Vappu - Vol. II

So, now I am back from uni and thought I could quickly finish my blog entry and put more pictures into my first post today!

So, the next day, first of May, my parents arrived with the ferry in Naantali, a small town about 20km from Turku. They went, while we all were sleeping to the hotel, got their room right away and went to sleep again. We, in A's flat, slept longer and got up round 10, had breakfast and fixed ourselves for the picnic. I called my parents and we agreed that we would pick them up on the way to the park.

In the park we found a really nice spot, with a lot of sun and nearly now wind. Since it was sunny, but still fresh/cold this was pretty important. We were walking around the park later on and realized how lucky we were with our spot.

Anyways, soon after we arrived A's friends and a lot of other people were joining us on the lawn, we opened the sparkling wine bottles and got the food out. We were enjoying the sun, eating, drinking, talking and laughing. After like two hours my parents left and then it was just us young people ;-) We intended to stay until like 3 o'clock, but since the weather and the company was so nice we totally forgot the time.


When it got cloudy and cold around 6 o'clock we decided to pack our stuff and go home. However, on the way we got thirsty and needed a break, so we went to one of the boats to have one more drink before really going home. We sat there for nearly one hour, but also this got cold after a while, so we went on.

The group split up. A., S., E. and I went to A's flat, since the guys had to go home to Helsinki the same night. The rest of the group went to another flat. When we arrived at the flat the guys quickly packed their stuff and ate something. Then A. and I brought them to the train station and went back to the flat to have something to eat.

We actually had planned to go out that evening, but since we were so tired and since we were sitting after the dinner so long talking about everything and anything we decided to stay in, especially because the next day we had to be fresh, since it was my mums birthday!

It was really a nice time in Turku, Vappu was great. Thanks to all the people, who were partying with us and letting us into their flats without knowing us!

~M~

Vappu!

I am back in Helsinki! I came back yesterday from Turku, where I spent the Vappu Weekend with A. and her friends. Also my flatmates, S. & E. were there, which was super nice!

I came now just quickly in the one hour break home from uni, since it is better to be half an hour at home, eat a second breakfast and have some tea or coffee than sitting for that one hour in uni not knowing what to do.

Vappu was, as I said, really nice. I went already on Thursday evening to Turku, the guys came on Friday noon. We picked them up from the train station and were happy to finally be able to take off our jackets, since it was so warm. We then went back to A's place, were sitting there, drinking Mjöd/Sima and eating some pastry, of which I knew the name just two seconds ago, but forgot it now... wait... wait for it... ah ja... no... yes wait, they are called Munkar.Anyways, we were sitting with K. and E., two of A's friends, who joined us, on the balcony and the guys were still sewing batches onto their Halare. Then in the afternoon we went to a park, where the Finnish people were holding a ritual, where all people who did their A-levels are putting on their white hats at the same time. Then there is a choir singing and people holding speeches. During these speeches all the other people are drinking sparkling wine and so did we.

From the park we went top a middle party a N's place, we ordered and ate pizza. From there we went to another middle party and from there to a club.

Now I have to stop writing since I have to go back to uni. But I will continue and put pictures later on, when I am back!

~M~

Vappu starts NOW!

I am in Turku at A's place. She is preparing the pie for tomorrow and I am sitting on the sofa recovering from last night.

Yesterday in the afternoon S., E., G. and I went to Suomenlinna, since the weather was nice. Furthermore there was the coverall-baptism of Haaga-Helia held. The students were going around the island and doing fun-tasks and games. We just went there to meet some people and watch the games, but not participate. In the end all the students said an oath, where they basically said, that they will wear their Halare with pride and will honor it appropriately.

On the way back we met students we knew and went with them to a middle party. It was just in an apartment in Kamppi and the party was basically just hanging around, talking to new people, going to the toilet and killing the time until the club would open. In between we went to eat pizza and buy drinks. When we came to the club I was actually lucky, since I didnt had a ticket, but one girl I met on the middle party, quickly called a friend who had a free ticket for me. We went in, the party was already on and we had a lot of fun on the dance floor. But as always, I had to leave early to catch the last bus.

This morning I woke up with a terrible headache and it took me some time to start my day. But after some buns, a lot of water, juice, a coffee and a shower I was ready to go. I talked to my parents, who are right now in Stockholm and to my brother, who is home alone. Then I packed my stuff and now I am in Turku.

On the way from the train station to A's flat we stopped at a pizza parlor to get me hangover food. It was so good and I really enjoyed the beer with it. It's always good to go on with what you have started and just follow through!

