Cee in Helsinki

Last few days

2010-08-26T09:41:00.001-07:00

My last few days in Helsinki were amazing. Things were perfect after I came back from the trip - straight up relaxing, wrapping up work for Be A Change and just enjoying what was left of my time in the beautiful city.

There were so many things that I didn't get to do before I left Helsinki - I didn't walk around Design District or visit the modern art museum, lie on the beach for the last time this summer, compete in the Wii rematch with Lyuba and Cristian, or cook that international dinner with my amazing flatmates Cansu and Serena.

On flatmates - I went from living alone to sharing the tiny trainee flat with six others. I love living with other people but when it comes down to sharing a malfunctioning bathroom with six other people (and majority of them being girls), it's a different story. However, I did have amazing times with C & S... eating midnight snacks, cooking macaroni (minus the cheese), grocery shopping, talking about boys and traveling - it was like I had lived with them for ages. FYI, I miss you girls!

Before Cansu left for her adventures, we had a wonderful dinner - cinnamon honey chicken, lemon drizzled salad and butter garlic rice. The picture looks gross... but it was deeeeelish:

And the wonderful people:

I love living with girls who can cook and feed me (yes you, Serena hahahaha!).

Friday was my last official working day for Be A Change, so Paula and I decided to go to Torni, a bar terrace that overlooks Helsinki to celebrate. For the evening, I joined some others at Maria's place to head over to A21 (a cocktail lounge) for Huynh's birthday. The home-made cake was absolutely delicious... and of course, A21 was an amazing venue. The drinks were phenomenal - no wonder it was voted the world's best cocktail lounge at one point!

The best cake ever:

Group picture that took forever:

And the venue:

On Saturday, we held a farewell party at the trainee flat for Tuomas and myself. Small space, lots of people, Nordic Circle, running emotions = interesting night. There was an R&B/Hip Hop event going on at Copacabana, so we finally broke the Jenny Woo streak!

We started off with all the ScaLDS leftovers:

Paula and I:

And Lyuba and I... in a really strange position, haha:

And then, Sunday?
Sunday was just perfect.

Part 3 - Berlin

2010-08-26T04:01:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Berlin around 11AM to drop off our stuff at our hostel, Pfefferbet Hostel. I'd give this place a great recommendation: there's a 24-hr bar, pool table, all-you-can-eat breakfast for 4 euros, free internet access, locker storage, super clean rooms and showers, huge windows (good ventilation) and has an amazing location. The hostel is located at a beer garden which was only a few stops away from Alexanderplatz, the main center of Berlin.

The interior of the hostel (the colors are screwed up here)

We ventured into city center and grabbed some German snacks before we checking into the hostel at 3PM. Some currywurst love... mmmmmm:

After two orders of currywurst, beer and nutella-banana crepes, we went back to the hostel to take a much needed shower and explored Berlin by foot. We wanted to watch Toy Story 3 in IMAX... but unfortunately, neither of us spoke German, so that plan was abandoned. Nonetheless, we did visit the Sony Center. Here's a beautiful picture:

The architecture around the area (Potsdamer, I believe) was incredible. I loved seeing skyscrapers and real buildings again:

Being in Berlin also meant that I got my Starbucks fix for the first time since London. I couldn't help but take a picture of this glorious sign:

We passed by this Berlin Wall exhibition:

And visited the Jewish Memorial. This is one of my favorite places in Berlin for many reasons, though it's hard to explain why. I'll give it a shot though: when you first get there, you may feel emotionless. But when you think about it, walk between the concrete blocks and dive into the light and shadows, you get this eerie yet peaceful feeling. It's strange:

Erison has a mysterious man on his shoulder:

Of course, we had to visit the Brandenburg Gate at sunset:

We sat by the curb and listened to this amazing street performance by a group called BuskTillDawn - they're amazing, check them out! We strolled further into the city and walked past a few other places:

Sunday night was simply relaxing, so we hung out at the hostel and played pool. I won, I won, I won :) But it's all beginner's luck ;)

The next day, we took a trip to the Topography of Terror exhibition where parts of the Berlin Wall remained. One of my favorite shots:

Here's me trying to read in French (and failing). Point is, Berlin has amazing open-air exhibitions:

And then, we went to this parliament building (forgot the name) where you can get a 360-degree view of the city from a glass dome:

I definitely wouldn't be able to forgive myself for not shopping/visiting the quirky design shops in Berlin, so we went to this artsy/alternative neighborhood. Some street art:

In the evening, we caught up with Kyle who just came in from Copenhagen and tried some German beer+syrup. We attempted to head to the glass dome but we were a few minutes too late :( At least Erison and I caught this beautiful sight on our way to the hostel:

On our last day in Berlin, we went on a guided tour to one of the concentration camps, Sachsenhausen. It was an early start at 10AM but definitely worth it. We look like two happy campers, don't we?

The infamous gates to Sachsenhausen. Arbeit Macht Frei - "Work sets you free."

I won't post any of the pictures from the camp here; going through them on my Mac already gives me the chills. Being in the concentration camp and trying to take in all the history that has happened on the very ground that I was standing on was... for lack of a better word, powerful and at the same time, overwhelming. Everything you touched, everything you saw was a piece of history. Our tour guide, Asoka was great and helped us understand the different parts and stories hidden in Sachsenhausen. We were taken underground to this place where prisoners cooked and witnessed the tiny bit of optimism at the camp - there were these amazing cartoons on the wall that the prisoners created, despite everything that was going on.

On our way back to the city, I struck up a conversation with this old German man on the train who had just biked through all of Germany with his wife. He told me about his adventures, travels and well, it was impressive. Most of all, the man seemed so content with his life. Hopefully I'll be the same and so will my parents when they reach that stage in life :) Sometimes, strangers can give you the best insight.

We did some last minute shopping at Alexa and rushed to the airport to say farewell to our beloved Berlin. The plane ride was painless (minus the two-woman choir behind us), though we tried to take in the fact that we were going home to Helsinki, back to reality. So, I decided to lighten up the situation with a bit of Kinder Surprise!

... and some unattractive pictures:

But you get it, we really didn't want to leave Berlin.

Part 2- Stockholm

2010-08-25T12:33:00.001-07:00

After recovering from the conference, I took a few days to do more Be A Change work. In fact, the new website is up and running (even though we're missingsome details) and you can check i out here: www.beachange.org

During my second last week, I ventured to Stockholm and Berlin with Erison. We successfully made it to our destinations without missing our flights, ferries, getting robbed or lost, or wanting to strangle each other. High five!

We actually planned this trip on a whim and everything was perfect. Too much to explain - like they all say, pictures are worth more than a thousand words:

From the top deck of the Viking Line ferry:

First picture together on our epic trip after a celebratory drink:

It was supposed to be raining the entire week but it was perfect, just for us:

He's obviously happy after a huge hamburger:

And me too... of course:

And the beautiful sunset on the first night of our trip:

After a perfect night sitting on the top deck of the ferry watching shooting stars (fo'real!), trying to name constellations and listening to Ben Harper, we arrived in Stockholm. One of my favorite places, Gamlas Stan (Old Town):

An example of what you find in those charming alleyways:

And more:

Then we went to the Royal Palace and watched the change of guard:

And then took more pictures of ourselves:

Lazy afternoons = Sleeping in the gardens:

We met up with Danco who was an amazing host and took it easy for the night. There was a music festival going on in the city center and it was just so live! Lots of music, people dancing and the atmosphere was just so perfect - true summer time lovin'! Since it was Danco's friend's birthday, we headed to Cafe Opera which was actually quite chic.

The next day, we took a nice long stroll across the bridge:

And then we just wanted to be silly in Stockholm:
We even found a ship cafe:

One of the best museums in Stockholm was Vaasa Museum, which featured a sunken ship that was recovered after 300 years in the Baltic Sea:

And another one of us:

After a long museum visit, we went for a nice lunch on this floating pier on the main island. While we waited for Danco to meet up with a trainee from London, we spent two hours listening to live music and sleeping at another garden. Stockholm is a really beautiful city and much bigger than Helsinki. Not a lot to see, from my own opinion but I'm just so glad we found time to take afternoon naps to rejuvenate ourselves :)

Our last night in Stockholm was amazing - Kyle (the London trainee), Danco, Erison and I visited the Absolut Ice Bar:

Crazy man in shorts... what a sight:

And then the boys decided to take an illegal swim...:

We had to catch our plane at 8AM, so we left Danco's around 4AM. With only one hour of shut-eye, we were ready to just take it easy on our first day in Berlin...

Wrap up: Part 1 - ScALDS

2010-08-25T11:14:00.001-07:00

It's been a month and I have officially finished my internship in Helsinki, Finland. Honestly, I cannot even begin to believe that I've spent almost three months in that city (and others) and now, I'm back to reality: familiar roads, familiar street signs, familiar buildings.

