Thursday 29 April 2010

Master's degree at Jyväskylä

Today brought a good end to an otherwise rough around the edges month. Nothing was going right... well still nothing about my right of residence, nor anything on the jobs front.... but today I got my email confirmation to the acceptance to study my masters in Renewable Energy at Jyväskylä. So I'm super excited, I have a feeling May will be a good month.

Of course, now we have to move from Tampere to Jväskylä, not so much a challenge for me but Eero will have to alter his job too, hope that all goes as planned to!

Thursday was also Wok Wok day, as tomorrow is Vappua! Well I am very excitable now and I can't wait for the weekend's celebrations to begin, even if it rains like it's been forecast! hopefully it doesn't rain too much and i will take some photos =)

It all seems weird to know come August 4th 2010, I will once more become a student... After 15 months of work and 9 of being a housewife, I come full circle and once more become a student. At least there are a lot of language courses with the University of Jyväskyä so i can definitely become fluent in Finnish with 2 years now and leave with a more desirable employment degree. Now I have to start the decision of my thesis; nuclear or renewable energy?

Indeed, it will be a good weekend now as there is much to celebrate!

Sunday 25 April 2010

Project Kesä

Well, if I am honest I haven't done much since the last post. It's been cloudy outside and cool so I opted to stay in doors, read and facebook. I have discovered facebook is a dangerous tool and leads to me spending too much time playing pointless games to pass time... really I should be learning Finnish or reading my environment books and keeping up to date with the science and waste world. Alas I haven't been but much like most of the group I'm not motivated to do anything.

I am still waiting to hear if I get my Right of Residency (applied End of Feb), I do however, hope that when they do reply it's that I don't have to continue to leave every 3 months. It does get very depressing at times and demotivating to put so much effort into trying to learn a new language, prepare for a new masters degree (potentially), look for work and adapt to a new way of living to have to leave every 3 months. Nothing like feeling like you don't belong. Still on the whole I am a happy "outsider"! I suppose some days were going to be like this! I keep happy by knowing one day I will get residency and citizenship and this will all be a distant memory.

My routine is boring me at the moment, cleaning, read, cook, shop. Though I am old enough to realise work is the only thing missing from the grown up world here, I do miss the company of being at work, the purpose and point of having something to do and of course the money! But English is not an official language and I knew that before I came here... I knew I would have to be house wife. I also know I normally land on my feet, somehow I always get lucky... Part of me of course doesn't want to work, it will be more fun now summer is coming to be "free" and look around and take photos of things, get back into nature and learning the Finnish for the nature!

So, as Eero will happily tell you I can't buy a piece of furniture and leave it the way it was brought... it needs to be customized. I like these little projects (i know i did art and graphic design for some reason then). So my last project is the balcony furniture we have 2 wicker/can chairs and a table... they were light wood coloured. Then they got sanded and I am almost done painting them black... (photos when they are done). We are struggling to find any new cushions and I am now getting very tempted to make some myself.

I ordered 4 new Finnish books over the last 2 weeks... so I have something for everything now; grammer, speaking, conversation helping, and some basic ones that build from the basics.... and I have the flash card game Eero brought me a few Christmases ago. So that's all now, kill or cure I have all the material I need to learn this language. Now I need to remember and practise and life will be good!

Life all seems happier ever after writing this blog, funny how writing things down, even moaning things helps.

Here is the photo of our new latern in the day and in twlight time.

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Wok Wok and what not!

Last Friday (9.4.2010) Irina asked me to go to Wok Wok and met some new friends. So off we went in Tampere though I was late as I missed the 23 bus into city but better late than never. I have never really been into city too much (avoid spending money that's not free to waste) so i found Wok Wok's website then put the address on google streetview (its a god send!!). So we went and had lunch where I met Lauren, Donna (both learning Finnish like us!) and Nina. We all had a nice lunch and a gossip and went for a shop in the city.

Saturday was Irina's birthday party to so another eventful day, we went around there apartment for food and then into city to Soho (a bar) so the boy's could watch football and drink beer lol. i was happy as I got to drive home. Driving is still quite strange here as I'm used to driving on the left but driving on the right is slowly making more sense. There are some weird road signs here though and I need to learn the parking ones with writing on (don't want to get a ticket!)

Sunday, peaceful and chilled out, how all Sunday's should be. Eero went to Heikki's to play games and chat. I stayed in worked out and tried to learn some more Finnish.

Then on Monday the sun came out!!! It was 22C, ahhh warm and nice. The Finnish language course ends this week so I need to research the next course idea and i need to get one to gain more confidence speaking though the summer course or that is €200 for a week *sighs*. At least it's money well spent, it's not like I'm ever leaving Finland permanently but it would be nice to get a job and learn some Finnish while earning a living lol! I have been advised to enjoy these free days as I will have them no more until I retire!

Allergies are a behaving a bit better though if I touch some foods e.g. potatoes raw I get a rash and stupidly I rubbed my eye the other day and that itched too!! Though eating things that have been cooked well is at least making my diet easier.

Tuesday 6 April 2010

Hyvää Pääsiäistä

Pitkäperjantai (Good Friday) we went over to the summer cottage to help fell some trees and cut them up =) Weather was sunny so it was an enjoyable day. We had some lunch later on and finished up cutting trees then sat in the spring sun by the side of the lake. We sat talking about holidays, which have now been sorted (with the bonus we get back to Suomi for midsummer). Good Friday ended with a sauna!!!

Saturday was a relaxed day, went into city to get some shopping. Got back to the apartment and spent the afternoon baking for the family dinner on sunday. mmmm. We made a lemon cheesecake by request of the husband... Then I baked a few things that I could eat too, chocolate chip cookies and a luomu blackcurrant crumble cake (don't really think it has a name, thats what I call it)



Sunday we went to äiti's for lunch. Lovely *nom nom nom*. Ate what we brought and there were lot's of other traditional Finnish foods. I got to eat salmon too! The other good news of the weekend was my allergy to potatoes has passed... I will also react to uncooked fruits and vegetables but all things cooked to holy hell should now be fine. I can never eat whole grains, artificial additives etc but that's a small price to pay (they aren't any good for you anyway!!)

Monday the final day of a long weekend! I spent this job hunting for kesä jobs, randomly with the help of my favourite translator =) did some spring cleaning of the kitchen cupboards. Elisa and Joni came round in the afternoon and we played some boardgames and cards (next time we play Finnish games)... Then watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...... *sighs*

A lovely first Easter in Suomi =)

Poets of the Fall, Klubi, Tampere

April could not have started any better, unless we won the lottery (but that's its drawn on Thursday's) than going to see Poet's! I was more excited to go see them then Take That or Kylie!!! POTF were ace to perform live, few bands actually sound good live but they did. Small club too only 200 hundred maximum. Great night! Excited now until they come back again! Though there is still the temptation to try the cruise concert next time but I think the klubi one is best if we can get tickets =D

Was also the night I decided to try driving on the right side of the road! Weird considering I'm use to the left side but we got home without any problems so it's all good!