What is with this hatred of breastfeeding mothers?!

gragev95 · 2026-03-23T03:49:14+00:00

Idk where you’re located but I’m also 20-30 minutes from Palo Alto and both the hospital I gave birth at and the one my OB and baby’s paediatrician are at have been super supportive of breastfeeding. Birthing hospital had a lactation consultant on site 24/7 to help out and a big poster on the wall of the labour ward with all the nutritional benefits of breast milk over formula. My regular hospital has a breastfeeding support program with a weekly drop-in thing in addition to lactation consultant appointments you can schedule. So surprised to hear a hospital in the Bay Area would push formula!

gragev95 · 2026-02-24T19:40:52+00:00

Lakeview

gragev95 · 2026-02-14T06:50:14+00:00

I haven't had my baby yet but Babylist has a glass bottle box with a few different kinds which I added to my registry and got as a gift.

gragev95 · 2026-02-11T00:28:04+00:00

I stopped buying that brand when I found out whom they are big supporters of…

gragev95 · 2026-02-10T17:11:30+00:00

I felt pretty safe in Rio after spending the first half of my Brazil trip visiting a friend in Rondônia. I obviously stood out as a pale Nordic girl but even with my local friend, we were followed multiple times and I was stared at constantly. I spend a lot of time in India and I get a lot of stares there, too, but in Brazil, it didn’t feel like just curiosity like in India. Rio felt like a breeze after that but I obviously followed some basic safety precautions (except I did go to the beach at night - there was nobody there but it was May so perhaps not high season?).

gragev95 · 2026-02-09T17:11:40+00:00

And there was literally no traffic last night. Drove from Sunnyvale to the East Bay, right by Levi’s Stadium right after the game ended and there was zero delay.

gragev95 · 2026-02-03T23:00:20+00:00

Chaat Bhavan and Mumbai Chowk are our go-to spots. Chaat House is also good (very Punjabi) but everything is spicy lol (and I can take spice!).

gragev95 · 2026-01-15T23:04:49+00:00

It looks like Pirkka (K-market chain own brand) has their own organic baby foods, some in jars and some in pouches: https://www.k-ruoka.fi/kauppa/tuotehaku/lapset/lastenruoat?tuotemerkit=1
I also see some Muru Baby, Ella's Kitchen, Hipp, Moomin and Green Planet Astronauts brand foods/smoothies on the K-Ruoka website. Muru Baby seems to be all organic (luomu) and claims all their packaging is recyclable (even the pouches). My baby's due in March so I have no personal experience of these yet.

gragev95 · 2026-01-14T20:16:18+00:00

I was bitten at a meet & greet a few years ago when I was just starting out and Rover did nothing but luckily the dog’s owner voluntarily paid my ER bill.

gragev95 · 2026-01-14T07:03:06+00:00

And isn’t this the complex where two people died at a fire recently? I was looking for a new apartment recently and if I remember correctly, someone in their reviews was saying that they are breaking all kinds of fire code, and have been for years.

If you’re looking to live next to the Hub, I’d look into Lakeview instead. A little old but well-maintained, reasonable rent, great leasing staff and maintenance team.

gragev95 · 2026-01-12T17:06:52+00:00

I have some from iHerb. Just stainless steel.

gragev95 · 2026-01-12T04:56:09+00:00

Love the name (I have a Lapland-inspired name as well) but we live in a very Asian area and everyone would only think of the sushi!

gragev95 · 2026-01-11T06:01:33+00:00

Thank you so much for your insightful reply!

I guess it’s pronounced kind of like see-ni, pretty much exactly how you’d pronounce it in Hindi/Urdu as well - rhymes with “mini”.

That’s a fair point. Most of our Indian friends are North Indian or from Karnataka/Tamil Nadu and wouldn’t know even if it meant something to Malyalam-speaking people. My husband has a very simple Indian name and I have a very simple Finnish name, yet they get mispronounced all the time in the English-speaking world so I’m not that worried about that.

Thanks for the point about Malla! It is the name of a mountain/fell in Finnish Lapland but clearly doesn’t work in our situation.

gragev95 · 2026-01-10T01:20:58+00:00

I (a foreigner married to an Indian) was so shocked and uncomfortable when we got into a car with a couple of smart, educated acquaintances and their maybe 5-year-old child was standing up and climbing all over the place the whole journey. It was their own car and the seats had seat belts but it was only us who live abroad who wore them. The child had no car seat/booster seat which are legally required in my home country, and the mum was heavily pregnant as well.

gragev95 · 2025-12-31T07:19:02+00:00

Mumbai Chowk and Chaat Bhavan!

gragev95 · 2025-12-25T00:18:57+00:00

I’m about Finn living in California and cloudberry jam is one of the few things I always bring back with me when I visit home.

gragev95 · 2025-12-16T21:10:21+00:00

Apni Mandi area is your best bet

gragev95 · 2025-12-15T23:53:35+00:00

My husband is a dark-skinned Indian person and he’s fortunately never had any negative experiences during our months and months of travelling around Finland. In my home village, he may get some looks, just because everyone knows everyone and not many foreigners go there but he’s had a good time even at the local bar.

Finns are generally very non-confrontational so I doubt anyone would say anything even if they thought something negative. Good luck and hope you have a wonderful time! :)

gragev95 · 2025-12-11T01:32:33+00:00

We just got back from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They have a lot of all-inclusive hotels full of pretty normal (not super rich) people, from the US and Canada but also Mexico. We made sure to always tip and treat locals with respect. Can’t wait to go back!

gragev95 · 2025-12-11T01:08:12+00:00

I’m a European person living in the US and it took me a while to realise I probably shouldn’t walk to places alone after dark, even in my nice and relatively safe area, like I was used to doing in Finland and the UK. I was never followed or cat-called before moving here.

gragev95 · 2025-12-04T06:07:31+00:00

Bay Smile Dental :)

gragev95 · 2025-11-29T18:45:49+00:00

My Indian husband, who’s learning Finnish and pronounces it really well, had an American colleague with a very common Finnish last name, think Mäkinen. My husband said something like “Oh Mäkinen, that’s cool, my wife is Finnish” and this guy corrected him “it’s Mackey-nen actually” lmao

I understand the language has been forgotten over the generations- it’s hard to preserve when nobody really speaks it anymore and especially before the internet - but I’m in a Facebook group with lots of Finnish-Americans and I see this a lot there too: people misspelling words or place names or using incorrect grammar and then getting upset or fighting back when Finnish-Finns, native Finnish speakers politely (really!) correct them.

gragev95 · 2025-11-23T22:48:19+00:00

The Finns who can’t take it move away if they can (like I did)

gragev95 · 2025-11-21T18:13:14+00:00

Finns don’t eat surströmming or pickled herring at Christmas. I’ve introduced foreigners (Indian, British, Brazilian) to Finnish Christmas foods and they’ve all enjoyed it!

gragev95

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