the village

I gave my students a break yesterday and took them on an outing to the delightful village of Fiskars, home of the iconic orange handled scissors.

Fiskars reminds me of a town from a fairytale, like the ones you see in movies such as The Lord of the Rings (Many Finns actually have elf-like features, which only serves to reinforce the illusion).

We went for lunch, and then wandered around the town, checking out the various shops. One of my colleagues bought a tar-scented candle for his dad (he figured it was the most manly-scented of all the candles in the shop).

We also stopped for some locally made ice cream. I opted for blueberry. It was delicious. The girl serving us asked where we were from. We told her we were Australians and that we were in Finland doing research. She thought that this was weird.

Obviously the ice cream girl also found us fascinating because she came out to speak with us while we were eating our ice creams.

It turns out that ice cream girl is a HUGE McLeod's Daughters fan. I never watched the series but apparently they are still showing re-runs here in Finland. She said that in Finland, farmers use machinery to do the work (we didn't have the heart to tell her that Australian farmers use machinery too). I asked the girl what other Australian programs are shown in Finland. She mentioned Master Chef and Dance Academy. So, I guess she must think we are all horse-riding farmers who can cook well and love to dance.  No wonder she though it was weir that we were in Finland doing science.