Shoes to run away from

Here's some non-sense we were up to, before all the depression started, when my cat died, Rene got sick with angina, and I got denied another really cool. I put a lot of time into applying for the job, and they'd given the job away before the application period even ended. Maybe the ugly pics I took was an omen for all the upcoming bad luck... 

We went on a quest to find running shoes fro Rene. They're ALL ugly as hell. Seriously, what is wrong with people who design these? Or folks who wear them??! 

Here are some pics of how pretty it was outside first, though.

 

 

Rene's laundry of the day: 

Hat - H&M 

3D Glasses - Cinemaxx 

coat - somewhere in Mexico 

jeans - H&M 

shoes - New Balance

 

Laundry of the day: 

Hat - gift from mom's neighbour from Mallorca 

scarf tube - Naf Naf 

coat - LeGroup 

shirt - Motivi 

jeans - Cheap Monday 

winter sneakers - Rubberduck 

purse - Hilfiger 

gloves - no idea

Rene went to see Avatar, and wont take off the 3D glasses.

 

UGLY SHOES! 

I am never setting foot in a sport shop again, that's how uninspiring the stuff there is. Seriously, is there a person out there who would wear these with pride? Definitely you wouldn't say they're pretty, or flattering, or fashionable, or anything more positive than "OK for running". Sure, the neon yellow makes me feel so sporty I'm sweatting already!

 

And can't they hide the ugly bouncy bits with a normal looking heel? WOW that's so high tech, I feel like I'm in the air...

 

Seriously UGLY! They're everywhere!

YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK

 

OK, Rene seems to have found something normal and shoe-looking...

But they still weren't good enough... It gets worse! What is UP with these high tech looking bouncy robot-shoes? I'm sure they're very good for running, but do they NEED to be made of grey plastic? Yucky Yuckersons!

 

And may I present my favorites: the gradient grey Nike's with so many energetic skidmarks to make you look faster, and red Lego Duplo-style-heels! These are so ugly it hurts!

 

EEEEOW! Somebody explain please. Is it so, that the uglier they are, the faster you run, so you can take 'em off?

Speaking with tongues

Waaah, I've been laughing my eyes out trying out my new Google Translator on the blog. I tried Finnish, Spanish, German and Swedish already, and it just doesn't ever make any sense.

Especially with Finnish it's pretty funny, because most English words have so many different meanings and expressions in Finnish, that it gets extremely confusing. For example the word call is 'to make a phone call', but also 'to refer to a person with a name', 'to yell out' or 'a phone call'. In Finnish those grasps have 4 different words (soittaa, kutsua, huutaa and puhelu), and apparently Google chooses the first meaning. So it gets pretty weird.

Also in Finnish you have lots of different conjugations and endings (because we use no articles or prepositions really, so instead we bend the end of the word) and in the translator they are of course usually in the infinitive form. It sounds like my old Russian colleague speaking Finnish. Basically my profile in Finnish sounds like: "You are happy here. I am in Finland, and Love lives in Berlin with some (crazy) France-Mexico (dudes)." Yeah, that IS, in fact, what I was trying to say. :) Also the part about the rat's ass is pretty gruesome. You just cannot translate some things into Finnish, because they become way uglier than they are.

Here are some of my favorite picks of the translations. Read even the ones you don't understand, neither do I. And you most likely wont learn anything. In between I'll show you some pretty images from the last summer day in Berlin.


My favorite Finnish clip (from my profile)


"Onnellinen olet täällä. Minä olen Suomessa, ja rakkaus asuu Berliinissä yhdessä joidenkin crazy Ranskan-Meksikon dudes. Tarkkailemaan ja elää elämänsä täydellisesti, joskus tulit rakkaansa allover maailmaa. Vaikka olen visualist, muotisuunnittelija (ja chick) En usko, että annatte rotan perse mitä olen pukeutunut joka päivä. Elämä ei ole aina kaunis. Kun asiat saavat ruma, ne yleensä saada mielenkiintoisia."

Maxi and Schnute, our neighbors, enjoying the last sunny day.

