Maailman loppu... ja sitten joulu

judging by the colour of the sky I must have taken this photo between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

It has been forever since I found the time and the mood to write, because of several exams, some foodborne illness (those always hit me hard, you probably know my exuberant eating habits) and a general lack of motivation (perhaps the phenomenally monotone weather is taking its tribune?). Possibly it was merely due to my muse missing, but maybe I was also waiting for the world to end according to the maya calendar, so that writing would have become superfluous.
But of course neither the world nor their calendar ended (why would a calendar end after just a few thousand years? And even if it did, that would not have to be an apocalyptic prediction, and even if it was: What do they know? And even if they knew, why should I care?) and as you can see I finally feel like writing again...
All the doom that came upon me was having to watch some trashy (no, that is not an unfair prejudice) apocalyptic movies with a friend. Those really were great, showing with most ridiculous plots what is certainly never going to happen - what a useful kind of massage.

yawn, my dreams are more visually stunning

Next event to have a great effect on everyone but me was Christmas.
My initial plan to experience a traditional finnish one did not work out well - eventually I celebrated with a russian friend. Actually our party did not have anything much to do with Christmas:
First of all russian orthodoxies are supposed to celebrate it in January, but since both of us are no more (rather less) than submarine christians we did not care. Secondly none of us could agree much with the way society wants it to be celebrated - what is christan about the common christmas traditions? And what is the point of these traditions anyway, especially if you are not even very christian?
So we did some cooking with a couple of other unbelievers from China and Greece, watched movies (no christmas movies, I was more lucky this time), had discussions, drinks and everything a perfectly nice and pleasant evening requires - no christmas tree, no presents, no expectations, no social pressure.

joulukuusi - Christmas six

Speaking of which: I was a bit proud when several days after Christmas still no presents had arrived for me. Maybe my statements on the pointlessness of gifts without the element of surprise and my mocking about Christmas' alleged ideals have had some effect? To be honest however I was not exactly disappointed when they arrived in the end, especially after I had opened them to find fine german sweets and candies and finest german beer (good choice, you know what I like).
According to that my logic, it is no surprise that at the moment of picking them up (Luckily some friendly Finns helped me out a bit, I must have given a funny sight being completely overloaded) I was already more delighted about the package my former neighbours and friends had sent me than about the one from my family - so the coercion to make presents also invites to hurt their feelings, what an overall nice idea it is.

Moreover we were blessed with the gift of a white Christmas here.
Actually winter had arrived earlier and the isolation of this flat has proven to be just as poor as expected, mostly in the kitchen with its huge window and door to the balcony.

luckily no such icicles in the kitchen

I even had to turn my heater on almost five out of six (I should stress that I am not exaggerating or making this up) - before I did not even know heaters could possibly go any higher than two. But no worries, thanks to the EU I make up for that easily by saving absolutely insane amounts of energy with annoying efficient light bulbs!

even I started wearing a jacket... occasionally

In case you are in a bit of a playful state of mind this weather can create really amusing conditions: If you are going downwards with wind in your back on an icy road you feel very much like flying, even more when alcohol is already giving you wings anyway.
In Germany however nobody would be. Instead this kind of weather would cause immense chaos, but here it is perfectly normal and no reason to be upset.

Furthermore I personally was blessed with a Christmas market. Usually I can not stand them, but this one was lousy enough to cheer me up.
Funnily these sympathetically poor copies of the german originals (I am really surprised, almost shocked, how far some german traditions and even words have spread) are considered to be very finnish. But see yourself:

 This is it...

...all of it.

I think many people here are very proud of it, so do not get me wrong: I like it, too... there is glögi. And an ice rink! And nothing more worth to be mentioned.
So let me just continue with New Year's Eve. I celebrated it with my former flatmate, whose semester has ended by now (tempus fugit) and who therefor left in early January. For midnight I decided to climb on a hill nearby, which is the highest point of the area, to have a nice view over almost all of town - and immediately on arrival my choice was proven to be correct by the presence of around 42 (maybe more) locals. The weather was most disgusting (the constant rain and sharp wind at a couple of degrees created a seriously unpleasent cold and slippery mix of snow, ice and mud on the ground - in contrast to the legendary well balancing Finns however I did not fall once!), but seeing a hundred thousand people celebrating around and below you was as great as expected. Unfortunately I coud not take any pictures, I was busy watching and they would have become bad anyway.
Afterwards we continued getting drunk a bit (same procedure as every year).

Enough for now, the next entry will come sooner than the last one (yes, even sooner). And it will contain less brackets (plenty of text in those this time for some reason)...