The uneventful life of a person who does nothing

I don't think I have a lot to write about this week. It was fairly uneventful and I don't have anything particular in mind...oh screw it, I'm just going to ramble!

I had an exam on animal osteology yesterday. We were required to identify animal bones, which was not as hard as I had expected. The essay questions were more difficult, I have a feeling I did fairly poorly at those. One was on methods of determining age from teeth and the pros and cons of these methods. I could come up with only two commonly used methods and I really think it's all there is but I feel hesitant abotu the way I wrote about them. The other essay was on what the skeletal remains of mammals have told us about the post Ice Age Finland, now this one I was far more uncertain about. I felt like I just puked random facts onto the paper - I avoided accurate information and naming time periods. Curse my unprepearedness...

Right now I should be studying the Gallic Wars. I'm reading a book on it by Julius Caesar but it's ridiculously hard to determine what is by the translator and what Caesar actually wrote, if he wrote anything in it. It's very confusing, I don't think I've ever been this confused over a book, ever.

In other news, I've developed a very annoying cough, a bad one. Usually it takes a flu to cause something like this to me but this time I haven't been ill, which is why I'm rather puzzled. It started right after I did that swamp roaming and it's been getting worse ever since. It feels like my lungs are full of goo or water...I kind of wish I had a magical squeegee that I could use to scrape my lungs clean of what ever the hell it is that's causing me to cough. Today my mom said that if I went to a doctor now, he'd tell me to quit smoking. I replied with "and I would yelp 'but I haven't even started yet!'"(I haven't smoked in my entire life). I should probably go see a doctor at some point, these coughs of mine are ridiculous.

Oh! And guess what? I think my lap top is breaking! AGAIN! I've had it back for only two weeks or something! If I do have to send it back to repair again it will be the third time. Mind you, this is a new lap top, hasn't been in use for even a year yet, and it wasn't cheap! You can probably guess I'm pretty pissed off right about now.

I got the hang of Thursdays

Greetings hoopy froods!

(Just FYI, my title was almost "I got the Hank of Thursdays". Is it still a Freudian slip when you type it?)

Towel Day / Geek Pride day was yesterday. It celebrates some of my favourite things: Hitchhiker's Guide, and being a nerd. To commemorate the auspicious occasion, I went over to thinkgeek and salivated over some of the nerdy/geeky items that they have in stock, especially some of their Firefly and Star Wars paraphernalia. Unfortunately, it usually costs around $30 AUD to ship anything, and my budget isn't too accommodating at the moment.

Instead of buying nerdy things, I decided to do such nerdy things as studying for my finals which are coming up in a couple of weeks, and watching Glee. While I know that the show can be obnoxious, I think one of its strong points is that it takes a group of outcasts and gives them a voice. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that being a nerd isn't 'cool'. Hopefully this will continue to change; I think that things like YouTube and video games are becoming more and more mainstream, so general nerdiness is on the rise, folks!

Today, I took the day off uni to work on a research assignment; I have to talk about whether television is 'dying'. I think my angle will be that though the content itself isn't dying, the medium through which we consume the content is changing/fragmenting/whatever.

Don't Forget To Be Nerdy!

Happy Geek Pride!

I have to admit that to me it's primarily Towel Day, but I didn't want to alienate the observers of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May and Star Wars Day ;). I've never quite managed to reach geek level when it comes to Star Wars (haven't even seen most of Episodes II & III yet). Discworld I'm really quite fond of, but I'm also terribly allergic to lilac, so a day walking around with one pinned under my nose would likely end in the hospital. I'm fond of Discworld, but not that fond.

Admittedly, I left my towel at home today as well, but mostly 'cause I only went out to buy groceries and it would've been in the way. I took a betoweled picture for my facebook profile, does that count?

I like the idea of the towel as a sort of anchor for the perpetual traveler. For Ford it's almost like a portable home – not in the sense of the structure, but in what “home” ought to provide: Nourishment, shelter, comfort. As long as you know where your towel is, you're safe. I think for a lot of mobile people their computers or phones have taken that place (to some extent), but in older travel literature you find these sort of objects quite often. Usually they're related to people left behind, but Adams seems to have created such an object even for those who are more or less rootless. It's still a household object, but one that can be found anywhere, isn't connected to anyone specific, and is more or less replaceable.

