Productive Morning

Nice, this was a really productive morning. I got up early, did my laundry, dried and folded the clothes. I was working for uni, cleaning my room, bringing down the bin and made my bed.

Now I am taking a break, listening to music and being shortly on the internet to write this post. My parents are coming today to Helsinki and I hope they bring better weather. After the couple of days in Ekenäs they are now coming to visit ME! Even tho they are not staying at my place I hope to see them and guess I will spend a lot of time with them.

Therefore I will go on later with the cleaning of the kitchen, corridor and bathroom. I will also bring some more order to my room. We anyways have had to clean and now we finally have a real reason ;-) Also, since we all are moving out soon it is good to start, otherwise it would be too much in the end.

I will also start later on, since I now have all my clothes here and clean to start packing. I have to pack all stuff I need in my backpack and hope I will not exceed 20kg. The rest will be packed into my suitcase and into several other bags, boxes and my laundry basket. I have to have that done until the 11th or 12th, since my parents are then leaving and going to take the stuff back home to Germany with the car.

It's a weird feeling, that I have to think about what I need for the rest of the time here already. It seems like yesterday since I came here, now it is soon over and I have to move on. But somehow it feels nice and especially exciting, since I dont have a clue (yet) where I will go and end up with my internship.

Anyways, I love changes, I love to move on, I love to experience something new!

~M~

Spring is here!

Spring is now definitely here (in Turku at least). A and I were just sitting outside on a bench enjoying the sun. Before that we had a walk along the river down to the castle and the harbor. The grass is green, the trees are sprouting and its nice and warm in the sun. The wind coming from the sea is still pretty fresh, but if you find a calm corner you start sweating right away!

I am now sitting here on the couch, was folding my washed clothes and will maybe start packing soon. I am leaving Turku again this evening, since I have to be in uni tomorrow morning 8 o'clock. The last workshop of the Business Planning course will then give us the possibility to finalize our business plan. It is weird to know that this is, among others, one of the last reports I am going to hand in here in Finland and if you see it like this also one of the last of my studies. After these reports there will be just my internship report, one or two reports in my last semester and then my Diploma thesis. Crazy, three years of studies are nearly over! Where did the time go?!

~M~

Loads to do

This was a long day in uni. I was there from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. The last course I had brought bad news. It was the first and only meeting with this lecturer and now we have a huge project to do, which is even more annoying, since we are already halfway-through with the period. But it's always the same with this guy; I had one course with him before and he put all instructions for the assignments online like three weeks before the end and also just after us going to the department head. Anyways, it's like this, I have to take the course, since it's mandatory from my uni and can't do anything about it.

I am now in the 4th phase of sending applications for my internship. New destination is Mauritius, which A. and I chose randomly from the world map. I hope that it will work this time and that I don't get anymore rejections, since it is pretty depressing in a way. I reckon this issue about the internship is occupying my sub-consciousness all the time and makes me feel weird and unbalanced.

Anyways, I will go to the shop now and hope I get some bread, which I can put into the freezer. The food producers will strike in the next days and it is predicted that there will be no bread and other stuff available. After the shop I will relax a bit and later go to the sauna to relax even more. I hope this helps me to take everything a little bit easier!

~M~

Group meetings and stuff!

I am back from my second group meeting today! I got up this morning quite early, since I was so unmotivated to work on the weekend and still had to finish my part of the group assignment.

So after writing some short texts for the assignment, which took me actually way shorter than I thought I had breakfast and was looking for some new internship places, since I got again a rejection. This was the last hotel in Stockholm I was applying to and now I will look in another place, since I gave up on this city.

I went to the first group meeting, which was quickly over, came home, had lunch and was reading for the second group meeting. Again, I was supposed to do it on the weekend, but I didn't. So I was rushing through the material and then went to the meeting. We started it today and finished it today! Now I just have to learn my part of the presentation, but this normally is the smallest problem.

I will have dinner now and put my feet up, I reckon. I've done enough today and regarding the fact that I will be in uni tomorrow from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. I think I should do it. Personal well-being is still the most important thing!

~M~

Day off

This was refreshing. I just woke up from my afternoon siesta. After the nice lunch that A. and I cooked I really needed that. We ate pasta and meatball-tomato-sauce! Super nice!