My favorite German clips

"Wenn Sie sich um, begrüßen zu dürfen! Ich werde auch dort serviert Killer-Brötchen. (Yei, bekam ich im Team, 'cos Ich kenne den Besitzer!) Ich werde mit der Planung beginnen, was ich backen werde. Was schlagen Sie vor? Es muss etwas sein, Finnisch, gehen mit dem Thema, und eignen sich auch mit Champagner ...schwierig. Etwas mit Erdbeeren vielleicht?"

"(Mein Geburtstag war im Begriff, ruiniert, weil ich Lady Gaga spielen in meinem Kopf aaaallll der Zeit. Gott, ich hasse ihre Lieder hatte.)"

Beachbar by the Theater at Monbijoupark.

Some confusing clips in Spanish/Finnish
Tiia's comment:
"Laukkuja rakastan Ma! Hey, Kyseessä Koska en las bolsas de asesino, chile jotain ni tee-voittoisia pullia tai jotain semmosia, jotka ei ole sitä Milta näyttää:) Moños con un toque;)"
From the profile:
"Yo soy de Finlandia, y el amor que viven en Berlín, junto con algunos locos vatos mexicanos francesa."

It even translates names like Rachel -> Raquel!
"Esta es Anna. Nuestra hermana realmente fabuloso amiga Lena, quien lookes sorprendentemente mucho a ella y también fue espectacular! So cool a su encuentro y su incorporación a la celebración de b-day:) También cantó Dirty Diana a mí, cuando yo más lo necesitaba. (Mi cumpleaños estaba a punto de ser arruinada porque había Lady Gaga jugando en mi cabeza aaaallll el tiempo. Dios me gusta sus canciones.) Tenemos la amaba y su amiga Raquel, y queremos que todos ellos se mueven en Berlín con Lena, por supuesto. Pleeeease"

Gertrud and Rainer.

These Swedish sentences just made me roll with laughter
"...berätta om din favoritmat eller ring mig dum." ('...tell me your favorite food and gimme a call, stupid.')

Lazy asses stuck in a sun chair.

Just feed your favorite language in the Google Translator box, read some of the older posts, and let me know what happened! Knock yourself out!

Stepping out of the sky

1.
This is how we spent my last evening in Berlin... Sam 'the Magician' made a gorgeous dinner of just things she happened to have in the house. I'll miss you guys!

Quiche Lorraine for starters - mmmmm.

Some thai chicken with fried rice for the main course...

Lasse brought the Beck's.

...so good that it demonized some of us. (I know she doesn't read this, no matter how much I flatter her, so it's OK to publish this stuff!)

...and a friggin delicious apple yoghurt cake for desert. Sam truly is the best thing that happened to our kitchen!

Happy guest Ina.

2.
Packing for one month was a huge project, hope I remembered everything essential:

3.
Airplane food on the other hand... the free sandwhich is pretty good, but the food that you can order for a price on Air Berlin Planes is just so disgusting. I mean who would pay 6-8 euros for this?:

Looks like they spent an hour putting those zucchinis into place, but the portion just ended up looking like children's Easy bake oven -toy food.

I never understood Currywurst, and this doesn't make me want to. Looks like a sausage sauce we had in school when I was a kid, but they poured sand on top.

2 Nuggets for 6 euros?? Covered in mini-carrots in 2 different ways. Wow, that really IS what I loved the most as a kid!

A grayish slimy pudding. Even the photographer used like a grey filter on this one. No Photoshop, no tricks, this is what you get.

Ground at sight!

Just look at those sceneries...

4.
I’ve just landed to my home country. But before really settling down somewhere in Helsinki, I’ll be touring around Finland a bit! My itinerary for the next days will be:

- Järvenpää, where I’m seeing my best friends’ brand new baby girl for the first time! She’s 5 weeks old and I only got to see her now... I nearly pissed my pants in the plane! She's so adorable, just have a look...

- Tampere, where me & my girls are gonna see the comeback of Tehosekoitin, the best band in the history of music, that split up 5 years ago and I’ve cried myself into sleep ever since. So that should be pretty emotional then! :) I’m also excited to go to Tampere cos’ it’s my favorite city in Finland: the people are even cuter and funnier there!

- An Unknown Location that will be discovered during the weekend maybe. Piritta and me are thinking of jumping into a train, cos’ neither of us can drive, and just taking the randomest place on the map and go check it out. Come along if you will!

