whole month home

It’s been a month (well, actually that was 2 days ago) at home already and I keep on postponing the date of my so how was Finland entry since the second day back here. Here we go now.

My ERASMUS buddy Kristiina, who really didn’t wanna do selfies.

On my last week in Finland, I was actually planning to blog every day – but I was lazy and still had a ton of school stuff to finish – so I didn’t. Nothing very interesting happened anyway – most of my friends had left or were leaving days before or short after me. Yet again I realized I like parties with less people in them a lot better – and wished all of them had been that way – would have got to know a lot more people in the house. Some cleaning rounds started so we wouldn’t have to pay TOAS for cleaning after and I kept on handing out the blankets of my room mates and trying to put all my stuff in my very small bag (ended up having 3 of those).

Tulip fields in Tampere (found after handing in my key)

I was extremely happy when getting back home but that might be just because I’m a very big fan of traveling. The rain and wind weren’t bothering me, my three big bags didn’t seem heavy at all, I knew all the roads I had to take and all places I had to get to – didn’t miss anything or get lost once, which is a pretty big thing for me – and somehow survived all of my waiting times (managed to write an essay, watch 2 movies and half the Eurovision on my way). A little advice for the future travelers (me included) – if you need a bus station to sleep in, pick Tallinn. It’s awesome (but has no vegetarian food).

Bunch of stuff & my sleeping/movie watching location in Tallinn Bus Station.

Ok, but now seriously – how was Finland? I don’t know. I really don’t. Every time I listen to myself talking about it, it sounds like an awful, boring and horrible horrible place I would never want to return to – but that’s not true. I can quite surely say I love Finland. Been out of there for a month and am already thinking about when I could visit. The thing is – for me, it is not a place for living. I could visit every now and then, I could visit often, but I have to go home (where ever that is) after. It’s a lot too cold for me, both physically and mentally. The nature is beautiful, but I’m a city person. Finnish people are nice, but I like people being more sociable (well, this excludes the media students. Media students are the awesomest and friendliest people no matter where you go) and so on.

Last 5 minutes of Finland. Helsinki Harbor.

Should one go on ERASMUS? Yes. Definitely. You should go on any kind of exchange if you have the opportunity. It’s 100% worth it. You learn a lot about yourself and even more about the people and cultures around you. Just pick the location most suitable for your personality (if I would have listened to Universe shouting in my face, I would have gone ti Netherlands). And save some money – it’s extremely annoying when everybody’s partying, traveling, etc. – but you barely have money for food after paying the rent. Would have probably stayed till the last day of May if that wasn’t the case.

My happy Latvian face on the Tallinn-Riga bus. 4h from home.

As for me, I’ve never been a very patriotic person and normally I don’t miss home no matter where I go, but coming back, I almost started crying when I heard the first Latvian person – my Tallinn-Riga bus driver, I guess I have a sign Latvian somewhere on my forehead. And it’s been a month in Riga and I still feel like this is the best place ever (aaand I’m discussing new traveling plans everyday, but that doesn’t really count).

It’s getting empty

On my second day in Finland (that I am currently calling home in my head), Jade left – this is somehow marking the end of an era – not just because if Jade but people are actually leaving.

Of course, we had a lovely small party on the evening before. We went to Mallashovi again (its nice that everyone of us likes pubs), had some student priced beers and ciders (they have started to pour even less than 0,33 for 3 euros now), talked about some fun times of the semester. Places really close early here, I mean it was Tuesday, but turning music of only half past midnight is crazy. We continued at home – where we realized that the chocolate liqueur makes a really good ice cream sauce – and we ate all ice cream Jenning had. Guys also drank all vodka Jonas had, cuz he was leaving a day after Jade (to come back on the day I am planning to leave 😀 )… and nobody was hangover the next day (actually I think the guys here are hangover for most of the time, they are simply really good at hiding it).

