Jaahas. Taas on viikko kulunut. Pitänee kaivaa kalenteri eteen ja katsoa viikon saavutukset.
Hah aivan :D Koska sunnuntain mässäily ei ollu tarpeeksi jatkoimme maanantaiaamuna siitä mihin olimme sununtaina jääneet. Masut täynnä suuntasimme kohti uusia seikkailuja. Tällä viikolla olikin urheilullinen viikko. Maanantaina kokeilimmet street dancea, keskiviikkona yogaa, torstaina ja perjantaina kävin purkamassa kertynyttä aggressiivista energiaa salilla ja viikonloppuna teimme kävelyretkiä kaupungilla. Eli terkut Lassille, joka on huolissaan kilojen kertymisestä ;P
Tällä viikolla selkeni viimein lopullinen aikataulu. Tiistaina espanjaa ja akateemsista kirjoittamista, keskiviikkona tapahtumien suunnittelu-kurssi, torstaina tapahtuman toteuttamiskurssi ja perjantaina tapahtuma-alan läpileikkauskurssi. Kurssit ovat aika perustavaa laatuisia eivätkä oikein kolmannen vuoden opiskelijan tasoa, mutta noh.. Tuskin ne hukkaan menevät. Yleensä opettaja pitää kaksi tuntia luentoa, jonka jälkeen on seminaari, johon on pitänyt opiskella etukäteen ilmoitettu materiaali, josta keskustellaan.
Kielen opiskelu on täällä tosiaan erilaista! Ensimmäisestä tunnista lähtien on opeteltu lauseita sanojen sijaan. Emme opettele sanoja tai niiden sukuja vaan fraaseja ja ääntämistä. Perin kummallista sanoisin. Pitänee itse ostaa harjoituskirja, josta voi opetella tarvittavan sanaston, persoonapronominit ym. koska käytämme tunneilla vain annettua opintomateriaalia ja kuunteluja.
Tapahtuman toteutus kurssilla olen seitsemän muun ihmisen kanssa ryhmässä. Nyt uudestaan ajateltuna en harmittele yhtään, ettei minun tarvitse osallistua kirjalliseen osioon. Ensinnäkin, kahdeksan ihmisen ryhmässä päätöksenteko on erittäin vaikeaa, kun vahvatahtoiset haluavat jyrätä oman ideansa toteutukseen ottamatta huomioon sen heikkouksia. Toiseksikin, täällä ei suunnitella ryhmätapaamisia ja niiden sisältöä, joka pitkittää kahdeksan ihmisen kaoottisia kokouksia entisestään. Kolmanneksi, ryhmän jäseniltä tuntuu välillä puuttuvan todellisuuden taju. Näistä syistä olen ollut purkamassa energiaani salilla kahtena päivänä peräkkäin. PUUH! sanon minä. Ehkä olin ehtinyt unohtaa työrupeman aikana, millaista on koulun ryhmätyöt.. Mutta tämähän vain kasvattaa luonteenlujuutta ja muuta sellaista ylevää eikös vain :D
Keskiviikko-iltana hauskuutimme itseämme taas elokuvissa. Kävimme katsomassa 3D-version Gnomeo and Juliet, joka oli yllätykseksemme englantinainen tuotos. Ihmettelin kun oli niin paljon Elton Johnin biisejä leffassa, mutta sehän selitti paljon, kun herran nimi oli loppu teksteissä tuottajan kohdalla. Ihan viihdyttävä leffa, mutta en kyllä ostaisi kotiin tai vuokraisi toista kertaa.
Perjantaina sain sähköpostia siskoltani. Aww kuinka söpö siskonpoika minulla olikaan. Kuvien katselu nostatti tunteet pintaan ja koti-ikävän. Tietysti harmittaa miten jää paitsi pojun nopeasta kasvamisesta ja kaikesta kotona tapahtuvasta, mutta kaikella on hintansa. Olen kuitenkin tulossa pääsiäisenä kotiin, joten kahden ja puolen kuukauden erossa olo ei ole kuitenkaan ylitsepääsemätöntä ja korvaamatonta. Eikä Niilo poju paljon muista paljon täti kiusaamassa häntä ensimmäisen vuotensa aikana ja veljen lapsetkin toivottavasti vielä muistavat naaman, kun palaan. Näyttäkää kuvia jooko, ettei lapset pelästy seuraavalla visiitillä kuin enoni pappani tullessa sodasta?
