I'm as innocent as they come

Or at least innocent of such crimes as murder and manslaughter. How about that...

What is she rambling about this time, you wonder. Well, I received a copy of my criminal record in the mail today and now I'm just happy that the society knows I'm not a criminal. That's good. I could've told them that before, but I suppose an official stamp is needed to be sure. :)

But seriously, all of this is because I'm going to begin teaching kids under the age of 18 as a regular staff member in the junior high and high schools in Nousiainen. The law states that any person working with children (minors) has to provide this kind of document to the employer. And so I ordered one to send to the bureaucrats of my future workplace.

Of which I dream of daily now, since I'm getting really bored with talking to people who don't know how to speak up on the phone. Two guesses, everyone. Which kind of person answering the phone is the most difficult to understand?

The sleepy, the drunk and people from the Eastern parts of Finland are good guesses, but the winner in this category is teenage boys around the age of 16, approximately.

So here's a typical discussion that lasts for about 17 seconds (to make things easier for you, I've put the teenwords that have a meaning in italics):

The teen (as my computer program nicely has gotten him to come and answer the phone): "Mmmhellomummblemumble."
Me (cheery as a proper direct sales person should be): "Hello, this is My Name from The Company in Turku calling. I'd like to talk to Such And Such Person, is she available?"
The teen: "Mumbleynghmmmehno. Mommumblegruntworkungh."
Me (desperately racking my brain for the teenguy-Finnish-teenguy dictionary): "Umm, so she isn't at home at the moment? Ok, I'll call back later then. Thank you, bye."
The teen: Mruhmumble. *click*

Ferchrissakes. Teach your kids how to a-r-t-i-c-u-l-a-t-e! Or at least please do try to tell them that Finnish actually is a spoken language, not a grunted language... I think I should take my communications course students on a field trip next fall, to listen to the direct sales people and their customers. I'm sure I could get my point of good communication skills through, don't you think?

Getting medieval

This weekend has surely been one of the best ones of the summer. I've spent three days wandering around the Turku Medieval Market, enjoying the atmosphere and (ahem) spending money...

The medieval market is my absolute favorite of the summer happenings in Turku. Every year I wish I had won in the lottery and could buy all the pretty goblets and cups and swords and bows and quivers and dresses and jewellery - but alas, I don't seem to win anything. (Note to self - maybe I should buy a lottery ticket one of these days? Might make the winning part easier?) This year I happily spent a moderate amount of money, since I had had my pay day on Thursday. Good timing, I'd say.

This year's medieval shoppingspree resulted in the following. First of all I bought a beautiful sterling silver Celtic pendant, which is shaped like Arwen's Evenstar pendant from the LotR movies. I just had to. I can't afford "the real thing", in other words a replica of the movie necklace, so this was like hitting two flies at one blow. I got a pendant that looks like Evenstar, but which on the other hand also looks Celtic enough to please my eyes in any case. Very pretty.

Then I decided I'd finally do something about my less than authentic medieval dress selection and bought some fabric for a surcot. Although I usually go for anything and everything burgundy and purple, this time I chose a beautiful blue to be the main color and an equally beautiful silvery grey to be the "highlight" color. Now the only problem is whether or not I'm actually able to make the surcot. It shouldn't be too difficult, but with me and a sewing machine, you never know. (And yes, I'm cheating a bit with the authenticity - there's no way I'm not using a sewing machine!) I'll definitely have to worry about the cotte part later. I may have to ask for help with it. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm not much of a magician with the fabrics...

My last purchase will, in a way, lead to more handicrafts done by yours truly. I bought a leather arm cover for my future archery practices, you see. I would've loved to buy a grey leather quiver from this seller too (the thing was just beautiful), but since I couldn't afford to pay 65 euros for it, I bought the (way) cheaper piece of protective gear instead. Just because I can come up with some other solution for the quiver problem later, but I'd hate to have my arm all blue again like I did last summer after an unlucky shot at the Fantasy Feast... :)

And yes, here comes the resulting handicraft project. I'm finally going to go and make myself a real longbow. Whee! I hope to get it done as soon as possible (within a couple of weeks) so I can start practicing for real.

There's a real elegance to archery and I especially like watching the skilled archers who use the traditional longbows. I got really excited about this whole traditional archery stuff last summer, when we went to try out some of the weapons for the Fantasy Feast with Tytti. I loved the lot of them, the longbow, the crossbow and the really ancient spear thrower thingy. And to my utter delight I didn't suck at shooting at all! :) Especially the crossbow is relatively easy to use. But the challenge of the longbow is something else. I hope I manage to make a decent bow. I can't wait. :) Then I can have my own bow with me at next year's Fantasy Feast. Yay!

As this weekend is probably the closest thing I get to a vacation this summer, I've thoroughly enjoyed myself: lots of sunshine, meeting friends and absolutely no study related stuff to read. I was thinking about visiting the market once more today, but I'm not sure if I will after all. My legs are stiff from walking on cobble stones for four days in a row, for hours at a time and I would've liked to have some company this time, too. As on Friday we (Kirsi, Tytti, Maarit and I) went to the market all dressed up, which was fun, as usual. People kept stepping on my train and tourists took photos of us when we had stopped to talk for a while (I had my camera with me, too, but it's going to take me a while to get the whole film full, so I suggest you go and see Tytti's blog for pictures. She promised to post some later on.) and so on, but despite all of that (or maybe just because of it) the experience is so much more fun when you're properly dressed. We even had a few sellers bow to us behind their counter, because we all were wearing gowns of higher ranking ladies. Heee.

I was so born in the wrong century.

When the sun never sets

Ahh. I had a most wonderful and relaxing long weekend at mom&dad's, very quietly celebrating the midsummer festivities. We ate a lot (dad is the best cook!), drank sparkly wine called Chevaliers de Malte (how very appropriate) and talked about all kinds of stuff, ranging from the paper workers strike to my future. I enjoy those discussions a lot.

In this atmosphere it didn't even seem a bummer to study for an exam on midsummer's eve. Sitting in our terrace-turned-into-a-summer-livingroom I managed to enjoy myself immensely. When reading for the exam, it did help that the study at hand was Intellectuals in the Middle Ages, which was a very interesting little book by Jacques Le Goff. Here's a quote I liked. In it Abelard ponders about teaching and the need to understand what one wants to learn.

"...of what use, they asked, were words devoid of intelligibility? One cannot believe in what one does not understand, and it is ridiculous to teach others what neither oneself nor one's listeners cannot understand through thought."

That, my friends, is the essence of teaching! Very wise words, indeed.

A post-midsummer entry wouldn't be anything without some utterly summery pics. Unfortunately I haven't taken these myself (and they were, in fact, taken a week before the midsummer eve), but these are just beautiful. Mom and dad took these pics while they were staying over at lake Saimaa. Two of the pictures have been taken around midnight, the third shows how a thunderstorm is coming and chasing away the sun. Pretty!


See the tiny moon? And how the lake is like glass? Just beautiful.


Wouldn't you want to be there? I sure would.


On the left, sunshine and on the right, thunder.

Finnish summer at its most beautiful.

Midsummer fun

It' s time for me to shut down my computer and move my lazy bum to Nousiainen with a huge stack of books, to celebrate the midsummer festivities. Or to be more accurate, to relax, read and eat a lot of bbq food because midsummer provides a perfect excuse for it. Ahh. It's good to be Finnish. ;)

Siispä: rentouttavaa juhannusta kaikille! Ja ne teistä, jotka menevät jonnekin muun kuin kraanaveden äärelle, pitävät sitten huolta siitä, ettei vene keiku. Tai laituri katoa. Uppopalloakin leikitään sitten vain valvotuissa olosuhteissa. Nih.

I've got it again

Heee, a lot better day at work today. Luckily so, because another day like yesterday and I would've been quite ready to think about other ways of making money... :)

Well, that's not exactly true, now is it? I think of other ways of making money all the time! Too bad I don't get paid for blogging. Or sleeping. Or for studying for exams. I'd be rich already, were these three my sources of income. If they paid well, that is. *grin*

I've lost it

What a short joy it was to be able to sell mags. Today was the ultimate low point of my salesperson career. One lousy mag sold in four hours, sheesh. I've lost my golden touch or something. Boohoo. It might have had something to do with the fact that probably every single nice person was out of the reach of a phone (imagine the odds of that happening in this wonderland of Nokia...) and only the muttering, grumpy and rude people answered. And they were grumpy and rude probably because they had gotten sunburns or a heatstroke or something in the lovely weather today and they had forgotten to turn off their phones. Dumb sods.

Hopefully I can make up for my losses by selling at least 10 mags tomorrow. :) Optimism rules, even though I've had a bit of a headache for hours now (thank goodness I'm not one of the migraine suffering people, so I can cope with this ache) and today was no triumph in the telemarketing front.

