Going with a blast

Hey guys...
Actually, I wanted to leave this for my very last post here, but today is my last night in Kuopio, I am freaking out because I have to go home tomorrow, so I am not in the mood to update everything from the last two weeks. I will do this eventually from home, there are more exciting stories to come, buuuuut this I really HAVE to share now! It was our secret project, and this is the outcome! Enjoy our Erasmus spirit!

Summer in Finland

music: lena - satellite
mood: light-headed

So. We are approaching the end. It is 2:55 am, no matter what that stupid blog-time is telling you, so my English might be a little bit funny now. But as this is my last day here, I guess I have to update now. If I come home and everyone is asking me how it was I want to be able to say: Read my blog! so I don't have to tell everything over and over again. Hehe, I am mean, I know!
Today, Germany won the Eurovision song contest! Whohoooo! Thank you Europe!

Ok, I wanted to talk about the month of May, my last month here. In the middle of May, I had finally finished all my classes and assignments, so the last two weeks were basically free time. I half-heartedly started to study for my exams at home but I was way to happy to be able to relax so it didn't exactly work out.
The weather was really amazing, spring arrived with a blast, nature exploded and led us right to summer! The sun does not really go down any more, I told you already about our sun watching day (actually we repeated the walk to the tower and the sunrise the day after!). Bad thing is that my curtains are not made for keeping out the light so in the beginning, I was really insomniac. The funny solution for this problem are my allergy pills that are knocking me out so since the birch trees started annoying me by letting my nose run and my eyes itch, I sleep rather well.
The last two weeks, we had 30° C, so we went bbq-ing a lot. Romanda organized the greatest American style BBQ in Puijonlaakso, thanks again for that! We also went swimming in the lake. I am so proud of that! Think: two weeks before that, the water was still frozen. So the temperature was at a point that made it a really painful experience. Also I would not really call it swimming, but running in, jumping, running out again, screaming. Buuuut I overcame myself and went in there!
Last week, we also went on a cruise in a boat on the lake. It was so beautiful! We were just relaxing, enjoying the view, getting a huge sunburn and having fun!
Then there were the balcony chats over the edge with Jakob and Arthur, lots of icecream, buying shorts (didn't expect to need them in Finland) and whatever stuff you do in summer. Still, we were walking on our secret project. Can't wait to tell you guys, but I will save the best for last!

Kuopio, 30.04.2010, 2:51 am

Vappu

music: guru josh project - infinity
mood: between amazed and disgusted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vappu#Finland
"In Finland, Walpurgis day (Vappu) is, along with New Year's Eve and Juhannus, the biggest carnival-style festival held in the streets of Finland's towns and cities. The celebration, which begins on the evening of April 30 and continues to May 1, typically centres on copious consumption of sparkling wine and other alcoholic beverages."

As we were told, Vappu is one of the most important holiday for students, where the student club members get to wear their overalls (did I actually tell you about my nice red overall from the biology student club?), so we felt obliged to join the party. Vappu traditionally includes picknick, outside party and throwing a professor in the fountain, so the disappointment started when it started to rain in the afternoon of the 30th of April. Anyway, we had a nice preparty with sima (mead, traditional Vappu drink, the one from the supermarket tastes like Almdudler and has 0.7 % alcohol) and beer. At around 5 pm we decided to not care about the weather and go to the city center. We heard that it was supposed to be a huge party but the market square was basically empty. After a while, some people showed up around the fountain, they set up speakers and eventually, it became sort of crowded (lots of people in overalls!). Another tradition we didn't know was that members of the student clubs wear some kind of sailors' cap. After a choir performance and some Finnish speeches, two students decorated the statue of the naked guy in the fountain with such a cap. After that, a professor was carried around the fountain and then thrown in. It was really cold that day but as he is Finnish, he seemed to enjoy it and even splashed around with the water. Then, the show was already over. We went to have some coffee and then we went to the lake where all the Finnish guys were hanging out.
I tell you, that was quite a show! A lot of dressed up people crowded the lake shore - it is a carnival after all - getting totally wasted. We were watching in awe. I have never seen that many that drunk people in crazy outfits in one spot. Not even in Cologne at Carnival! I mean, they were all outside and concentrated in one spot! The outfits of the girls were mostly sexy bunnies and slutty nurses. Some slutty nurses were hitting on some of "our" guys. They reported later that the girls were 17 and accompanied by an empty bottle of Vodka and a box of condoms. We made bets how long it would take for each girl to get raped and/or pregnant that day. At around 10 pm, all the over 18 year olds went to the clubs so only the drunk underaged persons remained. Somebody, I don't remember who, said that only the babies and people in the hospital are not drunk that day in Finland. Also we learned that the fee for peeing in public is 20 €. After being annoyed enough (for the guys: enjoyed the view enough), we went to Hunters. It was never that crowded in there! A life band was playing and people were actually happy and dancing! Crazy!
My conclusion about Vappu: The definition of a holiday in Finland is getting totally wasted. It is a lot like German carnival except for the part that you dont have to sing stupid songs, get dressed up silly if you dont feel like it and pretend that you're having a good time when in fact you're not. Just get wasted. The old and the young, the rich and those who can afford only the cheap alcohol, the pretty and the, well, less fortunate, all united in the goal of drinking yourself beyond conciousness. Kippis!

