On and On!

I am sitting again by my PC for the whole morning. I wrote a couple more e-mails, answering flat-ads and talking to people. I even did now apply on student housing over an organization, which is called SIO (comparable to HOAS in Finland, but with more reasonable prices!).

Anyways, yesterday in the evening it was really nice. After sitting and talking the whole afternoon with a bunch of people in the lobby, they decided to cook in our room. They went to the shop to buy stuff and then started to prepare everything in the kitchen of our dorm. They made so much, that they also gave all the other people of the room and even people from the neighboring rooms something to eat.We were sitting, chatting and laughing the whole evening, were drinking rum and coke and just had a good time. After a while we went to sit outside, since some of the others wanted to sleep. So we were sitting in the yard, drinking and talking. I stayed until 12.30 in the night, when I got suddenly super tired and went to bed.This morning one of my room mates told me that they were still sitting out there until 3 o'clock, finishing with 3 people two bottles of rum. I reckon it was a good decision to go in that early, since today I have to find a flat and I wanted to finally go down to the city to see, where I am going to start working on Monday. Also today is better weather than yesterday, so it will be nice to walk outside.

Anyways, I will join the conversation again and soon make my way to the center!

~M~

The Search

This first day in Oslo went pretty smooth. I was basically just in the hostel - apart from two short rips to the next super market - talking to people and looking for flats on the internet.

It was really refreshing to talk to new people again and get to know their stories and stuff. It is just so nice in hostels, although I have to say, that this hostel is quiet impersonal because of its size.

Anyways, I didnt come any further with my flat search, I don't know where I am going to live in the next months. However, I now also considered students apartments again. I think actually, that this would be a cheap alternative, however, I dont know exactly if I am entitled to apply on such a room, since I am not studying in Oslo. In any case, I wrote an e-mail to the office and have now to wait until Monday to get a response. Until the I'll be going on searching on the normal housing market.

This evening we were sitting in our room cooking with some people. Since this hostel is so big there is no real common kitchen, every room has it's own cooking area, which is nice in a way. On the other hand it's harder to get to know more people.

Anyways, I will now go up there again to spend the evening with them.

~M~

Just Arrived!

I just arrived in Oslo, the city I am going to live for the next months! I am in the hostel now, talked to A. and will soon go up to my room, have a shower, listen to some music and go to sleep.

I am excited and sad!

~M~

Back from Sherwood Forest

Yesterday after the morning tour to the hotel I went back home, to have breakfast and to get my camera. As I mentioned before I bought a new camera and was pretty eager to finally use it.

So I took it to the hotel to be with A. a little more and to test it. I have to say, it is amazing and a lot of fun taking pictures. Here are some few impressions.

First picture taken with the camera.

Without zoom

With half zoom

With full zoom (God, I love it!)

I love the depth (she will kill me for putting this picture up) Btw. this picture was take with full zoom and flash from about 10m distance, the flash is super!

Just possible with a DSLR!

A. with her new Jopo-bike

After this two hour photo-tour through the hotel we went home. A. went to sleep three hours, since she didn't feel too good the whole day and she wanted to be fit for the evening. The reason, that she wanted to be fit was, that we had tickets for the Raseborg summer theater. This theater is an open air stage next to the Raseborg castle ruin, where I went earlier with the bike.

This year they were playing Robin Hood and had a really nice and creative stage for this play. The cast are all amateurs, who act just for fun. However, the play was really well staged and the songs were nice and extremely well sung. Since it was the first day with the new camera, I took some picture.

I have to say, that I am already super satisfied with the camera and when I get not more into the camera and have time to try different settings and stuff, then it will be a lot of fun taking pictures and even more fun looking at them.

No I have to stop writing, the laundry is ready, I have to hang it, that it dries until tomorrow. After that I have to start packing my clothes and things, since I am leaving Finland tomorrow evening! It's weird and exciting!

~M~

Early Morning!

This day started early for my; At 8:45 a.m. A. called me from work asking me to come. She did not feel good and felt close to fainting. So I went there to help a bit and mainly to ease her mind, to give her the feeling, that if something would happen I would be there. When she felt a bit better, I went back home.

