SWINNISH PARTY

The day after my last written message we went to Helsinki for a electronic music party. Nothing about the place is really special, but two Spanish guys and a criple Swiss can create a special atmosphere. Fins are obviously not good in creating a party-scene. Maybe they are in their own way. We were trying to make the best of it, which resulted in pogoing. Some Fins got pushed aside or got a bodycheck. None of them got angry, none of them went away and no security came to quite us down or kick us out. At a certain point I got overheated because I was wearing a turtleneck. So I took it off, which maybe wasn't the best thing to do because it left my upperbody naked. Apparently it triggered the two Spanish and the criple Swiss, who by then took of their t-shirts, climbed on the stage and started beating eachother with their t-shirts. This all happened after the criple tried to kiss the female singer of the band, and the Spanish had grabbed her microfone for some major karaoke performance. Unfortunately the mic was death and the male singer dragged the criple away from the girl. Nonetheless the Spanish kept screaming and the criple started to kiss the guy.......

The second day after my last writing was all about the Swinnish party. This party was organized by the "Swedish speaking Fins guild" in their own building. The ground floor is usually a restaurant, but changed into a disco. The basement is a afterparty bar and the board room is located at the top floor. Swedish speaking Fins from all around the area have gathered, while no Finnish speaking Fin is to be found. It is still unclear for me if there is any rivalry and why. Well... the Swedish speaking girls are in average more beautifull. The party itself was pretty lame, but luckely they have this "balls bath". I don't know the term for it, but I mean those areas filled with balls like in the IKEA or McDonalds. So our time consuming element of the evening was throwing balls at.... everyone. Bart was very succesfull with hitting the deejays :).
At the end of the evening we went upstairs, just out of curiousity. We were looking for a trophy, so at the end we went home with some certificate that was hanging on the wall. Bart wanted to fetch himself a nice chair, but I convinced him it was to difficult to smuggle out. BTW, don't worry. These things are just borrowed, there is now way that someone will bring a chair or other things back to holland.

Anyway, it kept us busy till I think 7 am. But we needed to be in Helsinki at 9 am, because of the history excursion. Yes, it was the first time that I attended a class not being sober...... well excursion......... on Saturday!

Tonight the Spanish are going to make us a fine dinner. At least I think so. And Saturday we're leaving for Stockholm!

AARRRGGHHHH!!!!

It is clear that the average age of the architectural students here is a bit higher than back home. This has several reasons. First of all it is hard to get into architecture studies. After failing, someone might succeed to get in after a few years. Secondly, most of the students are during their studies also working in an office. This causes delay, but that's not a problem because the schooling system is much more flexible. University is for free. The third reason is that most of the guys need to go in military service, what takes them one year.

I really don't have a problem with people being older. I also don't have a problem with moms studying in the same workspace as I am. But I do have a problem with the kindergarten/studio mixing. There is this one woman, walking around in a terrible coat made of towel fabric. She is 'ni-ing' allll day long!! Ni...ni...ninininini......ni......nini......ni....ninini....nini.....ninininininini.ni.ni........nini......ninini......nini.ni.ni. Is it already boring you? Luckily it is not everlasting. At some point she has to breath. So I close my eyes, enjoying the moment. Although it is short, the moment is intense and relaxing. "NI" Aarrrghhhh...... I open my eyes again and turn my head..... WHWHWHWOAHOHOHAOHOWHAOAAAA!!! A woman of equal ugliness is suckling her baby. What is wrong with these people??!! It doesn't get any better when a 3 years old spoiled kid is screaming and jumping around your workspace. Get him vodka, beer, make him Finnish: quiet!

So what is keeping me alive? Well........ it has been snowing! Yup, snow at the 10th of October. Isn't that nischhhh? :D Besides people ask me if there also Finnish Snow Whites. Yes there are. We have a princess among us at the faculty.

Miss Finland 2007

SNNOOOOOWWWW!!!!!

Just Home!

My back is covered by sweat. By telling Bart that I could ride home within 25 minutes putted a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I managed it to do so one time, but actually from the most South point of Helsinki it is impossible. However, I tried hard and managed to be back in 35 minutes. I needed to cycle fast, because it is freezing. Car windows, puddles and the sea bridge are covered by ice. One wrong movement and I could slip, break my neck and die. Luckily I'm Dutch and immune for this kind of situations. Eventually we're born on a bike. My blood shows more comparisons with Jenever than it does with water. So I don't have to be afraid that my blood gets frozen.

But now........ now it's time to sleep. Tonight I've concluded that some Spanish people talk as if they got frog's tongs. Some Spanish people like to sing and some Spanish people like to crawl underneath their desk after some vodka.

Cheers!

Last two weeks.

It has been a while, two weeks, since I've written a blog. Usually I try to keep the blogs short and readable. This time the blog is going to be short for sure, because I'm not really in the mood for writing. The past few days I've been quite busy with writing a book review. The book itself is very interesting. It is called 'Collapse, how socieities choos to fail or survive' by Jared Diamond and I would like to recommend it, although it is quite pessimistic :).

