Right now

My new camera is here! Pink and beautiful. When I received the package yesterday, there was one Snickers inside. Oh, it made me so glad! Just a small Snickers, but the amount of surprise and happiness of eating chocolate while walking outside.

Today I was showing an immigrant group around the library. People were interested, asking questions, borrowing books, smiling. Also I found something I didn't know I was looking for: Rise by Samantha James :)

More later, today card games with Sora and Minttu :)

"Oh you could tell me how you're feeling right now"

Korean style decorations

Big white stone walls and nothing to put there, that was the problem of this apartment for a long time. But once again Gmarket came to rescue and it doesn't look so white anymore :)


In Finland decorative wall stickers are extremely expensive (20 euros or more for big ones) and the selection is quite bad. Luckily in Korea the variety is much better and prices are very low compared to Finnish costs. For example the costs of my stickers were about 3 euros each! Of course some of the Korean stickers are quite funny with lots of writing mistakes (Bon Boyage?!?) and treacly love messages...But because there's hundreds of different stickers to choose from, it's easy to find something nice, too.

In fact I ordered the key stickers (above) accidentally, I wanted to have something green and leafy, but when the package arrived I noticed that I had put the wrong code into the shopping list...Fortunately I didn't get anything too romantic and pink and I was quite satisfied with the key stickers too (except there were also kind of note papers in addition to the key stickers and it says "am 2:00 beauty shop, pm 10:00 grace" in one of them...Grace? Beauty shop at 2 am? WTF?)

These telephone poles were something I ordered intentionally and now they're covering one wall in the living room.

I also joined Heiaheia. What's that? If you like exercising and want to follow your progress, you can join heiaheia and list all your activities there. It's kind of Facebook, but it doesn't have the same features yet, probably in the future though. I've never followed my training or the changes of my weight, maybe this gives me enough boost to start observing them :)

I'm waiting for Batmud's 20th birthday, which is held in Kaivohuone on 17th of April. To celebrate that I reinced out of a sudden and I'm playing a nuntarma librarian gnome at the moment :D My previous reinc was a nuntemplar ent and I made it to avoid any parties, but now I wouldn't mind having some...

Music of the moment: Marcus Schossow pres. 1985 - London especially from 2:30 :)

Puijo on my mind.

Explosions! Once again we had amazing time in Puijo ski jumping competition :) This time our team consisted of me, Barun, Juha, Nea and Moona. It was the first time for the girls to experience the competition and I'm sure they'll join me again next year. Warm sausage (the only time of the year when I want to eat any meat!) with mustard and ketchup, people applauding and jumpers jumping, long liquorice strings, fireworks, snow, lights, flags...I remember the first time I saw the fireworks and ski jumping, I was in kindergarden and standing in the snow and how the biggest of the fireworks seemed to make a huge cage on top of me by spreading lights all over the sky :)


Next day we climbed up the stairs to Puijo (so beautiful view!) and finally up to the tower. Last time I was in the tower maybe 5 years ago? It was so funny to watch people ski on the tracks where I used to ski 20 years ago (!) and I could also spot Julkula, the city district where I used to live for 10 years.




I'm trying to save the battery of my camera (I loaded it at my mom's place) so I can take photos of Barun for the library photo manual. That's why I didn't take my camera with me to Latolankatu on Saturday = lots of good food and company, stories about first time skiing + evolving languages, Shanghai (of course!) and snow fighting.

The song of this week: Kpop. (After my visit to Korea I started to have special feelings towards kpop. Can't explain why, this music is not very original...)

다음에 또 봐요!

From grey to white

This week has been like this photo: grey, spiky, dull, gloomy. I've missed the busses, had horrible classes to teach, slept badly at nights.

But there's nothing good friends, music and food (and snow!) can't make better. Also winning the quiz for the 3rd time in a row felt like the cherry on top :) And to tell the truth, most of the 7th graders are adorable and sweet and they are happy to come to the library and ask all kinds of questions. And I'm happy to help them.

Kent's new cd Röd was released this week and today I've been mostly listening to it. It's nice to listen to the new cd's from Spotify before buying them, but it's impossible to get the same kind of experience as when you listen to the music for the first time from your own cd. I listened to Imogen Heap's new Ellipse from Spotify, but didn't find the music interesting; only until I bought Ellipse from a salesman (who sells cd's to the libraries) I really concentrated on the music at home and it was amazingly beautiful.

I'm also thinking about buying a new camera from Korea, I'd like to be able to take good photos also inside...If someone has some spesific model/brand in mind that's both good and quite cheap (and of course cheaper in Korea!) then let me know!

Last weekend I had guests as well, Tuula and hiding Nelson. It was so funny to talk about cultural differences! This time Tuula sent me a message saying if it's ok that they're coming and I said yes. In Chile that's not how people do it, they just wait for invitation and go for a visit when they're invited. So Nelson was feeling a bit awkward, because I was not the one who suggested that they could come :) Also if you invite someone to your place, you should clean and prepare dinners and lunches and be a good host. First thing Nelson thought when he came to our place was that "oh, it's so messy" :D For me that kind of formal visiting is a nightmare, because I believe the best thing you can do at your friends' place is to relax :)

But we had great time anyway, that's the main thing.