Now I am going to have breakfast and then going to make my new camera ready for use. I can't wait to see the pictures this evening on the PC. I reckon they are going to be amazing! I guess I will show some of them tonight in a post! Now breakfast!

~M~

Oh Happy Day!

Today was a super nice day, with a lot of stuff to do and a lot of nice happenings.

It started off with pretty long sleeping, which was nice, since A. was all the time before getting up around 5 o'clock, for work. Anyways, we were then having morning coffee, talking and preparing sandwiches and snacks. We were about to go to Högsand, a for Finland pretty long and wide beach close to Ekenäs. We took A's small niece with us, since she really enjoys spending time with A.

When we were picking her up, she was already eagerly waiting for us with loads of stuff, like a frisbee, and inflatable boat and so on. She couldn't wait to leave.We spent a really nice couple of hours at the beach and enjoyed the weather and the sea. This beach is actually really nice, since you can walk far in, just having the water up to the ankle.

Then when we came back and were taking the post out of the post box the good news arrived. I ordered a couple of days ago a new camera. It's Canon EOS 1000D with a Tamron 18-200mm Lens. I was waiting for it already a couple of days and hoped, that it would arrive before I would leave Finland. In the postbox was just a notification, that I could pick up the package at the post office.It was weird though, since there were three of these notifications. A and I thought that the company might sent the Lens and the Camera and something else in separate boxes. Anyways, I made my way to the post office and A went to the shower, since we wanted to go later still to her brother's summer cottage.

When I came there I gave the women at the counter the papers and she was doing her stuff on the PC, putting in something and went to the back. When she came back, I was slightly shocked, since she was bringing two huge packages. The one I could not see what it was, but the other one was clearly a bike.

A. had been participating a couple of weeks ago in a competition of Fanta and she had gotten a notification, that she had been a week's winner and the price was a Jopo-bike. She had been waiting for it for ages and actually did not really expected it to come in the next time. Now it was there and when I came home, she was totally happy and kinda speechless.We both got things, we had been waiting for for a long time and now these things were finally there. It was like Christmas.

However, we didn't have enough time to enjoy it. We were heading to Öby, a village close by, where the family of her sister in law has their summer cottages. A. had been telling about this place a lot and I wanted to see it before I leave Finland. So we basically invited ourselves for a nice barbecue.

When we came home, we fixed the Jopo-bike, A. took a test-ride and then I quickly changed and we biked to the beach, where I took an evening swim.It was such an amazing day, that it makes me sad to know that I am soon leaving and we wont have any more of these days. I really like it here now, which is mainly because of A. and it will be hard to leave. But you have to move on in life, it just goes on and on!

~M~

Planning the Future!

I am right now sitting outside on the terrace, my feet are in the sun, the rest is in the shadow. I am sitting here without shirt, just shorts and writing this post. It's over 30°C and A. and I just came from the beach, where we had an afternoon swim, just to cool down a bit. A. is having a siesta now, since she got up this morning at 5 o'clock to go to work.

I was planning the next 5 months this morning. I booked flights for next Friday evening to Oslo, which I got amazingly cheap. Well, not cheap, but cheap regarding the fact, that tickets so close to the departure normally are extremely expensive. Anyways, I am now looking for flats and sent already yesterday a couple of messages to people offering rooms in shared apartments. Right now it does not look good and I guess I will stay the first days or weeks in a hostel or do couch surfing, as I wrote before.It's weird to know, that I will soon start to work again. Nothing is organized, yet, I don't know the city. It will be a pure adventure again, but I like it! I thought after my last internship, where I got my OK about 5 weeks before I was about to start, it could not get any tighter. This time, when I got the OK from the company I still had 4 weeks to plan everything, but since my university took 3 weeks to approve everything I have now 7 days to organize everything. I reckon the next internship - if there is one to come - will be organized in 3 days!Anyways, as The Cat Empire once sang: "I love things that seem impossible". So, I will not despair and will go on planning, I can't wait to start in Oslo!

