Prohibition

Yesterday I cooked 'hutspot met worst' for Vladimi, Bart and Ian. Unfortunately I was forgotten the salt, otherwise it would have been their best meal ever. Just watch how happy they are, especially Vladimir can't wait to get started.

After the dinner we went to this sauna party.... but there is not much to say about that. The next event was better. The prohibition party. (Alcohol) Prohibition is in Finland seemingly impossible. Prohibition was together with the clothing from the 1920 the theme of the evening.

The main idea was to dress up fancy and hide some booze underneath. At the end of the evening I had to crash at Vladimir's place, because it was too late to catch a bus. I had a great evening, met Meg Ryan and woke up without a headache.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to Kristinestad, to Sebastian's summer house. We'll stay there for the weekend.

Being Positive

This time I'm going to write something positive, because I have to. "Do you actually like it in Finland" Yes I do. I highlighted some parts, because they were in my opinion quite typical. I've been accused of treating the Finnish with disregard, maybe... But at some points they do weird things. And yes again, I say this probably from a Dutch perspective.

So what did I do in this positive Era? The first event was some sort of opening party of the design week. There was this catwalk show and some art was displayed. Ever noticed what a catwalk attracts.... beautiful women..... lots of them..... (isn't that positive?) Secondly I went to this sauna party. Unfortunately not with those beautiful women. It was a party for the international students, but only a few showed up. I stayed in the sauna for a while and had some dinner with Ian and Vladimir afterwards.

Friday was stage 1 in my becoming serious progression. Sebastian took me to this underground club called "playground". The club closed at 4 am and opens again at 5 am for an after party. Drugs was offered and drugs were taken. I just took the regular one, alcohol, and watched people getting some everlasting energy boost. Yup, that was a serious party.

Sunday night we went to the Helsinki amusement park. Fun.

Monday was a moment of serious studies. The class started at 3 pm and finished around 7 pm. The teachers give interesting lectures and the exercises are some you can actually learn from. A remarkable thing is the relaxed attitude of the teachers. They are never in a hurry and not worrying about time. While TU Delft admitted this year around the 600 freshmen, these teacher are pretty shocked/surprised with 34 students in a seminar room. As time doesn't matter the teachers start discussing about the 'huge' amount of people in a room, which is to small. After 30 some minutes they conclude (like last week) that we should move to another room. 30 minutes are wasted, but none of the teachers consider to shorten their story. Best thing to do as second lecturer is to take a power nap at the front row, even though you're snoring. Things are maybe not that well organized, but flexible and relaxed.

For some of you:

Rather German than Dutch........... anyway....... we all love concrete!

ScandinAsia

Like mentioned before karaoke is also quite popular in Finland. Bart and I tried it once at the karaoke association at the campus area. Although we are gifted, the language was an obstacle. By gifted I mean Dutch enthusiasm, it is all about the performance.

So there we are, downtown Helsinki, yet again at a freshmen's party, but this time in a bit more fancy surroundings. Last week good oldy 'Captain Jack' made my feet go crazy, shaking me from left to right, left...right... left. Maybe I should have left. Last night was different. There was Ken. You remember Ken? Ken took us for about 3 minutes into the realm of Barbie. And believe me, I don't need Ken to make me realize that Finland is a neighboring country of Sweden.

Anyway, on the floor below there was this chill out area with karaoke. Bart and I decided at the end of the night to give a blasting performance. Unfortunately there was a cue of 10 persons and Bart had to catch his bus. So we left while the DJ was playing a song of the Vengaboys.... yes the absence of the Dutchmen had to be compensated.

No more chittychatty about very cosy, but a bit lame freshmen's parties. University has also begun. Our first serious lecture kept us seated from 15:00 till about 19:00. The course is about urban planning improvements in the so called 'Third World', if I still may say so. Besides, I'm accepted into the Public Building Studio, like I believe everyone is. So we are getting serious now. No introduction lectures any more, but serious ones. No introduction parties anymore, but serious ones. No lousy karaoke any more, but serious practice. Please join me in my Karaoke quest. In china they have 1.3 billion Chinese, in Finland they have 1.3 billion trees. Lets hear some signing in Holland. Our tulips will grow better, our weed will be stronger, our cheese will be better and our windmills will run faster. Perhaps we will reach the 1.3 billion with this song..........

Finnish way of partying.

