Candy that will kill you

Okay so as most people know I have a sweet tooth, or many sweet teeth, and as part of my adventure in this land of Fin I have been testing out Finnish candy.  Well yesterday I went to the grocery store to get some chicken and vegetables for a stir-fry and while I was there I stopped in the candy isle.  Now up to this point I have only experienced mediocre candy so I decided to go big and try something that had a cool and brightly colored package.  So I pick up this package that was black with an abstracted yellow lion head and writing that looked crazy.  Now I could see the little green, purple, red, orange, and black sugar coated candies through the package and thought at worst they would be fruity and really sour.  I bought them.

Later that night after a really nice stir-fry dinner, some Pepsi-Max (max taste, no sugar!), and a nice long shower I was feeling good.  I lay down on my bed and decide to watch the Italian Job and play a little free-cell before I go to sleep (believe it or not I actually have had time to do this!)  I start the movie and decide to tryout this long awaited finnish treat.  I open it up.  It smells a little peculiar, kind of like black licorice but not quite.  So I pop one in my mouth and chew.  It's not licorice, it's more like a detergent.  Now I pop another one just to make sure I didn't just get a bad one... and of course it was just as bad, if not worse.  I needed to wash my mouth out the taste was so bad.

Today I bring the vile candy with me to school and Jono helps me figure out what it is.  "Tar Lion, Wild North" is the name of the candy.  The main ingredient is TAR.  That's right tar.  The flavors in the package are as follow:  lemon juniper berry, lacquer-licorice, licorice-tar, tar salt, and lingonberry-coniferous.  WTF?  

On the bottom front of the package it says "Exciting flavors of Finland's forests."  

I never want to taste Finland's forests again.

I can honestly say that it was the most disgusting candy I have ever had in my life.

Music

As I am sitting at a small window nook in my fourth floor flat in the middle of Helsinki, eating Honey Nut Cheerios and listening to "Australia" by The Shins, I am overcome by a deep realization of love and appreciation for music.

I used to love music for the high energy and kick-in-the-face attitude, but now I gravitate towards music that is more calming and that with lyrics I can actually understand without having to read them.  

Music makes me happy.  Good music makes me happy.

I love The Shins.

They make me happy.