On the next – Wednesday – morning we had pancakes for breakfast, this time – made by Bente not Jade. Pancakes are awesome in all times of day. Specially morning. I think I should finally get my pancake game up. After that I said my goodbye to Jade – with great hopes of meeting again in either Netherlands or October fest.

After all that I finally had the Working as a Producer class again – which was kind of useless, because first of all – it was presented by Harri, second of all – there were only 2 homeworks handed in – completely useless for most of the class – and so was the whole lecture. The problem with most of this homework here (I have always been the person to do homework btw) is that none of them are explained properly, for example this one claimed we need to budget, do time tables, possibilities of free time activities, etc. etc.  – turns out we only need a simple time table and it was fine. I also have no idea what criteria is used for evaluation, but I’ll get through. Maybe I’m lucky, but so for none of the homework I’ve done in Finland has been considered wrong.

Surprise Home

After my surprise visit home I realized how badly I like traveling.

And also the fact that exchange teaches you to love your own everyday life (and country) a little bit more. Last few months have made me talk about Latvia (and actually be interested in some things going on in Latvia) a lot more, because every conversation we have either touches the cultural subjects or we simply end up talking only about our cultures, languages and what ever (no, this doesn’t make you miss home, but it does make you think about it a lot).

But my 10 days at home (in the weirdest time possible, cuz after returning to Finland, I have less than 2 weeks before going fully home left) was awesome. It was a lot more spring like (with the same air temperature), it was nice to meet my friends and realize that the time is running not only here but there also – and I still had the feeling that I had been away for somewhat around 2 weeks. I suppose nothing changes during winter.

I spent a night in Tallinn with Linda on both ways and realized how awesome Tallinn is. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried going far away after all (although my close option for ERASMUS was Vilnius not Tallinn), cuz any change of the scenery is nice and in a way – those places are a lot better for exchange (unless you are looking for peace, nature and quiet as it is here).

I was also overly excited when getting on the first bus going both ways – I guess it’s not that much of excitement of going home but on traveling all together. I hope I’ll manage that hitchhiking trip in August.

My big plans of studying naturally failed (mainly because I was too excited), for on the way to Latvia I had the company of Valeria on my way to Tallinn (yay, I finally actually know an Italian person) and Into the Wild and Dracula Untold on my way back. Was fun. My computer is pretty bad at catching the wifi of buses anyways and so far I have finished everything on time so I’m gonna be alright.

And I’m not sure if that’s the positive emotions I got from my friends in Latvia or the nearness of the end of semester, but since I’m back, I have a lot more energy and actual desire to do stuff in here. Finland is great.

Thoughts of Leaving (soon)

The semester is slowly (but clearly) coming to an end (and so is my motivation to study). Everything in Finland – despite being the best education system in the world – has worked exactly the same way it would in any other place in the world – after 3 months of barely any homework or what so ever, now we have major homeworks in all subjects left (most of which were given only few weeks before the deadlines).

Thankfully, all the lecturers are finally open for discussions, meetings and even respond to most emails in quite understandable way. Therefore, since yesterday some projects are finally working (and some projects are being left undone).

I am also slowly getting ready for coming home (which is happening in less than a month) and I have already realized how weird it’s gonna be not to have people (and endless party) around 24/7. Can’t decide if I miss my privacy or not, I’m pretty good at adapting to whatever environment I am thrown into, but in this last month or so I have really started to enjoy my ERASMUS experience and actually started thinking about going on an exchange somewhere again (maybe in my Masters – if I go for Masters).

And despite the bad weather that has been hanging around for the last two days, I really do like Finland in Spring. Locals – walking around in T-shirts when it’s only +5 or +7 degrees outside – still seem a little strange to me, but I suppose that’s how you get if you spend half of your life in winter.