~M~

Oslo here I come!

Finally, after more than three weeks of "nerve-war" my university finally approved my internship and I ask my self: "Was it really THAT hard?"

Anyways, I am going to Oslo. Basically next week. I will be starting in 8 days. When I got the confirmation from the company, that I could start the internship, I thought, that I would get everything sorted out with out stress. Now I have one week left to organize everything.

Anyways, I was so happy after the positive answer from my university today, was looking for apartments right away and went then with A. for an evening swim to Österby beach. After such a warm day the right thing to do.

Now I am going to fix myself and will cycle with A. to town. Not to watch the world cup final, but to meet up with M., the girl A. went to Australia with. She is soon going to NYC to do her internship, she is studying to become a fashion designer.

I am more than happy, that my life can go on as planned, even tho it means some stress to find a place to stay and flights and so on. In the worst case I will go couch surfing until I find a flat!

~M~

Sunday!

Today is a super summery Sunday! I dont exactly know what I am going to do! I am still waiting for my university to answer, but since it is weekend there is nothing to come.

DONE!

Today will be again a chilled day. However, I am lately getting fed up with doing nothing. I really need an occupation again. I also can't really go around with the bike anymore, since A's father took his bike with him on the two week trip with the boat. The only thing I have left is A's old bike, which weights like two tonnes and seems to use sand instead of oil for lubrication. No fun to ride, whatsoever.

Anyways, I just remembered, that we will meet up with M. a good friend of A. for a beer or three tonight. It will be good to see some people and to be out again. I reckon this is what I miss most here in Ekenäs, the crowds of people when you go somewhere. I am really a big city person and need to have people, wherever I go. I really miss that!

~M~

Angry!

Yesterday I did not write. I was with A. the whole day, since she was off work. Even tho I would have had to wait again for an answer of my university we went out to town and to the beach to enjoy the super summer weather.

I am lately so fed up with my university, that I dont see the point anymore to sit the whole day in front of my PC waiting for them to answer. They are anyways not answering on time, as my experience of the last few weeks showed. So I actually made the right decision, to not wait and to just go out. Until now I did not get an answer, yet, and since it is weekend I will not get an answer until Monday. I really hate my university right now, nobody feels responsible anymore, nobody wants to make a decision and my internship is supposed to start in 9 days. They just do not care about the urgency.

Now, that I did not get an answer before the weekend I lost again three more days to plan my trip to and my stay in Oslo. I reckon I will now, since the flights are already way to expensive, take the boat to Stockholm and from there the train to Oslo. Where I am going to stay, I don't know, I right now dont have the energy to write people for flats, since I dont want to put too much effort into it, if my university still might not approves the internship. These last three weeks or something were just sucking out all my energy. Thanks to Ms Dusel and Mr Thuy from the IUAS Bad Honnef. I am seriously so disappointed and angry.

Anyways, Now I am listening to the new album of The Cat Empire, which I already have for a couple of weeks. It's called Cinema, and I really like it. I am a huge fan of the band and I love the music. I was actually on their concert already once and was planning to go to another concert this fall, but again, I can not plan, since I dont know if I need flights from Oslo or from somewhere else.

Now I will fix myself and go to do something. I dont know exactly what, but I will find something to do. Maybe taking care of the washed clothes.

~M~

Life goes on!

Today was ok. In the morning I went with A. to the beach, where we met some of her friends. It was nice, even tho it was not that warm. The sun was behind thin clouds and so we could have been spending a long time there. Sadly tho, after 1 1/2 hours we left again, since A. had to go to work.

During the day I went to her, just to visit and stopped on the way at a kiosk to buy ice cream. I know how boring her job sometimes is and how good a nice ice cream can be during a hot day like this.

When I was back I mowed the lawn here around the house and went afterwards to A's brother's house to mow the lawn there. It was nice to have some exercise outside and to get some tan while working.

Now I am going to start cooking, since A. is soon coming home.

~M~

Totally Mad!

