I just came back from Berlin. I decided to go there for a couple of days because I have 4 days of Easter holidays and not too much school work yet. I went alone and walked around the town until my feet were hurting. At some point last night I felt a bit lonely and tired, but when when I got to the place I was staying for the night, there were people home. I ended up having a long discussion with Franza's roommates, who knew surprisingly lot about Finland - the other one had even done a one-semester-exchange in Hanken university in Helsinki and told that there really is an upper-class atmosphere in the school. I slept in Franza's bed in a great commune not far from the city centre. I met Franza in the FYEG Green economics Training in Berlin in December and she was friendly enough to let me sleep at her place - although she wasn't home.
I guess I know quite lot about German history as I went to some memorial sites but they didn't have much new to offer to me. Altough it was impressing to finally see the famous Berlin wall remnants. The weather has been GREAT the last week. Like summer. Today wondered around in the famous Tiergarten park in Berlin, it was full of people.
I travelled to Berlin and back with the wonderful car pool/car-sharing system, which (of cource. This is Germany!) is very well organized and functioning (www.mitfahrtgelegenheit.de). You can search for car rides which the drivers have put on the site and call/email them if you can drive with them. Usually the cars are full but the fare is minimal. Wow! Could this work in Finland..? As long distances make public transport often unprofitable. An maybe the neighbours would finally get to know each other..? The ride back wasn't especially cheap for me though as the time somehow passed very quickly and at some point I realized I have to take a taxi to Franza's place to get my stuff or I'll miss my ride / have to pay 40euros for the train...
Leipzig feels like home. I can already find my way quite easily here. Last week I was in a meeting of the local young greens and it was quite interesting. They seem to be quite active. I asked them about the municipal biking policy as I have been quite surprised about the biking conditons here. They may be better than in Tampere, but still quite dangerous and incoherent with tracks disappearing suddenly. I heard that it's already decided that biking will be denied in the very city centre as people are driving like crazy and organizations of disabled and elderly people have got their message over to city councillors (of whom majority is apparently conservative.) Well, if there were some signs and tracks the situation wouldn't be so bad! GHFHDDHGDHG! Frustrating!! I'm also driving illegally often as I have no idea where to drive. But yes my helmet is protecting me and I even finally bought lights to my bike (after I heard the police can give you a fine of 15-20 euros for biking without lights, and you have to pay it immediately in cash).
Las weekend there was a wonderful jazz festival in town and I saw two great concerts, one with my room mate Saskia. THE place to go out here is Moritzbaskei, a huge night club/restaurant/bar where they have also a lot of cultural happenings and festivals. It's situated partially under the ground and is a part of the old city fort wall.
About the half of the university cources started last week. Damn there is so many interesting courses, I'm just taking them all I think and see how I'll manage with the work load. I'll tell you more when I know exactly when everything has started and settled. Mostly African studies, also some German language and literature. Fridays are free at the moment.
I'm skipping school for one week before it has really even started as I'm leaving for a 10-day political trip on Friday! First I'll go to Stuttgart to an international Local Councillor Meeting of the European Greens to talk about communal politics on an European level. To my surprise I found out there is also the yearly federal conference of the German Young Greens in Stuttgart that weekend. I'll be profiting from their cheap acommodation and surfing between the two conferences, which both have very interesting program. After that I'm free from Monday to Thursday and I'll most likely do some travelling, maybe to Freiburg. From Thursday 23th to Sunday 26th I'll be participating the Spring Conference and General Assembly of the Federation of Young European Greens in Maastricht, Southern Holland. I'm quite excited and really hope that I find some good Mitfahrt-rides as the trains are very expencive. The young greens of Finland pay for my accommodation and food in Maastrich so that's a plus.
So I'll see how the rest of the cources start and then be gone for a week. But that shouldn't be a problem. I already have long texts to read for my cources and will most likely spend most of my free day tomorrow in the near-by park reading.
Keep those emails coming and I'll get back to you! For now, ciao!
sunnuntai 12. huhtikuuta 2009
keskiviikko 1. huhtikuuta 2009
After a quarter of a century
The orientation course is almost over and I think everbody's happy about that. I realized today that my tiredness must also come from the constant effort to speak a foreign language and not nly from the long days. My German is going good, though, and I just had fun couple of days ago practicing vocabularity you don't learn at the university with my room mate Saskia (words like der Pinsel = sivellin, der Schneebesen = vispilä, der Nudelholz = kaulin...). I've been spending most of my time with other exchange students and we still speak German together, which is good.
My birthday on Monday was nice. When I went to the kitchen in the morning to get some breakfast there was a little cake with candles around it on the table - I realized I have very nice roommates! The leaders of the orientation course had bought me a book and they sang to me, which was very nice. In the evening I had a beer (yes, beer) with some exchange students and everybody was impressed about my quarter of a century. I'm one of the oldest on our cource.
