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.
perjantai 20. maaliskuuta 2009
The final destination reached on time
My room is big and a bit white and the floors are really cold. I've been looking for some cool slippers but haven't foung any nice and cheap ones. But at least the internet's working!
The orientation course has started and it's reallt a full-time job. We have every day program from 9am to 4pm. In the morning we have langauge lessons and I'm in the most advanced language group. There are about 50 new exchange students and the knowledge varies from zero to very good, so they divided us to groups. Even though some of us can't speak almost any German, in general the exchange students are talking in German also among themselves. I'm very happy about this as this way I feel my speaking ability improving all the time.
In the afternoons we are listening to lectures, visiting the library and musems and stuff like that - and working on a presentation project. Our group's subject is the peaceful revolution in Leipzig in 1989, next week we are going to interview a lady who was very active in the resistment movement here during the Wende. Very interesting! I'm working in a group with a Irish and Norwegian guys and a Danish girl. I'm the only Finnish exchange student, which I'm actually quite happy about. In the end of the cource we are going to have a presentation in front of the class.
I have to sign up for the unviersity courses I want to take next week, so my big duty for the weekend is to surf in the internet to see what they offer. As I'm not with Erasmus I don't have any guidance and am able to chooce whatever I like. I was just looking for salsa cources and other sport stuff in the interent, I'm most likely going to get a bike (and a helmet...) from by brother's friends - if it's small enough.
It's funny that the German people actually seem to be very punctual and organized and always remind us to be on time - it sometimes get to my nerves. I really think the Dutch are more relaxed, even the language is somehow more laid-back. My week in Holland went fast, in the weekend I went to see my host family on Texel and about a half of it was actually home, which is quite a good accomplishment. The children don't live on Texel anymore except for Rosa who just moved to her own house on Texel. We did some very gezellig scrabble in Dutch and I wasn't even the last one, wow. The house stills feels like home and things are always the same when you go back to Texel.
Oh yes, I also had coffee with my old school mate Tuija Mäntylä in Amsterdam! Thank God for Facebook, she saw I was in Amsterdam and we saw each other for the first time on like 4 years. It was quite funny! I thought she was back to Finland already but apparently she is not planning to go back at all.
Today I got a but lost when walking home from school (I usually take the tram) and was quite proud of myself that I found my house without a map, which I most likely accindently left at school. Leipzig doesn't seem to be too big, but there is enough to do and see. Tomorrow we have some touristic bus tour with the course (most likely the same I did with my parents..) and next weekend we make a day trip to Dresden. I have enough to do, although up to know I've been spending the evenings sorting out my email and being quite antisocial. The other exchange students are nice, but somehow I feel myself a bit old as most of them are about 20 and abroad for the first time in their life and soooo excited!!!!!!!! Haven't thus found any soul mates yet, but luckily I have very nice roommates, especially with Saskia I seem to have a lot in common (vegetarians interested in literature).
Ciao,
Iida
The orientation course has started and it's reallt a full-time job. We have every day program from 9am to 4pm. In the morning we have langauge lessons and I'm in the most advanced language group. There are about 50 new exchange students and the knowledge varies from zero to very good, so they divided us to groups. Even though some of us can't speak almost any German, in general the exchange students are talking in German also among themselves. I'm very happy about this as this way I feel my speaking ability improving all the time.
In the afternoons we are listening to lectures, visiting the library and musems and stuff like that - and working on a presentation project. Our group's subject is the peaceful revolution in Leipzig in 1989, next week we are going to interview a lady who was very active in the resistment movement here during the Wende. Very interesting! I'm working in a group with a Irish and Norwegian guys and a Danish girl. I'm the only Finnish exchange student, which I'm actually quite happy about. In the end of the cource we are going to have a presentation in front of the class.