I did not write yesterday. I was not motivated. The answer I was supposed to get on Monday is still pending. Today is Wednesday, so you can understand how mad I am.

I can not understand, that my university is not seeing the urgency of this case. I am supposed to start the internship in 12 days and don't have a flat, no flight tickets and do not even know if I can start any way. I am so annoyed at this "elite" university. They are preaching us good customer service, but what we get is not what they tell us. If I would have liked to be treated like sh*t I could have gone to a normal state university. Since I didnt wanted to have that my parents and me decided to pay sh*t-loads of money per year for my education. And trust me, for that kind of money, nobody would liked to be treated like my university treats me right now.

Especially, since I am waiting all the time and have to check my e-mails at least every 15 minutes, since every hour earlier or later can make a difference, as mentioned before, I am unable to do anything. I am sitting the whole day by the laptop instead of lying at the beach. This is not like I imagined my summer. I am totally pissed and would really like to tell the stupid people from my university what I think of them, but I will wait until everything is sorted out and I have my final papers in hand, when I finish with university. If I would ever have the choice again, I would never ever go to this university again. The teaching is good, but the administration and the way "customers" are treated is crap.

Now I am going to wait - again - for an answer of my university and hope to get it soon. Because of the delay, the room I was interested in was given away, the flight tickets cost double the price and my contact person in the company is in her well-earned holiday. A big THANK YOU to my university! Maybe I will send them a bill for my extra expenses, because of the delay, I really should do that.

~M~

Important day!

Today my university will decide if they will approve my internship. I am a little bit tense and cant really concentrate on anything. I am checking my mails every couple of minutes. It's so close to the starting date of the internship, that an hour or two of sending important e-mails earlier or later can make a huge difference.

I really hope that the university decides in my favor and otherwise I have to start negotiating with my internship company again in order to change the contract, that it is more suitable for my studies. I mean, I told them already what the university criticized about the contract, but they did not show any reaction.

Anyways, I just put the laundry on and will go in a couple of hours to town to pick up A. from work, since we are going straight to the beach!

~M~

Awesome Day!

I didn't write yesterday. I was just too occupied enjoying life.

The day started with sleeping long and then having breakfast in the sun. After the breakfast A. and I had to do some garden work. Her father had cut the hedges around the house an hour before they left for two weeks and left us the job of picking up the cut branches. So we did that and since it was already so warm and nice, we were doing this in our swimming gear.

Then around noon we went to the beach close by. We were playing football and Frisbee in the shallow water, were swimming and sunbathing. It was sunny and warm with a smooth and nicely cooling wind. We stayed there for some time and then went back to the house to shower and fix ourselves.

We went then to town to watch the match between Argentina and Germany. The pub was in an old storage house at the harbor. It was pretty crowded and everybody, except of one man, was for Germany. It was really good and after a while I realized, that I was sitting next to a German guy, who was in Finland for his vacation. It was the first "public viewing" of this world cup for me and I really enjoyed being among people again.

After the game we quickly went home, prepared and ate dinner. The recipe of my mother for the zucchini lasagna worked out perfectly and was so tasty. We were then leaving to town with the bikes. We went first to M. & O's place to have a couple of drinks and watch the rest of the Spain game. When the game was over we made our way through town down to the harbor, where the only club of Ekenäs is.

We had a good night out there and met a lot of people. I realized how many of A's friends I already know and even recognize. It was really good to go out and dance again, I haven't done this for a long time.

Now we just woke up and will go to another, bigger beach close to Ekenäs soon. Therefore I am stopping my post here.

~M~

Nothing New

Basically nothing changed about my current situation. I am still in negotiations with my university, but now, at least, the principal is the person, who will decide. I am pretty happy about that, since during my last three years at the university the experience had shown, that he is a reasonable person, who understands the student's position and often decides in their favor.

Anyway, since I had so much "trouble" with the university I was basically spending the last two days in front of my PC communicating with my university. Sadly I could therefore not enjoy the good weather. Now on the weekend it will be even warmer and since nothing will happen during these days regarding my internship I will have more time for the beach and other nice things.