I was going to watch the H2G2 movie today, but apparently I lent it to someone and never got it back (hate when that happens), so I think I'll just snuggle up in bed with a nice glass of white wine and a certain book by a certain tall guy who sadly passed away way too early ten years and two weeks ago.

Did you celebrate Geek Pride Day?

Deprivation

I went to the doctor for my regular check up and had my complete blood chemistry checked. It seems that some of my stats aren't too good. I have had some problems before but I was able to regulate it with exercise and proper diet.

So why am I sharing this? It is because I am officially declaring that from now on I will live a much healthier life. And my first course of action is to avoid most, if not all, of the food that I should veer away from. This is no joke for me, specially because of the fact that I'm not only avoiding fatty things but also things that are high in uric acid. Basically my diet will now only consist of skinless chickens, some seafood, and some vegetables. I am also officially quiting alcohol and caffeine which I think is the hardest thing to do.

To top it all off, I will will not let a day go by where I haven't ran, swim, or anything that will make me sweat depriving me of a few hours of lazy Internet time. I take it back, this IS the hardest thing that I'll have to do.

QOTD: How's your health?

Hear from you guys soon,

RUBEN IV

 

P.S. I will miss you Burger. I will be healthy enough to enjoy you once again.

DEATH TO SWAMPS!

This week I went through a bit of a personal hell due to the fact that our archaeological field survey course began on Monday. Monday was perfectly fine, we went to the university, looked through some survey files and practised using the GPS. It was indeed fine and dandy, even though it rained.

But along came Tuesday. The Hell of Hells. That was when we began our practical field surveying. Which meant that, like during the field trip I took and complained about here, we would first drive in the middle of nowhere and then start making our way deep into the forest. This time, though, the teacher with us wouldn't be leading us to look at a known site - we would be trying to find new sites while the teacher would try to remain as unhelpful as he could.

One of us would handle the map, one the GPS, one would carry the supply bag, one the core drill and one was in charge of the camera. I ended up being in charge of the GPS and I would be helping the one responsible for the map (navigator) with guiding us and determining where we were. At first I was a bit nervous about it since I wasn't the best at reading the GPS yet, but after five minutes I was just glad I was not the navigator because that map was confusing. Mind you, I've been orienteering since I was in elementary school and I was still fairly inept at reading it (I'm ashamed to say I can't even use the compass correctly - no, I wasn't even lousy at orienteering. I liked it! I found it to be easy! Weird, I know). Eventually I did get the hang of the GPS and I was even able to help the map person by realizing where we were - it was still fairly difficult.

But to the actual experience that made it hell:

We were there from 9-10 AM till 4PM, walking around in difficult terrain. It was similar to the field trip we took, just worse because the area we were surveying was very swampy - sort of a boreal swamp/marsh-ish to be more exact. I don't know if any of you have any idea about walking in swamps but let me tell you it is not nice and it doesn't exactly become easier after 6 hours of doing it.

The kind of boreal swamp we were facing had small pines, marsh tea and other plant life growing in it along with the oh so dominating moss. I'm used to thinking that thick-looking lumps of moss would carry weight better, but when you hit the proper swamp, this was not the case. It was like stepping onto a big soft pillow that was filled with mud. So, when walking, first you would sink and then you would have to raise your legs high due to the undergrowth, and even slightly higher due to the sinking. While trying to do this, your shoes would get stuck in the mud a bit and you would have to avoid a whole bunch of things from random piles of animal faeces to deeper and wetter holes between the lumps of moss. You know, before this little trip, I had no particular opinion on swamps. I just didn't want to go near them and I kind of feared I would drown in one if I got too close to it. But during Tuesday I started to form the firm opinion in my head: I hate swamps.

When you would finally get out of the actual swamp (Just a side note: There was one swamp we crossed several times for one stupid reason or another *facedesk*), you would be glad, thinking now there will be solid land beneath your little rubber boots but no, the forest has swampy elements in it too and when it doesn't have random spots of swamp, it still has annoying undergrowth, strange holes you can twist your ankle in, thickets you have to push through, slippery rocks, soft moss, both dead and alive trees, etc. The conditions were not made any easier by the fact that it had rained recently and everything was extra wet. I got pretty tired pretty fast, and it didn't help that our navigator and our teacher both walked fast and we had to try and keep up.

