Northern lights returning to Tampere

Yes, yesterday chances of catching the aurora off-guard were quite high, so I packed my stuff, put my thickest pullover on and headed over to Rauhaniemi beach. For a long time - quite some hours - the sky was filled with clouds, almost no chance to catch a glimpse on the stars or what lies beneath, but all of a sudden it started to clear up and it did not take long for the first arms of this night's aurora to reach over the horizon. It was not that strong, though, but still there. Moreover I'm quite happy that the pictures I took this time are quite a lot better than my first try. After all, it needs some practice. :)
...but watch for yourselves:

Note, however, that the camera showed me more intensive colours than I saw on the night sky with my eyes. At first you could have even been confusing the northern lights with strange looking clouds, because they were so light.

Also, the view I got when walking there (I decided not to take the but, so that I'd know the way afterwards and just for the sake of having a walk), was quite breathtaking sometimes:

I adore how the sky looks like velvet on the last one.. (*-*)

Visiting Rovaniemi and Chatting with Santa

So last weekend our journey took my friend Christin and me way up north, behind the vast forest lands and far away from proper civilization - until we even crossed the Arctic Circle and officially set foot on polar grounds. Though, it was not what you would expect - no icy desert with some reindeers and bears here and there (we were there in the middle of September after all, which meant that we just missed the first snow fall by being a couple of days too early)

The night we spent in Rovaniemi, capital city of Finnish Lapland, with two locals, close to the centre, meaning only about 15 minutes to walk. Even if Rovaniemi is considered a city, (the northernmost of Finland actually), there's no comparison to any other I've been visiting so far, excluding Vaasa.

So, even if we did not have any snow, there was sure some beautiful autumn landscape and trees in all kinds of warm colours. - like this:

Also, we could not catch a glimpse of the northern lights, since the sky was all filled with rainy clouds. Well, after all, we saw them at the Arktikum. There was a darkened cinema-like room inside the museum where you could lie down on pillows and look up to the ceiling and observe northern lights "secondhand". :P
They also showed to tales of how people explained the existance of this phenomenon. First and probably most well-known one says that it's a fox running across the sky, swining his tale and through that enlightening the sky. Another one claims that it's the dead playing football with the skull of a walrus. Watch it here:

We even met a German-Finnish guy who used to work at the Arktikum sometime and we ended up getting in for free, personal guide included ;D thanks, Philipp!

Last, but not least, we took a bus to Santa Claus Village, where we bought some postcards from the elves, enjoyed the strange feeling of listening to Christmas songs in September and met the one and only Santa Claus himself in his office, having some nice talk in German, though we did not end up sitting on his lap :P

what's new and in progress ;)

Hej ni!

I've spend all week keenly watching children's movies in Swedish together with my notebook and pen. ;) it's quite amazing how much I can understand solely from the other languages I'm already able to speak, though it's much much easier if I also have the subtitles to read while listening to how the words are being said.
- by the way, did you see this new Disney Version of "'Rapunzel"? If not, take some minutes and watch it - it's awesome and well worth being seen. :)

The language course is going on, though now my German Au Pair friend decided that she won't be coming anymore, but concentrate fully on learning Finnish instead, but no worries, for as always and wherever I go in this nordic country, I found another German girl to talk to and help each other with mastering the Finnish instructions on learning Swedish xD anyways it's still sad that in the end we couldn't pull through together, as we planned to, so good luck and all the best for learning Finnish, Christin! :)

Today is the first day that feels kinda cold here up north. These last days it was quite fresh during the day, but in the late afternoon the sun always tended to warm up the area again and rise the temperatures over 20°C...just hoping that snow's not coming yet ;)

Lately I've also found these Danish cookies at "Tiger", one great store to find anything you would not expect to buy when going shopping xD

...it reads "These butter cookise are from Denmark, a small country full of fairytales, kings and queens...and a rather large export of bacon. Our queen lives in a castle guarded by soldiers wearing bearskin hats. The queen loves her sausage dogs, and they love Danish butter cookies for breakfast...I imagine. I also imagine how the vikings would eat cookies in the afternoon. I eat mine in the evening with a nice glass of cold milk...enjoy yours - as you like"

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Last weekend I wanted to go to Tracon 8, one of Finland's bigger conventions, held in Tampere-talo, but since I did not reserve a ticket one month ahead, it was sold out by the time I arrived. In the evening, however, I gave it another try, as I wanted to attend the after-party and Overworld's first-time-playing-in-Finland gig --> and, YESS, I got in! ;D I went alone, so I started talking to some girls that seemed sympathetic and set myself a challenge with that - for I talked to them in Finnish only. After one and a half hour we came to talk about our homes and one of the girls asked if I'm coming from a swedish-speaking part of Finland, because of my accent.

GODDAMNIT, I'M SO PROUD OF NOT BEING ASSUMED AS A FOREIGNER ANYMORE, BUT A FINN FROM A SWEDISH-SPEAKING PART OF THIS CO'UNTRY! :D :D

...and with that I made new friends and got to know some people from Tampere, Helsinki and Espoo, of which some belonged to 2 bands I've already been hearing from. :) Jenlayn and Karmia - check them out!

Overworld's show itself was really great! I've already been hearing how amazing it would be beforehand and my expectations were all fulfilled. I got carried away with the beat and ended up quite exhausted after all the dancing, singing and headbanging.

(can you find me here? ;) )

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Wanna hear what's coming up next? 