I have to sign up for the unviersity courses I want to take next week, so my big duty for the weekend is to surf in the internet to see what they offer. As I'm not with Erasmus I don't have any guidance and am able to chooce whatever I like. I was just looking for salsa cources and other sport stuff in the interent, I'm most likely going to get a bike (and a helmet...) from by brother's friends - if it's small enough.
It's funny that the German people actually seem to be very punctual and organized and always remind us to be on time - it sometimes get to my nerves. I really think the Dutch are more relaxed, even the language is somehow more laid-back. My week in Holland went fast, in the weekend I went to see my host family on Texel and about a half of it was actually home, which is quite a good accomplishment. The children don't live on Texel anymore except for Rosa who just moved to her own house on Texel. We did some very gezellig scrabble in Dutch and I wasn't even the last one, wow. The house stills feels like home and things are always the same when you go back to Texel.
Oh yes, I also had coffee with my old school mate Tuija Mäntylä in Amsterdam! Thank God for Facebook, she saw I was in Amsterdam and we saw each other for the first time on like 4 years. It was quite funny! I thought she was back to Finland already but apparently she is not planning to go back at all.
Today I got a but lost when walking home from school (I usually take the tram) and was quite proud of myself that I found my house without a map, which I most likely accindently left at school. Leipzig doesn't seem to be too big, but there is enough to do and see. Tomorrow we have some touristic bus tour with the course (most likely the same I did with my parents..) and next weekend we make a day trip to Dresden. I have enough to do, although up to know I've been spending the evenings sorting out my email and being quite antisocial. The other exchange students are nice, but somehow I feel myself a bit old as most of them are about 20 and abroad for the first time in their life and soooo excited!!!!!!!! Haven't thus found any soul mates yet, but luckily I have very nice roommates, especially with Saskia I seem to have a lot in common (vegetarians interested in literature).
Ciao,
Iida
torstai 12. maaliskuuta 2009
Feels like home
Here I am sitting sitting at Carin's computer and it really feels like home in Amsterdam and this house where I lived three months. It's been very nice to see Carin, Tina, Inez, Marita and tomorrow I'll see my old class mates as we are having dinner together. Saturday I'm off to The Island for a night to meet at least a part of my big host family. And Monday again a whole day in the train to the ex-DDR and Leipzig.
I was in Leipzig last weekend with my parents and it was rainy but otherwise okay. I got some kind of picture what the town looks like and took a tourist bus tour with my mum. Now I know who Karl Heine is and why am I living in a street which has his name - and also some other stuff about the neighbourhood I live in (Plagwitz) and Leipzig's history. Friday evening we had an interesting experience as we went to a chuch a bit outside the city centre where a silent film from the year 1922 was played. The film was accompanied by organ improvisation and it was quite awesome, although the film was a bit too long. The film was shown for the first time since it was restored, the Nazis had banned it right after the premiere and after that it was lost for a long time until found and restored.
I was totally happy last Sunday when the train crossed the Dutch border and loads of Dutch people came in speaking beautiful Dutch (yes, it can be beautiful). Also some conductors came in and they seriously suspected that my interrail ticket is false, which was quite confusing as I haven't had any problems travelling with it in other countries. I almost had to go with them to the last station to have my ticket "investigated thorrowly"... Well, apparently I was credible enough because they let me go.
I went to The Hague with Carin on Tuesday and saw the city centre for the first time - until now I've been to Scheveningen, which is a bit outside the city. We also visited the Dutch parlament which was quite interesting. Yesterday I was in Utrecht to see Inez and Marita and today in van Gogh museum.
The natural products store I worked in in 2007 doesn't excist anymore. The closed it just like a week ago and became a part of a bigger chain. I don't exactly know why, it's very sad becase De Weegschaal was the oldest natural products store in Amsterdam (opened somewhere in the 70s). I met my old boss cleaning the old store as I walked pass it and also some old colleagues who now work in the new store.