Towards the end of the day it was like my legs had been on fire. They started to feel really pathetic as I couldn't raise them high anymore, making it increasingly difficult for me to walk through the difficult terrain. This was when we actually found a new ancient site, an hour before we were supposed to be finishing up. Luckily it was not much leg work to document the site, I think I would have died. While I did not get to sit around, it still felt like my legs were able to rest a bit. But then, after documenting the site, we had to carry on and hurry to the car. I was pretty okay while we were still in the forest with some solid ground but then we entered the damned swamp area again! This time it was several swamps in a row, then thickety forest. I swear I contemplated on just laying down on the swamp and giving up on life. The rest of the group had to slow down a fair amount for me, but I just couldn't walk that efficiently anymore. I panted a lot and I felt like throwing up due to that.

But oh the glee when we FINALLY came to the dirt road we had parked the car on. Solid ground! Solid ground that would not sink, that didn't have holes in it, that didn't have growth on it that required me to raise my legs like a bloody stork! This was when I really realized how weakened my legs were; I could barely raise them off the ground even on solid road.

That was also when I decided to drop the course. This was the first day of almost two weeks of surveying and I knew that the next day I would only tire sooner. I would not be able to keep up with the others, I would hold everyone back and I would end up hurting myself. I need to attend it when I'm not in such a crappy shape...

So, there. My Tuesday hell.

I can't think of anything to write about

>< Seriously, I have no idea what I can write about today, hence the lateness of this post. I didn't want to miss another week, so I think I'll just ramble along for a little while. I guess I'll just talk about what I've been up to this week.

I got great marks for an assignment I did about True Blood, so that's good. I've managed to pass all of my assignments so far this semester. It's been a little tough; the subjects I'm doing are really information-heavy, and having to read textbook chapters for 3 subjects every week, plus 3-5 cases for each subject, is not exactly the funnest thing ever.

I'm a terrible procrastinator, so that doesn't exactly help me. Thankfully, I'm not failing anything, and I've got my Arts subject to prop up my GPA. I've got 2 weeks before exams start, with 1 70% exam and 1 100% exam to do, as well as 2 assignments. One assignment should be fine, but I'm slightly worried about my one for criminal law.

Oh well, at least I'm busy!! xD

(Sorry I missed last week. Had three presentations in eight days, hence no time to blog)

Growing up, I really didn't like my parents music. My dad - who usually has control of the stereo at my parents place - is mostly into jazz fusion (Weather Report, Blood Sweat & Tears, that sort of thing). Nowadays there are a few things we can agree on (Buena Vista Social Club, Jamie Cullum etc.), but mostly tastes still differ widely.

Oddly enough the only early memory I have regarding my parents' music is of a song they claim they've never had in their record collection. I vividly remember standing in our living room, complaining about my parents putting on that awful, awful record again, but until a few years could never actually place the song. Then, during one of my quiet-music phases, I started to get into Simon & Garfunkel. And lo, there it was!

So either my mom (who has a major inferiority complex when it comes to music, so it's not entirely impossible), secretly owned Simon & Garfunkel records, or someone stole the intro? I don't even know.


On to other things. A media prof on my feed tweeted that if he could ban one word from students' essays it would be “poignant”, 'cause they all used it incorrectly. So I got curious. I'd say my English vocab is pretty solid when I actually give a damn about speaking pretty, correct English (which, admittedly, isn't that often the case), but I rarely look anything up, meaning that “wrong” usage by native speakers (or “shifting usage” as my prescriptive grammar/language hating self would prefer to say) tends to sneak in quite frequently. So I grabbed my dictionary of choice, and was confronted with

poignant adj – making you feel sad or full of pity.

whut?
It happens a lot, as a non-native speaker learning by immersion, that you simplify meanings, or miss connotations of certain words. But I'd only taken "poignant" to mean something along the lines of "to the point" or "telling", so that one was way off, and I wonder if I just interpreted it incorrectly when I read it, or if it's so widely misused that from a non-prescriptive standpoint the way I used it wasn't actually wrong. I hate it when that happens. Dear English, I heart you, but I wish you weren't so darn complicated.

(hah, I just looked it up on the internets, and the internets agree with me. But I'm too lazy to write a new post, so there, you'll have to live with my “boohoo, I didn't know what 'poignant' means” rant. Sorry.)

MINDgraine

This blog will be short because of the migraine i'm currently having.

Funny, or maybe not too funny, story about my friend and her migraine. How fitting that Allysa said something about languages because this story is somewhat about that.

