Kesäyliopisto - Summer University.

So I'm gonna rewind a bit because it seems I've fallen a little behind. Let us go back, all the way back to June 28th-July 9th. The Summer University course I'd signed up for: Upper Level Intermediate 1 was running during that time. I attended every day that I could, though we were still in China until the 29th.
I have to say - that course was great! It ran from 9am until 1pm, we had a 15 minute coffee break about an hour a half in and that way, we all got to meet and make friends. The morning usually consisted of correcting homework and covering new grammar material... while the post-coffee-break portion of the course was more participative and had us talking in groups, reading and translating texts or playing various games. I learned a great deal, and the best part was, I remembered a lot of it at the end of the 2 weeks. I also got to meet some really cool people and we now have a facebook group so that we can get together and practice.

Now part two of this story is not as hopeful. I signed up for yet another week at the summer university: Upper Intermediate Level 2. Sadly, this class was completely different. We have a new teacher and her "methods" are unknown to the world... talk for 4 hours in Finnish, present Finnish grammar as a grammatical reference guide would, without rules, just blobs of information, no exercises until 2 days later, charts of word types inflected in different cases that we simply copy from the projector. And guess what? I really want my money back... But everyone is on vacation and refunds are not generally commonplace. So I wait.. and see what August and the return of some of the finance/invoice people has in store for me.

With the huge disappointment that was course 2, I have to say, there's a bright side! A lot of my friends are toughing it out through the course [which I can honestly say is extremely admirable.] While I have chosen to enjoy my summer... I think I can benefit more that way and be happier overall! So yesterday Juha and I went Mini golfing with Claudia and Emrah...the boys won :(. And I met Mia for a French lesson thereafter! I've also been tutoring people in English - I have 2 students. I earn a very modest income but HEY - I earn SOMETHING! So that feels pretty good.

This weekend is a getaway weekend! I haven't left Tampere since we got back from China...which I realize is not so long ago, but we're headed up North to Kajaani. Juha's family lives there and has a mökki there [summer cottage.] It will also be the northernmost point I have ever visited!! So I'm bracing myself for an all-Finnish weekend and hope I can keep up to the best of my ability.

And now, I'd like to start posting some China pictures!