"The party is over!"

music: death cab for cutie - meet me on the equinox
mood: lugubrious (I'm starting to look for new words to improve my vocabulary and as I have now officially started the depressive phase of my stay I think this word goes great with today)

Also, there have been a few events over the last days that make me feel lugubrious (I hope I get the sense of the word right, correct me if I don't!).
On friday evening, the American girl who lives in Puijonlaakso (crappy part of town, the housing area doesn't have too many other exchange students, also there are no busses but there is the crappy tower) invited us for an international dinner where everybody ought to bring some national food from their home country. I wanted to make a black forest cake. On thursday evening, after feeling rather ill the whole day, I went to Lidl to get some national German devices for this cake. For that, I skipped the Kalpa match (must have been great!) and travelled a long way by bus.
In Kuopio, you cannot buy cherries. Neither in Lidl nor in Prisma, which is about the biggest supermarket I know. Nowhere to be found. This fact, along with the tiresome waiting at bus stops and freezing temperatures, officially initialized my depressive phase. I know that it is stupid but the fact that I couldn't get cherries totally brought me down. Yesterday, I girl that has been here last term told me that in autumn, some other German students had the same problem and the Finnish teacher suggested that they might find cherries in Helsinki....
After this, I was so pissed that I didn't do anything this evening. For the international dinner I made puff pastry rolls with ham and salmon and Kirsten made a cake. Nothing too special, but worked out great as our food was gone within 5 minutes.
The party was sort of weird. The flat was crowded, even more than what we are used to, Romanda was in a total wuzz and didn't manage to do anything apart from drinking. Her Spanish flatmate had some party of her own in her room, they just came out to get food from the buffet and didn't share anything of their stuff except for noisy company and squeezing past us every couple of minutes to go outside for a cigarette.
The atmosphere was a little agressive or something, I don't quite know how to explain that. It was not relaxed and funny, so to say. At 10.15, Romanda announced that it was time to go to Onnela or whatever because some neighbours had been complaining. Of course, everybody wanted to collect empty plates and stuff, so this took a while. When the first people stepped into the hallway, they ran into some policemen. These looked terrifying (also terrific, blonde and tall ^^) and shouted: "The party is over! Who live here?" and kicked everybody out. They were really mean and gave Romanda some sort of lecture about how not to have a party.
Let's recall the facts:
We were having a dinner party. Without any music. Only people talking.
It was friday night at 10.30.
It was a student housing area.
No comments for that.

On our way back and with a couple of leftover beers in my flat, we discussed the events genuinely. Finland is a strange country indeed. Of course, Romanda was really pissed, we kept on discussing also on Facebook.
Today, I went ice skating with Julia, which was fun. I keep on falling down once every turn, but today I had my stuffed ski trousers so it didn't hurt. Skating is becoming quite a popular sport, we met also other guys from our place. It was only -12°C, but we had really mean wind on the skating track.
After that, I didn't really manage to do anything. I was on Skype for a while. The other guys went to city center. I wanted to go and join them later, but I got so caught up with talking to everybody, taking a shower and finally fulfilling my task of cleaning the bathroom that by the time I called them, they were back home. Giovanni told me that the rest wanted to go to Onnela, but we agreed that spending money on the entrance fee and pay about 3 times more for a drink than during the week would be rather pointless. I stayed in and watched a movie with Kirsten and Julia. After that, we discussed medical issues and dentists.
I figured that on monday, I should finally start working on some school stuff.
So, party is over!

Useful (?) Finnish phrases

Things not to say in Finnish (especially not during lunch in the student restaurant!):

Minä olen apinain kuningas. (I am the king of the monkeys.)
Oletko sinä (jo) kuusitoista? (Are you already sixteen?)
Haista paska! (Smell the shit!)
Hitto vieköön! (Go to hell!)
Suu tukkoon! (Shut up!)
Sä puhut ihan hassuja! (You talk crazy!/ Are you crazy?)
paska (shit)

Home assignment: Find out how to say "Should I show you my monkey?" in Finnish!

to be continued....

You have stayed in Finland too long when...

(Copied from Facebook group, just awesome! Wanted to share that with you guys!)