The newcomers! Hihii!

Lookalikes. <3

Oh!

ps. Sorry for the weird fonts and layouts (such as this part being italic), I wrote the post on Word, and I can't clear some of the formatting without having to rewrite and position everything again. :( If some Blogger-nerd knows the trick, please help!

Nightlife in Finland

Clubbing in Finland is tough... it's expensive and sadly homogenous. It's hard to find alternatives, mainly because Finland is one big bad night club owned by one guy: Sedu Koskinen. This little dude resembles a certain other small but dreadful leader in the history of Europe known for his dictatorship and horrible actions. Sedu wishes to take over all the night clubs of Finland to create himself a kingdom where everyone dances when he says so. His clubs are all made with the same basic business-idea: serve everything to everyone. That, in my mind basically equals 'nothing for nobody', but apparently it's good enough for most people.

"Get me out of here", she said.

Sedu's competitors get tired of him buying them off. He owns 10 clubs just in Helsinki, and many more in over 20 cities in Finland. Seriously, there aren't enough inhabitants in Finland for other clubs. I suggest, just like in bars they stop serving drunk people, they should start regulating the sales of restaurants for this guy. "Sir, you've had enough."

Places worth checking out yeah!

Thank god for some feisty individuals though, who still offer something different for the more demanding folk. Examples of cool alternatives worth checking out are: Redrum and Cuba Cafe. The previous usually offers electronic music, the latter one offers you a personal Jesus for 1500 €. Also some traditional karaoke bars like Yökyöpeli and Pata-Ässä are always packed with passionate Finns interpreting their feelings at the darkest hour.

Cuba is a happy place. (Erottajankatu 4, Helsinki)

Dubrovnik is a cosy, funky place with live music.

Top 5 worst nightclubs in Finland

1. Royal Onnela, Helsinki: 'the Mall' of nightclubs. 8 rooms with different versions of mainstream music in over 2000 sqm. I went there once, saw 3 guards hitting a guy on the floor with a telescopic baton, wished I'd been that guy.

2. Tiger, Helsinki: another version of Sedu's black and silver curvey decorations, black marble counters and rnb-hits from two years ago.

3. Diva, Lahti: 4 dancefloors of bullshit with some rapper grinding you like a dog. Apparently this isn't owned by SK yet, but it's all the same. Used to be the only young people's night club in Lahti until Sedu came in and didn't change a thing.

4. Onnela, 12 cities in Finland - need I say more? I used to go here ALOT when it was still somehow under control. Now I'd just rather stay home.

5. Hotelli Vantaa, Vantaa: this one I totally recommend! It's a must-see for people willing to see some Finnish culture at its finest. You have a manic mixture of karaoke, teen agers and seniors, a hotel room and breakfast for something like 50 euros. If you don't get a chance to go on the Sweden-boat, go here!

Silver frames and a hostess dancing on the bar in sponsored jeans. Royal Onnela, Helsinki.

To my Mexican friends in "quaranteen"

Drinking Tecate is a good way of fighting boredom when you can't leave the house.

All public buildings and schools have been closed now for almost a week in Mexico, due to the swine flu, and the people have been told to avoid leaving their homes. Tomorrow the universities open their doors again and people get to see their friends in the flesh again, other than online. 

 For a culture so social and friendly I can imagine it to be hard not to get to hug and kiss your loved ones as usual. After a total lock down of 5 days the society is now supposed to start to work normally again. So, what is it that you've all been doing there all day? 

I noticed a quiz in Facebook that went something like: "Top 5 things that keep me occupied during the swine flu" and the answers were mostly like: my laptop, iPod and dogs. But how does a society just close everything down like that? How does that affect the economy, people's jobs, production, export...? I mean now there are no fresh tortillas in the super market and all the milk from last week has expired. How will things get back to normal?

Santa took off the frustration of a Mexican girl at Christmas.

My last trip to Monterrey at Christmas wasn't actually so different. I had to keep myself occupied for some time because I didn't have as much work to do as I had expected and the trip turned out to be more of a really long holiday. So apart from my Spanish lessons, dance classes and writing some occasional freelance articles, I spent it drinking Tecate, eating well and taking my frustration on some poor piñata. Maybe that's what the Mexicans have now been doing?