Rakastan Suomea

Terve!

I am beginning to think I made a mistake by creating this blog - it is turning out to require some effort. But no worries, as everyones expectations (including mine) are so high, this entry also will be longer than two sentences.

To start with the most important news: My skates finally arrived!

nobody would steal my old skates, they just looks funny like this

Actually what I got in the first place was a sheet of paper on which it said I could pick up my package - that is what I guessed at least, because it was in Finnish and I did not really understand a thing. So I searched for the main post station in town where they told me I was always welcome to pay them a visit there - my package had to be picked up at a kiosk around the corner of my flat though.

After this unnecessary delay finally holding my skates in my hands felt a bit like christmas eve, but obviously that is nothing compared to the sensation of driving them. Despite the over all bad weather, they enabled me to easily take a couple of pictures in and around Turku.

either Finns are generally very small people or the dome is pretty immense...

Undoubtedly the most striking building is the dome. I am sure it is totally interesting in many other ways - not for me though.

Aurajoki yöllä

Right next to it flows the Aura, coming from the seaside, which also provides some fantastic view.

you can not actually see the sea because there is tons of islands in the way

For that I only had to take a few steps from my flat and surely was delighted from what I saw. You can find pretty much whatever kind of landscape your heart desires: flourishing swamplands...

imagine the number of warning signs and the height of the safety fence

a "road" through swampy ground like this would have in germany

... next to perfectly climbable mountains within a beautiful forest.

the camera is crap, but the view is great!

And then there is my flats building.

likely to be the most advantageous picture you can take of it

I live in the sixth floor and at first I thought I was going to die of acrophobia, but surprisingly it appears to be way less problematic than for example the third floor. Considering that I do not mind flying in several thousand meters height either, I guess it is due to the fact that I start to lose relation to anything on the ground already.

Also after having postponed it for almost ever, I finally dared to wash my clothes and it was just as adventurous as rumors had made me expect. Before using a washing machine you have to make an online reservation (of course you can not be sure everybody complies with those). Next thing you need to do is learn Finnish (sometimes there even is a swedish translation attached - nice!). That done you can follow the instructions to use one of the washing mashines.
Luckily there is always someone around who has already figured out how it works (usually by pushing all buttons randomly) or at least someone who is lost as you are, so it never gets boring.

Thanks to the help of the washing machines my Finnish is making good progress, I manage to cope with more and more complex structures - by that I mean I sometimes amazingly happen to understand and create full sentences that people would actually use, my skills are still far from being good.
Some days ago I finally met someone who did not speak english and had a fantastic conversation something like this with her: "Puhutko englantia?" - "Ei." - "Uuuuuuuhm".
That was all I could say to express my concern.
As I already caught myself thinking mostly in english by now, my next goal is to start thinking finnish. Actually it is already working partly (for certain things of daily use), so I am very confident that it will be only a matter of years.
The finnish course has yet to become interesting, but biomimetics has proofed to be great fun. The subject is highly thrilling and the professor is kind of mad: Apart from being always barefooted he likes to distract us by making handstands or fighting against the air with cardboard rolls whenever we are busy with a task, it is hilarious.

Moreover lately there was the Erasmus student network 25 years anniversary. International students from all over Finland were invited as well as some australian comedian, Pekka Haavisto (yes, he is famous) and a band. Looking at the place it could have become one hell of a party, it was enormous and the organization clearly was a professionals job.

behind the stairs you can find a huge stage

But then came the comedian. He mainly made fun of the Finns - which is a bit too easy if there are none in the audience - including even the joke about someone trying to commit suicide on the tracks but waiting for the train in vain. A gag almost older than industrialisation, how witty. Strangely nobody seemed to agree with me though, many people even laughed and applauded while only politeness kept me from booing.
He even missed to point out the actual joke of the evening: inviting students and charging 6€ (!) for 0.4l (!) Carlsberg(!).
With at least my mood ruined Pekka Haavisto said something more or less meaningless about the importance of exchange programmes for the european project.
Then the band entered the stage and turned out to be the best part of the programme.

oops, wrong concert

It played some unique sort of new metal with an interesting set of instruments...

making the crowd go wild with the flute

To make another evening full of opposite opinions complete, I was the only one cheering when the singer at some point said: "Whoopwhoop, that's the sound of da police" (indeed, simply because of this scene from an excellent movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qo3EwozH0Y).

Afterwards the party continued (or rather started) in Klubi, but it was not too spectacular and I have had more than enough self-reference for today.

Nähdään!