Hockey fever

Two weeks have passed and once again it is time to bring you guys up to date on what has been going on in the good ol’ 514. The amount of Halloween junk in stores made me think the holiday is today, but it’s still a month away. Words cannot even begin to describe the disappointment: I had even prepared a pumpkin dance with which to convince Niko to buy a pumpkin the next time we’d be going to Loblaws for groceries.

My costume for aforementioned dance

Blade into the ice, the name of the newspaper (Translation courtesy of Google Translate)

First things first: In Candy Crush Saga I passed Level THE HOCKEY SEASON IS UPON US. As I am writing this there’s a bit more than 24 hours left before the Molson Canadian NHL Face-Off in Centre Bell, aka NHL season opener Toronto - Montréal. A true sports classic, this passionate encounter of these two historic teams is being celebrated in this city with a proper grand event at Place des Festivals. Finnish hockey tycoon Kale Kummola could learn a thing or two from the Montréalaises about making ice hockey truly a special event for everyone, even though it seems he got the pricing of game tickets right.

Having watched a good number of pre-season games online (anyone who has been to our place knows that our Cablw Tv [sic] doesn’t actually show hockey, or anything worth watching whatsoever)  we decided to go to the legendary sports bar Chez Serge to watch Devils play Habs last Monday. To give a general idea for those who haven’t had the pleasure of being to this awesome joint, let us tell that the bar features a mechanical bull, stripper poles on the bar (for the victory dances), a number of moose heads adorned with a healthy number of brassieres as well as a shot roulette where you can win anything from a six pack of beer to a spanking by one of the barmaids. So truly we are talking about the king of all sports bars.

Our visit also coincided with our roommate’s zero-drink-week bet ending. Without going into an unnecessary amount of detail, the evening soon derailed into vodka shots, steel buckets filled with beer, public drinking (“Yes I know there’s a $140 fine for this sir, it’s just that I simply don’t care that much”), intense conversations with a gay chef, and thoughts of being “totally able to beat the bar record on the mechanical bull.” All of this was followed by a massive morkkis, moral hangover. Needless to say, no previous hangover of any magnitude can stop the same from happening again should the Habs beat Leafs tomorrow. In all honesty, it’s a more than likely scenario. #victoryshots #whatagreatconcept

To go with all the hockey craze that has been coloring our lives in the past two weeks we also started a fantasy hockey league with the housemates. How wrong can you go with having Ovechkin and one of the greatest D-men ever to walk the streets of Montréal, in addition to Janne “suomenkaataja” Niinimaa, P.K. “Musta-Pekka” Subban, on your team?

The man, the legend

Le tourism

During the last couple of weeks I also had the chance to visit two major Canadian cities, the nation’s capital Ottawa as well as the cute and adorable Quebec City. Ottawa was a neat town; especially the ByWard Market area was to my liking. The city was fairly void of tourists as it was a Wednesday, but the peaceful atmosphere made an impression. I also noted that the parliament buildings looked like Hogwarts. British Empire much, eh? Would recommend for a one day or one night stay.

#nofilter

As weeks roll by, fall is finally here. Though the temperatures resemble more mid-June to a Finn, the foliage is still going all #fab #fallcatalogue. La Belle Provence is renowned for its beautiful fall colors, and we got to experience this to the fullest when visiting Quebec City this weekend. The city is built on a very steep hill, so prepare for some walking, which also happens to be the best way to see the city. Other means of transportation include elevators, horse carriages and ecolobusses (the eco-friendly offspring from a drunken one-night stand of a bus and a Mini Cooper). As mentioned, the hills are steep so getting around in the winter might prove a difficult task. For a Scandinavian seeing a snowy city isn’t really a big deal, so I’d personally recommend visiting the city in October. The quaint little streets filled with restaurants and shops as well as the city’s large parks make it a must-see for anyone coming to Montréal for a longer stay. The place also has a ton to see for the history buffs. Hell, I’d even recommend visiting it from one of the lamer provinces, such as Ontario or Nova Scotia.

Should you choose to visit the city with Hechange like we did, you also get to see the city’s biggest and best club. For the Helsinkians, you can get a mental image by combining the dance floor from Circus with the pricing of Tiger and the customers of Amarillo & Baarikärpänen. Judging by this description, most of you will know whether this jewel is for you or not. Hotel room after parties with the other exchange students were reminiscent of high school party cruises to Stockholm, though this time one didn’t need to worry about falling overboard at 5 AM, even though the omnipresent fear of drowning was still there.

Niko’s comment: The customers at the club were actually a comfortable blend of Vanha kettu and Vantaan Onnela. For those who are not familiar with Vanha kettu, the bar is located in the heart of Helsinki and is filled with mid-age homeless and the so called “homeless” – prospects that are annually drafted by the bar. On a side note, Ville has improved his chances for the rookie draft by moving to the same block.

Shopping-wise there isn’t as much to do as in Toronto, but I still managed to bring home a six-pack of Moosehead Lager and a Blue Jays cap (true fans show their colors even during the off-season), so at least I got the essentials covered. If you’re a hockey merchandise kind of person, or just a hockey-hipster™, there are tons of boutiques selling Nordiques memorabilia.  

Montmorency Falls

Niko’s take on School Work

Two weeks ago, we wrote about our university courses and gave a short description of them. Now, I’ll give you, our faithful readers, a short glimpse of a couple of simulations that are a part of the logistics and strategic management courses.

Logistics Simulation – What started out as a collective sigh of utter despair as our group tried to mash together logistical plans and how to actually manage an inventory, has so far turned into great success and thus far we’ve only fallen short to the game itself. Look out skynet, I’m coming for your ass.

 Now, I’ve gone through operations management courses where I was taught to use this formula for that and that for this etc. However, during the first week of this simulation I just threw all of that theoretical mumbling away and used common sense. So far, so good right? If your product is in demand, you supply it dumbass, you do not look at equations and go “Oh, well I guess I don’t want to get paid”. I’m not saying to ignore the math, obviously that’s the lifeline of logistics, but still, don’t blindly look at numbers.

In itself, the simulation is a fairly simple supply chain management game where we need to manage logistics costs and be able to meet demand on time in order to not lose customers. Going into further detail would probably bore all the readers so instead, here’s a picture of Finnish soap opera legend, Ismo:

  

Strategic Management Simulation (Reader Discretion Advised) – Ok, this simulation was something we were looking forward to, and to be frank, still are. We managed to make fairly good decisions in the practice round, and ended up with a good nominal share value. Now, the game itself requires quite a lot of attention to detail and is actually surprisingly vast in terms of the decisions you can make. In short, you can basically decide everything from advertising campaigns to employee benefits and CSR initiatives. The game evaluates your nominal share price based on three factors: Profit, People, and Planet, but how we see it is like this:

1.       Profit

2.       Irrelevant

3.       Irrelevant

Going into detail on this game would be like trying to explain to girls what the offside-rule is in sports, it just isn’t worth it.Therefore, here are some nice remarks about the simulation:

-         It was made by the French, so it blows.

Peace I’m out.