track 021 - still alive

Hi everyone!

I'm still alive, yes. School hassle has taken all my energy lately, but now we're spending Easter in Lapland with my parents. It's been filled with ice fishing (my boyfriend did that for the first time!), driving the snowmobile (my boyfriend did that for the first time, too!) enjoying the sunshine, eating lots of yummy food and generally just relaxing. (I've read two books so far!) I finished my Lettermo when I was supposed to - 18th of March - but forgot to take a picture of that, as well as two letters that went to Mickey in the Netherlands (who's expecting her first child! Now that she has it in her blog, too, I can tell you guys I am so excited for her! She's going to be an awesome mother.) and Helena in Japan. Too bad, next time better.

But! I promise as soon as I get back home I'll take pictures of the wonderful mail I have received lately. Plus my mom found some old stamps that she gave to me - they date back to the 1950's and are gorgeous! I can't wait to use them in collages and send them to people! Speaking of which... does someone collect old stamps? I have beautiful Finnish ones now, so just holler!

To end this post I'll show you guys some images that have caught my heart (not just eye) lately. I've been dreaming of having a simpler life - you know, a house and a sunny garden, a couple of chickens and cute kids, pantry full of self-made jams and pickles. I never thought of myself as the homemaking kind, but maybe I'm getting old? Or maybe it's just spring affecting me! Does anyone else share my secret dream? I was thinking of renting a small veggie patch from the city of Oulu - they start renting them in May again - and seeing how that goes first! :D

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

Happy spring to everyone!

track 013 - valentine

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! 

 In Finland, Valentine's day is not actually directed towards couples and lovers, as is the case in many other countries, but the actual name of the holiday is 'ystävänpäivä', or friend's day. The commercial lovey-dovey stuff is making its way over here as well, but I really like the idea of dedicating a day to your friends. This way you don't have to get depressed if you're single on Valentine's Day - just go have a girls' night out or invite a couple of friends over for a movie! Friendship is a beautiful thing, so hold on to your pals. As for myself, I can't say I have many friends. I have people I enjoy spending time with, sure. I have people to go out with, people to gossip with. But I am looking for something more, something I haven't had for years now - real friendship. It's partly what got me pen palling in the first place - someone new to talk to, to hear from, to develop a bond with. I'm happy to say that some of my pen pals have become very important for me. Every now and then I'm afraid I'm too old to make new friends, because it seems that everybody else's important relationships were forged in high school already, but then I think of all the great pen pals I've met during the last couple of years. I trust that real friendship will come when I'm ready for it, with the right person or people. 

 To me, friendship is...

   

Summer evenings that turn into nights and mornings, people coming and going as they wish, and conversation that flows on and on.

   

 Letting your hair down, enjoying and doing silly things.

   

 Impromptu coffee, sharing thoughts and the feeling of refreshment upon parting. 

 What does friendship mean to you? And how did you spend your Valentine's Day?

all images via Pinterest

P.S. Next week I'll be blogging from home again! I can't wait to see all the mail that's waiting for me!

track 004 - dance till you're dead

This song always makes me want to dance! I love it.

Yesterday I started my dance lessons! They started at 19:30 and I thought I'd try and be there around fifteen minutes before the start, because even though they're held at my school, I don't know where all the dance halls are and I didn't want to be the one wandering around and knocking on every door. So, I took the car (to a 700 metre trip, yes, I'm lazy - I figured I'd be sweaty after the lesson and wouldn't want to walk home in minus degrees) and arrived at the school at 19:18, which wasn't that bad. Until... I realized I left my wallet at home and the receipt for paying for the lessons was in there! So I had to call my boyfriend to bring my wallet outside (so I wouldn't have to park the car, walk up to our apartment, search for the wallet and so on) and, yes, drive back. Because of that, I arrived to the dance department at exactly 19:30 and was so afraid I'd be late! I hovered around a bit until I saw a sign pointing to dance halls 3&4 - the one I had to find was 3. However, there was only one door - and when I walked through it, I ended up looking at a group of people making guttural sounds and banging each others in the back with their fists. (I later found out it was called 'experimental theatre'.) "I assume this isn't the dance hall 3?", I asked the only person who wasn't busy shouting, and she said that ballroom 3 is just on the other side of the wall, there's just no door inbetween them. (Why on earth are they both on the sign?) So, the dance hall 3 was the one I had earlier passed and not paid any more attention to because it had no number or sign on it (why on earth not?). In hindsight, all those people sitting outside of it should've been a hint. Well, all's well when the end's well, and I found the hall and wasn't even late (well, I was, but so was the teacher). 