However, I have to say I'm fairly happy about how the day turned out to be all in all. I found all the books for my next exam, and they seem to be very interesting, indeed. One about intellectuals in the middle ages, one about the early growth of European economy (meaning the period of seventh to twelfth centuries, which makes it more interesting than the topic seems) and one about using pictures as historical resources. I'm going to have a nice two weeks studying this stuff. I have higher hopes (and ambitions) for the result of this exam, since this is one of the last exams I'll ever have to take for my major. Whee.

And as a relating note, I have to say I did something to advance my thesis today, too. Go, me! :) I sat in the university library and read a thesis about the Finnish terminology that is appropriate when translating some of the terms that the Order of St. John uses.

It was quite useful, since there really aren't that many researches or studies about the Order available in Finnish and I've been struggling with the translations already. It's not like I can snap my fingers and come up with a credible and correct translation for a title like "a knight of magistral grace" just like that. Honestly, I can't. I'd love to, but I can't.

The Order's titles and the whole terminology is somewhat archaic and not very familiar in the context of Finnish history. Since there is virtually no chivalrous traditions as such in the Finnish history, most of the terms have never been properly translated and all kinds of terms have been used without any specific "rules". Which then makes it a problem I have to tackle before I can really get any further. Sometimes I think I would've been better off writing the darned thesis in English in the first place, but I suppose I'll have to translate it later, if need arises. :)

Oh, and more news on the same subject. Sort of. At the university today, I bumped into a professor of mine, who told me that in the fall there's probably going to be a visiting lecturer from Malta. Not only that, but this lecturer has apparently some plans that involve researching the Order of Malta and the professor thought I might like to meet this person and maybe even get involved in the project somehow! Yay! If I understood correctly, the guest lecturer is going to be someone who specializes in the history of the Order. Dear me, how I hope the professor was right and I get to meet this person.

I shouldn't get my hopes up too high, though, since this professor is very nice and helpful, but some of his plans don't actually have anything to do with reality. One of those academic oddities, hehe. However, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that this would turn out to be something I could get involved in. You never know.

Uagh, now I've gotta go and get some sleep.

Blues over a red car

I don't have a car anymore. I sold my darling today. I hate to admit it, but I feel a bit sad. It was my somewhat loyal companion for nearly ten years and now it's gone. *sigh*

On the bright side, though, it couldn't have been bought at a better moment. I can go and buy some food now, which is always good fun. Eating, that is. I can even afford an ice cream. ;) So thank you, my irritating, endearing and surprising Skoda for this last service. (Personificating a car? Who, me?)

The buyer seemed nice enough and he'd had a car like that before, so I'm fairly confident that he'll take good care of it, at least for a while. It's really, really odd how I somehow think that's important...

So, my friends, no more Therapy-Skoda services or round trips to Ruissalo beach. Services will begin again when the resources have been renewed.

I'll go and stare out of the balcony door now, feeling carless. The guy said he'd come and pick the car up in a while, but it's still there in the parking lot. *snif*

Yummy

Feeling like a good mom or housewife today. Baked some bread rolls myself. I very rarely do that, but this time I did it basically to save some money... Doesn't that sound sad? ;)

They turned out very yummy and my brother, who suddenly popped by to have a cup of coffee, ended up eating so many of them that he's probably about to burst now. Heh. Mom and dad aren't at home now, so there's no free food in Nousiainen, but at least he won't go hungry today. Aren't I a little darling feeding my brother?

Speaking of mom&dad. They're in Puumala, spending a week in a rented summer cottage by the beautiful lake Saimaa. Mom called me today and told that they've been having wonderful holiday weather up there. I'm so envious! I want to go on a holiday trip, too! To swim in a lake (ok, it's bound to be freezing cold still, but after sauna it wouldn't matter), canoe around listening to the birds singing and the water quietly splashing... I'd so love to have that option available for me right now. It'd be the relaxation I so desperately need.

Because, to be frank, I'm sick and tired of trying to study for my exam (as you can guess, I haven't been too efficient on that front), because the subject matter basically couldn't interest me less. But since I'm going to need that information when working as a history teacher, I'm forced to take the exam anyway. But I have nil motivation and just as much ambition considering the result of the exam, as long as I pass.

And what's even more annoying is that I now constantly feel like I'm wearing the headset from work. I've sold mags for ten hours this week and seriously, my ears seem to think I didn't leave the headset on the desk when I left. Annoying as heck. However, I've been getting decent income, so I suppose I'll have to count this to the hazards of work.

Ah well, I think I'd better go and try to get at least a few pages read yet. Blah, blah, blah.

Couch potato weekend

I meant to do a lot of things this weekend. Mainly study for the political sciences exam I have next Friday. Well, total pages read for the exam is less than ten at the moment, plus some 20 articles of the Finnish constitution...

I don't know what got into me, but slacking has definitely been the theme lately. What I have been doing, is watching tv. I rented a few Jude Law -movies on Friday after work and watched them. Liked both of them, too. Alfie and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, that is.

After seeing Alfie I understood why my little brother liked the movie so much. The beginning of the movie would seem to be some sort of dream life for him. Very nice clothes, beautiful ladies and so on. I think I recall him saying he'd like some of Jude's clothes - well, he could pick a worse wardrobe, if I may say so. I quite liked Jude's clothes, too. ;)

Besides the nice suits and shirts, my brother set his eyes on Alfie's Vespa. Dear me. My brother's a dandy of some sorts. Heee. Were we born in a different era, I suppose he'd be the little lord entertaining a huge society and I'd be the older sister, who never gets married and settles down for a life of teaching history or something rather to my younger relatives.

Oh wait. That's us right now. The only thing missing is that I don't live off his income and the kids that I teach aren't of any relation to us. Duh.

Well, what can I say. He's my brother and I love him. Even though he knows half of the population of Turku and has money to buy nice tailored shirts and so on. I'll get to that point by the time I'm 60. By then I've taught so many kids in my life that I'm bound to bump into some of them all the time. Hopefully I'll have money to buy expensive clothes then, too. I don't think I should count on that, though, considering the salaries of teachers in Finland...

I digress. Sky Captain turned out to be a bit more interesting than what I had expected. I had heard some comments that weren't exactly praising, but as I said already, I did eventually like the movie. Sure, the plot was a wee bit thin (ahem), but I found the visual look very fascinating. The old film noir sort of style combined with a distinctively cartoonish visuals made the look of the film refreshingly different.

Hopefully I'll get something done about everything tomorrow. Because now I'll go and be a slacker to the end, since Spielberg's Taken is on tv right about now and I don't want to miss the beginning. Catch you all later. :)

Hooray for the victorious me!

You have to forgive me for ranting about my work once more. I just have to boast a bit. I won the competition for selling 20 mags! I set out to sell nine mags today, and by gosh, I did it. Me, stubborn? Me, goal-oriented? Me, motivated by money? Heck yes. ;) Now I'm just going to wait for my gift certificate, whee!

Having said that the following test result may seem a bit out of place. But I can explain it. I'm usually like Yoda or Qui-Gon, but on some nights at work I seem to find my inner Watto...

Why water in the bathroom isn't always a good thing

Problems with water today. Problems with everything but work today. In other words, a pretty lousy day today. "Blech" is the word to describe my feelings before work. Or maybe "blaah". Or possibly "yngh".

So why is water a problem in the bathroom? It's a good question and the answer is: the problem is the location of the water. You know you have a problem, when the paint in the ceiling bulges and feels like a water balloon. With water inside it, duh. Yup, my bathroom ceiling did just that today. Fun, fun.

Luckily it's none of my doings, but my new upstairs neighbours are the ones to blame. They're renovating their apartment and apparently they had managed to burst some kind of pipe somewhere, which then resulted in water seeping into all kinds of wrong places. Like under the paint in my ceiling, under the paint in the hallways downstairs and so on. Which then, most likely, results in renovating in my apartment.

I have thought about how nice it would be to renovate my bathroom, but to be honest, I didn't plan on doing it right now. If I'm lucky, all that needs to be done is to dry the ceiling and repaint it, but if I'm not lucky, the walls need to be redone, too. On the other hand, were that the case, I'd get the expenses paid by the insurance company of my neighbours, right? Not altogether a bad deal, either... ;) Ah, well, I don't think the watery accident was that serious, so I'll just get a newly painted ceiling, then.

Talked about the whole situation with my downstairs neighbours (who I know from the Uni, too) and we ended up pondering what kind of thick-headed morons the board of this apartment building consists of, because someone (with very little or no brain capacity at all) did make the decision that the small useless hallway balconies (the ones that are very rarely used when someone is dusting their carpets like once a year) were fixed last fall, but the pipes in the building are still the original ones from the sixties. It'll be a lot more expensive job, when the water pipes totally fall apart and have to be fixed after we all get that nice watery & floaty feeling in our apartments. Sure I like to canoe and swim, but I'd rather go outside for it...