April

music: the kooks - shine on
mood: contemplative

I am getting back to my chronological order, or at least I am trying. I left you in the middle of April after exhausting two weeks. As I already mentioned, after some weeks of being entirely bored by university, my courses had started again while Meli and my mum were here, so I had to skip quite a lot of lectures. After a weekend of relaxing, I started studying again. The courses were quite intense and tiring, with lots of due dates for reports and presentations all at once. Leaves me with the question: Why can't they schedule their courses so that you are busy for some time every week and not that you are bored for some weeks and busy 24/7 in other weeks?
The worst was a week with computer class each morning and each afternoon without lunchbreak and after that week two seminars in one day.
Well, I got through it and with decent grades (so far) so I am happy. Today I officially finished all my assignments so I am free for the last two weeks of my stay!
Also the last weeks of April got me into being disciplined mood. I started going running with Lisbet and we managed to keep it up for about a week, but right now our morning routine is somewhat lost. I really want to start again because I figured it was a lot of fun and somewhat addictive. Also started going swimming and worked a lot for school (necessary!).

Running and going for long walks is very nice now because spring arrived in Finland. We discovered lots of things that were hidden beneath the snow, such as siderails, bushes, ashtrays,... The trees got new leafs, the flowers started blossoming, the birds started singing, the hayfever started.... honestly, my nose is running like crazy now. The meds I am taking are really good for letting me sleep but work only so far to not make my eyes go crazy, otherwise they are quite useless. Have to find something else!

We went for really nice walks and discovered great BBQ places near some of the lakes (where we lost Gio, see last post!).

Concerning parties:

In April, it was Julia's birthday, but she was in Germany by that time. We wanted to have a party anyway so we celebrated Julia's birthday without her and made a video! It is too long to post it here but it was really fun!

In the end of April, Liesje left us. She had sort of a goodbye party week which was great but the fact that she left was sooo sad. On her last evening, we made a quiz about all the people here. We managed to get from the idea at lunch to the powerpoint with about 90 slides in less than 7 hours so that was quite an achievement!

The saying goodbye really sucks and it really got all of us thinking how fast the time is passing. Now it is less than two weeks until we are all gone and it gives really mixed feelings. I guess I will go on whining about that in the next few posts so I quit it now.

Anyway. With saying goodbye to Liesje, April sort of ended and Mai started with the celebration of Vappu, the Finnish Labour Day. Wait for it...

F***ing birds

Or: The day where we lost Gio twice but found the sun! Also twice.
music: bob marley - sunshine reggae
mood: dazzled
Good morning!
I am afraid I have to lose my chronological order here but I have to talk about yesterday... it was legendary!
Yesterday was friday and Gio, Julia and Dovile had their last big exam. After that, we started working on a still secret project that I am going to share as soon as it's done... wait for it! Anyway, we went to Prisma and went our seperate ways to do our shopping. When we were done, we met to walk home - except for Gio who was still missing. After several times of trying, he answered his phone and told us that he was already almost home. We were quite mad because he didnt wait for us but made us waiting for quarter of an hour, but he made it up by buying us ice cream (yes, we have 25°C and sunshine here!). That was the first time we lost Gio.
In the evening, we went to a lake to have a picknick and to watch the sunset. We meant to leave at 8.30, but Gio texted that he was still busy and would catch up later. We were a little concerned because he didnt know the way, but he wouldn't let us wait for him so we left. It was a beautiful walk (amazing enough, after several days of summer weather, on some of the small creeks along the way was still ice!) and we watched the sunset at the lake. We even witnessed the spring feelings of a seagull couple that were quite busy and quite noisy while reproducing. We assumed they were annoyed by us watching so the girl left and the guy followed her after a while. When we were about to leave, they came back.
All the while, we were still waiting and calling out for Gio. He called when he left and I tried to describe the way but I guess it was not a very good description. The second time he called he had found some Finnish guy. I told him the name of the spot where we were and he said he knew where it is and he sort of knew the way. The next time Gio called, he had walked more than one hour and was at some other lake, but not anywhere near us. He gave up on finding us then, had his own picknick with his new friend, whom he called Elisabeth Swan, and decided to try and meet us later. That was the second time we lost Gio.
After that new turn, and a lot of fighting with mosquitoes, we walked to Neulamäki Tower to watch the sun rise again in the morning. It was not really dark that night, there was still a stripe of light at the horizon that moved north- and then eastwards and eventually became lighter again. We settled ourselves on the tower with blankets and cookies and watched the sky. After a while, Gio came with some other people from our building whom he had met on the way. We were really releaved to see him and hear from his adventure. He didn't stay long, however, but went to bed. One after another, more people left, until we were only 5 waiting for the sunrise.
I said "It is getting lighter" a lot of times, but we still needed some patience to really see the sun. Also we were not the only ones who had this idea, during the night, lots of cars arrived and left again when they noticed the spot was already taken. We needed really a lot of patience (and some running around the tower to stay awake), but at 2 am, it started to get light again and at 4.15 am, we saw the sun! It was incredibly beautiful and worth all the waiting! After the sun had emerged from behind the horizon, it vanished behind a cloud and rose up again. So we found the sun twice! Now it is 1.48 pm and I am still soooo tired, I guess I go back to bed. Hyvää yötä!

Visitors

featuring: Eyjafjallajökull

music: Viikate - Kuu Kaakon Yllä (Dictionary says it means something with the moon above something, anyway, I am copying the Radio Rock playlist to my youtube favourites right now, so this is where I got this very nice song!)
mood: energetic (Lisbet convinced me to go running at 7 this morning, good choice!)