Mitäs muuta? Hah sain rahani takaisin menetetystä pesulakortista! Seuraavalla pesulareissullani törmäsin muutamaan hassuun asiaan. Ensinnäkin, jotkut opiskelijat eivät osaa pestä vaatteita. Yksi tyttö tuhrasi vartin lajitellessa pyykkiä eikä osannut ymmärtää, että vaaleita voi olla monia sävyjä (valkoinen, luonnonvalkoinen, vaaleanruskea....) ja ne voi kyllä kaikki pestä samassa koneessa. Toinen tyttö oli laittanut jätesäkillisen kaiken värisiä vaatteita pesukoneeseen aamulla, tuli hakemaan niitä illalla ja laittoi kaikki samaan kuivausrumpuun! Ja miten minulle selvisi tämä oli se, kun turhautuneena odotin ensin yli vartin, että saisin pestyä omat pyykkini. Ketään ei kuulunut, joten hain toimistolta jätesäkin ja lappasin homeisen hajuiset vaatteet siihen. Yli tunti myöhemmin, kun odotin oman koneellisen valmistumista tyttö tuli hakemaan pyykkejään, ja lastasi ne kaikki kuivausrumpuun. Kolmas yllätys oli, kun odottelin omien vaatteiden kuivumista ja eräs poika tuli pesutuvassa kysymään olenko suomalainen, kun minulla oli Citymarketin muovikassi. Näin tapasin siis Jukan, joka oli ollut vaihdossa syksystä asti meidän yksiköstä.
Pyykkituvassa tapahtuu siis kaikenlaista mielenkiintoista.
Lauantaina tutustuimme Jewellery Quarteriin eli paikalliseen nähtävyyteen, jossa toimii 1 500 korualan yritystä. Huikea määrä siis! Lounastauolla Laura koki myös elämänsä järkytyksen kielimuurin vuoksi :D Hän luuli tilanneensa juustoleivän ranskalaisilla, ja sain kahden kylmän paahtoleivän palan välissä ranskalaisia. Kysymys tosiaan kuuluu kuka tilaisi tällaista? Urheasti hän kuitenkin söi saamansa annoksen :D
Tänään Franzi veti meille kävelykierroksen keskustassa, missä käytiin läpi nähtävyydet ja taustatietoa kaupungista. Kävelimme siis samoilla kulmilla, missä olemme kolme viikkoa tallanneet, mutta saimme lisätietoa mikä oli mikä ja miksi.
Matkakalenterimme seuraava osioksi on merkitty päiväretki Warwickiin, joka on noin puolen tunnin junamatkan päässä. Matkasuunnitelman laatineena olen erittäinkin toiveikas huomisen suhteen, jos ei vain niin kauheasti sataisi. Sain hankittua etukäteisalennusliput junaan ja linnaan, joten säästimme noin viisi puntaa per naama sisäänpääsystä Warwick Castleen. Sillä kustantaa jo lounaan eli loistava säästö!
Pubissa saattaa saada kaksi pääruoka-annosta seitsemällä punnalla lounasaikaan, kahviloista ja kepsupaikoista saa kaikenlaista edullista syötävää alle viidellä punnalla. En pistä ollenkaan pahitteeksi! Kämpillä syön yleensä salaattia tai pastaa iltaruuaksi ja aamupalaksi leipää ja mysliä. Kämppäkaverini ihmettelevät terveellistä ja kurinalaista syömistäni vaikken koe salaatin ja hedelmien syömisessä mitään kovin eriskummallista. Heikkoutena täällä on tietysti kaikki roskaruoka, jota on tarjolla joka kadun kulmassa ja jopa koulussa. Olen huomannut, että rasvan käry on käynyt minunkin sieraimiini, ja huomaan täällä himoitsevani enemmän roskaruokaa kuin kotona. Harvoin sitä tulee kuitenkaan ostettua.
Kylmähän täällä on - melkein pahempaa kuin Suomessa, kun on niin kosteaa. Suosin pakkasta ja lunta kuin viimaa ja sadetta. Täällä tuulee samalla tavalla kuin Helsingissä, mikä on aika hassua, kun ollaan tiukasti sisämaassa.
Nyt taidan tehdä viimeiset valmistelut matkaa varten olenhan nimettynä tämän matkanjohtajaksi :D ja sitten painua pehkuihin. Onneksi tällä viikolla on ollut rauhallisempaa ja on saanut yöt nukuttua!
Terkkuja ja halauksia <3
 | ||
| Minä, Laura, Isabel, Anne, Lisa ja Franzi paluumatkalla Jewellery Quarterista. Ainiin ja kameran takana Kaja :) . |
***
Cheers mates!
And another week has passed. I probably should dig up my calendar in front of me and have a look at the achievements of the week.
Hah alright :D Since Sunday's feast wasn’t enough, we continued our brunch on Monday morning. With our tummies filled headed for new adventures. This week was quite a sporty week. On Monday we attended to street dance lesson and on Wednesday yoga at the gym, on Thursday and Friday I went to the gym to release some accumulated aggressive energy and on the weekend we took a stroll around town. Greetings, namely to Lassi, who is concerned about the buildup of kilos ;P
This week finally cleared the final schedule. On Tuesday I have Spanish and academic writing, on Wednesday Planning for Events, on Thursday Events Operations and on Friday the Event Industry module. The courses are pretty basic and not really a third-year student's level, but oh well .. They are hardly going to be a waste of time. Usually the teacher will give two hours of lecture, followed by a seminar. So the learning technique is quite different what we’re used to in Finland. I think it’s rather good for learning point of view.
