It’s nice to be back in Berlin. While in Finland one thing I missed about Germany was being able to understand some of what the locals were saying. Finnish is a very strange language and they don’t have very many english words. Even the name of their country is not Finland. This lack of foreign words makes any English that is spoken in a conversation really stand out. On our last day in Helsinki I was listening to two students on the bus and in the middle of whatever they were discussing was this gem
Finland’s number one handsome raccoon
I hope they weren’t talking about me.
What does it mean?
Right now I’m in my favourite restaurant/bar/cafe working on this post. They’re in hiring mode right now and the manager is conducting interviews like six feet (two metres) away from where I’m sitting. She’s been doing this for about two days now and I’m not enjoying any of it. I get too nervous for the interviewees. The presence of my mo probably isn’t helping to create a relaxed atmosphere either. I can’t wait to shave the stupid thing off. At least the general population in Canada is aware of Movember.
I think the setup of this place is pretty clever. Like I said earlier it’s a bar/restaurant/cafe but I did not mention that it’s connected to a hotel. So they get the lunch and dinner crowd but they also have a built-in breakfast clientele with the people in the hotel. The breakfast is a buffet so it’s pretty simple to set up and they probably make a decent amount of money off it. There are a few sofas set up around the perimeter and they have a super-nice patio. Wednesday and Fridays they have a disk jockey.
There are two features that I really like about this place.
- It’s low density. An equivalent restaurant/bar in Ottawa would have twice as many tables and it would be more chaotic.
- It’s not loud. They have nice lounge-style music playing in the background and it’s actually possible to have a quiet argument without having to resort to yelling.
Oh yeah, and there are no televisions. You have no idea how much you hate them until you don’t have one around.
Die Hard Three 
In Germany you stick out if you don’t have a mo.