Since my schedule from Chicago put me into town after the three professors had arrived, I arranged for some friends to show them around town. Ville graciously showed them the market and downtown area on a walking tour. To sample the local specialty, we had the reindeer at the Suomi on a Plate restaurant.

To understand the style of Finnish higher education, Ritva arranged a tour for us at the automotive lab at Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia.

To make our Japanese visitors more at home in Finland, Taina hosted us at her home, and I prepared sashimi. They were surprised that I could prepare rice in a pot on the stove, since rice cookers are a common appliance in Japanese kitchens.

The professors had the whirlwind tour of Finland for four days. I was there for only five days. I usually prefer to spend at least two weeks on a trip where I have to jump six times zones, but the fall proved to be an exceptionally hectic time.

Pocklington really is a small village — just a few stores — and the family owning the restaurant must be the only Chinese in town. Therefore, ordering Chinese dishes can be an adventure. The dinner was fine, but I commented on the strange preparation, e.g. the meat wasn’t cut in the usual Chinese style, and their version of Peking Duck seemed more southern in style than usual.

Back at the house, Cameron had come back in time to celebrate Fiona’s birthday with a cake.

The next day, I found the ingredients in Jennifer’s refrigerator to make a sweet potato chicken curry. Later in the week, we decided that we might have sushi … except that sushi grade fish isn’t available at the Tesco in Hull. Thus, in a new innovation, we created “Scottish sashimi”: smoked salmon works great, but the smoked cod isn’t a choice that we’ll likely repeat.