Okay, so not everything here is great. There are some things that really get under my skin. Here's the list:
the summer cottages: I know I wrote about them in the things that I love, but they need to be on this list too. Why the heck do they NEVER have showers? The cabin can be simple or super fancy, it doesn't matter, there will still be no shower. People go in the sauna and then wash up in a series of buckets of water. I know its about nature and roughing it and all that, but for crying out loud, if you have bothered to pipe in running water (for the sink and dishes), is it too much to ask to have it come out of a showerhead??? Also, the Finns tend to be a little obsessed with their cabins in that if the weather is good, one must head to the cabin. Every time. Holidays can't really be taken between May and September because then you would miss out on cabin time. Come on people. Your cabin will still be there even if you miss a couple of weeks one summer.
the baby food: strangely enough, the baby food selection here is pathetic. There is almost no organic jarred food. But worse than that, all the food has some weird added ingredients like corn flour etc. In Canada, if you want a jar of blueberries, then that's all you get in the jar. Of course you can get a mix, but it still doesn't contain all kinds of filler flour. Joonas actually refused to eat the food here so we had to get my brother to bring some from Canada.
the produce: I guess that I have been spoiled growing up in BC, but the produce selection here sucks. Exotic fruits are either non-existant or inexhorbitantly expensive. No one seems to carry Romaine lettuce. How can you make caesar salad with iceberg? You can't, its wrong.
travel Finns are pretty good about traveling abroad. Thailand, Spain, Florida and a lot of other warm climates are very popular. That's not my beef. My problem is travel to Helsinki. People who don't live there think that going there is a huge deal. It needs to be planned weeks in advance and you must stay overnight. Its weird. I guess living in Canada one gets used to traveling long distances. Going for coffee 50km away is not considered unusual. In Finland, 50 km requires at the very least a day trip; leaving in the morning and returning at night. Anyway, it irritates me and I think that it contributes to the smallmindedness of Finns. If you stay in your own town 24-7, with maybe the occasional trip to Spain in the winter, your horizons are not very broad and you become small minded.
