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!