School Stress RARRRRHHH!!

It's THAT time of year and the Finnish system makes you plan the entire two years as soon as you start which is good but doesn't allow for lecturers altering class times, some courses not being repeated, clashes, then of course for people like me, who are staying in Finland permanently the option to study Finnish which is always seen as ADDITIONAL and so it doesn't matter to my school how many of my normal lectures clash.

Ylistörinne Campus, JYK

Of course to me, it matter's this degree has little use here to me without the Finnish as the industries I wish to work in all require Finnish or Swedish language and are not necessarily "English" speaking companies.

It took a day to sort my timetable as first there was a technical problem I reported, which I had to wait to get fixed before I could plan it out, then I write it all on paper to see the problems, then when it's sorted and I have decided which clashes to avoid and which classes are the most important. I put it all in my diary and colour coded everything for the entire year.

I have two very busy semester's as my Finnish studies don't actually count toward my degree, they are additional studies for my own benefit and interest but I am still taking as many courses as possible. Suomi 4, grammar course 2, speaking and writing course. I doubt I will take Suomi 5 as there are two many lecture clashes with it. But I am taking classes in the evening, twice a week until March 2012 with a course that is in the city.

I have 2 study days in this next Semester and I need to research for my thesis during this time, time is going to be tight and my social private life won't exist. But when I graduate May, it will all be worth the struggle!

Summer school starts for me Thursday with my tutor meeting, I get to go to all the events free and I have to go to most of them. Unfortunately, I'm not going Sunday as I am going to Tampere then down to Espoo the afternoon to a party and back to JYK in the evening. The final party I also can't attend as I have to go enroll on these new Finnish courses.

Most days, especially for the first 6 weeks classes start 8am and I am there until 6pm... then two days I have evening classes 5-6.40pm and 7-8.40pm.... not to mention the homework I have to do too. Alas, no pain, no gain.

I am also helping out as a class room assistant for one course in this next semester and need to get all the preparation for that course sorted out, I have a presentation and a report to do for that.

I also have one course in limbo as they are not sure they have funding for it yet! =( I hope they do, it look's awesome!

Mä asun nyt Jyväskylässä

Tuesday afternoon when Eero came home from work we packed up the car and the trailer of my boxes, bike and furniture. Then we headed out for Jyväskylä. We got here around 7pm and unloaded everything. Eero put together the bed for me and carried all the heavier stuff upstairs. Then we meet Outi (my new flat mate. She is a Finn and also comes from Tampere and on the good side she is really very nice! She then took me for a late evening walk to city campus and the others to show me around so I wouldn't get lost tomorrow. Personally I thought it was great! we talked and talked and talked... hehe!

So we went to bed late but I was excited and didn't sleep too well, I woke up to thunder about 2am and it was still (??) thundering when I woke up at 6am and got up at 8am (lie in first day!!). Omg, you have never in your days seen rain like what was falling this morning, Less than 30secs outside and you were soaked to the skin. I wore my waterproof coat and took a spare pair of shoes... for the walk to uni with Aino (my tutor). Aino is also really nice, very helpful and shows me where everything is!

The campus was bigger than I expected it to be and I walked in to building P expecting to see around 30people for this course. Instead there were around 100, 3 groups of around 30 people. It was walking to class that I met Britta (I hope that's spelt write) she's from Germany and she's very nice too! We talked a lot and learnt somethings too. We made a few more friends during lunch. Then we went to the how to cycle safely talk and we got a free reflector!!! mines a football, I wanted a dog or ghost but what can you do!

I came home around 2.25pm, it was sunny and soooo hot! Outi went back to Tampere today (Wednesday) but just before she went there was another almighty thunderstorm and heavy rain. I have never heard thunder so loud. So I'm home alone until I go back to Tampere on Friday... Eero is calling and texting loads too which is great fun, I think he misses me too!

We got our course material today there's a €9 charge on it though but it's a lot of work and handouts... quite the bargain! Tomorrow we have a cultural lecture before class so we have to be in school by 9am, classes then 2 hours solid, then hour lunch then another 2 lessons to Finish around 1.30pm... that's 3 hours a day learning Finnish. We also have an oral and written exam at the end of the class so at least I will know how good I am or how good I think I am!!

Last week in July

It has been a busy week. I move to Jyväskylä early next week and Kesäyliopisto (Summer University) starts next week for the month. So as you probably guessed I have spent most of the week packing up my things, first they went into a maybe pile, then the definitely pile. I am in halls until Eero moves up so space will be very restricted until we move up there properly.

I only have 3 days off from Wednesday to the start of my master's degree so I have no doubt Christmas will be upon us before we even know it!!! Hopefully we go back to UK this Christmas... mom and dad are coming to Lapland Christmas 2011.

Even got a new contract phone connection so life is good!!

Last night Eero brought me a new bag for university, it's great, I love it and have started to put all my brooches and pins all over it!!

We also put the new bike bag and light on my bike... almost ready for the little move!