Christmas Carols – My Top 10

So the second advent is already over and although I don't have much Christmas spirit it is still one of my favorite holidays.

But since the 1st Advent I am officially listening to Christmas carols and to spread the holiday spirit a but I want to shared my top 10. Since I lived abroad for a while my favorite Christmas Carols represent a wide range of types and languages. I hope you enjoy my collection. :D

1. Do you hear what I hear (Glee version)
I didn't know that one until a few weeks ago when the new Glee Christmas album came out. And now I am really in love. The original is a few decades old and also Ok but nothing compared to the Glee version. And that although I can't stand the 2 who sang the song since I saw them on 'The Glee Project' but you can't say anything against their voices. :)

2. Jul jul strålande jul
A Swedish carol which I got to know during my first stay in Finland in 2005. Just love it. It's simple and but beautiful. Unfortunately I still haven't found ait on youtube in good quality but I keep looking.

3. Oi jouluyö/ oh holy night
No matter in what language you sing it, I just love it. For many many years already. And each time I find a new language version I rejoice. :P

4. En Etsi Valtaa Loistoa (Jean Sibelius)
Probably THE Finnish Christmas Song. Written by the one and only Jean Sibelius. And it proofs my experience that so many Finnish Christmas Carols sound very depressing. Not that I mind, it is just how I experienced it. But still I like that Song very much, like more or less everything from Sibelius.

5. Winter Wonderland/ Winterwald
Liked this song since I was a little kid. And since I liked it so much I even sang it in my primary school Christmas celebration. Completely insane since no other kid new it but well. :D My mother was a Heintje Fan and his Christmas CD was on heavy rotation each December in my house.

6. Where you there on that Christmas night
Got to know this song last year and listed to it all December and was sad when Christmas was over and I had to take it of my mp3 player. So now it's back on and I listen to it at least once a day. Oh and not many people know that song so I am happy to share it here.

7. Tulkoon joulu
Another Finnish Christmas Song. I have it in very many different versions on my pc but I like the one from Suvi Teräsniska the best. Not a sad and depressing Christmas song, but very uplifting. At least for me. :)

8. Nu Tändas Tusen Juleljus
another Swedish carol which i enjoy also very much

9. Stille Nacht/ Silent Night
The only reason why I went to Church on Christmas with my grand da

10. Tonttujen jouluyö
A very loved Christmas song for children in Finland and well not just Children love it. It is fun to sing and if I remember right there might be even a dance to it. Or something like that. Tip tip tap! :P

Work hard. Have fun. Make history.

So 3 weeks ago I started my job at Amazon as a warehouse aid for the Christmas season and well... it is as hard as I expected but worse is that we live about 45min away from the company in a tiny village without internet and even cell phone reception. Who would have thought those places still exist in Germany? But since I really need the money I try to survive till Christmas. Even though my feet hurt so badly every night after work since I walk about 20k each day. I work the evening shift from 3pm till 11:30, which means getting very late to bed, getting up late. This is nice since I can sleep long but I miss the whole evening. But I would miss it anyway since my roommates who have the morning shift go to bed at 9pm since they have to get up at 4am again. And last but not least I met some nice people who make the time bearable. I live together with 2 girls and two boys in a small holiday cottage which is actually not bad, apart from the fact that I never wanted to share a flat again. But I made a good choice with my house mates so it is ok for 6 weeks.

Better late ...

than never.

So I wish everybody a belated Happy St. Nicholas Day! I hope you guys cleaned your shoes and got a little treat. I didn't cleaned my shoes but still got a chocolate Santa and some cookies from my area manager at Amazon. I really liked the idea, especially since I completely forgot that it was December 6th already. Time really flies.

So and for all the Finns and friends of Finland a belated
Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää!!!
It's now 94 years ago that Finland gained independence from Russia. Usually I sit (like many Finns) in front of the telly or computer to watch the Independence Day ball in the presidential palace. And like all girls i just watch it becasue of the dresses and to check how many people i know. Still surprising that the number is usually quite high even when the members of parliament are coming in. but never ask me about German politicians. ;)

Music just makes the world a better place!