It's calm and rainy and a bit cold and I don't have to do much. That's very nice. I've been just sleeping out and relaxing and enjoying talking Dutch. I have again noticed how easily you forget a language when you don't use it so much. Damn damn. Next week I'll get into this normal rythm again with schedules and hopefully also a gym for my poor back.
I was in Leipzig last weekend with my parents and it was rainy but otherwise okay. I got some kind of picture what the town looks like and took a tourist bus tour with my mum. Now I know who Karl Heine is and why am I living in a street which has his name - and also some other stuff about the neighbourhood I live in (Plagwitz) and Leipzig's history. Friday evening we had an interesting experience as we went to a chuch a bit outside the city centre where a silent film from the year 1922 was played. The film was accompanied by organ improvisation and it was quite awesome, although the film was a bit too long. The film was shown for the first time since it was restored, the Nazis had banned it right after the premiere and after that it was lost for a long time until found and restored.
I was totally happy last Sunday when the train crossed the Dutch border and loads of Dutch people came in speaking beautiful Dutch (yes, it can be beautiful). Also some conductors came in and they seriously suspected that my interrail ticket is false, which was quite confusing as I haven't had any problems travelling with it in other countries. I almost had to go with them to the last station to have my ticket "investigated thorrowly"... Well, apparently I was credible enough because they let me go.
I went to The Hague with Carin on Tuesday and saw the city centre for the first time - until now I've been to Scheveningen, which is a bit outside the city. We also visited the Dutch parlament which was quite interesting. Yesterday I was in Utrecht to see Inez and Marita and today in van Gogh museum.
The natural products store I worked in in 2007 doesn't excist anymore. The closed it just like a week ago and became a part of a bigger chain. I don't exactly know why, it's very sad becase De Weegschaal was the oldest natural products store in Amsterdam (opened somewhere in the 70s). I met my old boss cleaning the old store as I walked pass it and also some old colleagues who now work in the new store.
It's calm and rainy and a bit cold and I don't have to do much. That's very nice. I've been just sleeping out and relaxing and enjoying talking Dutch. I have again noticed how easily you forget a language when you don't use it so much. Damn damn. Next week I'll get into this normal rythm again with schedules and hopefully also a gym for my poor back.
torstai 5. maaliskuuta 2009
Starting my Leben in Leipzig and some stories before that
Hallo Hello Bonjour Hola Hei!
Finally I have a couple of hours at the computer to write something about my trip so far. When travelling you don't want to waste more time than really necessary at the computer. Well well, everything has gone just fine and I'm now in Leipzig for a couple of days as my father wanted to celebrate (or escape?) his 60th birthdayon 9th March in Leipzig - my parents are thus coming here tomorrow. They are leaving on Sunday so then I'll continue my interrail to Amsterdam my love.
So what has happened so far? Quite a lot but nothing really drastic. Santander was lovely, sunny and very hilly. Ruska and Aura seemed to be doing fine, though both of them were missing some male companion. Riku is in Finland and well Ruska had heat and she had escaped and had to have some expencive the day after -injections to avoind the possible puppies. The weather treated me very well in Spain, it wasn't raining and windy as usual, I heard. I got into a holiday mood and we were not doing much except for going for a day to San Sebastian (a city nearby) on Friday. There we climbed a hill and saw some old old fortress with a saint on the roof - and the saint was reaching up to God with a antenna on his head... We were also offered some socialist condoms on the street, which was very strange. We were just crossing the street and some guys gave us some leaflets and a little pack, which we thought might contain marmelade. Well, not, condoms thus. The pamphlets were about some basque socialist thing and the condome pack had also some socialist adds on it... ;?
