Presents From Home & New Stories

Hyvää iltaa!

I have to admit that, even though I've only come to Finland about one month ago and I've only been in Kokkola for 5 days, I already started missing my host family xD
So, here I am again! I feel like there's a lot of stuff I need to do - I'm always busy since I came here!!

I'm finally being close to feeling all healthy again! :D there's almost no coughing anymore, but today, after 5 hours of shopping, I had a little headache and also my voice seems so be husky when I don't talk for a longer period of time...hope that'll go away soon!
Yet, not being able to talk so much isn't exactly a big problem in Finland, since people appreciate the silence xD
Thinking back, I remember that quietness between two or more people in Austria seemed to arise an uncomfortable atmosphere. I always thought the same until one day I was with a friend and we didn't talk for some time and he asked me if it bothers me, adding that it didn't bother him. That was probably the first time I thought about this topic and found out that silence can also be a positive and calming ambience. There don't always need to be words.


Oh, I'm not sure if I already mentioned that I was already going out in Tampere (it was before Kokkola)...anyways, I'll write it now ;D I was with Mirkka and one of her friends. Going out in Finland is like:

Seriously - we should have that in Austria too! xDD
At first, we went to "Hällänkellari", a nice little club in the centre of the city! Afterwards we went to  the Gay-Party, which was not far away. That was...interesting and funny, since there were so many totally different people! Various ages, various styles, various nationalities... unfortunately, I wasn't able to talk or understand much, because everyone we were with spoke in finnish...but I met Mirkkas hairdresser, he was really REALLY wasted xD ...but it was quite amusing to observe!

Yesterday I also received a package that my mommy sent me from home (mostly with pullovers, winter clothing and medical resources), but it was huge and heavy xD
Wohooo it was the first package adressed to me in Finland *o* I hope there'll be more!

She also sent me a glass of Nutella with the other stuff! ...which was immediately very popular with all the family members here xD oh, it feels so good to have a taste of Nutella after almost one month of waiver of it, because Finns don't seem to consume a lot of chocolate related stuff and it's also difficult to find in shops...but I opened the package, showed it to Mirkka and she was like "Lasse!! NUTELLA!!!" xDDD

Living in a house with little children has one remarkable difficulty: you always need to put your stuff (especially Laptops, phones, ipods and other things that might break easily) into unreachable places, for they always seem to be interested in those kinds of objects!
I somehow fear that one day it might be my Laptop since they CAN reach the cupboard, that I put it on, if they really want to and they also like playing with my mouse pointer and cables. (but I hope that my host parents will be able to find the Wlan password soon so that I can put my Laptop in my room ;D )
Today I had a cup of coffee on a cupboard near my seat and as soon as I didn't watch for one moment, Toni, the youngest one of my "siblings", reached for it and my cup was on the floor...the coffee all around....this happend two times! I'm not gonna take my coffee with me to this room again xD

It's saturday evening and I'm sitting at home >.< but I think that's not that much of a problem, since I've always so much to do that sometimes I don't even want to start with anything xD so it's okay to just have a relaxing weekend :)

Tomorrow, Saska will come to Tampere, so we'll meet again! I'm looking forward to this. I hope I'll also meet Saana again soon...maybe when I go to Helsinki again...I should start making plans!! ...about the fall holidays, about trips, about concerts outside of Tampere...maybe also about Christmas holidays already :)

Oh, by the way, I also checked out "Technicolour" (remember? = their vocalist was in that finnish movie I saw one week ago ;D )! I like their music, especially this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evIJwB51o6g


When I was in the city today, I did what I wanted to do since I came here: I went to a music shop IN Tampere ("Swamp Music" - guess what: almost only Rock & Metal music in there xDD) and bought a CD of a band FROM Tampere --> "Negative" *-*

Completely changing the topic, I think I should use the chance to tribute one of my Austrian friends, Rebecca! She's doing Cosplay and when I was still at home, me and my sister joined her a lot and I always enjoyed our projects ;D Ever since I went abroad (I actually don't know if I should call Finland "abroad" or "2nd home", because it already seems so familiar and it was never that much of a change for me, except for the people) she continued her work and I really like her pictures, so I'll just link her here: http://asagi-blog.blogspot.co.at/

Rebecca, I heard that you're not feeling too well these last days, so I really hope you'll be fine and all happy again! :)

um...I think that's all I have to say for now...oh wait, one more little story, hehe:

At the kindergarten, we recently had a lot of children's birthday and there's one part of the celebration I like best: while the birthday child is standing near it's chair, one of the other children receives a bag and plays the "Postman" (  :P  ) The other children sing a postman-song, while the chosen child walkes around the tables and brings the birthday child a birthday card! This is so cute!! ...and funny, since I've been doing a holiday job as a postman before doing the EVS ;P

The song goes like:


"Minä olen pikkupoika posteljooni, posteljooni, posteljooni,
ja minä olen pikkupoika posteljooni ja kiertelen ympäri suomenmaan.