I can't say I'm not glad to be home but somehow, it feels like I left a part of me in Helsinki - I guess this is the withdrawal part of being an AIESEC trainee.

So many things have happened since my last blog post - ScaLDS, more cottage trips, Stockholm, Berlin and more amazing people. Get ready for a packed post (again)! This one's dedicated to ScaLDS:

ScaLDS was an amazing conference - my first international AIESEC conference with delegates from Iceland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and Turkey.

This is my amazing homegroup (Team 6 Rangers):

And we basically rocked every game in the Nordic Olympics, for example this one:

And this one, where we made the longest line up of clothes...

So there's this thing called Global Village where you bring food from your country:

Then there's Informal Global Village when you bring drinks from your country. Presenting the Nordic Highway:

Two of my favs: German VS New Zealand = love

My champs :)

And after a few days of seminars and more partying/getting to know everyone, we had the official dinner:

Some of the Finnish girls :)

Prom much?
Cristian (AKA Party Crasher/Gingerbread Man) -note the energy drink at 5AM...

My amazing roomies - Jon from Iceland & Calum from New Zealand/Norway... and us again:

And some theme-party craziness from Matti:

And we ended off our last night with Nordic Circles...

After our incredibly long homegroup Nordic Circle (thanks Calum... haha):

Heini (Finland), Anna (Finland), Lama (Finland/Nepal), Jon (Iceland), Mie (Iceland), Martin (Germany), myself, Maria (Denmark, Calum (Norway/New Zealand)

Going to ScaLDS was one of the highlights of my trip. Conferences are always fun and when it's international, you just end up coming home with new perspectives. I'm so glad I had such an amazing home group - there were so many good conversations and connections. I even found some people from Copenhagen Business School and so, I'm ready to join AIESEC CBS when I get there in January.

To put it in perspective, it was simply frosh week all over again; every night was an adventure. What made it absolutely perfect were my roomies - you couldn't put three people together to make a better combination than we did. Missing morning plenary, losing memory together, dragging each other out of bed... not to mention that we were all Nordic Highway champs. That's what's up!

T-30 days in Helsinki

2010-07-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

The past week has been nothing but interesting, especially spending all my non-sleeping hours everywhere but my flat.

Lyuba decided to join me at the Coffee House to work in the afternoons, and so that's where I've been doing all my work for Be A Change. We finally met with our web-host company again and reviewed the tool and the logistics of our partnership, which has been going smoothly. I'm pretty satisfied with my wireframe and hopefully, Erison will be able to make it live online.

On Monday, Lyuba and I (mostly her, though) made lasagna at the MC flat - legit lasagna, I tell you! Pak joined us and the rest of her flatmates for a beautiful evening chatting, eating ice cream, finding out that Pak was lactose intolerant (oops, we'll know next time...), singing, and watching Lyuba and Erison dance to Brazilian music.

We visited the beach again and made plans to cook at Cristian's place since he'll be making us creme brulee. SO stoked! This is the great thing about being in Finland - in just a month, I've been so welcome to this great group of people and we just spend so much time together like we've known each other for ages. It's incredibly precious. In the beginning, I was a little upset that I wasn't interning with a bunch of other people and traveling around every weekend, but I'm really glad that I've made so many amazing friends here. It almost seems like I've moved to Helsinki and that I've just... settled.

Anyway, this is how we amuse ourselves at the beach:

We had a better picture but I think that it's slightly inappropriate here... haha!

Paula came into Helsinki earlier this week for a meeting, so afterwards, we decided to grab a few drinks from the supermarket and sat at the railway station to watch/listen to the Muse concert from afar. Yes, that's how we roll in Finland.

In other news, I haven't cooked for a while at my place so I decided to make Rosti with bacon bits with a side salad :) Yummmmmmmmmmmm!

Lyuba and I decided to work from home on Friday, so we ended up making pancakes/bacon/salad for lunch. Pancakes and maple syrup... eh? Eating out is very expensive and since I've been throwing my money at Coffee House everyday for coffee and lunch, this was a refreshing change!

It was another beautiful evening at the MC flat on Friday night - some makeover business and enjoying the stunning sight from the roof top. Naturally, we climbed out the window and sat on the roof and had a picnic with great wine, discussions and friends. I'll miss how chilled out everything is here in Finland. And so it begins, the pre-nostalgia that will follow in misery when I'm back in Canada.

View from the rooftop

When I think about it, there are only 30 more days here in Helsinki. My journey's coming to an end but there's still so much more to do. Cottage party at Paula's this weekend, ScALDS the next week (read: five days of craziness), hopefully a weekend trip to Barcelona if everything still stands, and the farewell party for Tuomas, Keldi and myself on my last weekend in Helsinki. I've still got to stock up at Iitala for Mom and 113A (I miss my housemates so much!), we still have to do a picnic at Suomenlinna and I've got to explore the design region and modern art museum here. Oh, and then there's an exam coming up on Wednesday... but I'm pretty relaxed about it - if I pass, then maybe I can use these credits :)

Two Serbian girls are staying at my flat until tomorrow evening, so I invited them to Irene's housewarming party last night. It was a mission to actually get there since someone decided to forget to bring the directions, but it was an adventure. Some gay couple was on the other side of the tracks and one of the dudes (he was pretty old, 40s?) started to sing and dance. Yes, he was drunk, of course he was! His partner just did a face-cup on the bench, LOL. It was quite a show - many Beyonce songs and YMCA... even R. Kelly... hahahaha!

Irene's place is really cute - studio like and although it's tiny, we managed to fit at least 20 people inside! After getting wine spilled over me and all over the floor, I was settling quite nice into the party. Actually, I met Joseph, this great Nigerian guy who's studying in Finland, and we talked about so many things. And of course, I did some shameless plugging for Be A Change and even Queen's Entrepreneurs' Competition ; ) We headed to Jenny Woo (a gay-friendly club) and partied it up well - it was actually so much fun dancing. I don' t think I was even that out from the wine - it was just perfect. The end of the night was a little far from perfect but that obviously happens every time you go out - except this time, I was the one handling the crappy business.
Regardless, it was a great time when it was good and live... so another successful night out!

On another note, I bought an amazing skirt from H&M - my new favourite! It's a black skirt with the ruffle on the side... okay, it looks better than it sounds, I promise. Sure, it doesn't exactly stay in place all the time (I wore it with the ruffle on the left side and by the end of the night it was on the right... oops) but it's super cute. It's clubbing appropriate and would work well with a nice evening dinner too!

Anyway, Blackberry camera sucks but here's a lovely picture of my dear Ukranian friend, Lyuba :)

So, we're watching Inception today at the movies. I can't wait to see it - everyone's been raving about it. I just really need to pick up my adapter from the MC flat since my Mac is running out of battery... and my phone.

No one's up in my flat except for myself right now and it seems that most people are still sleeping/recovering from last night (I can tell from Facebook, haha). I guess this is just an odd habit of mine - I always tend to get up early when I go out the previous night... how weird! Either way, it's a beautiful day outside so I'm just going to enjoy it and turn a blind eye to what's been happening on the side.

Paijanne Summer and The Cost of Spontaneity

2010-07-19T02:51:00.000-07:00

I spent a beautiful weekend in Asikkala with a lot of amazing people - Paijanne Summer was even better than Saimaa Summer. Here's a bunch of us (and Matti's motorcycle):

Since I only get Fridays off from school, I slept in until 1PM and it never felt better. Somehow, I've developed this automatic alarm in my head that wakes me up at 630AM every morning. Now, when that time hits, I either wake up and use up the entire 90 minutes to get ready and fix up some coffee, or I turn over and wake up at 8AM and realize that I'm screwed over.

The heat has been unbearable here in Helsinki but it's a little better this week - low 20s instead of hitting the big 3-0! The forecast had been promising a weekend of rain and thunderstorms, but by Thursday we were in the clear - sunny and high twenties... God loves us, haha!

Tuomas' cottage is full of history and his parents own hectares of farmland... and we even got to eat raspberries from the plants. There was a main cabin where we slept and then the sauna cottage. We basically spent all Saturday tanning on the rocks, swimming in the lake, tanning and then napping on the rocks again, eating sausages and drinking, enjoying wine, cooking pancakes and then listening to people play guitar and sing while we enjoyed the beautiful sky.

Part of the main cabin (crappy lighting, sorry)

Everyone's obviously amused...

Pak and Michelle
Pak running around with cucumber skin. Don't ask.

Lyuba, Kenneth and Matti enjoying the sun...

and Erison being too amused with his narcissist photos.

Singing and chilling around the sauna on Friday night

Dinner? Err... duck, I mean.
Making pancakes the Finnish way!