"You have stayed in Finland too long when…

1) You think it is normal to have lunch at 11:00
2) When you go to a post office, bank or pharmacy you first start looking for a waiting ticket. You think it is normal to stand in line for getting a waiting ticket.
3) A deep sigh is a part of your daily vocabulary, and so is “hmmmm”.
4) When there is 70°C in sauna it is cold, but when there is 25°C outside it is hot.
5) A natural part of a business meeting is to spend time naked in a hot room with people you don`t know.
6) A stranger smiling at you is
a) crazy
b) drunk
c) foreigner
d) all of the above
7) You go to cruise
a) to buy tax free beer
b) to buy tax free booze
c) to party
8) You are always on time
9) Shoes and white sporting socks are an acceptable combination
10) You`ll get drunk on religious holidays
11) You`d rather stay at home than go drinking in a pub.
12) You consider it normal to go to a summer cottage in the middle of a forest to be eaten by moskitos and to drink booze.
13) 5°C means mild weather.
14) Your wear warm clothes in April even though there is 25°C, because it is April. You wear a t-shirt and shorts in July even though there is
10°C, because it is July.
15) You wear socks and sandals at the same time.
16) Temperature below zero and snow does not stop you from biking.
17) You get annoyed if a bus / train is two minutes late
18) Your wife is watching television while you take care of the kids.
19) You think it is normal to keep on walking when a stranger asks you something on the street.
20) You have been engaged for four years without thinking of getting married.
21) You automatically put your hand in your pocket when you hear a mobile ringing.
22) You are interested in the new models of mobile phones and whether your mobile is following the latest trend.
23) When your colleagues ask you to go out for a drink after work you know that is result in a long night and a head-breaking hangover next day
24) Most of your friends are called the same and you have to use their last names to make a separation.
25) You go to the movies in time to see the commercials.
26) A piece of tomato on a piece if lettuce can be called a salad.
27) You consider it normal that the last name which start with v and w are located in the same place in the telephone directory.
28) Silence is fun.
29) You find it normal to drink milk with your meals.
30) You finally stop asking your class "Are there any questions?"
31) Hugging is reserved for sexual foreplay
32) You give up on trying to find fat-free food and pile on the butter, cream and sugar.
33) you stop brushing your teeth and instead take 2 shots of Minttu.
34) you go to bed its dark and when you woke up its again dark outside in winters.
35) there is absolutely no reason to cross the street when the light is red
36) you are happy if it is just -10C and not -20C.
37) you realized to see men with babycoach everyday passing by the wide foothpath is normal.
38) you begin to accept the wasted 40+ yr old couple in the middle of the dance floor as a normal thing.
39) you can't see potatoes anymore.
40) you stop to laugh about "megapussi" packaging in the supermarket.
41) you think that smashing glasses in night clubs is normal !
42) you wear high-heels and a mini-skirt although it is -15°C!
43) you see Salmiaki ice-cream as completely normal.
44) you spend 20 hours a day awake in the summer because its too bright.
45) you spend 16hours a day in bed in the winter, because its too dark
46) you are heading for one of the several gambling machines before leaving a shop
47) you expect reindeers on the road instead of people
48) rasvaton maito and Olterman cheese are the first 2 things you buy in the foodshop.
49) you don't doubt to put your wet dishes in the 'drying closet', while thinking: this is the best invention ever!
50) you enter a bus and you see that if you wanted to sit down then you would have to sit next to a person, so you stand for the whole ride.
51) you really walk as fast as you can and eat as fast as possible and don't know why?
52) bring your own drinks to a party."

Hei mitä kuuluu?

music: black eyed peas - i gotta feeling
mood: hangover

Before starting with the report on yesterday night, here a short summary of the rest of the day:
Finnish 2 is crap. Hell on earth. I will never go there again. Funny thing is, they didn't even need to kick me out, I left myself.
On monday, we were out to Hunters Pub again. At first, it was only me and the Italian guys, but when we wanted to leave, we ran into some other people so we went back in. I left quite early, around midnight. On tuesday, class started at 8 and I caught myself several times dozing off. Kind of stupid if the teacher can see you! After lunch, we got a group work room to put our presentation for soil ecology together and when we were done I went to Finnish 2. The teacher pretended not to speak English at all and gave us some tasks nobody could understand. After some "introduce yourself" and "find words that begin with this letter", we were supposed to do a test on our knowledge in Finnish. I knew maybe two words or something and left the rest empty. The test was set for an hour, but at some point I got up and told her that I would quit the course. She understood me just fine but still insisted in answering in Finnish. So I'm going back to Survival Finnish now. But those two hours gave me a headache and a terribly frustrated feeling.
I had to wait at the bus stop for maybe 20 minutes and was frozen when the bus finally arrived. At home I went straight to bed. After some ten minutes (felt, I don't know if this is true), Paulina and Misa came to force me to go to Onnela with them later.
After some hours spent in a vegetative state (and on Skype), they came again to pick me up. I succeeded in getting up and getting dressed. The party was supposed to be a traffic light party, which means you should wear green as a signal that you want to get laid, yellow as a signal that says it's complicated, but maybe you can convince me into getting laid and red as a signal that says actually I am in a relationship but I still want to get laid. I couldn't really decide between these options so I chose not to wear any colour at all but grey.
First, we met at Pavla's place. The Czech guys were making mean jokes in Czech and I am still not sure whether I wanted to understand them or rather not. We tried Minttu, nice Finnish peppermint liquor and took the bus at 11.
Onnela is the other night club only around the corner from Passion. It actually is the other night club as there aren't any others. Entrance was free, beer was only 1 € and the music was R'n'B from about 10 years ago. Crap! Anyway, we had a good time. Almost every guy tried to get laid by Paulina, even though she wore black. We really had to party hard as we were to take the last bus at 2.
In the bus, I witnessed the "2 o'clock bus to Neulamäki"- phenomenon for the first time. This is, someone starts to sing "Der ganze Bus der hüpft olé olé" and to jump. Then the whole bus starts jumping and singing. Funny thing is, most of the guys have no idea what they are singing, and sometimes they don't even sing what they are supposed to sing but some random stuff that has roughly the same sound. The italian guys also started an Italian song like "If we get into an accident, the driver is the only one who dies". Mean!
This morning, my new flatmate is moving in! Olé!

Getting Lost...

music: lily allen - f**k you
mood: frozen

My advice for everybody who plans to come to Kuopio: Don't go to Puijo Tower. Dot. Point made. Nothing about: Don't go there on a sunday when it is freezing cold and you thought it over because when you got up in the morning it was cloudy but eventually the sun came out so you decided to go but while you were walking including a ten-minutes-stop to wait for some French girls from Särkiniemi who didn't come anyway, the clouds closed in and when you finally reached that stupid tower after walking up approximately 2000 frozen metal stairs you couldn't see what was land and what was sky any more because of the clouds and when you decided that you had appreciated the view for long enough and wanted to take the bus home, you found out that there are no busses on sunday, so you walked to the city center and waited there for the bus but it was only to come in 20 minutes so you went inside a supermarket and when you came out you had to run after the bus and the driver ignored your knocking on the door at the red traffic light and went on without you so you went back to the supermarket to wait for the next 1/2 hour until the next bus finally came and when you made it home after 5 hours your porridge burnt because you were busy writing this and couldn't watch the pot. Nothing about that. Just. Do. Not. Go. To. Puijo. Tower. Ever.