So recently I've been addicted to blogs, not just because I am very good in procrastination (which I am) but also because there are so many cool people out there sharing amazing things with the world. Mostly I love all those Do-it-yourself-things (DIY), especially since I'm moving in January I'm always looking out for cheap and creative ways to make your house more like home. So in January I will try to make some cool lamps which I discovered online but until then I like to share other things, especially since I won't be able to write much before January when I start my new job next week (and because I am not ready to share my amateur sewing projects with anybody yet ;) ).

I love music, which everybody knows and I love to share music that I like because I think music can make the world a better place, at least for 3 minutes while listening to a great song. I get a lot of new music inspiration from good tv-shows. Grey's Anatomy has often beautiful music and last week a song on Bones just hit me. I immediately lost my heart for this simple but beautiful melody and after doing some youtube research the singer truly became my new favorite female singer. And that is something special since I barely like female singers at all. Of course I adore Adele but besides that there are usually just a few songs I like from other female singers. So now I want to share my new love with you. Mindy Gledhill. Her song Anchor was featured on Bones but the whole album with the same title is just awesome. At least if you are into that kind of music. I am! Sometimes I just need some quite happy tunes.

Enjoy!



PS Thanks to the blog 'Living, Laughing and Loving' I got inspired to do this fun unique signature. Totally loving it, even though I feel totally girlie now which I am usually not but well who cares, not me! :D

Moin moin ...

Ich liebe die Schiffe, das Meer und den Hafen,
und ich liebe es, nach ´ner Party, ... am Elbstrand einzuschlafen.
Ich bin ein Hamburger Jung und ich komm voll in Schwung,
wenn ich hüpf´ und spring und von Hamburg sing.
Schon Störtebeker wusste, dass der Norden rockt
und hat mir seinem Kahn hier gleich angedockt...

So as somebody might have guessed, I was in Hamburg. For just one day but Hamburg is always worth it. It's my third favorite German city and it has been a while since my last visit. And it is so amazing how the city has changed since my first visit about 10 years ago.

After searching one hour for a parking spot, we ended up right in the Speicherstadt. Which was nice since we could walk around the harbor and the little distance to the town hall and Binnenalster. My friend Steffi went with her boyfriend to the Miniatur Wunderland while I was doing some sightseeing and shopping. I am just not that much into small trains and pregere Northern Europe and the Alps in original size. :P

For the first time I went up the famous church tower of the Michel (St. Michaelis church) which was pretty cool, literally. It was freezing and so windy but definitely worth the few Euros for the entry. I took some nice pictures of Hamburg from above. Then I went to the city center - if you can call it like that - around the town hall. I did some shopping, went back to the harbor to look at some ships and finally ended up in the newly constructed HafenCity.

Well I have to say I love architecture. Historic and modern likewise. I wanted to study it and I still think I could have been a good architect. So i was curious about the new area with the high prized office and apartment buildings. So ähm yeah well I felt like I was back in the GDR. The only difference between these new buildings and the GDR Plattenbauten (prefabricated concrete slabs) is the prize and that you have a bit more glass windows and walls. Seriously I don't get why you would pay millions to live in a concrete and glass cube just because it is right at the harbor. Weird. But I found one building in which I would actually move into. It was white and was the only building with round shapes. You can see a little bit of it in one of the pictures.

Nordisch, wohoohoo, nordisch by nature ....



So much for Hamburg. I am still trying to find a job in Leipzig and waiting for one specific call. Wish me luck!

Weather effects in Finland and the rest of the world

+15c Spanish wear caps, gloves and winter coats, Finns are sunbathing.

+10c French desperately try to get their central heating on. Finns plant flowers.

+5c Italian cars won't start. Finns drive with convertibles.

0c Pure water freezes. Water in river Vantaa thickens a bit.

-5c First people are found frozen in California. Finnish midsummer festival ends.

-10c Scottish turn the heat on in their houses. Finns start to use long-sleeve shirts.

-20c Swedes stay indoors. Finns are having last barbeque before winter.

-30c Half of the Greek people have frozen to death. Finns start to dry their laundry indoors.

-50c Polarbears evacuate North Pole. Finnish army starts it's winter training.

-70c Siberian people are moving to Moscow. Finns are furious since the Koskenkorva booze can't be stored outdoors anymore.

-273c Absolute Zero. Finns admit that it is quite cold outside.

-300c Hell freezes over. Finland wins the football World Cup.