Oh well. The neighbours responsible for the damage did already inform us that the inspectors from their insurance company will come and evaluate the damage. I hope this isn't going to be a difficult case and I get my bathroom fixed. I don't want to end up with a moldy wall. Not good for your health, moldy walls.

I wouldn't have thought that selling mags on the phone would be the thing to cheer me up today. But oddly enough, it was. I got some nice customers and even some nice customers who bought something. Whee. I'm apparently doing pretty well in the job, because even before I had started today's shift I was offered a possibility to continue in the firm later in the fall, too. I kindly said "No thanks", because I'll get a steady pay from teaching from August on and shouldn't be needing extra income. However, if this selling thing turns out to pay reasonably well, who knows when I'll need more money. If I don't get any courses in the spring, I might consider returning to the telemarketing business. I might. I could work silly-long days and save up for a vacation or something... :)

I'm only 9 orders away from winning the gift certificate for 20 euros, which was set as a prize in a competition for us beginners to motivate us. I'm thinking I'm going to sell those nine mags on Wednesday and get me some money to buy food with! :) Yay. I just have to hope that this isn't just a fluke and that I can keep up the steady sales.

Life is really odd sometimes. It really, really is. Not in a million years would I have thought I could be blogging about telemarketing in a positive way. And what do you know, here I am, doing just that. I suppose stranger things could happen, but I can't think of any right now. No, wait, I can. But what are the odds of me bumping into, say, Mr. Dream Guy tomorrow? Slim to none, I'd say. I think it's more likely that I get those nine mags sold on Wednesday. *sigh*

What does that tell you about my life? Well, not much, really. ;)

Oddities of life

I'd say I'm a fairly happy person. I'm not saying my life is perfect, but whose is? I'd say I'm content with my life as it is, most of the time, but I wouldn't mind if some things were to turn for the better. But it's not like I go around wailing and whining about being miserable, because I'm not. Miserable, that is.

However, once again, I was reminded by dreams that I may be missing out on something. I dreamt I was in love. Seriously, madly and completely in love. I'll spare you from the details of the dream (there weren't that many to begin with), because they aren't the point. The point of the dream for me was the wonderful warm feeling I had in the dream (I think I was quite recently fallen in love in the dream, which probably made the feeling even more warm, knowing how I react in such a situation). I was accepted as I am and I was so proud to have a significant other who was kind, loving and well, yes, handsome. I'm sure he had all kinds of other great qualities too, otherwise I wouldn't have loved him so much, but unfortunately, the dream was a bit short, so I didn't get to know the guy too well... :)

It's really been way too long ago when I felt anything like I did in that dream in real life. I don't fall for anyone too easily, but from the few times I've really had a serious crush on someone, I can vaguely remember what it felt like and this was that and then some. I miss the feeling, to be honest. And however odd it might sound, I think I miss the feeling I've never had for real. Or maybe the proper term would be "to long for" instead of "to miss", but somehow it doesn't really describe how I feel about the whole thing. Or something...

I don't really mind being single (as I've probably said before), because I like to do things my way and sometimes I think I'm too busy to even think about a relationship, but there are moments I wished things were a bit different. I still don't go about my life whining and wailing about the miseries of single life (when I do, I'm either very tired, hungry or in the worst case, both), but the occasional reminder of the additional happiness there is to be found in this world tend to make me feel a bit blue.

Having the blues isn't the worst part of it, though. The worst part is that sometimes I wonder if I'm too stuck with my own routines already and if there ever was a budding relationship, I'd panic and flee from the situation. I suppose I'm slowly becoming very, very skeptic about ever finding that dream guy from the waking world. I haven't given up hope, that's not it, but somehow I just don't see me writing wedding invitations in the near future - nor in the more distant future either, for that matter.

It'll be a happy day when I can proove to myself that I was wrong about all of this and that there was a real version of that dream guy after all, but until then, don't be holding your breath. ;) It won't be a fun wedding if I'm freshly out of the blues but half of my guests are blue ad infinitum. So the deal's this, you breath, I breath. No one stays blue. Ok?

Enough of that for now. I'm going to finish up with two things that I found odd or just plain curious today. First of all, and this is the oddest thing by far, I think I'm getting the hang of the whole telemarketing thing. So far I've sold 5 orders for different mags in about 2 hours of calling. I'm told that's a pretty good average. In any case I'm the "top seller" of us beginners, who have just begun working at this firm. Whee! And in addition to being able to actually sell something on the phone, I'm finding out it's actually somehow fun to talk to people. I'm guessing it can be a bit addictive on a good day. I never thought I'd be caught alive saying this, but here it is. I think I can be a good salesperson, too. Odd, odd, odd.

The other thing was just a fun detail I found out when (ahem) surfing the net for information on KoH's Hospitaller (you remember, my favorite character after Balian), David Thewlis. It turns out he lives in Clerkenwell, London, on the exact site where the 12th century priory of the Order of St. John (a.k.a. the Hospitaller Order or later the Order of Malta) was. That's also the place I'd need to go to do some research in the Order's archives. So if I ever get to go to Clerkenwell, as I'm sure I will, I may bump into Mr. Thewlis, too. Heeee. I could ask him a ton of questions about the making of the movie and how he prepared for the role. Not that I'd really dare to bother him with such questions, I think I'd be trying to be the "cool Finn" and not fuss about seeing a famous actor and definitely not intrude upon his privacy by doing anything at all... :) But it's a fun thought. Besides, I have already had lunch with Neil Gaiman, so I guess I should be thinking anything's possible.

Humm. Aren't I contradicting myself now by saying that? ;) Ah, the moment I learn to apply all these important principles in all of my life, I'll be the best possible sample of perfect happiness there ever was.

Bah.

The person who was going to come and buy my car sent me a message saying he'd bought a camera instead... So no new shoes for me, because most people will rather use their 250 euros to buy a new cell phone or a camera instead of an old Skoda. What kind of priorities are those, I ask you? Bah, bah.

Yikes!

Oh dear me. Looks like I'm going to have to part with my dear car tomorrow. I got a message from a potential buyer asking me if the car could be picked up tomorrow evening. And that was about it, the person didn't even ask me too much about the condition of the car or anything. Just if he (or she, I don't actually know since the phone number was registered to a firm's name) could pick it up tomorrow. Yikes.

Fine by me, I thought. If he ends up buying it, I'm going to ask him to pay me right away in cash and that way I can actually go and buy a new pair of shoes for my cousin's graduation party, which is on Saturday. I'm just going to have to try and not cry when he drives away in, well, his car... I knew my sentimental feelings about the darned thing would make me hate to sell it, even if I know it's the sensible thing to do. *sigh*

Lots of other stuff going on, too. I had a nice and hectic weekend, which included providing a bed and breakfast service to my cousin, who was in town to take the entrance exam for the medical schooling. She said she didn't intend to get in this year, she just wanted to see the exam, so she could study better for next year. We had a good time (in fact, she was with me at the movies on Friday and felt equally amazed by RotS as I did).

On Saturday evening it was time for TSFS's spring party, this time with a theme of Fantastic Inn. There was a reasonably nice crowd (there could've been more, as the rent of the medieval cellar we had set our Inn in, is somewhat larger than our budget normally tolerates) and lots of nice and interesting discussions were had. About Star Wars, about Kingdom of Heaven, about the Fantasy Feast weekend for next year and about amusement parks, among other things.

Amusement parks were a current topic for me, because yesterday I got to go to Särkänniemi (an amusement park in Tampere) with Maarit and her coworkers & their families. All expenses (the bus ride and the entry to the park) paid. A nice day, even though it was cold as heck and I didn't go to more than two rides. I'm ridiculously afraid of all the movers and shakers that twist you around and hurl you upside down or whatever. I barely made it through the ordinary rollercoaster ride without screaming too much. I think I only yelped once and not too loudly, either. :) I just don't enjoy the idea of being thus tortured, I have good enough time if I watch others get strapped into the most different kinds of hurricane/tornado/twister/whathaveyou machines and listen to them scream their lugns out. I don't need to do that to feel alive or anything. Maarit, on the other hand, was happy enough to try out the scariest rides, like the one that was called Trombi, which was basically a rollercoaster ride with multiple loops and twists, with everyone strapped into a seat that lets your feet hanging in the air. It scared the bejeezes out of me just watching...

However, I was more than happy about being invited to go with Maarit, because I got to see the dolphins and that was the best part by far anyway. I hadn't seen the dolphins perform in probably something like 15 years. The oldest dolphin is my age! They were just beautiful. I'd love to see free dolphins some day, preferably somewhere tropical, where I could go swimming with the cute creatures. I did envy the little boy, who got to go pet the dolphins by the poolside, just a little bit. I was never chosen as a volunteer to do that when I was a kid - I'm ever bitter about that...

