this week kimmo was out of town, and one of the items on my chore list was to buy thank-you notes (a coworker left Finland and gave us a bunch of unused food and wine). i went to tiimari, a local craft store, in search of one of those little packs of 8 thank-you notes. they had a narrow selection, and most were actually packs of party invitations. i was able to piece together that 'kutsu' means 'invitation', so I avoided those. 'kiitos' is 'thank you' in finnish, and i found only a couple of options for that. they had one that had a big red rose on it that said 'kiitos' in elegant script. they had another with a big gold rose on it that said 'kiitos' in elegant script. then i saw a couple with some other version of thank you. 'kiitti' is 'thanks', so i got the one you see here that says 'osanotosta kiittäen'. i assumed that it was a fancy way of saying thank you, and to me a lily is nicer-looking than a rose. however, today kimmo informed me that it actually means something like 'thank you for your condolences', and is what you would send to someone after they come to the funeral of your spouse or mother or whatever. of course, since i will likely have american recipients of any thank-you notes i write, i have no intention of returning them and getting something more appropriate.
