The Finnish national passion is ice hockey, where unfortunately the team hasn’t been as successful as their fan involvement would warrant. The only world championship until last week’s victory was won in 1995, and the party then has become legendary.
I was finally able to experience that this week. People started to believe in the team after the victory over Russia in the semis, where Mikael Granlund’s lacrosse-style goal has become the centerpiece of many a highlight reel. Then, the final itself was a thriller: Sweden led the scoreboard until Finland tied at the end of the second period, showing a strength of mind that many of their predecessors lacked (the ignominious 5-6 of 2003 comes to mind) and then went on a roll to win the championship.
The celebrations in Helsinki were wild and kicked off on Sunday night. The reception of the champions was organised in the Market Square the day after, and over 100,000 people attended (the whole country has 5.3 million people, so one could say almost 2% of Finland was there to celebrate).
The only black spots were the obvious inebriation of many in the team and the not-very-child-friendly music selection for what was a very public party, but in the end it was a shot of self-esteem and unity Finland really needed.
P.S. I think they should use Antero Mertaranta for the listening portion of the Yleiskielentutkinto (the official Finnish language exam). That’d make it hard enough! 😀
My friends at Café de Nopal have been offering birria tacos (goat Jalisco style) with broth for some time now, so I decided to try to prepare reindeer the same way. The result was excellent, probably one of the best attempts at Finnish-Mexican fusion I’ve gone for.
Reindeer birria, tacos & broth
Ingredients (serves 4)
16 tortillas
1 kg of reindeer meat without bone (luuton sisäpaisti)
2 cloves of garlic
6 dried Chile de árbol chillies (without seeds, sliced and diced)
1 dried chile ancho (without seeds, sliced and diced)
2 teaspoons of cumin
4 tomatoes (sliced and diced)
½ onion (sliced and diced)
salt
Cooking oil
Coriander
Mexican salsa roja or taquera
Green lemons/limes
Warm the oil and fry the garlic, onion and chillies until they’re soft. Add half a litre of water and the cumin. Let boil a few minutes. Blend this mix and then sift it. Return the sauce to the fire and add4 litres of water. Cut the meat in small cubes and add it together with the tomato. Leave cooking for 3-4 hours, add more water if necessary. Serve the broth separately from the meat. Warm the tortillas. Offer some sliced and diced onion with coriander and lemons on the side for people to put together their own tacos. Serve with Mexican rice and pico de gallo on the side.
Take impressionable kids playing with Nintendo Entertainment Systems 20 years ago, fast-forward until they become adults and musicians and you’ll get stuff like this (as featured on the Beeb):
I’ve always been interested in finding out “the other side of the story”. That was one of my main incentives in learning foreign languages, and the reason why I usually scan international newspapers. As a recent project put me in constant contact with Turkey, I was able to pick up this book at Istanbul airport and was able to read it through. While this blog gives a longer review of the book than I’d be willing to write here, the most interesting bit of the whole book was that for the peoples comprising Medieval Islam, Europe was an uninteresting barbaric fringe following an antiquated superseded religion, and so approached their contact with Europeans from a stand of perceived moral superiority. Not unlike the way Europeans viewed the peoples of the New World in the 1500’s.
The book then gives a summary of how those attitudes changed with the faster European development of the Renaissance to a situation where while European technical, scientific & military expertise was sought after, cultural contact was still avoided. 300 years later, the situation is starting to change as can be seen in the TED talk below:
Disclaimer: I know Turkey is in general much less traditionalist than other Muslim countries. It is generally agreed that the push West was started by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which was not covered in this book.
Cuando escuchan que vivo en Finlandia, mucha gente me pregunta cómo es vivir acá en invierno, especialmente cuando puedes llegar a experimentar diferencias térmicas como la de abajo:
En realidad, yo pienso que no es tan difícil como parece. Al contrario de lo que pudiera pensarse, no me la paso añorando las playas de México todo el invierno ni mucho menos (obviamente no le voy a decir que no cuando se me presenta la oportunidad de ir, claro). Como donde crecí la nieve es algo que sólo se encuentra en las cimas de los volcanes, cada que llegan las nevadas lo disfruto enormidad y me preparo para los deportes y actividades de invierno: esquí de fondo (en tierra o sobre el mar congelado), esquí alpino (en Laponia o en Savo), patinaje sobre hielo o deslizamiento en trineo. Intentaría el hockey sobre hielo, pero la verdad es que el único deporte con bastones para el que no soy tan malo es el golf. Con probar salibandy tuve suficiente.
