Ingredients for exciting 24 hours

1.) To leave Lappeenranta for a while (even though I've found some nice things there and now it's tolerable)

2.) To meet many really good friends after a long long time <3

3.) Take one of the dear friends to the ER due to the allergic reaction (she is ok now)

4.) Driving in the stormiest weather I've ever seen and surviving it (on my way there was many almost-accidents and 3 actual accidents that happened just a little bit before I got there...) 

5.) To leave things behind and moving on with my life...

6.) To tie shoelaces of a total stranger in the middle of Helsinki (it's nice to help out)

7.) Spending two valuable hours in a car from Helsinki to Turku with one of the most dearest friends and talking with her for the whole entire time without interruptions (except the almost-accidents on the road) 

8.) Realizing how these dear friends of yours see the same weird things in the same weird way you do and how they are as excited about them as you are (like a stain in a window shaped as if a pigeon would have crashed to it)

9.) Seeing your parents & dog after a long long time

panic

yeah, pre-defence is approaching. 


Time for official panic. 


Children and women with massive procrastination problems first!!!


o_O

One more night in St.Pete

Yay, my presentation is finally over. It was better than I expected. I get too nervous before presentations and can't sleep the previous night(s) properly.  Then I'm really tired and can't focus on the topic... 

It's true that there's still a lot of work to be done with the thesis but I'm pretty confident that I'll get it done in time. Before going back to Lappeenranta and to work, I'll spend one more night in St.Petersburg. 

Ah, nostalgia...  

Graduseminaariin

Keskiviikkona me LUTin MITIMit lähdetään Pietariin graduseminaaria varten. En voi uskoa että viime seminaarista on kulunut kohta jo kuukausi. Gradu on jokseenkin edistynyt muttei läheskään niin paljon kuin olisin toivonut. Ajatusten koossa pitäminen on toisinaan hyvin haasteellista... 

Tänäänkin harhauduin katselemaan omia Facebookiin lisäämiäni kuvia Pietarista (ne ainoat kuvat mitkä on jäljellä enää kun ulkoinen kovalevy meni rikki ennen varmuuskopiointia). Jännittää hiukan mennä takaisin Pietariin. Tietysti jännitän eniten sitä itse seminaaria mutta myös sitä onko muistikuvat kaupungista pysynyt samoina. Eihän siitä lopulta niin paljon aikaa ole kun asuin siellä. Toisaalta paljon on ehtinyt tapahtua... 

Olisinpa edes ehtinyt opiskella enemmän venäjän kieltä, nyt olisi taas hyvä mahdollisuus harjoitella. Ehkä sitten kuukauden päästä..

Alternatives to Writing Thesis...

Life is truly full of choices.  


You can either read the books you borrowed from the library and write your thesis. OR you can: 


- sleep too long
- clean the flat
- watch Californiacation season 3 
- find new inspiring music from Spotify (because writing without music is impossible)
- arrange your wardrobe
- go shopping
- take a nap twice a day
- cook & eat
- go running
- check the news pages every 20 minutes and Facebook every 30 minutes
- chat with friends in Facebook
- talk with your mom on the phone for almost an hour
- arrange a party with your darling MITIM friends :D (potluck today!!)
- have fun until the early hours of next day


Choices, choices.. 

my dear homeland

I have to apologize in advance, this post will be about politics...

It worry me that probably in the next Parliament election, a political party "true Finns", will gain a significant win and get several seats. The party is populist, nationalist, right-of-centre and very Euro-sceptical. They want to, for example, limit immigration to Finland heavily, reduct foreign aid and "politically smarten up the national identity" of Finnish people. 

I have to admit, I haven't read Kalevala, our national epic from cover to cover but I do know what it is about, the main characters, where it originates etc... That's what we were taught in school. But even if I had read the book or even if I would do it soon, I don't think that would make me more Finnish than I am. 

For me national identity is much more complicated issue than only those (important and beautiful) books, paintings and compositions that "True Finns" so eagerly push us more and more. Respectively, reading Dostojevski's Crime and Punishment two times or enjoying the paintings of Monet doesn't make me any less Finnish than I am.

Other big thing that bugs me about their politics is the intolerance and enmity towards foreigners in Finland. To me, prejudgment is a sign of really bad self-esteem and fear of new things. I don't think that our culture will vanish just because there are other nationalities living inside the same borders. It is really sad actually how badly those "True Finns" underestimate the national identity of us Finns... 

I wish that they wouldn't get seats in the next election, moreover that their leader wouldn't be selected as the next Prime Minister. I think that would be latest the point in my life when I take my Finnishness to some other country and enjoy it there. 

My Finland isn't intolerant and self-absorbed.