In San Sebastian we already got a foretaste of the catholic carneval celebration with people in unbelievably well-planned and expencive-looking costumes. Saturday we ended up dressing ourselves also and had some great time at the Santander carneval celebrations. The music was some spanish schlager but I guess we had enough to drink and were dancing like crazy. I was portraying the colour pink with Aura's roommates pink bath robe and the others were hippies - although in the end Aura looked more like a late 19th century explorer in Africa. The night had also some drama as Aura's Estonian roommate's romance with an American guy was in a crisis. This crisis was going on the whole of my stay there and was the main topic af almost all discussions and I'm very eager to hear what is the outcome, Kerttu! ;)
When I left Santander to travel 12hrs to Barcelona I was really proud of myself as I was able to understand some Spanish, like the price when buying things. I also got interested in the Basque language issues and the extremely difficult grammatic of the language. In Barcelona I was trying really hard to distinguish Spanish from the Catalan. Barcelona was lovely and sunny, I stayed in a hostel with almost too friendly staff and had a nice afternoon exploring the fabulous Gaudi park. I also spend an afternoon in a Picasso museum and thus got to know two new artists, Graudi and Picasso, which are now more than just names to me. I was very sorry I didn't have the time to visit the huge Salvador Dali museum located near Barcelona. I really have to go back there some time.
The trip in the night train to Paris was a bit surreal but went okay. I first took a local train to Cerbere, a little town in France, and had to wait for the night train on an almost totally empty Cerbere train station. First there was also absolutely nobody else in the train and it was quite spooky. Luckily I got the first taste of the French friendliness from the helpful conductor - and I was able to utter some words in French and get his point although I have been neglecting my French for years.
The weather really changed when I went up to the north to Paris. I arrived 7.3o in the morning and got my stuff to the hostel which luckily had a room for me although my internet reservation hadn't arrived. I was freezing the whole day exploring Paris as I couldn't get to my room to get more clothes before 2pm. No wonder that I woke up feeling not so good next day. A traditional cold, which made the rest of my holiday a bit unpleasant. In Paris I went to the huge Pompidou modern art centre resembling a shopping centre and walked around til my back was hurting like hell. Pairs is full of incredible old, beautiful buildings and churches - I was really wondering if the coffins in the Pantheon really contained the bodies of people like Marie Curie and Renes Descartes or whoever, as they told us. Nice surprises were things like going to a store to buy food and noticing that it's a natural food shop full of the things I was selling in Amsterdam that one summer - and finding finally may way to the hostel after walking in circles forever. When I wasn't even especially lost some cute, small and fat French elderly gentleman asked me in French if he could help and well, I did go a gauche as he told me. Oh the friendliness...!
I was very happy that my next stop was to go to see more friends as the cold really put me a bit down although I didn' have fever. I've been to Brussels two times before but this was even more exciting as I was going to see Tim, a Kenyan guy who I last met in Kenya 5 yrs ago. He finally got to Europe, she and Annelies got married a year ago and Toto is going to be born in June. It was incredible to see him and hear him trying to learn Dutch! Great kabisa! I spent most of my 4 days in Brussels at Annelies&Tim's house outside Brussels in Grimbergen. I was suppose to go to Gent for a tourist day on Tuesday but I was still feeling too sick and just had some waffels in Brussels tourist city centre. On Monday I spent like three hours in the train station (don't ask me why.. I got a bit lost and didn't have a map and was not feeling well) but although frustrated I ended up in the European parlament after all. I wend to the Federation of Young Greens in Europe office to find out where some papers I sent them have ended up and if I was going to get by Berlin flights reimbursed or not. Thus I got a visitor status to the parlament building and saw some of the corridors embodying the EU.
What else? I've been obersving the pedestrian traffic light men in different countries. In Santander the men were running and in France they were very skinny. Here in Eastern Germany there are the little fat DDR guys that I met already in Berlin in December - where the people in the traffic lights are different on Eastern and Western side. Travelling in the train is fun because even if you're sitting your ass off for hours you actually experience the change happening when moving from place a to place b. It was interesting for example to follow how the language starts to change little by little - how the announcements in the train are at some point first in German and not in French anymore.