I am still not done updating, but we are getting closer...
During the last couple of weeks, we had a lot of visitors around here. This made not only the sleeping situation quite complicated but it was also quite interesting to get to know everyone and to catch a glimpse of the others life outside of Erasmus. We met (in order of appearance):

- K.'s boyfriend right in the beginning, who stayed for two weeks and amazed us with his cooking, baking and washing the dishes skills ("We should have kept him")
- J.'s brothers and friends, who look like Vikings and make him look small
- Meli
- C.'s boyfriend and friend, with whom we walked to Puijo
- T.'s friend, who came with us to Russia and again to Puijo Tower with my mum
- my mum
- N.'s parents and little brother, who came with us to Hunter's and were quite impressive (not the little brother, he couldn't enter at the bar!)
- L.'s boyfriend who went to Helsinki with her and also did the dishes
- C.'s friends
- N.'s less little brother and her grandpa, who were really funny
- C.'s parents, whom we met at Haralds with my mum
- A.-M.'s friends
- N.'s friend, who had to stay here for 12 instead of 3 days because the Iceland Volcano disturbed all the air traffic in Europe, so some people who went home couldn't come back here either and some of the intended visits had to be cancelled
- G.'s boyfriend and other friends who wanted to go to Lapland and almost had to cancel the trips thanks to the volcano
- J.'s brother again, this time with girlfriend and other friend
- G.'s brothers and girlfriends and other friend who are here at the moment so our place is really crowded
- a lot more parents, girlfriends, boyfriends, and other friends who I dont remember now

It was noisy, I missed a lot of classes, everybody did a lot of sightseeing, extra matresses were exchanged back and forth, but it was a lot of fun!

Väsynyt

music: five finger death punch - bad company
mood: exhausted
31.03. - 10.04.
Finnish word for the first weeks of April: väsynyt. Meaning: tired.
As I already told, after the day in Helsinki in the end of March, I stayed tired for the next two weeks.
Ok, I will talk a little about Russia, but not too much! After a long long bus trip starting at 6 in the morning including some very boring hours at the passport control, we made our way to SPB. After we arrived, we went to a Russian Dinner in a really pretty palace. Then we went out to party. The rest of the weekend is sort of blurred... we went to bed always very late (or early, depending on the definition), got up waaaay too early, spent the days sightseeing and the nights partying. I think I slept 10 hours in total from friday to monday. We saw a lot of cool palaces, cathedrals, attended the orthodox Easter mass, ate in a stylish "Soviet Café", drank cheap vodka, got a ride in a Lada, got a ride in a Hummer limo, saw the Aurora, met our friend Anna who was also an exchange student in Kuopio, took about a million pictures,... the rest is silence. Anyway, it was exhausting.
When we came back, I was in a really bad mood but I didn't have time to sleep. On tuesday afternoon, my mum came to visit me. It was quite nice, she liked it here! We did the obligatory sightseeing tour including Puijo Tower (yes, I went there again, against all odds - but still: never go on a sunday!), city center, the harbor, Haralds where we met Christine and her parents, the forest (which is very beautiful now in spring but by then was still covered in snow) and I finally made it to the city museum. Really cool, they have a mammoth!
On friday, while mum was still there, I had to write my one and only exam. I tried to study on thursday evening but it didn't go so well. On friday morning, Dämien, Jakob and I had pre-exam breakfast and then we went. It was quite ok, we had to write some essays which was really weird for me, but I was done pretty fast. In the afternoon, I brought my mum back to the airport. The rest of the weekend I spent in bed to recover. I enjoyed the time while mum was here but I was just sooooo tired...

Olen sanaton.

Hey guys!
Sorry about the thread on St Petersburg but what happens in Russia stays in Russia and that's it. Obviously I behaved myself otherwise I would have been in Siberia right now (and needed to call Maria's mum to get me back home) so don't worry.

Anyway, I wanted to share this awe (-some, -ful, ?) feature of the facebook group Finnish sentence of the day with you.

Olen sanaton means I'm speechless and this song leaves me speechless! Enjoy!

St Petersburg

music: C'est beau la bourgeousie
mood: drunk and tired

What happens in Russia stays in Russia. True story.

Hesä

music: still Mando Diao, actually I had a song in mind for that post but I forgot because it was so long ago.... hmpf...
mood: mulling over my memories - woah, difficult! But it was quite partyish...back then...