Erison + guitar, Claudio + duck family, Lyuba

Beautiful stuff.
And the SHS bunch in the water.

It was just so serene and it was no wonder that most of us weren't in the drinking mood. Eventually, we sat around in a circle in the main cabin and played some drinking games... these people are simply ridiculous - a bunch of twenty/almost thirty year olds, playing truth and dare with a bottle. Nothing good comes out of that but at least we had a few laughs.

The mosquitos were relentless this weekend, they even attacked my foot. That's probably the worst place to get bitten, especially between the toes :(

We traveled back to Kannelmaki to make dinner at Pak's flat and called it a night. Let me just say that yesterday night was quite the night since I've been in Finland and it was oddly dark outside (like I've mentioned a million times here, it never gets dark).

Mette (the Danish girl) brought up that there are only eight more days of our Finnish course until the exam. What exam, right? Yeah, I didn't know there was one when I signed up. But hey, maybe I can get a transfer credit from this course... who knows? It's actually interesting to learn the Finnish language but I'll say that it's definitely difficult. There are a lot of rules and yes, exceptions... but I think it's easier to learn than Asian languages that don't use a similar alphabet. I mean, between Japanese and Finnish, I think I'm progressing much faster with Finnish - I guess in a way, it's easier for me to recognize the vocabulary and I'm more familiar with verb conjugations. I wish I'd have the time to do Suomi 2, but since that ends after I leave for Canada... I guess I'll just take August off from school, boo. Nerd talk.

There has been a lot of progress with Muse on the content side and not enough on the business side. That's obviously my issue so somehow, I'm gonna have to get this going. It's just that I have a lot of things on my mind at the moment, but I suppose it's not exactly an excuse.

On another note, the straightener that I bought from London - the GHD Styler - is absolutely amazing. My hair has never been so straight before and it heats up in less than a minute... I give it 20 seconds. If I don't have enough space in my luggage, I'll probably leave my old hair straightener here in Finland. Also, I've noticed that I actually use a lot of toilet paper (not that I do a lot of business- oops, blog content? haha) but my entire 6-pack is finished. I hate carrying toilet paper from the supermarket, it looks so stupid but it is what it is. Okay, sorry for being random but I thought that I'd point that out.

A few days ago, I went to this pub in the city center with Pak, Nicole and Lyubov (the new Ukrainian trainee) to watch this Finnish rap artist (C-Star) perform. His music actually has more of a reggae feel than anything and to my surprise, it was actually enjoyable. His hand gestures made me a little sick after a while, but at least he wasn't standing there like a tree :) The venue was quite nice - very cozy and chill - there's the stage/dance floor area, some couches, and pool tables up top. There are even board games - so it's kind of like Bubble Republic with alcohol, pool minus the Asians... LOL.

Anyway, I have a little bit more than a month in Helsinki... time passes really quickly. They say that trainees tend to stay in Finland after their internship but that's obviously not going to be the case. Not that I don't love it here - it's a very different life - but I most definitely miss home and you know, the university life. But, I will miss this:

View from the Kannelmaki station

When I was talking with Erison last night, he was saying how I'm such a teenager. Well, with his new found retainers, he's no more than ten years old. But seriously, when I told Emilie and Lyubov that I was only 19, they were surprised. At least Lyubov was saying that the way I talk and think is more mature than most 19 year olds and I wonder why that is. I guess I've always been this way, so it's not really anything to me... it comes with over thinking and over analyzing.

--

Now, for a more reflective note, I find that I'm such a wreck right now - I've been picking at my yellow nail polish so much that it's chipped on every single nail. Attractive, I know. But really, I don't know what to do with myself anymore - this wasn't supposed to happen but then again, does anything ever go as planned?

It would be nice to live spontaneously (whether it is with respect to career or relationships), but there are consequences that you would soon have to recognize. You'll hurt people along the way, with or without intention, and it won't be fair (but then, when is anything ever fair?) at all. And when they speak out about the damage, you're going to realize that you have to get back on solid ground and figure out what you need, Then, you're going to have to live with the fact that you hurt someone in turn for your spontaneity.

Maybe this is becoming a bit too personal on the blog but it's alright, it's something that I'm sure we can all relate to at some level.

Anyway, time to get back to wire framing and brushing up my tweeting skills. Oh, and writing long overdue e-mails.

And so, I will leave you with this:

Loaded: London and Tampere Adventures

2010-07-12T09:48:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been so MIA lately; things have been pretty bland and I wasn't able to blog from London during my trip (nor did I have time, to be honest). So, a few updates:

I finally began my Finnish classes that go from 9AM to 1130AM, Monday to Thursday each week. There are about 25 students from all around the world, and I've been meeting great people in the class - a Danish girl who moved here with her Finnish boyfriend, an Australian guy who is also as young as I am (the others are about mid-twenties or even thirties!), and I also found some guy who is from Oakville. What a small world! The classes are pretty intensive and there's only a five minute break (c'mon, a pee break has GOT to be longer than that...) but I do enjoy the class. I mean, it's sometimes hard to follow but since I'm a nerd at heart, I just love going to school... hahaha!

Work has been slow - I'm still trying to wireframe this hell of a website and the thing is, I'm trying to make it presentable. I want to continue improving it since it looks terrible at the moment - both in form and actual content - but the clock's ticking! I really do have to step up my game with the website this week since I took a few days off to explore London last week.

Things have been pretty standard here in Helsinki. Some of us went to Sports Academy to catch the football (I can't believe I call it football instead of soccer now... damn Europeans!) game on Tuesday. I ended up meeting Nicole's friend from Saskatoon who's currently traveling in Europe - it's always nice to meet fellow Canadians :)

Not that most people care, but I wanted to note that I also picked my courses for the upcoming year! Business in the Asia Pacific Rim won over my other Commerce elective options, but I think I might still switch to Gender Issues in Management. I just want something more... insightful? We'll see! Regardless, I still have a pretty good schedule - at least from how I planned it. I'm also taking a FILM course - Media in Popular Culture. Professor Matrix is teaching this course and I've heard that it is easy to relate to the content and above all, she's interesting... so I'm assured that it will be a good class (minus the fact that it is a night class... and hopefully not on West Campus). Since I'm donezoo with French, I'm trying to finish my option with Social Psychology. And since marketing is probably the way to go in terms of career direction for the moment, I'm going to take Marketing Strategy. Let's hope I don't die. Anyway, I'm excited for the upcoming year - a few months back in Kingston, deal with DECA and Muse and then I'm off to Copenhagen!

Now... London, UK:

It was a long day of traveling - 2.5 hours from Helsinki to Tampere, 2 hour wait at the "airport", 3 hour flight to London, 45 mins wait for the bus to Central London, 2 hour bus ride to Central London. The London-Stansted airport was actually quite nice, and definitely reminded me of the HK airport. I miss Hong Kong :(

It wasn't too difficult finding the hostel (White Ferry House, Victoria) but I did take a wrong turn... and luckily, some guy who looked like Hugh Grant (WIN!) with an Australian accent showed me the way ; ) Just kidding mom. But he did look like Hugh Grant.

I arrived earlier than Mensa so I was just chilling out at the hostel, watching the last few minutes of the Spain VS Germany game with another hostel-er. Everyone looked so devastated when Germany lost... and that's when Mensa came in! I haven't seen her since December so it was definitely nice to catch up. We grabbed some English food (pie, anyone?) and headed to bed to prep for the long tourist-y days ahead of us.

The hostel was a lot cleaner than I had imagined, so I guess we were pretty lucky. Plus, I had the lowest bunk next to the window, so I didn't suffocate from the heat circulating around the room.

We headed straight to Starbucks in the morning since we've both been deprived for months... it was like reuniting with an old friend. Mmmm, chai tea latte. The ones they make here in Helsinki just aren't the same. Or maybe it's just a psychological thing. Regardless, that was the best way to start off the day!

Here's Mensa, happily enjoying her morning coffee fix and mapping out our tour.

We visited the Portobello Road Market, which was absolutely charming. There were antiques, vintage clothes/jewelery, English pubs... exactly what I would imagine a European market to be like. We ventured into this clothing store called All Saints and I was really awestruck by their shop display and prices. Their walls are lined with these amazing sewing machines... I wanted to take 'em home:

I wonder how many sewing machines they have in total...

We had lunch at The Castle, a pub which served amaaaaazing burgers and cider. The decor was pretty interesting as well.

On the way to find afternoon tea, we ran into these girls with costumes. I couldn't help but snap a photo behind them... it was too amusing! We also found this cool installation for these new condos they were building in London:

Pig suit, yes please!

Traveling around London was good since public transportation (the tube, hahaha) was very easy to follow. It's nothing compared to the MTR system in Hong Kong but I was still impressed by their 11-route lines.