Now the game Uruguay vs. Ghana is on and I will go on watching it. The game is good and extremely emotional, it's fun to watch it, especially because I am for Uruguay and A. is for Ghana.

~M~

Disillusion

I didn't write yesterday. First of all, since I was nearly the whole day in Helsinki to do some shopping before the VAT-rise of today. Secondly because I had some administrative stuff to do in the evening and then totally forgot to write here.

So, first things first:
A. and I went yesterday to Helsinki to do, as mentioned, some shopping. But also we took A's aunt to Pasila. She had been here for over a week to celebrate Midsummer with us and was taking the train home. Further we had to get out of Ekenäs and to come to a big city again. Since we both feel more comfortable in big cities it was necessary to go there after nearly two months in this small town. It was good to be around people again. To walk through busy streets and to watch people walking by, while sitting on a bench in the sun on Esplanadi.

We were strolling around the city and walked into nearly every shop. It was on the one hand necessary, since one of my jeans broke during the trip with A's father's boat, and I needed a replacement. On the other hand it is just nice to see if you find nice and cheap clothes during the sales. We had lunch in Wrong Noodle Bar, one of my favorite places to eat in Helsinki and got a coffee in Robert's Coffee. It was just a good day in Helsinki.

When we came home I was checking my e-mails, where I hoped to find an approval of my internship placement. However it came how it had to come and my placement was not approved. The reason for the declination, however, was not really solid, so I wrote an e-mail back and hope to change it now. It's really disappointing, I was sending application over application - about 50 in number - and didnt get any placements. Now that I have one, my university is not approving it. I was also calling my father just to tell him and now, since he is the financier of my studies, he is also going to step in. Let's see how the university will react.

Anyways, I am now going to fix myself and start the day.

~M~

Summer day!

This was a super nice summer day here in Finland. Already in the morning when I got up it was warm and sunny. A. was off today and had a hairdresser appointment. When she was telling me that it would take 2-3 hours I decided to go on a cycling tour to a castle ruin about 20km from Ekenäs.So, I quickly looked up which roads to take, packed as a security a map - which stayed all the time packed - and of course some water, since it was so hot already. I left the house at 11 o'clock sharp and made my way through town, where I quickly filled up the tires of my bike and took the road southwards out of town.It was really nice, soon I was out of the town, the bike path ended and I was going over the narrow, but busy country road. When the traffic got less I was finally able to look around, before I so had to focus to go straight on the sideline, since the cars were passing so close.

I took the turn towards Snappertuna, where Raseborgs Slottsruiner, the castle ruin is. The road was even narrower, but not busy at all.However, after about 1km the paved road ended and I had to go over a gravel road. Normally this is no problem, but since I had the old bike of A's father, which could be called a "city bike", it was really hard and uncomfortable. The bike has super thin tires, which is nice on paved roads, but on gravel roads with huge stones and more potholes than road it's - literally - a pain in the a*s.Anyways, I made my way to the castle ruin without a stop. I was wandering around the ruin and was enjoying the sun. A. called me and told me that she was done at the hairdressers and was on her way to the beach.I, however, had no hurry going back. I was taking it slowly. Firstly because of the nice landscape and weather and secondly because I could already feel the 20km of the way there in my legs. For an untrained person, that I became during my studies, it is really a challenge to go with an old bike, which just has three hub gears, over a hilly country road.On the way back I also stopped to take some pictures, since I realized, that the pictures taken while biking were not the best.When I was back in Ekenäs I was so happy to finally drink something more. I had my water with me, but the 600ml were just not enough for a hot summer day like this one. I drank to hydrate myself and ate something.After this small lunch I went down to the beach to join A. The swim in the sea was so refreshing and totally needed, as I realized afterwards. I was thinking, how easy it actually is to go such a distance with the bike. I mean, I was wearing flip-flops, shorts and a normal T-shirt. Now special gear, had no high-tech bike and am untrained. 40km with the bike sounds somehow - for me at least - a lot. Today I realized, that it's not too hard. However, in the evening I was happy to get some more food. And it was extremely good food. We barbecued and A's mum made salad and other stuff and it was again just amazing.Now the summer is really here and I hope it will last. I will now go out again to enjoy the evening sun. The post is already way too long, so I will stop writing now.
~M~

A lot of too little sleep

It's incredible, I just got up after like 9 hours of good sleep and I am still super tired. I realized, that I was sleeping more and more during the last couple of weeks. However, I am still super tired every time I get up and this scares me.