We were having a conversation about how bad her migraine was and how it is one of the most painful experience you can have, that and gastritis. But she kept saying mindgraine. I thought maybe she just made a mistake but after repeating it move than five times in the last few exchanges of sentences I figured she really thought it was mindgraine. What's even funnier is that this person just literally finished her Med School.

But her bloopers doesn't end there. We were talking about how some of the names of the main streets here are being changed to rich peoples's names. Then she said "I know right! I bet that Ped Xing guys is some rich Chinese tycoon" and once she actually asked the cab driver to drop her there.

QOTD: Do you have any embarrassing stories that are similar to this? Language debacles if sorts?

Hear from you guys soon,

RUBEN IV

Europe is an elaborate fiction

Once again I'm in a one track mind kind of place. The only thing I can think about is that tomorrow I'm getting on a plane. For someone who has been to one other country, one time, this is kind of a big deal. Also when you consider that I've only been on a plane one time this becomes an even bigger deal. I've never even seen the ocean and now I'm going t hurl across it in a flying metal tube? As far as I know Europe is just an elaborate fiction created by the government for some nefarious purpose. (I don't really think this, but i do have to consider every possibility) So it goes without saying i'm pretty nervous/excited, basically I've got some serious butterfly's in my tummy right now. I don't really have a lot else to say I'm planning on journaling while I'm away so I should hopefully have some interesting things to say when I get back. I won't be blogging when i'm gone I've decided that I'm not going to put in the effort of finding a way to swing it so you won't hear from me in for a bit.

I realized something, we write this blog in English but I'm guessing that English isn't everyone's only language. I am nominally bilingual. English is my first language but I also took enough French in school that I can still read it quite well and understand it when it's spoken. It would be wise not to ask me to try and write or say anything in French if you want anyone else to be able to understand it. What about you all?

Thank you all for the impromptu theme, I enjoyed it.

Best Wishes

Allysa

Plan B: Become a hobo, scare kids

Bit of nostalgia, fitting to the randomly formed theme, and an answer to Ruben's QOTD:

When I hear the song Kuka keksi rakkauden by Kaija Koo, it takes me back to the time when I was little. I get a flash back to sitting in a car, with mom driving, sun was shining outside and we were on our way to see my grandma. We were singing along the song as we always did to Kaija Koo's songs. It's a warm memory but I'm not sure how much of the details are real and how much of it is just my brain feebly trying to fill in the holes. I know I was probably from 4-6 years old at the time. Listening to this song, I feel a little bit better in my miserable adult life. I remember something from the time I didn't have to worry so much, I remember something that is actually good.




But then I realize that mom doesn't sing anymore. She used to sing to songs all the time but now I rarely hear her do that - she mainly just humms if even that much. Then I realize sort of a deeper meaning in that, which happens to be slightly depressing and I return back to my miserable little existance where I wish for time to go back even just few years so I could do things over.

I wonder where I'll be in thirty years. Maybe I'll end up getting more and more bitter and miserable. In that case I will make sure to become one of those cranky old people who stalk their neighbors just to complain. No, wait, that's too social. I will become a hermit living in the creepy house the kids will try to dare each other to go to. The house will not belong to me, it will be an abandoned house I took over because I'm also a hobo.

At least I have a life plan.

Yellow is the colour of Thursday

Hi, sorry for a) the lateness of this post and b) the lack of a post last week. All my uni stuff just caught up with me, and to add to that, my spacebar key is malfunctioning so I have to press extra hard on it for it to work. Anyway, enough excuses. I really like the 'theme' we seem to have taken on this week.

Growing up, Sunday mornings in my house were probably the best. We would wake up to the smell of sizzling bacon and eggs, a particularly delicious alarm clock, and the crackle of one of my father's old records. Dad is an avid record collector, and he particularly likes 60's folk, blues and classic rock. One of my favourite songs to wake up to was Donovan's 'Colours'.

As the morning progressed, the songs would become louder, and would often transition from Donovan and Bob Dylan to The Beatles to Black Sabbath and Queen, and finally to Nirvana or Silverchair when my eldest brother finally wrested control of the music from my father. This was the 90s, and I was around 10 or 11, so to me, the height of musical sophistication was The Backstreet Boys. I didn't particularly like the music my dad played but I didn't hate it either.