Weekly report

music: aura dione - i will love you monday
mood: blablanananaaaaalalala

Monday:
I don't remember. Oh, I do, but I thought I already talked about that when in fact I had not.
So. Monday. We went to Ravintola Hunter (the pub to be in Neulamäki) to join the pub quiz there. We brought 3 Finnish tutors to help us translate along with about 25 other people. The place was so crowded after we entered! The barlady was quite stunned by that, she gave us student discount without asking for the student cards and eventually brought us some liquorice liqueur (funny!) on the house which happens next to never in any Finnish place and said she wants us to come back. We didn't win the quiz but it was still awesome. We have to do that again!

Tuesday:
Tuesday was a stupid day. After lecture, I went ice skating. The cracks in the ice were even deeper and I fell and bruised my knees pretty badly. In the evening, we went to sauna, because tuesday is always free sauna turn. The sauna in our house is really small so if there are five people in, there is almost no possibility of changing seats. Somehow, I didn't drink enough or didn't listen to my body and promptly fainted when I was outside and waiting for the shower. So, two things I really like and still am too stupid to do! Argh!

Wednesday:
Wednesday was supposed to be study day. I did a little something in the morning. Totally hilarious: In the online course I have to take the introductory test was a crossword! At noon, we wanted to meet with everybody to go to university for lunch, but some guys messed it up and had us waiting outside for 20 minutes. Our own fault that we didn't wait in the hallway, I know...
After lunch, I went to city center with an Austrian guy and did some shopping for birthday presents. When I returned home, I did a little more work for school and later, Kirsten came over to watch a movie. She just found out that she can move in with me, so from 1st of February, I'm not alone any more! Yeah!
Wednesday was also spooky day - see post before!

Thursday:
On thursday, we had class and after that, we met with a teacher to discuss the paper we have to report. In the afternoon, Iina (Finnish girl studying in Germany doing Erasmus in Finland) gave us some Finnish classes. It must have been so stupid to watch when we were sitting in the library repeating random words after her! In the evening we wanted to go and see a movie. We went to the cinema where we found out that we had mistaken the time and were too late. So we delayed that plan to saturday and went to the coffee house and dinner instead. Of course, everybody made fun of us!

Friday:
On friday, we went to school to order our tickets for the trip to Lapland (succeeded in rescheduling the test!). When the organisator appeared, everybody jumped at him like hungry wolves. It took a while, but we got our reservations done. So we are going to Lapland, yeah!
I finally got my package from my parents, including wodka (isn't it stupid to send wodka to Finland?)!
Friday was also Kirsten's birthday. I had the party at my place. It was really a success. By midnight, there were about 30 people in the place (and also in the hallway), even some we didn't know, the approximately 120 cans of beer, two bottles of wodka and most of the cakes were gone and everybody was happy. We started with about 7 cakes and wondered who would ever eat them, but that was not that much of a problem...

Saturday:
I started saturday cleaning up the place. Great applause for my dear neighbour who came over pretty early to help. He also managed to repair a broken window "McGyver"-style only by the use of his bottle opener key chain. When Kirsten and Julia joined us, we finished pretty fast.
In the afternoon, we finally got our cinema experience. The movie was nice (Sherlock Holmes, they made Jude Law look decent, wonder how that happened!) but a little spoilt by 8,60 € entrance fee (with discount!) and some 12 year old brats who had to prove they could throw popcorn and never need to whipe their nose (Why, making disgusting, snorting noises is way more fun!).
In the evening, I talked to my parents on skype for more than 3 hours. Made me happy!

Today:
There are still snowflakes outside, but I can see a little blue through the clouds... Maybe we can still go to the tower!

Weird things...

music: ray parker jr - ghost busters
mood: spooky

Today, behold a miracle of nature: It is snowing at -20°C. I never knew this is actually possible. We had decided to finally go to Puijo Tower this day because the weather had been rather promising over the last few days. Explanation: Puijo Tower is a tower above the ski jumping place with a restaurant on top where you can see all over the country... if there are no clouds! Now, I watch a grey sky with snowflakes tumbling lazily to earth... pretty! Damn it!
Man, that place is freaking me out.
Last week, my phone rang. The number of the caller wasn't showing and when I answered, there was only beeping.
Later that night, another girl came over to my place. All of a sudden, there was a sound of something heavy dropping. We checked all around the flat, but we didn't find out what it was. Later I figured that it was a small mirror standing on a shelf that fell down. But still, why would things drop without anybody touching them?
I think I'm going crazy. Juontotie Horror Night!