Finally good news!

Today I got a lot of e-mails, usually 99% is crap and well today wasn't any different but there was one very interesting e-mail.
'I’m pleased to inform you that we have chosen you for an internship' was all I could read then I screamed and did my famous happy dance. :D And I still can't believe it. Finally I am blessed a little bit too. Was about time after all the good deeds I did this year. ;)
Anyway if I get through the security scanning I will start in January my 2 months internship at the American Consulate General in Leipzig. :D
Cool, isn't it?

So well I had an interview there in Tuesday, so well yeah nothing exciting to tell about that. And that's why (more or less) I am in Halle now, visiting a friend who I haven't seen much in the past years since she was living abroad and just recently returned to Germany. So I stay here till Monday and then return to my parents.

But hopefully not for long.

I will try to find a job and flat in Leipzig now since I can write my essays and thesis practically anywhere. And well anywhere is better than at my parents place so wish me luck :D

Sturmfrei! :)

So my parents are for 2 weeks on the Canary Isles which means I can finally do what I want to do. And today it was this:



So let's hope it will make it in one piece to Magdeburg. But before I go to the b-day party of a good friend, I will go to a local ski jumping competition in the neighboring city. Will be interesting. I hope. A friend will be the stadium commentator and i haven't been to that ski jump yet, just saw is from far away. And unfortunately I missed the Nordic combined summer grand prix this year :'( Well and, of course, one should support the local kids :D So a lot of reasons to watch crazy kids doing an insane sport :D

Sunset and Sunrise at the Baltic Sea

So I'm back in Germany and well the way I chose this time wasn't one of my smartest ideas.

I spend my last night with a new but good friend and 2 cats. Interesting combination but it was very nice just to relax a bit.

Then I spend 26 hours on a ferry. Well it was not so nice. The ferry was very small so you couldn't really do much. And after the 4th old drunk Finnish or Russian man tried to talk to me I really had enough. And all the complaining Germans. Seriously do you have to complain when a night light isn't properly working (and it needed to be fixed right away!). Oh and i caused the biggest drama when I did put my Laptop cable across the floor. Oh how could I do that? ;) So the positive thing was that there was free Internet access on the boat, so I survived that time more or less.

We arrived on Friday night at the harbor in Rostock. I was very lucky to reach the subway in time because with my luggage AND my bike I might have just given up on the way between the harbor and the city center. Then I tried to sleep a few hours at the train station. Well it was one of the best sleeping places I had so far but unfortunately I wasn't the only one there so it wasn't really quiet. Around 5:30am I took a train to Warnemünde and had a great breakfast alone at the beach. :D The pics of that morning and the whole last week you can find under this link. I'm too lazy to upload everything a second time.

Enjoy!

PS And of course there was no Hanse Sail, it is of course this week. But it was crowded enough in Rostock.

Sun and fun in Sverige and Suomi

So I'm on the road for more than a week now and well it's been fun. I stopped counting on how many surfaces i slept. I just have to say Airports are not my favorite but at least it is not as cold as the train station in Bamberg in the end of December :D

I was in Sweden from Monday night till Saturday evening. I met a lot of great people, learned a lot and am sure that I have enough power now to survive at my parents place for a while.

On Sunday morning I arrived in Finland and well i was supported to go back to Germany on Tuesday but due to great people here I got a bed (the first real bed i slept in a week!) for 2 more nights so I had more time to meet people, buy some last minute things and just enjoy the wonderful weather. So it is Wednesday and tonight I'm going to Vantaa (next to Helsinki) to spend my last night in Finland at a friends place.
Tomorrow at 6pm my ferry to Rostock is leaving. I will be there on Friday evening, will try to find a place to sleep at the train station because thanks to the Hanse Sail you can't find a bed in the city anymore. But well at least I will get some of the atmosphere my parents experience a few times in the past.

So and i might get a job next week so everybody cross your fingers that my future-boss won't kill me when i tell him that i have to do an internship still and won't be able to work in September or October. :)

home sweet home

Last weekend I spend some time in well what I would call my hometown - Halberstadt. At least I was born there and lived there around 18 years of my life. I don't anymore but still I love this tiny little town.



Here some pics including the town hall, the cathedral and my high school.