Why breakfasts in local places (ABC, different cafes etc) are so horrible? I'd love to go and eat something fresh and good if I ever miss the bus in the morning again and have to spend one hour in the centre.

Tea and knits Saturday!

That's what you get when you let your heart win

I was coming home on Wednesday after 9 and the sky looked like this. Beautiful, beautiful sky and black shapes of buildings and trees. Tomorrow it's going to be August and it's so nice, dark but warm evenings and stars and a crispy bite of what's about to come. October moon and rusty skies, like Chicane puts it...(seeds of autumn in my mind)

This week was enjoyable, laughing and removing books at work, not-so-early-mornings thanks to Tuula and the best strawberries ever! Yesterday morning while waiting for the bus I bought one container of organic strawberries from the market place and talked with the sales person, he said their farm is not big and they're only going to sell berries there until the end of this week. So today I called to Juha and he went to the centre to buy more red sweets for me. The taste is just HEAVENLY! And after eating these, I really know how real strawberries should taste like. Not bitter, not watery, just yummy.

I watched Sam Mendes film "Revolutionary road" today and oh, the mixed feelings! The movie was excellent story about a marriage in the 50's, life so stuck on gender roles and expectations. But I felt both angry and sorry for the couple, who tried so hard to leave the "normal" life behind just to realise it's easier said and planned than done. I'm just happy the society is not like that anymore...Older people so often long for the "good old times, when everything was simple", but what if simple too often means lack of choice?

Now time for tea, thinking of the old times (when Hyeyeon was here, all the nights we danced, drank wine, played card games in our commune, watched eclipse of the moon, talked, talked, talked, did the things we now smile at...) and the music, how it brings back the feelings of those times.

"You know when you feel it
You know when it hits you
There's no mistaking when you fall
You don't anticipate it
And you can't calculate it
It just comes crashing through your walls

You lose all sense of reason
You have no sense of danger
It's like you're living in a dream.
It lets you float through crowds and
Makes you smile at strangers
It's just the greatest state of being..."

(Oceanlab - Sky falls down)

But you don't have a clue...

..how much we miss you Minhye! Have a safe flight and we will meet again, I'm sure. For me it still doesn't feel real that you don't come to our place and wait in the hallway and come to sauna with me.

This summer feels unreal also in other ways. I don't have any holidays and I've been so busy at work that in the evenings I've just watched TV brainlessly and then gone to sleep. I don't like this! I don't have time to meet my friends, they're doing all the nicest things when I'm too tired to do anything. I don't need all this money, I'd rather be poor but have time to do the things I enjoy the most. Now I'm spending my money on colourful clothes and special foods I could easily life without. Why there's no middle way? Less money and less work, I'd be happy with that.

After saying goodbye to Minhye in the early morning I went to the market place cafe to have breakfast and watch people. Pikachu appeared there as well and it wanted to have a little of my tea. Merja blossoms.



Last week I visited Kuopio and Jyväskylä. Sunny days, football, countryside, trains, flowers, lovely people, all those things I can't enjoy this summer. Maybe goodbyes make me feel this way and I realise once again what's important and what's not.





Moona hides her eyes, because then happened something completely different...


...they fell down!



I love Spotify though! All these songs I've already forgotten and now they're playing in my head and speakers. Yesterday Minhye, Teemu, Monika, Merja, Sejin and Shahram were visiting our place and we listened to horrible songs from Spotify, for example "Pikku-Merja" by Jamppa Tuominen, "Pikku-Taina" by Tapani Perttu and " Monika, Monika, Monika" by Reijo Taipale. Why on earth all those songs tell about cheating and evil women who have left the men :D Nice women don't deserve songs named after them?

Next week starts the summer season of aerobic, I'm already waiting! Although it means that I only come home to sleep...But I hope I have one evening this summer, when I feel like these Röyksopp "You don't have a clue" lyrics:

"It's late in the night, dancing is done
The music has died, you're ready to run

But you don't have a clue, this party hasn't ended yet
Not for me and you, now you're just pretending

You're hiding from yourself,
Yes you are, yes you are
Like golden rays of sun in the cloud"

Animals in the wild

Yesterday morning I decided to take photos of the animals I see every day. I came up with the idea because I didn't want to spend time with a man, who comes to me every morning at the bus stop and starts to talk about jesus. Some mornings it's ok, but not always :) Snowy wolf and woody fish can be found from the centre of my city and the rest of the animals from the library where I work. I love especially that big bear, stroking it makes me feel relaxed and when you climb on its back, everything looks small and you feel like you can conquer the library!


Last week as well as this week I attended different meetings. This kind of meeting culture is very new to me and for example I didn't understand to take blank paper with me to the first meeting. And of course because I'm so newbie in my work, some things the others are discussing are just not familiar to me and I feel like an outsider. But as the time passes, I'll get hang of it, hopefully!