First days at school

music: pink floyd - the wall
mood: grumpy

This week, classes finally started. Right now, I have one online course and two other classes. Next week, Finnish 2 starts (but they will still kick me out after the first lesson, I'm quite sure of that!).
The first course was about writing a scientific paper, I was in there with 4 other guys: We had to choose a topic ourselves (about water problems), had some lectures about how to write, then we have to do an oral presentation, write the paper and have it published eventually. This is amazing, I get to publish something!
The other guys seem really smart and eager, none of those adjectives really fits for me. But anyway, this is all library work and no more lectures....
The other class is about soil ecology. I have already heard some of this, but here, all the basics are stuffed into two lectures, and quite at random, so I'm really happy that I already know what they are talking about. Otherwise I would be quite lost. The next lecture will be about soil microbiology, I'm really looking forward to that! We also have to present a paper and to do an exam. What really troubles me is that the trip to Lapland is during the week where this exam is scheduled. I think I simply have to be very smart and try the second exam date. No failure allowed here!
I haven't started the online course yet but that is my plan for today.
Basically, classes here are held twice a week. The exams are in the middle of the term, then the next set of courses starts. So in March and April, I will have three more courses, though the teacher of one of those didn't accept me yet. In fact, he didn't answer my mail at all...
Stupid thing about school here:
There is not that much contact teaching, I have to do so much on my own. Not my style at all!

Birthday

music: stevie wonder - happy birthday
mood: bright and shiny

Well, that took some time, but classes started and I was quite busy so I can do my birthday blog only today.
Anyway. On sunday was my birthday. The idea of being all alone in a foreign country had me scared quite a little, but I was, well, in a foreign country, though certainly not alone.
At first I waited until 2.30 p.m. for my mum to call after work but had forgotten about the time difference and that she would only return at 3.30 (my time). My dad wanted to wait for her to call me so there was no talking to my family on my birthday.
The reason for this was Erasmus family. At 3 p.m., we met to have coffee at the city center. There, we also met the Spanish girls. The Czech guys from the other university were also to come, but somehow they messed it up. It was quite crowded even without them. At about 5.30, we went on a sunday shopping spree because we are not used to open department stores at this time. Ale (great word, means sale, Ale Pupi or short for Alessandro) succeeded in finding a mocca (Espresso cooker).
Some of us had dinner at the kebab/pizza place, then we met at the Czech guys' place next to my apartment to watch Fight Club. At some time, their French flatmate retourned and started his own party in the same apartment. Somehow, my Czech guys were there as well. Later I found out that the French guy I've been talking to on facebook over the last couple of weeks had gone there straight from the airport, but we hadn't recognized each other. It was sooo funny when some girl opened the door to the movie room and started shrieking because she hadn't expected another 10 people in there. After the movie, we tried our best to mix the two parties, but somehow, that didn't work out. So we had still two parties in one place. Best thing was that it wasn't my place AND I got a birthday cake!
Thanks again to you all for your wishes and cake and so on!

PS: Got birthday present from one of the Finnish tutors on monday and my package from Melanie (great friend in Germany) on tuesday. Awesome!

Party (at) Passion

music: spliff- carbonara
mood: hungry (again!)

Soooooo.....
that is one long weekend!
On friday, we went first to Ale Pupi. The bus was quite crowded and I suppose that it were mostly exchange students because there was a buzzing of different languages (we laughed really hard about a shouted "Que freddo!"), but apart from "our group" we didn't know anybody. At Ale Pupi, there weren't quite enough people for a flash mob or anything of that sort. But it still was fun, especially the explanation of the "Latin Lover Lifestyle" (new favourite quotation). I tried a cranberry longdrink (really tasty) and later, the ladies from International Office who organized the orientation, joined us. We all like especially Sarita because she is about my age and really outgoing, speaks 4 languages fluently and is so much fun. At about 11, we went next door to Passion Club. In the queue, we met Anna and Gemma (Spanish girls from my first weekend) and some other people whose names I forgot. Unfortunately, free entry was only until 10 so we had to pay. There were 2 rooms, one with Finnish music and one with international pop music. I think Finnish people like to gamble, because in Ale Pupi is a bridge table and in Passion Club, a poker game was going on. They also had some kind of beds with curtains for privacy (to relax or get closer with new aquaintances *lol*), a singstar game and some places to sit AND of course a dance floor. It was a great evening even though the possibilities for talking and getting to know each other were way better in the pub. Giovanni came up with a schedule for next week because most of the guys don't have classes yet (poor me!). This includes my birthday, surprise movie evening, pub quiz, tea party, sexchange party (where guys dress as girls and vice versa) and going to Stockholm next weekend. I'm totally in for the Stockholm trip though I don't know how to manage handing my first paper in in time yet. We'll see.
Today, we wanted to build a snowman but I was kind of late and had my laundry day, so when I came outside, the snowman was already done. I joined in his destruction with snowballs. Afterwards we had cocoa at the flat on the top floor and now, the Italian guys will make pasta. Erasmus family is happy!

Kalpa!

music: dire straits - money for nothing
mood: party

Yesterday was weird but awesome...
We learned about the adaptation process and that we are now in the honeymoon phase of our stay. Which means that we are totally in love and everything is new and exciting here. After that we are supposed to get to the really crappy phase with being depressed and thinking that everything is crappy, especially Finland and the Finns and that our home country is the greatest in the world and so on. As soon as we get out of the crappy phase and have adapted, we will be depressed again as it is time to go home then. Promising forecast!
Then we did a weird Finland quiz, which was rather cool. Learned that in public bathrooms (also in my private bathroom), the locks turn to the other direction than in almost every other country.
After some computer system exploring in the afternoon, we were done with orientation week. We decided rather spontaneously to go and see the ice hockey match in the evening which left me about half an hour at home before going out again. But it was worth the effort!
The local team is called Kalpa (no idea what that means), they are playing in the first league and the match was against Pelicans (I guess from Lahti or whatever, nevermind what I wrote before today, it was wrong!). We were like 10 or so Erasmus students, most of them had never seen a hockey match before.
Of course, the cheers were the same (or at least the rhythm of the shouting, I don't know what they said), of course, Kuopio won 5:3 after leading 4:0 in the 3rd third (funny, ha), of course, the referees were totally prejudiced and of course, they sold crappy sausages way too expensive! But it was awesome.

