Intensive Week!

Wow, I just saw that it is only one week ago, that I posted the last time here. It felt so much longer! A. just went to the gym and so I've got some to write here.

Last week I had intensive week, which means, that we had the topic "Hospitality & Travel Trends" and heard many different presentations to this topic. It was quite interesting, as we had professors from the university, people from the tourism industry and also people from the hospitality industry. So we got a good outlook to the future, from many different points of view. However, the uni was pretty empty, as I was just one of the few people who had a course. All the other people were off.

I was nearly the whole week alone in my flat. My flat mates and many of the others living in the house took the opportunity to take some trips. S. and E. went first to Stockholm, came back for maybe 12 hours and then left to St. Petersburg. I was here and was spending some time with J. another Spanish guy, who had the same course as I had. We went to the sauna and were cooking together.

On Thursday we met up with some teachers and executives from Bad Honnef. This week the annual EuroCHRIE conference was held in Helsinki. As my home university is member of the EuroCHRIE they sent eight people over to participate. It was fun to talk to them, to give them some information and especially feedback about the Haaga-Helia University. The best part of the meeting, however, were the free drinks... Therefore here a big thank you to the very generous Mr. Thuy ;-)

On Friday A. came here to Hesa and we rented some movies, were cooking and had a lazy friday evening. On Saturday we went to Seurasaari, which is also known as Squirrel-Island. The island is full of small birds and especially squirrels. They are kinda tame and eat nuts or whatever you give them out of your hand. Really amazing as it can also happen that they are climing up your legs and crawl all over your body. It was really nice. The weather was not the best and it was cold. However the island was beatifully colored and it was a good and in a way relaxing autum day in Finland.
In the evening when we were home A. and I had totally a Christmas feeling. We were drinking tea and roasted the remaining peanuts, which were actually intended to feed the squirrels., with sugar. They tasted really good and were totally addictive, it was not the last time I made them.

Anyways, tomorrow I am still off, but on Tuesday the second period will start and uni will go on. Even tho it means work I am looking forward to the new subjects, as I hope to finally learn something new. Until now I did not really felt challenged here. Let's keep the fingers crossed!

~M~

Some spare time!

Finally I found some time to update my blog. My Exams are over, the theme assignment and also all the other assignments are done, now I have three days without anything. It is amazing how the time flies. The first period and this means one quarter of my stay is over already. Next week we have intensive week, which means we have just one course. I am one of the few students who had to take a course, the others will be off to Stockholm and St. Petersburg, I will stay in Helsinki and go to uni.

Last week we were six people living in our flat. E. and S. were asked some weeks ago by a teacher if they could host two German girls for one week. They were in Helsinki for a kind of cultural exchange, which mainly means sightseeing and visits to government agencies. What exactly they are doing I don't know. Also E's girlfriend was here and so we were a little cramped.
However, the day the Germans arrived, S. and I, we went to the airport to pick them up. When we came there, about half an hour before the scheduled arrival we were a little bit shocked. The flight was delayed by one hour. So we had to wait for nearly two hours at the airport, as it took quite a long time until they came out of the terminal. But it didn't matter to us, we took a walk around the airport and had a good time talking about everything and anything

Anyways, when we were finally home we ordered some pizza in to speed up the whole dinner. We had to do that, as we had asked a couple of people over for a small house party with the Germans. I didn't know how many people would come, because S. had organized everything. When the door bell rang and I went to open the door I was astonished how many people were outside wanting to come in. We were playing drinking games, talking and laughing a lot. A typical house party.

The next week was pretty full. We were going out with the Germans a lot, finishing all our assignments and learning for all the exams. Even tho the requirements here in Finland are really low it was a lot of work. But it's always the same, when you start learning like on the day before the exam. I hope everything worked out fine and I will receive good grades.

Now I am again in Turku at A's place. We didn't see each other for two weeks, which was pretty hard and made me really grumpy to everybody around me. I hope they are not mad at me now... Anyways A. and I, we went out to party with some of her friends on Friday, slept long on Saturday and were walking through town. I bought two beanies, a scarf and a pair of gloves. I forgot to bring all my winter stuff from Germany and it's getting colder each and every day here, so I really need these things now. It was snowing slightly the last days already and all the trees are losing their colorful leaves. For some reason I've got sometimes already winter and christmas feeling, which is pretty weird.

Anyways, I will go on doing nothing at all and make it a really lazy sunday... did not have this for ages!

