Revisiting Paradise

Yesterday, pretty much in its entirety, was spent in the most American of places. I and my Mexican niece and nephew. Or at least, in the place that I first got to know and love when I and my family made the big move to the United States when I was a teenager.

See, Finland was even smaller back then. And more Finnish. Back then we really were all about lakes and Saunas. Today we're far more European and only break out the Sauna and the frozen lake for special occasions.

Like, a Saturday.

So imagine my bewilderment and wonder when I first set foot in a Mall. A glorious shoppers' paradise. A jungle of things just waiting to be bought and consumed.

No natural water anywhere, but a complicated water feature, inside of all places. People walking indoors from shop to boutique to department store, while stopping at the food court to grab a quick burger and a soda or a milkshake. Everything under one high, high roof.

There was indeed bewilderment and wonder, with the added air of country bumpkin, but with some budding consumer thrown in. I knew I had arrived. At the Mall.

Yesterday, I revisited that paradise, and while it no longer holds the same kind of magic for me as it did when I was a teenager (or actually any magic, but more of a get-out-of-my-way-people-I-am-trying-to-find-me-some-shoes feeling seems to win out in the end) I still managed to spend some money.

And there was absolutely no way I was ever going to pass up on these:

Mi nuevos bebes

.