~M~

Half a step further

This morning, after I got up, I found a mail in my inbox. Yesterday I was applying among others to Jakarta. The HR Director answered and gave me a "maybe" as a response on my application. I applied on an internship in the marketing & sales department. However, due to the confidentiality of these departments it's not possible for me to get in there. However, she asked me if I would be interested in other internship placements. Now I am waiting for a response to my second mail. It's not exactly what I wanted, but it is a good feeling, that they consider taking me. Especially, because my contact from Tenerife told me, that it is much harder to get an internship in Asia, due to the regulations and restrictions.

Anyways, I will now fix myself and go to Pasila. We have another group meeting and have to get some work done. I will take my Halare with me, since we wanted to go this afternoon to Suomenlinna to a students event. It's called the coverall baptism. There are going to be games and competitions and in the end all contestants will jump into the sea to baptize their Halare. Regarding the temperatures I wont do that, since my coverall is anyways already baptized with a lot of beer and other alcoholic beverages from the last student events!

I guess it will be fun anyways and I hope the weather will stay that nice. I will go out there soon and enjoy the sun. I have ten minutes to go, so read you later!

~M~

See you in three days!

I am about to leave to the Sea Battle. I will be back on Tuesday afternoon. It will be so awesome! My things are packed, the train to the terminal leaves in 15 minutes so I just wanted to post this quickly!

Anyways, next post on Tuesday, hope to "see" you there!

~M~

Feeling weird!

This was somehow a weird day! It passed and I have the feeling I didn't do anything, even tho I was occupied all the time. I think this feeling comes from doing stuff, but not achieving anything! I was searching on the internet for a solution of one problem all morning and early afternoon. But I didnt find anything and could not make up a solution.

I mean, I was out this morning with A. for a walk in the beautiful sunshine and we were talking about a lot of things, but maybe this was subliminally occupying my mind all day, I dont know. Anyways, it was good to be out, but I didnt feel like walking, so I stayed in, when A. asked me again to go out. I did the laundry instead, since I need my clothes the next three days for the Sea Battle.

After I had "brunch" at 2 p.m. I started to sew again on my Halare. Now after a couple of hours my pointer is hurting again, but I have just two batches left. It was really a pain in the ass to sew the letters of my name on. Its just so difficult and tiring. Anyways, they are on, they look good, I am happy about it.

I just folded all the clean clothes and put them into the closet and finally feel a bit better. It now feels like I have done something. It was anyways a weird day, since I was more or less all the time "alone" and additionally we got the message, that one of A's friends was heavily injured in an accident yesterday evening. So really weird stuff happening today!

However, A is going to cook now and I hope the food will make me happy... well, I am pretty sure about it! I will pack my stuff for tomorrow and sew the last batches on. I am so looking forward to it and I guess it will be fun.

~M~

Good Friday!

The week is over. It's Friday late afternoon and I feel good. I didn't have uni today, so I slept long, had a nice breakfast with A. and was then just chillin around. Round 1 p.m. I went to Pasila to the gym to train. Last time I went I didnt had power at all and felt sick after the training, as I wrote in a previous post. This time however was better. The gym was nearly empty, just three people and me and I had a good day, so I was able to go through all sets of the training.

After being in the gym I had so much energy and was so happy. I went home and prepared lunch for A. and me. We first wanted to eat in Pasila, but somehow we reconsidered and decided to stay home, since it was already 3 p.m.

Round 4.30 p.m. I walked A. to the train, since she had to go to Pasila, where she got her hair cut. One exchange student from Taiwan offers there to cut hair for only 10€, which is, regarding the ridiculous prices for a hair cut here in Finland, extremely cheap. The normal price here is between 20€ and 30€, which is for a student, who lives on an anyways tight budget, a lot of money.

While she was away I was sewing again on my Halare. Since the last time I was doing it I got a lot of new stuff, which I want to put on before I leave to the Sea Battle. I dont know if I will need it there, since it's basically an ERASMUS event and I am one of the few exchange students who has a Halare. Anyways, I will finish it, then I dont have to do it before Vappu, the 30th of April/1st of May.
Now I just took a quick break to write this post, since my right pointer is anyways hurting, but will go on sewing later. It has been a quite active and happy day. Maybe it's because the sun came through the clouds every now and then. I really need some sun again!

~M~

Pampasnationaldag 2010!

I am back from Vaasa and therefore basically also back to life! I was the last couple of days there with some guys to attend the Pampasnationaldag 2010. This students event takes place every year in spring and is a meeting of the Swedish speaking students in Finland.

