Finland, part 2

Just a few quick thoughts...

• I enjoyed playing the game mölkky. I think part of the reason was that I know about 1020 Finnish phrases, and 999 of them are the numbers 1-999. So at first I thought I would be able to understand everything people said. Imagine my surprise when I heard how people actually speak numbers, as opposed to the "official" way to say numbers... it would be like in english if instead of saying "twenty-seven" you said "twe-sev" or "thir-fo", except even a little more abstract than that. But I did manage to catch on fairly quickly for the most part.
  
• The game of Finnish darts is different than American (English? Irish?) darts. I think you throw from farther back, and the board looks different (concentric rings).
  
• San Francisco is trying to place a tax on plastic bags at grocery stores to cut back on bag waste. Finland already has the problem figured out - when you get to the check out stand, you actually have to pull down the bags you want, place them on the conveyor belt, and pay for them. The bags are higher quality too, so you don't need to double or triple bag.
  
• I missed blueberry season by 2-3 weeks... there are some green ones but nothing ripe. But we were able to find a few ripe wild strawberries. While they are very tiny, they are packed full with flavor! Yum!