Now featuring Coffee!

I realized recently that for someone who wants to get into the coffee industry, i don't talk about it much. I'm going to change that! From here on out "My Heart is in Helsinki" is about Finland AND Coffee! Hooray! I even changed my banner a little!

It was either that, or start a new blog, and i really don't want to be "that guy".


(And yes, i did do the 'Metal Latte'. But that picture's from a while ago, and i stole the idea from a magazine and Danielle...)

Scandinavian Festival

This past Saturday, some friends (Maria, Madison, and Chris) and i went to the Scandinavian Festival at Oglethorpe University, and let me tell you.... It. Was. Awesome.

Well, like i said before, even if i saw only one Finnish flag, it was going to be worth it. And i saw one, so i was pretty stoked. When we first got there, we walked by some booths and got some food tickets, and just checked out what our options were.

On the main stage, for the most of the time we were there, there was the "Georgia Brass Band" which was playing a lot of Austin Powers and Star Wars.... not sure what's Scandinavian about that.... then again there was a later act that sounded like Irish folk music (i think it actually was Irish), so maybe they didn't care about getting some Scandinavian music going. In any case, we didn't hang out by the main stage much.



Pretty early on, Maria and Madison decided they wanted Finnish Pancakes. (They were only $3, not $5!) I had never actually heard of Finnish Pancakes before and despite the novelty of them being Finnish, i didn't get one, although i tried some of Maria's, and it was pretty good. The line for Finnish Pancakes was REALLY long. Definitely the longest in the whole festival, so "Hyvää Suomi!" (Did i spell that right, Saila?)

While Finland was representin' in the pancakes department, else where..... not so much. In fact, except for the Icelanders (which had virtually nothing but a 5x5 section in the tourism section), Finland was the least represented. Denmark and Sweden had tons of booths like this one....



And by tons, i mean 3 or so. Finland had one really small booth with a couple of Fazer things, some Marimekko napkins (Really? Napkins? Of all the cool Marimekko stuff there is?), and a few Iittala glasses. Kind of lame.

In the tourism section though, the Finns had a little more going on. Most of it was really cheesy things like a video tape that was probably 10 years old about how great Finland was (in English), but i still loved it. I talked to this very nice old Finnish woman, and when she found out i was moving to Finland she couldn't stop smiling! She called me "a wonderful young man" and was very enthusiastic about me moving. We talked about the weather in Finland, and i told her that Kari Lehtonen (goalie for the Atlanta Thrashers) needed to be on the "Finnish Athletes" wall. I also learned from her that Tampere is "the Manchester of Finland" (i guess Helsinki is London). I also briefly talked with another nice old Finnish woman who runs a Finnish language school in Atlanta. I asked about classes for adults, and she said they used to have them, but don't anymore, because everyone drops out after only a couple weeks! Ouch... But she gave me her card, and said i could e-mail if i had any questions anyways.

Even though some aspects were kind of disappointing, the Scandinavian Festival was still awesome in my eyes. The highlight of the my day (possibly week) was when a woman waiting in line for Finnish Pancakes said, "Are they selling those here?" while pointing to my 'Suomi' hoodie. I told her i didn't think so, to which she asked "Where did you get it?" I got a huge grin on my face and just said, "In Finland." *sigh*

Oh, i almost forgot. Here's some Norwegian trolls.

Finally, some cold air...

Atlanta is finally get some moments of chill air. I'm sure it'll get hot a few more times, but i'm really excited to be able to rock the "Suomi" hoodie for bit. It's not the same as Finnish cold air, but i'll take what i can get.

Tomorrow i'm going to rock the "Suomi" hoodie at the Atlanta Scandinavian Festival with my friend Maria (who's half-Swedish and shares my love for Scandinavia) and we're going to have a blast. Don't worry, i'll take lots of pictures and do a big post tomorrow or Sunday. It will probably be cheesy, but we're such huge dorks we'll love it even if it's lame. If i see one Finnish flag (which i will) it will be worth it.