Minäpa se jakelen ne kirjeet ja muut, ne kirjeet ja muut, ne kirjeet ja muut.
Minäpa se jakelen ne kirjeet ja muut, ja naurussa ompi tyttöjen suut."


....I'll take some time and learn this one!! :D and then I'll sing it to my postman friends in Austria! ...or maybe not xD

On-Arrival training: Villa Elba/Kokkola

Terve!

 ...This is gonna be a loooong post!! xDD

I'm back in Tampere - after 5 days in Kokkola by the sea. I've met a lot of volunteers from all over Europe there and I've found a lot of new friends! I'm definitely gonna visit some of them in the regions or cities that they're staying. We were about 40 people there, this is (at least the majority of) our group:

One of my new friends, Šárka from the Czech Republic, is unfortunately missing on that picture --> she was at her cottage when the photo was shot >.<
(She's staying in Rovaniemi, probably the only one of us that is in Lapland, and in January she'll switch to Oulu. I'll surely visit here sometime and we'll hopefully have the chance to go to some concerts together, because we have the same music preferences...
- Šárka, I'm glad I could meet you and I'm already looking forward to meeting you again! You must come to Tampere! Or, like you wrote on my paper back then:  - Jsem nadržená! xDD )

...but she's here:

...back: Šárka (from Czech Republic) and Kiveen (from France)
   front: me and Marili (from Estonia)!
- I like that picture ;D especially because I look like shit on most of the other photos we made xD

Villa Elba was a really nice place - there was the main building, 2 saunas, 6 cottages where we lived in (I want to have one of these cottages myself someday!!!! ) and another building where we used to party together ;D
...and it was directly by the sea! :D Somehow these trainings are always in beautiful places!!

Aaaah I wanted to take a mass of pictures, but somehow both of my camera's batterys were dead after the second day >.< I suppose the camera was accidentally turned on when I had it in my pocket...
well, luckily the others took some photos too!


As awesome as it was, we also had a lot of programm all day long, so we were already tired afterwards. Still, we had some parties or activities in the evenings:

One of my goals during EVS is to be open-minded and try new things - I partially fulfilled this at our sauna evening! I already went to the sauna sometimes in Austria, but this time we went swimming afterwards in the ice cold September sea of Finland! xP (as far as it can be called "swimming" - we ran into the water, stayed shortly and then ran back to the sauna as fast as our feet could take us xDD ) but it was a great experience...and a great challenge! ^.^


Haha, one day some of us wanted to take picutres at the sea, so we went there, but all of us wanted to be on the picture, so we chose to use self-timer  - which was like:

...and then we were like:

... xDD but we managed to take photos like:

Back: Clémence (France), Aras (Turkey)
Front: Šárka (Czech Repuplic), Magdalena (Poland), me, Michaela (Czech Republic)


On our last night together we had a farewell party in one of the cottages! haha most of the time we played "truth or dare". I've never played this game ever since I left primary school, because I don't like that game, but some people told me that EVS is a nice opportunity to try things one usually wouldn't do, so I took the chance and joined the game! It was...umm...very informative? xDD anyways we had a lot of fun!
Good thing there aren't any pictures of that night! xD

Oh, and I need to eternalize this one too:

I can't remember how this started, but it became a running gag to learn vulgar words in different languages, the most popular one "I'm horny" - so, this picutre shows a multicultural collection of that sentence.