Now, for the actual lesson. It's called MTV Style and it consists of three different parts: warming up, long choreography and short 'fashion' choreography. I really liked the fact that the warming up part actually made me pant and sweat - it wasn't just, you know, jumping up and down but also crunches, push ups and stretching. The long choreography is something we work on for 4 lessons at a time and then switch to another one - the first one is to a Jennifer Lopez song which I've never heard before, but I'll take the teacher's word for it. Honestly, it's a bit annoying because the song is all whiney and I prefer something a bit more 'pumped up', but the actual choreography isn't that easy so if it was to something faster, I'd be in deep sh*t. I'm having a hard time coordinating my hands and feet at the same time as it is... The third part, 'fashion dance' is something short and easy that's been all the rave at some point, so it's more for the fun part than actually learning something! This time we did Saturday Night Fever - yes, with the Travolta move - and it was a blast. A bit shorter than what I would've liked, but hey, we only had 10 minutes left anyway! It was a great way to end the lesson, although my hand-feet coordination still isn't quite working. There was a place where you're supposed to put your left hand behind your head, lift your left foot and smack it with your right hand. Well, I took the 'smack' part very seriously, it made a very convincing sound - if only I hadn't gotten my hands mixed up and ended up smacking myself in the head. Several times. How come that is so hard to me?

I also got mail yesterday! Eva J. via Sendsomething sent me a post card (in German! I was thrilled to notice I could still understand it, even though the speaking/writing part has completely escaped me) and two tea bags. I'm looking forward to trying them! I haven't gotten mail in ages (really! Since December!) so it was so nice to have an envelope waiting for me. Eva also recommended me to try a site called DaWanda and I've been drooling over everything there, trying to restrain myself. Recently I've ordered TONS of things from Etsy and other similar sites, and I can't wait to receive them and show you all the prettiness!

How was everyone else's Tuesday? I hope you avoided the smacking yourself in the head -part.

track 003 - a new week

It's the third week of a new year! Let's see what I've planned for this week's posts - I'm really excited! This is going to be a good week.

- I'm starting my dance classes tomorrow - I'm both a bit nervous and really looking forward to them! Let's see if I feel like going again after the first class... I haven't done any organized hobbies since I was 17, I think! Gosh!

- Tomorrow, 15.1.2013  is the day I've been looking forward to for pretty much the whole time I've been in this school (since September 2011, that is). What happens then? The application period for abroad exchange starts! I'm planning on following my application process and exchange period from choosing a school to filing in the final report after returning.

Here we go!

- I cleaned up my stationery and supplies, so one day this week I'll be showing how I store my letter-writing stuff. It took a long time to find a system that works, but I think I'm on the right track now!

- And, of course, I plan on tracking my in- and outcoming mail. Before going to school today I'm sending off two envelopes - one to Germany and one to Japan - with tag stuff in them. They're not specifically pretty or fascinating envelopes, and it didn't occur to me to photograph them before sealing the envelopes, so you're not getting any pictures, sorry! If I send or receive anything more exciting, pictures will follow.

I hope you will all have a great week!

track 001 - me

Hello again!

So, in my first post I explained a bit why I'm writing this blog. In this post I will tell you who the person writing this blog is! I find it annoying when I read a blog where the writer never really introduces themselves, or does it very briefly. I'm a voyeur by nature, and to satisfy my curiosity, I want to know! Everything and anything! So, here goes my attempt to satisfy my readers' (a bit optimistic now, since nobody reads it yet, but I plan to get readers!) curiosity.

At the moment of writing, I am 21 years, 7 months and almost 3 days old. In other words, I was born in June 8th, 1991. In Finland. I lived the first 19 years of my live above the Arctic Circle, then I moved to Belgium to work as an au pair. After a few months, I moved to the Netherlands and lived with my boyfriend's family - I loved it in the Netherlands. The atmosphere and the people were so different from the reserved Finns, and I felt like the Dutch are more open to different kinds of people, whereas the Finns tend to judge everything that isn't the norm. Obviously there are exceptions, but that's the overall impression I got. I lived in the Netherlands for two months, and then moved back to Finland in January 2011. In June 2011, my boyfriend moved in with me and we've been living together in Oulu ever since.

So, that's my life story very briefly... since nobody really ever cares what has happened to the person before they start writing the blog, eh? It's the events that happen during the blog-writing that really matter, because then you get almost a live commentary on the writer's life. So, let me tell you what's happening in my life and what I'm planning for the future!