So do you recall when back in March, my friend Meli was here to visit me? We went to Helsinki for two days. It was cool. But it was so long ago I don't remember.
Haha, just kidding!
Well, anyway, we wanted to go to Helsinki but on that day, I had class in the morning so we planned to go in the afternoon. My class finished earlier than expected so we went to the train station to check if we could get an earlier train. Someone had told us that it might be possible to exchange our tickets for only a small fee. So I went to ask and... we got a train after only twenty minutes, didn't have to pay anything but got 2 € back because the tickets were cheaper and got free chocolate bars! That lead to the quote of that day "We are lucky piglets!". I just noticed that a lot of those quotes that I recall have something to do with pigs. Coincidence????
Unfortunately, we did not stay that lucky because we learned something about the Finnish railway system. Never ask for student discount if you don't have a Finnish student card! The accept neither ISIC card nor foreign student card nor a paper from the university stating that you are a student. So Meli didn't get student discount as expected which really really sucked!
After some pretty boring hours in the train, we arrived in Helsinki. Going out of the train station we met Anna and her family, also an exchange student from Kuopio! She showed us the way to our hostel, which was quite nice. The best part was that when you entered the (really clean) bathroom, birds started singing! Kept us entertained the whole time!
After a break and dinner, we went out to explore the city. It was already evening and we started looking for a bar to enjoy the nightlife. Somehow, we went to the wrong direction and didn't find any place to go... as we almost wanted to give up, we found an Irish Pub. Meli tried her first Guiness and first thing in there: German exchange students! We behaved like typical Germans, we didn't talk to each other.
On the wall behind our table, a saying was painted: "There are no strangers in Molly Malone's, only friends who haven't met yet!" So true!
After a while, some Finnish old guys (well, around forty) came over to talk to us and bought us drinks. They were quite entertaining at first but then we plotted how to get rid of them. A life band started playing so we danced and they joined us. Then the most amazing thing happened. They said they wanted to go to a club and asked if we wanted to join, but we said we might catch up later. So they said bye and left! I never experienced that with guys that bought me drinks before!
We stayed and danced and took funny pictures and admired the dancing skills of some Spanish guys. All of a sudden, one of them jumped in our foto. That's how we met our new Spanish friends from Molly Malone's. We danced and talked and later went to another place and had a lot of fun! Now I know a guy in Helsinki... Our plan was to go home at 2 am because we wanted to seize the next day to see as much as possible of the city. We left at 3.30 quite drunk and after walking for half an hour in the wrong direction, we eventually found our beds.
The next morning we were really tired (this wouldn't leave me for the rest of the week and for teh next week also!) but still managed to get up at a reasonable time. We took the ferry to an island and walked around there. It was really cool to go across the bay while the sea was still frozen and there was a lot of ice around the boat! After that, we had the greatest lunch ever in the harbour. We bought fresh bread, smoked reindeer meat and salmon at the market and ate this outside. I never tasted anything that great!
In the afternoon, we went shopping and to the botanic garden which looked quite sad without any flowers. Might be more pretty now during spring time...
We didn't visit any museums or cultural stuff, but saw a lot of nice buildings, the Fazer shop with soooo many chocolate easter eggs, and inhaled the smell of the big city! In the evening, we went back to Kuopio. Funny thing in the train: Old Finnish guy said we should stop talking because he wanted to sleep. After he had annoyed us for half an hour by eating a really smelly sandwich and chewing really loud. Dude!
After our trip, Meli had only one more day in Kuopio on which we went to the harbour and to Haralds to eat. The day after she left we went to Russia...

Sorry....

music: mando diao - down in the past
mood: deeply distressed

I owe a huge sorry to all my faithful readers (such as the five people I know for sure!) because the ultimate laziness has conquered me. I just noticed that my last post was on the 31st of March telling about events that happened even before that.
But I was busy... I promise I will make it up and start reporting RIGHT NOW. At least the stuff that I remember. We'll see.
A short outlook on the upcoming stories, missions I have accomplished in the exciting month of April:
- going to Helsinki as already promised, this will be my next post
- going to St Petersburg
- being drunk A LOT
- having my mum here
- writing my one and only exam
- passing that exam
- passing my other courses
- finishing my last courses (well, almost)
- starting the tradition of going swimming every thursday
- starting the tradition of going running every day (since 2 days, yeah!)
- saying goodbye to a dear friend
- meeting some new friends
- being stunned by the melting of snow and ice and the arrival of spring in Finland
- starting the BBQ season
- attending Vappu (you will learn what that is eventually)
- finishing two series (HIMYM and Castle, I recommend both!)
- teaching how to make muffins to A LOT of people
- gaining weight
- deciding that I certainly want a dog when I get back home
- starting a new passion (kiss me arse, cute Irish lad!)
- seeing kickass in the cinema (awesomest movie in a long time)
- saying a lot of stupid things leading to many quotes of the day
- ... more stuff

So, be excited and stay tuned!

