"Pope's" Finnish education

Last night we had a really fun dinner with the Valimaki family. Mikko's 81-year old father had just arrived from Finland via east coast and started our first meeting with a story that had happened to him at the White House last week. His daughter was taking him on a tour to the White House and when asked to show his identification, he showed his passport. The guard read his name off the passport, and then asked him to repeat it. Paavo (Mikko's father) said "Paavo Välimäki". The guard repeated the name but made a mistake by calling Paavo...Paavi. Now that little mistake made Paavo laugh out loud. His daughter had to explain to the guard what he had just called her father. In fact Paavi means Pope. I asked Paavo if he offered his ring finger to the guard and asked him to kiss it. He said that his ring is not big enough to be kissed. What a great story.

At dinner Paavo, being from Töysä and Kouvola, asked me if I had heard some of the words and foods that were typical to the area where he was from. All of you Finns out there if you have heard these words, please comment. I had NEVER heard them, and we were laughing really hard at some of the foods that he had to eat during the war.

Umpeloinen=Kokonaisina keitetyt perunat (whole boiled potatotes)
Kisko-Moijakka=Veripaltusta tehty velli (gruel made of blood pancakes)
Lempo= Kirosana (some sort of swear word)
Kaljavelli= Maltaista tehty velli (gruel made of beer malts)
Piimävelli= Piimästä tehty velli (gruel made of buttermilk)
Värkkänä= Rupatteleva ihminen (chatty person)

Monica had made a great ribs dinner and we ate and ate and laughed and laughed. Monica also introduced us to Julmust, a Swedish Christmas drink that is available at IKEA. Mikko said that it tasted like apple beer (the Finnish variety). I thought it tasted like plums. We also introduced Jorge to Salmiakki. He didn't finish the second piece. What a great night.