Now that I am one decade older, I think that early exposure to that sort of music has really shaped my musical taste. Like my father, I now love folk and classic rock, especially Bob Dylan and The Beatles. In another 20 years, I will likely play that same music for my own children.

Though some might criticize me for being overly nostalgic, I think the true test of music is when you can still look back and say "Wow, that music is valuable" over half a century later. I can hardly imagine "Wannabe" becoming a classic favourite any time soon.

I will leave you with a song I feel holds resonance even today, decades after it was written. I can only find it as part of the Watchmen intro, but really listen to the lyrics and you might be surprised by how much the song still means today.

Songs I Grew Up With

First of I apologize for my absence for the past week. I was too busy plus the sudden sporadic changes in weather just took a tole on me and got me sick yet again. (I was sick the week before that, felt better for a few days then got sick again)

Anyway, because of alleymae's post I decided to do something similar, something nostalgic. My mom and dad are 12 years apart so they both grew up listening to a different generation of music, my mom's is the early 60's-70's and my dad's is the late 30's-50's. I actually prefer my dad's music like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Billy Holiday, and Louis Armstrong, but there are some from my mom's that is also in the top my my list.

We would listen to their music in the car all the time so it kind of became the soundtrack of my childhood. My first CD was Natalie Cole's "Unforgettable". I got it summer of 92. I was turning 7 in a few weeks. I would listen to it a lot and would think about how much I miss my crush and that classes will start again after a week of my birthday. You can say I was a Jazz Emo, if there's such a thing.

It was a collection of covers she made of her father's, Nat King Cole, hits. Here's one of the songs I listened to and be all emotional about missing my crush with.

QOTD: do you have a song that reminds you of the times when missing your crush is the worst feeling in the world? I miss those days, so honest and simple.

Hear from you guys soon,

RUBEN IV

You can't go home again

I'm sitting on my bed in my childhood home, pink walls and Lord of the Rings posters create the stage for what was my life. Now I only visit. I don't miss it, or at least I don't miss most of it. I don't miss this town that felt like pillow over my face smothering my creativity, my curiosity. I don't miss the tension and arguments that filled, and still rattle around inside this house. But there are things I do miss. Some of these things are material; my mom's cooking, walking barefoot in the wide open fields. Some of the things I miss are less tangible but no less real. I miss the comfort of having someone always there to talk to, I miss the pace where nothing is urgent everything can take it's time. Explaining how I feel about this place is impossible I am filled with the strangest nostalgic longing for a place that most of the time I despised. But the smell of fresh air and green growing things fill me with the longing to escape the city and go back to a different time, a different place, a different self. One who was so much more naive, a little girl who faced the world with anger for what it had thrown and at her, full of fierceness and idealism. But we can't ever go back. So I am left to embrace the woman who is sadder, but also more gentle, more loving and so much more hopeful. Because she knows that the merits of going back are far outweighed by the merits of going forward.

Chasing Gazelles

Well, fellow nerds, this week was filled with action for me.

On Wednesday I woke up at 4AM to the alarm of my cell phone (Who Are You by The Who, CSI theme song edition). The urge to hit the snooze button was huge but, alas, I had to get up. I would have to get ready and be out the door by 5AM. I failed and I was out the door around 5.15. Kind of hated myself for that, yeah. See, I have almost an hour long walk to the university and I was to be there by 6AM. I would have liked to take my time, too, since I did have a heavy-ish bag to carry.

This time I couldn’t catch a bus because while a bus would take me to the stop where I usually switch to another one, there wouldn’t be a bus that would take me to my destination that early. I was considering catching the bus anyways because it would go by a stop that was slightly closer to university but I thought it would arrive so late I would have made it to that place by then. I was wrong. Just as I turned to a road away from the stop, the bus passed it. More reasons to hate me and my decisions right there. So, I just continued on, huffing and puffing. I did thank myself for choosing to wear only a t-shirt under my suede jacket despite the fact that the morning was cold. By the time I reached university, I was pretty soaked with sweat. Not th best start for a morning, but what can you do?

At the university parking spot, in front of our strange ball-shaped statue, I was met by several of my friends who were already seated in the mini bus. I was glad to find out I was not the last one there. I arrived five minutes before we would leave, did arrive too late to get a good seat though.

