- and not only in my dreams! Tomorrow will be my last day at work, and on Saturday morning, early, I will finally take the bus to my mum and dad's. I can't wait.
It's been a hectic month, this December. My to-do list for the past few weeks was miles long, but now I think I've reached the end of it (until I remember something I've forgot so far). I'm still not quite there in the jovial holiday spirit: it feels as if I can't relax until after I'm packed and on my way to the countryside, and even then there are things I can worry about if I wish to (and make no mistake, I shall). But at times my heart soares and I hear The First Nowell in my head...
Happy Christmas!
Friday, 19 December 2008
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Familiar
The other day I saw this girl in the bus I take to the university every day. She looked so familiar that I thought I must have seen her before: maybe she's on some course with me, or the friend of a friend, or maybe she goes to the same aerobics classes?
After some hard thinking, it suddenly dawned on me: she's the cashier at the local grocery store and I see her almost every day! It's sad, somehow, to realise how little attention you pay to people in customer service and how the transactions you have with them are so automatic you don't even think. (But maybe now I don't have to worry about whether people who came to the dry cleaner's I worked at last summer recognise me when they pass me on the street.)
After some hard thinking, it suddenly dawned on me: she's the cashier at the local grocery store and I see her almost every day! It's sad, somehow, to realise how little attention you pay to people in customer service and how the transactions you have with them are so automatic you don't even think. (But maybe now I don't have to worry about whether people who came to the dry cleaner's I worked at last summer recognise me when they pass me on the street.)
Monday, 1 December 2008
Scheduling conflicts
I hate making time-tables. Normally I'm very good at organizing and keeping track of things, but when it comes to arranging courses my systematic skills come tumbling down. I might have ideas as to what would be interesting, suitable, or compulsory, but when I should jot down the course codes and write my name on the right lists, I forget everything. And if, by any chance, I should remember, then all the courses I thought I would take are concurrent (next term Monday from 10 to 12 seems to be the only appropriate time for any course, regardless of section, or indeed, faculty).
I withhold the right to not graduate within the designated time.
I withhold the right to not graduate within the designated time.
Monday, 24 November 2008
What I love about snow
- the way it sings under my feet when I walk on it on a cold day
- how it transforms even familiar objects into something fairy-like and mysterious
- its wintery fragrance
- its beautiful colours
- the way it softens the world
- the way it receives all the meager light our winter sun sends forth and then gives it back manifold
- how it falls in soft swirls and stays on my eyelashes
- the enchanting fact that each snowflake is unique
- how it transforms even familiar objects into something fairy-like and mysterious
- its wintery fragrance
- its beautiful colours
- the way it softens the world
- the way it receives all the meager light our winter sun sends forth and then gives it back manifold
- how it falls in soft swirls and stays on my eyelashes
- the enchanting fact that each snowflake is unique
Thursday, 20 November 2008
First snowfall
It happened yesterday. I woke up in the morning (having gone to bed in dreary November rain) to find the world beautifully transformed into shades of blue and white... How much more light there is in a world of snow!
After nearly five months of not writing in this blog I can cast a short, retrospective glance over my shoulder and state that my fluctuating level of stress has come down markedly; I have made a new friend; I have unexpectedly developed a slight interest in interpretation; I have learned a lot of Tauno Palo and Ansa Ikonen; I have re-discovered my love for knitting.
(Oh, I almost forgot: I have taken the first step on my way to stardom. Two weeks ago an article I wrote was published in Tammerfors Aktuell, a fortnightly publication in Swedish here in Tampere. I wrote it, ME, and in SWEDISH! Truth be told, it was corrected first by my teacher and after that even by the editor, but it was my name that stood in the paper!)
After nearly five months of not writing in this blog I can cast a short, retrospective glance over my shoulder and state that my fluctuating level of stress has come down markedly; I have made a new friend; I have unexpectedly developed a slight interest in interpretation; I have learned a lot of Tauno Palo and Ansa Ikonen; I have re-discovered my love for knitting.
