The Americans have a come up with the strange idea of light beers, which seem to be immensely popular in here. Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Light are ones of the most sold beers, partly because they are the also the ones that are most affordable. Light beer has approximately 80% of the calories and 80% of the alcohol of normal beer. Taste-wise they are the worst you can find, so if you appreciate a decent beer, steer away from these.
It is to be noted that in most stores, beer is sold only in sixpacks. Some stores let you mix and match, picking the six beers you want, but you always have to buy at least six. I have been trying a lot of different ones and my favourite of the American beers has so far been Miller High Life. You also have a decent choice of import beers to choose from, depending on the store. Note that several European beers, such as Heineken, are manufactured here in the States and are usually worse than the stuff you get in Europe. The case is the same with a lot of Mexican beers.
The Virginia alcohol legislation bans alcohol sale after midnight, unlike for example Louisiana, where it can be sold all around the clock. Wine is sold in grocery stores here but to get liquor one has to go to a Alcohol Beverage Control, ABC, similar to the Finnish Alko.
Alcohol is cheap, you can pick up a sixpack for a little over four dollars (about three euros) and a twelve for eight. Liquor prices in ABC seem to be rather high, for example in the prices of Scotch whiskeys I saw no great difference to Finnish prices. Finally, in a bar I went to a big pint cost about three dollars tip included, which equals to €2,20. All in all I'd say that drinking in the United States (or at least Wise, Virginia) is 25-30% cheaper than in Finland.
My study exchange blog, containing writings regarding a study exchange period in Hyderabad, India, and associated adventures.
Saturday 26 February 2011
Monday 14 February 2011
Going through the motions
Hello blog, and sorry I have been ignoring you for the past three weeks!
As to be expected, my life in the town of Wise has by now attained some regularity. I have gotten to the rhythm of college studying, which for me means a lot of staying up late and reading or writing the designated assignments. The difficulties I have had with keeping up with the coursework are due to the fact that the courses are neither as interesting nor challenging as back in Finland (with the exception of music classes). However, I have got a lot of interesting new friends while here and feel more at home than I did initially when I came here. It is to be noted though that I have not at any point thought of going back to Finland and abandoning my studies here. I am attributing my lack of a culture shock experience to the "Southern" hospitality (although most of the people I know in the college seem to come from Northern Virginia or somewhere else entirely) and the fact that I've had no trouble with the language since I came here. I can sincerely say that at the moment I do not miss home.
On the weekend we had an international party at a professor's house and that proved out to be a great success. About 25 people attended the party, which consisted of a walk around the town of Bigstone Gap, a dinner with (tasty!) foods from all around the world and finally some games. I had a ton of fun conversing with people from different backgrounds and hosting some of the Finnish games I knew. I also managed to horrify the people present with a sloppy rendition of Kansas's "Dust in the wind".
One aspect of this blog which I seem to have so far ignored is attending to my list of items, which surprisingly enough has not grown substantially since I entered the US. You can find my initial posessions in an earlier post. In this post I intend to add the items I've bought while here, not counting items borrowed or school books, which will eventually be put to circulation to others students.
50. Kyocera cell phone
51. LG cell phone
52. T-shirt
53. T-shirt
54. Pants
55. Folder for Cultural Anthropology
56. Notebook for music classes
57. Notebook for Jane Austen's World
58. Notebook for The Immigrant in American History
59. New alarm clock
60. Breedlove Passport D200 steel string guitar, picks, case
61. Beatles songbook
62. Jethro Tull songbook
63. Towel
64. Kettle
Some of you maybe wondering why I have three cell phones at the moment. The reason is that my Finnish phone does not work here and the Kyocera phone I bought from New York has no service up here in the mountains so I had to buy yet another one from Wal-Mart. Another thing is that I got rid of my 4cl bottle of Koskenkorva Salmiakki but I can assure you that it was all for the sake of science! ;)
For me at least there is a certain romance in the idea of having so little stuff that at any time I could stuff them to a backpack and leave, possibly never to return. Some items I brought with me from Finland I haven't even had any use for so far, which means that I could make do with still a lesser number of items.
As to be expected, my life in the town of Wise has by now attained some regularity. I have gotten to the rhythm of college studying, which for me means a lot of staying up late and reading or writing the designated assignments. The difficulties I have had with keeping up with the coursework are due to the fact that the courses are neither as interesting nor challenging as back in Finland (with the exception of music classes). However, I have got a lot of interesting new friends while here and feel more at home than I did initially when I came here. It is to be noted though that I have not at any point thought of going back to Finland and abandoning my studies here. I am attributing my lack of a culture shock experience to the "Southern" hospitality (although most of the people I know in the college seem to come from Northern Virginia or somewhere else entirely) and the fact that I've had no trouble with the language since I came here. I can sincerely say that at the moment I do not miss home.
On the weekend we had an international party at a professor's house and that proved out to be a great success. About 25 people attended the party, which consisted of a walk around the town of Bigstone Gap, a dinner with (tasty!) foods from all around the world and finally some games. I had a ton of fun conversing with people from different backgrounds and hosting some of the Finnish games I knew. I also managed to horrify the people present with a sloppy rendition of Kansas's "Dust in the wind".
One aspect of this blog which I seem to have so far ignored is attending to my list of items, which surprisingly enough has not grown substantially since I entered the US. You can find my initial posessions in an earlier post. In this post I intend to add the items I've bought while here, not counting items borrowed or school books, which will eventually be put to circulation to others students.
50. Kyocera cell phone
51. LG cell phone
52. T-shirt
53. T-shirt
54. Pants
55. Folder for Cultural Anthropology
56. Notebook for music classes
57. Notebook for Jane Austen's World
58. Notebook for The Immigrant in American History
59. New alarm clock
60. Breedlove Passport D200 steel string guitar, picks, case
61. Beatles songbook
62. Jethro Tull songbook
63. Towel
64. Kettle
Some of you maybe wondering why I have three cell phones at the moment. The reason is that my Finnish phone does not work here and the Kyocera phone I bought from New York has no service up here in the mountains so I had to buy yet another one from Wal-Mart. Another thing is that I got rid of my 4cl bottle of Koskenkorva Salmiakki but I can assure you that it was all for the sake of science! ;)
For me at least there is a certain romance in the idea of having so little stuff that at any time I could stuff them to a backpack and leave, possibly never to return. Some items I brought with me from Finland I haven't even had any use for so far, which means that I could make do with still a lesser number of items.
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