But boy isn’t the learning of a language really different here! Since the first hour of basics of Spanish we have memorized phrases instead of keywords and personal pronouns. Initially strange I’d say. I probably buy an exercise book, where you can learn the necessary vocabulary, pronouns, etc. from the book store because we use only the lessons on the course material and intercepts.
In the event operations module I have to do a group work with 7 other people. Now, looking back my thrustration that I won’t be participating in the written work has passed. First of all, to include eight people in decision-making is very difficult, when you’re dealing with strong willed persons. Secondly, there are no plans for group meetings and their content, which prolongs the eight people’s even more chaotic at meetings. For these reasons, I had dismantled my energy at the gym two days in a row. Maybe I had already forgotten during my training period what is was like to make group work at school.. But this will only increase the strength of character and other such noble things, right? :D
Wednesday evening we went to entertain ourselves to the mogies. We went to see a 3D version of Gnomeo and Juliet, which was to our surprise an English movie instead of American. I was wondering when there were so many songs of Elton John in the movie, but that explains a lot when the Lord's name was in the credits as the producer. It was pretty entertaining movie, but I would not buy it home or rent it for second time.
On Friday I got an email my sister. Aww how cute my sister's son was. Viewing images stirred up emotions to the surface and also some homesickness. Of course, how annoying it is to miss the first months of that fast growing little thing and everything else at home, but everything has its price, right? However, I am going home for Easter, so two and a half months away from the normal life is not overwhelming, and wasted. Niilo won’t remember how much his auntie was around for his first year of life and hopefully my brother’s kids will also remember my face when I go to visit them next time.
What else? Ha, I got my money back for the laundry card! On my visit to the laundry room this week I came across a few funny things. Firstly, some students do not know how to wash clothes. One girl wasted one quarter of an hour sifting fabrics and could not understand that light can have many shades (white, off white, light brown ....) and yes they can all be washed in the same load. Another girl had put one big bin bag of clothes into the washing machine in the morning, came to pick them up at night and put all of the same drum! And how I discovered this was when I waited in the laundry room feeling frustrated over the first quarter of an hour that someone would pick their laundry up. As no one showed up, so I walked to the office, took some bin bags and put the moldy smelling clothes in it. Over an hour later, when I waited for my load to be complete the girl finally came to pick laundry, and then she put all of them into the dryer at the same time :D My god people are smart. The third surprise was when I waited to get my clothes of the dryer and one boy asked if I'm Finnish, when I had the plastic bag of CityMarket. So that’s how, I met Jukka, a Finnish boy from my campus who had been here since autumn.
Laundry room is, therefore, kind of interesting venue I’d say.
On Saturday, we had a look at the Jewellery Quarter, which is one of our local attractions here in B-ham. In that area operates 1 500 jewelry companies. A huge amount! During the lunch break Laura also felt the shock of her life due to a language barrier with her and a Thai waitress that worked in the café :D She thought she had ordered a cheesetoast with french fries, and what she got was two pieces of cold toast and in between them the chips. The question really is who would order this? Bravely, however, she ate it all :D
Today Franzi guided us a walking tour through the city. We walked along the same streets that we have been passing for the past three weeks but now w the sights and w know the names of the places and monuments and a bit of their history. We also made a short visit to the local art museum.
In our travel plan the next trip is to Warwick, which takes place tomorrow. Warwick is a small city about half an hour away by train. As a travel planner I was able to get us discounted tickets for the Warwick castle and therefore we’re able to save about 5 pounds a head. That’s great since we can buy lunch with that money J
During lunch hours you can get two main courses for 7 pounds which is quite reasonable rate compared to Finland. Also cafés and fast food restaurants offer courses for less than five pounds. I think that’s great! I eat usually a salad or pasta in the evening at the flat and in the morning some bread and muesli. My roommates are wondering my healthy and disciplined eating habits even though I don’t regard eating salad and fruits nothing too bizarre. My weakness here is, of course, all the junk food that is served every street corner and even in school. I've noticed that here I crave more junk food than at home. Rarely, however, I purchase it.
Now I'm going to make the final preparations for the trip as I’m the travel manager :D and then I’ll hit the sack.