Right now, my life is in a bit of lull. I study media production, and I do like it, I'm just not too keen on the courses we're having right now, haha. Next autumn I'm planning to go on an exchange period, and I'm really excited about that, though! Any guesses where I want to go? (drum roll) The Netherlands! On the other hand, it's going to be a lot of work with all the stuff we have here in Finland, but hey, if other exchange students have managed to do something about their stuff, I'm sure I can do something, too.

I've never been much of a hobby type, or rather, I have, just not the organized ones. I like to do things when I feel like doing them, not when I'm told to do them. (This has caused some problems with school deadlines over the years... I'm a huge procrastinator.) However, this spring I've enrolled myself on a dance course that begins next Tuesday, and I'm actually really looking forward to it! Other hobbies I have are pen palling (I have such amazing pen pals! Expect to have a lot of mail-related entries.) and making my own stationery (if I ever take pictures, I'll put them on here), reading (you can see my Goodreads profile in the sidebar - I like to track my process in different things, also reading), spending time on the computer and trying out different things. I have these urges to do something every now and then - sometimes I'll feel like cooking something really elaborate, sometimes I feel like drawing, sometimes I even feel like going out for a run. I've never actually been crazy enough to do the latter one - the thought is ridiculous since I loathe running, but I have gotten the urge to do so! I think it was right after I found about Zombies, Run!. Then I realized I don't own a smartphone and was sort of bummed, but mainly just relieved because I had passed the moment of craziness and remembered that I hate running.

So, like the previous incident proves, I like games as well. I'll admit that any day, but I'll also admit I'm a very casual gamer, the type that all 'serious' gamers frown upon. Well, too bad. I believe games were invented for fun and for fun I shall use them. I very rarely finish games (the only ones I can remember finishing lately were Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, which are just PERFECT. I think I had a little crush on Alistair in Origins, shhh.), but I do like to try out different types. Right now I'm in the middle of Mass Effect (the first one), Black and White II, and I also sometimes play The Sims 3, World of Warcraft (since I got a free month because I bought Diablo 3), Dofus (that's a small MMORPG that I have a long history with, since 2005, and it's actually how I met my boyfriend so it'll always have a special place in my heart) and other games I don't remember right now. I get bored easily, so a game has to offer something special to keep me entertained.

And the last thing you should know about me is that all the things I've listed here are by no means the only ones I enjoy. Like I mentioned before, I have urges. Because of that, I'm interested in zillions of subject and I know about a lot of things - just not very much about anything specific. I'm very good at trivias, haha, because my head is filled with useless information. I'm the kind of person you want to play team up with to play Charades, or Alias, or... well, you get the point. So, yes I like the things I mentioned so far, but I also like a variety of other things. And that will probably be showcased here in the blog as well, since I like to talk about things I like. So, expect the unexpected.

Pictures in this post: letter papers by me. Last image from Mickey's blog.

intro

I’M THE OUTSIDER, THE OBSERVER 

THE OUTCAST, THE WORD CONSERVER 
I’M INSPIRED BY THE STREETS 
SOME DAY IT WILL BE IN MY BIOGRAFFITI 

(Hanoi Rocks - Street Poetry)

I've always wanted to keep a blog. In fact, I have, many times. The longest one was when I spent a few months in Belgium as an au pair - it was a way to tell the people back at home what I's been up to and to let them in my life.

Ever since I returned to Finland, I've had the urge to keep log of what happens to me, but the reality is that not a lot happens. That's why I tried to start a blog about my field of study and what happens in the world of media and events. However, that was very short-lived, since I just didn't have the energy to do research for school AND for a blog. Then I tried to start a blog about what I receive and send in the mail, but usually I'm too excited when I receive a letter to first photograph it - and I also didn't want to be labeled solely as a 'mail blog'. And then I went through my Google Reader (all 149 of the blogs I have listed there) and tried to figure out what kinds of blogs I like to read. Why? Well, because I have impeccable taste, of course! So, if I could figure out what makes me reads the blogs I do, I could incorporate that into my own blog and then everybody would like to read my blog because it would be awesome. 

source: google.com

How disappointed I was when I realized there was no single 'thing' that stood out. I follow a lot of different blogs. The only thing they seemed to have in common was that I liked the person who wrote it (their style of writing, the contents of the blog, what they share with their readers). Most of the blogs I read are very normal blogs where people document their everyday life. So be it! From now on, I will document my everyday life... maybe knowing that I have to write about it will make it more interesting?

Because I'm always a bit late from everything, I did not start this blog the first of January, which would be the OCD way to do this - neat and organized. Since I'm neither of those, I guess 10th is as good a day as any!

I look forward to finding out which direction this blog will go to - hopefully there's someone out there reading that does, too!