Interesting artwork in the tube station

Failing to find afternoon tea, we simply resorted to what girls do best: shopping. YES MY FRIEND, TOPSHOP SALE! I can't even begin to explain how big Topshop is in London - at least that store. It had at least three floors, one dedicated to shoes and they even had a beauty salon and restaurant inside. Now, was that really necessary? Anyway, I picked up a few items there but nothing extravagant... if only there were less people and more time. The heat was unbearable during the afternoon, so we hopped into another Starbucks to quench our thirst! While walking on Oxford, we found this cute little Korean restaurant and dove right in to get a seat. C'mon, I've been deprived of real Asian food.... so this was a good change. Mmmmmm... bibimbap. I was hoping for some pork bone soup, but they didn't make it at the restaurant :(

This place is dangerous.

To burn off the many calories that we took in that day, we took a stroll to the London Eye, a ferris wheel that overlooks the city. And since the Big Ben was around that area, we took touristy pictures there as well. But like all tourist attractions, they were both overrated so we lost interest pretty quickly. I don't think London's an amazing place to visit as a tourist but it could be interesting to live there for a period of time. What a disappointment :(

The London Eye
The lady didn't understand that we wanted the London Eye instead of Big Ben in the background...

Big Ben lookin' majestic at dusk
Parliament Houses... I think

On day two, we opted for some English breakfast:

Service was shitty. Food was mediocre. Heat was unbearable. But at least they had hooks for you handbags on the table. And since it was our last day in London, we absolutely had to take a photo by the old school red phone booths:

Buckingham Palace was our next stop and since we missed the Change of Guard, it was quite uninteresting. The parks were nice... but the grass looked really unhealthy and there was always garbage flying around. Not too impressive.

The next few hours in the afternoon consisted of pointless walking and getting lost and grumpy in the heat. Seriously! We stopped at the Bearded Papa (whatever. I don't remember the name) for some air con and cream puffs, and continued walking toward the department stores... of course. I saw the Benefit counter and hopped straight over to get my eyebrows done, and unknowingly got persuaded to do a upper lip wax. That lady was slick.

The best part of the day was afternoon tea at Langham Hotel. It was very proper and there was even live music... but it's definitely not me. The actual food was amazing (it had to be for the price we paid... we're just poor students) and there was impeccable service, so I would say that it was one of the highlights of our trip. I didn't take too many pictures of the venue but here are our afternoon delights:

Mmm...

Of course, our tea! (Mensa's camera)

In the evening, we walked to the London Bridge area which was actually very much like Bay Street in Toronto. Of course, we went to see the London Bridge (nothing too spectacular) and enjoyed our walk in the sunset. By accident, we passed by St. Paul's cathedral too!

St. Paul's cathedral facing the sunset

Opposite of the London Bridge

We were on a search for Indian food since we knew that there were many in London... but it took us forever. Finally, we ran into a sign that pointed to a sketchy alley way... so we did the smart thing and ran through the alleyway to find the restaurant. It was some goooooood Indian food but I still wonder if it was actually 100% authentic. It was set up like a Chinese restaurant, haha!

Anyway, London was a pretty average trip but I'm sure there will be more to come :) I've been slacking on a lot of work lately - DECA, Muse... even Be A Change, so I really gotta pick it up this week.

Sathya and Juhanni picked me up from the airport and we all drove to a summer cottage for some summertime adventures! For example, kayaking and grilling in the rain. Oh, and jumping off a tiny cliff... and wrapping bacon around a branch for grilling purposes. I didn't take my camera but here's a photo of the view from Juhanni's cottage:

SO beautiful.

Kayaks :)

And cider, of course!

26-28: Saimaa Summer 2010

2010-07-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend was simply bliss - true summer time lovin'.

The trip started out in the afternoon when I took the train to Lahti, where Paula picked me up on the way to Lappeenranta. After some snack stops, strange one-lane highways, almost missing the bus, and freaking out about lost car keys... we arrived at the site.

Waiting on the docks for our boat

You'd have to be there to truly appreciate how beautiful the area is, and it brought me a nostalgia trip back to Outward Bound days. The sun hardly set and the water was always calm, kind of like a perfect living postcard. I hardly caught any sleep, maybe four hours on both Friday and Saturday, but it well worth it. I didn't have the chance to meet everyone (there were about 50 of us from all around Finland) but I did meet several interesting people who quickly became friends.

I spent Friday night chatting around the sauna area with D, who was Suman and Sangit's friend from Nepal. It was so comfortable and... honest - talking and walking around the site, watching the sky change colors, no pressure at all.

Saturday morning was filled with sports and much needed exercise under the sun. Lunch was the start of all great conversations of my weekend - Mac, Paula, Satiyah and I sat around and pretty much talked about the dating game (aka, the hunting game as they refer to it in Brazil) and Sex and the City. It was most definitely an interesting conversation ;)

The rest of the afternoon agenda consisted of rowing around the island, tanning and talking with Paula while the others played drinking Uno games on the floating dock. When evening came, we just continued the drinking... while swimming, sauna, and lying on the dock with great company and the sunset behind us.

And the highlight of the night? Around midnight, we made pancakes and grilled sausages over the fire. By that time, we were all pretty much gone and way over our heads but we managed to mumble the lyrics to Nordic Circle. While enjoying our food, we also enjoyed the presence of glow bugs. Honestly, it tripped me out the entire time I was talking with Mac and David... I couldn't stop looking at them. One of them was just chilling out under the rock, and another pair of the glow bugs were just spending time on a leaf by our log. Now that's a true camping experience. The three of us talked for what seemed like ages about dreams and how amazing it was to be in Finland (Mac's from Nigeria and David's from South Africa)... and I enjoyed listening to them. I may not understand everything that they've been through or understand where they come from, but it was insightful and honest.

Midnight pancakes and sausage grilling

At the grill.

Mac disappeared into the night, so David and I returned to the sauna area to grab some more Lonkero. But of course, I ran into Paula on the way and instantly decided to take a swim at 3AM. It at least seemed like a good idea at the time, and I still stand by it, haha! After drying off and trying to put some pants on, David and I grabbed our drinks and went around the island to check out the scenery. The island is at its best in the middle of the night, when everything's quiet and peaceful. We climbed one of the rocks that overlooked the lake (yes, I climb... thank you Outward Bound) and chatted about too many things to even remember.

This morning was brutal since I still had my wet bikini on (bad idea) since I went back to the cabin and just passed out. But, at least I made it to breakfast!

I wish I whipped out my camera more often but sometimes, it's nice to just have these experiences and great memories in your mind. Saimaa Summer is definitely one of the best times since I've been in Finland. Keep the good times, great people and insightful conversations coming!

Some of AIESEC Finland SHS

SHS girls

Some random photo of D and I, on the way to a pee break :)

Happy belated birthday, Canada! Ever since being here, I've realized how proud I am to be Canadian... there are no words for it.

24 - A few words of reflection

2010-06-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

Life can turn around on you in just a few days, so you have to be ready to bounce back to what you've always been used to. This is how it's always going to be.

On another note, Katarina brought over a microwave today and some more cutlery and kitchen utensils. The microwave is super old school - no digital screen, but a knob-timer... and it's so big that it doesn't even fit into the built-in cabinet space.

For three weeks, I've done really well with one small frying pan, a wooden spatula, a baking tray and a stainless-steel pot. I've adjusted and become so used to multitasking with what I had on hand. Now, I have so much more and all of a sudden, it just seems unnecessary.

I think I can survive even without the things that I expect that I would need.

19 - 23: Winding down

2010-06-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

The Finnish skies are getting darker and darker each day, and to me, it only seems normal. The last few days have been a whirlwind and it's slowly calming down, getting back to life as it was before Juhannus.

A few days ago, Risto and I went to Ahjo Bar which is a bar that overlooks the city. Well, it was interesting to say the least... but anyway, it was in the Design District of Helsinki. I found some interesting murals:

Yesterday was incredible. I finally had some time alone after a weekend with Keldi at the flat, so I went to the white cathedral steps and just... wrote. They're setting up some concert in the square, so that was definitely interesting to watch. Some cool shots of the city:

I have no clue when this was actually installed but... <3

Since it was the Brazil VS Chile match yesterday night, I went to Sports Academy with a few AIESECers to soak in the FIFA spirit. Needless to say, it was an amazing game and there were so many rowdy Brazilians at the bar, haha!

I've been kind of catching up on my personal life - trying to get my laundry done (I'll snap some pictures of the ridiculous machines/laundry room tomorrow), spending too much money on household products, reloading my phone card, printing my London travel documents, and grocery shopping. I also fell into a two-hour coma during the afternoon today, which was incredibly necessary considering the lack of sleep I've been getting lately. I even went on an e-mail frenzy after dinner... there's so much business that has been left to rot.