See, we were going to an excursion (field trip), several of us archaeology students along with two lecturers. We were heading for Laihia area, which if over a 4-hour-drive from where we are from. The point of the trip was to go see some ancient sites littered around Ostrobothnia, get to know them and learn to recognize similar ones in the future. We would be doing this stuff for two days and spend the night at what we refer to as a countryside house accommodation. It’s usually some old farm house, in the middle of countryside, with rooms to stay in - such was in this case.

Anyways, we left the parking lot of our university at 6AM. The trip was pretty nice, despite the fact that my friend and I had to sit in the front next to the lecturer who was driving and it was pretty uncomfortable since we are not exactly narrow people. I reckon that my shoulders would have been too wide for sitting there even if I was a skinny woman, likewise with my hips. The plus side sort of was that we could pick the music. The lecturer had a CD selection she shoved to our laps, which was clearly a mistake. The first CD we picked was called something like Tibetan Incantations. The first song alone lasted around 20 minutes (the whole CD has only 3 songs and the CD is an hour long…) and the only lyrics were humani bumbuiyee (which I’m 90% sure we misheard but that’s what we heard). The lecturer thought he would break us with that but no, we laughed. At least my pal and I on the front seat laughed. People in the back? Probably were tortured. The next CD we picked was crazier. I can’t even describe it. During one of the songs my friend stated it was like the Egyptian Elvis. I’m fairly sure it was a soundtrack to some absurd Egyptian musical. I have no idea, but it was pretty hilarious. After this choice the lecturer stopped giving us all the CDs. He limited us to Billie Holiday and Eppu Normaali. Which was fine with me. I was getting sick of 20-minute long strange songs. I think Billie Holiday was my favourite out of the selection…though in all its ridiculousness the Tibetan Incantations were fun too.

Around 10-11AM we arrived at the first ancient site. It’s apparently the best known of all the Finnish Iron Age sites. Wouldn’t have believed it: I and few others were to make a presentation of it on site but we could barely find any information on it! And once we were there the site was rather…modest. The lecturer thought our presentation was fine though and then laughed that this was always the first site he would take people because it takes the hope of glory and cool things right out of you. I didn’t have those to begin with, I was pretty much expecting I would see nothing even close to amazing. It didn’t depress me too much but it did bug me that we didn’t find all the parts of the site, just three burial cairns. We were also trying to locate an ancient field, a settlement area and five rocks with cup marks (usually said to be sacrificial stones). I did see those rocks at another site later on, which you can see on the picture on the right. The cup marks were on top of these huge rocks.

From there, we ventured on to other sites. Essentially I could just describe this as going to in the middle of nowhere, then deeper to middle of nowhere and then hiking in difficult terrain deeeep into a forest, trying desperately to find a route to walk on where you wouldn’t hurt yourself too badly while keeping up with a lecturer that’s in ridiculously good shape and moves in the forest like a gazelle. It was around 7PM till we finally headed for the farm accommodation. We were all exhausted. My feet were killing me and all I wanted to do was to crash onto a bed, no matter how lousy, and stay there for the rest of my life, curled up in a fetus position.

When we finally arrived at the farm, I was initially rather disappointed. The house we were going to stay in didn’t look terribly inviting. Boy was I wrong. Upon entering the house, I first noticed that we had a shower and a proper bathroom (not an outhouse or anything crummy like that). I and a friend who would be sharing a room with me squealed a bit right there. After taking few more steps the Mrs of the house introduced us to our refrigerator, which we were incredibly happy about, considering many of us had food that would go bad without one. There was a small kitchen with a microwave oven and everything. And in the actual rooms, there were TVs, chairs, a table and the beds, oh the beds, so soft and comfortable! It was like entering a small heaven. There was a grill outside free to use so we could fry sausages and everything.

The TVs were especially important since a bunch of the girls really wanted to check out a hockey game: Czechs vs Finns. I’m not usually into hockey but I got into watching the game with the rest of the gals in the same section of the house. Found myself participating in critiquing the game tactics of the Finnish team, even yelled at the TV a couple of times. There is indeed a hockey fan inside me, I suspect. Usually I only care if it’s the team of my home town playing and even then my interest is limited but, I got caught in the moment I guess. The night was pleasant: Managed to take a shower, which I desperately needed after sweating and going through all sorts of bushes all day.

