Cucumber Sword
One of the most intimidating things about living in Helsinki, at least in terms of daily life and trying to get one’s greens inside one’s belly, is purchasing produce. In Finland, customers weigh their own produce and print a price tag for each item before they get to the till. Our visits to the K-Market on our block in Katajanokka were already a bit blearying even without this added challenge. If our minds had the capacity to take in the foreignness of the store and form questions, those questions would take such shape as “Why doesn’t the milk have fat percentages in numbers?” and “Where are the eggs?” and “What is that?” After enough trips to the K-Market to get bread and--as is normal here--unrefrigerated eggs, I was out for a brisk walk and noticed courage rising up in me to attempt a produce purchase. I would possibly pick up other things we might need, but success would be measured completely by my departure from the market with something in hand that required weighing. I ma...