In other news – I made a pizza yesterday – and it was amazing – I have gained some cooking skills all together while being here, several people have already left, some have moved, some (my last roommate) are leaving next week. We are receiving more and more common stuff and as much as I would like to take EVERYTHING I have here with me, I realized I barely have enough space for my clothes.. maybe IKEA textile boxes are not so important after all. And I still need to find some souvenirs (sorry friends) for myself.

the last (a little blurry & sleepy) selfie right before Shan (in the middle) left for China.

Hullut Päivät

No, the headline is not some kind of new cursing word combination. It’s Crazy Days – Trakās dienas for my dear Latvian speakers – the great, great sale in Stockmann I love so much.

It looks (and feels) pretty much the same way it does in Riga. Everything is yellow, many cool things selling in big yellow baskets, cool, expensive make-up items are in pretty plastic racks (they should make this part prettier in Latvia), but they have less items on sale – and less people buying them – but there were still quite many people.

The whole store (I had not walked throughout the whole store before) seems smaller than in Riga so they have less offers in my view – but the catalog is bigger. The prices are pretty much the same. Some are a little higher, others – smaller. I think it depends on what is popular in Each country. Some things are cheaper here in everyday life (Ben&Jerry’s) and now they are even cheaper (eating 100% healthy sucks when Ben&Jerry’s costs only 3,95).

In Latvia Trakās dienas have very loud music playing ALL the time – not happening here – and announcer telling what discounts you can find where – happening here in a double amount. Every time working there I was wondering – how do foreigners feel here – and now I now. You don’t listen to the announcements (they are not playing songs with acoustic guitar and didn’t crack jokes – but maybe I just didn’t get them), you are not sure if the price you are looking at is for the item you hold in your hands – but other from that it’s just the same as any other days. Maybe I should interview someone else, because I am just used to this sale so much at home it feels like home to me even here.

I did finally completely understand the meaning of the cool costumes tho. There was a Snow White and the Evil Queen working in the children section of the store and kids smiled and got happy every time they noticed them – and then they went to talk to them. Seemed so nice. They really do make the people smile – I don’t think Finnish people do that a lot, which makes it even better

Study in Finland

My subjects (but not time here) are slowly coming to an end – today we finished  Future Film, two days ago – International Project Management.

And I finally get some homework, in order to get the subjects completed. Hopefully – I will finish all of them in the weekend. The work mostly includes writing reviews about the subjects and my own qualities. Also kinda makes me even more sure that there is no point for me staying for the last – feedback – lectures.

In today’s exam we were showing our environmental videos. Both videos needed a little more work and I honestly hope we will add some things to ours. Finally learning stuff. Stuff like do your projects on time, check three times and probably the most important thing – everybody loves cookies.

I have also learned that I like zucchini, that I like soy yogurt, that I like faking English accent sometimes, that you should not colour your hair without gloves, that I don’t like taking naps every day (Bente feels the same way. Yay. I’m not the only crazy nap hater) and that living with bunch of people is extremely fun (and that you should always lock your door, other wise somebody can hide your bed in sauna).

On a serious learning note – I still don’t exactly know what I’m doing and what the Finnish education system wants me to do. Or what my teachers want me to do sometimes (for example I know there is a presentation tomorrow. I don’t know what about), but I think the last few weeks (or days) of the studies is just the right time to find that out.

Do I miss home?

I had this huge plan of writing Do I miss home entry on my 3 months in Finland anniversary. My 3 months abroad was 3 days ago.

So, do I miss home? I don’t think so. But recently I have started communicating with more and more people from back home. I also didn’t mind communicating in Latvian for the last few weeks in Future Film lectures. It does feel nice. The funny part about this is that I am thinking in Latvian only again, so I start talking in Latvian with German people a lot. Usually people don’t notice, if they do – we laugh it off.

I started listening to Latvian Radio pieci.lv in the end of January. Wasn’t so much for me missing Latvia or the language but that has been a morning ritual for several years now and around that time I started to realize I shouldn’t try to live different just because I’m in a different country. It’s still fun. And I feel as if I was in Riga if I’m listening to it in the City.