Cool things about Finnish ice hockey compared to Germany:
1. waaaaay better!
2. more creative, more action
3. big screen that shows pictures of the players when their numbers are called, clapping Mickey Mouse hands animation to make everybody clap (heaten the quiet Finns!), video of the game, and, whenever there is time, advertising
4. the home team gets light effects and artificial fog when they enter the arena
5. they have little boys cleaning the ice during the game (cheers for cuteness!)
6. it is reported on TV
7. rock concert feeling
8. even for the standing tickets, there is possibility to sit down during the breaks

Stupid things:
- too much advertising, not enough rock music
- Jerseys are about 70 €
- constantly kissing couple right in front of my nose, couldn't even watch the game properly
- was terribly hungry (lunch break at 11 this morning) and had to eat expensive sausage without bread
- had forgotten my camera

So much to our Finnish hockey experience.
When we got home, I dropped dead to my bed even though it was only around 9 p.m. This resulted in me waking at midnight and having weird dreams during those few ten minutes I was able to sleep for the rest of the night. Then I had to get up at 6:30 because we had a meeting with our departmental coordinator. I went with Jakob, who is from Bolzano and studies in my department. Naturally, we didn't find our way as most of the doors of the building were locked and we couldn't get in. We arrived some ten minutes late, but Jonne (cool departmental coordinator) found that extremely funny. The meeting was quite successful, though. After that, I finished most of my paperwork around here and then went for another 3 hour nap. I saw some cool things on my way back: a woodpecker trying to make a hole in a lantern post, a girl's magazine named Bella Sara in the window of a R-kioski and iced rose hips (really beautiful).
Tonight is flash mob at Ale Pupi and Welcome Party in Club Passion afterwards. See how that goes!

Internationalisation

music: razorlight - wire to wire
mood: international

Oh dear...
My head is buzzing with all the different languages!
Today orientation wasn't that interesting, all kinds of people were presenting themselves. The guy from language center practically forced us (me and the other girl from Giessen) to sign up for Finnish 2 because we mentioned that we had already done a Finnish course. We will see how much good that does.
Then we took a tour to city center which I already have seen quite a couple of times. At least I finally got my bus ticket, yeah! After the tour we went to Ale Pupi (love the name, even more now that I now that ale means "sale") and had some hot liquor flavoured chocolate. One guy who is half-Finnish, half German really made our day by expressing all kinds of prejudices (he claims he just likes to be provocative but could also be serious, wonder how that will be like!) and trying to explain the word "Moosgummi" in some kind of Finnish/German/English mixture.
My task for today was to change the light bulb or rather "neon stick" in my bathroom which I succeeded in, so great day!
Forgot to talk about yesterday evening...
We went to the pub in our quarter which is basically crappy with Finnish people singing very sad love songs on the karaoke machine. It was quite entertaining, though because we were Italian, Austrian, Polish, German and Finnish and did a lot prejudice-, sports- and music- talking. The Italians were quite confused about the fact that in Finland, you are not served at the table in a pub or café but order at the bar. And by the so-called Turkish- Finnish "pizza" with kebab and pineapple topping. We didn't get properly drunk and I doubt that I ever will around here because even a beer costs like 4 € at least. Inspired by the karaoke singing, we decided to meet today to present the Polish girl with the Mamma Mia movie sing along version. The Italians tried to slip out of it but we didn't let them. So this night I ended up having like 10 persons in my 14 m2- room. But the guys brought beer (with a bear logo on the package, they went totally crazy for it!) and my Czech neighbour had Slivovice and made us try it, so we had fun and got really internationalized. At least my room looks like we had fun.
We watched the youtube video some guys made from their Erasmus stay here in 2007 and we have to start living up to the standard they set for us.
Cheers!

First day of Orientation

music: none
mood: somewhere between excited and tired

(about the music/mood thing: I believe I stole the idea from Kate's life journal. I certainly give you credit for that because I think it is cool! If you feel offended just tell me and I will stop!)

Moi! (trying to use different Finnish greetings)
Today was like "dark, info, dark". We had the first day of Orientation Week, but I don't feel much orientated now. It was just waaaay too much information to take in properly and I feel like all the important things like getting my student card, computer passwords, signing in for classes etc. will happen only tomorrow or on thursday. Good thing was, I got to meet the other students in UEF, which is my university. The other "facebook guys" I basically spent the weekend with are on the University of Apllied Sciences or "Savonia".
The other girl from Giessen I actually met in the hallway this morning. I wanted to meet with another "facebook girl" who lives in my building and she brought her along so we are indeed neighbours.
The other people are, let's see... Austrian, German, Russian, Italian, Czech, French, Korean, English, Netherlands (don't know how to call the Nationality), Polish, American,... but there are so many people speaking German, that goes completely against my rule: learn English, don't speak German around here! Can't help it, though... Today it already became quite clear that there is grouping amongst nationalities. Too bad! But most of the guys are nice, quite many live in my housing area so I guess it will be cool.
We went to the student restaurant today. I think it is nicer than in Giessen because there is free salad buffet, bread and one free drink included, then you get to pick between three main dishes and it is only 2€ with student discount. I met the "facebook guys" for lunch which was great. i hope we can keep up contact with time.
Now I get to relax a little. Jenna wrote during the day and wants to meet me tonight. Her proposal was ice swimming but I rather stay on top of the ice, at best wearing my skates. So this is what we are doing later. Afterwards I guess I will go to the pub with some of the Italian Erasmus guys. Busy day...
Talk to you guys if I survive until tomorrow (planned tomorrow afternoon: promising walking tour to city center!)