I didn't had uni today, which was nice. I slept long and had lazy breakfast and a slow start into the day. It was anyways raining outside and so there was no need to hurry to get out. A. went give back some kind of scarf, which she got for her 2-day-work on the IT trade fair and met up at the same time with her colleague. After that she was talking all the time about her and I think she really like to talk to a girl again.

I went to the gym and was doing my training. It was a good detox after the Sea Battle and I really needed to get some exercise again. As I wrote before, I have to get in shape again for the summer and round in not the desired one.

After my workout I wanted to meet with A. to have lunch in the uni restaurant in Pasila, but of course they close at 2.30 p.m. on Fridays. Therefore we went home and made the lunch ourselves. Now I am going to drink coffee and eat a piece of cake, the leftovers of S's birthday yesterday.

Btw.
Happy Birthday, Felix! I hope this year brings a lot of new and a lot of good things to you and hopefully some changes in everyday life and routines! I will call later and maybe we can talk!

~M~

Easter

I am back from Ekenäs. I spend there the first half of Easter with A's family. We were just staying so short, since A's parents went this morning to Canada, to visit their relatives.

It is amazing, one year ago I was the first time here in Finland and saw A. the first time after Tenerife. As I said in earlier posts, it is incredible, how time flies. I am already one year in the family and about 8 months here in Finland for studying. I have the same feeling like every New Years Eve, when you realize, that the year is over and you start all over again.

The Easter holidays we spent eating and seeing friends and family. It was good to be out of Helsinki for a while again. To just relax and not to think about anything. Now, since I am back, uni work starts again and I will do now some research for the next essay, which I have to hand in next week. Even tho tomorrow is a public holiday, we are going to meet up with the group to work on the project. Gladly this is in the afternoon. However, I will get up early and will call some more hotels to finally get an internship placement. The hotels I called so far didnt had anything available, as I wrote before.

But life goes on, I will not give up, tomorrow the sun will be shining again... for sure!

~M~

Frustration

It's really frustrating! I am not getting anywhere with my internship. Today I was calling again to several hotels, but they didn't wanted me, in fact, they didn't wanted any interns this year or summer.

It is getting really tight now, since I wanted to start my internship at best in the beginning of June. Right now there is still some time left for visas, but the longer it takes, the more certain it becomes, that I have to stay in Europe, since I dont need visas and work permits here.

Anyways, I will not give up, I will find something, everything will be fine! It's always like that!

~M~

Uni is back!

Wow, it's still light and it's already 7 pm. Yes I know, there was the time change, but still it feels like spring just came up like a jack-in-the-box. It was nice weather and 6°C warm, for the weekend the forecast says about 10°C.

Anyways, I am back in uni now. I just had my second day of the last period here, which means, that I am going to be done here in 55 days, as one of my colleagues just told me. It's amazing how time goes by. So the two days in uni were fine, but I am totally exhausted already.. or.. well, I would say I am still exhausted from the weekend. The courses were ok, the teachers also, even tho I know that this last period will be a lot of work and not so relaxing like the other one. I already got so used to getting up round 9 a.m., having breakfast and at some point going to uni. Now I have to get up round 7 a.m. all the time and that's just cruel!!!

Tonight I will go to the sauna again to be fresh for tomorrow's morning lesson. Otherwise there is nothing to tell... well, I brought some order to my room, since it was necessary. Not so interesting, I reckon...

~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~

Sunday!

This is a real Sunday somehow. I was sleeping long again, got up and had breakfast. I was watching an episode of a series online and was reading the news. Then I brought some order into my stuff in my room, was bringing out the bin and stumbled through the web.

I did some research for a blog entry I am writing right now and was starting it. I was amazed how much work it actually is to write about a specific topic. Especially in this case I have to filter out the most important information, since the post shouldn't be too long. After that I was talking nearly 2 hours with my father over Skype. We had some issues to solve and I hope we did well. It was a really refreshing talk and I really enjoyed it.

Now I just had some bread for lunch and started to write here. It's still disgusting outside and so I reckon I will stay in today again. S. just asked me if I could cut his hair later on. Let's see how this will end up... well worst case would be him with no hair at all or with a cut throat... could be worse...