Oh, I must mention. The couple running the place had two cats. Their names = awesome: Carl Gustav (of Sweden) and Catherine The Great

*Krehm*…The next day was pretty much rinse and repeat. I just got more tired and sooner. This time around we had a local 82-year-old man working as our guide. He’s an amateur archaeologist, which means that while his theories are often bull crap and his scientific knowledge is limited, he knows the terrain like the backs of his hands. Let me tell you, you wouldn’t have believed he was over 82 years old. He had more energy than most of us, he was certainly in far better shape than I was. He would ramble about how he wound the sites he showed us, which at first was rather adorable, but as I grew more and more tired my urge to clobber him to death with a stick grew stronger.

I think I snapped a bit when we hiked in extremely difficult terrain for half an hour, one way, only to arrive at a god damn pit. We hiked all that way just to look at a pit in the ground. I had seen pits like those before in nature, I had seen pictures of them, I did not need to travel hundreds of kilometres and hike through thick and thin just to look at one. Then we would stand there for ages as the old man rambled. At least rock piles (cairns) were something to look at, pits not so much. At that point my capacity to care plummeted. As if that wasn’t enough, when we finally started hiking back, I tripped and my palm apparently hit some sort of plants because I got sting hairs stuck on my palm. I couldn’t get them out without tweezers but no one seemed to have any. So, there I was, stuck with an unusable hand, going through difficult terrain, trying to grab onto things with my working hand so I wouldn’t fall again. Hours passed before my friend dug up some tweezers and I started to desperately try and get rid of the damn sting needles while on a moving car that was going through a bumpy dirt road. Eventually I did succeed to get rid of the buggers.

We started our return to home late in the afternoon. I was so glad it was over. My feet were killing me and I was tired of everything. As we got close to home we started playing the Tibetan Incantations CD again for old times’ sake. We all found it way more amusing that we had before. We already plotted for getting copies of the humani bumbuyee song so we could have it as our ring tone, along with setting up strange rituals that would involve chanting the song. As we got more tired, our discussions got weirder, I’m not even going to go into all that.

Then I was home. I was so glad. So very glad. I took a shower to wash away the sweat and what ever got caught in my hair in those forests and then I just crashed onto my bed. Managed to eat before I passed out completely. This morning I would have had a class but I couldn’t bring myself to attend it, despite the fact that I woke up at 6AM already. Yeah, that was pretty much it. A lot of hiking, a lot of pain, difficult terrain in the middle of nowhere.

I regret to say I didn’t have a camera with me, which was probably a good thing considering I tripped more than once, but I did take some shots with my cell phone. Quality is crappy but I guess it's better than nothing.

PS: My feet still hurt.

Boredom & Hudba

Today I woke up to a lovely picture of a shot guy who isn't Osama Bin Laden on my facebook stream. Lovely. (I'm squeamish. I'd like to have the choice not to see pictures like that. Especially not before breakfast.). After that it was the usual day home, lots and lots of reading, a quick trip to the library, that kind of exciting stuff...
I've been trying to keep track of what I do throughout the day as a way to actually do more. Apparently I do way too little, at least way too little for uni. Which, even now that I've increased my productive phases a bit, continues to be a problem. Unfortunately, online lectures on Zombies and Tolkien are much more fascinating than writing papers or preparing presentations.

And since I don't have anything remotely interesting to write about (can we do themes again?), I'll give you SLOVAK MUSIC. Yay.

Slovakia cured my music taste, not because the music is necessarily that much greater than elsewhere, but because when you're stuck in your room every evening with nothing to do you actually start to listen to what you're listening to.

Old favourites: IMT Smile. One of the biggest rock bands in the country. Sadly this is the only song German youtube lets me watch in decent quality :( At least it comes with a hilariously random video.

Bad quality, but a better impression of what they did back then. Saw them live three times, awesome live band.


New favorites: Billy Barman. They're a fairly new indie rock band, but both frontmen were in other bands before, one of which I got to see at festival when they were ickle and had just had their first hit. (I actually prefer this song, but the video involves a little too much torture for my taste).


There's also RadioFM, which, yes, is a radio station. It was a bit too weird for me back when I lived there, but has turned into my favourite station since. A batshit eclectic public broadcaster that hardly ever plays anything I've heard of before, or if they do it's something like Architecture from Helsinki or Grinderman xD. They play lovely not-so-mainstreamy Slovak music like this as well.

Your turn. Share some music with us, please?

Vote Snow!

Good morning nerdy bunch it's monday, it's election monday!