Visit to Magdeburg

So, after a few days with my parents I 'escaped' for a day to my University town Magdeburg. I have to admit it was one of the best days since I returned. I had the chance to meet many good friends, eat ice cream and having a little bbq. A really great day, till I arrived back at my parents place than the nagging started again. ;)

That visit was full of very funny conversations I had with different people. When you meet with 3 fellow political science students (or former students) after 5min you talk about politics and what is just happening at the moment in the world economy. That happened with the same people at my goodbye party and was just funny to see that we did the same thing when we met for an ice cream this time. I guess we all studied the right thing after all. Who would have thought that about me? ;)
With friends I met outside the university the first thing we talk about was the women football world champs. Well i didn't talk about it just listened because i didn't care but it was just funny to see how different people are and what topics people think about. Good that we all are so different! :D

So thanks to all the people who had some time for me while I was in Magdeburg! Hope to see you all very soon again!

Things that suck and don't suck in Sucksa

So I'm back in Germany for almost 2 weeks now. Hmm feels still weird but not as bad as i thought it would be. I realized that not all things are bad here even though i will still for the rest of my life refer to this country as Sucksa.
For everybody who doesn't get the joke: Germany means Saksa in Finnish but me and some German friends of mine always complain how bad Germany is so I came up with the mixture of Saksa and suck because seriously almost everything sucks in Saksa. :D
But during the last few days I noticed a few things that i seriously missed, especially since the end of Winter. So here is the list:

1. Cheap chocolate. I already got a letter from a friend in Finland who asked me if I am super happy now that i can eat delicious German chocolate everyday. Well I still like Finnish chocolate more but seriously I missed the 35c chocolate. After a while 3€ or more for 200g just makes you want to cry much more when you are in the shop after a bad day to buy some suklaa to cheer you up. :/
2. Stars and dark nights. I love Finland but i hate Finnish summers. It's light outside almost 24/7 and I hadn't seen stars in months! And stars are my favorites! Last winter the night bike rides from a party were the best part of most nights since even with -25°C these millions of light spots above me just made me speechless and happy every time. :D
3. Free food and laundry. It's nice for a change not to worry about how to pay for food for the rest of the month or spending whole days washing and drying clothes because the laundry room was 200m away, always booked, the dryer full or the drying room not working! I still have to cook 50% of the time here but that is much more fun when you know you didn't have to spend money on what you are eating. :D And it's great just to tell your parents what you want and then you get it. :D

And well of course there are are things I didn't miss at all:
1. Complaining parents! I stopped counting how often they told me to do this or that during the past days. They clearly forgot how old I am.
2. Living in a big city! Don't get me wrong, I lived most of my life in a small town but i thought that part of my life was over. Having no cinema, computer store or decent library in the town you live in is giving me nightmares!
3. Rivers, lakes or the ocean. I noticed after my first year in Finland that I will never be happy in a place where there is no big river, lake or the sea near by. Well guess what? There is nothing like that here. :(
4. My own room. Ok the house here is quite big but i got, of course, the tiniest room which is at the same time my mothers ironing room. So no change even though my sister moved out 2 months ago. I just miss having a desk to work on or my posters hanging on the walls. And it is annoying if you need to go to your parents room to search for clothes to wear or to go in the basement to find some university papers or books. :(

So my conclusion: I'll survive here for a while but i have to make some serious decisions soon if i want to be ever really happy again. :/

never ending nightmare

So today was the day to leave Finland. Well as always when i travel something goes wrong but today Murphy had seriously something against me. Really everything went wrong. Ok, everthing went wrong after i arrived at the airport, before that everything went just fine.

I was repacking the whole night and cleaning. and well i just had too much stuff. With 2 sleeping bags, curtains, a pillow, clothes, shoes and lots of uni papers and books I had to send some stuff to my parents. I ended up sending 2 packages with around 10kg. At 7am I was the first one at the post office and well I should have used a better scale. Thanks to 100g too much in one package (while 300g less than 10kg in the other) I had to pay 13€ more than I expected. Well that sucked but I couldn't change it. By 7:45am the whole posti-mission was done and i was already waiting at the supermarket to do some last minute chocolate shopping and to buy a bigger bag for my handluggage since my little Halti-backpack just wouldn't do it. At that time it was by the way already 19°C!! Totally crazy! So i got the bag. Really awesome in purple and super big for just about 17€! a great deal for a Finnish brand like Icepeak. So I repacked my handluggage, went then to the uni library, returned all my books and all the uni papers. I was back home by 10:30, packing the last things, eating a bit and was ready to go to the airport. Everything went acording to plan. Well this should have made me suspicious because my travel days are never acording to plan. :/

