Life and Things Like That Around the World
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Archive for May 2009
So I returned home very frustrated to find out that I locked myself out of the apartment. It costs 30 Euros to unlock my door.
I also learned that I had my underwear inside out all day.
Life is good.
So people here depend heavily on bikes during the summer (during the winter they have to store them). In fact if I was staying here longer I would also be using a bike to get around. However there are no cheap bikes here in Finland, so they are rather expensive (starting at 100€, $140, if I am lucky). And here stealing bikes is popular so I have been warned not to buy a used bike because it could be stolen. However people still don't really fasten their bikes to anything like a pole or a bike rack--instead installing brake locks and just using your lock to make your bike immoble are the most popular. However that does not prevent people from throwing it into the river (which happens a lot).
During coffee yesterday:In the spring the city hires divers to clean the river. They will pull out numerous bikes.
And as a side note--European taxes are evil. I have no money after the tax man took my wages...
Oreo Cookies = Good
Salted Liquorice = Bad
Salted Liquorice flavoured Oreos = Awful
My note to self: Be sure to avoid these things or anything labelled with "Salmiak" (Salted Liquorice) in the future. I am trying to make my way through this box of cookies, but I can only eat one at a time. The first time I ate one of these, I apparently made a funny noise and a funny face. I was expecting it to taste like an oreo, not Nordic Liquorice.
To be fair, a lot of Scandinavians like this salted liquorice. I don't think I have ever tasted any as strong as in Sweden or Finland, so I have avoided it here on purpose. Until I learned they put it in chocolate and Oreos.
Additionally this lab has someone who just washes glassware and keeps the machines running at top quality. This person works here as a technician who has really helped me locate items when I cannot find them in the laboratory. But it still is an alien concept to have someone who washes the glassware in the laboratory for me--always I have had to wash my own (and sometimes other people's). There are also technicians who help with the manufaturing of certain devices (such as helping me make my reference electrodes). This may not be a cultural difference as much as a difference in the labs, but this is a change between this lab and the one at Tech.
So I have had to cope with the metric system a bit here. In science the metric system is used throughout the experiments, so I have been used to this system for these years. However some of the materials I use for work in the US are measured in inches because that is how the manufacturers' machines and methods are tuned. So sometimes I have been asked sizes of what we do in the US and the conversion rate is sometimes a little much to do in my head at the moment (such as cubic inches to cubic cm, or something like that). But like I have said, coping with the metric system hasn't been that big of an adjustment.
Today during coffee: We talked about American accents and made some pretty funny immitations. Additionally we talked about how some eastern Europeans will make their own alcoholic beverages (vodka, wine, etc) for their own personal consumption. Then we were told that chemists used to use the ethanol from the lab to make their own beverages; why is why ethanol is now shipped in plastic bottles over here and that the [alcohol police] will come and visit our lab occasionally. *Alcohol is taxed heavily here in Finland, so it is important that the government makes sure that all heavy alcohol
So I will start a coffee talk exit about something interesting I learned during coffee at work.
Today's coffee talk: 30 is sort of a milestone about having children. Having 5 children before 30 is a very weird thing.
After lunch I started working on my proposal for Janata group for this fall and finished that. My boss came over to talk to me after being in meetings all day and said that we will talk tomorrow after the group meeting and photoshoot. So I need to show up tomorrow at nine.
1322--Locked Out27 May, 2009 | Posted by: person63
So yesterday was a long day. I fought with Microsoft Excel for a little while (all day) to learn that the files I was working on are huge (many data points). So the computer was struggling with the commands I was giving it because 1) the decimal points in Europe are commas rather than periods (so there was a number recognition problem) 2) the number of data points on this huge data plot with live chart updating really bogs down an older computer.So I returned home very frustrated to find out that I locked myself out of the apartment. It costs 30 Euros to unlock my door.
I also learned that I had my underwear inside out all day.
Life is good.
1321--Bikes26 May, 2009 | Posted by: person63
This morning I realized that the weather is getting really nice here and that people are biking more and more. On my walk to work today I saw many more people on bikes this morning than I had ever before. During the summer months a lot of Finnish people will ride their bikes around town to get to school, work, stores, etc. In fact the bike paths are good enough and run next to the roads so that people can use their bikes to get from town to town. Some bike paths even follow the highway so you can take them a long time. I ran on one of these a few weeks ago and it just keep on going on through two towns before I decided to turn around.So people here depend heavily on bikes during the summer (during the winter they have to store them). In fact if I was staying here longer I would also be using a bike to get around. However there are no cheap bikes here in Finland, so they are rather expensive (starting at 100€, $140, if I am lucky). And here stealing bikes is popular so I have been warned not to buy a used bike because it could be stolen. However people still don't really fasten their bikes to anything like a pole or a bike rack--instead installing brake locks and just using your lock to make your bike immoble are the most popular. However that does not prevent people from throwing it into the river (which happens a lot).