Otra cuestión es obviamente la ropa. Acá tienen un dicho con el que estoy completamente de acuerdo:
No hay mal clima, hay mala ropa
Uno tiene que saber vestirse de acuerdo al clima y también tener en cuenta el factor viento (-17 °C con viento fuerte te puede llegar a dar una sensación térmica de -40°C). Se dice que el 30% del calor corporal se escapa por la cabeza, así que el uso de gorro de lana o sombrero es recomendable. Además, necesitas guantes, bufanda, ropa interior larga, un buen abrigo o rompevientos y saber vestirte en capas: una capa gruesa no te protege tanto como varias capas delgadas, ya que lo que calienta es el aire atrapado entre cada una. En lo más frío del invierno puedo llegar a usar hasta 5 capas de ropa entre camiseta, camiseta larga, camisa, suéter, saco y abrigo. Sudaderas de microfibra o de plano suéteres de lana pueden ser útiles. Algunas personas también usan orejeras de lana o piel. Aún así, salir a la calle en invierno no está peleado con la moda o el estilo propio: no es necesario pensar que te vas a ver como muñeco de Michelin 8 meses al año. Contra lo que pudiera pensarse, en diez inviernos sólo he tenido que usar pasamontañas una vez y hubiera podido sobrevivir sin él.
No uso botas de invierno a menos que realmente haga mucho frío o me vaya a ir a hacer senderismo, pero unas buenas plantillas de lana y calcetines largos de lana o seda pueden hacerte el paro, aún con zapatos o tenis normales. Lo único que sí hay que tener en cuenta es la suela, ya que la nieve o el hielo favorecen las suelas de hule o plástico de buen agarre. Caminar al trabajo en invierno en zapatos de suela de cuero es intento de suicidio.
Lo más importante es escuchar a tu cuerpo y recordar que es un mecanismo maravilloso. Si estás aquí un rato podrás notar que te acostumbras al frío, y cuando en primavera el mercurio vaya de subida te va a empezar a dar calor a cero grados. Recuerdo que en mi primer año aquí sentía que se me caían las orejas con los primeros vientos de Octubre aunque apenas era otoño, ahora a menos que estemos abajo de -15°C no las uso o empiezo a sudar como si tuviera la cabeza en un horno.
Como dicen por ahí: Si te llueven limones, haz limonada.
Si eres hispanoparlante y vives (o planeas vivir) en Finlandia, este libro es absolutamente imperdible. Escrito hace 110 años por el entonces cónsul de España en Helsinki cuando Finlandia era un Gran Ducado dependiente del zar de Rusia y la población de clase alta era mayoritariamente de habla sueca, este libro es un retrato veraz, ácido a veces y sumamente divertido en ocasiones sobre cómo vivían, comían, hablaban (o no), se relacionaban y morían los finlandeses de aquel entonces.
Aunque en algunas cosas el país ha cambiado sustancialmente, el carácter sigue siendo fundamentalmente el mismo.
Chances are if you were born after1980 like countless others (including yours truly) you are marveled, intrigued and annoyed by the way older people see you, your habits and your value systems. You understand (but don’t always sympathize with) the way your elders understand technology and the web… or don’t. You are used to have the TV on at the same time as your music player while you read a book, browse the web and have friends coming over. For you video games are as much a social experience as a way to relax and pass away time, and there is no way you would look at them as “The Big Satan”. If you’re already working, you might have a hard time adjusting to hierarchies, but are a diligent team worker and require honesty from the company that employs you.
If you want to get a broader perspective of why these characteristics set you apart from your elder peers, or if on the other hand you are looking inside these brats’ fenced garden see how it all came to this 😉 this is the book you want to read.
2000 km southeast and 30°C warmer than the previous location: Main square of Mérida, Yucatán.Sunset over the pool in Celestún, Yucatán.
Flamingoes in close-up in Celestún, Yucatán
5 km of virgin beaches in Celestún, Yucatán.
The only not so nice detail was when on meeting some people I hadn’t seen in a long time I realised that the crab mentality seems to be alive and well in certain sectors of society. Shame, but hey, what can you do. 😉 Overall it was great and I cannot wait to be back again, if only for holidays.