Today was the first day of work for me. Or actually, the first evening of training for the job. The people seemed nice enough and I think I can actually manage selling mags for two months. We were told that we'd be making our first customer calls on Wednesday. Yikes, indeed. The guys who are basically our bosses sounded like they could sell you white sand in the Sahara. I don't know if I'd ever be that good, but at least the firm has some good motivational tools. There are bikes, phones and digicameras etc. to be won in the company competitions. I think I could use a digicamera! I just have to get as many Donald Duck -magazines sold as possible. :)

Well, I'm off to read my wonderful new book. It finally came in the mail today. "Kingdom of Heaven": The Ridley Scott Film and the History Behind the Story, yay! Maybe I'll also read a chapter or two of the next Horatio Hornblower novel I began reading yesterday on the bus. I have some maritime terms to re-learn, that much I noticed already. :)

Stuff nightmares are made of

One word for you. Lava.

The ultimate scare for me. I dread even the thought of molten rock, just like I dread any thought of anything extremely hot and dangerous. Say, fire. I enjoy sitting by a campfire or a candle-lit room, but "wild" fire and burning hot metal or anything like that - not my part of the woods.

Luckily, no nightmares last night. Even though I saw plenty of ultra-scary lava flowing around and even burning a person up. *shivers*

Oh yes, I saw Star Wars Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith yesterday. OMG. I don't even know where to start unraveling the experience.

I think George Lucas really did what he was expected to - he tied the new movies and the original trilogy quite nicely together and delivered some seriously dark stuff into the saga.

How my heart broke for Anakin and his fall to the dark side. I felt so sorry for him, because he was so cleverly lured into a situation where he saw as his only chance to bow down to the Emperor. Ah, the angst, the angst!

I think I need to see this one again, to sort out my thoughts. (Although I wouldn't necessarily want to see all that lava again on a big screen...) But here are some odds and ends, random thoughts, if you like. Some spoilers ahead, be warned.

I did think Yoda kicked some serious butt in this one, but then again, he's always been a favorite of mine, along with young Obi-Wan. I did love the final scene where Luke is given to his aunt and uncle and they watch the twin suns - one of my favorite scenes from the original trilogy is the one, where Luke watches the same suns. Such a nice reference there. I didn't think the love between Anakin and Padmé was very convincingly portrayed, but on the other hand I think Anakin's struggle and fall was more convincing than I had hoped for.

I did like that Yoda explained with just one sentence how Qui-Gon had learned something very nifty... I could've cried my eyes out (I barely managed not to, btw) when it became apparent what Anakin would do to the younglings hiding in the jedi council room. I liked the fact that in the beginning of the movie, there were a few spots of lighter humour (I've always liked R2-D2, and I thought the adventures he had, were pretty funny) before all started to go seriously wrong.

It was nice to see Alderaan. And the other new planets. The sceneries were simply breath-taking. Wow.

My legs were a bit shaky when I got out of the theatre yesterday. Today I wore an old t-shirt to gym, with "The Force is strong with this one" printed on the back of the shirt, just to celebrate the event of seeing real Star Wars again. An absolute favorite of the new movies, most definitely.

I'm done

Ahhh. One round of history prep course teaching finished. Yay!

I got excellent feedback from my students and I think it's going to be enough to get me the highest possible salary! Whee! Not that it'll solve all my money problems, but it's a start. :) And it really feels good that the kids thought I was a good and motivating teacher.

Now I've got some finishing touch-ups to do, mail the feedback forms and the books back to the office, fill in some other forms and so on. All in all a very interesting experience. Very stressfull, but fun nevertheless. I'm hoping next year at least one or two of the books are the same, so I'd have my materials all ready and done. But knowing the people and the ways of the history department, they'll probably choose all new books for next year and nothing I've done for this course will help me at all come the next batch of prep course students. Oh well, at least I'll have more time to prepare next time, since the books will be announced quite early on in the year and I can begin reading them well in advance.

But for now, no teaching for a while sounds like a relaxing scenario. :) Although I'm going to Nousiainen today to talk with the principals of the two schools I'm hopefully going to be teaching at next fall. It'll be interesting to see how my career begins. Apparently I may end up with a special course in legal stuff for 9th graders, so I've heard. That'd be interesting and challenging, because it's something I've never taught before for real. I'm not exactly sure what is involved in that course, but I'm thinking consumer awareness, family related issues, some basics of the criminal justice system and so on. Could be very interesting, indeed.

But I think I need to be getting on my way. I need to go and try to wake up my car - I haven't had time to drive it anywhere in three weeks or so, and I'm a bit worried how our cooperation will go. Nobody has wanted to buy it yet, sigh.

Edit: Almost didn't get the car running. Eventually (after about 10 minutes of struggling) my precious worked just fine. Found out in Nousiainen that in addition to the four Finnish courses I'm going to be teaching (including the extra fun course on communication) to high school students, I'm going to get four junior high history courses, too! Yay! I'm so excited! :)

Did you remember to bring your drums?

I watched the annual Eurovision Song Contest last night with my friend (and dance teacher) Heli, who was staying over at my place over the weekend. We thought we wouldn't watch the whole program, since with the voting results the show went on till 1.20 a.m. and we didn't think we'd be interested enough to stay awake.

Funny things happen, it turned out. We did stay up till the winner was announced, but not because we would've been very enthusiastic about any particular song (in other words, none of the songs was as catchy as last years Wild Dance by Ruslana) but mainly because we were so baffled.

What the hell was that show all about? About ladies singing ethnic / oriental songs in skimpy dresses, background dance groups and (ethnic) drum sections of variable sizes. I think half of the performers had some kind of ethnic drum set with them on stage. The exceptions to the rule seemed to be so few, that we couldn't help but wonder whether some of the performers felt embarrassed at all. *a song contestant to a staff member backstage pointing to a pile of darbukas, tablas, bodhrans and whathaveyou* "Erm, umm, you see, umm, we have those, eh, drums back there and we, you know, need them there, on stage. But our drums are, erm, different from the previous four sets of drums, and that's why we need our own. We're original, you see. Not copying anyone. Uh. Could you just help us?"

You know, we didn't really have that much to complain about, really. We're both, Heli and I, oriental dancers who liked the ethnic and oriental influences, but didn't you think there were just a few too many Ruslana/Shakira-wannabes last night? And how were you supposed to tell them apart from each other? Why did Greece win when Great Britain got a miserably low score, even if the song seemed to be made of exactly the same elements?

Ah, well. It was delightful to see, though, that the Maltese lady (she had a marvellous voice) did so well, since she didn't have ethnic drums or dancing girlies with her on stage. And talking about a different kind of performance - that Norwegian glamrock group was just beyond words. I'm not the least bit surprised that the lame and unremarkable song Finland had as a candidate this year didn't make it into the final. The Finns need to take a step toward a more bold direction. I do wonder what would've happened a few years back if Nightwish had indeed been chosen to represent Finland...

I still think Ruslana's Wild Dance rocks so hard, this year's winner hasn't got any of the primal fury and energy that makes it impossible for me to stay still. Too bad.

One set of essays down, two more to go. I may be able to do this before Tuesday evening after all... *knock on wood*

Kingdom of Heaven revisited

It was even better the second time around. :) A second time watching a grand scale movie like this on the big screen is always fun because of the details you didn't notice on the first time around. Personally, I just loved to sink into the atmosphere of the movie, drink in the beauty of the scenery, the tragedy of the story and well, krhm, enjoy the eye candy that is so nicely offered by Orlando. ;)

Here's my list of 15 favorite moments / things from the movie. I took the idea from dangermousie (who actually listed 20 favorites, I'm settling for a bit less), I couldn't comment on her post before I had seen the movie twice myself. So here goes, in no particular order.

1. the character of Salah ad-Din
The intensity of his eyes is mezmerizing. And his figure, when he walks into Jerusalem is just powerful, in a quiet and wise sort of way.

2. the last wave of hand the Hospitaller gives to Balian before riding into the battle of Hattin
I had tears in my eyes. It's the last time Balian sees the wise Hospitaller alive. I became quite attached to his character. Not only because I'm partial to Hospitallers anyway, but because he's just an admirable Knight, who's got a sensible view of his faith and the situation in Jerusalem.

3. the Hospitaller crossing the stream hiding behind the galloping horse in the battle in the French woods
Well, as I just said, I liked the character and this is one of the moments when he shows he's not only a quiet, philosophical medicine man, but also a skilled warrior. And how he pats Balian with his sword when riding by and then turns and bows ever so slightly. Ah, perfect.

4. the very first cut to Balian's face when he has returned to France
A look to die for. So full of emotion.

5. when Ibelin's men recognise Balian as their new baron and they bow in front of him
I'm such a sucker for such little gestures of chivalry. "Come this way, my lord." Ah, ah, ah.

6. Balian's men riding into battle in Kerak
First they ride side by side, then they form two lines, which then divide into two fronts that are overwhelmed by the moslem cavalry. The aerial view over the battle is breathtaking.

