Supremacy

Received my DinersClub PIN yesterday! In celebration we drank a couple of beers and watched Bill Hicks do stand-up comedy.

While seemingly running completely out of cash, I was almost willing to accept life's cruel teaching of poverty and need. I was almost willing to cast aside my life-long philosophy of "neh, I can always get money from somewhere!" and actually become a considerate consumer with awareness of currency and its value, and how saving makes sense in the long-term.

Haahaa!

I got the damned PIN now! I can ALWAYS get money from somewhere! Haahaa! No lessons learned!

I will prevail! I am supreme!

Seriously though, money acts strange here. Everything is slightly cheaper here than in Finland and I make more money than I did in Finland. Seemingly I should be quite well off (which I actually am considering the major purchases from the last 6 months) but some reason it's just not enough. I seriously need to start counting pennies and make a monthly budget. The last ten or so days, despite this happy ending, really showed me that it sucks terribly to run out of cash midway. Salary on Friday, sweet. Need to see how far it'll take me this time.

On other news, it was raining sideways yesterday. Protecting yourself from rain by holding the umbrella vertically is always amusing - added with the force you have to put into keeping your balance as the strong wind is pushing agaist the umbrella. I carry an umbrella always with me in my bag. Usually it's a tiny-kind, the kind you wouldn't really expect a manly man to carry but hell, I don't care. It keeps me semi-dry.

What I'd really like to see is a strong typhoon strike close. I would definitely like to see what happens! I mean, I don't want any catastrophies to happen, that's for sure, but I would like to see the force of nature up close. A proper T-8 would let me stay home as well to enjoy the show.

Now, to the topic at hand.

Exactly one month untill I go back to Finland! Huzzah! I hope the weather is nice there when I arrive. I suppose I need to take a jacket anyway, just in case.

Going back to Finland is kind of like going back in time. It's not a big difference as such, but Hong Kong looks like the world of Blade Runner (without flying cars) while you could still make a credible WW2 movie in most places in Finland. I don't really care much for Finland these days. Sure, it's nice with all the nature and stuff but seriously - you need that stuff only on vacation.

Back home in Finland, I need to drive my car 5 kilometers (roughly) to the closest grocery store. If I want to buy clothes or anything else but groceries, I need to drive 40km to Tampere. If I want to take a train somewhere, I need to drive 25km to Toijala (Akaa), and if I want to fly somewhere, it's 150km to Helsinki-Vantaa.

If I want to "go out" somewhere in Finland, the only option is to go drinking. Alternatives could be;
- Going out to eat? Boring and expensive
- Going to the movies? Not really common except maybe with couples.
- Going out and NOT drink? Need to check my medication.
- Going shopping? No.
- Going to an arcade? No arcades in Finland.
- Etc.? No.

Two drinking options are either to go out and drink at a bar, or buy beer from a store and drink at someone's place. Two options. No more.

People in Finland are generally nice and welcoming but we have a big redneck problem as well. Albeit a minority, they are a big minority and not to be ignored. Go to a grill (a source of maybe the best culinary experiences in Finnish cuisine) and you're taking a risk of getting verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, or even killed. Go to a music concert/festival and you face the same risks. Go to a city central at evenings and you face the same risks. Go anywhere else but your own home and you're in the danger of being assaulted by a Finnish redneck.

If that wasn't bad enough, good and nice people can turn into the worst kind of redneck idiots in a matter of hours once they get alcohol in them - which of course happens alot seeing it's the only way Finns know how to have fun and go out.

Actually, the long geographical distances in Finland are probably an evolutionary protection measurement to save Finnish people from themselves. If isolated groups of Finns get drunk on regular basis, the chance for a clash between these groups is decreased by the long distance they have between them, hence reducing the risk of injury or death.

Of course the contemporary way of life has ruined this evolutionary protection measure by introducing the modern automobile.

The bottomline of why Hong Kong is supreme is as follows:

- People are nice AND don't drink as much so they mostly stay nice even at evenings

- Crime rate is low in Hong Kong which is a testament to their good way of life and understanding the very basics of harmonous living with each others

- There's actually many things to do in Hong Kong at evenings and not just drinking. And the local people actually use these options and they seem genuinely happy doing so.

- Albeit the city areas of Hong Kong are much like concrete jungle, huge portions of the HK S.A.R. area is actually protected nature.

- Services are close-by all the time. From my apartment, the closest grocery store is 5 minutes walk away, a bigger and better takes 10 minutes walk. I can find all the basic services within 10 minute walk from my front door. If I still need something else, I take a metro and can get anywhere in Hong Kong within one hour.

- I don't need a car because the public trasport actually works here and is affordable.

Seeing this post is already quite long, I will stop now. Maybe I'll come back to this topic later some day, maybe I won't.

As a conclusion, I would like to state that I still love my home country and I think it's great! There are many, many good things about Finland and I will definitely move back at some point. However, it has become clear to me (while traveling around) that things are not as black and white. Finland is not the best place on earth, and never will be. But it doesn't need to be.

At this point, the only things I miss about Finland are my family and my friends. That's all.