P.S.
music: linkin park - numb
mood: comfortable
Still alive... just came back from ice skating with Jenna. It went fairly well, with just some stumbling and only once falling down. Now my buttocks feel numb, but I don't know if this is due to the falling or due to the cold. One question, please help me out here by leaving a comment if you are either native speaker OR English teacher OR smarter than I am: Is it politically correct to say "buttocks"? Or is it just old-fashioned? I wanted to skip my Southpark expressions and found the word in the Outlander Saga which I'm currently reading, but this story takes place in the 18th century... so what would be the right term to say "My buttocks feel numb" without being rude?
I did seven rounds on the track, I don't know exactly how long it is but Jenna estimates 1 km, so I am kinda pleased with myself. Although I'm really tired now, but still in the mood for a beer. :-)

Weather

It is quite obvious that weather is an important issue when talking about Finland. I'm in the boreal climatic area right now where snow and ice play quite a role in everyday life.
When I talked about going to Finland at home everybody called me crazy and advised me to take lots of warm clothes. I got no less then 5 handwarmers as farewell gifts! Among the Erasmus students, we spend some time talking about the weather in our home countries and how we suffer from cold and snow... Common joke: One of the tutors was asked how weather would be in april and he answered: "Well, lets say... plus degrees"

On the plane, the captain announced -25°C in Helsinki.
The Prisma market has a huge board that shows the daily temperature.
They load the snow on trucks to get the streets free of it.
On the market square there are stands selling gloves and scarfs.
Parking lots have little charging stations for the car batteries so they don't freeze.

Funny enough I don't really feel the cold or suffer from it as much as in Germany. The air (and the snow) is very dry (no chance for snowballs, we tried!) and as long as there is no wind and as long as I'm dressed in several layers of clothes, it is very pretty outside. I'm stunned every day by the look of trees covered in snow... amazing! The sun doesn't really go up high, but when it is there it makes the ice sparkle like diamonds (thinking of Twilight...).
Today it was quite warm, only -8°C. I wondered whether it is warm enough for snow (it doesn't snow when it is too cold) and promptly, they sky turned cloudy and it smelled suspiciosly wet. Still I don't reckon I would notice new snow in the morning as all is white already.
I don't feel philosophic enough now to go on about the weather. One depressing thing, though: the sun goes up at 9.30 a.m. and starts going down at 3.30 p.m. It feels like the day is already over when it is dark. Hopefully, this will change as we proceed towards spring and when university starts.

Exploring...

music: mika- relax
mood: hungry

Päivä...
Today is monday and I want to tell you about my first weekend in Kuopio.
I didn't sleep too well during my first night and finally woke with my back aching terribly.
But as I was greeted by a beautiful sunrise above snowy trees, my spirits were instantly raised and I decided to go exploring.
At first, I went up the hill (I live in Neulamäki area, mäki is hill in Finnish) and soon found a supermarket where I got my missing ketchup and took some time comparing products and prices which I didn't want to bother Jenna with on friday evening in Prisma. When I was paying, the saleslady asked me something and I managed to say "En puhu Suomea" - I don't speak any Finnish, so she just smiled and shrugged. After getting my food home I went down the hill and came across a little square with yet another supermarket, apteeki, posti and R-kioski. I remembred that Jenna had told me to go there to get a finnish card for my mobile phone.So I tried my poor Finnish again on asking the girl working in the R-kioski whether she spoke English. She didn't understand that attempt, though, so I asked again in English which worked out o.k. Now I got my own Tele-Finnland- number!
Then I explored some more in direction of the university, found the important buildings, the ice-skating track on the lake between the university buildings and the way to the city center. I did some window-shopping and got me a mug with a cow and a butterfly on it. And skates for 40€! Totally happy now! Noticed that the toilets in shopping centers also have the weird shower thing...
By that time, I was thoroughly freezing. Mind: it was about -20°C and 4 kilometres from my home to city center. I considered taking a bus back but standing on a bus-stop is even worse than walking so I walked back home. It was only 3 p.m. but it already began to get dark and I got really tired and cold... I found out that the feeling of cold comes and goes in waves. After a while you don't feel cold anymore, the fingers rather burn. But it keeps coming and going...
Back home I ate and slept a little, then spend some time on the internet talking to my family and friends and watching TV. I talked to some guys from Czech Republic who live in my house, too and we decided to meet and do some more exploring. We walked around the area and talked a little, but it was really really cold in the evening so we didn't stay out too long. Unfortunately, we didn't find any kind of common room to sit together so far. Don't know if there is anything like this.
On sunday, we went to the city center together to meet two Spanish girls from the facebook group who live in another part of the town. It was pretty nice, we got coffee and did some more exploring around city center. They already knew some places and showed them to us. Eventually we had Turkish pizza and kebab at this great place where salad buffet and juice, tea and coffee is free if you order a pizza (which is huge, like 40 cm in diameter) for about 5 €. This time, we took the bus home. I definitely need to get a monthly bus ticket because one ride from my place to city center costs 3,80 € and there is no student discount on one-way-tickets. I sort of wanted to meet with Jenna that night but she didn't call so I don't know what's up now. But after that long weekend of exploring I was content to stay home and work on my blog ;-). Did some exploring on youtube, too, you have to check some of the videos out! Just search for Kuopio Erasmus!
Today, I wanted to do business, like register at the university and at student union, return my rental contract to the housing office, register at the police station and so on. When I came to the International Office, a sign said "no registration on 11.01.2010, see you at the orientation week!". Thanks to that, I couldn't do any of the other stuff I had planned as I didn't get my inscription papers. At least, I found the housing office and returned the contract. After some more exploring in city center, I found the famous Passion Club... hope to get in there soon to have some party time! I also went to the Tourist Information and found out where to rent skis. Sports, I'm coming! Thought about some ice skating, but the weather was not so nice (look at the upcoming weather blog) and after I got my survival package (finally!) with my very own pots, frying pan and other kitchen stuff and managed to carry it to the bus stop and then home (terribly heavy!) I was exhausted and hungry (I ate while writing this, now!) I didn't bother going out any more.
Looking forward to orientation tomorrow!

