Uncertain times

Siis, on taas sunnuntai. aina sunnuntai. ce qui fait que je dois travailler demain! wunderbar! ;)

I'm not really any less tired than I was on Friday evening, since I went out last night and got to bed at 5am this morning. First I went to a friends birthday party and then we ended up in a club in Tampere called "groove". It's a hip-hop and R&B place...not entirely my scene but some of the music was ok. I missed Mia and her husband's house-warming but coincidentally caught up with her and a few others in the bar, they just happened to come to the same place! 2 birds 1 stone. kinda.

I've spent today re-arranging my room and sorting out my new things which I picked up in IKEA in Espoo on Thurs. I was there for a seminar and figuerd because I had the car, I'd head to IEKA for some shopping as well :) Got quite a few things; curtains, duvet set, warm duvet, mirror (!), rug, cushions, candles, a laundry basket and maybe a couple of other things which aren't springing to mind right now.

I'm very happy because since moving my bed, it now seems like I have loads more space in my room! result!

Had a change of flatmate this weekend. Andrea moved out yesterday and Olga, the new Aiesec trainee, arrived from Russia and moved in! She seems very cool indeed ;)

Yesterday I went for a wee walk with Andrea in the afternoon. We went to Suolijärvi in Hervanta, where she thought she'd already been but in actual fact had only been to Ahvenisjärvi. Of course the former is infintely more exciting! At least it has the outdoor gym to play on ;) "Ruska" in Finland, the autumnal time, is really pretty, even more so when the sun is shining

, but we're not having too much luck in the department unfortunately!

I need to get my ass in gear again. All I did this past week was go climbing on Monday, and even at that, it wasn't particularly strenuous because we were all really tired. We should go again tomorrow I guess. I missed yoga since I was in Espoo and didn't have frisbee, swimming or the gym or anything else to do...oh yeh, that 100 push-ups challenge, shouldn't forget that!

I'm off to see Karin in Skanör, Sweden on Thurs, until Monday! A nice long weekend, reason being, she's having her birthday party on Sat! So I'm definitely looking forward to that :) As soon as I come back it's straight into 3 days of MindTrek in Tampere, which will be hectic but fun as well I'm sure! bring it all on!

A flurry in Finnish

Mä luulen että nyt on hyvä aika yrittää kirjoittaa jotain suomeksi! Katsotaan miten menee...

NB. please excuse all spelling & grammar mistakes and interjections in English where I don't know the appropriate Finnish words.

Mulla oli suomikurssi tänään aamupäivänä ja oli hyvä. Nyt tiedään miten sanoa "I like..." ja modaali verbit kuin "tyykätä, osaa, voida" :) On todella hyvä tiettää! Tänään on ollut ei mitään ihmeellistä...vain minulla on aika tylsää töissä...ja viikonloppu tulee! Me aloitamme aina tanssimisestä kanssa (on the step mainia dance mats in the office ;))

Tämä viikonloppuna meinaan nukkua todella paljon koska mä on tosi, tosi väsynyt....jotain uuden?! Huomenna minä aion mennä ostoksillä koska tarvitsen uuden clothes ja tarvitsen ostaa myös pari synttärit-presents!!

Ok. that's about as much as my Friday-brain can take of Finnish. Mä ymmärrän ennemän kuin puhun. Nimenoma.

upps...almost forgot, jotain muuta Tampereelta: sää. Ilma on todella huono nyt. On kylmä (6 degrees) ja päivät tulevat pimeä kohta ja nopeasti :(

Alpine adventures

Well, I lost my heart in Switzerland...not to any man (!), simply to the place ;) It's just magnificent! 700 years of peace have certainly shaped the surroundings; beautiful quaint little chalets are dotted all over the mountainside with villages and towns nestled in the shadows of the Alps! Not to mention the lakes of the Bernese Oberland with their pure, turquoise water, especially Thunersee and Lake Brienz! einfach wunderschön! Übrigens hatten die noch Sommer in der Schweiz! Das war ja schon lange her der Fall in Finnland!

So, as you may have guessed, I was in Switzerland for 5 days...in Thun to be precise; a town on Lake Thun in the Canton of Bern. The purpose of my trip was to attend the final NICE (european project which our cluster was a part of) meeting. It was pretty poignant being the last ever meeting with the same group of people. Since I joined Technology Centre Hermia, I started going to these meetings instead of Juha (my boss). First there was Paderborn, then Ankara, Ostrava and finally Thun. In a sense I only experienced a snapshot of the entire project (1 year from 3) but it was enough to see how the partners (from Finland, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland and Czech Rep) had bonded over that time, and to really feel that bond myself too! I can imagine that it's not with every set of project partners that you go out clubbing! sometimes drink too much...ahem, etc etc! There is/was just such a great spirit with these guys! The socialising really helps fortify the business relationships too. I truly believe that.

Well, as for business in Thun, we ran through the project results and heard interesting presentations e.g. on hypotheses of the future of ICT etc! Generally, we wrapped up the project. There was plenty of time for networking too, of course. As for the social programme, well, we had 3 amazing dinners! 2 in excellent restaurants in Thun and 1 in a chalet all for ourselves next to a real restaurant in the valley of the Jungfrau mountain and its surrounding range! Before dinner we were served canapes and serenading by a man playing Alp horn; I got to try it out myself too! We also spent 1 day visiting the Canton of Wallis (bordering the french-speaking part of Switzerland). We went to a techno park and heard some presentations before heading to a beautiful vineyard in Sierre (www.chevaliers.ch) for exquisite wine tasting and raclette! delicious! On Saturday, those of us who were left went with up the Niederhorn mountain in the funicular railway and chairlift with Christoph, our Swiss host. Unfortunately we couldn't go right up to the peak because the weather was too bad. We did, however, reach Vorsass and had a lovely lunch (I had a plate of cheese) and a great view of Lake Thun!

Coincidentally my parents were on holiday in Interlaken (20mins from Thun) the SAME week, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. So I was lucky to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak, and got to spend Wed afternoon and Sat night and Sun morning with them. Mostly we just relaxed and wandered around the town and drank a lot of coffee or "Schale" 's as mum discovered! Wunderbar! what more can you ask for!

Switzerland: be warned. I'm coming back.