Wintertime in Finland

karen · Post by **karen** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:13 pm

nirva wrote:
Tadpole'sMommy wrote:Until that one tried to get into my car I hadn't reacted to them at all.
So one drunken gypsy is all it takes to have you avoid the whole group? Please tell me that I misunderstood.

I've only had that one interaction. No other gypsies have attempted to "contact" me, so I don't know if I avoid the whole group or not. She was also clearly drunk. I do avoid all drunks.

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agn71 · Post by **agn71** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:24 pm

nirva wrote:So one drunken gypsy is all it takes to have you avoid the whole group? Please tell me that I misunderstood.

In the matter of fact that gybsy doesn't need to be even drunk. If you want to be a real Finn you avoid them without a reason. Well reason is that they are gypsys.

karen · Post by **karen** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:18 pm

agn71 wrote:
nirva wrote:So one drunken gypsy is all it takes to have you avoid the whole group? Please tell me that I misunderstood.
In the matter of fact that gybsy doesn't need to be even drunk. If you want to be a real Finn you avoid them without a reason. Well reason is that they are gypsys.

I have to agree with you. My husband avoids them so I avoid them. He avoids mustamakkara, so I avoid mustamakkara. He avoids mämmi, so I avoid mämmi.

Rahela-Hanna · Post by **Rahela-Hanna** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:57 pm

agn71 wrote:
nirva wrote:So one drunken gypsy is all it takes to have you avoid the whole group? Please tell me that I misunderstood.
In the matter of fact that gybsy doesn't need to be even drunk. If you want to be a real Finn you avoid them without a reason. Well reason is that they are gypsys.

But what about me? You gonna avoid me...?

karen · Post by **karen** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:05 pm

Just telling you what life is like in Finland. I might like you, but I doubt I would want to hang out with you and your gypsy friends or cousins. And you may not like me and my friends. But everyone likes Hank.

Rahela-Hanna · Post by **Rahela-Hanna** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:46 pm

Well, I agree with you, you surely wouldn't want to hang out with any of my cousins, because every one of them (except for Clare and Matti) are mean as snakes!

But I bet we'd be cool.

soyyo · Post by **soyyo** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:53 pm

I am curious about the Romani, but I try not to stare.

Where I have lived in the US, there were none that I know of. I'm always interested in other cultures and people.

I don't avoid them or persue them. My husband said they often have a bad reputation here in Finland but he wasn't sure if it was true, or what.

Rahela-Hanna · Post by **Rahela-Hanna** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:15 pm

Is your husband Finnish? Yeah. We do kind of have a bad reputation. I'm actually scared to death of the Finnish gypsies, though technically, I am one of them. I've talked to some before, and they're freakin' mean!

And I mean, embarassing mean. They always seriously belittle you. Once two years ago, there was this one kind of old gypsy woman who suddenly came up and began to speak to me when me and some friends were on a night-long ferry going to Stockholm. (Duty free vodka, disco.) And the gypsy asks me, "Hey. Hey! Do you know what time it is?" She said all of this in Finnish, of course, or rather, Roma mixed with Finnish it sounded like, because I think...I think she kind of knew that I was "one of them," as I said, unfortunatley. And at first, I didn't understand her! So I was all like, "Wh---what?!" And she was all like, "Damn, girl, I asked you what time it was. You don't have to be afraid." She told me that part about the being afraid, because by then I was trying my best to hightail it out of there. So I said to her after that, "9:00 PM!!!" Scared as hell, because that was probably my first real enounter with the Finnish gypsies. (And it scared me to death that that woman was probably actually one of my distant cousins, too.)

Later on that night I helped her and some other Roma women to find a lost child who was hiding somewhere on the boat (we found him in the disco, naturally, so then I knew that he must be a cousin of mine).

My Lord...

Has anyone else had encounters with the Kaale like that? Besides hearing me run my mouth about my cousins, I mean?

Oy.

chriscross · Post by **chriscross** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:29 pm

i have gypsy blood also

yeah i have meet some romani gents

2 geezers came up to me and spoke in finnish to me well it was finish/gypsi finnish type language

said happy"finnish holiday" ive forgot what day it was,,,,but they said happy holiday etc

and asked me where im from,,england i said,,,wow they said

then the story came along,,"are the gypsies in england the same as us,,,they said

so i just said yes ,,infact im part romani.....they looked at me like they didnt know what to say....

end of story

there are gypsies/travellers and people who think they are gypsys o and also mumpers!!!

Rahela-Hanna · Post by **Rahela-Hanna** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:25 am

Yeah...

I told that old gypsy lady I met on the ferry that my mom, at least, was full Romani, and her eyes got real wide-like, and she whispered something I couldn't understand to her three companions. They laughed, and I could have very well died from the shame I felt.

nirva · Post by **nirva** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:43 am

Is your husband Finnish? Yeah. We do kind of have a bad reputation. I'm actually scared to death of the Finnish gypsies, though technically, I am one of them.

You probably aren't one of them. One of my friends spent the last summer in Romania, and he said that the gypsies there are completely different from Finnish gypsies. According to him it's a lot easier to make friends with the Romanians.

Tamer's woman · Post by **Tamer's woman** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:59 am

My boyfriend has told me stories about the gypsies also. He is Finnish. Unfortunately, one of the stories involved him. So he has first hand experience with them and the stories were not nice, quite horrid if you ask me. I believe what he has spoken. So, out of stereotyping, I would avoid them if I noticed them.

But I'm sure there's the opposite side of the coin, that there are people of gypsy heritage with a good conscience and generally care about others. Just like any other group of people.

Rahela-Hanna · Post by **Rahela-Hanna** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:50 am

nirva wrote:
Is your husband Finnish? Yeah. We do kind of have a bad reputation. I'm actually scared to death of the Finnish gypsies, though technically, I am one of them.
You probably aren't one of them. One of my friends spent the last summer in Romania, and he said that the gypsies there are completely different from Finnish gypsies. According to him it's a lot easier to make friends with the Romanians.

Really? Strangely enough, I've actually heard that about the Romanian gypsies, too. But I do truly hate to say it---all these "valkoinen" Romanians who I live with in my community, they're all straight up assholes (pardon my language, please, all ye hardcore moderators). Sometimes I wish I had never even gotten myself involved with Iosif. No matter how much I love him, nevertheless.

And I love him a lot; I would really lay my life down for that boy. Willingly.

haahatus · Post by **haahatus** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:01 am

Pardon my ignorance but are you from Romania or Finland Rahela?

Gypsies are not a homogenous group. They are entirely different in different parts of the world. See them you understand

My own experiences of finnish gypsies are limited to people hanging around train stations and malls and rarely they tried to sell me some useless stuff.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:47 am

Oh, and the "experiences" with Romanian gypsies Finns have had in Finland are people flagging cars down on the turnpike and then peddling some jewellery at knifepoint... so I'd be a bit less enthustiastic of people getting too "friendly".

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