7. the surrender of Jerusalem
The whole scene from the white flag to the moment when Balian asks what Jerusalem is worth and Salah ad-Din replies: "Nothing. - - Everything." Which by the way is one of my favorite Salah ad-Din moments, too.

8. the Templars and their warcry "God wills it!"
Deus lo vult - hasn't been heard in centuries and made shivers go down my spine. Especially when at one point one of the moslem warriors utters the exact same thing. Isn't it madness?

9. the Hospitallers and their hospital
Just because. :)

10. Balian's determined and (ahem) manly gait at any point when he wears Ibelin's / Jerusalem's colors
A completely fangirlish fave. I think all men should have coat of arms and a cloak every once and a while - it seems to do miracles to the manner they walk around. :)

11. Baldwin IV: "I am Jerusalem."
Very powerful.

12. Sibylla's coronation gown
Wow. Her clothes and jewellery were amazing at any time - what I did ponder was how the big hoods of her cloaks stayed on when she was galloping around on that beautiful horse of hers...

13. Balian riding to catch up with his father in France
The scene is very beautifully filmed. The desperate gallop over the fields, the road in the forest, the light snow fall... One of the most esthetically pleasing moments in the movie.

14. Godfrey asking for forgiveness from Balian
You can see he's not really comfortable doing it, but nevertheless, he's determined to say what he came to say.

15. Balian kneeling down to be knighted by his dying father
You didn't think I was going to get through my favorite moments without mentioning at least one kneeling, now did you? :) This is, without a doubt, one of the teariest moments of the movie for me. Chivalry and nobility just ooze from it.

So there's my fifteen. I sure could've listed at least those five additional fave moments (like the one where a single moslem rider appears in the dark before the battle in Jerusalem and his sword shines in the night) , but I'm thinking this post is about as long as it should be. (These are the situations in which I actually would like to have the cut-feature that lj has...)

Now I'm left eagerly waiting for the director's cut to come out on dvd! Let it be soon!

Unfortunately, what will come sooner, are the essays that my students are writing at the moment in the rehearsal exam. That'll be the rest of my weekend. Grading, grading.

Whee!

I'm done! Or at least almost done! :) Today was the last actual lesson for the Eximia students and now I'm left with a pile of essays to grade and Tuesday's review to plan. But compared to everything I've already done, it's not too bad.

I'm actually going to have a 5-day "vacation" next week after I'm completely done with the history course and before I begin at the new place. Ah. I'm going to un-clutter my desk, which at the moment looks like a huge mountain of miscellaneous papers, books, cd's and stuff ready to fall all over me when I least expect them to. I'm going to clear space for my research materials so I can continue working on the big T. :)

Then I'm going to finish editing the second Spin of the year, answer loads of emails that I haven't had the time to concentrate on (more short story submissions and even a request for my fandom information for some international sf-fanlisting - how odd is that?) and maybe even go to the movies to see Episode III.

I can't even read some people's blogs/lj's at the moment, because I don't want to be too spoiled when I get there. Sure I know already that I'm going to have terrible nightmares about volcanoes after seeing the movie, but I'm not willingly going to find out more, not quite yet. After skimming through a few reviews and hearing a few opinions, I'm getting more excited all the time.

What else am I going to do with all the free time on my hands? Humm. I'm getting a haircut, because mom was kind enough to be my sponsor for the event. I'm going to hope that the weather forecast was spot on, because it said next week might see temperatures rising up to 25 degrees! Yay! Summer!! I might go out to the park to read my research books in the sun. That'd be nice.

I think that about covers all the free time I'm going to have... :)

No life without wife

Today I bumped into an absolutely delightful piece of movie entertainment. I had had good hopes for Gurinder Chadha's Bride and Prejudice, but I was very happily surprised when the movie was even better than I had hoped for.

When I first heard of a Bollywood version being made of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice, I immediately decided I had to see it. Preferably with Satu, who I share a common Austen past from our days in high school and a common taste in good music that makes us both want to dance. And what a good decision it was! We both left the movie theatre with wide smiles on our faces, humming the tunes and enthusing about the lovely saris and jewellery.

The movie was delightfully well adapted from the original text and worked well in Indian surroundings. But after teaching about the Western colonialistic view over the Orient (which ever Orient...) only a week ago on my history course, I couldn't help noticing how cleverly the director used those themes in the movie. There's Mr Darcy, who's a wealthy American who comes to India and doesn't give the Indian culture the chance to show what it can offer to a Westerner. Lalita Bakshi (Elizabeth Bennet Bollywood-style) even comments on it, and quite sharply too, when she says she thought India had already gotten rid of imperialists... A point well made.

The funniest and in many ways the most absurd situation of the movie was when the roles of different (movie) cultures were turned upside down. Will Darcy and Lalita are walking down a beach in the States when the traditional Bollywood trick of bursting into song and dance happens. What a scene! Suddenly the Californian surfers and the life guards from their "Baywatch" tower run forward to join the song. To top it all, the couple wanders ahead and suddenly there's a huge church choir of black singers (you know, with the robes and all) singing "Take them to love". Talking about stereotypes and making fun of them!

I couldn't stop laughing. Partly because I recognised how my brain worked: I immediately thought how absurd the scene was when it was set in Los Angeles (and how totally terrifying it would be if it really happened - I'd run screaming if I saw a blue-robed choir approaching me on a beach) and partly because it was just plain hilarious.

After I got home, I did a bit of googling and ended up downloading some of the songs for myself. Balle Balle and the other songs (like No Life Without Wife, which was spot on defining the requirements for a good husband) from the movie are now the first Bollywood songs I have on my computer. I've always found Indian music to be a lot of fun, but for some reason I haven't gone through the trouble of finding any to listen to at home. Maybe I'll get a load of good tips from vierran45 now! *hint, hint* ;)

Exhaustion...

Small miracles do happen. Like the one that let me get through the day. I was so sure at 8 a.m. that I wouldn't be able to do everything I was supposed to and yet, lo and behold, I'm done.

I don't enjoy days like this a whole lot. I don't know if anyone does, but I sure don't. Days, when I'm too busy to eat and end up feeling soddin' awful because of it. Days, when I simply know there's too much to do within, say, 6 hours. Days, when I'm happy to be done with it, but when I have a nagging feeling I didn't do too well.

Blah. I most certainly am not completely satisfied with my work today. It probably has more to do with the fact that I'm basically starving and somewhat sleep deprivated than it has with my actual success today. Blah, blah, blah.

On the bright side, I now have only one more lesson left of the course (plus the review) and some of my students are writing pretty good essays by now. Good for them!

On an even brighter side - KoH soundtrack arrived today! Whee! I've been listening to it on constant repeat and it's so good! I love the more meditative, medieval-ish choir pieces and the light touch of oriental rhythms here and there, the songs that are more clearly of oriental origin... And Ibelin's theme (both versions of it, actually) is just beautiful!

Music can be such a strong mood setter. (Stating the obvious here, duh...) I literally was holding back tears when I heard the first songs for the first time today. Then again, that's nothing noticeably odd for me, since I tend to be a bit over-sensitive about a lot of things. Music being one of those things.

I think I've become definitely more sensitive about music and the peculiar kind of storytelling effect of music after I started dancing. I can't remember ever being so moved by music before I began to try and express the music through dancing. I don't know if it really has anything to do with it, but it could.

Actually, it must have something to do with it, because now I very easily "see" music as movement. Especially anything with an oriental influence or a strong rhythm in it. I did start planning a choreography to the above-mentioned Ibelin's theme already... :) But just because I need to change my solo music for next year's performance of our latest dance recital. The one where I'm Fikriya. Remember those pictures a while back? :)

As a fangirlish afterthought - it'll be nice to dance to Balian's themesong... Teeheee.

Which would nicely bring me to comment on the ponderings Tytti and Mari have posted in their blogs lately, but I think I'm too tired to analyze my fangirly sentiments about Orlando or any other stunning male actor in a very academic manner at the moment.

Wow. This must be real exhaustion. I'm too tired to rant about gorgeous guys? Dear me, I never would've thought the day would come...

First day of summer

Ahh, how I love the blue sky and the sun! Today was, in my opinion, the first day of summer. Or at least the most summery day of the spring so far. I began my summer season by buying ice cream from the ice cream stand that has been brought back to the familiar corner by the park some weeks ago. As surely as the disappearance of that little stand was the sign of approaching winter, the first ice cream cone bought is always a sign of summer. :)

A good, although busybusy, day today. First there was the job interview. I don't know how much of it was a formality, but at least I got the job. I'm fairly happy about it. Only fairly happy, because I would've rather worked at a museum of some kind this summer, but happy nonetheless. I've now got a job that has very flexible working hours (I'm only required 48hrs of work a month, but am allowed to do more) , which allow me to dedicate time for my thesis and have a little bit of free time, too. Sure, I don't get paid much, but I'm positively sure I can sell some mags and therefore will be entitled to at least some bonuses. Besides, I'm there for only two months and in the fall I'm going to be doing what I actually want to do - so I can cope.