So I went to the airport. My suitcase was a bit too heavy and my handluggage, too, but i trusted my previous luck with the check-in people. Well not this time! I had to pay for an extra bag and therefore had to check in my handluggage. Great! So i was running around the whole time with my laptop in my arms since i didn't have a bigger bag to use and couldn't leave it in the bag (but the cables stayed in the purple handluggage bag - STUPID!) and a small handbag with my wallet, passport and a bottle of water. That's it. Since we had around 30°C in Finland I decided to put my jacket also into the handluggage bag (big mistake!) and off all it went into the big plane stomach.

So off we went from the great summer weather in Turku to the stopover in Copenhagen. I had about 30min to get to my next plane and i was prepared to run again over the whole airport but we were 15min early so things were working in my favor, i thought. But during the landing phase i got a very terrible sort of migraine attack or something like that in my left forehead. I though a blodvessel is going to burst. Seriously it was bad! I still feel the pain now even though the really strong pain just lasted for 20min. Anyway so i had these bad pains and of course my emergency painkillers were in the purple bag. Awesome!

Luckily I didn't had to run across the whole airport like in April. Wasn't able to do it anyway this time. But the departure gate in Copenhagen was just 100m way from the arrival gate. Finally something positive! I even had time to refill my water bottle. So the flight was ok. I didn't like it when the captain said there is rain and 15°C in Berlin but I had my fleece jacket in my purple bag so i was happy that I packed it and did not send it by post.

So we arrived in Berlin, it rained, it was cold, i wanted my jacket.

Well i didn't get it.

My luggage, both bags and the bags of all the other people who flew from Finland to Copenhagen and then to Berlin didn't get their luggage because the stupid airport people couldn't move a few suitcases in 30min about 500m to the next plane! I couldn't believe it and still can't. I just wanted to cry. Seriously everything is in these bags! Most of the papers for my final thesis, my Journal, my external harddrive, my USB stick with the uni essay i still have to finish but also with all my work for the thesis, my favorite clothes, some presents from friends and some chocolate of course. Oh jeah and my jackets and painkillers!
So the lost and found people were already waiting for us. 'Well, jeah your luggage should come tonight with the plane at 8am.' - 'But I can't wait so long, I need to go another 300km by train today.' - 'Well than we'll send it by post. You should get it by Saturday.' WTF?! So there I was, freezing without my jacket, still in pain, hungry and just really upset, holding unto my laptop. Seriously it is really heavy if you have to carry it around in your arms all day long! Well you can imagine how bad I felt. And even crying my heart out to my Mom on the phone didn't help much. The only good thing was i didn't had to carry all that heavy luggage through Berlin but seriously i would have prefered that because it had warmed me up and would not be sick tomorrow and without anything to do or wear.

I got then some bad food at the train station after i hadn't eaten all day. Should have bought the dognuts instead of the 'fish'n'chips'. Well, next time. And then i had this super 3 1/2 hour train ride ahead of me with 2 changes on the way. German trains have air conditiioning, which never works when it is hot outside but with 13°C it works of course! It was horrible! I got picked up by my Dad on an earlier trainstop so i didn't need to chance twice. Well didn't matter since I didn't have any luggage after all.
My dad laughed at me! Super! Exactly what I needed while my headache was still killing me. And my Mom was shocked when she saw that i just wore a t-shirt. What in 'We have 30°C in Finland' did she not understand when i told her on the phone that my jacket is in the luggage too. Well here i am now hoping that my stuff will arrive on Saturday. Need to get so much work done but why was i so stuipid putting my usb-stick in the purple bag? well then I just write the complain letter to the airline tomorrow!

So much for now, the pain in my head is almost gone, thanks to my mom's painklllers but the fever is coming. Thanks air conditioned trains! Let's hope the world looks a bit better tomorrow.