During coffee yesterday:In the spring the city hires divers to clean the river. They will pull out numerous bikes.
And as a side note--European taxes are evil. I have no money after the tax man took my wages...
1320--Bleh24 May, 2009 | Posted by: person63
Dear Finland:Oreo Cookies = Good
Salted Liquorice = Bad
Salted Liquorice flavoured Oreos = Awful
My note to self: Be sure to avoid these things or anything labelled with "Salmiak" (Salted Liquorice) in the future. I am trying to make my way through this box of cookies, but I can only eat one at a time. The first time I ate one of these, I apparently made a funny noise and a funny face. I was expecting it to taste like an oreo, not Nordic Liquorice.
To be fair, a lot of Scandinavians like this salted liquorice. I don't think I have ever tasted any as strong as in Sweden or Finland, so I have avoided it here on purpose. Until I learned they put it in chocolate and Oreos.
1319--Adjustments for Chemistry22 May, 2009 | Posted by: person63
There have of course been adjustments to starting work here and I mean more than only using the metric system. The first is that timing is a little more casual. When a meeting starts at "nine in the morning", it actually starts at 9:15. In order to have it start right at 9:00, one must indicate that the meeting actually starts at 9:01. That's when people know that you are serious about the start time. I learned that lesson the second day of work when we had a meeting at nine, and I showed up right at nine and the room was empty. However I think my boss got an enjoyable laugh out of that.Additionally this lab has someone who just washes glassware and keeps the machines running at top quality. This person works here as a technician who has really helped me locate items when I cannot find them in the laboratory. But it still is an alien concept to have someone who washes the glassware in the laboratory for me--always I have had to wash my own (and sometimes other people's). There are also technicians who help with the manufaturing of certain devices (such as helping me make my reference electrodes). This may not be a cultural difference as much as a difference in the labs, but this is a change between this lab and the one at Tech.
So I have had to cope with the metric system a bit here. In science the metric system is used throughout the experiments, so I have been used to this system for these years. However some of the materials I use for work in the US are measured in inches because that is how the manufacturers' machines and methods are tuned. So sometimes I have been asked sizes of what we do in the US and the conversion rate is sometimes a little much to do in my head at the moment (such as cubic inches to cubic cm, or something like that). But like I have said, coping with the metric system hasn't been that big of an adjustment.
Today during coffee: We talked about American accents and made some pretty funny immitations. Additionally we talked about how some eastern Europeans will make their own alcoholic beverages (vodka, wine, etc) for their own personal consumption. Then we were told that chemists used to use the ethanol from the lab to make their own beverages; why is why ethanol is now shipped in plastic bottles over here and that the [alcohol police] will come and visit our lab occasionally. *Alcohol is taxed heavily here in Finland, so it is important that the government makes sure that all heavy alcohol
1318--Hiking or Work? Tough Question...21 May, 2009 | Posted by: person63
Tuesday morning at work: "Would you rather perform chemistry or go for a hike and have a picnic?" Not a tough question to answer, so almost everyone who had the free time chose to go on the hiking excursion that the university funded for our department (Ã…bo Akademi's Laboratory of Analyical Chemistry). If you can see, our lab is quite large, so this trip was a great way to become acquainted with both the area where I am living and also the people I will be working with for another twelve weeks). I live in the southwest archipelago area, so we went to another island that is close to where our secretary lives that a lot of people may not have been to before. The first thing we did was climb to the highest point around, which is more than a hill but not too much. Finland is not the Nordic country to go to if you want to see numerous fjords or magnificent mountains--it's beauty is in the paucity of large features so that you can see forests and nature for miles and miles.» Read more | Leave comment (2)
1317--Coffee14 May, 2009 | Posted by: person63
Coffee is very important to Finns here--Finland is the number one coffee consuming country in the world, at almost 10 kg per person per year. My customs book said that coffee breaks are essentially mandatory during the work day. And that's pretty close to the truth. Everyone at work gets together around the same time each day and talk about whatever comes to mind. It costs 5 euros per month for the costs of the coffee and tea and it is definitely worth it. I enjoy hearing about what people have to say because I get to look into the cultures at work.So I will start a coffee talk exit about something interesting I learned during coffee at work.
Today's coffee talk: 30 is sort of a milestone about having children. Having 5 children before 30 is a very weird thing.
1316--First day at work11 May, 2009 | Posted by: person63
So today was my first day at work. I spent the morning running around Turku (okay, walking) trying to turn in paperwork. There is so much paperwork to do for starting studies, getting the internet, getting a bus pass, signing my lease at the right office since I got lost last time I went there, etc. And then I got back in time for lunch.After lunch I started working on my proposal for Janata group for this fall and finished that. My boss came over to talk to me after being in meetings all day and said that we will talk tomorrow after the group meeting and photoshoot. So I need to show up tomorrow at nine.
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