Anyways, I will relax even more now and then maybe read and write a bit more. Let's see what comes up next...

~M~

Keeping Track

This is day 2 of being off! Now that it is weekend I cant do anything about my internships and so I was sleeping long this morning. Got up round 12.30 and since then I am more or less doing nothing.

I was reading the news paper online and was searching for stuff on the internet. Since the weather here is still disgusting, that's basically the only thing you can do. Also regarding my current money situation there is nothing I could do about it. I mean, of course I am well off, but since I know that next weekend is going to be pretty expensive I am right now saving a bit. Further there is always a difference between money you have and money you wanna spend.

I started now to track my expenses, since all the small expenses, like coffee and one beer more in the bar, add up and let you spend quite much per month. Yesterday, for example, I was invited by J. to her place to have dinner with some guys. After that the others wanted to go out, but I did not really feel like it. I finally agreed to join them, since they anyways just wanted to go to a bar where there is normally no entrance fee. I think you know where it is going now. Yes, you are right; When we arrived there was some kind of concert going on and the entrance fee would have been 9€. So we reconsidered and went somewhere else.

I actually planed for the evening to go to the bar and maybe drink one beer or even nothing. However, since it was Friday evening, every place had an entrance fee. The others then finally decided to go into one club, but I didn't go with them. So instead of paying 5€ for the entrance of a club, where I didn't wanted to go, I left home. Even tho I did not go with them the whole evening, I had a great time. I think it is the small amounts of money you don't spend, that make the big difference. Especially here in Finland, where the living costs are anyways over the top it is important to be aware of you money situation.

~M~

Get crackin!

Seriously, I have to get outta here! I dont wanna write the exam tomorrow! I just came back from my first exam, which was pretty easy and should have been good. Still I am annoyed somehow at this uni.

Yesterday, while learning I got so fed up and watched this video again:

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

It's from Vimeo and was created by a guy, who was walking over 4000 km in China for over one year. I feel really stuck right now and need to travel again. The winter here in Finland is taking way too long now and always after few days of warmer temperatures it's snowing again and it gets cold! I would really need summer or at least spring now. It's even worse to read then the blog entries or Facebook statuses of people, who are traveling right now all over South America and Asia. This really gets me sometimes. But I know, that soon I will be somewhere else and that makes me happy. It is anyways just one year more in uni and then I'm free to do whatever I like to do... so I just have to hang in there!

I also have to get crackin now with my internship. All my applications I've sent so far were rejected and it seems pretty hard right now to find something, because of the economical situation. I hope it will work out soon. The problem right now is also, that I was/am so occupied with my uni stuff that I do not really find the time to apply somewhere. Anyways, I already planned to work on that the first three days of the Intensive Week.

At least I have something to look forward to right now. Next week I will be going to Vaasa, to a huge students happening with loads of people and loads of party. And next months there will be the Sea Battle, a booze-cruise... and hopefully higher temperatures! I just keep that in mind and it will get me through my learning now!

~M~

I need a break!

I am learning already half the day, therefore I need a break now! Well, half the day, because it started off with me doing the laundry and putting the laundry into the dryer/drying room. Then I was learning a bit, was drinking coffee and talked to E.

Then I went with E. to Pasila to have lunch and while we were there also S. joined us. After lunch we went to Lidl to buy some stuff, went home and I was taking a break. I talked to A. and checked out Facebook a bit. Then I started learning and now I just needed a break from that stuff. I am glad that I just have two days of exams. But of course exactly on tomorrow, on the day before the more important exam, there is a huge student party in Circus and I can't go. It's always like that.

Anyways, from Friday on I am off uni for 10 days or something. I hope these days don't fly like the last three weeks did. I really need the world to slow down a bit. It's too hectic and fast and gets therefore annoying. As I said today to E.: I hate time! I mean I hate to be stuck in schedules. I hate me hurrying and sometimes even running to catch the train, even tho I know the next train is leaving 10 minutes later. I hate not doing sports, because the really tight opening hours of the gym are not fitting into my timetable. I hate eating because it's 2 o'clock (and lunch is just available until 2.30) instead of eating because I am hungry. I just want to get my watch of my wrist, switch off my cellphone (since it has a clock) and simply enjoy the day like it comes. Having this in the summer was so awesome!

~M~