~M~

Getting around

Exchange life is awesome! I have some stuff to do, but the requirements here are, as mentioned before, pretty low. I just got one assignment back which was a 4, the second highest grade in Finland. Now I can re-write the conclusion to receive a 5. Right now I am having a break, I just came from T's flat, where we were working on a presentation for Monday.

Since the last time a lot happened, like always!I finally received my bank-card and my Finnish social security number, which enables me to work now. I've been partying a lot, took two day trips and booked already new trips.

Last week I went out three days in a row and actually had so much energy. Wednesday Amarillo, Thursday Jenny Woo and Friday Onnela and later Opera. Amarillo was the usual Wednesday-night, which means free entrance and beer for 1,50€ for 0,4l, which is pretty cheap for Helsinki. We went out with Everest, one of our tutors. He is a really nice guy, but when we wanted to enter Amarillo the bouncer didn't let him in. He said, that he knows Everest and that he made trouble last time. The thing was, Everest had never been before to Amarillo and therefore it was obvious, that he couldn't enter because of the color of his skin. It was the first time that something like this happened to "me" and I was really speechless and didn't know what to do. Finally Everest was so annoyed, that he went home and told us to go in anyways. Although we went in the mood of the group was bad and so we called it a night after just one hour.

Jenny Woo on Thursday was also nice. There was a student party and so we went. Before that we were in Pasila in one of the dorms to get going. It was the first time for me in this club and I liked it. Around the dancefloor they have instead of seats and tables beds and heavy trays. You can lie there and relax. Although it was really good, we just spend few time there, because we left Pasila pretty late and as always during the week the last bus is leaving at 1.35. On the other hand it is good, because you come home early and get at least some sleep before uni.

On Friday I went with the guys from Kannelmäki first to Onnela and then just with M. to Opera. The thing was that we payed a hell of money just for the entrance to Onnela and for the cloak room. Then came the next two shocks, it was empty, there was nobody dancing and the drinks were incredible expensive. So after one hour we decided to leave and go somewhere else. P. and C. two italian guys decided to go to the KY Club, but M. and me, we didn't wanted to spend again 6€ for the entrance. We just split up and dicided to spend the money on beer instead. So we went to Opera, where the entrance was free and bought each six beers for six euros... what else do I have to say?! ... It was awesome :-D

The next morning, even tho we all were hangovered, we got up and went with the bus to Porvoo, about 50km north-east of Helsinki. We were lucky, because the sun came out in exactly the moment when we arrived. We were walking around the small summer city and took (for real) a thousand photos. Ok, we were 5 people, but still it was pretty paparazzi style. Porvoo does not offer many attractions, it is the city itself which is the attraction. It has beautiful small houses situated at a nice river. I cant really write a lot about it because we did not do so much, we were basically just enjoying ourselves. Therefore here some pictures.

Yesterday A. and I went to Tallinn (Photos), because I was off. We got the tickets for free from A's parents. Ekerö-Line always has offers, that you get tickets when you buy for a certain amount in their shop on one of the ships and so did A's parents. We got up early in the morning and took the boat at 8 a.m. to Estonia. It took us about 3 hours and so we were there around noon. We walked first around the old city and bought roasted almonds. I knew them already from Germany, but these were made with a lot of spices and herbs. Really tasty and totally addictive! Tallinn is beautiful, but after 5 hours you have seen everything. Also the weather was not the best, we were tired and so we sat down in a small cozy café and had coffee and pie. On the way back we slept a little bit and used the opportunity to buy some cheap alcohol. I brought a 24 pack of beer and 1l of Jägermeister, the best German product brought to the world!!!

It was really essential that we brought alcohol, because we needed it for the evening. There was, guess what, a student party in Onnela. It was the first student party, where we officially were asked to wear our haalari, the student's coveralls. Even tho it was quite empty we had loads of fun and were dancing a lot. But as always we had to leave the club at 1.15 at the latest to catch the bus. However, because everybody who is taking the bus just came from a party or club and it is still early and everybody still got energy the atmosphere in the bus is always good. We are always singing and talking and have a lot of fun.

Anyways, I wrote a lot, just briefly in the end. I booked two more trips. I will go to Stockholm with ESN Helga, the international part of the students union and for new years I will be at home in Germany. From there A. and me will go to Paris for 3 days and will come back from there to Helsinki. Also I am planning right now trips to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Lapland. I have a lot to do, so I will finish now! Kiitos mielenkiinnostanne!

~M~