Last week I went to the doctor because the pain in my feet (propably just overexertion and sore muscles) got worse. I got some pills and creams and well they haven't been helping much. Maybe I have to go back and force the doctor to send me to physiotherapy or do some magic tricks. My back is also killing me as my bed and computer chair are not so good. But I'll manage. Otherwise I've been surprisingly healthy. Biking again feels good. I almost killed my MS syringes as I put them to the back part of the fridge which was too cold. The packages were already frozen but luckily only one syringe so I didn't lose all 4000 euros.
The courses at the university start next week and I've been stressing about what to take and do I have to enrol or can I just go to the first meeting. Well, I write about that when I have found out more.. I also paid the fee to the university gym and am going to check out the local salsa school next week.
I know my way in the city much better already. Yesterday I had to throw away my first map as it was way too torn. I learn new routes all the time, like yesterday the quicker route to the city centre thorught the HUGE park right next to our house. I have to get to know the park better when the spring comes. Now we have had a couple days of sun, before that it was just rain and wind (even hailstorm and sleet). There's much to do in Leipzig, very many interesting museums and places to see. The buildings are old an beautiful but there are strange blue pipes all aroung the city as they are building an underground city tunnel (metro) and need to pump up the groundwater. An interesting municipal politics solution, the ugly pipes are there for 10 years in total - but a great investment in public transport.
The university is turning 600 years this year and there is a lot of ceremonies and happenings. It's unbelievable to study in the 2nd oldest university in Germany. A lot of famous people have studied here, from Goethe to Angela Merkel. Bach has also lived and composed in this city. The are 500 000 books at the university library which has been restored after it was almost totally destroyed in the 2nd world war. The neighbourhood I'm living in (Plagwitz) is the result of the industrial development in the area and used to be an own municipality. It's very near to the Leipzig city centre though and a bit poshy nowadays.
That's all the news at the moment. This weekend I'm going to take it easy. Last Saturday we were in the state capital Dresden with all the exchange student and I'm planning to go to Berlin during the Eastern holidays. On 17th April I'm going to skip school and leave for a 10-day political trip to Stuttgart and Maastricht, Holland - but I'll get back to that later.
My birthday on Monday was nice. When I went to the kitchen in the morning to get some breakfast there was a little cake with candles around it on the table - I realized I have very nice roommates! The leaders of the orientation course had bought me a book and they sang to me, which was very nice. In the evening I had a beer (yes, beer) with some exchange students and everybody was impressed about my quarter of a century. I'm one of the oldest on our cource.
Last week I went to the doctor because the pain in my feet (propably just overexertion and sore muscles) got worse. I got some pills and creams and well they haven't been helping much. Maybe I have to go back and force the doctor to send me to physiotherapy or do some magic tricks. My back is also killing me as my bed and computer chair are not so good. But I'll manage. Otherwise I've been surprisingly healthy. Biking again feels good. I almost killed my MS syringes as I put them to the back part of the fridge which was too cold. The packages were already frozen but luckily only one syringe so I didn't lose all 4000 euros.
The courses at the university start next week and I've been stressing about what to take and do I have to enrol or can I just go to the first meeting. Well, I write about that when I have found out more.. I also paid the fee to the university gym and am going to check out the local salsa school next week.
I know my way in the city much better already. Yesterday I had to throw away my first map as it was way too torn. I learn new routes all the time, like yesterday the quicker route to the city centre thorught the HUGE park right next to our house. I have to get to know the park better when the spring comes. Now we have had a couple days of sun, before that it was just rain and wind (even hailstorm and sleet). There's much to do in Leipzig, very many interesting museums and places to see. The buildings are old an beautiful but there are strange blue pipes all aroung the city as they are building an underground city tunnel (metro) and need to pump up the groundwater. An interesting municipal politics solution, the ugly pipes are there for 10 years in total - but a great investment in public transport.
The university is turning 600 years this year and there is a lot of ceremonies and happenings. It's unbelievable to study in the 2nd oldest university in Germany. A lot of famous people have studied here, from Goethe to Angela Merkel. Bach has also lived and composed in this city. The are 500 000 books at the university library which has been restored after it was almost totally destroyed in the 2nd world war. The neighbourhood I'm living in (Plagwitz) is the result of the industrial development in the area and used to be an own municipality. It's very near to the Leipzig city centre though and a bit poshy nowadays.
That's all the news at the moment. This weekend I'm going to take it easy. Last Saturday we were in the state capital Dresden with all the exchange student and I'm planning to go to Berlin during the Eastern holidays. On 17th April I'm going to skip school and leave for a 10-day political trip to Stuttgart and Maastricht, Holland - but I'll get back to that later.
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