S. and I left Helsinki already on Wednesday and went to Abo, since we wanted to take the much cheaper bus, which was organized by the local students union, up to Vaasa.So the party slightly started already on the train for us and went on in A's, flat, which we could use for the night. (Thanks for that, again!). Anyways, the next morning at 12 we went to the church of Abo, where we met up with K. & T., two friends of A., with whom we were sharing the room in Omena Hotelli. The bus ride, about five hours, we spent mainly drinking and S. was still putting batches onto his Halare, since he hadn't finished it, yet.

When we arrived A., who came from Helsinki, where she had had a job briefing earlier that morning, was already there and welcomed us warmly. J. another friend of A. from Ekenäs was staying down the corridor and so, since we were all united he just joined us for our first drink together in Vaasa.After ten minutes, when the second round started we realized that it would be better to write the number code for the hotel doors onto our arms, because we would, if we would keep the drinking tempo up like that, be totally wasted when coming back.

And actually this is also what happened. We went to Olliver's Inn. This music bar is one of the main places to be during these days. We met a lot of people we knew, also because there are not so many Swedish speaking Finns and the people going to the parties are basically always the same. Anyways, we met other friends of A., K. and T. and got to know new people.Again my opinion, that the Swedish speaking guys are so much more open than the "real" Finns, was proved. They were really appreciating, that S. and I were there to party with them, even tho we are "just" exchange students.The live music was good and the drinks surprisingly cheap, so we stayed quite long there.

The next morning started with morning shots, just to keep the alcohol level up and also to fight the upcoming hangover. We started slowly with the pre-party and wanted to round 1 o'clock to the olympic games, a fun competition for the students. The finals were said to be starting round 2 o'clock and we didn't wanted to miss them. However, at 12.30 one of our friends called to ask, if we would join them going to a middle party, since the games were already over. We were totally disappointed, that we missed them and were curing our tears with some more shots and other alcoholic beverages.

We were then just strolling around the city and the market place, like many other students. The sun came out and we were enjoying the good weather and the carefree living. We went to the shop and got some more supplies and also some food for before and after the party. We then went back to the room to have a small middle party with a couple of drinks, some food and writing onto each others Halares.Then suddenly K. had the idea to show us Salad Fingers a really really creepy animated video. Parts of the monologue from the movie then later became the running gags or punch lines, however you wanna call it, of the evening. The guys from the neighboring rooms, who came to join our middle party were so shocked and left totally scared off shortly after the film ended. You could tell, they were thinking we were weird.

Later that evening we went to Fontana, thii place to be on Pampasnationaldag in Vaasa. We were getting our batches for the Halare and then went dancing (and of course drinking). The club was pretty nice and super crowded. But now wonder, since The Capital Beat and Redrama were performing that evening. These two bands are pretty famous up here and I have to say, thats for a reason. They were really good and pumping up the mood. We were dancing and shouting and had a great time. When S. and I were dancing to The Capital Beat up on a platform the lead-singer was throwing us their latest album, S. caught it and now it's playing all the time in my PC and iPod.Also Redrama was awesome. I was walking around the club and realized suddenly that they were already on. I just ran to the crowd and through the crowd and was suddenly standing in the first row, rockin like hell...

Saturday we started the day again with morning shots and then fixed ourselves for the Sillis, a salty breakfast, which was held a couple of minutes with the bus outside of Vaasa. We got food and crisps as much as we could eat and a band was playing.We met they guys we got to know the evening before and were just enjoying beer and cider. That was basically it. Ah ja, when we went out, we met THIS nice guy and didn't feel that weird anymore for showing that very guy Salad Fingers the night before :-D

In the bus there was another guy standing in the aisle singing. We somehow started talking to him. When we got off the bus we walked a bit and had so much fun. Suddenly I stopped, since I saw one advertisement, which was so matching this moment.We just took this one picture with him and lost him then in front of Olli's. But this five-minute-random-meeting with a stranger was so funny and refreshing, I loved it! These are the real memories you take from trips like this I think.

As I said, after this Sillis, we wanted to go to Olli's, but when talking to people in the queue, we realized it wasn't worth waiting; They were standing there already for nearly three hours and had moved about two meters. So we reconsidered and decided to have again a middle party in the hotel room. Again some people from the other rooms joined and drank with us some alcoholic beverages. After about two hours in the room, round 5 O'clock, we all got hungry and went to Hesburger to get something to eat. (and now T., since you cant remember anything from this point, read carefully ;-) ) We were sitting there, having fun! Then we finally went to Olli's and actually got in. The night went on and we had shit loads of fun. Dancing, laughing, drinking. There is nothing more to say!