Had the fifth lesson with the history students today. Finished the second book. Phew. Poor kids, though. First they had to write down about 8 pages of notes from each other's transparencies (I had them do some independent studying and made them teach for a while) and then I slammed them with a pile of 11 transparencies... I felt a bit sorry for them, but I had to get all of the stuff covered.

Next week we're plunging into the history of Finland during the autonomy period. For me, this'll be the least exciting subject to teach, but at least it's older Finnish history and not modern political history. That'd be a killer. Three more regular lessons and one for final feedback and revision. Yay. :) Things are looking good.

A bit of fangirlish nonsense here at the end. I've got to get to the movies to see KoH again! The sooner the better. Dangermousie has just been fuel to the flames, so to say. Not that I mind it in the least. I've so needed the laughs and fangirly giggles (and bunch of other feelings better left unmentioned) her recent postings on KoH have provided for. Dear mother of all creation, how can there be a man that is as gorgeous Orlando? (Yes, yes, I feel a comment coming from Tero's direction, but oh well, that's a risk I'm willing to take.) Or as gorgeous as Ioan, for that matter. Having pondered this for a while yesterday, I put together a screensaver that has nothing but pictures of those two in it. Makes it reeally easy to blankly stare the screen for a few minutes just waiting for the screensaver to kick in. :) I think I have to cheer myself up a bit more and add a few pictures here to finish up a good day.


A nekkid knight, mmm.


A snowy knight with a bit too much clothing...


And, krhm, a white knight? Oh, heck, a drop-dead-gorgeous specimen of male hawtness...


More hawtness in soft earth tones, this time. *sigh*

As I've said before, I so want to see these two men in the same movie one of these days! *swoon*

What a difference a night (and half a day) makes

It has been demonstrated once again how sleep reduces panic. Last night I was about ready for desperate measures because of all the work piling on my desk. As a result I had an angst attack about the lessonplans and decided I should calm myself down by grading essays... I was able to stay up reading and grading till 1.30 a.m. (I didn't say I was very smart about the schedule, now did I?) and got that stuff sorted out.

Slept a while (not too calmly, though) and in the morning my thoughts were running much more smoothly. Ergo, lessonplans and everything done in just a few hours. Go me.

Getting copies was the tricky part today. I ended up buying my transparency copies from a local copying firm, and that was a shock. The prize on those copies!! Three times as expensive as at the university. (All the university places were closed for some reason.) And naturally infinitely more expensive than the free copies I'd get through the copying firm in friggin' Espoo. But I just don't get stuff done early enough anymore to use their services. A bummer. Argh.

And then. Within a few days now I've found out that none of my job applications for this summer have resulted in a job interview. Blah. In desperation I filled out an electric form today for a local telemarketing firm, applying for an evening job for the summer. I need some income and I think talking on the phone would beat some other possible odd jobs out there. Besides the firm seems to have a bonus for its workers, free gym time at my regular gym. Great. I'm having visions of getting fit, writing a thesis and working in the evenings this summer. (Alas, no vacationing is included in this vision...)

For the story to be oddly positive, I do have to mention they called me from that firm a while ago. I think this was even faster than the process with Eximia. So I'm going for a job interview tomorrow morning. How funny is that? Yet, however I think about it, I have to admit that little income beats no income, so I'm going to go and be all about telemarketing tomorrow. At least I can always think about the fall and the wondrous moment I can actually begin as a regular (although part-time) teacher in Nousiainen.

Now if I only got my car sold (no one wants to buy my precious, boohoo) and managed to get that job tomorrow, then my life would be one notch further away from utter desperation and panic... :)

Three down, six more to go

Of my classes, that is. Today's class, I thought, went well. We began discussing the required reading for general history, the book about diseases in human history. So I began the class with the dawn of humanity, some 4 million years ago. At a steady pace I advanced waaay up till the invention of agriculture and a bit further than that. So, having covered about 4 million years of pre-history and history in less than three hours, I'm content. Next challenge will be less in years but more in "stuff going on", as we proceed to the times AD.

I'm thinking some of the students may like me after all. :) No, not that I really were seriously afraid that they wouldn't, but at least two of them were brave enough to come and talk with me after class. One young man was interested in the Templars and Hospitallers and other pieces of history of the chivalric orders. I was so glad I could actually give him some solid answers. He had seen KoH, too, and we even talked about it for a while. A nice young fellow, I wish he is accepted in the Uni. The second student that stayed behind was a very active and nice young lady. Turns out she's just about as nuts about things medieval as I am. I hope she gets in, too. (Well, I hope all my 13 students get in, naturally!)

It was nice to talk to them without the "pressure" of the teacher's role. It's a bit different from how I can interact with students in highschool. For these two students I could be a fellow history buff after the class, not having to uphold the serious tone of teaching. For a highschool student I am, in all situations, a teacher. And that's fine, goes with the job description. But this was really nice. I'm happy that these two found me approachable enough to come and ask me questions about "extra-curricular" areas of history.

Well, tomorrow there's no class. But I have at least one set of lessons to plan and one batch of essays to grade. So enough of work for one day (and then some), for sure. And I seriously need to get to the gym, too.

The one word that describes my being now is hectic. So much going on. Unfortunately, it's going to get a lot slower in a month or so. I just found out that I'm most likely going to have to spend all of my summer without work (or, without any work that pays anything). It's actually both good and bad. I so need a break from everything and I so need time to work on my thesis. I'd like to see it almost finished when schools begin in the fall. Which would mean a lot of work during the summer. Without any income, which is very bad indeed... Yikes. I need to do some thinking about all of this, though. We'll see. I've got too much work now to worry about what happens in three weeks' time. :)

Now I'll go and watch Angel, he's on tv now and I've already missed half an episode. (I've seen it before, but so what. It's a good season of Angel, this last one.) Ta ta.

Prep course ponderings

It's over, the first prep course lecture, that is. I have absolutely no idea how it went. I felt at ease in front of the students (as I should've known I would, instead of being afraid of those horrid nightmare scenarios I had these past few nights) and I had plenty of stuff for them to do and for me to lecture. Turned out that there were 13 students instead of 11 on the course. A good size for a prep course group.

But the blankness of some of those kids' faces. I just don't know if anything I taught them sank in. If they actually understood my explanations for some of the terms used in the research - worst cases being the terms "discourse" and "text" within the context of this particular research. This is the first time most of them face a historical research and it's essential that they understand what I'm talking about. I suppose I'll see what's brewing in their brains when they turn in their first essays on Monday. I don't know what to expect.

There were few active ones, just like Tytti has been saying about her group, but quite a few who didn't utter a word after I had asked them their name and the reason why they wanted to study history.

Most common reason seems to be "I don't know", btw. Most of them said they didn't know exactly why, but some were clearly history buffs from the days of their elementary schooling. There was even a young man, who claimed that the Middle Ages are so awesome! He's my favorite already. :) But also a few, who had only just decided that they wanted to study history. Interesting mix. I'm thinking those who had just decided, will need the course the most.

Well, I suppose I'll have to wait and see how the students are on Monday, when they already know my face and have had the whole weekend to relax. Erm, then again, maybe not. I gave them a load of homework to do and half a book to revise for that class... Nah, they have the whole weekend. They'll have lot less time when I give them their homework on Monday, to be turned in on Tuesday... ;)

No rest for the wicked, it seems . I'm also going to have to work like a madwoman till Monday. I have to finish at least two or three sets of lessonplans and essaytopics, so I can concentrate better on grading those papers next week. Fun fun. But I'm determined to see quite a few of those kids as history students next fall, so I'm going to put some effort to it, too. That's what they are paying for, after all.

Oops, off to watch Magnolia on tv. Haven't seen it before. There's no possible way it's going to be better than last nights movie, though. ;) I'm thinking I may have to spend some more money on KoH later this month - I think I'm going to have to see it again on the big screen... Mmmmmm...

This is why history ROCKS!

I'm so thrilled I can barely hold myself down. I put on a black shirt and hung my eight-pointed Maltese cross around my neck (just so everyone knows I'm all for the Knights Hospitaller!) and went to see Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven today and OMG it was good! For many reasons, some more obvious than others...

First of all, now I know I'm unbelievably lucky. I'm a 21st century historian researching the knightly orders of the crusades and as such, luckier than generations of historians before me. This is probably the first time in history since the 12th century for a historian to see Knights Templar charge into battle. I had chills down my spine throughout the movie (yes, yes, not all of them thanks to the historical stuff, but I'll get to that later) , just because on the screen before me there were places and people who, to me, are familiar from so many studies and books. And don't you dare spoil my sheer joy of the imagery by saying they were just actors! They were historical research papers and documents come to life, for me. Something I've been able to visualize in my head, for sure, but to see the Templars ride into battle or to see the Hospitallers taking care of the sick in their hospital - what an amazing treat! I love being able to think to myself "Wow, it really could've looked like that!". It's the romantic in me, but I don't care. I love it.

