Defense completed

We had the last challenge of the MITIM program yesterday and the day before. We had the public defense, where we needed to present our theses and answer to any questions that the committee had. The committee consisted of several professors from GSOM and from an other university from St.Petersburg, professors and the dean from LUT and two company representatives (Technopolis Lappeenranta and a small consulting company). As the defense was a public one, there was also some quests. 

My turn to defend my thesis was on Tuesday at three. I have never before been so nervous about presenting. But as I started my presentation, most of the nervousness changed to excitement and the presentation went really well. As the committee started to ask questions, my heart started to beat like hell again. Fortunately the questions were rather easy for me to answer and there were not many questions. I got really good feedback too. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my grade (although, we still need to wait until Monday when we'll get the final grades). 

It's done now, we're Masters :D

LUT MITIMs + few GSOM MITIMs after the defense. Picture by Liisa-Maija Sainio. 

Life is sweet

I guess I don't need to say anything here :)

Thesis, thesis..

I've been working with my thesis quite efficiently recently and it looks like I probably will be able to get most of the things ready by pre-defence. I guess I work best under a small pressure. :)

Lovely, soon I'll be able to focus truly on looking for a job. So far I've sent only one application to a highly interesting trainee program, but no news yet. I have several other positions though where I'll be applying too.. Fingers crossed then.. 

The time is now... 

And another seminar in St.Pete

Going once more to St.Pete on Wednesday and coming back on Friday. Last time I felt really comfortable in the city, it felt just like old home town... I hope this time there's less snow-salt slush on the streets. 

Yeah, Master's Thesis should be pretty much ready in the end of this month. I think I can make it if I don't get sick or anything like that.. Tomorrow I will discuss the methodology with my supervisor and I will get detailed feedback for the theory part. I fear (and hope at the same time) that she will tear it to pieces and tell me how bad it is. I know that there are several issues I need to sharpen up and rewrite, but I hope it's not so bad.. fingers crossed.

Life in Lappeenranta is sweet, I baked carrot cake yesterday for the first time in my life. And it is delicious! 

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...  

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.. 

24 hours in a day won't do it

To do by the end of this month (=Monday):

• Complete the 1A form (application for master's thesis topic).
• Fill the credit transfer application for completed studies abroad x 5 (for each course separately).
• Fill the stupid form for Kela stating them that yes, I'm back in Finland and begging for the social security benefits again.
• Fill the utterly annoying form for Kela stating them that I did start my studies in 2009 and therefore their information is outdated about my incomes that year + find & copy the certificates of incomes that year and the certification of starting the studies that autumn (otherwise I have to pay them back 575 euros)
• Apply for that one interesting position
• WRITE THEORY PART OF THE THESIS READY!!!!

piece of cake*... 

*I'm just hungry, not saying that this would be easy

Back in Finland

I left Belgium on Monday. "Surprisingly" my flight was delayed again.. There was only two delayed flights going from Brussels that evening, and the other  one was to Cairo (more obvious reasons). 


I got to Lappeenranta on Tuesday with a huge amount of my stuff.. I got quite nice flat from LOAS, it's just recently renovated. I actually think that nobody has used the oven before me.. It's the kind of luxury I enjoy after the recent shabby flats where I've stayed. And this place is only 5-10 minutes from the university by bicycle. 


There's also downside of being back, we have deadline for the thesis (theoretical framework mainly) on Friday and I haven't worked enough with it! I just haven't had the time.. Well, past few days I've tried to do my best so I think I'll have something worth of presenting at next weeks seminar. 


Oh, and other thing to do is to apply for the Russian visa for the master's thesis seminar in March and April. I'll focus on that on Saturday.  


I think I kind of like to be back, even though it's a bit shock. It's so quiet here and I keep wondering where all the people are hiding... I can walk through a grocery store without seeing anyone else except the lady at the cashier and one granny running after the discounts... 


Well, the fresh, delicious tap water, ruisleipä and great (100Mbps) internet connection compensates...


Home sweet home...

The sight you don't want to see - delayed flight... 

story of my past few weeks...

..so this is how you get your thesis done, right?

It´s summer and I´m spending it in an office (with a good air-conditioning)

...well maybe some day I´ll have a nice holiday somplace warm and sunny, drinking pina coladas from a coconut.

Before that I´ll finish my internship, study in Belgium, write my master´s thesis, graduate, find a good job and work there for a good while in order to earn a holiday. Oh boy.

Happily, I enjoy all of this. The feeling of leaving in few months, when everything is uncertain and you just picture things in your head.. Having a lot to study and to do but knowing that one day it will pay off.. I do enjoy planning and dreaming about future! But still, every morning when I pass by the coffee/spice factory on my way to work, I smell the fresh coffee often mixed with the cinnamon scent, I think how I should always remember this moment...

My side-project for the summer...

Whew, I passed the technology management test! I don´t know the grade yet, but the most important thing is that I don´t have to do that again. It was agony.
We had 60 minutes, 20 questions = 3 minutes per question. And the questions were not multiple-choise questions. For example we needed to vizualise Queens song "Show must go on" and draw a process map of text about palm oil processing. Whew! So, I threw my brains in to the corner, stopped thinking and started reacting. That´s what one can do with so little time. React.

Well, good news as well, I got 10 points (max.) for the CSR mid-term test. Jihaa! I´m really happy about that.

We should write a blog about our master´s thesis proposal. I think I´ll use this blog for that, because there´s not much sense to start another blog for that. So, what has happened so far? We needed to write an essay for the application about the possible future Master´s thesis topic. I decided to write about sustainable innovations, because I find sustainable development and the possible future opportunities realated to the issue very interesting. There´s example like LifeStraw, which is easy and cheap way to get drinkable water, just by drinking through the straw which filters the water.
So, at the moment I´m writing the plan with research questions, possible hypothesis, literature review, etc. I hope that I´ll get the plan ready for next week.

We´ll see :)