By now I have actually heard that many people miss home – but also enjoy their time here because everyone around is awesome – but those are people who are from places far away – Korea, Mexico, Thailand, Spain. It is different here – no sun, snow in April, not-so-friendly Finnish people on streets, etc. As for me – I am from 500 km away – everything is the same. No culture shock. The cities are a bit bigger, a little more gray, weather is a little worse – but all the main things are the same.

In my last visit to Helsinki I realized how much it seems like Riga to me. I gathered that looking at the trams. I miss trams. A lot. Maybe not riding them, but the sound the old trams make is awesome. Riga seems more colourful tho. Maybe it’s because of the people – maybe the sun (I definitely miss the sun).

Last week I looked at the people that looked familiar on the street (then again – everybody looks familiar if I’m not wearing my glasses) and noticed that maybe we do see other ERASMUS students all the time, but other from that – we don’t know the people. At least not that many. And I kinda enjoy that. I may be extrovert, but running into somebody you know every 20 minutes can get tiring (I am quite sure I will get overly excited when returning to that in 2 months).

But other from that it is fine. I could call Finland home and I will definitely miss some things from here but I will talk about those in some other entry.

The thing that comes to my mind the most lately is that I should have gone to some warmer country (maybe I’m just jealous of Inese and Maija currently hanging in Spain), for there is always sun, the food is cheap and if you have too much free time – sunbathing and hiking trips are a pretty great option. I hope this happens here too. The sun, sunbathing and hikes I mean.

Thank you for reading the most sense less entry yet. Was fun writing.

Filming Easter

I don’t know how other feel about celebrating Easter abroad, but since I don’t really eat eggs or go to the church – the only thing I noticed about these days was that shops had different working hours (most of the shops not working on the Good Friday and all of the shops were closed today – the Second Easter).

I did have a Fazer chocolate egg for breakfast on Sunday. Had wanted to try it for several years and since Fazer is Finnish, this felt like the right time. They claim it’s made in the shell of a real chicken egg (sorry vegan friends) and it consists of 52g of nougat. It was really tasty, actually makes a good breakfast (yes, I feel very well after having sweets for breakfast, thank you), but it was pretty much nothing special.

Partly opened Fazer chocolate egg. In my eyes – the chocolate looks like Batman here.

We spent most of the Easter filming the short film for Future Film. We did well. Didn’t expect it to be that much fun and laughter. Maybe we should have been a little more prepared for the filming, but we are students and we are making a student film. Making everything happen only on the set is the way we work (and I think for some time it should stay that way). Or maybe I’m just a really, really bad producer.

Cookies for the first day of filming

We split the Saturday in two parts – first one happened in Kristiina’s apartment – worked out pretty well, except for the fact that a ceiling lamp fell down (twice, second time almos

Final minutes of Saturday filming

t killing Artūrs), so we had to make a visit to K-Rauta after the filming and change the light bulbs (all of them were old and broke). And the second part was done in the apartment of Kārlis & Arnolds – had never been there before. Was nice. The guys are living a lot better than we are here. Wanna go back sometime, but probably will not have the time.

We finished filming at around 8pm, so the first day was around 11 hours.

On Sunday we finished filming the outdoor scenes. Who would have thought that filming a garbage can would be so hard and time consuming. But we succeeded. I recorded sound (so there is most likely no actual sound for this scene).

After filming, we went to have a festive lunch at the McDonalds. I fianlly tried the vegetarian burger for the first time. It was good. The thing I got overly excited for – it has cheese in it. The actual cheeseburger cheese I used to love so bad. And I also tried orange-daim McFlurry. Was good, but I think d rather take the regular version the next time.

Vegetarian McFeast

Then there was that part where the boys had to take a photo of a cd and decided to do that in the forest – was fun to watch that, I really like how serious they get about photography. And then somewhere in the forest I couldn’t get up a small hill, fell several times, laughed it off, ended up getting on that hill on a different route and then I went home to have a sauna and watch movies after.