There are, naturally, some shortcuts and twists in the story, that aren't word for word "true". But then, there were quite a few scenes that were almost word for word what was said in the situation in 1187 (or so), at least according to my sources. Like the scene with Salah ad-Din and Guy de Lusignan and Reynald de Chatillon after the former has taken the two latter as prisoners. Salah ad-Din offers a drink to Guy de Lusignan, who then offers the cup to Reynald. (Who just happens to be one of the men Salah ad-Din hates most in the world. Long story.) Salah ad-Din is offended and says to Reynald that the cup wasn't offered to him and that it will be the last drink Reynald will ever have. And surely enough, he is immediately escorted outside and there beheaded by Salah ad-Din. Here the director follows a crusader's account on the event almost to the word. (Whether the drink Salah ad-Din offered was really mashed ice, is debatable, but other than that, it was about as accurate as a separate scene can be.)

Probably the biggest complaint I have about the shortcuts is, naturally, the existence of king Baldwin IV in the year 1187, which is the year the movie is mainly all about. The Leper King of Jerusalem had died a few years earlier and left as his heir his sister Sibylla's infant son, who then dies very soon and leaves the leaders of Jerusalem in a sticky situation. The late king, Baldwin IV, had stated in his last will, that the count of Tripoli, Raymond, should act as a regent until a new king is appointed by the pope, the patriarch of Jerusalem and the kings of England and France together. Well, due to some marriage arrangements gone awry in the past, this doesn't suit the Grand Master of the Templars, Girard de Ridfort and his supporters. All kinds of scheming follow, but in the end we get the same situation that the movie shows us - Sibylla is crowned Queen of Jerusalem and she then crowns her husband Guy de Lusignan to reign with her as King of Jerusalem.

I thought it was too bad that they didn't tell everything about the coronation and the scandal with the keys to the chest that held the regalia. That story is one of my favorites, as it shows what an honorable man the Grand Master of the Hospitallers was. Roger des Moulins was one of the only men opposing the crowning of Sibylla. He refused to give his key to be used in the ceremony. There were three keys to the chest, you see. One was kept by the patriarch of Jerusalem and the other two by the Grand Masters of the Templars and Knights Hospitaller. The other two had broken their vows to the late king, but Roger des Moulins wouldn't hear of it. (Ah, the fact that he eventually threw the key through a window to the courtyard only shows us that he too was a human and got very upset by the pressure piled on him by the others. Naturally the key was found without difficulties and the regalia gotten out of the chest. But I still like the story.)

Ok, enough of the historical nitpicking for now. Here's a reasonably good and fairly short article on what happened during the late 12th century in Jerusalem. Lots and lots of revenge, scheming, boneheadedness and plain greed! In the end, though, it all came down to men being such idiots when it comes to women. If that one arranged marriage would've worked out as it was supposed to (from the point of view of Girard de Ridfort), the history of Jerusalem could be completely different. Speculate on that. I sure will.

Then, the utterly and shamelessly fangirlish part of it all. Orlando Bloom. Oy, oy, oy! He's grown into a man, he has! And with the full Aragorn-effect working for him, too. Scruffy, dirty and omg how hot. He's just out-of-this-world-gorgeous! Plain and simple as that. Now I only want to see a movie with him and Ioan Gruffudd in it and I could die a happy girl. I'm thinking Ioan could play Will Turner's (Orlando's) long lost big brother in the PotC-series... *swoon*

Aaanyway. I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD and actually, next week when I get my last salary from Lieto, I'll go and buy the soundtrack immediately. Beautiful medieval/oriental -music, with Natacha Atlas performing at least one of the theme songs! Wonderful!

I think Ridley Scott did an excellent job with the movie. I've heard that some people have complained about the story being boring or pointless, but I just don't agree with it. Sometimes, if you really want to bring real, documented history to life, the stories are bound to be less exciting than your average Hollywood action no-brainer. Then again, what is exciting? The fall of Jerusalem isn't? The story of Balian d'Ibelin, who actually paid a fortune in gold to get the poor people of Jerusalem out of the fallen city unharmed, is boring? The story of a great moslem leader, Salah ad-Din, is surely about as non-exciting as stories get? Well, I'm sorry, I just happen to disagree. Aren't I glad I'm a historian. I'm allowed to get reaaaally excited about dusty and boring old stories like these!

Ahh, there. Once again a movie I could go on and on about, but I have to restrain myself, because there's nobody on this planet who would read through all of my rants. In fact I'm very surprised if any of you got this far without yawning... I sure didn't. :) But that's because it's time I got to bed, I'm all done for tonight. Tomorrow's a big day. The prep course begins, yikes.

Oddly irritated

Not my day today. I started out really tired in the morning after a night not so well slept. I think my stress levels are getting to the point where my sleep is beginning to suffer -that and the fact that I feel like my temperature is a bit high is confirming my diagnosis. Stress, stress, stress.

I can't wait I get the history course going. At the moment I'm basically coming up with all these dreadful scenarios of wise-cracking kids running me over after reading the required researches six, seven times whereas I'll be lucky if I have time to go through them twice. Aagh. I'm almost a friggin' MA already and I'm scared of some kids who want to get into the University?? I so seriously need the course to begin so I can prove to myself again that I might actually be qualified to teach them...

Today I prepared for Monday's class, which will be on the Western view over the African scenery. You know, how the tropic is a mix of fantasy and colonialistic ideas, how the white man had to conquer the wild nature by shooting at everything and posing next to the dead animals. All a part of the colonialistic tradition and Western view. I think the research is really pretty interesting and easy to grasp (apart from a few odd bits where I think the ideas have been worded out really badly), but as such I'm not quite sure what the students will want to ask about it. What should I be prepared for? Well, at the moment I'm prepared for lots and lots of essays for them to write as rehearsals. Those should keep them busy and processing everything they need to know.

It's going to be a bit tougher with the research on diseases. It covers such a long stretch of history (and pre-history!) that it's going to be a challenge to teach it all in only 9 hours. Sounds like plenty of time, doesn't it? It's really not. I think I'm going to be scurrying like a little furry critter to get everything done in time. The students will need time to write essays, we'll need time to discuss everything, for them to get feedback... Teaching sure is one of those jobs where you really have to work for your salary.

But this is all "bubbling under" stuff. The more acute irritation is the result of... the Finnish dialects. I had the exam today and it just felt like I had forgotten everything I had ever heard about the subject. My brain just doesn't think like a linguist. It thinks like a historian, which means big pictures and such. I just cannot remember which representations of the ts are used in all the Western dialects. I can remember two (possibly three), just because I happen to be a native speaker of the Southwestern dialect. So I know I say "mettä" and "mettään" or "metässä" instead of "metsä" / "metsään" / "metsässä", but somehow I think that doesn't quite cover it. I think I may have to go and take the exam again next week. If, for some wildly strange reason I pass the exam this time around, it sure won't be because I knew what I was doing...

So I'm irritated for forgetting the exam and therefore not having enough time to study for it, I'm irritated because the exam was actually about the lectures, which were held about half a year ago, I'm irritated because I had to borrow someone else's notes (I was working in Nousiainen for the most part of the course in the fall) and couldn't understand half of them... Excuses are the lamest thing in the world, but somehow they comfort me and make me feel less like a total idiot when it comes to the details of my own language. Aagh. Stupid me.

Then again, I might not be a complete disaster after all. Look at the result of this mythological goddess test. You know, I do carry the ankh around my neck almost all the time nowadays and besides, I think the sistrums sound nice and mystical. :)

Isis Indeed, you are 75% erudite, 70% sensual, 50% martial, and 33% saturnine.

This Egyptian supreme Goddess is certainly the most influential deity on subsequent cultures. She was the ideal figure of womanhood, usually compared with the Greek Goddess Demeter or her Roman version, Ceres. Isis was one element of a Holy Trinity, the remaining two figures being her brother and husband Osiris and their heroic son Horus. She was the Goddess of Magic for her brilliance, as well as the Goddess of Love because of her tenacious devotion. She is often shown with wings, curving to caress coffins and sarcophagi of many a king. In certain papyri she is shown with her falcon wing headdress, covering her ears. One of her sacred symbols is the sistrum, a musical instrument that was believed to ward off evil spirits. Isis' sistrum was carved bearing the image of a cat and was representative of the Moon. Isis was the High Priestess and an omnipotent magician as well as the only being ever to discover the secret name of Ra. She invariably carries the ankh, the symbol for eternal life. Her name is, by the rules of numerology, adding up to the number “2” and she just so happens to be depicted on the tarot card “Key 2 – The High Priestess”.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 51% on erudite You scored higher than 17% on sensual You scored higher than 48% on martial You scored higher than 13% on saturnine

Link: The Mythological Goddess Test written by Nitsuki on Ok Cupid

Real love

My mom and dad began dating 30 years ago today. Within a year they were married, and they still are, quite happily. This is what I want to find, because I think if theirs isn't real love, I don't know what is. Thirty years and going on strong. Wow.