That's right today in Canada we had an election, The results aren't totally in yet but it looks like we will have a conservative government again. But with a different opposition party (the new democratic party). This would be the first time a party other than the liberal or conservative party has been the opposition, ever. So I went out and voted today. Voting is one thing that really makes me feel like an actual legitimate adult instead of just a kid pretending. Since I have moved since the last election I had to register to vote, A suprisingly easy and efficient process. I was in and out in a few minutes. It feels really good to know that I can be a part of the electoral process, even if the party I wanted didn't win I got to be part of the process.

On a side note the spring weather continues to be crazy it snowed and melted all in the last week (It doesn't usually snow this late in the spring). It has been a very wet and cold spring and the rivers should be peaking soon if not today there already parts of the province experiencing flooding.I'm really looking forward to it getting warm, and staying warm. although I've already worn shorts and sandals this spring and have been going without a jacket so yay for that.

Finally on a personal note I'm leaving for switzerland in two weeks and am freaking out a little. What are your must pack necessities for travel?

Best wishes,

Allysa

messy ramble with barely any effort

Late as always, I¨m sorry. This weekend has been full of stuff - frankly I’ve felt too stimulated and tired to write. Tried to post this on Friday but I was too hopped up on the day.

Friday consisted of me going to buy shoes. That’s a whole bag of complaints right there, so I’m going to leave it be. Instead I’m going to talk about Saturday, a much more interesting day. Saturday was the 30th of April, the eve of Walpurgis Day (also known as Labour Day and Mayday), which we call Vappu. Vappu, or the eve of it, is a day celebrating spring and workers. In Finland, it’s sort of a carnival for workers, spring and especially students of higher level of education. Children usually dress up in costumes, like Americans do on Halloween – just minus the trick or treating, and there are a lot of balloons and colourful things all over the place. Getting drunk is also a big part of this celebration.

University students usually spend the whole week preceding Vappu weekend doing all sorts of stuff to celebrate the occasion. Here we kick it off with a rowing contest that’s between different student guilds – organizations representing different areas of study. It’s done on these long and big church boats, which get their name from the fact that they were used in travelling to church in the old times.



Some images of this year’s rowing contest, more here!

Didn’t go see this year’s rowing contest but I hear our guild did well. I might just sign up to row next year. It seems like fun, though I bet I will regret it the day after when my muscles are so sore I can’t get up.



Some of our guild’s members. You can recognize us by the color of the coveralls: brown


That picture leads me to talk about a big part of student culture, which is very visible on Vappu: Student caps (white caps for people who have completed upper secondary level education and the Matriculation Examination) and student coveralls. In higher vocational schools and universities students get to buy their own coveralls during the freshman year. The color of the coveralls depends solely on what you study. For example at our university chemists have neon yellow coveralls, medical students, chemical engineering students, architect students and pedagogy students have white ones, anthropology and archaeology students have dark brown ones, mechanical engineering guys have bright red etc. This somewhat varies from school to school.

As you can see in the picture, the coveralls are decorated with sleeve badges (often humorous ones, stuff related to their own field of study or more recently even internet memes - case in point: I have a trollface sown onto my coveralls) that students buy and sew on themselves during the year, along with sponsor ads that are printed on the coveralls themselves. Sponsors are acquired so that buying the coveralls will be cheaper for the students.

During the Vappu week, students often wear their coveralls daily and even those who don't will get them out in time for the weekend's Vappu celebrations.

I started my celebration on Saturday like majority probably did also - although I did see a whole bunch of people riding the "water bus" on Thursday. It's a party bus that only picks up the students of the university and takes them around while they drunk and go nuts.

This year I was late on the celebration just a bit. I missed the part where representatives of the humanities place a gigantic student cap on the head of a statue - it's a tradition. My friend and I were just in time to partake in the student parade, where all the students march around the city with a university orchestra playing music from the trailer of a truck etc.

After that we proceeded to go watch the freshman engineering students dive into a dirty river, while trying to egg on people so they would go completely nude. Yet another tradition that probably sounds a bit crazy.

You can get a pretty good picture of the celebration by checking out this video. It's of last year's Vappu celebrations in my city (no, I'm not in any of the shots, luckily) and narrated by some foreign student.



So, this was what I was up to yesterday. After those shenanigans my friends and I went to have some Chinese food and play the newest Mortal Kombat game.