Meli 'n' me

music: basshunter - now you're gone
mood: woeful
The last couple of days, my dear friend Meli from Germany was here to visit me. Now it is 6 a.m. and she just left for the airport. It is crazy how fast time is passing when you are having a good time!
The day she arrived, I picked her up at the airport. I had some confusing conversation with the taxi people to manage to get a taxi but it worked out. Roman mocked me because I wanted to pick her up and spend money for the taxi but it was worth it! After all, she took a plane to see me so I can for sure take a taxi to see her!
From the airport, we went more or less straight to Hunters to meet all the people. They kicked us out at two in the morning...
On friday, we went to school for lunch. There we met Christine and her boyfriend and friend from home. The weather was not very nice but they convinced us to join them on a walk to Puijo Tower. It was a great day, when we were up on the hill, the sun came out and it turned out to be a good decision. We had coffee in the turning restaurant on top of the tower (made me seasick) and a lot of fun on the slippery way down.
In the evening, we all went to Passion. The music was even more strange than usual (Backstreet Boys etc.) and the people in there looked certainly younger than 18, but we were a lot of people and had a lot of fun together.
Saturday morning, we went shopping for the 60's party. Kirsten found a great dress for me that I took. Afterwards, she was jealous because she liked it herself ;-). But she also looked great! I also got soooo pretty new shoes...
Meli and me stayed in the city center a bit longer while the others were having lunch. When we came back, the food was already gone, but Alessandro cooked something new only for us. That was really so nice!
We spend the afternoon with preparing food for an international dinner party in the evening. We watched and helped eating the legendary tiramisu and then made black forest cake with the rest of my cherries that my mum had sent me (still pissed by the fact you don't get cherries here!). The dinner was really good, it was pretty much impossible to try everything. After we were all full, we got dressed and went to the 60's party in Studentia. We were meant to take our shoes off but after some drink spilling, the floor was ruined anyway. The 60's music and the costumes were great. I will not tell everything that happened there, but it was a lot of drinking, partying and free love going on that kept us talking for days. We left with the last bus at 2 a.m. We had the feeling not to be drunk, so we had an afterparty with the vodka bottle Meli had brought from home. Now we know a lot of stuff about each other and I had a huge krapula the next day.
Sunday was "celebrate the hangover" - day with brunch at 2.30 and baking pulla in the afternoon.
On monday morning, I had class, after that we left for Helsinki (see next blog). When we came back on tuesday night, Alessandro and Pavla were supposed to sing Karaoke (did I tell about the tradition that those who win in Bingo have to sing?), but there was a goodbye-party for Paulina and Pavla was sick so that was rescheduled. We went to Hunters anyway. Wednesday, I had to go to school to discuss a project work I have to do, then we went to the city center to go shopping once more and to visit the harbour. Now, spring has arrived to Kuopio, the snow is melting and there is a lot of mud and water everywhere. So the walk was a lot of fun! For dinner, we went to Harald's again. Complete satisfaction once more! We closed the evening at home (which is, of course, Hunters again) with playing Bingo. This time, nobody had to sing.
And now, Meli is gone...
Also Paulina and the Russian people already left. It is really weird. Next week, it will be three month here and only two more to go. I really missed Meli and was happy to see her. Also next week with my mom will be great. But it sucks that already, people are starting to leave and the time here is running out. Life will not be the same again and I start to wish our time here will not end.

Lapland Trip: Report

music: my youtube is not working, no idea why, so no music
haha, of course there is music: The Cat Empire - Lullaby
mood: sleepy (it is 9:40 in the morning but I somehow woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. So it is my right to be tired!)

Hyvää Huomenta!
As you probably already saw from the videos, we spend the last week in Lapland.
We left on sunday morning at 3.45h. To face that inhuman time, we decided to have a stay-awake party on saturday evening. We made muffins for the bus ride and watched lots of movies. Still, some people fell asleep. I was also really sleepy and grumpy.
The bus was o.k. but the legspace was quite small. I didn't really sleep during the trip but rather dozed. I noticed that farther north, the sun rises earlier. The first light appeared at 5.20h.
We had a stop in Rovaniemi to see the Santa Claus Village. First, everybody wanted to write postcards. It was nice to see Santa Claus Post Office where they show all the letters Santa gets every year. I overheard a conversation of some German tourists who told that you can take some of these letters from all over the world and answer them yourself. Some nice idea!
Otherwise, Santa Village was rather disappointing. You can go and take a picture with Santa for 30€. Then you can buy lots of souvenirs. That's pretty much it. Of course, it is cool to see where the polar circle is indicated but still... It was sad and it really gave the idea that Santa was invented by Coca Cola as a symbol for Christmas commercialism (even though I don't recall seeing a coke sign).
In the late afternoon, we arrived in Levi. This is a skiing area in Lapland around a hill with about 500 m height (not a mountain for sure!), which is pretty much the highest the area has to offer.
We stayed in cottages with either 6 or 7 people. I was with Kirsten, two Italian and two Dutch guys. The cottage had a lot to offer: LCD TV, DVD player, sauna, dishwasher, laundry machine, big pots in the kitchen, wine glasses, even shot glasses,... except for sufficient bed space. The guys had to share a room in 4 with a high bed, a double bed and a matress on the floor so one of them decided to stay on the sofa in the living room. In the girl's bedroom, there was only one small bed and a floor matress. I chose the matress and it was actually more comfortable than the Kuopas matress here. We took turns going to the sauna (too small for all of us), went shopping for dinner, met with the Belgian people for cooking pasta and went to bed at 9.30. I slept 11 hours straight and was still tired when I got up the next morning.
The next day, we went snowshoe walking. That was really fun but not so easy. The guide was some funny local guy who had the funniest accent ever ("isne wolf, isne guys withne snowmobiles, isne wolf gone"). He was quite enthusiastic but we did not always understand him.
First, we went up to the top of the hill with a gondola and tried out the snowshoes a little, Then we walked to a restaurant and had some hot chocolate and doughnuts and some après- ski music (including annoying German songs). After that, we made our way down the hill which was more difficult, also because of the more than 80 cm of snow, and resulted in some falling and a lot of laughing.
Back home, we went to the sauna again and then spend the afternoon enjoying the comfort of the TV. We were quite amazed by the MTV soaps and already miss them back in Kuopio! We had dinner on our own and later, the Belgian girls came over. When they entered, Lisbet screamed "There are the Northern Lights!" and I went out immediately and saw the Northern Lights! At first, it looked only like a cloud, but then it turned green and started moving...
Later, we went with the bus to the top of the hill to look for more of that, but we didn't see anything. It was an annoying event. I wanted to watch at least the stars which are amazingly bright in Lapland, but people were quite drunk and all the time taking pictures with a flash so that I felt like going blind. Also, a lot of drunk people act really stupid including running around and bumping into each other (and me) in the slippery snow, falling, starting to cry and to fight. Stupid and pointless! I was rather pissed when we went back.
The next day was nicer, we went snowmobile driving. First, we were stuffed into huge overalls, boots and helmets, then we went off. I cannot really describe it but it is fun! We shared the scooters in two and switched for the way back. We stopped at a reindeer farm (chocolate and pulla!) and saw some reindeer and traditional houses. On the farm, there was also a car stuck in the snow that our guys helped to get out again, so they were the heroes of the day.
The snowscooter is quite o.k. to drive but it is difficult to keep the direction. I messed up a little once but I didn't crash.
In the evening, we watched Champion's League. Then we wanted to go out for Northern Lights again, but there weren't any. The rest stayed at the Czech people's place but I wasn't in the mood for company so I went to bed.
On wednesday, we went to a husky farm. We got to see the dogs and ride in a husky sledge. It is really amazing, the sledge has to be tied to a tree, otherwise they would just run off!
On that farm, they also trained dogs, wolves and foxes for movies. We got a tour and lots of explanations about all the animals they had there. Awesome fact: If they go on a several day long safari, they run 30 to 50 km without a break!
It was really cool and we all wanted to take a puppy home but we couldn't (too expensive!).
Wednesday evening was St. Patrick's day. We went for dinner in a restaurant (I ate reindeer, tastes really nice) and got to finally talk a lot with our Dutch cottage mates. After that, we went to the Irish Pub in town to celebrate. It was quite crowded and they were out of the Guiness St Paddy's Day hats. First, we aquired two chairs at a table with an elderly couple, then we gradually moved until we got a big table next to the billard table. Lots of people from our group joined us, some played pool and it turned out to be a really nice evening. Lisbet even got the guy from the band to lend her his guitar and she sang for us in private. Only Gio was quite dissapointed that he didn't get a hat.
When we were already in bed, Dämien called me and asked if we were already sleeping, because he had a surprise. So we got up again and he brought a hat for Gio. He was really really happy about it!
The next morning, we left at 10h. On the way back, we visited a snow village where you can sleep in beds made of ice. The art and the sculptures were really amazing, but I would not want to spend the night there!
On our big afternoon break, some of our dear Spanish friends had some communication problems in a supermarket as to whether to pay for chocolate or not, so they needed some translation assistance by the police. This delayed us for more than an hour and we only got back at 23.30h. In Kuopio, there were more than 10 cm of new snow. Welcome back! But we were happy again when Gema welcomed us with a big hug and her proud exclamation that she made muffins!

