Back to work

I just spent 2 wonderful weeks in Scotland, enjoying the lovely autumn sunshine for the first ten days of my trip - then my brothers came over for a few days, and brought the rain with them. Two weeks is one of the longest trips I've ever done - it's usually a week or less - and somehow it seemed to be enough to get a sense of living there again. The official reason for my trip was to do interviews for my thesis, but I also managed to fit it several friends, a little bit of tourism, several lovely meals out, and lots of shopping.

Alas, all good things must come to an end eventually, and last Sunday the time came for me to return home. Which, to be honest, wasn't all bad - it is quite tiring to stay in 6 different places during 2 weeks, and besides, it was all sunny and pretty when I got home. But now the holiday (and I do call it a holiday, because those interviews were far from hard work) is over, and it's time to roll up my sleeves and get on with it. Starting with my least favourite bit of this entire process - the transcriptions.

I used to work part time as a transcriber, which I guess I should be grateful for now, since it really helps that I know what I'm doing, and have a reasonably good piece of software to do it with, but it also means I know exactly how boring transcribing is, so I really wasn't looking forward to it. But it has to be done, so I got started on it a couple of days ago, and to be honest, it's been ok. I just finished transcribing my second interview, and I have 8 to go - all shorter than the first two, luckily. So maybe it'll be ok. I can also tell you that it is a great deal more interesting to transcribe interviews on a topic that I'm interested in (even if I'm hearing it all for the second time) as opposed to discussions about engines and such, which is what I had to do when I did this for work. So, it's not all bad.

When I was about to set out on this journey called My Master's Thesis, I read quite a lot of guides on how to do it, and several apps and pieces of software to help out with the process have been suggested on various forums. So far, I've tried out the Pomodoro Technique (or the basic elements of it, at least, not the full program) and it's been working quite well. When I move on to the final stage, when I'm mainly just writing, I may also start using Written? Kitten! which sounds quite fun, and if worst comes to worst, I'm prepared to start using Write or Die. But let's hope it doesn't come to that. But the Pomodoro Technique is good in the sense that it lets you give yourself little rewards (in forms of breaks or whatever you choose to fill those breaks with) every 25 minutes, and it also records your process, so that it is easy to keep track of how many "tomatoes" you've done each day. Which feels pretty good. On Wednesday this week I did 5 "tomatoes", then yesterday 7, and I'm trying to keep that a minimum for a "full" working day. I now actually have 1½ weeks off (our so called "exam week", which is actually more of a week off, since we rarely have any exams, and when we do, they are often on the week before anyway. But we're not allowed to call it a holiday, apparently), so hopefully I should be able to get ahead quite well.

In other news, one of my best friends just had a baby today, and I'm so excited!!! Can't wait till I get to see him! :)

Back in the burgh

I've just got back after 4 wonderful days in Edinburgh. It felt like I never left at all, that I'd seen everybody just a little while ago, which was great, but that's probably what made leaving again so hard, too.

When I was over there, I realised I'd forgotten quite a few things about Edinburgh. First of all, I'd forgotten how bloody cold, no, absolutely freezing the flats over there can be. I'd forgotten the (in my opinion, although some seem to disagree) disgusting smell of the brewery that sometimes takes over the city, and seems to live permanently in the stairwell of my old flat. I'd forgotten about the bloody tram works, which have now taken over an even greater chunk of central Edinburgh (I remember a time when I could take a bus into Princes street, and not have to walk down the entire (quite long) street (that's always full of people, mainly tourists). Seems so long ago now...). And then there's the wind.

But I'd also forgotten other things. Like how green it is everywhere, and how the tiniest bit of (rare) sunshine can make everything look all happy and lovely. And the particular atmosphere that comes from all those old stone buildings. And how cheap it is, especially food. And British TV! And shopping. And now, in the spring, there are cherry blossoms everywhere, and it's just so very pretty despite the clouds and rain!

