Monday 21 March 2011

Help!

I think I need some suggestions of new things to do in Turku. I've been a bit bored recently during the weekdays, and don't have anything important to do. Preferably cheap or free things seeing as I'm going to Norway in one month and seven days and should probably save some money for that. I'd much rather be going outside and doing new things, but I'm not very inspired at the moment.

Still, I do have some lovely new cultural observations:

1.) Traffic lights. Since I came here, traffic lights have baffled me. The police will warn or fine pedestrians for walking through a red light, but when there's a red light for vehicles they can drive through it if no one is crossing the street. That makes it a bit risky if you happen to reach the crossing at that time, I'm always a bit unsure whether to walk or not. And the lights get turned off at night! I said that was weird, the person I was talking to thought it made sense to save energy. Just a bit dangerous to me. Crossing the road is hard enough because I still think the traffic is backwards.

2.) Kitchens. They're all designed in exactly the same way, and it's genius! The cupboard under the sink has the bin in it, the cupboard over the sink is a draining board, and there's at least one pull-out chopping board next to the drawers. When I came here I just thought I'd been blessed with a nifty kitchen, but no! Every kitchen I've seen is the same. Where did this idea come from? Does anyone not have a kitchen like this? This is the reason why Finnish design is respected worldwide.

3.) Supermarkets. You go to the supermarket in England and have to simultaneously pack your shopping, pay for it and put your change away. Here they have clever little things to divide the end of the till up, so you wait until they've scanned all your stuff, then pay for it, then pack it in your own sweet time, and the person behind you doesn't care how long you take because their stuff just ends up on the other side, so doddery old people don't bother anyone! Why did no one in England think of this?

Finally, our housewarming party was very successful, and I'm liking how Finnish people feel obliged to bring gifts. I acquired two bottles of wine and a new phone. Imagine how much shit I'd have if I knew more than about five people! I'm going to make some new friends and then have another housewarming. Incidentally, we might have to do that, because the poor, sweet Ukrainian girl who lives here (and cannot speak Finnish or English) seemingly misunderstood when she was informed of the party, and thought that she had to go out whilst it was happening. It's very sad, considering that we'd all knocked on her door to see if she was joining us, only to find she'd gone out. So we think we need to do it again...

8 comments:

  1. 1. one month and 7 days = fuck yeah (emphasis on the fuck seeing as i need to start/finish my dissertation in that time)
    2. a lot of norwegian kitchens have the awesome breadboard/drawer thing
    4. (coupldnt be arsed to write 3 it seems) Norwegian supermarkets have the same dividy thing althoough its not good for person number 3 if the first two are slooow packers!

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  2. 1. Fuck yeah! Better stop spending money
    2. Occasionally you do get some slow people or people who only buy a few things but still get them shoved down the end, but often when that happens the person on the till waits for them to fuck off and then chucks all the stuff down there. Thoughtful.
    3. I forgot ticket machines! And you said Norway is the same but I've noticed so many now and it's annoying me

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  3. omg yes norwegians are obsessed with ticket machines you practically need to get a ticket to get inline for a ticket!

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  4. You have to get a ticket even if you're the only one waiting! Last week we were in the bus tcket office and the macine broke, the second they were informed of this someone instantly ran over to fix it.
    Why can't they just form an orderly queue? Our entire nation bloody loves a good queue!

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  5. 1.) Maybe that's how it works with red traffic lights in Turku, but just try pulling that off in a Finnish driving school and you'll never pass the test. (According to the law, running a red traffic light or jailwalking is a finable offence... vehicle or no vehicle.)

    2.) The dish-draining rack cupboard was invented by Maiju Gebhard, a Finnish home economics teacher and inventor. She took inspiration from an earlier Swedish invention: a table-top dish draining rack. See here for more information:

    http://www.prh.fi/stc/attachments/patentinliitteet/Naiskeksijat_en.pdf

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  6. 1.) Trafic light
    The pedestrian always has the right to go first and the driver has to notice him/her doing that and pull off and let the pedestrian pass. That would be the ideal case but drivers here don't really respect that on non trafic light intersections.

    But basicly if you have the green light as a pedestrian everybody else has to wait for you to pass. I wouldn't go jumping in front of cars though if it seems that the driver is more focused on keeping his hair in condition than looking out for other road users. But if something would happen it would be the driver who gets blamed and has to pay for the expenses (read: his/her trafic insuranse pays).

    Things that might make it look comfusing:
    Drivers turning left or right at the green light or a separate trafic light for turning trafic (pedestrians should have red at that point). Some intersection actually have the lights paced so that the coming trafic might have a moment of green light left while you look at the going trafic who have red light already. This is to allow the separate turning light to function fluently.

    And finally drivers are not allowed to run a red light even though there was no trafic at all. When the lights turn off the trafic signs dictate who gets to go first. There are usually stop signs or those upside down triangles that tell you have to mind everyone else using the road.

    2.) Kitchen
    How awesome it is to go to a friends place and help out in the kitchen when you know the basic layout of it from your own home? :D

    3.) Not a lot to say about super markets since they've been like that for ages here. The only new thing is that some shops have started hiring local sport team members to help out on winter holidays. So they pack the bags for elderly people while they count their coins at the register. And I guess their salary goes to the sport teams fund. A nice little thing to make things go more smoothly in the over crowded holiday shopping period.

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  7. Sometimes in England schoolchildren do the bag packing to raise money for a charity or school trip. But they're children...they don't know how to do it properly. Damn kids.
    And yes, you did a wonderful job putting your shit in my kitchen bin. That's what you wanted to hear isn't it? Yeah, I know.
    When I got up and looked out of the window today I was not impressed. Plus there's this insane wind and I have to go yell at Kela later...

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  8. "drivers are not allowed to run a red light even though there was no trafic at all"

    ..which is the reason why traffic lights get shut down at nights - no traffic.

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