Lapland Trip 2: Husky sledge ride

Lapland Trip 1: Our cottage

A little tour through our cottage that Kirsten and I shared with two Italian and two Dutch guys. Notice the LCD TV, dishwasher, microwave and, most important, the sauna (dark room inside the bathroom)! The pictures show what it looked like the last day!

Red Nose Day

me and my flatmates Kirsten, Lisbet and Gema... and our beloved Radio Rock!

music: Van Halen - Jump (only in my imagination, really: recorded ecotoxicology lecture)

mood: sniff

Yesterday was quite busy. It was Gema's birthday, so in the morning, Lisbet and I went to Prisma to buy the things we need to make mojitos. Surprisingly, we indeed found fresh mint. When we wanted to buy the rum, I discovered a weird thing about Finnish law. When you accompany someone who is buying alcohol, you also need to show your ID. Of course, I didn't bring mine so we couldn't buy the rum. Stupid!

In the afternoon, we went to see the ski jumping tournament. It should have been exciting as it was one of the world cup tournaments and the best jumpers of the world were there. The Austrian people were really thrilled to see their heroes. I note that day as "an experience" as it was rather boring (also because Germany sucks at ski jumping) and after three hours of standing outside everyone was freezing. Today, my nose is running really bad! The fireworks at the end were nice, though.

When we got home, we were all cold and tired and nobody was in the mood for going out. We still had Gema's party in our place. She wanted a red theme party so everybody dressed in red. We had also bought alarm red lipstick and Gema had "found" some red plastic roses so we had some silly red rose and red lips pictures and we decorated each other with red noses. Wonder how some booze can turn you totally childish! *lol*

We also met some of the guys who have been here from last term. One of them is selling his bike and I am seriously considering to buy it. Still planning on losing weight...

