One of the topics I cover here is my inability to grasp language and cultural references. And today's topic is dedicated to my complete and utter inability to understand certain cultural references and traditions.
Entering houses and apartments while wearing shoes and walking straight into the living room
Here where I live, people always take their shoes of before entering any house or apartment. Not doing so is considered is considered to be the height of rudeness. I would personally never ever do it. And when entering any house or apartment, there is always a space or a room for leaving once clothes a shoes before entering.
So you can imagine my look of terror every single time I see people enter /burst into houses and apartments in shows while wearing their shoes. I get that agents/cops cannot be bothered with moving their shoes (it'd just be weird) when taking a suspect down but not once have I seen any of the characters on the shows I cover here take their shoes off. Not once. Not even when visiting houses. It seems normal in the context of the shows but I can say that here in the North, the characters would be considered absolute brutes for not taking off their shoes.
Weird food
I personally come from a culture that is filled with weird food. Our national cuisine literally reads like something out of a horror magazine. So I do have a lot of experience with strange food but there is one instance in which I was ready to throw up when watching NCIS:LA.
Deep-fried bacon. They had deep-fried bacon and what was worse, the characters were eating it! I am no bacon lover but I can eat it if necessary (like say in a full English breakfast) but combining deep-fried and bacon just sounds like a recipe for a heart attack.
But they did score a definite point with me when Deeks said he loved liver. Liver is a part of the national Nordic cuisine and I eat it regularly. It is the cheapest kind of meat you can get and in the past it was known as poor man's food as it was so cheap. Plus, it can be cooked in some really good ways. So I was very surprised to hear Deeks express his love for liver and counting the many ways in which it can be cooked but it made me grin my ears off. Nordic food references for the win!
Sports
Nordics love football and handball. We take it so seriously that you'd think the national happiness of the Nordic countries depends solely on our achievements in sports. If one Nordic country does well, we all feel proud. If the Nordic countries are competing against each other, things go dark for a while. Currently Sweden and Iceland can potentially go the World Cup in football in Brazil in 2014 and let me tell you, even if it's only two countries out of five we are behind them. One Nordic country typically means all.
But aside from that - two sports I will never ever get are American football and baseball. These sports are not practiced here and I have less that zero knowledge of them. Not that I have absolutely no interest in sport but I can at least talk about football a bit. So any and all times these sports are mentioned and referenced, there is one Nordic that sits with glazed over eyes and shakes her head. NCIS:LA, NCIS and Castle have all had extensive references to these sports and I have never gotten them. The only one I have gotten was when NCIS:LA mentioned the football team 'The Vikings', I know they come from Minnesota - that's it.
Monster trucks and cronuts
These have been mentioned on NCIS:LA and I was completely lost what on earth they meant. I had a vague idea of what monster trucks are but didn't bother looking them up. So imagine my surprise while I was rolling through TV channels and saw a promo for a Monster truck show. And my first thought was: "Ah, so that's what they were talking about on NCIS:LA".
And cronuts - It looked to me like a weird kind of donut and I knew it somehow mixed together French and American cuisine but more than that was beyond me. So I was yet again mightily surprised to be flipping through an advertisement from a local boutique showing what they were offering on 'American theme days' (my country mostly imports from Europe so there are regular themes days in shops that offer more specialty items from countries) and I came across a cronut. Turns out it's a mix of a donut and croissant. And yet again I thought: "Ah, now I get the reference".
So my inability of grasping cultural references continues but I enjoy the ride.
Entering houses and apartments while wearing shoes and walking straight into the living room
Here where I live, people always take their shoes of before entering any house or apartment. Not doing so is considered is considered to be the height of rudeness. I would personally never ever do it. And when entering any house or apartment, there is always a space or a room for leaving once clothes a shoes before entering.
So you can imagine my look of terror every single time I see people enter /burst into houses and apartments in shows while wearing their shoes. I get that agents/cops cannot be bothered with moving their shoes (it'd just be weird) when taking a suspect down but not once have I seen any of the characters on the shows I cover here take their shoes off. Not once. Not even when visiting houses. It seems normal in the context of the shows but I can say that here in the North, the characters would be considered absolute brutes for not taking off their shoes.
Weird food
I personally come from a culture that is filled with weird food. Our national cuisine literally reads like something out of a horror magazine. So I do have a lot of experience with strange food but there is one instance in which I was ready to throw up when watching NCIS:LA.
Deep-fried bacon. They had deep-fried bacon and what was worse, the characters were eating it! I am no bacon lover but I can eat it if necessary (like say in a full English breakfast) but combining deep-fried and bacon just sounds like a recipe for a heart attack.
But they did score a definite point with me when Deeks said he loved liver. Liver is a part of the national Nordic cuisine and I eat it regularly. It is the cheapest kind of meat you can get and in the past it was known as poor man's food as it was so cheap. Plus, it can be cooked in some really good ways. So I was very surprised to hear Deeks express his love for liver and counting the many ways in which it can be cooked but it made me grin my ears off. Nordic food references for the win!
Sports
Nordics love football and handball. We take it so seriously that you'd think the national happiness of the Nordic countries depends solely on our achievements in sports. If one Nordic country does well, we all feel proud. If the Nordic countries are competing against each other, things go dark for a while. Currently Sweden and Iceland can potentially go the World Cup in football in Brazil in 2014 and let me tell you, even if it's only two countries out of five we are behind them. One Nordic country typically means all.
But aside from that - two sports I will never ever get are American football and baseball. These sports are not practiced here and I have less that zero knowledge of them. Not that I have absolutely no interest in sport but I can at least talk about football a bit. So any and all times these sports are mentioned and referenced, there is one Nordic that sits with glazed over eyes and shakes her head. NCIS:LA, NCIS and Castle have all had extensive references to these sports and I have never gotten them. The only one I have gotten was when NCIS:LA mentioned the football team 'The Vikings', I know they come from Minnesota - that's it.
Monster trucks and cronuts
These have been mentioned on NCIS:LA and I was completely lost what on earth they meant. I had a vague idea of what monster trucks are but didn't bother looking them up. So imagine my surprise while I was rolling through TV channels and saw a promo for a Monster truck show. And my first thought was: "Ah, so that's what they were talking about on NCIS:LA".
And cronuts - It looked to me like a weird kind of donut and I knew it somehow mixed together French and American cuisine but more than that was beyond me. So I was yet again mightily surprised to be flipping through an advertisement from a local boutique showing what they were offering on 'American theme days' (my country mostly imports from Europe so there are regular themes days in shops that offer more specialty items from countries) and I came across a cronut. Turns out it's a mix of a donut and croissant. And yet again I thought: "Ah, now I get the reference".
So my inability of grasping cultural references continues but I enjoy the ride.
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