Daily life

Exactly a year ago my days consisted of sleeping late, choosing a movie to watch, watching it and repeating that a few times. It seems like it was forever ago, but it has been a year. However, it is hard to believe that it has already been a year. My life has changed so much since that time. There's so much more in it now.

My days now consist of waking up not-so-early but not-very-late, walking or riding a bike to school (3 kilometers), a full day of lectures, sometimes a bit less, taking the trip back home, eating, studying and going to sleep. Of course there are short periods when I watch television or do the laundry or wash the dishes or do sports something else obligatory in order to keep my apartment in order and my mind from exploding. I really do not even have time to do sports. Not an excuse this time, believe me or not.

I am not complaining, though. Yeah I have damned much work to do, far more than I anticipated. Still, this time it feels like I have a purpose in this. I am not just trying to pass time like I felt in Helsinki, I am here for a goal of getting my degree and going to work. Besides, everything that I am studying now is challenging enough but not too hard, which is what motivates me to actually do everything. 

As I am a person who always has to gather some extra activities when I already have a lot on my plate, I have been dealing with two camps and two piano playing gigs + practising alongside this all. The last gig, the final must-do-thing will be soon so I will be free to hmm, I don't know, RELAX for a while. Or take up a new extra-curricular activity to keep me busy until Christmas vacation. 

I have noticed something else, too. I am not so critical of myself anymore. I do not have the attitude towards studies that I have to be the best, I have to do my best. I do not have to try to impress anyone, if something is meant to happen, it will. I do not have to go out if everyone else does, I can decide for myself based on what I really want. Maybe I am growing up.

 

Twenty-something category

Feels weird to have my age start with number 2 instead of 1. This is totally new to me. As a tribute to my life experience so far I decided to write a list of 20 things I have learned during these past three weeks since it is kind of another milestone. Three weeks of university studies feel to have gone incredibly fast.

This list is a perfect description of what we've been doing here.

1. Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves! Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!

2. Yesterday's information and communication technology lesson's greatest teaching: the babies and the cats died, the bunny didn't.

3. Subject complemets, object complements, locative complements. Too many of them.

4. I finally learned the grammatical explanation for when accent marks are used in Spanish. The explanation I knew so far was "just because this word has it". Maybe it wasn't just part of high school syllabus.

5. My imagination can be very disturbingly creative under pressure of time limits. Say hi to the inventor of surgical equipment for elves and the Rat Woman.

6. The sight of a full fridge at home is like heaven. I have an entire fridge to myself, so you can imagine how much of its content is filled with food and how much with only the light. 

7.  Taking a selfie with random people without them knowing they're in it until they realize it themselves is a good way to start a conversation.

8. As an English student, some things just simply cannot be expressed in Finnish anymore.

9. History is not as boring as I've always thought.

10. Nothing is more annoying than realizing you have a flat tire in your bike.

11. The campus is filled with attractive guys. Especially the sports building.

12. You may never know how unexpected acquaintances you meet on campus.

13. You'd never have expected a course to start by group discussion on "where can you find computers?" Seriously, come on. We're adults. This is ridiculous.

14. First you have a backpack in primary school, then you refuse to use one in junior high and high school 'cause bags are cool but university makes you see the brilliance of a backpack. I wouldn't survive without one. Mine's super cute, as well.

15. You can go speed friending here. Isn't that awesome? Speed dating minus the goal of dating, that's creative, indeed.

16. We drink wine with our teachers wearing superhero / Hogwarts costumes. How cool is that?

17. I will be spending 6 to 12 months somewhere far. Madrid is my top choice at the moment and probably will continue to be.

18. Being messed up alone is kind of sad, being messed up together only strengthens the friendship.

19. I do not always have to be the one volunteering for everything. These people are so similar that someone is bound to volunteer themselves even before I start considering whether I should or not.

20. I will be damned sophisticated in five years!


 

Information flood has killed my inspiration for titles.

Well, I've lived here in Jyväskylä for a bit over a week now and I've been way too busy to write. I literally haven't had enough hours in a day to do it. So now that it is all starting to calm down, I can write down some thoughts.

Leaving Helsinki was really weird. I didn't quite realize I left for good until a while ago that I started connecting this place to my "home". However, I am happy with the change since this city feels more warm (literally as well since it's been almost +20 these past days) and friendly.

I was so nervous about the first day. Soon I noticed how nice my classmates seemed and I felt so relieved that I had been afraid of stupid things. Now that we've been closely together for a week I can say I have got to know many of them much better and we even have a WhatsApp-group which means I've made friends! I found people who are similar to me so we enjoy spending time with each other.

Last week I basically left at 9am and returned at 9pm and I was entirely exhausted so a weekend of camp activities couldn't have come at a better time. Besides, I got leftover food so I'm covered for this week!

The courses started yesterday with an interesting aspect since my first lesson was in Spanish, next one in English and the last one in Finnish. I received the right to study Spanish as a minor subject, yippee! I had to take a test and almost half of us didn't get it. But well, now that I got it, my year will be spent learning about grammar, language study, academic writing, the history of the English-speaking world, Spanish and pedagogical themes. Seems like I'll be a lot wiser next spring!

