What the hell?

Ok, so nothing fails to put me in more of a foul mood, than losing a document. Having just spend a lovely ten minutes summarizing yesterday, it all disappeared in the flash of a cursor mouse. Blast. I should know by now: Save. Save early and often.

Vittu!

A useful addition to my Finnish vocabular. Actually, I just learned that the translation provided to me in previous visits is a little off. As it had been explained to me, 'vittu' translated roughly as 'fuck', in a similar fashion used in the states to cover a wide variety of angered emotions and irritations. Looking at my trusty online english-finnish dictionary, I learned how far from the mark I am. (I wonder how many people that looked at the greeting on my Spring PCS phone were horribly offended? Considering it read,"Vittu ;)" It means cunt or pussy. Oops.)

The curse word that would have served it's purpose for my irate state should have been,
"Voi helvetti!"

For an interesting peek into the semantics of Finnish cursing, you might want to see the Alternative Finnish Dictionary. Ahem. It's very true. These words are in use at the most opportune moments.

Hmmm. Right. I had just completed a vivid description of my activities from yesterday, when I did something stupid. No big surprise here. Basically, no Helsinki for Irene as Pekka had to drive immediately there from Kuusikaupunki to pick Tarja up. It made more sense to go directly, instead of backtracking an hour for me, to turn around then drive two hours to Helsinki. Hence, Irene stayed locale in Turku and decided to head to Tarja's apartment as she has an incredibly fast dedicated ISDN line. (Remember, office hours promptly end at 5 p.m. Get out. Now.)

Once safely ensconsed a block from the office, I began foraging for food. After nearly two weeks of being overfed by my very generous hosts, yesterday had been an exercise in self-control. I started the day with the breakfast of champions; or two pieces of toasted rye bread, dabbed with Benecol ("proven to reduce cholesterol"), a nibble of cheese and a banaani. When lunchtime rolled around, poor Leo (Tarja's Dad) misinterpreted my "Ei, Kiitos" (No, Thank You) for lunch to be a personal affront. That combined with the English barrior made for an animated hand waving 'conversation'. Anyway, when dinnertime rolled around I was ravenous. Hence began my experiment with appliances and fire control. Well, it wasn't that dire, but let me see you try defrosting something frozen on one of today's helpful automatically programmed microwaves. In Finnish. As soon as I find a place to host my pictures, I'll show you what I'm talking about.

Using a Ransas-Suomi (French - Finnish) dictionary I had to make due. I now can recognize the following words:

peruna = potato
vihannekset = vegetable
keitto = soup
kala = fish
linamureke = meatloaf

AND

tuttiplullo. The last one is funny, because I had no idea what," biberon" could possibly be.
(It means nursing bottle).

So using the microwave was a joy;)

When I when to turn the boob tube on (TV) I could help but laugh at the situation.

Even though everything was in English, I couldn't get anything to work. I say anything, because there are 4 remote controls which direct communication to the DVD/CD, MP3 player, VCR, Dolby surround sound, and of course, the television. After 2 minutes of joyless play, I turned my attention back to the online world and had a chat with one of my *** students. (He missed a deadline and wanted no penalty imposed. Hallo! He waited until the last minute to do his assingment. Do I have any sympathy for him? Uh, that would be a resounding no.)

In short messaging Tarja, I learned a few funny things. (Text messaging is a serious matter here. It's so funny b/c it often takes significantly longer to type the message out, than calling the person. People opt to use SMS, short messaging systems, for different reasons. It's common to send and receive text messages in the middle of other conversations. Also, it costs something like 15 euro cents and significantly less battery use.) Through the BBA gossip vine, it appears that Irene is 1) going to be starting a new job soon 2) is in Salo 3) and has a great apartment somewhere. Ha. That's what second hand information will due for you.

It's funny how quickly news spreads here, even if it is outlandishly off-base. Laura told Harri the Salo thing. I'm assuming Laura learned this from her recent ongoings with David (the republic of Georgia guy) and Jukka. In the email Jukka sent previously, he seemed to think I had a FT job in Finland, for which I was moving permantly from New York for. Wrong.

Sidenote: Laura is really tall funny girl from the BBA program, who has a penchant for booze and sex. In no particular order. Per Henkka, she was planning a rendevous with David. Henkka was attempting to be delicate and politically correct when conveying this information, but in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with exercise. Interpret that as you will.

The other SMS issue to come up was the BBA party that is today in Helsinki. Kind of a cross between an informal class reunion and a picnic. Except that Jukka is the coordinator, and a large proportion of the attendees will be acquaintences of his girlfriend, a BBA 9. Wrong class, and wrong guest of honor (David - the boy who kept trying to get in my pants and was irritated at my refusal to participate.) A resounding no-way-jose. Henkka would consider going, except that his precious soccer prevents him from seeing the light of day during the competitions. (eyeroll) What's the big deal about men sweating around a ball? Honestly.

I'm off to eat lunch first, and then I'm going to run some errands. Desperately needed time at the beautician to pluck and buff. Trinkets for Tarja. And postcards for me. (Tarja said she can send a bunch for me care of the company. How cool is that?)

moi moi.

posted by irene @ 6/12/2002 07:07:00 AM