Then Sunday we packed our stuff and went back to Abo with the bus. We went on drinking in the bus... well some of us did and even found a juice, which tasted like sunshine dust ;-)

Anyways... it was a great time, the longer it lasted the better it got. However, now at least my liver is happy that it is over. I am back in uni and the new period starts. It was an awesome, if not to say one of the best weekends in my life and for sure the best in my exchange year here in Finland! Seriously guys, thank you for the company, it was awesome! I didn't had one minute or even a second, where I would have sighed and said "now we have a low point"! It was pure fun, the whole time! Even while sleeping, when some were talking and some got scared by the person lying next to her!

IT WAS JUST GREAT !!!

~M~

Sunny day

It's crazy. Yesterday evening it started snowing and this morning when I got up there were 8cm more out there. Seriously it could finally stop snowing and get spring!!! Now the weather is really nice, its sunny and plus degrees, which means, all the snow is melting again and everywhere are huge puddles of dirty water and slush.

Anyways, I just came back from Pasila, where I had lunch with E. & S. After that I went to Lidl to buy some stuff for the next days, until I leave on Wednesday to Turku and from there on Thursday to Vaasa. I know I am writing again about it, but it's just because I am so looking forward to it. It's the first time to really wear my Halare. S. also just bought the last batches , he still was missing and hopefully is going on to sew.

Tonight we are going to Malmi, since F. one of our tutors invited us for dinner. Maybe this will give me some distraction from the stuff occupying my brain right now. I still don't have an internship placement and dont know where to apply. I mean, the problem right now is not, that there is too few, but too many possibilities. I just cant make a decision. But time runs out and I need to do something. But where should the motivation come from, when you have nothing to do ;)

~M~

Winter Holidays

It has been a long time again, since I wrote. The point now is not, that I am too occupied, the problem is that I am not occupied enough. Not enough happened to write about and somehow also there is a lack of motivation right now.

Anyways, some things happened since my last post.

I was on the Shrove Tuesday/Fastlaskiainen, which is a traditional student happening on the Tuesday before fasting period. Students come together in a park with a hill, which is pretty difficult here in Helsinki, because there are nearly no long or steep hills, and slide down the hill on self build sledges. It is great fun and there were the funniest sledges; the students were going down in a sauna, a pirate ship, on a sausage, a beer bottle, a dinner table and other things. This was all part of some kind of competition of the best sledge and the best sliding performance. Anyways, after that it was everybody's turn to go down the hill in and on whatever. There were students with plastic bobs, normal sledges and I even saw a pan and a wok going downhill pretty fast ;-)
Later that evening S. and I went to the ESN Quiz Night in Nolla, a bar here in Helsinki and nearly won a free cruise to Stockholm. The only thing, which was blocking our way to success was, that the others had more points than our team... but we nearly won ;-)

The rest of the week we spent having dinner at our place with other exchange students or at other exchange student places. On Thursday we went up five floors, where we were invited to a Greek dinner buffet party. One of the students, M., had prepared with the help of her visiting parents a humongous buffet with all specialties from "Hellas". We were eating feta cheese, drinking Ouzo and dancing Syrtaki. It was good to be around new people.

On Friday was my birthday and I got old!!!

Ok, well, I guess you wanna know what I did. Well, I was sleeping long, having pancake breakfast, made by A. and then went to the shops to buy stuff for the evening. Then A. and I were making Quarkbällchen and in the evening some people came over to my place and I was cooking dinner for them. It was a nice and quiet birthday, no fuzz about my person, exactly how I like it. I was with a few people, who really meant their good wishes and not with shit-loads people, who are just there, because there's an open bar! Here once again a big thank you to everybody who came.

Now I have winter holidays. I am off for one week and I am sitting around in A's flat in Turku. The weather is nice, even tho it was snowing a lot on the weekend. (These pictures show one hour of clouds, otherwise, there is just sun... nothing else!!!) I was using the time to finally put some of the batches onto my Halare, my Finnish student "uniform". Now I just have two left and actually it's great fun to sit down concentrate and sew.

Furthermore, my Swedish class is going on, I am learning a lot and can't wait until I really can talk in this language. I am pretty eager to finally participate in conversations of A's family and friends. I think it would be great to at least understand and speak some words in this, for me foreign, language, as this is my way to show respect before the people and the country I am in.

~M~