I think tomorrow needs to be a productive day before we meet with HammerKit, as well as the OC on Thursday.

Some more food pictures, though the colors don't do it justice. They do taste good though and I haven't gotten food poisoning yet:

Oven-baked pineapples and ham & lightly pan-fried potatoes slices

Jasmine rice, fried white-fish and sauteed veggies

I also forgot to mention that I'm going to Flow Festival, which is an annual music festival held in Helsinki. I'm SO stoked - just for the atmosphere of it all, and I'll get to max out the festival look for the summer, haha! Their design is pretty interesting - very graphics based:

2007 poster

2008 poster

17 & 18: Strange things happen under the midnight sun

2010-06-27T01:02:00.000-07:00

It's Juhannus - midsummer in Finland - and of course, celebratory activities were in store.

My new flatmate, Keldi arrived a few days ago and so, we've been hanging out ever since. To sum it up nicely, our time together so far has involved cider, gin, chocolate, chips, strawberry milkshakes, gross amounts of food, The Hills, The City, Californication, and wine.

The city was quite dead earlier in the weekend since all the Finns went off to seek refuge at their summer cottages. Shops closed at noon on Friday, so we rushed to the Alko store an hour before closing to invest in some wine and cider.

Our home-made entertainment studio. Classy, we know.
I LOVE FOOD, a pretty good fast-food restaurant chain. I love the red-orange walls!

We ended up meeting with Tuomas, Erison and Pak to watch the Brazil VS Portugal game at this sports bar in the center, but it was really quite boring. There were these obnoxious guys in front of us that just kind of ruined it - typical, typical, typical. It was terrible weather, so we decided that it was best to stay in on Friday night to just hang out and cook.

Yesterday was the highlight of the weekend though, I must say. The weather was absolutely beautiful (as is today) - blue skies, sunshine - although the forecast swore on rain. So, we ended up visiting one of the most popular beaches in Helsinki, Hietsu with Tuomas and just sat there eating candy and people watching. Relaxing start to our day! The beach of course isn't as beautiful as Sauble... but considering it's so close to the city, it was all fair.

We also visited the underground church. It was absolutely stunning and well, the most peaceful place I've been to since I've been in Helsinki:

We started the night off at the trainee flat and well, went from there. We played ridiculous Youtube games involving Moomin, and Charlie the unicorn... "Charlie looks angry. Drink!" / "The video's loading. Drink!" Pretty much the gist of the games last night. I can't recall what time we headed to Redrum, one of the nightclubs in the center, but we definitely left at last call. The good thing about European clubs is that they close at 4AM... so, by the time we left the club it was still light out - kind of like afternoon in Toronto. Strange stuff!

So, my hair was a little out of control... please ignore that:

How it all started.

Somehow, we found Tuomas after losing him for an hour...

Erison and I, and the crazy hair

The wait for the bus ride was apparently hilarious... and Keldi's legs are just awkward!

I love all of our facial expressions here. Attractive, no?

Anyway, it was definitely a memorable Juhannus and now, shopping time :D

14-16 Losing track of the days

2010-06-24T04:59:00.001-07:00

I have officially stopped consciously counting my days in Finland - every day just seems to mesh into a blur now. The weather has been absolutely super and it really does put me in a good mood! After visiting the MC office on Monday, my work has been on a roll!

It's unfortunate but I think I'm going to grow up to become a workaholic. I love working... issues, I know what you're thinking. Anyway, more on work later.

I think I have also fallen in love with rye bread because I have been eating a disgusting number of slices lately. On the note of food, I miss all the fruit back home. Everything's so expensive here and well, I like to buy my strawberries and cherries from the farmer tents stationed all around the city center... but they're hella expensive. 3 euros for 1L of strawberries, and 3,5o euros for 1L of cherries... fml.

Dmitry and I visited the National Museum of Finland on Tuesday since it was free after 530PM. We got there too early so we decided to take a stroll around the city... WHICH LASTED 45 whopping minutes. Good thing it was beautiful weather or else I would have been so grumpy. There's this really nice park right by Central Railway Station that faces the water... kind of similar to the scene in 500 Days of Summer :) There are benches all around and little hide-away spots that are super romantic... well, if you have a romantic person to be with, that is... haha! Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of museums to be honest but it was interesting. The only memorable time I've had at a museum was when my brother and I started making up dialogue for the statues in France... c'mon, you gotta make life interesting!

Me and a stained glass window. Lookin' a little pudgy...

Anyhow, Kenneth (the LCP for AIESEC SHS -- look at me and my AIESEC acronyms already, haha) brought over some more furniture for the flat because I now have a temporary flatmate, Keldy :) She's from Estonia and a super sweet girl, though she's only staying in the flat until Monday. We tried so hard to research good night clubs in Helsinki but failed to find any - plus, all information was in Finnish... so we resorted to looking at photos instead. Let me tell you, there are some strange happenings in this city...

This weekend is a Finnish holiday, so everything will be closed tomorrow. It's called midsummer or Juhannus, in Finnish. Basically, it is celebrating the longest day of the summer or the "white night", and it's tradition to keep a bonfire throughout the day/night :) Keldy and I are planning to explore the city nightlife... but let's just hope these places are open. Tuomas, Dmitry, Keldy and I created an alcoholic float at the flat yesterday, and it all started with the discussion of a rootbeer float. Of course, rum/coke/lemon/ice cream is not exactly my idea of a good mix... but good company makes up for it!

After 2.5 weeks here, I must commend the public transportation system in Helsinki. Not only is it easy to get around and the travel planner actually works, the buses and trains are clean and well, far from TTC and Toronto street cars. Plus, they come very frequently so it would be rare to get stranded for 40 minutes... like we the norm in Mississauga. I was able to scope out a meeting location without getting lost or drawing ridiculously non-understandable diagrams/maps. SCORE!

About the meeting: I've been in contact with a wonderful web-service company and we booked a meeting this morning at 10AM. This was my first real business-type meeting (foooorrrizzzle) but I wasn't that nervous to begin with... the only thing I was stressed about was whether I should have tucked my blouse in or not. Anyway, the meeting went smoothly and I did an impromptu presentation of our project without even realizing it... so I must say, I was pretty surprised. There are several things that I could've done better as well, so it's something to remember for next time. I loved waking up early this morning, boiling water for my coffee and dolling up - I have this sick obsession with routines. While drinking coffee (nothing compared to the espresso we make at home, unfortunately), I was ploughing through a document I finished last night and made final edits. Productiveness = Satisfaction = I'm happy :) You know what else that means? Good home-made lunches:

Yum.

This is where the company's studio is located. I'd LOVE to work here!

Central Railway Station

I don't know how much I can say about the project but essentially, I'm going to have to give myself a crash-course on coding and website building. How did I fall into this? I have absolutely no idea. It's not a bad thing but it won't be easy. But hey, for optimism's sake, I have all the time in the world here in Helsinki, so I'm sure I'll be able to feel out the system. I'll keep you guys posted on the website!

And also, a blouse, boyfriend blazer, skinnies, sunglasses and a pair of heels are killer.

; ) Just sayin'.

My Finnish course is now confirmed so I can go and buy my course book now... wooooo :) I'm actually really excited about this! Anyway, I miss you guys a lot (MOM.DAD. You guys are super M.I.A -- missing in action) and I hope all is well and that there won't be any other earthquake scares!

For those interested, here's something deeper:

By nature, I would say that I'm a relatively accommodating person. Thing is, I don't know when to draw the line between being accommodating and pushing for what I want. Standing my ground, if you will. Plus, is accommodation a weakness when you're in the business battlefield? What about love? Is it a strength instead or are you bound to burn instead? Just some thoughts.

10 - 13: I miss Timbits

2010-06-21T15:25:00.001-07:00

Friday was killer: 630AM start, Central Railway Station at 745AM and 9 - 4PM training session.

Project Management Institute in Finland came to do a presentation on risk & change management with respect to projects, which was quite interesting. I suppose it was my first "professional" workshop and it was interesting to see how everyone in the professional world interacted with each other. The guys from Service For The Sea came in to talk about the organization and some sales tips- that was definitely useful and gave me a tiny bit of hope that I would be able to hand the "sales" aspect of my internship here.

We spent the rest of the weekend at Meri's summer cottage in Karjaloha, doing the usual Finnish sauna-jump in lake-grill thaaaaang! And as usual, I got eaten alive by the millions of mosquitos in the woods. I counted at least 25 bites today... it's not pretty. Anyway, I didn't whip out my camera this weekend but if pictures come up, I'll be sure to post them.