It's also a bit difficult to understand that there's always tea and coffee and something to eat for free. When I was unemployed, I didn't have money to buy cakes or pies - at least not often. When I went to a cafe with my friends, I usually took just tea. I don't know if I want to get used to this kind of change - it's a small thing, but for me it tells about the way of the world these days.

Sun is shining, music is playing (Rubik - Dada bandits!), new Ecologist is still waiting to be read, too many books to be read. Off I go!

The things I see when I wait for the bus, part 1:

Early morning's bright sunshine it seems a bit different today...

I love flowers. I bought these yellow tulips yesterday, because I'm starting to feel like spring. It looks so ugly outside, snow is melting, dog shit is smelling, roads are bare and icy...but I like the changing of seasons, although spring is my least favourite time of the year. Change is always good?

We had friends at our place overnight and now it feels a bit empty. It's Sunday evening again and tomorrow is another morning when I need to wake up at 6 o'clock. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but still it feels too early. I've had headache for 2 days now, too much stress before I get to know my place at the library. I'm trying to read books about being a boss and I find them kind of sad...Those books emphasize the fact that bosses shouldn't be friends with employees and I think it's very weird. But after this year I'll be able to say what kind of boss I am and if it's something I should do in the future or not.




I'm such a child -> I still love to walk over the icy parts on the road. Sometimes I get my shoes wet, sometimes not. The sound of breaking ice is just beautiful, kind of hollow, and all the sounds vary a lot. Maybe it's time to start to use rubber boots again :D

I have Spotify. Too bad they don't have enough good dance music, all other favourites can be found from there though :) Dinka, Kent, Moloko, Laika...Sub-Urban Tribe's First spring day! It suddenly came into my mind and this song is still so awesome!

That's all today. I'll sit on the sofa, drink tea and knit before going to sleep. Hope to see sun tomorrow as well as nice customers, friendly faces and cute army boys :D (my bus always stops in Kontioranta! Too bad I'm already so old and they're so young...)

PS. Ski jumping is over! What I'm going to do in the weekends now? And I should start calling to my brother more often because I can't see him on TV ;)

Floating

It's been cloudy and gloomy outside, so I've been mostly taking photos at home. I wrote before I love to photograph shadows and lights, but now I've found a new object -> food! Apples look so good in their basket and grated swedes have just the perfect colour. I still feel uncomfortable if I have to take photos of people...I guess I need to practice tomorrow, when I'm going to a big party for exchange students (and a couple of natives!)

About music. I've always been in love with music. When I was a child, I used to made up my own songs and there are cassettes full of my singing somewhere. In elementary school my days were full of music, because I was in a music class. That meant that I played flute in 2 orchestras and of course took music lessons, too. As I got older, I gave in flute playing, because it was so boring and I didn't take it seriously enough :) I only continued it until the end of high school because our orchestra travelled abroad and I wanted to see foreign countries.

My music taste has changed radically throughout the years. In elementary and middle school I loved Roxette and Taikapeili as well as all the mainstream pop on the radio. In high school I found CMX and Kent. I still love Kent for its melancholy music and the lyrics, that got me almost perfect 97/99 points in Swedish essay on matriculation examination.

During those years my brother introduced Prodigy, Chicane and other dance music to me and I totally fell in love with Chicane's Far from the Maddening Crowds. First my brother's friend burned that cd for me and kept the original, but I liked the cd so much that I bought that original cd from him :D I'm still on that road I guess...I've been mostly listening to trance although I do have other favourites, too (Olavi Uusivirta, Ror-Shak, Sade, Rubik, Mew, Snoop Dogg, Imogen Heap, Dire Straits, Laika, Moloko to mention some).

My favourite label nowadays is Anjunabeats. You can find more information about the label from here. I came across Anjunabeats through my brother (Thank you Tommi!), who gave me the Anjunabeats Volume 2 compilation cd. I started to look around for other songs from the label and found Oceanlab's Satellite & Sky Falls Down and Smith & Pledger's Forever (A & B remix). Those are still my favourite songs, especially to sing along :D

Now I've bought all their compilation cd's and the music simply goes straight into my heart (and legs). I can't think of anything better than dark living room with this music playing loud. I remember those evenings and nights in my previous flat, when me and my flatmates used to switch off all the lights, put Anjunabeats Volume 5 on and just danced around the flat, stared out from the windows or just sat down and concentrated on the music. It's just hard to explain verbally all the emotions that arise when I listen to this music :) I even started to cry when I listened to the newest volume 6 for the first time, because it was just so extremely touching somehow!

Other favourites are for example these:
Boom Jinx feat. Thomas J Bergersen - Remember September
Paul Keeley - Paper Jet
Luminary - Amsterdam (Smith & Pledger remix)

These songs have the ability of taking me away from this moment and suddenly I feel like I can float, dance, sing, feel free :) The photo above somehow reflects that kind of feeling.