Finnish life 202.

It was while eating at the university [of Tampere] on Friday that I made great strides towards understanding something about Finns and how foreigners perceive them. Ever since I moved here, people, including Finns, have been asking me what I think of Finns. "Some people think we're really rude." I would always draw a blank when I got this question because it confused me. I have many Finnish friends and acquaintances, none of which I consider rude, so why would people keep asking me that?

And then it hit me.

It's a slight difference in culture that sometimes makes people from a different culture slightly uncomfortable... and it happened to me last Friday. I realize now that it's happened before [which is why I was able to draw some "conclusions"] but I never really thought much about it. So here goes...[btw, this is a stupid story that you're likely to consider pointless.]

I was getting food from the vegetarian line-up, which apart from me was empty, but I was having a hard time understanding which was a side-dish and which was a main course. Then another girl came and since I didn't want to be in the way, I moved my tray and said: "you can go ahead, haha" followed by a somewhat awkward laugh, the kind you sometimes end up making when talking to a stranger. She seemed to give me a weird look and went in front without saying anything.

Now I don't know, and feel free to comment and prove me wrong, if Finns see anything wrong with that, but us North Americans do. [At least in the context of our own culture.] In Canada, it's polite to say thank you, or at least something to make you not feel silly, since no one wants to feel weird for too long. I discussed it with Juha and Jonne after and they both laughed at the expectation for further, however brief, dialogue.

So alas, I guess some cultural implications don't translate into other cultures. By now I know it doesn't matter how prepared you are; you'll still find these little things happening to you. Even after the tiny, meaningless thing, I couldn't help but feel a little stupid... and here I am, writing about it and reliving it haha.

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!

Bundle of randomness.

ZOMG. I have lots to update BUT TODAY was a very important day - it still is - because today was the day that Hanken published it's admission decisions. I was really uncertain about how that would go, especially following my last 2 rejections letter. I turned on my computer, checked my email but they hadn't written me yet. I checked my other email, my Facebook, etc... and then noticed a new email. And yes, I GOT IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are two main reasons for all those exclamation marks:
a) I get to stay in Finland, worry-free for 2 years.
b) I didn't have half the prerequisites they specifically asked for but I did have a strong application [I got more adamant about this as time went on haha.] so I'm really happy they didn't just say no because I hadn't taken a few extra marketing courses. [Now I'm just hoping that this wasn't a mistake and that I won't get another email later telling me that I got the wrong email. That is however, highly unlikely.]

In other news, not that I can focus on anything else right now, SUMMER IS HERE! I love summer. And I welcome the sun and the heat... but my brain doesn't function so well in them. I may have to buy a hat or something. I get really dazed. I think I drank over 2 liters of water yesterday and it still wasn't enough. Mind you, I did spend most of yesterday keeping Juha company during work. So I wasn't even actually in the sun!

Last week, Eeva and I had our usual Kokkikerho [cooking club] and cooked up one of my favourite dishes so far: Mediterranean Vegetable Rice Pie - A-M-A-Zing! I can't wait to make that again.

Thursday Mia and I went to Koskenranta and ate an avocado. It wasn't meant to be a picnic or anything, but rather, a sampling of avocado. [She'd never had it before!] We also went to 3 different coffee shops trying to find decaf coffee before finally settling on a decaf cappuccino from Cafe Europa.

Friday was very confusing. I wanted to see an exhibit at TR1 on the Finlayson grounds and asked Kate to come but her phone was dead and things got complicated haha. I ended up at the park with Heikki, who was studying math. Then Mia came and we all spoke Finnish. Then Juha came with some coffee and Batchi Balls [sp?] and we played [more Finnish!]. Needless to say, it was a great day to practice Finnish. After that, Juha and I headed over to that exhibit and later took a walk around Keskustori, where Finland's first McDonald's [25 years old] had burned down that day. Along with it went several +1M euro flats that were newly renovated and situated on top. The street was closed down for hours and I think the area is still taped-off.

Friday evening I had dinner at WokWok with Mia before she left for Italy! Mia's mom also came by! I later finished my dinner at Jonne's with Jonne, Anne and Juha while watching the hockey game. Belarus vs. Finland was pretty slow and uneventful but Finland won 3-0 in the end! We had lots of time to chat and catch-up. Anne had just gotten back from a trip to Prague and Copenhagen.

Saturday was Juha's Birthday!!!! We delivered some flowers in the morning [work-related] and then had most of the day to enjoy without having to worry about work. We lazed around, had lunch at 2h+k [2 huonea ja keittiö - 2 rooms and a kitchen], went for a short walk through the park, went grocery shopping, went to Nina's tuparit [unofficial /house warming], met up with Heikki, met up with Tuomo, ran into Antti, met up with Jonne 2, went to Doris, met up with Jonne 1, went to Tillikka [it was closed], went to Armas, met up with Eeva. Called Pena, went home, fell asleep in random places, woke up, went to bed!

And now I'm burning with impatience to check out what courses and such Hanken has!!

P.S. We bought our tickets to China last night. June 20-29th, Shanghai here we come!

May Kick-off post!

Dear friends and family,

It has been a rather interesting week here in Tampere. Upon returning from Germany, much of the information I'd been waiting on for the past couple months was delivered to me this week [Nokia-Siemens is out]. First off though, I hung out with Lauren on Tuesday - she brought hummus, we made stove-top popcorn - it was a delicious evening!

Wednesday I received a rejection letter from Aalto University. I'd applied to their International Design Business Management program back in February. Sadly, I can't fight their decision. 1/3 of the application is work experience and I just couldn't compete with the 1104 other applicants. The rankings they give you are out of 15 and since 5 of those points are for work experience, I ended up with a 9. I can't complain though. If I would've had relevant work experience (counted in years), I would've gotten in for sure.

Since getting that letter and having absolutely no other options to pursue at Aalto, I decided to appeal the first decision from Uni. Helsinki, which I found was very subjective. I wrote them a well-constructed letter today explaining that my undergraduate degree isn't way off base for this master's I applied to. I have no idea if this will make any sort of difference whatsoever, but in the meantime, I felt that at least I could do something with it!

Last night, Eeva came over and we began a kokkikerhu! (Cooking club) We want to meet regularly and make food so that we can both develop our cooking skills and cook in good company - thus the club! We made Spinach Tofu-stuffed Zucchini and it was absolutely delicious! I didn't take a picture and now that half the pan's been eaten, it wouldn't look professional to snap a shot but I'll be sure to capture it next time.

Today, I wrote my appeal in the morning, mailed it by 12:30 and met up with the WokWok crew around 1pm. Mia was there too so I got to see lots of friendly, familiar faces in one place. Nina had her car so I got a ride home after lunch and here I am. I started scanning through more job websites and found some interesting stuff. I'm going to keep applying and I'm also going to start applying to more permanent, full-time positions, especially in Tampere when I can find them. I can't rely 100% on getting into school so it's good to have other options. Nevertheless, I haven't yet bothered to get all stressed and work on a plan B in case all else fails. Either way, I actually want to be interested in the program I would be studying so I need to do some research into the universities as well and make sure that's where I want to spend the next 2 years of my life.

So for now, I'm just being patient for a few more days (I'm waiting on another decision May 17th.) and finding new opportunities through different media modes. [For example, I just joined Twitter this week! Look me up!]