Meri's beautiful yard

Sunday was a pretty quick wrap-up, so we left for Helsinki before noon. T0 feed our nagging craving, Paula and I decided to seek out a sushi restaurant in the city centre. I satisfied my craving but the sushi tasted worse than the bentos you find at the Lazy Scholar (which are, by the way, the same price...). The weather was surprisingly nice, so we actually sat on a bench to people watch while waiting for her friends to come along for a drink on the patio. See, when you're doing something worthwhile (for example, having a longdrink on the patio), the weird sunshine at 830PM is quite nice. Otherwise, it just leaves me with question marks..

(via www.cookingyourdream.com)

Since we're more productive with food, Paula and I decided to buy a bag of chicken nuggets (that were going to expire the next day, so naturally we had to finish it) and sweet chili sauce... as well as flour to make banana pancakes while indulging in clips of the Swedish royal wedding. And that's what you call a perfect Sunday evening!

What a fairytale. (Daniel was actually Victoria's personal trainer)

It's funny how we have similar minds. Not only for work related material but food. For example, we walked past this guy at Kamppi who said aloud: "Man, I'm so sick of icecream."

Naturally, I commented: "How can you get sick of icecream, wtf? That's not even possible."... and so did she.

Great minds think alike, it's true.

Anyway, things are on a roll for Be A Change. Lots to do and I'm going to have to make my first sales call tomorrow... I'm trying to strategize this call but seriously, all I'm hoping is that they'll connect me to the right person in the company... that can speak English.

Funny thing - Dmitry and I were talking earlier today, and he told me: "You will probably get a mate on Wednesday!" Mate? As far as I know, I haven't had a "mate" in a while... and the prospects are lacking... haha! Anyway, he was talking about the girl from Estonia who will probably move into the empty room in my flat. Woooo! Let's hope it goes well from here.

On top of all the Be A Change work (which includes revamping the website... although my very limited HTML skills are rusty)... I still have to pay for the Finnish course.

And pick my courses for this upcoming academic year.

And print out my boarding pass.

And write up the fashion show transition material.

And find the potential logo that I created for Muse.

All I want to do now is to watch my movie in peace and sleep. Oh, and it would be nice to be relieved from the millions of mosquito bites right now, especially the one on my toe.

PS. Watching How I Met Your Mother made me miss Tim Horton's. The coffee is uber expensive here and no, people don't tend to walk around with a cup of to-go coffee on the street. Bummer!

9: Lone adventures

2010-06-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, I ventured out to find the meeting place for the project weekend. As expected, I got lost... but there was at least a cute Finnish guy who tried to help ;)

Anyway, after asking several people, I finally got to Arabia station and walked into the University of Art and Design buildings. There were museums and exhibits... so perfect! The building was modern and there was this really interesting installation as well:

Entrance to the building (ARGH, stupid rotation).

One of the other buildings in the area.

One of the design shops inside the building.

I've always been able to see myself as an art/design student... but never so clearly before. Regardless, I don't regret taking my Commerce degree - school will always be available. There's this International Design Business Management Masters degree in Helsinki that's worth considering sometime in the near future...

After recharging my cell subscription at R-Kioski, I couldn't help but walk by the rack of glossy magazines. British Vogue never looked so good to me and same goes with Elle UK. I'm such a sucker for magazines, but it creates such a dent in my wallet :(

Flipping through the pages definitely got me inspired for Muse and SFS. Once I organize my life here, more work will come through for those two projects. In terms of organizing my life:

My desk at the moment, and yes those are notes on the toilet paper roll...

1) I booked my flight to London for July 7 - 10 with Mensa. Super stoked for this mini trip...!

2) University of Helsinki responded to my email, letting me know that they will take an extra student for their Suomi 1 course, starting on July 5. The classes are from Monday to Thursday, 9-11AM. Although it's early, it's absolutely perfect to get me out of bed and into the city for the day. Routines help me get through life; I'm not the most aesthetically organized person (I'm sure Mom can attest to that) but I love order in my daily grind.

Hopefully it'll work something like this: class + coffee + Hub + (shop) + make dinner + How I Met Your Mother + sleep... and repeat. At least for weekdays ;)

I did a bit of grocery shopping today at K-Market so that I could make myself a good dinner before the weekend starts! I gotta say, my sans-microwave cooking skills are improving:

Buffalo wings, roasted tomatoes, boiled potatoes & broccoli with scrambled eggs :)

Duong (a really sweet girl that I work with on the OC) recruited someone to help with marketing, so hopefully I'll get to work with her at the Hub.

On a more reflective note, I really believe that things always come around, you just have to wait for it. Anyway, all this positivity is weird... it must be the weather.

6, 7 & 8: Animals and quieter days

2010-06-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

The last three days have been quite laid back, nothing special. In a way, that's good but with my personality, that just irks me. I always need something to do!

Dmitry and I decided to go to the Korkeassari Zoo since we obviously had nothing better to do. The zoo is quite small and the animals weren't very cooperative, but I can understand how they feel - how would you like it if people pressed their nose against the glass to watch you sleep and poop? Anyway, D wanted to visit every animal on the map, so we did just that.

There weren't any animals that especially caught my eye, except for the peacock who got in everyone's business and the turtles that were humping each other. The zoo noted skunks as a special animal that was worth seeing... and squirrels too. I beg to differ.

But then again, the fat flying squirrels in Kingston are quite amusing ; )

I forgot to bring my camera, so I had to resort to my Blackberry camera... sorry for the poor quality images! Here are some pictures of the peacocks, pissing everyone off:

Peacock VS Kangaroo...

Show off!

I love bears.

Overly active turtles ;)

After meeting with Paula at the flat, we decided to cook potatoes for dinner (of course) and watch Pan's Labryinth, a Spanish movie which was incredibly dark. That's why I'm switching over to chick flicks tonight... again, thank God for the Internet. I've been streaming movies and TV shows to keep myself sane around here!

Janne at Hub Helsinki confirmed that I could work there for the Be A Change project, so we decided to visit the place and get some work done. It's a really nice place on Aleksanterinkatu, one of the main shopping/tourist streets, and it's open for entrepreneurs to work on their projects and network. Their motto is "Ideas. People. Space." and well, that's exactly what we're all about!

Anyway, I find it a bit intimidating since I'm the only person working on Be A Change full-time. I'll be treating it as my "office" when it's actually just a space for people to meet. Regardless, their facilities are great and hopefully, I'll get used to it. The location's wonderful; you can see the big white cathedral and it's right on the shopping street (with three H&Ms, seriously...?). That's going to be bad news once I start going more often... I've already begun to look at the European shops online...

Anyhow, if you're interested in place like this in your area, look no more! The Hub is also available in other cities such as Copenhagen, Stockholm and even Toronto - I'd love to see what the environment of The Hub is like at home when I get back.

Paula and I decided to head to a TexMex restaurant, Santa Fe, to grab dinner and work a bit more. We worked hard... and took notes on red napkins.

The restaurant was located in between two buildings, in the alleyway. Kind of cool, if you ask me. Plus, it's a good use of space. On another note, food makes meetings much more productive. Eating out in Helsinki is certainly more expensive than I'm used to, but it's no matter to me since I don't mind cooking at home, it kills time.

I gave myself an "off" day, since I fell asleep on the couch watching Glee last night (so good... but Journey got me again, ugh).

Food that's keeping me sane:

1) Paula introduced me to Sineppsilli, a Scandinavian delicacy. It's basically mustard herring and despite its fishy, tangy aftertaste, it's SO worth it when you pair it with crackers, rye bread or potatoes.

2) The bag on the left = the most delicious chocolate wafers in the world. I'm definitely going to bring a bag (or two) for you guys when I come home! And obviously, I bought the mega-pack...

3) Without doubt, cheese and crackers are part of my daily diet - I mean, it's been there since first year with my roomie, Jules. I also feel the need to invest in a cheese slicer/peeler, it makes life so much easier when you want to eat cheese! Oh, and that tube of whatever it is (it's fishy)... is so good. Mmmm.

4) Meatballs and potatoes make a great dinner. Economical, tasty and easily prepared.

5) Appelsini = Orange Juice. How ironic.

6) And my dinner for tonight:

So, I've been replying to emails and wrapping my head around a lot of Muse/DECA business today. It's about time since 1) deadlines have been missed, and 2) unexpected things came up. There are things that I need to do for Synergy Fashion Show as well, but I can't seem to find the motivation. It'll happen eventually, but all I can think about is how NOT to get lost, trying to find the meeting place for Friday morning (I can't help that I'm direction-retarded).

There's a a functional/training weekend in Helsinki on Friday, which will then continue at Meri's summer cottage for the rest of the weekend. I'm quite excited, although the weather seems to disagree with us on Saturday, when we'ree supposed to have our BBQ & sauna activities. Ehhhhhhhhh. Either way, AIESEC events will be great so I'm not worried at all!