3 days of snow

music: radiorock-piste-fi *hahaha*
mood: sunny and cloudy

Hey guys!
Sorry, I didn't post anything in quite a long time, but as life is repeating itself there were not too many news to distribute...
So what happened during last week?
First, I was quite busy with school. I had three seminar days and gave a presentation which went rather well but I guess I took too much time. Then we had our Finnish exam. I didn't study for it because I was busy writing an essay which went rather slowly but is done now. The exam was not too hard but we will see how it turns out. Right now, I am doing my online course and trying to find time to study for the other exam in april. The next weeks will be busy but I will come to that.
Next thing about last week: it was stupid. Our favourite pub was still closed for water damage. Then the bus drivers were on a strike so one evening after the most exciting Kalpa match against the first team of the league, Lukko (a lot of fighting, big mistake of the referees leading to twenty minutes of straight "booo" by the Finnish, and, of course, victory after some overtime), so we had to walk back from the city center. Then there were three days of nonstop snow after one week of plus degrees. We were all quite annoyed but last thursday, the snowing stopped, the busses were driving and Hunters opened again! So everything went back to normal and happy.
We established the habit of having brunch every sunday. This weekend, Lisbet and I made muffins three days in a row and now, I am on a diet. I went running for the first time yesterday and it was really good. Some girl told us that she gained ten kilos during her stay her so I will not let this happen!
On sunday, we had really nice weather and went for a walk to Neulamäki tower. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed ourselves. It was a great day!
Annoying thing this week: they are renovating the bathrooms in our building (not ours, though!) and there is a lot of noise from 8 a.m. on. Yesterday, I tried to study at home but it was no use. I'm really sorry for the people whose flats are concerned because they will not have a bathroom for three weeks and also, this will effect their kitchen. They went to ask for refund for the rent yesterday but I am not sure if they were successful.
As last week was rather quiet, the next couple of weeks will be rather exhausting. Today is Gema's birthday. First, we are going to see a ski jumping tournament. Then we are having mojitos in our place, then we are going to Onnela to dance.
On sunday, we are leaving for the Lapland trip (3.45 in the morning). We come back on thursday evening. The week after that, Meli is coming to visit me for a week. The day after she leaves, we are going to St.Petersburg (yeah!) and the day after we get back, my mum is coming. The day she leaves, I have an exam. So these reports will probably be more exciting!

Snowwoman

Today, we built the ugliest snowwoman ever. She is a single mum with an ugly baby and a punk haircut...enjoy!

pictures by Lisbet:

Korpiklaani

music: Korpiklaani
mood: thrilled

Yesterday, we went to see Korpiklaani. As you cannot really set the concert atmosphere into words, I just give you some impressions:
- standing about 2 m away from the stage
- Roos' glasses got broken from too much dancing
- the song "Beer beer" means actually spilling beer over the audience
- it was quite obvious that the exchange students were more excited than the Finnish guys -> took them a while to start dancing...
- the guys from the band talked to us (or rather the Spanish girls) after the show and one of them gave them his plectrum (don't know if it's the right word also in English)

Anyway, just amazing!!!!


pictures by Anna:










Tomas dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovBGqJ5jV6s

Smoke Sauna

music: none (once more in the library)

mood: adrenaline rush (or at least remembering, wish I was there now!)

On tuesday evening, we made it to the Smoke Sauna in Rauhalahti after several weeks of postponing the date. And it was worth it!

But from the beginning...

We took the bus to Rauhalahti (not that far but felt like in the middle of nowhere) and missed the right bus stop so we had to walk a while through the forest (quite spooky in the dark!).

The sauna belongs to some sort of camping or whatever site with a restaurant. We got group discount because we were 10 people. Also, they give you towels, which is really nice! The sauna was in a wooden building, really how you imagine a Finnish sauna. Inside, it was semi-dark and smoky (smoke sauna, haha) and when you lean back against the wall you get black stains. We disturbed the peace of the place and made the Finnish people leave because we were rather noisy, but we were a group of ten and excited. The temperature was really comfortable, not too hot so you could stay for quite a while. Right after the first turn, we decided to go outside and swim in the lake (see video)! The snow under the feet was the coldest, even though we were wearing slippers. Also the water made us shriek but it was not as bad as the cold wind that made the water on our skin and in the hair freeze. Anyway, this was an experience and afterwards, you really feel sort of tipsy from the adrenaline.

After the next turns, some people even rolled in the snow, but rubbing my arms with it was the worst I could do to myself so I spared me that experience.

All in all, we went in and out for several times (maybe 2 hours) and we all loved it.

Now our Finnish baptism is done!

Kalpa!

Weekly report

music: none (everybody is in bed right now so I can't have loud music - note the time: 00:12 - 00:58)
mood: almost sleepy, peaceful

Sorry for taking so long, but the last week has been quite busy. I guess I finished on sunday (14th) with the sledging accident...

Maanantai:
We were still on cake tryouts, so on monday we made chocolate mud cake with vanilla ice cream and after that pizza (Did we? I don't remember because we had a lot cake and pizza last week!). If pizza or not, the cake was really good, so was the company.

Tiistai:
On tuesday, we had our carnival party and, for the first time, the common room (pictures on facebook, to lazy to upload!). The common room is a big appartment with nice leather chairs, a radio on which you cannot turn down the volume, a crappy kitchen but with a working fridge and lots of friendly flatmates: ants. It is a big place, ideal for having parties. I spend the afternoon baking pulla with Julia. I noticed that the Italian guys indeed see my appartment as theirs as Giovanni rang the bell, opened, ran past me without even saying anything, went straight to the kitchen and shovelled around the drawers because he needed the rolling pin to make pizza. I guess he feels quite at home here!
I succeeded in finding a costume in the second hand shop. I bought a grandpa hat, a shirt and a tie and painted a beard to my face to dress up as my own grandpa. Considering the fact that we are in a country where there is no carnival, we had very creative costumes! I noticed that many people seemed to express their real personality: French dressing up as French, Roman dressing up as a Roman, for example. PJ even painted her tooth with black nail polish!
Carnival party was really fun.

Keskiviikkona:
On wednesday morning, we cleaned the common room. We got 20,75 € refound for the empty cans and bottles! The cleaning went quite well. Then, we had Finnish class. I don't remember if we did anything in the evening but I don't think so.