- Going to Rovaniemi, cross the Arctic Circle and meet Santa Claus. ;)

That's the plan for the following weekend. This morning I met with Christin at the library to plan our trip and check the books for advices, sights and stuff to do. Now, I'm all into travelling xD looking forward so much to getting to know a new area and taking one step closer to the north pole. 

...about a mökki and new goals (:

Lately I've been going with my host family to their cottage on the northern coast of Näsijärvi. - My first "mökki"-visit ever :DD and it was so beautiful *-* I had my own little house, which was not more than a big bedroom, but so cosy and nice. We played with the kids, took lots of photos, had barbecue with the german speaking neighbours and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

...and there's some new achievements in my life as well: 2 days ago I've been driving a car in Finland for the first time! :D I have to take the kids to their hobby activities sometimes when the parents are on business trips, therefore it became a new challenge. Everything went well though and anyways I don't have to drive through the centre, so it's quite easy.
...but wait, there's more: I've been signing in to a Swedish course in addition to my Finnish one - YAY!!! :D it's really fun and as a person having German as a mothertongue, some words seem quite funny being written down in Swedish, but being spoken everything just sounds so cool! :D the only difficulty is that the course itself is being held in Finnish, which makes proper understanding of each detail rather difficult sometimes. - but I'll manage! plus I have a Swedish-speaking friend in Austria as well whom I can gladly ask all the time if I need some help :3 Tack så mycket, Tanja!!

To be continued... :)

Dear readers,

I've decided that even though my EVS year has finished, I do not yet want to let go of this blog, so I'm gonna continue updating it right here! ;D
I've returned to Tampere, Finland, yesterday evening and was welcomed warmly by my lovely new host family. For those who do not know about it yet - I've started to be an Au Pair. We haven't been knowing each other for a very long time, but so far I can tell that they are 2 really nice and helpful parents with 3 very sweet kids.
One of the kids even told me already that I am the best Au Pair they've ever had! :D        

I received an awesome "Welcome"-drawing as well:

YAAAY!!! Kiitos paljon, Aamu!! :D

It was a long day, more or less all spent on airports in Munich, Copenhagen and Helsinki and I was happy when I could ultimately hit the bed. Still it felt great that by the time I arrived everyone was still awake, waiting for me.

And slowly I'm learning about all of my tasks here and the places that I will have to take the children to.

What's left to do is getting my stuff that I left at Mirkka's house, get the registration and all the official stuff done and change my bank.
I'm also looking forward to the language courses - this year: Finnish and Swedish! :D I'm so very glad that in the end it was possible to attend both of them!

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Changing the topic - it's been a while since I've been writing any news in here and my summer vacations were surely interesting: I went home to Austria for about one and a half months and I was welcomed with joy by my friends and family - some who encouraged me to go to Finland again, others who were sad that I was leaving again - and I can fully understand both sides.

One week, I spent in Southern France with my mother, my younger sister and my uncle. We were visiting some more relatives living in "Ales" and who's ever been thinking that there's a big cultural difference from Finland to Austria has never been in what they call the "real France" ;D While being there, it was crucial to revive my French skills again and I was glad that I've been learning the language long enough to really understand everything they said, even though they tended to speak faster then I ever could do in my own mothertongue. On the contrary, by the end of the week, my mind had gone so deep into the French language, that I started fearing that I would not be able to communicate in Finnish anymore, since I could not remember (which turned out to be wrong though now that I find myself again surrounded by Finns).

Anyways it was surely enjoyable to experience the entirely different mentality and dive into a pool of noise, temperament, good wine, lot's of food and friendliness that knows no limits. 

I think that ever since I left my own four walls to live in another country, I've become more sensitive to the diversity of people's habits, believes and behaviours according to the culture they belong to.

On the other hand, I did some very Austrian stuff - such as hiking ;D it's been an eternity since I was in the mountains and I enjoyed it more than I thought! I wasn't as hard as I remembered it to be and in the end we were sitting on top of the world ;)

I hope that I will also find an opportunity to go sonwboarding there again this winter. *-* I never thought that I could miss winter sports as much as I learned to while being away from the Alps.

In addition, I made sure to meet as many friends and relatives as possible and catch up to the present with them. We even had a class reunion shortly after my arrival, plus gladly this time I did not miss "Fallen Up"'s concert. Still, there's some that I could not manage to meet in time, which I have to change by the time I am at home once again. So sorry, Angy, Steffi and Sabine! :/

I'm also happy to announce that there's a small group of friends who decided to come visit Finland around New Year. :D Yay!

Believe me, it's the strangest feeling to be back in Tampere, because I've been away for almost 2 months - too long for a holiday, too short to say otherwise; but even though I feel a little sad thinking about my parents and how sad they feel about my absence, I also enjoy being here. And again, I was really lucky to find such a great host family with kids that easily open up to me and do not regard me as a stranger. 

Tuska Metal Festival @ Helsinki

Needless to say, it was breathtaking!! \m/

The decision to go was as spontaneous as could be, I received cheap tickets through a friend who happened to know someone who... etc. ;D
Anyways, I ended up at the gates together with my Costa Rican headbanger, Isa, inbetween a pool of long-haired metalheads, all geared up to set Finland's captial on fire.

We were there only for 1 day, sunday, but it sure was great!
Nightwish was there of course, along with bands like Battle Beast, Stratovarius, Santa Cruz, Khroma... and my favourite of them all - Amaranthe! :D
The weather was hot, despite rain forecast, and we made sure to get some autographs and little talks to the artists as well (really cool people!).

Thank you Isa, for enjoying this legendary day with me! <3
And thank you Amaranthe, for having this song stuck in my head ever since:

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Suomi - Finland - Perkele !!!