On another note, I'm planning a trip to London with Mensa, who's currently in Italy. SO pumped... I've always wanted to touch down in Londontown ;) Although the air fare's expensive, I suppose that's what you get for being in Scandinavia... plus, chances like this are rare.

Mom & Dad, I'll pay you guys back once I get a job after graduation. Seriously...

Anyway, traveling in London by myself (or at least getting to the hostel) doesn't seem as frightening as traveling in Finland alone. At least everything's in English. I hate how all signs are Finnish and even the stupid prepaid mobile phone company website is in Finnish. What a friggin' fail.

After sitting down with my agenda, I've concluded that there are several other places I'd like to visit during my time in Helsinki. Stockholm, Paris and possibly, St. Petersburgh. It'd be bomb to visit Jasmine and Charles in Paris in July... and possibly fit in a ferry trip to Russia or Sweden!

I miss you guys lots, hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the weather back in Toronto :)

5 & 6: Retreating to Tampere & Valkeakoski

2010-06-13T15:54:00.001-07:00

Finally settled back into the trainee flat in Kannelmaki after a weekend in Tampere (the second largest city in Finland) and Valkeakoski. Where shall I start?

Paula, Suman and I had a pretty early start on Saturday to head out to Tampere, which was a two hour drive. We made a few pit stops including Häme Castle, a medieval castle in Hämeenlinna, as well as the Iitala Outlet. The castle was ancient, dating back to 1500s but we really didn't see much of it since it was pretty early.

When we got to the Iitala Outlet, there was actually a glass-blowing competition so we ventured in and checked it out for a bit. Glass-blowing freakin' blows my mind. Iitala is a famous Finnish brand for kitchenware and other things alike... Mom, you would have absolutely gone nuts in the outlet. The plates/cups were beautiful and the kitchen utensils were so ridiculously perfect. You know you're getting old when you find these things interesting... ah shit.

Glass-blower stance. No, that's not one hell of a bubble... it's glass, m'friends.

Beautiful Iitala museum. LOVE LOVE LOVE. (Julie, you would've enjoyed this a lot)

Interesting floors... Tetris, anyone?

We stopped by Paula's summer cottage in Valkeakosk to grab some lunch, watch some TV (I miss English shows so much...) and loafted for a bit. It's common for the Finnish to retreat to their summer cottage by the lakes, which are absolutely stunning! Some of these cottages have private saunas and their own docks, and luckily, Paula's place had both :) It was so great of her to offer us to stay at the cottage for the weekend - the house was exactly what I imagined a Scandinavian-lakeside cottage to be. Semi-loft, I think?

Simple and cute living room.

The second floor - my favourite part of the cottage.

The view from the docks. Scene from a romantic Nicholas Sparks novel, anyone?

The weather was pretty bad by the water, but once we got into Tampere, it seemed a bit calmer. LC Tampere invited the Be A Change OC for their second anniversary party that was held in a sauna building - strange but it worked perfectly, especially since they had a nice patio as well. I'm slowly becoming an AIESECer, starting with the traditional dance to Tunak Tunak Tun and finishing the night off with, Nordic Circle (think singing, speeches and Finlandia).

Anyway, there were a lot of great games, wonderful conversations and amazing dancing - it was honestly a lot of fun. I mean, clubbing & keggers are great at home but this was something else... probably because of the company and the purity of it all - no expectations but just to be yourself. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous about talking/networking with the people there but I definitely got comfortable really quickly :) It's too bad I didn't take any pictures but if any are posted on Facebook later on, I will try to get some on the blog!

The only picture I took - two sick AIESECer, Elvis & Fatih

We spent all of Sunday at the cottage, eating, dancing and of course, working on BeACh with the rest of the OC. They're all awesome people and hell, I even learned some Finnish... woooooo! Not that it would be incredibly useful to me, but why not? I'm thinking of taking a course during my time in Helsinki to pass time, learn and just meet new people. Thoughts? I've been told that some open universities here offer short language courses, so I may look into it.

Learning Finnish and Turku jokes.

Working hard...? Excuse my "unkept" work-wear/face, hahaha...

And slapping flies, obviously.

Duong's super tasty apple cake that she made... in the AM!

Something interesting - did you know that post-secondary education is free in Finland, even for international students? That's pretty amazing... and on the other hand, it's obvious that my school is ripping off the students going on exchange to Helsinki. Shitty.

We decided to film our Waka Waka dance for 1Goal (search it on Youtube) on the couch... and by the lake - you'll see soon, once we perfect it. At the moment, we're a little uncoordinated. While the boys went to the sauna first, Paula, Duong and I stayed in and talked a little while about what girls usually talk about - of course. Anyway, the sauna was about 90degrees when it was our turn but it felt great, especially cooling down with a can of strawberry cider. I wonder why we don't drink it more in Canada - it's so good! Not so maaaaacho (yeah, whatevs) but it's a girl's prerogative to drink girly drinks...

The drive home was pretty peaceful and Risto even had some S.H.E songs in his car, which was surprising (kind of, anyway) - reminded me of home, I suppose. I was flipping through this Helsinki visiting guide during the ride and stumbled across a few places I want to visit in the next while or so.... I'll outline them soon, they'll be exciting!

I've been doing a bit of thinking - I want to travel some time but I'm still holding back from traveling alone. I don't know, I just think that I have to make the best out of this trip. Two months is and isn't long, it just depends on how you perceive it. One thing I've learned so far is just to take it day by day. It's my first night alone in the flat since my second night here, but I'm feeling a bit better about it.

Coming back into the flat, I found several new things. The LC brought in some couches, desks and lots of plastic cups (wooooo!) so the flat doesn't look as empty anymore. And also a cupboard full of beer cans and bottles... empty ones, what were you thinking? Hah. Anyway, there's this machine in the grocery markets where you can receive approx. 0,20 euros for each beer can you return.

The cupboard smells like beer now...

LAPIN KULTA, the only one I've tried so far. There's this song about Finnish beers...

I'm hoping that there will be another intern that comes along soon so that I don't have to live alone the entire time. Either way, it's not in my hands. Also, until my working environment/situation is confirmed (ie. getting some official working space, somewhere), I'm just in and out of the flat - perhaps exploring every corner of the city and praying that I don't get lost, and maybe making a daily visit to a new coffee shop to work on the project.

Regardless, thank God for Internet connection.

And to leave you with something else I found interesting in Finland - ice cube bags, wtf?

And this vintage radio in the flat... who uses these anymore? Sick.

PS. I'll get back to the e-mails, I promise!

4: The truth about the trainee flat

2010-06-11T17:03:00.001-07:00

It was pouring rain today while I ventured out to Kamppi for a meeting at 5PM. I didn't want to be late for my first meeting, so I decided to leave an hour early (it only takes approximately 12 minutes to get to city center)... just in case I'd get lost. Hell, I even Google-mapped out directions to Kamppi, but when I got to Central Railway Station, I was lost.

It really wasn't my fault - it would have helped if there were actual street signs... but Europeans (at least Finns) don't fancy street signs. WHY WOULD YOU PUT STREET NAMES ON THE SIDE OF BUILDINGS? At least I didn't see any signs.

Magically, I made my way to Kamppi with a bit of help and decided to shop around for a bit. Fortunately, I haven't been in the mood to spend money considering I'm still adjusting to life here, so I've only been spending money on food. Yes, all my receipts are from K-Market downstairs. So don't worry Mom, I'm eating well.

Funnily enough, there were quite a number of Asians in the mall - at least among the young people. I guess the mall is still the cool place to hang out...? On another note, I found a green military jacket & denim shirt that I just might consider purchasing... ; )

I finally met Paula, Duong, and Risto from Be A Change and continued our meeting at the Johto Cafe. Learned how the organization works and learned some Finnish from a menu as well, productive day, I suppose!

The best part of the day was finding out that there was a gathering planned at the trainee flat (aka, where I live) today. Two things:

1) I saw the Facebook event and I thought it was tomorrow

2) It didn't register that the trainee flat meant my apartment...

They usually use the trainee flat as a communal place for the Local Committee, which is quite nice - weekends here won't be too quiet, I guess! Paula and I decided to make dinner before everyone came, so we cooked up a nice rice & chilli chicken dinner. Like I said, I'm eating well. We pretty much just sat around with Mojitos (yes, Dmitry finally found a mint plant) and beer, chips, and chocolate raisins and talked. No flip cup, but it was still entertaining to hear about drunk stories and conference nights. Thy talked up the Saiima Summer Weekend which seems pretty promising, which on another note, I have to still sign up for. The culture is definitely different here in Europe. No one's an alcoholic and everyone's relaxed. The just enjoy life... with alcoholic drinks.

; )

Kudos to Dmitry for the mint plant (currently dying, oops).