As much fun as it was with all the guys, the training itself was also very insightful and it opened my eyes to a lot of things or gave me a different perspective on them.
During these days I've actually been thinking a lot. At first it's been a little strange to meet all the people who are now volunteering at most projects that I also applied to when I didn't have a placement yet, but talking to them now, hearing about their tasks, situations, maybe also problems, I feel like I've got the best project for myself! I wouldn't change with any of the others, because I'm all happy with living in Tampere, my awesome host family, my work placement and co-workers...I just can't find anything to complain about and there could have been so much going wrong!
I'm thinking about how to express my gratitude to everyone that has contributed to my well-being and still does, but I can't think of anything except saying:

A BIG THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!! ^o^/  It's not self-evident to be accomodated so warmly, receive help with all the stuff that needs to be organised at the beginning of living in another country and  being cared for from so many sides! This goes especially to Mirkka, Lasse, Päivi, Mari, Saska, Saana and also Lilli! You are a great help and I really appreciate your efforts to make my life here as comfortable as possible! 
Oh, and also a big thanks to those I left behind in Austria! Without everyone's support it might have been pretty difficult or even impossible to leave, that's why I consider myself being lucky to have such wonderful friends and family! Again, it's not self-evident to be encouraged to go abroad despite personal feelings of loss (this is dedicated particularly to my mother, father, grandmother and Marc! - I already miss you, but I look forward to meeting you again!!)

hmm...writing and thinking about this almost makes me become sentimental, so I'd better leave it at that point and just be happy with how it is :)


...We've also talked about making ourselves clear, why we are here in Finland now and what our tasks really are. Same goes for our targets and how we can reach them. It was like...taking a look inside and thinking about what we are doing now and what has lead to our decision. I think I got to know myself a little more.

Oh, and I've also tasted reindeer meat! :O it was...actually okay xD you could tell it was no beef or pork, but it didn't taste THAT different! Some friends told me I should try moose meat too, since it's even better...let's see if there'll be an opportunity.


I think that's about the morst important stuff concerning the training :) I'd better write the news of these last 3 days (in Tampere again) in a separate post!

Lakes and free time activities

Hei! :D

I hope everyone's doing fine!
I feel good though I'm still a little sick. I don't feel too bad anymore, but from time to time I have a little headache and, of course, the coughing annoys me as much as the sky is light blue today (fin. "tänään taivas on vaaleansininen"  --> I learned some new vocabulary from my host mummy and my language course! :) ).
Anyway, I have to cough a lot and sometimes I even have these damn coughing attacks where I just can't stop. (probably the dry finnish air isn't exactly the best cure for it either) >.< I don't always have coughing attacks, but when I do, I usually have them while being on the bus, where everyone else is silent, or in other public places!

I also found a little cute lake about 15 minutes by foot from our house:

I wanted to go there again to take some photos of the sunset, but somehow I didn't get around to doing that yet xD - maybe next week...

I've also been at Pikonlinna forest with Mirkka and Niia! We gathered some blueberries and baked a cake with them in the evening ;D There was also some lake near, but we decided not to walk that far to get to the beach.
In Finland it's easy to get some berries - you just walk into the next forest and you're almost standing in from of them immediately - no walking up some mountains. And there are a lot of forests here.

The don't have "Starbucks" cafés here, but you can buy Starbucks coffee at the shops:

Oh, and this is what I killed time with at work yesterday while looking after some children that were drawing or forming something with modelling clay (as I did):

...it's the same figure that I did at the qualification exams for becoming a kindergartener in spring, just a little less details here (a princess ;D )

Last evening I watched a great finnish film with my host daddy, Lasse (it has english subtitles!):

I like the style of the movie, it's also funny and with a lot of music and alcohol xD check it out!
Lasse also told me that one of the actors (Jimi Pääkallo) was the vocalist of a finnish band, "Technicolour" - I need to listen to them as soon as I have the time to!

During these last days I was asked a lot by people, when I'm going to update the blog again - I'm sorry for not posting for some days, I had a lot to do and I didn't feel well from time to time. - but I'm glad people care so much and really want to read my news!! Thanks again! :D


Well, I'm going to Kokkola for the On-Arrival Training in about one hour, so I have to prepare myself now ;D Have a nice day and enjoy whatever you're doing right now!

Hugs from Tampere ^.^

Of Plans And Sunsets

Hei again! ;D

I'm doing fine, though I'm still a little bit sick >.<
There's been some good and some bad things happening these last days - Let's start with the unpleasant news, so that I can look forward to the happy ones:

- I like Finlands beautiful woods, really, but these damn mosquitoes are annoying!! They keep attacking all the time when we're out there with the children >.<

- I also found out that I've been received some wrong information concerning my holidays... I was told that I could have 2 days off each month, plus the national school holidays, but lately I went through the activity agreement with my head teacher Päivi and she explained to me that I have these 2 days/month, but they are expected to be spent during the national holidays! :/ So, it's a good thing I didn't start to make serious vacation plans yet. This caught me really by surprise though...after all I was prepared to have more free time, but okay...how do people say:

We didn't have cupcakes at home, but I found these in the fridge - they worked too: 

- My illness gets better and worse all the time... Sometimes I feel healthy and then suddenly the headache comes back and carries a handful of other symptoms with it, especially in the morning.  

