Restaurant service

Even though I don't necessarily understand the american way of tipping (you tip at restaurants but not and McDonald's which is arguably much more stressful and demanding job and you are given the option to tip at coffee shops if you want) I think they might be on to something. Major portion of the salary of a wait staff in USa comes from tips. It's supposed to be between 10 and 20% of the bill and should vary according to the level of service. You get bad service, you show it in the tip. You get good service, you show your appreciation with the tip. And people expect good and fast service. You don't like your food/drink you send it back. Americans appreciate good service and they know how to demand it. And they're not shy to show if they are not satisfied. Us Finns...we're a different breed. Just like americans are loud and opinionated, we are quiet and sit in the corner without complaining. We don't like to make a scene. And we wait patiently.

We went to the chinese restaurant in town today. They relocated and opened at the new location 2 days ago. It's bigger and closer to the center so it gets more traffic. Or that's the theory anyway. If that's the level of service they are providing, I think it's not gonna last too long. If it was in USA, it would be bankrupt within a month! We got there little after 2pm, our order was taken at 2:30 and we got our food at 3:15. I was hungry, starving really and had waited for chinese for almost a week when Arttu called me and said let's go to the chinese on Saturday. I only had a yogurt the whole day beforehand so you can imagine my stomach was eating itself inside out. You would have thought they had run some kind of dry run before opening to see if there were any glitches but I guess not. Or maybe they had a problem with the kitchen and they were definitely understaffed but BOY it took a long time for anyone even acknowledge our presence. I am a huge fan of american service, I tell you that! Should we tip in Finland they're tip would have been VERY small... But it's been over 4h since I ate and I'm still not hungry! Weird because I always get hungry pretty fast after eating chinese. I have high hopes for this place since it's right around the (american) corner from me! So hopefully next time will be better.

I also voted so now I'm done. I hope the election were done too! I am sick and tired of the campaigns and politicians lip service and would love it to be next Sunday and over and done with. But to continue my tradition I voted a local and I voted a woman. If we want the area to grow and develop we need locals in the parliament and no man will look after MY rights so woman it is. So as you can see, my vote didn't go to Päivi Räsänen. I'm sure she's sad about that.

Have a great weekend! Later!