This is how CD photoshoots in the forest happen.

I think this was a pretty good Easter. I improved my omelette making skills and last night we were watching The Woman in Black in the common room and we screamed a lot.

 

Back in the Future Film

Last Tuesday, we returned to the Future Film classroom (actually, now it has changed the location but that doesn’t change much) for the last part of the class – Project 2.

I am not the biggest fan of all of their projects, workshops and actually classes in general. The system is not that different, but it just feels wrong (and forced). But let’s get back to the subject.

The first 20 minutes of the class scared the hell out of me – and also made me realize a ton of things about me – but after that we got divided into teams and it got a lot better. Currently our Project is moving quite smoothly.

What I realized in the class is I really hate the process of picking teams, doesn’t matter if it’s for sport, school activities or just going to parties. All of this process just seems unfair to me – even if I am the one picking, not being picked.

But (with a little help of Chris) we did form two beautiful teams, I am really happy with mine – the filming is finished already and we still have 2 weeks of time (this never happened to me before), so I think we will get through.

Too Many Days Off

All of my week days off are making me go for longer and longer walks and explorations (is that an actual word?).

It’s really cool when they days are sunny – at one point we had almost a week of sunny days (sometimes the sun makes me happy when I open the kitchen door in the morning) – Finns even stopped wearing coats at one point (and I saw several guys in T-shirts), but last Wednesday – the winter came back. Now the winter is acting like a woman and coming back and forth (the lakes are slowly defrosting tho), but that’s not what this entry is about.

Me being sunny on the very first sunny day – February 16th.

This one is about my museum hunt. I don’t consider myself much of a museum goer (but if I get to one I never wanna leave), but every time I leave Latvia, I realize I should go to as many museums as possible. So what did I do when I had 2 days off and no money? That’s right – slept till noon, put a ton of make up on my face so you couldn’t see that I slept till noon and went looking for free museums (and also tried to follow my leave the house once a day rule). And I found some. Just in the wrong way.

The first time I went for a walk I didn’t have an actual goal of finding a museum, but I did – a closed museum of Lenin, which made me remember the excursion we had on the second day – there is an always free Workers museum in Tampere. While I was looking for that, I also found the Spy museum which costs quite a lot so I suppose I will go there some other time – but in the end (which happened to be on the second day of my search) I found the one I was looking for (if we still used actual paper maps, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t get lost this often) and it was great.

The closed Lenin Museum

However, the Wednesday ramble did help me to get to know the town a little better – I finally walked all around the stadium (where they are fixing something I guess. It looks scary but has beautiful graffiti fence around it) and I also finally found the souvenir shop (but I don’t need it till May).

Stadium. Not so scary after all

Graffiti on the renovation fence

Turns out, the Workers museum (I’m not even sure if that’s the right name) has several huge exhibitions that are there all the time and while the Lenin museum is closed, they also have a whole room with Lenin portraits, statues and USSR propaganda posters.

Lenin watching over you in the Workers Museum

The room I enjoyed the most – and didn’t have the time to look through properly –  was dedicated to the textile factories in the region. There are ton of stories about the lives of the workers, how the industry evolved and how the textiles actually are. They also had a room for Finns fighting for Spanish revolution, shop scene of some time previous century and a very big hall showing the life details of the regular workers during the war and post-war period (they had an awesome VW Beatle right in the middle of it) and there is a very detailed town plan with small houses, trees and rivers. Don’t remember the last time I saw anything like that.

Explaining this part of the exhibition would take too much time. I just know many of my friends would enjoy the picture

Maybe it’s because of having no free Fridays (I tend to come home and sleep after the morning lectures) but I still haven’t gone to the big museum building that is free (15-18) on Fridays, but that is definitely my museum goal. Let’s hope I get there before May.