When I am going to start my internship I will not have so much time to sleep at all. I will get up early and go to work. In the evening I might go out again and then wont go to sleep early neither. So I hope that I can get used again to little sleep, few months ago I was just sleeping 4-6 hours a night, now it's 9-12 hours. Something is wrong with me.

Anyways, I will now get the day started. A. is going to the hairdresser for two or three hours and I will see what I will do. So, let the day begin ...

~M~

Garden Work

Today was an exhausting, but productive day. Even tho we slept in the morning quite long, I then got up and directly after breakfast I somehow felt the need to be active. So, I started to mow the lawn. After that I was a bit sitting by the PC and the A. already had to go to work.

I went with her and was then staying 7 hours, which I didnt plan. The reason was, that I was asked by F. the husband of A's boss, if would like to earn a little money. Since I am "unemployed" right now and always need money I started cutting small trees and taking them to a disposal area.

It took me way longer than I expected, but I think I've done a good job. Now I am totally tired and have cuts and bruises everywhere. I am waiting for A. to come home to finally have dinner. Since I was working so long I didn't had lunch today and am super hungry.

It's good to be active again. I am happy now, I know that I have done something useful today and I even got answers to my e-mails for flats in Oslo. I hope I will find something suitable.

~M~

Football World Cup

Today I was watching the Germany vs. England game in the hotel. It was nice, it was ok, I had company, but somehow it wasn't the same like the last times.

Here in Finland people are of course interested in the world cup, but since the national team is not participating the euphoria is rather small. So I was watching basically all the games at home or in the hotel. I am happy about the German performance, but the party feeling after the games, like I had the last times, is not coming up.

Anyways, I will go on watching the games and hope for the German team to be successful.

Otherwise there is not much to say. I am here in Ekenäs, it's Sunday and rather quiet around. I will soon go to the hotel again to pick up A. from work. Maybe we will go for a beer after that again. We will see!

~M~

Nothing to do

Today was nothing really to do. Its midsummer right now, all the shops are closed, most people are out with their boats or in the summer cottages. A. had to work and I was sitting at home, surfing the internet and watching world cup. Right now the game Ghana vs. USA is on. The extra time is about to start.

The only thing we did was, that we went after A's shift to town to have a beer in the evening sun. It was really nice, but we drank the beer / cider quickly, since it got cold. Then we walked home and had dinner.

All in all a very lazy and eventless day!

~M~

Afrikan Tähti

Yesterday in the late afternoon, after A. had a nap, we decided to finally play Afrikan Tähti. We've been planning this for so long already. I've been asking over and over again, but we somehow never found the time.The game is a very traditional Finnish board game, so to say a cult-game, and I got to know it over the TV-series Madventures. When the guys of the show were traveling through Africa they all the time were talking about horseshoes and gem stones and were showing a weird map of Africa. Then one day, when I was working in the German School in Helsinki I saw exactly this weird map and was then doing some "research".

Ms Livingstone

So, we were playing then several rounds, but soon it got boring and we decided to change it into a drinking game. We made up rules and had a lot of fun.

The new rules

Since it sometimes takes a long time until the Afrikan Tähti is found (see description on Wikipedia), the first round of the drinking game took some time and we were already tipsy.

Me drinking the Elephant glass

Then we suddenly were hungry and decided to grill.However, we also agreed to play another round of the drinking-version of the game again after eating. That time again was a very long round and it took us very long to find the Afrikan Tähti.

The third robber

Anyways, we had a really nice evening and a lot of fun. Afrikan Tähti as a game already is fun, but the drinking-version was getting better with every round.~M~