Midlife Crisis at 22

A friend of mine once told me that when you move abroad it is almost as if you develop a new personality. It’s a weird psychological phenomenon (Editor’s note: I only studied psychology for a single mandatory course in high school, don’t worry, I know I’m full of it) what being given a clean slate in terms of social networks does to you. Only a few weeks ago I was 100 percent sure that I could get through my entire life without ever purchasing a snapback or being genuinely excited about a “new, up-and-coming neighborhood with some cool places you probably never even heard of” (i.e. turbo hipsterville, population: douchehundred). Considering that the life I lead will likely end in an early grave, having a midlife crisis at the ripe old age of 22 makes perfect sense.

Though my life is beginning to eerily remind the Asher Roth hit I love college (here’s a link for the uninitiated, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0), there is luckily still more to the life of the Finnish frat boys than beer pong, Bud Light and listening to our official Spotify playlist (aptly named Douchelist, contains e.g. Kanye West, Blink 182 and some smash hits from the greatest movies ever: Top Gun and Rocky IV). We actually had a really good lecture on the history and culture of Quebec. It’s pretty interesting how similar the story of Quebec is to that of Finland. Both are bilingual, and Quebec’s special rights in comparison to the other provinces of Canada really remind me of Finland’s status in 19^th century Russia. In the latest polls the separatist movement had actually more support than the Let’s-stay-with-Canada-they-have-Tim-Hortons-I-can’t-give-that-up movement. Maybe I have some hope of actually learning something useful here. After all, I guess you can’t really list Beer and Local beer pong champion of Parc Extension / Outremont as your special skills on LinkedIn.

Speaking of learning, we had our first proper lectures last week. The style is very North American, completely different when compared to Aalto. The professors are a lot more passionate, the group sizes notably smaller etc. It might be too early to judge, but maybe Lonely Planet wasn’t completely off-track dubbing the school as “the French-speaking equivalent to Harvard.”  I think we’ll write about all our courses in a separate le serious business entry (because we have to or we don’t receive funding for our blogging effort from our prestigious alma mater, Aalto School of Biznis)  

What the Fudge?

Last week was somewhat exhausting, since we discovered a nice lil’ mold infestation in our wash room after a major plumbing fudge-up involving gushing piping and improvised home-made buckets. We also learned that no-one really seems to believe in any adverse health effects of mold here in Quebec. When we return home we will start a mold-exterminating company, charging 10k for swiping the surfaces with a little bleach. Because that’s the go-to solution to every problem in Montréal, apparently. Have a hangover? DRENCH YOURSELVES IN BLEACH, IDIOTS.  

Toronto, the road-trip destination of champions

After a long week filled with housing issues, raccoon attacks and having one of the authors fall into a ditch, we decided it was high time for a proper vacation. We hopped a bus, but not just any-goddamn-bus, a MEGABUS, to Toronto, Ontario to find out that roughly 50 000 others had the exact same idea (labor day weekend, who knew?). We had the pleasure of strolling through downtown Toronto in a downpour, consulting some dozen hotels for vacancy (reservations are for cowards, Swedes and little girls). In the end everything worked out, and we even got to probably the most Canadian bar in town, Loose Moose. Unfortunately no loose moose were to be seen. 

CN tower going all YOLO

On day two in Toronto we decided to go see America’s favorite pastime, a game of baseball. Now, upon entering the stadium we immediately searched for the closest beer stand. I buy a bud light and show my ID, clean and simple right? WRONG. We get the cavity search equivalent of ID checks, where they brought experts around the world to check if our Finnish drivers licences were fake. They even had a book on the ID's of the world that had more pages than the bible. After a rough start, we might have been sipping on overpriced Bud Light and laughing at the slow pace of the sport in the first 30 minutes but by the bottom of the 8^th inning all three of us were hardcore Blue Jays fans and true believers in the sport of baseball

Blue Jays comeback from 2-0 to win it 4-2

Ye olde T-shirt section

Of course, we had to buy a T-shirt from T-city. Here's a picture of my shirt. I thought it was just an old lady playing beer pong,  but I was told by a very creditable Toronto street figure that it is actually Woody Allen playing beer pong. 

Until next time,

Holler.