Aku Ankka Turussa

So my last few hours in Finland are quite stressful but despite my lack of time a spend an hour to get the new special Aku Ankka comic, with the signatures of the authors and cartoonist. Which is so cool. Oh Aku Ankka is Donald Duck by the way. He's stories are probably the most read books in this country. Old and young love them. Totally weird but well so are Finns. So in this special edition you have a story about Donald Duck, his greedy Uncle and the 3 nephews are on a treasure hunt trough several Hanse cities, including Turku were the story ends. And also very cool is that you get the comic in 3 languages in one book, so Finnish, Swedish and English. Pretty cool I'd say. Well all that specialness costs a lot of money. i won't say how much but you can buy several comics for that money. anyway it is super special and it has my name on the cover and there are just a limited number of copies, so definite worth waiting 60min to get the signatures.

Time to pack!

So in 35 hours I'm leaving Finland. Such a weird feeling. During the last couple of days I had to say goodbye to so many people. Seriously I just wanted to cry way too often but well at least I know I made some friends I can truly rely on for the rest of my life. :)



And well, I found something a while ago and still can't believe that somebody here is doing that: Finnish Reggae! Seriously! And the most surprising thing: it is actually good! Here is my favorite song of Jukka Poika Kylmästä Lämpimään which is so perfect for the summer. :)

Enjoy, while I try to fit my last 9 month into a suitcase. Very tricky i can tell you!

Nähdään!

Hyvää Juhannusta!

So it was Juhannus last Saturday. Or as the Swedes would say: Midsommar. Which might be more familiar to all the IKEA shoppers out there. In Denmark and Norway it's called St. Hans. So well it's all the same in the end.

And it's the same tradition i would say in most of these countries. You light bonfires on the lakes, go to dances (mostly the older generations), spend time with family and friends at your summer cottage. Have lots of bbqed food and even more to drink, go to sauna (at least here in FIN) and just have a good free day.

Juhannus starts already Friday evening like all mayor holidays here so the shops were closed by Friday afternoon and the city almost completely empty by Friday evening. It is like the whole country is outside in the countryside and the cities are practically dead!

Speaking of dead, Juhannus is also a day were a lot of people die here, either because they drown since they are so drunk, burn because the are drunk while dealing with the Juhannus fires or just have other accidents because of alcohol abuse. Although this year the number of people who died on Juhannus was pretty low with 'just' 9 people. Last year there were 23!

That's why I'm happy that me and my friends don't drink so we had nothing to worry about. I was invited to go on Saturday afternoon which a bunch of friends to the mökki (cottage) of a befriended family. We had a wonderful time with playing games, eating good food and just enjoying the good company. Unfortunately the mosquitoes enjoyed my company as well. During the 4 hours we were outside I was bitten by around 40 mosquito and ants. I counted the bites afterwards! My legs really look like a crumb cake! So bad. But besides that It was a lot of fun.

Parental visit in May

So in May my parents and my sis were here in Finland for a week. After 5 days I managed to 'escape'. :D Well or something like that. But the time together wasn't as bad as i expected. It was nice not to be the 'evil' daughter for a change. ;) My sister hasn't been the nicest person since I moved out almost 7 years ago but since she moved out a month ago, she thinks she knows everything better. Yeah, sure!

Anyway, we went to Fiskars, a little village which is famous for it's knives and scissors. Then we haded to Hämeenlinna and Lahti on the second day. Spend a relaxing Sunday at the cottage and tried to find some weird submarine place somewhere at the southern coast on a very rainy Monday. We got lost of course and ended at a military base. Well that is so typical my parents no car atlas, no real travel guide just some vague description and then they think I should know everything. Jeah, because I drove with a car on every little street in Finland. Sure! Anyway, my sort of last full day with my family was spend in Porvoo, a gorgeous little town 40km east of Helsinki. On my b-day we went back to Turku, ate in the Viking restaurant Harald (but didn't get the funny Viking hats as friends of mine did a couple of days before us). Afterwards we had a little walk on beautiful Ruissalo, the island located right in front of the harbor of Turku. Then I got rid of my parents for 1 1/2 days until Friday, when they came after my last exam, to pick up most of my stuff to drive back to Germany. Since then I have white walls again, been sleeping in a sleeping bag and have practically no clothes to wear (not that it was much different before :P). So now I'm sort of counting the days till June 30th, when I go back to Germany.