Torstai:
When I woke up on thursday morning, there were two Finnish girls standing in my flat. They told me that I would get a new flatmate on sunday and they were bringing some stuff for her. That news got me wide awake!
In the morning, I met with some Finnish pharmacy students to practice their German skills, but we ended up chatting in English and not really working. Then I met with Christine and Jakob to finish our presentation for friday (first real assignment here!).
In the evening, we went to see another ice hockey match. It was really hard and amazing and Kalpa won again 5:3! After that we went to McDonald's and then home.

Perjantai:
On friday, we had our presentation. The seminar lasted from 12 to 16.45 and was really annoying. The presentations were interesting but partly quite bad (you shouldn't copy - paste too much!!!) and always took longer than intended. We got nice comments on ours and it went quite o.k. I think. Anyway, the day was really exhausting. Luckily, Lisbet and Nele had gone on with the cake tryouts and in the evening, we finally got our winner cake! Recipe: http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1472871252236939/Australischer-Chocolate-Mud-Cake.html

Lauantai:
On saturday, we started the preparations for Lisbets birthday party in the evening: going shopping. We got Blue Curacao and Minttu and shot glasses and a lot of other stuff which we had to carry up the hill because we missed the bus. Then we made two more cakes and then, I went to the harbour with some of the Belgian girls and Damien (Belgian guy) to watch the ice skating marathon. It was almost over when we arrived but we were not so sorry because it was really cold. In the coffee house, we met not only the Italian guys and an old drunken Finnish guy but also our coordinator from the International Office. Btw, we got mails about our bad behaviour in the bus and in the student restaurant... I never behave badly and I know how to clean up my tray after lunch!
In the evening, we celebrated Lisbets birthday. It was a great party and I went to bed at 3.30. Don't know what else to tell about it...that's why I stole Nele's video again! Here it comes:



Sunnuntai:
On sunday morning, we wanted to have brunch and our new flatmate arrived. We had planned to make pancakes but we didn't have enough eggs. There was planty of food anyway. Pavla made pancakes filled with spinach and covered with cheese... delicious. Also there was salad, apples and carrots, cake, tiramisu, eggs and bacon, milk rice,... we were all really full and still wasted from the party. Finnish word of the day: Krapula (hangover). Also Pavla got a new flatmate who is friends with ours. They are Yadily and Gema from Gran Canaria and they are really nice! Yadily joined us for brunch and then went to wake Gema who slept. They had to travel from friday till sunday, no wonder she was tired! For the rest of the day, I was also quite tired. I slept in the afternoon and in the evening, we had girlie movie time.

maanantai:
Today I was very productive. I went to school to do Finnish homework, then we had Finnish class, then lunch, then meeting with pharmacy girls, then successfully preparing my huge presentation for wednesday. In the evening, we watched a movie and talked for a long time with Gema.

Schedule for this week:
tuesday: watching winter sports and smoke sauna
wednesday: presentation (argh!)
thursday: I forgot
friday: watching Korpiklaani in Henry's pub
tuesday: Kalpa against the first team of the league, Lukko

Yeah!!!!

Sledging Sunday

music: mgmt - kids
mood: now: hm.... thinking... pleased with myself for having finished a very productive day of schoolwork - then: shocked
On Valentine's Day, there is also a traditional Finnish holiday called Sledging Sunday (followed by another Sledging Tuesday) where you go sledging and after that eating pea soup and pulla with whipped cream. So some of the Finnish tutors organized a sledging event for us.
We found two sleds in our flat which made us rich (the others used mainly plastic bags). The Finnish girls welcomed us wearing really professional overalls (from their student club; apparently every student club has their own overall colour and every student gets one after being baptised to the Student Club, I will not go into detail about this thing because I don't really get it). We went sledging which was really fun, especially the taking pictures part. We also met some of the older exchange students.
After a while, the Finnish suggested going to another, "more dangerous" slope. We should have been on alert then....
We walked for about quarter of an hour up Neulamäki ("mäki" means "hill") in beautiful sunny weather and took lots of landscape pictures (all snow and sun and trees,pretty much the same but also pretty pretty). We reached the Neulamäki Tower, which is a small outlook where you have a beautiful view across the lakes. We took lots of pictures of us jumping and falling in the snow which was fun except for the snow in the underpants. Then we saw the sledging slope. It was really steep and scary and looked quite dangerous. At the end, there was a bump where all the guys jumped with their sleds and flew about 5 m through the air before landing in the shrubs. I only went on my butt (still nobody told me a nice word for that, please help me!) so I didn't go so fast but it was still fast. It was nice watching all the people.
Then one girl went on a round sled that turned right before the bump so she went backwards. We saw immediately that this wouldn't come out well. She jumped, turned and landed headforward on her back. She got hurt pretty bad, but all the medical students gathered around her and had some advice. After calling the ambulance, checking with the health insurance, waiting for about a quarter of an hour, brave Czech guys offering their jackets and trying to entertain a terrified injured girl, the ambulance arrived. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of the forest, so they had to carry her some way on a stretcher. We walked back home and waited anxiously for news. Later that night it turned out she had a broken vertebra but no neural injuries. She had to stay in the hospital for the night and has to wear a corset now for some weeks. So now, everybody knows her as "the girl who broke her back". Bad ending of an otherwise fun day!