(Oh, I almost forgot: I have taken the first step on my way to stardom. Two weeks ago an article I wrote was published in Tammerfors Aktuell, a fortnightly publication in Swedish here in Tampere. I wrote it, ME, and in SWEDISH! Truth be told, it was corrected first by my teacher and after that even by the editor, but it was my name that stood in the paper!)
Thursday, 26 June 2008
They're all going on a summer holiday...
...whereas I'm destined to stay put for all weeks to come. Isn't summer supposed to be the high time of freedom, beauty, truth and love (above all things, love)? But no! Here it rains every second day, thunder storms and hale showers keep one up at nights, there is no one to talk to, and to cap it all, Italy didn't make it past the quarter-finals. Plus the longest 'holiday' I get to have this summer is three whole days.
Now that I got that out of my system, I can mention some agreeable things that have happened to me:
The Good Luck Shamrock my friend P left in my care for the summer is blossoming. Beautiful, pale violet flowers!
My balcony is full of flowers and bright with rich colours, the sort only nature can create.
In a week I shall witness the wedding of two friends: a match made in heaven if there ever was one.
Behind the window I can see a beautiful, peaceful summer evening sky...
I had a lovely midsummer with my family (including an uncommonly prolific photoshoot with my sister):
Our lovely miss Nekku hovered around the grill in the hope of catching a stray sausage.
What is marshmallow but fluffy sugar? Not the most salubrious of comestibles, perhaps, but o so good! (And please note my use of Grammar Hell vocabulary there.)
Now that I got that out of my system, I can mention some agreeable things that have happened to me:
The Good Luck Shamrock my friend P left in my care for the summer is blossoming. Beautiful, pale violet flowers!
My balcony is full of flowers and bright with rich colours, the sort only nature can create.
In a week I shall witness the wedding of two friends: a match made in heaven if there ever was one.
Behind the window I can see a beautiful, peaceful summer evening sky...
I had a lovely midsummer with my family (including an uncommonly prolific photoshoot with my sister):
Our lovely miss Nekku hovered around the grill in the hope of catching a stray sausage.
What is marshmallow but fluffy sugar? Not the most salubrious of comestibles, perhaps, but o so good! (And please note my use of Grammar Hell vocabulary there.)
Sunday, 8 June 2008
The child that is born on the Sabbath day
It's my birthday today. My Dad told me that the day I was born was very hot and that he and my elder sister visited my mother and newly-born me at the hospital by bike. I was born on a Sunday, and according to that English nursery rhyme I ought to be 'bonny and bright and good'. Which of course is true.
When my sister left Tampere for the summer, she was concerned that I might sink to the level of watching Smack Down on tv and drinking beer (well, I'm not certain that she mentioned beer). I haven't done that, but I've entered a jolly bachelor's life so far as to watch football on the net: Portugal played Turkey last night and I was disappointed in the outcome. Italy will play tomorrow and I will be glued on to the sofa. Maybe I'll even get some beer.
A week ago I went swimming in a lake for the first time this year. In Finland, we call that first out-door swim 'throwing off your wintercoat'. I threw mine in the lake Näsijärvi in Tampere, and the waters received it with cold arms. By the lake is a public sauna, which you can enter for the fee of 4.5 euros. If you walk quickly enough, you can retain some of the sauna's hotness in you before plunging into the waters - a wise precaution in the early summer!
When my sister left Tampere for the summer, she was concerned that I might sink to the level of watching Smack Down on tv and drinking beer (well, I'm not certain that she mentioned beer). I haven't done that, but I've entered a jolly bachelor's life so far as to watch football on the net: Portugal played Turkey last night and I was disappointed in the outcome. Italy will play tomorrow and I will be glued on to the sofa. Maybe I'll even get some beer.
A week ago I went swimming in a lake for the first time this year. In Finland, we call that first out-door swim 'throwing off your wintercoat'. I threw mine in the lake Näsijärvi in Tampere, and the waters received it with cold arms. By the lake is a public sauna, which you can enter for the fee of 4.5 euros. If you walk quickly enough, you can retain some of the sauna's hotness in you before plunging into the waters - a wise precaution in the early summer!
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