We'll be driving up to Tampere (2 hours away, I think) for some anniversary party on Saturday night and then staying at Paula's parent's house (in the middle of a forest) for Sunday to work on Be A Change. In other words, cross your fingers for sunshine and I will post two days later.

PS. Ed, they sell legit Absinthe in Czech Republic and Estonia... so I can't really help you out unless I take a trip to Estonia, haha!

PPS. I apologize in advance to you guys for writing in such a "dear-diary" way. I can't help but go back to my roots. I promise I'll take more pictures so the text doesn't seem so daunting.

3: Hobbit land in Suomenlinna

2010-06-11T04:39:00.000-07:00

After a day in the city, Dmitry suggested visiting the island/sea fortress in Suomenlinna for a change in landscape. I like museums, but I like the water and outdoors more, so this was definitely a great choice.

But of course, the European way calls for a Mojito before we set out on the adventure... so we decided to make ourselves a drink while we looked up how to get to the docks. The Mojitos unfortunately were lacking mint sprigs (no ZING... boo!), but what can you do when they were nowhere to be found?

We left the flat around 3PM, after amusing ourselves with this very creative website that taught us how to make Mojitos... and then proceeded to the Market Square to take the ferry.

Now only if I could learn how to rotate these damn pictures, fail.

Anyway, about our adventure:

Suomenlinna, which is known to the Finns as Sveaborg, is an inhabited island fortress made up of six islands. Since we left the flat around 3PM, we actually only explored one of the islands which took us until 930PM. Yes, six hours of exploring tunnels, holes and looking at the beautiful Baltic Sea.

Since we're too cheap for guided tours and personally, I don't fancy them much, we just stumbled around on our own which was much more fun! There were a lot of dark tunnels and "hobbit-holes" with worn out wooden doors and address plates. I don't know, don't ask. There were cave-like tunnels as well, which were dark and cold and filled with beer cans or construction equipment. We climbed up and down and found this beautiful plateau that looked out to the Baltic Sea where you could see the Finnish skyline (far from Toronto's sky line though).

The dry docks that they apparently still use.

Hobbit land. Strange stuff, you know?

And of course, you can't forget about the cannons and the children running loose...

A better picture of a better cannon.

A magical hole. Hah hah hah... ; ) Wow, so not parent-appropriate.

It's kind of magical, don't you think?

One of the many gardens that we explored!

Lost and confused, as always. You can't see my expression, but it was a "WTF" face...

And of course, a tourist picture minus the peace sign (sorry, Ju)!

One thing that struck me as magical was the amount of people enjoying their time in the sun: couples lying in a field of grass, drinking wine and smoking, families by the water, foreign families playing games in the garden... that's something we should learn to do back in Canada/Hong Kong!

As the day came to an end, we headed to the docks to catch our ferry, only to find that there were still 30 minutes. So to kill time, we headed to an outdoor patio to grab a beer (Lapin Kulta, I think) and just talk for a while. I'm glad that wasn't awkward - Dmitry and I talked about random things like Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, movies and school - it would have been a terrible conversation if it was awkward! Kudos to the beer? Hah, just kidding.

By the time we came back to the city, it was around 1030PM and the sun was just setting. We actually walked our way back to Central Railway Station and even made it in time before the grocery store, Alepa closed, just so we could grab some dinner. Unexpectedly, we watched a bit of Mr. Nobody until we decided that it was too boring, and watched Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas... which was actually really long for a drug-infused movie. I mean, watching people going on trips off of every kind of drug for two hours isn't exactly amusing after the first hour.

Ahh, the life on the Baltic Sea. Want one, Dad?

The view from the docks while waiting for our ferry. 1030PM, still boggles my mind.

So, that was my second day and in a bit, I'll be heading to the city... trying to find Kamppi shopping center to meet with the Be A Change committee. Finally going to meet Paula, our Organizing Committee President, after millions of emails during the past month! I'll keep you guys posted on what happens at the meeting and what our plans are for the weekend.

Hope everything is well, I miss home so much! : (

1 & 2: Strange sunsets in the Finnish sky

2010-06-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

Landed: Tuesday, June 8 @ 215PM

So, it appears that Finland is quite eco-friendly. After my flight, I took a trip to the washroom, expecting everything to go smoothly. At least, I didn't expect a fight with the paper towel dispenser...

Instead of

dispensing paper towel, there is a reusable cloth that rolls back after you're done wiping your hands. After a few seconds of looking the contraption up/down and sideways, and of course trying to pull the cloth out, a nice Finnish lady smiled at me and told me how it worked. She was probably thinking, "dumb Canadians...".

I picked up my bags quite quickly (very efficient, Air France, kud

os!) and headed straight out the arrival gate. And right in front, as expected, Dmitry stood there with a sign with my name on it (c'mon, how often do you get this kind of reception at the aiport?

), and we headed to the buses.

Afternoons in Finland are quite nice with the sunshine and a slight breeze. The landscape in Finland isn't too surprising, though there are a lot of trees. It took us maybe around 20 minutes to get to city center from Vantaa, and then we dragged my luggage all the way to Central Railway Station and headed to my apartment in Kannelmaki.

The apartment isn't exactly what I call furnished, but it definitely looks a lot better than what I see in Kingston. There are two rooms, but I really do hope that someone moves in with me so that the apartment doesn't get so lonely. The only thing I have to keep me company is my laptop - thank God for the free internet here, what else would I do? I ended up sleeping at 6PM and stuck in bed till 11AM, partly because of jet lag, partly because I was hating on life a little bit. Anyway, it's a bit better now so I think tonight, I will get better sleep!

Here's a few pictures after I finally decided to settle in and put everything away:

Yes, of course those are my jeans crumpled on the floor.

And the kitchen:

And then the smelly bathroom (sorry, haven't figured out how to rotate on Blogspot):

So there it is, my first apartment... not that I'm paying for it or anything. And I guarantee you, my first apartment will be much better than this.

I went around the city today with Dmitry and attempted to get my Finland Social Insurance Number, but since I'm only staying for less than 90 days and I don't have a residence permit, I don't get one. Whatever, no big deal. So we went to pay for my travel card - public transportation is quite good in Helsinki, and very efficient. They use these pre-paid cards which I still have yet to get a hang of; once you pay for it at HSL, you don't have to swipe it on the bus/tram (like street cars)/metro (subway). So, I'm guessing that you could technically get free rides all the time... unless the train officer asks you.

A lot of people ride the bicycle on the streets and there really aren't that many cars. But then again, the city isn't that big.

I haven't snapped any pictures of the city yet because well, I didn't expect to see a lot today. But to my surprise, I walked by several things but I'm sure I can go back one weekend and take as many pictures as my heart desires. We visited the Lutheran Cathedral which sparkled in the sun (it's pure white) in the Senate Square, some exhibition about Finnish culture (quite peculiar, as the first floor was a cafe where old ladies drank tea and ate biscuits...), and visited the MC building & AIESEC SHS office. I met several AIESECers and they seem really nice, but I'm still waiting on Paula to come back from Sweden so I can meet the Be A Change members and actually start work.

The AIESEC SHS office is very studio-like, even though it is a student union office. It has glass dividers, great lamp fixtures (very Swedish, actually) and a SHS pup! Kind of similar to how I see my future office :) Maybe I'll be able to take pictures of those later.

Anyway, I decided to leave around 6PM so they can do some work and so, I headed back to Central Railway Station to catch my train back to the apartment. Since it was still early, I decided to unpack everything to make my stay seem a little bit more permanent/real. And to make it even more so, I went downstairs to grab some groceries - which was difficult, considering I didn't want to buy too much food for myself and everything else was in Finnish or Swedish - and proceeded to break in the kitchen.

Thanks to mum's cooking style, I decided to make meatballs, tomatoes and ketchup... with a bun. Not the best picture, but you get the idea! I really have to learn how to take better food pictures... maybe I'll just drool over the photos on foodgawker.com instead!

It really is quite tasty... even though I forgot to buy oil and there was no salt/pepper. Tomorrow morning's breakfast will consist of the same bag of buns and bananas... I think ahead quite nicely.

One peculiar thing that I've noticed in Finland is that the sun doesn't set until 1030PM... and it doesn't get dark at night. It looks like 9PM in Canada right now, even though it's past midnight. Take a look from my window-view:

Weird stuff. This was taken around 1015PM today!

Anyhow, enough writing for today. Dmitry will be heading over here around noon tomorrow to make Mojitos (random idea, but I love it - drinks in the afternoon, classy) and we will be deciding what to do. For now, we are planning to go to visit Suomenlinna, an island fortress, and then take the SpåraKOFF, a red pub-tram called (where you can kick back with a pint of beer) and view the city for 40 minutes.

I'll be sure to take my camera and be touristy all the way.