Hah alright :D Since Sunday's feast wasn’t enough, we continued our brunch on Monday morning. With our tummies filled headed for new adventures. This week was quite a sporty week. On Monday we attended to street dance lesson and on Wednesday yoga at the gym, on Thursday and Friday I went to the gym to release some accumulated aggressive energy and on the weekend we took a stroll around town. Greetings, namely to Lassi, who is concerned about the buildup of kilos ;P
This week finally cleared the final schedule. On Tuesday I have Spanish and academic writing, on Wednesday Planning for Events, on Thursday Events Operations and on Friday the Event Industry module. The courses are pretty basic and not really a third-year student's level, but oh well .. They are hardly going to be a waste of time. Usually the teacher will give two hours of lecture, followed by a seminar. So the learning technique is quite different what we’re used to in Finland. I think it’s rather good for learning point of view.
But boy isn’t the learning of a language really different here! Since the first hour of basics of Spanish we have memorized phrases instead of keywords and personal pronouns. Initially strange I’d say. I probably buy an exercise book, where you can learn the necessary vocabulary, pronouns, etc. from the book store because we use only the lessons on the course material and intercepts.
In the event operations module I have to do a group work with 7 other people. Now, looking back my thrustration that I won’t be participating in the written work has passed. First of all, to include eight people in decision-making is very difficult, when you’re dealing with strong willed persons. Secondly, there are no plans for group meetings and their content, which prolongs the eight people’s even more chaotic at meetings. For these reasons, I had dismantled my energy at the gym two days in a row. Maybe I had already forgotten during my training period what is was like to make group work at school.. But this will only increase the strength of character and other such noble things, right? :D
Wednesday evening we went to entertain ourselves to the mogies. We went to see a 3D version of Gnomeo and Juliet, which was to our surprise an English movie instead of American. I was wondering when there were so many songs of Elton John in the movie, but that explains a lot when the Lord's name was in the credits as the producer. It was pretty entertaining movie, but I would not buy it home or rent it for second time.
On Friday I got an email my sister. Aww how cute my sister's son was. Viewing images stirred up emotions to the surface and also some homesickness. Of course, how annoying it is to miss the first months of that fast growing little thing and everything else at home, but everything has its price, right? However, I am going home for Easter, so two and a half months away from the normal life is not overwhelming, and wasted. Niilo won’t remember how much his auntie was around for his first year of life and hopefully my brother’s kids will also remember my face when I go to visit them next time.
What else? Ha, I got my money back for the laundry card! On my visit to the laundry room this week I came across a few funny things. Firstly, some students do not know how to wash clothes. One girl wasted one quarter of an hour sifting fabrics and could not understand that light can have many shades (white, off white, light brown ....) and yes they can all be washed in the same load. Another girl had put one big bin bag of clothes into the washing machine in the morning, came to pick them up at night and put all of the same drum! And how I discovered this was when I waited in the laundry room feeling frustrated over the first quarter of an hour that someone would pick their laundry up. As no one showed up, so I walked to the office, took some bin bags and put the moldy smelling clothes in it. Over an hour later, when I waited for my load to be complete the girl finally came to pick laundry, and then she put all of them into the dryer at the same time :D My god people are smart. The third surprise was when I waited to get my clothes of the dryer and one boy asked if I'm Finnish, when I had the plastic bag of CityMarket. So that’s how, I met Jukka, a Finnish boy from my campus who had been here since autumn.
Laundry room is, therefore, kind of interesting venue I’d say.
On Saturday, we had a look at the Jewellery Quarter, which is one of our local attractions here in B-ham. In that area operates 1 500 jewelry companies. A huge amount! During the lunch break Laura also felt the shock of her life due to a language barrier with her and a Thai waitress that worked in the café :D She thought she had ordered a cheesetoast with french fries, and what she got was two pieces of cold toast and in between them the chips. The question really is who would order this? Bravely, however, she ate it all :D
Today Franzi guided us a walking tour through the city. We walked along the same streets that we have been passing for the past three weeks but now w the sights and w know the names of the places and monuments and a bit of their history. We also made a short visit to the local art museum.
In our travel plan the next trip is to Warwick, which takes place tomorrow. Warwick is a small city about half an hour away by train. As a travel planner I was able to get us discounted tickets for the Warwick castle and therefore we’re able to save about 5 pounds a head. That’s great since we can buy lunch with that money J
During lunch hours you can get two main courses for 7 pounds which is quite reasonable rate compared to Finland. Also cafés and fast food restaurants offer courses for less than five pounds. I think that’s great! I eat usually a salad or pasta in the evening at the flat and in the morning some bread and muesli. My roommates are wondering my healthy and disciplined eating habits even though I don’t regard eating salad and fruits nothing too bizarre. My weakness here is, of course, all the junk food that is served every street corner and even in school. I've noticed that here I crave more junk food than at home. Rarely, however, I purchase it.
Now I'm going to make the final preparations for the trip as I’m the travel manager :D and then I’ll hit the sack.
Fortunately, this week has been calmer, and I’ve been able to sleep almost every night!
Greetings and hugs <3
Greetings and hugs <3