Last weekend was special cause my parents came over. Before their arrival I hadn't done any touristic things and drank proper beer. So I'll post some images of the past few weeks..... easy for me, easy for you!

Processing your thoughts.

"Don't work too hard, because it makes us look like shit.", according to a Finnish colleague of us. Yes, one of the 35 annual selected talented persons to become an architect. Hereby I take away the doubts of some......

Processing your thoughts is certainly as important, if not even more, as being productive. At least it is more interesting for you to read what kind of situation stimulates this processing. If possible, I'll try to visualize these situations.

That's all I wanted to tell you about this week, because the climax this week was in the middle of the night at the rooftop of a six stories high student flat. Yup, we tried to get into a after after after after after party. No luck.

Kristinestad

Friday we went off to Kristiinankaupunki, Kristinestad. This town is at the west coast of Finland and the people speak here Swedish. As you may know Finland is a bilangual country. Both Swedish and Finnish are the official language.

Anyway, the journey is 350 km. The five of us, Bart, Sebastian, Janna, Ian and I, were packet in a Fiat Bravo. Our first stop was at Sebastian's Grandma's place. Her house is really impressive. It used to be a restaurant and a casino for a while. Now there is a woman of 93 living there all by her self. Which is as impressive as the house itself. After saying hi we went to Sebastian's town house to get the cottage keys. From the town to the cottage is 7km on a sandy road through the woods.

Being in the car for more more than 3 hours, even the knowledge that you've almost reached destiny can't easy the pain of your knees, ass or neck. When you look through the windows you'll be staring at a line of trees, which were situated along the 350 and 7 km road. The moment this curtain of trees opened a panoramic view appeared. My cheeck was almost touching my knees, which were suddenly free of pain. We drove onto a small grass field, which led to a lake. There was the cottage situated, facing the water.

Bart, Ian and I started fishing. In the beginning it resulted in a major loss of gear. Our clumsiness prevented us of catching the first fish which took the bite. The fish started to notice that we are kinda fishing fools, so they started to tease us. As a result that Ian's line got bitten off, so that we lost another fishing plug. In the end we caught a fish. It luckely took my bait, Sebastian brought us some tools to get it out. Ian was enjoying the killing and Bart documented the scene.

In the evening we went into the sauna. 90 degrees is a nice temperature.......for a few minutes. Luckily the lake brings enough cooling. Swiming after the sauna gives a strange feeling. Your skin and some muscels hurt by the cold water, meanwhile you don't feel cold. A relaxed feeling took over me, but that might also have been the beer. Afterwards some 'Colin McRay' guy took us to town, to the Wild Wild West square. According to Sebastian Gipsies 'own' the place. Sorry Sabby, but there is nothing to own.

The moment we entered a bar, Bart got seduced by a woman of over 40. The moment we left the bar I got threaten because of my trousers. It was around 1:30 when we entered the club (the only one in town). Deserted, that's what the place and the club is. How would you describe a bar with only drunken old men/women which try stay on there feet, they all induvidually stagger around and once in a while they accidentally bumb into eachother. 90 % change that even then they won't have any conversation. But there is also a group of young people, like us. These people just end up in a club like this because there are no other options.

The next day started with some fishing exersizing. This time nothing got lost, no teasing and no fish. In the afternoon we checked out the cultural herritage of the town. Which includes a church from the 18th century, a church from the 19th century and a beuatifull house.

Everything on the church is original, except for the roof. Check out the pictures and pay attention to the wood connection. This church is the only one in whole Finland with this kind of wood construction.

After the keykeeper guided us through the church, we went to Sebastian's girlfriend's, Jannah's, parents to have dinner. After 40 minutes driving, we stopped at a white, kind of concrete house. Having tree 3 bedrooms, open staircase with void, a jacuzzi, sauna, fitness room and area for a bar, the house can be considered as pretty big. Bart and I were a little bit dazzled by the style of the house. It is a mixture between a house of the bad guy within James Bond (Sean Connory) movies and the Thunderbird mansion.

They have this huge garage in which they prepare their 'thunderbird' cars. Jannah's dad used to be the fastes guy in the country. Which means that he won the drag racing championships back in the 80's. The Camaro is still standing in front of the house, but downtuned.

We actually started with the dinner. It was delicious and I haven't, like the most of us, eaten so much in years. Not because we were starving and rudessly emptying all the pans on the table, but because there was so much variety in dishes. When offered it is proper to accept rather than decline the food. Shrimp cocktail, fish, grilled meat, boiled meat, boiled potatos, fried potatos, some sort of rice, salad, strawberries dipped in chocolate, frozen cream with special berries, cookies and we ended with "pistace nuts".

With totally filled stomaches we returned home to have a Sauna. It took a while before the sauna was heaten up, but around 11:30 pm it was ready.... After the sauna and swimming we took some Finnish sausage with mustard.

On sunday we went for mushroom hunting. I've never seen so many different and big sized mushrooms, but they tasted together with the fish delicious!

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.