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.

Turku2011 opening ceremony

So the opening ceremony of the 2011 European Capital of Culture in Turku was äh well nice if you watched it on TV or were one of the invited guests or journalist because as an ordinary citizen of Turku, you had practically no chance of seeing a thing. It took me more than an hour to get to the harbor, was almost frozen to death because of the -16°C outside and was practically then running with 50.000 other people to get a good spot to watch. Well that was impossible I saw some lights in the back and heard a little bit music far away and that was it. Oh and there was some fireworks but also nothing that special. So a complete waste of time and energy. And afterwards it took me two hours to warm up completely after I got home. :( Let’s hope that the rest of the year is better organized.

Back on track

Moro!

Hmm been absent for a while or better say just too busy with other stuff and now i noticed that somehow the files where i from time to time wrote something down to post it here later is somehow gone or at least i cannot find it anymore on my laptop. So there won't be much on what happened here in Suomi during the last weeks since i cannot really remember it anyway. But if I forgot something important, then just remind me and i will write a little bit about it.

Just a short summary of December.
Well I was here, no internship in Germany because I am stupid. That is all i am going to say about it. And please I don't need any questions about uni or my future right now since i feel already bad enough about it and I don't need more pressure. Thanks.

So December. It was äh COLD! FREAKING COLD! Even for Finland. We had snow, very much snow which is very unusually for December at the coast here. And 3 weeks long under – 15°C is also very unusual. So we were all freezing and well not spending much time outside. But it is still one of the best month to spend in Finland.
Here December is call Joulukuu. Joulu means Christmas :D So it's the Christmas month. And Turku is the official Christmas city in this country.

So Joulukuu and in general the Christmas season starts with the openings of the Christmas markets all over the country. In Turku it opened at the end of November, at the first Advent weekend. The Christmas market here was very small but very nice and traditional, no drunken people, no weird smell of liver or other disgusting things like in Germany :) And in Turku Christmas market is just open on the Advent weekends. I was at the opening, - 20°C and of course I wasn't properly dressed. I thought my toes would freeze off.

At the same weekend was the traditional Åbo Akademi Christmas concert of the two choirs and the university orchestra. It was as 5 years ago the perfect start to the Christmas season. This beautiful Christmas music filling every corner of the cathedral. Very special I can tell you.

Anyway the next big thing was December 6th. And no it is not St. Nicolas day, ok it is but that is not important. The 6th of December is Finnish Independence Day. That day is very special. It is not celebrated as a big party like in countries as the USA or Norway but it is very quiet and a day to remember all people who fought and lost their lives for the independence of this country. The student unions of all the universities organized every year a torch procession from the student union buildings to the main cemetery. As 5 years ago I was of course a part of that procession. This year I even got my own torch. It felt pretty amazing being part of that big group of students that walked to the city in remembrance of the past. Since the procession was around 6 you could see in many windows two blue/white candles flickering. That is part of the independence day tradition. As well as watching the presidents ball in the evening on tv. I missed parts of that but well I have seen it the past 3 years so besides the different dresses it is not that much different every year.

Then I went one evening with Carolin to the so called 'Best Finnish Christmas Song' singing in one of the local churches. It is somehow tradition that in December people gather in the Churches to sing together. Sounds weird and well it was little bit weird and great at the same time. We went to Mikaelinkirkko which is a huge Gothic church, very nice and for me it was the first time that I've been to that church and well it was impressive. So was the singing. I love Finnish Christmas songs and charing that with a few hundred other people was so great. :) Definitely a great tradition.

So next on the agenda was Lucia Dagen. A Swedish tradition which comes from the days of Catholicism in the North. Well as in Sweden also in Finland there are Lucia celebrations and a Finnish Lucia is elected who is doing the whole traditional events in Helsinki. Since Turku has a big Swedish community we had also our own Lucia celebrations in the Cathedral with our own Lucia. I was a little bit late so I didn't got to see much but it was also more about here the songs and speeches. Luckily it was in Swedish so I at least understood more or less everything even if I didn't see it all.

Before Christmas it was time to say goodbye to a whole bunch of people. And that wasn't nice at all. I miss my flatmate Eva, my German friend Carolin, the crazy Peruvian girl Vicky, weirdo Adam and Hitomi my Japanese cherry blossom. :( Well life goes on, somehow although more or less all my friends are gone now so I have to make new friends.

For Christmas as I mentioned in an earlier post I was invited to a family Christmas diner with delicious food, singing, more food, Christmas story reading, caroling and well food. :D I think I gained around 3 kilograms during the holidays. If you want to know more about Finnish Christmas food just read this http://www.dlc.fi/~marianna/gourmet/season1b.htm and that is more or less everything I ate on Christmas.

The Wednesday after Christmas my friends Katrin and Tellu visited Turku at the same day and it was so nice to see some good friends again. From time to time it is just nice to see and hug some people who know you longer than 4 month and understand you better than many other people.

New Years Eve was a little bit quieter than Christmas. I was alone in my flat with my DVD collection which my mom finally send to me and since there were people blowing their money in the air I had my own private fireworks and didn't even need to leave the cosiness of my apartment. :)

So last Monday the new semester started here and that means new exchange students. Well haven't met many of them but well. Got also a new flatmate, from China, but she is already here since August which is nice that I don't have to tell so many thing for the dozens time. Seriously I am so tired of answering questions like: 'How long are you in Finland?', 'What do you study?', 'Why did you came to Finland?' .... bla bla bla. I know that it is necessary if you meet new people here but seriously I explained everything already a thousand times and at one point it is just annoying.

So that was it for the moment. Should get a little bit sleep before the Combined race and grand opening of the Culture capital year tomorrow. :)

Oh yeah I forgot: Turku is next to Tallin the culture capital of Europe so if you have the chance you should visit this amazing city this year. There is a lot going on.

Will tell more about opening ceremony during the next days. Hopefully before I leave to France.
Jeap I am going to France next Wednesday. The first time that I leave this country since August! Woohoo!!

Nähdään! (See you!)


PS: Happy New Year to you all! :P