So here I am, starting mein Leben in Leipzig or something. It's a bit confusing to be here for a couple of days only but I think it's easy to settle here when the orientation cource starts at the university on 17th March. I'm now writing at my friendly roommate Saskia's computer, who is working. The apartment is very nice, my room is big but cosy and the kitchen and bathroom are excellently equipped (bath tub, dish washer..). My both roommates Susi and Saskia seem to be very nice girls. I went today to the city, it's only ten minutes with the tram from the house and seems not too big and not too small. I've been a bit confuced about speaking German after this Spanish-French-English-Dutch-some word in swahili to Tim and memories from Kenya-hassle but well I guess I'll be quite fluent in some weeks... And of cource this blog in English is a nice addition to everything but well what can I do as I my friend are scattered around the world and I'm too lazy to tell the same things a thousand times.. ;) I hope I'm being clear enough and not making too many mistakes.
The cold is gone and the medicine is safely but not totally undamaged in the fridge and my back is hurting but what the hell everything's just fine. I'm already getting some date querys from visitors coming - have no idea when and what I'm going to do before the school stuff starts. But yes you're all welcome, I'll mainly be here and I'll get back to writing my blog when I have time and something more to tell.
Auf Wieder..sehen/hören?
Iida
Finally I have a couple of hours at the computer to write something about my trip so far. When travelling you don't want to waste more time than really necessary at the computer. Well well, everything has gone just fine and I'm now in Leipzig for a couple of days as my father wanted to celebrate (or escape?) his 60th birthdayon 9th March in Leipzig - my parents are thus coming here tomorrow. They are leaving on Sunday so then I'll continue my interrail to Amsterdam my love.
So what has happened so far? Quite a lot but nothing really drastic. Santander was lovely, sunny and very hilly. Ruska and Aura seemed to be doing fine, though both of them were missing some male companion. Riku is in Finland and well Ruska had heat and she had escaped and had to have some expencive the day after -injections to avoind the possible puppies. The weather treated me very well in Spain, it wasn't raining and windy as usual, I heard. I got into a holiday mood and we were not doing much except for going for a day to San Sebastian (a city nearby) on Friday. There we climbed a hill and saw some old old fortress with a saint on the roof - and the saint was reaching up to God with a antenna on his head... We were also offered some socialist condoms on the street, which was very strange. We were just crossing the street and some guys gave us some leaflets and a little pack, which we thought might contain marmelade. Well, not, condoms thus. The pamphlets were about some basque socialist thing and the condome pack had also some socialist adds on it... ;?
In San Sebastian we already got a foretaste of the catholic carneval celebration with people in unbelievably well-planned and expencive-looking costumes. Saturday we ended up dressing ourselves also and had some great time at the Santander carneval celebrations. The music was some spanish schlager but I guess we had enough to drink and were dancing like crazy. I was portraying the colour pink with Aura's roommates pink bath robe and the others were hippies - although in the end Aura looked more like a late 19th century explorer in Africa. The night had also some drama as Aura's Estonian roommate's romance with an American guy was in a crisis. This crisis was going on the whole of my stay there and was the main topic af almost all discussions and I'm very eager to hear what is the outcome, Kerttu! ;)
When I left Santander to travel 12hrs to Barcelona I was really proud of myself as I was able to understand some Spanish, like the price when buying things. I also got interested in the Basque language issues and the extremely difficult grammatic of the language. In Barcelona I was trying really hard to distinguish Spanish from the Catalan. Barcelona was lovely and sunny, I stayed in a hostel with almost too friendly staff and had a nice afternoon exploring the fabulous Gaudi park. I also spend an afternoon in a Picasso museum and thus got to know two new artists, Graudi and Picasso, which are now more than just names to me. I was very sorry I didn't have the time to visit the huge Salvador Dali museum located near Barcelona. I really have to go back there some time.
The trip in the night train to Paris was a bit surreal but went okay. I first took a local train to Cerbere, a little town in France, and had to wait for the night train on an almost totally empty Cerbere train station. First there was also absolutely nobody else in the train and it was quite spooky. Luckily I got the first taste of the French friendliness from the helpful conductor - and I was able to utter some words in French and get his point although I have been neglecting my French for years.