Traveling

music: red hot chili peppers- aeroplane
mood: feeling weird (too much computer, should stop soon!)

I booked a flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki and then to Kuopio and back because it is way cheaper than a one- way ticket. Thought about going with a letonian airline but don't trust them, also heard that Finnair is the most secure airline in the world. I really didn't want my family to accompany me to the airport because I hate crying good-bye scenes (had this before!) but my mom had switched shifts at work so she would be able to go. So we stuffed us together with my suitcase, which took up all the room in our trunk and my 11kg-hand-baggage-bag in the small Ford Fiesta and went for Frankfurt airport. I learned today that a purse is suggested to be part of a woman's body, that's why it's allowed to be taken along with the other hand-baggage. We were really concerned because weather report said that it would start snowing really hard this weekend throughout middle Europe, but luckily it started only saturday, having more than 150 flights from Frankfurt cancelled. Daddy joke: Finnish aeroplanes go with snow chains on their wings. I guess around here nobody would be scared by a little or a little more snow. At the airport, my stomach knotted (love the expression!) with excitment, but I made it through the good-bye scene without crying. I was a little late at the security check, though, which made me totally nervous. Learned that a laptop should always be on top of the bag because electronic devices have to go through the scanner alone. So I had to unpack my whole bag to reach it which made me even more nervous. Almost lost my watch while packing everything again. The plane had some hour of delay and I waited along with many Finnish people (mostly blonde and doing crossword puzzles). At the gate, I overheard I funny conversation of the employees there: "What- everybody is here, who are these people? They don't even have their boarding pass yet, they are lucky that we have delay!" - "What are they even thinking, arriving at the airport 10 minutes before takeoff? We're not in Rovaniemi here!"(Footnote: Rovaniemi has some kind of funpark and is supposed to be the place were Santa Claus lives) The plane was quite small with about 100 seats, I had two places for me (which really helped storing my big bag) right next to the wing so I could watch the de-icing and the movement of all kinds of flaps. I fell asleep almost at once but only for some quarter of an hour. When I woke there was a chicken sandwich lying next to me. I suppose they didn't bother to ask "Ham or cheese"... Stole the plastic fork and knife as I was quite sure there wouldn't be anything like this in my flat. At least, I woke in time for coffee. Somehow, the stewards tried to talk to me in Finnish which really didn't work out too well... There were a lot of clouds so I couldn't see too much but as we approached Helsinki, the sun began to sink and the whole land covered in snow began to glow red... awesome! My first impression of Finland from the air, which I veryfied later, is that there is a lot of room for 5 million people. The towns are really spread out, houses are far apart, there are always small parts of forest and lakes in between even what is supposed to be town area. Or rather the town is embedded in nature. Nice encounter: I could watch a dog running through the garden to greet its owner from above. Planes = big brother? It certainly felt like spying upon something intimate... Helsinki airport is nice, pretty much like every other airport. I went through the duty-free-shop and found out that Finlandia Wodka costs more than 20 € without tax. I think I will stick to Glögli to get drunk or have my parents send me some... Fazers Wodka Filled are 6.30 € but right now I am kind of mad at myself for not taking them because here I didn't find them anywhere so far. I guess I have to go to some alko store (was too proud to give in to my lower instincts like drinking to go there just yet) to look.
Things I saw at Helsinki airport:

1. Moomins store - watched them on TV when I was a child, guess they are pretty popular here
2. Reindeer skin
   
3. Asian people
4. Cosmopolitan in Finnish
5. Business lounge
6. Electronic devices store - Nokia is not the cheapest mobile phone you can get around here!
7. Some small kind of shower thing next to the toilet- wonder what that is for (we have it in our bathroom, too!)
   