I'll keep my eyes open tonight when we go to celebrate May Day. The day has a good vibe to it. ;) Although I don't have that much time for the scenery (heh) before we go to my friends' place where there will be four married couples and me. The quality of the company is without a doubt extremely high, there's just no chance for me to meet anyone new there. Oh well, I'd rather spend the evening with good friends than wander from full-packed bar to another tonight, anyhow. :)

In other words,

Hauskaa vappua kaikille!

It's done

Now I've done it. I've officially and finally taken the step towards separation from my dear car. I posted a "for sale" message in a Skoda enthusiasts' forum. Now I can only hope someone buys it and gives it a good home. *snif*


Here's my darling in front of our house in Nousiainen.

Oh, the times we've had together...

Frustration hits

Argh, argh, argh. No matter how much I try, I just cannot do everything all at once! I'm getting so frustrated.

Yes, I should be working on those Eximia course materials like crazy by now, but it's not happening. I'm not saying I haven't done anything, because I really have. Today, for example, I met the two tutors, who will be helping the students with their studies. We sat down and had a very good meeting, which actually cleared many things for me.

But wouldn't life be easy, if that'd be all that I have to do? Yep, it'd be too easy and quite frankly, not my life, either. :)

Luckily I'm still quite optimistic about having everything under control. I have a week and a half to plan most of the lessons for the Eximia course. I have a week to study for my Finnish dialects exam. I have no hope of touching anything that has to do with my thesis, though, for at least another three or so weeks. Frustrating.

And as the icing on the cake, we have Spin. I'm not exactly sure when the first number of the year is going to be done. It all depends on the printing company at the moment, so there's really nothing I can do about that. I'm hoping we'll get it out by the end of the week.

Which then brings me to the issue of deadlines. A word that makes my bloodpressure rocket skyhigh at the moment. The deadline for the second Spin of the year is on Friday, you see. But as it happens, the zine has had a very poor record of being published when it's supposed to in the recent past. Which is one of the reasons why I was asked to become the editor in the first place. Sort of. And now it seems I'm fighting against windmills and old relics of habits.

How am I ever supposed to get the zine back on track if people think I'm not serious about the deadlines? I'd like to scream out of sheer angst over some things that have been said to me lately. It's like I'm being treated like everything I say is a joke. It's not like I emailed everyone on the voluntary staff about all the deadlines for this year in friggin' January just so that they could shrug it off because the deadlines haven't been followed in the past either! And just because Spin 1/05 hasn't been delivered to everyone's door yet, it doesn't mean that I'm not already working on the second number and that the deadline shouldn't be followed by everyone else, too. *angst attack and utter frustration*

I know I'm a rookie. I know I'm also a young(ish) woman trying to be an editor. I know I'm a person who doesn't like to get mad at anyone and most of all, I know I absolutely HATE it when I'm not taken seriously when I actually mean to be serious (yes, I can be serious sometimes!). And I'd really, really like to have people listen to me in the matters of this zine I'm supposed to be the editor of. But as the case is, I'm mightily pissed off (excuse my language here) and angry about the attitude of some people.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. *sigh*

Bookish fun

Yay, Vierran45 passed this one to me, whee. :) Lemmesee, if I can do this...

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?
Ursula Le Guin's The Wizard of Earthsea.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
I don't have to tell you how many times, now do I? :)

The last book you finished is?
On the non-fictional side it was William H. McNeill: Plagues and Peoples and from the wonderful world of fiction it was actually George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings (Finnish translation).

What are you currently reading?
At the moment only (!) three books at the same time, usually I have more...

Kristiina Kalleinen: "Isänmaani onni on kuulua Venäjälle" - Vapaaherra Lars Gabriel von Haartmanin elämä
Dorothy Dunnet: The Game of Kings
Guy Gavriel Kay: The Summer Tree (Finnish translation)

Five books you would take to a deserted island?
Oh dear, this is a tough one.

Well, let's begin with the obvious and see what else is there...
J.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings
Gabriel García Márquez: Hundred Years of Solitude (my old favourite ever since mom gave it to me when I was leaving to the States for a year - I'm not quite sure she didn't intend the pun...)
Väinö Linna: Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier)
Mika Waltari: Sinuhe egyptiläinen (The Egyptian)
Ursula Le Guin: The Earthsea -series

I'd probably want to take quite a lot more of books with me, like for instance the complete Sandman-series, but these would keep me busy for a while.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Tytti.
Aino.
Kaisa.

Well, because these ladies visit my blog and have a blog or lj of their own to post this to in their turn. In addition, I would've liked to say Robert, but his blog concentrates on different matters... Hey, Rob, if you want to take the challenge anyway, post your answers as comments to my blog! :)

It's just a drill...

Lately I've felt like I live on a construction site. There's an excavation in the front yard, which has effectively blocked the front door for a week or so (there was some plumbing or whatever that had to be fixed, so first they dug up the old pipes, put in the new ones and now they're filling the hole, so I'm hoping I can use the front door on Monday again...), there were the nice guys who came in yesterday to check the ventilation in my apartment (and all the other apartments, too - yet another project going on around here) and then there is my upstairs neighbour, who is apparently renovating the newly bought apartment before moving in, which is understandable.

Plus, in a week or so, there's going to be a code lock system installed to our front door, which is very nifty. I won't have to drop my keys to my friends from the balcony anymore. Although it was somehow nicely Shakespearean to come out to the balcony to greet a friend who would come by later in the evening when the front door was already locked...

So what's the downside? We're obviously going to have more effective plumbing in the building, since the new pipes won't have tree roots in them (that was the problem with the old one, we're told) and the air in our apartments is going to be cleaner. And our friends can get in by just punching in the right code. Just great.

And in a way I'm also happy for my neighbour, who's going to have a nice renovated apartment to move in to. Good for him / her / them.

Unfortunately the new neighbour hasn't impressed me much. Woken me up a lot, though. Which is the topic of my complaining today.

Why oh why is it mandatory to use any / all powertools ridiculously early in the morning? Like before 8 a.m.? It must be some kind of rule of renovating. "If you need to use your drill / powertool for 15 minutes during the whole day, be sure you use it before 8 a.m." Seriously. This guy has woken me up at least on four mornings already, just about 10 minutes before my alarm goes off at 8 o'clock. It annoys the heck out of me to have to wake up to the roaaaarrr or screeeeech of a powertool - why can't he wait till, say, 8.30 a.m.? And honestly, after he's used the drill for (at the most) half an hour, he doesn't pick it up once during the rest of the day. Argh. I need and want all the minutes of sleep I can get! *sigh* I so want to live in a house of my own...

I promised I'd post a few more pictures of the show today, so here you go.


This is Mansikki, the Dreadful Dragon, chilling in my livingroom before the performance.


Here's our magnificent trio, Sharifa (Heli), Gamila (Satu) and Fikriya (yours truly), off to save the glassbowl of light...

(Nour-il-Omri, the Light of Life, was actually a glassbowl with blue Christmas lights in it. Very stylish, as the lights could be turned on/off from a switch in the base of the whole thing. The bowl was upside down, you see. In a tinfoil wrapping. Ah, I think you needed to see the thing to understand, hehe.)


The feast in the Magical Forest, our opening scene.

So there. Now I'm off to watch some tv. And read some more about Lars Gabriel von Haartman, who is a very notable figure in Finnish history during the time of autonomy. He was a busy man, that fellow.

Meet Fikriya...

Here are two pictures of me in full costume for last Saturday's performance (thanks to Satu for taking them). Not too bad, even though I say so myself. ;) I think I should spend some time in the gym doing something to my "wobbly bits" (as Bridget Jones so nicely put it) around my tummy, but there's still time before the bikini season begins, right? :P


See all those beads and sequins? Those are the ones that kept me awake for six nights...


And some more beads and sequins...

I'll post more pictures tomorrow, now I'm too tired... Nighty night.

My inner European

Vierran45 had this little meme in her lj, so naturally I snitched it from her.

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

I like the boots, anyway. :)

And then I found this. My Celtic horoscope from the same site the meme above was originally taken. Nice.

You Are A Maple Tree

There's not anyone in this world quite like you. You are full of imagination, ambition, and originality. Shy but confident, you hunger for new experiences. You have a good memory and learn easily. You are sometimes nervous and always complex (especially in love).

What is Your Celtic Horoscope?

Complex? Who, me? ;)