The weather really changed when I went up to the north to Paris. I arrived 7.3o in the morning and got my stuff to the hostel which luckily had a room for me although my internet reservation hadn't arrived. I was freezing the whole day exploring Paris as I couldn't get to my room to get more clothes before 2pm. No wonder that I woke up feeling not so good next day. A traditional cold, which made the rest of my holiday a bit unpleasant. In Paris I went to the huge Pompidou modern art centre resembling a shopping centre and walked around til my back was hurting like hell. Pairs is full of incredible old, beautiful buildings and churches - I was really wondering if the coffins in the Pantheon really contained the bodies of people like Marie Curie and Renes Descartes or whoever, as they told us. Nice surprises were things like going to a store to buy food and noticing that it's a natural food shop full of the things I was selling in Amsterdam that one summer - and finding finally may way to the hostel after walking in circles forever. When I wasn't even especially lost some cute, small and fat French elderly gentleman asked me in French if he could help and well, I did go a gauche as he told me. Oh the friendliness...!
I was very happy that my next stop was to go to see more friends as the cold really put me a bit down although I didn' have fever. I've been to Brussels two times before but this was even more exciting as I was going to see Tim, a Kenyan guy who I last met in Kenya 5 yrs ago. He finally got to Europe, she and Annelies got married a year ago and Toto is going to be born in June. It was incredible to see him and hear him trying to learn Dutch! Great kabisa! I spent most of my 4 days in Brussels at Annelies&Tim's house outside Brussels in Grimbergen. I was suppose to go to Gent for a tourist day on Tuesday but I was still feeling too sick and just had some waffels in Brussels tourist city centre. On Monday I spent like three hours in the train station (don't ask me why.. I got a bit lost and didn't have a map and was not feeling well) but although frustrated I ended up in the European parlament after all. I wend to the Federation of Young Greens in Europe office to find out where some papers I sent them have ended up and if I was going to get by Berlin flights reimbursed or not. Thus I got a visitor status to the parlament building and saw some of the corridors embodying the EU.
What else? I've been obersving the pedestrian traffic light men in different countries. In Santander the men were running and in France they were very skinny. Here in Eastern Germany there are the little fat DDR guys that I met already in Berlin in December - where the people in the traffic lights are different on Eastern and Western side. Travelling in the train is fun because even if you're sitting your ass off for hours you actually experience the change happening when moving from place a to place b. It was interesting for example to follow how the language starts to change little by little - how the announcements in the train are at some point first in German and not in French anymore.
So here I am, starting mein Leben in Leipzig or something. It's a bit confusing to be here for a couple of days only but I think it's easy to settle here when the orientation cource starts at the university on 17th March. I'm now writing at my friendly roommate Saskia's computer, who is working. The apartment is very nice, my room is big but cosy and the kitchen and bathroom are excellently equipped (bath tub, dish washer..). My both roommates Susi and Saskia seem to be very nice girls. I went today to the city, it's only ten minutes with the tram from the house and seems not too big and not too small. I've been a bit confuced about speaking German after this Spanish-French-English-Dutch-some word in swahili to Tim and memories from Kenya-hassle but well I guess I'll be quite fluent in some weeks... And of cource this blog in English is a nice addition to everything but well what can I do as I my friend are scattered around the world and I'm too lazy to tell the same things a thousand times.. ;) I hope I'm being clear enough and not making too many mistakes.
The cold is gone and the medicine is safely but not totally undamaged in the fridge and my back is hurting but what the hell everything's just fine. I'm already getting some date querys from visitors coming - have no idea when and what I'm going to do before the school stuff starts. But yes you're all welcome, I'll mainly be here and I'll get back to writing my blog when I have time and something more to tell.
Auf Wieder..sehen/hören?
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