Some highlights: we talk in English with each other even with Finnish teachers, which I like a lot! History-teacher is a really sweet Hungarian lady, who managed to keep my interest level up the entire two-hour lecture. I drew a horse and had to write "a horse" next to it to clarify what it is and laughed so much with my new friend. I have cursed the "Brooklyn Bridge" of Kuokkala a hundred times already but I still love my neighborhood with the lake view and the trees.

Now that I've managed to do some laundry as well and have clean clothes to go on with, I will finish this and relax for a while before another exciting day full of learning about the university life and the English-speaking world today, since that is the course I'll be attending tomorrow.

Confusing and not at all organized and structured as I'll be required to write in class. To be continued.

One more night

Sort of freaking out in a good way right now. I just want to fall asleep so I could wake up, get my stuff and get out. My new life and future career awaits!

Tomorrow's moving day!

Soon

Here I am, sitting in my apartment where there's a small clear space in the middle and everything else is packed up in boxes and bags. Somehow it still feels amazingly unreal that I really am leaving this part of my life behind and turning a page to a whole different era. The sky is flashing with lightnings and thunder, if I didn't knew it was a storm it'd be pretty close to the effect of the huge Olympic stadium concert of Finland's biggest rap artist the other night. I saw him, by the way, at the official afterparty in a nightclub where we actually shouldn't and couldn't have been but well, life happens.

I didn't think it would make me so happy to start packing but it did. Piece by piece, item by item I've got closer to closing the door behind me to an empty room and saying goodbye to Helsinki for now. Maybe even forever. Looking at the course descriptions and the pictures of my new apartment, I get more and more excited about starting the university.

Turning the page also means I have to start from the beginning once again, get to know new people, form bonds that again, hopefully last for a lifetime, create a life that I am happy with. So many possibilities that I can choose from, since this time I know it is my thing for real.

I went to my old school yesterday to get my friend, and the weirdest thing about it was to notice that even though I was gone, nothing had changed. I felt different about it, I was different since I was no longer a part of it and everything had just kept moving like nothing happened. I belong somewhere else now.

What's going on?

I've been having a summer break from writing as well, apparently. It's stupid 'cause I should be relaxing but somehow I've been really busy all the time. Funny, isn't it? When you have time to take it easy, you definitely will not have time to take it easy.

Well, since my last post I've managed to do quite a lot. I got an apartment from my new hometown and I am so excited about moving and the beginning of university. However, I've been making a list of things to do while I am still in the capital.  I've been to a summer theater, enjoyed family time with my whole family, done a little shopping, started running again and tried to get a tan. Just a few days ago we started to gather the berries, which takes forever... I've practised playing the piano since I will go and play at a wedding in October, which I am really excited about as well. I'll play all kinds of cool songs, including the themes of Game of thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean and Twilight. And the couple is practically family since the groom is my someday-to-be brother-in-law's brother, right? I just had to write that sentence, I just had to. On top of that I've dealt with all kinds of paperwork which is the most annoying thing ever. I don't like it, I have to admit. Could someone else just sort out all the applications and forms for me?

I thought I wouldn't go to school before September but well, it turns out that my time will come on Tuesday. Not as a student, though, but as a teacher. I got a job for next week to substitute the 5th grade teacher since he's on a paternity leave so the kids will have me instead. I take on the challenge with excitement and a little bit of fear.

Two weeks left here at home in the perfect summer paradise that I have loved since my childhood, then it's time to go and pack up my life and start it all over again. 

 

Days 7 & 8 - Exhilaration & exhaustion

Not having time to write about yesterday definitely indicates that we all had a busy day. We woke up way too soon, in the middle of the wildest dreams and managed to get into our bus (registration plate appropriately VIP) that took us to our destination, the monastery of Lintula. Such a beautiful place! 

On the way back we announced roles for the wedding that would take place that evening. Everybody got one and we had everything from Finnish trash celebrities to the leader of our eastern neighbor. The wedding itself was a lot of fun, though nobody really listened in the sense of learning since they were concentrating on each others goofy appearances.

I am glad we had so much fun activities that day since I had some personal struggles. Not getting a job I really wanted and having to deal with some people who operates on the very opposite wavelength than me caused me unnecessary trouble and turned my mood down a bit. The bright side is that I pulled through everything thanks to the great support of my team and dear friends. I also learned about myself and my ability to do the appropriate thing when all I wanna do is hit someone. I barely ever have situations where I am simply so frustrated and annoyed that I can't take it anymore and now afterwards it is very interesting to wonder my own reactions.

I would have wanted to sleep the little time I had left after the final night's crying and singing but well, the girls just had to try to run just when I was falling asleep. The result was only four hours of sleep, dozens of mosquito bites and an exhausted, easily irritated leader. 

Today has been mostly about cleaning up the camp center and trying to wrap up the camp time in a good way. I have struggled through tiredness and responsibilities and I cannot even tell how relieved I am. When the bus left, I got tears in my eyes just because it was over, I did it, we did it, I could finally let the stress go and rest.