_______________

No niin, enough of saddening stuff, here are the pleasant stories:

+ I was at the "Maistraatti", where I had to register myself as a finnish citizen. I was worried, because Despoina who works with me has some problems with receiving the bus card for the whole Pirkanmaa area since she's only staying temporarily in Finland. When the lady at the office told me to make a cross on the sheet where it said that I also stay temporarily, me and my host mommy, who went there with me, explained the bus problem to her. It seems that only people living permanently in Finland can buy the card, so she let me write on the paper that I stay permanently in Tampere. I hope this will erase all the problems with the bus company that might have come up otherwise! :)

+ The finnish couse is nice too - last time we learned some grammar for the first time - FINALLY! I've been waiting for this, because I want to understand the structure instead of only memorizing words and phrases. The teacher says that it's too early to learn that stuff, but I'll stick with my opinion.

We also got a new member - Anna from Greece. She's a really nice young woman! :D I talked to her a little and after the lesson she offered to drive me home, because she had the car with her. I was hoping that I'll find the way, but we were successful! 

+ I got my first letter here in Finland!!!  *o* (though it's only a registration document from the police office):

+ I was thinking about planning to go to some upcoming events, because you always need to be fast to snatch some tickets, before they're sold out! I also saw that "The Rasmus" will come to Tampere and they'll have a gig in Helsinki too, so I wasn't sure which one to go to. I told my friend Saska about it - he has Yoga lessons with Eero Heinonen! Well...today I was invited by Eero, bassist of "The Rasmus", to come to their concert in Tampere :P Veera, one of my finnish friends, will probably go there with me. I don't even have to look for tickets - they'll be waiting for me at the entrance! (*o*)/

...other bands I know that are having concerts in Tampere city soon: Sonata Arctica, Sturm und Drang, The 69 Eyes, Cannibal Corpse, Helloween, Anathema, Children of Bodom, Entombed, Hardcore Superstar and Poisonblack. I'll look for more, but I don't know which ones to go to xD ...I think I'll be at "The 69 Eyes" live at least! 

I'm also looking for some good concerts in other places of Finland, so that I can connect them with travelling ;P (like "An Cafe", "Happoradio", "Apulanta", "Nickelback", "Daughtry", "Wednesday 13" or "Seether" in Helsinki) 

+ Haha, today, when I was driving around the city with Mirkka, we saw a bird on the crosswalk (Zebrastreifen) --> FINNISH CITY BIRD KNOWS HOW TO CROSS THE ROAD SAFELY! xDD

+ One of my Austrian friends, who is doing his EVS in Luxembourg now, also complimented me for the blog. His organisation is called "Grrrr" xDD (always makes me laugh again) Haha, he wrote on his site that he's having a nice time with his workmates in a farm house, but that in winter they'll probably "Grrrr" there together x'D

+ Did I already introduce "Nuttu" to you? - He's our pet, a chinchilla:

...so cute and always active!  *v* ..but I don't dare stroking it, because they say it bites >.<  

+ Mirkka is going to spent tomorrow in Helsinki. I think I'll stay here and go there some time when I'm all healthy again and then stay for a weekend maybe. Yet, I can give her all my bus tickets that I had to buy so far, so that she gives them to Mari at the Maailmanvaihto office there and I'll be reimbursed! :D 

Saturday evening, she'll return to Tampere and we'll go to a "Gay - Party" together xD I've never been to one, but some people told me that it's really fun, so I'll go see it with my own eyes ;P 

+ When I got home after the language course, the sun was just setting over the city - 'Sunset in Tampere', have a look:

...and 10 minutes later:

.... :) 

Tracon7 ;P

Moro!~

Actually, I planned on staying at home today, because I caught a little cold, but then Mirkka told me about Tracon7 that's taking place at Tampere Hall this weekend, so I went there.

It's an anime/manga convention and the first one I've gone to xD
Here are some photos of the place:

I've never been at Tampere Hall before, so I had to search for it - but you know you're on the right way to a convention, when there's anime,manga and game characters everywhere ;P

It's a big building with a lot of rooms and halls and even outside the park was full of Cosplayers ;D

There was a market with all different kinds of Japanese stuff inside. I bought a Vongola Ring from some japanese guy:  

*feeling superior like Hibari now* - KAMIKOROSU!

