I sat for a while and scarfed a Mars bar.
And, finally, I found this gem in H&M:
I'd like to title this photo "Adventures in Getting Old". You see, a large percentage of my friends had both this shirt and this album when I was about 10 years old. It's now a retro item, something "the kids" wear for its nostalgia or its irony or just because they see it in H&M. On a related note, this is Finland. Was TLC even a thing in Finland? Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
And now, powered by coffee and ruisleipä, I'll take my leave and run on the snowless streets of LPR.
I can fathom eating bread for lunch, expecially as packed lunch, although the idea of that as permanent state of affairs seem so very poor, but what then did you eat for breakfast it made the thought of bread so alien?
ReplyDeleteAnd.. butter out of experience? You're going to have to elaborate for us dummies.
The idea of bread for breakfast isn't alien - we Americans eat toast and the like, with butter even - but the addition of meat and vegetables is. And even then, it's not that we don't eat pork products in the morning (see: bacon), it's that the concept of voileipä is very close to what we think of a sandwich, which is decidedly a lunchtime affair. Also, we tend to use mayonnaise or mustard on said sandwiches, rarely butter. I think that's a modern development, though, and that butter was used more commonly in earlier eras.
DeleteWhat I used to eat (and still sometimes do eat) was cereal and milk, usually muesli
He he he he...I didn't wear any bands' T-shirts, but I grew up listening to TLC as well. :-D Love listening to old songs because they always take me back to certain memories in time...sometimes even certain smells or event or incident in the back of my memory. Kinda like watching an old movie he he...
ReplyDeleteP.S. Bread is considered a snack in Indo and even now I still don't eat bread with my meals (only once in a while). Hubby always eats ruisleipä with his meals. Before I had a job, I rarely bought rice (potatoes are cheaper), but these days I indulge myself with plenty of rice in my food pantry ha ha...So most of the time when I cook meals, I bake potatoes for hubby and make myself some rice.
That's really interesting. So, when and how is bread eaten in Indonesia? Also, what kind of bread? :)
DeleteIt's for snack mostly. If you go to Asian countries, most of the time the option for breakfast in hotels would be rice ha ha ha ha ha...unless they provide American breakfast as option.
DeleteIn Indo, breakfast is rice, lunch is rice, and dinner is rice with meat and veggies he he...bread is eaten as snack in between (we don't have tea time or coffee time) or if one wants to skip one of the meals without getting hungry. In the past decade, though, there have been a rise in bread consumption because there are plenty of companies selling beautifully decorated bread with different fillings/toppings.
If you want to see the examples, google "Bread Talk Indonesia" or just "Bread Talk" or "Bread Talk menu". They sell the sweet types and the salty types (like pizza bread, pork floss, chicken floss, etc.). The sweet types have so many variations that it's hard for me to name them...can be filled with bananas, chocolate, a combination of anything, can even be topped with fruits...They also sell cakes by the way.
When I was younger, there were more limited choices of bread and we'd eat them as snacks (my grandma sometimes made her homemade banana bread as well). Mind you, I don't think there's rye bread. There's some wheat bread but they aren't like the wheat bread sold here, either.
The 12 year old girl in me wants that shirt so badly! But yeah, this seems pretty random. I could understand the retro band shirts in the US like Nirvana shirts at Macy's junior department or The Smiths shirts at Hot Topic...but retro TLC shirt + Finland is kind of unexpected and amusing. I guess it speaks to just how global American pop/entertainment culture is.
ReplyDeleteBtw, RIP Left-Eye :(
I actually taught a nostalgia-themed conversation course on Tuesday, and one of my students mentioned that 90s music makes him feel very nostalgic for his youth. He then named a few American acts because, like you said, American pop culture is so incredibly global. I said, "...do you happen to know who TLC are?" He had absolutely no idea. I wonder if the kids who purchase that shirt, if there are any here in Finland, even know what they're buying. :P
Delete