Friday-writing-day

Last weekend I went to visit my friend Marika and her boyfriend Terro in Turku. Turku is one of my favorite cities nowadays, but I think I've already written about that here before. The cool thing was however, that there was Eurocultured Turku going on. Any time I go there there is something going on. Anyway, Eurocultured was a big festival with lots of music and art. There were graffiti artists who made drawings on walls, but at the same time there was a graffiti artist who made actual paintings, there were free runners, people that played with hackysacks, there was a giant pillow you could jump on from 10 meters high, there was a rope over the river so you could 'slide' from one side to the other, basically there was so much going on that you didn't really know where to look. I had a great time and it was fun.
I'm definitely going to check out the European capital of Culture next year.

This is a picture of Turku

The Summer School is almost in Pori!! I am so excited for this. 20 American girls and 1 American guy, get to relive the SEMO-feeling, finally! There is also a girl coming, Danielle, who was the girl living next to me on campus at SEMO, and she's now going to live next to me again because we arranged for her to be in my appartment. So that's kind of ironic, but definitely fun at the same time.
The evening program for the Summer School is now made and I think the activities will be fun. But I don't want to give too much away yet, so you will find out as time goes by!

Enjoy your weekend everyone, I know I will :)

Under the weather & Pulla

There was quit some rain again this week, but the weather forecast is looking so much better now! It is becoming incredibly green outside, and from what I hear it's supposed to become even greener!

I've felt a little bit under the weather this week, so I haven't done much outside work, I've pretty much just slept. But, things at work are becoming more interesting as the Summer School is drawing closer. It has actually already started, but up in the north in Rovaniemi. The Summer School will start in Pori on Wednesday the 1st of June. There are 20-something Americans participating, so I get to relive my exchange-feeling a little bit again, redundant to say that I'm very excited! I've been left in charge of the evening program for the 2 weeks the students will be here, so that's also a pretty fun task.

This weekend I'll be going to Turku again to visit my friend Marika. There's also 'Eurocultured Turku' this weekend, which basically means that there will be lots of music and performances to go see.

The picture competition is also drawing to an end. I set the deadline for 12:00 today, so after that we will have to choose a winning picture. I think it's nice for the students that they now have a file on SAMK Intl's facebook page where they can get a 'feel of Finland'.

I'm going to have a hard time not eating Pulla anymore when I go back to the Netherlands! I pretty much eat one once a day here, they are so good! Pulla is a traditional Finnish pastry. Here's wikipedia's description for it:

Pulla (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈpulːɑ]) is a mildly-sweet Finnish dessert bread flavored with crushed cardamom seeds and occasionally raisins or sliced almonds. Braid loaves (pitko) are formed from three or more braided strands of dough. The braids may also be formed into a ring. Other types of pulla include small round ones that resemble English scones but have a sugar and butter topping, and larger cinnamon roll buns called korvapuusti. The outside typically has a shiny brown glaze, formed by a coating of egg white, milk or a mixture of sugar and brewed coffee.

I'm a fan of the round ones resembling the scones. I have decided that before I leave Finland I will learn how to bake these myself, so that I have a little piece of Finland to bring home with me :)

The grass is always greener on the other side.. Wait, I mean on this side.

This is going to be the last time that it’s going to take me so long to update the blog. From now on, I will update it at the least every week.

Pori is slowly getting greener and the sun is coming out more often. This week it was even 23 degrees at some point! The weather is becoming really, really nice.
There was a bench competition here at SAMK. Basically, everyone could come up with their design for a bench, and then a winner would be chosen and that design would actually be put on the bench. The benches got placed right outside my office, in the grass. They’re in a pretty place too; you can look at the lake and the forest. The winning design was actually from someone at my office, Päivi. There are 5 benches, a blue, yellow, red, green and an orange one. Each bench has a word on it in Finnish and in English. Joy, happiness, passion, friendship and courage. It’s a nice message, and with the weather this nice it changes my view since students go to sit there now.

My parents visited Finland a while ago. They came to Pori for a couple of days (which was probably a nice contrast for my dad, no more ice and snow!), then we went to Turku and then my parents went to Helsinki. When we were in Turku (the first weekend of May) there was a Finnish holiday going on. It is called the first of May celebration. And before that was Vappo, I’m not sure if that is how it’s called, but it involved partying and drinking and lots of happy people in the street. On the first of May the streets were completely packed! It was flooded with people. It looked really cool too, because everyone was wearing a white cap, which I think was their graduation cap. It was quite something to see. I really liked Turku as well, there was a lot to see and it gave a vibe that I’ve only felt before in London and Paris, and it even made me think of a Dutch city at times, Utrecht. I would recommend for anyone who hasn’t seen this city yet, to go visit it! I know I’m definitely going back sometime.

The Summer School is coming up! SAMK and RAMK (Rovaniemi University of Applied Sciences) organize this together yearly. Two weeks of the Summer School will be in Rovaniemi, and 2 will be in Pori. In Rovaniemi there is also a nature track in Lapland, and in Pori there is a trip to St. Petersburg, where, guess what, I get to go to too! I’ve never been to Russia, so I’m pretty excited about this trip! I’m excited about the Summer School in general, because it will be nice to have some new people around. Most of the exchange students are leaving or have left by now, since the semester has ended, and Etappi (the building where I live) is getting rather empty. My flatmate is leaving Sunday, so that’s pretty sad as well. But I had a great time with her and I’m happy we had that.

We started a picture competition here at SAMK for the exchange student. They can enter a picture that best describes their time in Finland, and the best picture wins a prize. The pictures are pretty cool, if you want to see them, sent a friend request to Samk International!

http://www.facebook.com/samk.international

Until next week :)