And this trendy "dead cute" luv bunny ;P :

I also saw one room where some Cosplayers could stand in the middle and others tried drawing him/her:

Aaand a place where they could take professional photos of themselves with background and camera equipment:

And of course there were a lot of people dressed as their favourite caracters and  waiting for photographers to take their pictures:

 I saw a Link:

a Kiba and a Hinata:

an Ulquiorra:

a Kagamine Rin with a Len:

a Grell Sutcliff:

a Toph staring demonically at me:

A lonely Konan (yes, I gave her a hug :P ):

And some other caracters that I don't know, but I liked their costumes:

Oh, and I don't know what this guy was about, but he/she was around there too xD :

I also met a Ruki and a Reita (The Gazette) - they were really cool: 

...I have a feeling that this town is culturally very active and this is so great!! I won't ever feel bored here xD

Netta (one of my host family's 3 children) seems to have started liking me too - at first she was really shy towards me, but now she keeps running around, talking to me (even if I hardly understand what she's telling me) and looking through my handbag for sweets when I come home xD and, of course, the other 2 children are nice too! 

Haha, when Mirkka's younger brother Miikka came to visit us at home and we talked about Tracon, he said that in the morning the first thing he saw was a "dragon" getting off a bus and he thought "wtf, how much have I been drinking?!" xDD

Tomorrow I'll be at the kindergarten again. Me and Despoina are starting a project for the childrens' parents there - Päivi, the head teacher, told us to take photos of all the children and places, ecxept the teachers' room (the kids are not allowed to see the "secrets" in there "yet" ;P ) and show them to the children and parents afterwards!

Later that day, I'll have language course again! I wonder what we'll learn next. :)

And I hope the letter with my ID number will arrive soon so that I can buy a bus card and don't always have to pay for the tickets anymore (after all, it becomes very expensive) >.<

Today I also found out how many people actually seem to be interested and read my blog - thank you to all of you!! You're great! (*o*)/  I'll keep doing my best to update you about me and Finland on this site! 

Going out: Keskusta & Särkänniemi

Terve! :D


I've visited the city centre (Keskusta) :) I took the bus - the radio played metal music! I love Finland :D

There's a lot of great possibilities for shopping! I was a little afraid, because people kept telling me that Finland is such an expensive country, but standing in the shops now, I came to find out that Austrian prices are just as high.

I bought some nice stuff and I also found an Indian (the one in Asia, not the Native American)  themed shop (I couldn't withstand my inner voice that wanted to buy that beautiful bracelet ;P ...well...now I got some Indian jewelery!)
Aaaand I had lunch at "Subway" ;D


I also found a new energy drink: Rockstar Recovery!! (*o*)/

Oh, and there was that fountain statue that I really like:

...I admit, this picture's quality is rather poor >.< but I'll return there and take a better one at a better opportunity! ;D

By the way, did I already show you my room's door sign?

 (it's not true, I swear!! xD ) 

I was also at the library and got myself a library card! So now I can loan books, CD's, magazins and DVD's. I can use the computers there too. Everything for free and in the whole area of Pirkanmaa :P Finland is great!

As I was walking along the main street of the city centre, there were a lot of Cosplayers too! I saw Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, Orochimaru, Ulquiorra and many more! Here are some of them (secretly photographed from behing >:P ):

There is such a huge variety of different people here! I think it's great how everyone's not the same and there's always some crazy person ahead that might surprise you xD

I feel like a lot of Austrians are too ashamed of showing too much difference, here in Tampere it's not like that I think.

When I got home today my host daddy, Lasse, was standing in the kitchen and baking some snacks - he said he was bored ;D

They taste great! (I love Finnish food, by the way) They're called Korvapuusti:

Lasse gave me the recipe, so when I'll come home to Austria I'll make my sister Isi bake these for us :P

Today, I was also at the Särkänniemi amusement park with Sini and Despoina (Andy couldn't come for some reason). It was very nice, but the weather was really shitty! It rained and then it stopped and the sun came out for some minutes and then it rained again, sometimes just a little, sometimes very heavy! >.< I'm afraid I may have caught a cold...

Still, I liked it. We were at the top of this tower:

And from there we could see this:

What do you think? Looks like a nice country? ;)

Here's also the promised Angy Birds Land:

...people here love Angry Birds (probably because it's Finnish)...and The Moomins xD

There were also some concerts - we saw 2 of them:

"Jupiter"

"Rivers of Mars"