The university organized a pick-nick for all the new students on Tuesday. It was on the field on front of the main building. They drove a stage on the field and I was expecting some food stands and a bar including beer pump. There was only one hot-dog stand where a single hot-dog was at least 4 Euro. Nevertheless, we didn't expect this to be our only 'dinner option' because the event was labelled as 'pick-nick'. Every guild brought their own grill and sausages. However, our guild only brought a grill, no beer and no food. So we (Barthold and me) bought our own beer in the supermarket and drunk that among the others. After a while we started to feel hungry.. and because our own architecture guild didn't bring any food we tried to get some at a guild which grill was packed. Our attempt was without any lucky, cause in Finland it seems to be that at an organized pick-nick at which you're invited, you're suppose to bring your own drinks an food. With a supermarket around this was easily solved, but we were kinda amazed.
Besides it wasn't that crowded. And I can image why when the university invites a so called 'Love Metal' band which only attracts 15 year old groupies. Anyway, we had a nice time learning some Finns with strange names: Antti, Antti-Matti, Aku, Jirre, Tuamen, Elsi and many many more which I can't remember. On the other hand Koen isn't that common as well. Usually it is written down as Kun or pronounced as Koën. Pronounced in the correct way it means 'sleepy' in Chinese, 'ass' in Afghan and 'when' in Finnish........ then there is also 'Barendregt', well I don't have to explain any further.
After the pick-nick we had an after-party in someone's dorm. This was a real 'after party', cause it wasn't particularly a party. Although this had a High-School character it was still good to meet some more Finns. Around midnight I went back home on my just rented bike. The usual 20 minutes ride took me about 1 hour cause a sign was broken off, which doesn't really help when it's your first time.

Yesterday there was this 'Fuksi' event. The Fuksi are the freshmen, after a while they are allowed to wear a cap. Therefore they need to earn points, which can be done by playing games. Barthold and I are not really interested in this cap cause it is still considerable expensive. Anyway, we did some games. Among we sang a Finnish song at the Karaoke,and acted as Mario and Luigi in a television show. The students here have their own television channel and all the activities during the last days are live broadcastings. While we were live on cam Barthold was so nice to mention 'Okenoken' which comes from the purno de purno cartoons. Meanwhile I had drunk tooo much what made me offer to explaining the game. Watch the movie and figure out whether the Finns liked it or not :S.



After the games there was a party, which again reminded me of High-School. But then again there were a lot of exchange students, so it was good evening anyway.
Tonight I take a brake, cause tomorrow is promising!

Finally the campus!

It is beautifull weather, there is a nice sun and a fresh wind blows through my room. After a day of resting and reading I wanted to get moving. Although my tutor planned to pick-up my public transportation card, internet account and student member card by tomorrow, I wanted to have these things as soon as possible. A ride with the bus costs at least 2.50 (withouth traffic card). Besides I wanted to get a bycicle.
Today I've handed in the forms for the student union membership card and the bycicle rental. I also picked up the student computer account and traffic card. Only waiting for the bike pick-up time and place and the student membership card is left over. At the end of the afternoon I was a bit dazzled by the bureaucracy. However, I'm happy that I've done my part today, because most of the international students will be applying tomorrow or the day after and standing in a line will really test my patience and mood.

Anyway, I've taken some pictures. Some are from my departure, but most of today. The campus has some special atmosphere. It is designed by Alvar Aalto. You should really check out his designed wooden chairs. He's one of (or the) first who used bended and laminated wood in furniture design. The campus was designed to be in balance with nature. It worked out since you feel like your in the woods, at the same time you get easily lost at the first time becasue of the organic design. Not knowing what's behind the corner...... perhaps another tree....

The Address:
Timpurinkuja 1A 023
02650 ESPOO

Finland day 1!

Finally I’m in Espoo (near Helsinky), but at the moment pretty tired. Some things kept me awake during the past few nights. It wasn’t beer this time…. Last night it was my backpack, but I managed to pack it in time with no things missing so far.

After my arrival I took the bus to the main train station. There I met with Matti, who brought me to my flat. It is a nice place. Very clean, which isn’t a surprise when it was inhabited by three girls during the last term. I don’t want to raise a certain general impression, but I do think they deserve a compliment. What also comes in handy is that the apartment is at about 5 walking minutes distance from the biggest shopping mall in the area. If I might believe Matti the best library is behind this mall, where renting a dvd costs only 50 eurocents!

Anyway, I’ve unpacked my bag, bought a phone-number and bought some food to survive the Sunday. Tonight I need to read a bit about the university and the area around Espoo and Helsinky. Sports, friends and exams were keeping me busy the past weeks, so I didn’t take the time to prepare myself……….well not enough.

Yes I’ve met my roommates and some other people including a Dutch person, but I’m not going to tell you anything about my preconceived opinions. First I need to figure out myself what kind a “at 16:00 eating pasta with egg and beer for breakfast – from ‘central Europe’ coming – can’t shake your hand – I have Amsterdam flag on my wall” for person is.

"goodbye I'm getting old BBQ"

Yesterday I organized a ‘goodbye I’m getting old’ BBQ. The ‘I’ would be me. Two weeks ago I have reached the age of 22. Shaving my beard has become useless and I’m trying to avoid the hairdresser before boldness catches me. Yes, the world is cruel, but luckily we have the knowledge to slaughter animals and brew beer! Well… ‘we’ doesn’t include me this time. Nevertheless, just eating and drinking isn’t a burden.
So I had invited people of whom I saw some too few or some too often, who are best friends or vaguely known. What counts is that most of them have a story to tell, a story I was interested in. A story which after all hasn’t reached my ears. I’ll have to see the ones I saw too few more often and the ones I see too often even more, to hear the stories………….and drink ;-).
Anyway the food was good, yes I’m ready for Finland…..are you?