I was pretty bored and tired and you couldn't even sit down next to my gate so I basically wandered around keeping me from buying 3€-coke or reindeer skin. The flight to Kuopio was mostly occupied by let's say "business people" who seemed to go home from work. There was free choice of seats which I had never encountered on a plane before. I came to sit by the window next to a Belgian guy (pretty old) who started talking to me only when we were landing but was quite eager to look out of the window past me. Couldn't see anything anyway, it was dark! The flight took about 35 minutes. Kuopio airport is maybe as big as a regular Hessian train station, not even as big as the main station in Frankfurt. One rolling field, we could walk across it to the building, one baggage claim, one taxi stand, one information counter and that's it. It was quite easy to make out my peer tutor Jenna who came to pick me up. She is pretty nice AND has a car! Again, lucky that my stuff wasn't lost like about twenty other suitcases on each flight. She gave me my keys and offered to lend me some sheets. I thought about borrowing some from the housing company but their office is only open on monday and I couldn't have possibly fitted any into my suitcase. We went to see my apartment, which has 4 rooms, two were locked, one was empty and one is mine. The furniture is ok, I have a little reading lamp and this awesome leather armchair which is the most comfortable I ever had and currently sitting in. My matress is really thin and it feels like sleeping on a piece of wood (guess that is true, under the matress is a board, no lath floor). Stole the trash can and an additional blanket from the vacant room. It has two matresses and a carpet so I think we are even now. My next assumption is that the locked rooms are occupied as the kitchen is pretty well- furnished with pots and decorations and everything. I also found a pair of running shoes in a wardrobe or storage-room or whatever it should be called. Nobody appeared so far so there is no certain proof of that. After snuffing through the flat Jenna and I went to her place to get sheets and meet her dog (really cute) and after that we went shopping to this huge super-mega-market Prisma where you can get just about everything. I wanted to buy skates but they were sold out in my size. It took me a while and a lot of Jenna's patience to finish my shopping. I'm quite a random shopper at home and without having anything, nor knowing where everything is, nor knowing about products or prices or any idea what I want it was rather difficult. Afterwards, Jenna got me home (cheers for that!) and left me with my lonely flat. I got to rummage through the internet, unpacking my stuff, cooking pasta with eggs (forgot ketchup, such a shame) and dropping dead into my uncomfortable bed quite at the same time. At least it felt like this as I couldn't really decide on any order to those things so I did it simultaneously. So much for traveling to Finland and my first night here.

Preparations

music: the kooks- naive
mood: contemplative

There is one thing to say about preparing an Erasmus semester: it sucks!
As it is EU, it is bureaucratic... nobody likes this. An estimated one million of papers sent back and forth internally, externally, bla.
What is more important is mental preparation. For the official preparations, you get help, checklists, reminder mails, information packages. University of Kuopio (after merging with Joensuu university, it is called University of Eastern Finland) does care about exchange students quite a lot, they tell you exactly what to do at which point, that is great!
But moving into a foreign country without knowing the language, the way of living, the weather (big subject, will get to this later!), or anybody there is a huge step and quite scary.
In summer, a friend of mine left for Erasmus in Granada and totally freaked out with excitment. I didn't quite understand her at that point. I was really relaxed like what bad can happen? Before Christmas I went crazy, too.
I'm at a point in my life where everything is changing. I'm almost finished studying, a lot of my friends will be gone to who knows where for work so even when I come back my life won't be the same again. The prospect of going to a foreign place and returning to a foreign place afterwards is hard. Saying good-bye to everyone while being in the middle of holiday preparation, not knowing yet about my tests from this semester, where I will be living (found out about this at the beginning of december), from which money I will be living (found out about this one day before leaving) and so on gave me the creaps!
I am a lot calmer now that I'm here, Skype is working ;-), I met some other people and most of the things are settled.
Suitcase packing is a bad thing, too... and it is true: never go out to minus 20°C without ski underwear! A guy I met here had his suitcase lost on the flight. My tutor told me that this happens quite a lot so I'm even more lucky!

Again: preparations suck! And stress makes my skin go random... spots, dry lips, ... I hate looking like some kind of cake!

Why Finland

People were asking me this question over the last year, practically since I applied in December 2008 (yes, it takes that long!)
As a matter of fact, I don't have a clue.
I wanted to go abroad for... ???? since ever. When I was in school I went to the US but I was too much of a coward to go for a whole year. I thought about doing au-pair but I don't really like to look after kids. Then there is the question of money... I don't have any.
So time passed and at some point during my studies I realized I was getting old ;-) and I asked myself: when if not now?
So I decided to apply to this amazing EU- program Erasmus (a little bit inspired by the movie "Auberge Espagnole") and pick an "Erasmus partner university" which wasn't as easy as I thought. I didn't want to study in French, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian or anything like that but not German, either (what's the use of going abroad if I have to speak German all the time?). English is what it should be! And again, I got into money-trouble. The Erasmus funds gives me about 120 € per month which is not very much to live on... I checked England and the costs of living there are waaaaay above my limit! So there was not that much left on the list.
In fact, Finland wasn't even on the list! I study Environmental Management which is in the same university department as agricultural sciences and nutritional sciences. My departmental Erasmus coordinator has this list and Kuopio only had a cross for nutritional sciences so I already had this possibility crossed out when I accidentally read that Environmental Sciences is indeed offered there! So I asked my coordinator and she said "No idea, but if they have it then go on and apply!" That's how I ended up here... some weird idea of five minutes.

Top 5 reasons for Finland:
1. Skandinavia is cool
(remind me to find out how Finland is Skandinavia but not a Skandinavian country, I think it has something to do with the Vikings!)
2. Metal music
3. Ice skating and Ice hockey
4. trip to Lapland and St. Petersburg
5. Aurora borealis

more reasons:
- blond, tall guys
- Wodka Finlandia (too expensive, though)
- Fazers wodka filled chocolates
- university language is English
- good education system
- more expensive than Germany but cheaper than UK
to be continued or revised

Welcome

Hi everybody!
This is my first blog from Kuopio! And ever... Hopefully I will manage to keep up with this!
Currently I'm sitting in my awesome leather chair, eating blueberry cookies, watching the snow on my windowsill and listening to Owl City- Fireflies (keeps my spirit warm!).
As I'm pretty bored right now (hopefully this state will change over the next couple of months!) I will try to recapitulate the last days and update you on my first weekend here.
Hei hei!