Um, excuse me, who are you?

Went to work, wrote a bunch. Came home, took the kids on a nature walk near the place where we buy groceries (because those groceries that were going to last the week didn't last).


As you can see, we went to part of the Saimaa Geopark that just has a short trail around a river and next to Lake Saimaa. While we were there Brian showed us that you can just hover the Google Translate app's camera over any text (like a sign, or a package) and it will translate it on the spot. We used that to translate the many signs along the route, and mysterious products in the grocery store.


The trail was nice and there were lots of more informal trails branching off here and there, and the kids made good use of those. 



The trail takes you behind some homes with idyllic back yards that slope down to this river. Some signs promised us otters, but we didn't see any. We did, however, see somebody's backyard bunker (we think).

I would definitely have been afraid of this as a child. And probably as a teenager as well. 

We also stumbled upon the playground of kids' dreams. It had everything! A climbing wall with a whole climbing course, different kinds of swings, spinning things and bars, a track for riding bikes or scooters, a skate park (adorably called a skeitti parkki), and ball fields, AND it was on a beach. The Finns do playgrounds well. 



Other things the Finns do well include:

- bags of mixed candy
- breads and pastries
- butt washing in every bathroom (my people!)
- bike-friendly design (lots of interconnected paths, low speed limits on the roads)
- coffee (including always taking a break for coffee at work)
- chillin'
- making lactose free options very available
- speaking English

Things they don't do as well, at least in our experience thus far:

- lasagna
- conveying instructions with symbols (driving is as confusing as using the washing machine)

Things we can't find:

- 5th wave / fancy coffee
- craft beer

The negatives are compensated for by the fact that even shitty grocery store coffee tastes great, you can get booze in the grocery store, and if everything was easy this wouldn't feel like an adventure. I'm a weird combo of relieved and sad that we don't have to use our (limited) Finnish much. Duolingo has only really taught us to tell people what colour our dogs are and say things that I can't imagine ever saying to a stranger, like "Excuse me, who are you?" And "Is Vaino a viking?" So I've pretty much stuck to "sorry" and "thank you" (there is no word for "please").



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