And after that? Seriously I don't know, so please everybody stop asking me!


Enjoy the pics from my travels in May.

Summer is here - jeah!!!

I hope you got the Sarcasm here.

It's unbelievable but we have around 30°C for almost a week now and I truly hate it. And if I here another person asking me 'Great weather, isn't it?' I probably going to lose it.

I just hate the heat. You are sweating all day long and when you are going everywhere by bike it is even worse. I wish I has a pool in which I could just lie all day long. But well I am definitely considering building my future summer cottage not in Finland but on Greenland or Iceland. ;)

Ok so much for now. Will try to post some pics and some stories about my parents stay here during the next days.
OH and I'm coming back to Germany on June 30th. I think. ;)

Happy Birthday to ....

.... ME!!!! :D


Jeap it's time again to get one year older. I hate getting older but I love getting presents so if you want the presents you have to accept the not so fun part. I spend a nice day with my family (jeap they are in Finland right now, more about it tomorrow) and met some friends in the evening. I got some nice presents (some people are just amazing!) and very many b-day greetings via SMS, facebook, e-mail, studivz, ICQ or in person. Loved every one of them!! Kiitos! Thanks! Danke! Merci! Tack! ...

After a very good friend of mine told me that a lot of her friends forgot her b-day I was a little worried but it's good that these new social networks remind you of every b-day. :D But I'm still waiting for some stuff by old fashioned mail. Let's see if it comes tomorrow.

SUOMI ON UUSI MAAILMANMESTARI!!!

So after 24hours of partying I need to share this miracle also here with you. So I'm not sure if everybody has noticed but the last 2 weeks it was ice hockey world championships. And these were awesome championships. It started with Germany kicking Russia's ass with 2:0. After that amazing victory I said to many friends that now with Germany winning against Russia everything can happen including Finland winning the world championships. And what did they do?

THEY FREAKING WON!!!!!!

Seriously, we all have hoped for it but the final game was against the arch-enemy Sweden and in the past the Finnish Lions usually were really scared against the 'Tre Kronors' and played like little boys. But not this time. On Friday it was said Swedes are more afraid of Paradise Oscar (ESC) than Mikael Granlund but on Sunday it showed that they should have been truly afraid of the whole team. 6:1 was the end result!!!!! And the only goal Sweden made was by a guy called Pääjärvi, so a guy with partly Finnish blood in his veins. :D So much for that.

Today was the official party in Helsinki but there was a huge street-party already last night. Since I am in Turku and a poor student I didn't have the financial means to go to Helsinki but they put up a big screen at the market square in Turku and a few hundred mostly dunk people dressed in blue and white with flags and hockey jerseys celebrated as well. And you guess right, I was among them, not drunk but celebrating of course. It was very emotional with lots of singing and cheering and shouting and well it was 'almost' as good as being live in Helsinki. Or at least it was better than watching it on tv.

So here a few Songs that are played over and over again since last night.
The most popular one is Ihanaa, leijonat, ihanaa! from 1995 where the Finnish commentator screamed so enthusiastically that they made a song out of it. Btw 'ihana' is one of my favorite words since half a year and means 'awesome'.
Another on is Den glider in (it [the puck] goes in), especially popular since it is in Swedish and original the 1995 World Championship Song for Sweden but they lost back then against Finland and they lost this time again, so it is like a certain finger towards the Swedish team and country. But you could also hear this and Sankarit (Heros), which was sung by all the fans, the team and well just everybody today in Helsinki (and here in Turku). :D And Poika saunoo (the boy goes to the sauna) which is my discovery of the day (Kiitos Tellu!). Enjoy!


Another highlight of the tournament was a certain goal last Friday which made a 'little' 19 year old poika (boy) to become the hero of this country. Seriously when Mikael Granlund came on stage today everybody screamed louder for him than for any other player and even louder than for the President herself (and yes I was among those who screamed so loud!). So Mikke Granlund made an amazing goal on Friday and within minutes it was all over youtube. But the best version is in Finnish since there the same commentator as 1995, who is a legend himself in Finland, had one of his moments. So much for Finns never show emotions. :D So enjoy Mikke's 1:0 goal from the semi-final. And here of course as a song version. Finns are really fast with that.


Kiitos Leijonat!