Mainly, though, I realised how much I've missed Edinburgh, and all my friends there. And that I really, really  want to move back.


Good thing I'm doing a degree where I can work from anywhere... :)

Now what?

I've been working my arse off this spring. Well, sort of - depends what you compare it to, of course, but because everything's relative, and I only compare it to how much I usually work, I get to state that this spring, I've been working my arse off. I'll be getting nearly as many credits for this spring as I usually get in a year (see, those months in Edinburgh didn't slow my studies down, honest!), and I've started, and completed my bachelor's thesis. Which, to be honest, and considering my track record, I wasn't sure I'd manage, at least not by the deadline. (One of the perks (or maybe the perk?) of living with your parents for a while - you don't have to rely only on your conscience to nag you into getting stuff done.)

The point of this post isn't to show you all how very good and efficient I've been (well, maybe just a little bit). It's to say: today, now that I've finished my last class, and my last assignment, and the only exam I had to do, what am I supposed to do with my time? I still live with my parents (i.e. in BFN) for another month, so not much to do here. It's not like I was always working up till now either, but even when I was just hanging out, doing nothing, I always had all the work that had to be done at the back of my mind. I had a few nights when I didn't really need to do any work, but at some point I still ended up going back to my thesis, just because I had nothing better to do, or because I felt some weird urge to work on it. Scary shit.

So here I am, done with all the stuff that needed to be done for uni this term (except some final little fiddling with my thesis), with absolutely nothing to do. First world problem?

Oh, I'm not too worried. It's just the usual culture shock when moving from term into summer, but I'll manage. A few days from now I'll look back at this post, and laugh at it in contempt. Except that I won't, because in a few days time, I'll be back in the burgh. Hell yeah!

weheartit.com

5 good things right now

Here are five things that are pretty great at the moment:

1. Spring
Spring is here! Sure, there are still piles of snow all over the place, and I haven't been able to change into my spring jacket yet, but in the city the streets are pretty bare, the sun feels warm, and it's light out in the mornings! Besides, it's almost April and Easter, and then spring is definitely here!

2. Thesis
Today it's exactly one month until the day I need to do the presentation of my Bachelor's thesis, and I need to hand in a draft in a couple of weeks. I'm not stressed, though, since I've been way ahead of schedule the entire time. It's supposed to be 15-20 pages, and I have about 18 now. Not far to go now!

3. Summer job
The search is over! And it's taken the stress and agony of the whole process with it! I got a summer job! And it's even in my own field! And pays quite well (for being an internship)! And it's really close to my flat! And the fact that I got it is, in general, really, really great!

4. Travel
In less than three weeks I'm going to Rome. I haven't been there before, and despite being a massive planner, I haven't even figured out what you can do in Rome, but I'm sure it'll be great (although it's Easter, and not the best time to go there, since that's when everyone else is there). I was planning to study a bit of Italian before going, but that plan didn't work out, what with everything else going on. Oh, well, at least I can order wine, and that's what matters!

5. Visits
I've already had two of the friends I made in Scotland visit me, and the next one will be here in just a week. Can't wait! Oh, that reminds me, there's someone I need to remind to start planning her visit, since she promised she'd come...

Picture: weheartit

A Brilliant Plan

This morning I got back from London. The prospect of this trip was what got me through all those long, dark, wet, slippery, cold weeks, but now I'm back to being down because of the weather. Spring was almost here, and then someone apparently went and decided that February would be a much better month to be in, judging from the weather at least...

Anyway, I had a really lovely week in London! Lots of shopping and good food in great restaurants, and I got to see my lovely friends and party with some of them.

One day, when I was wandering around Covent Garden and Seven Dials with no specific goal or mission, I had a sort of epiphany. I loved London even more on this trip than when I was living there, obviously because during a week's visit I'd try to make the most out of my time, as opposed to several months there, when a lot of the time would be spent on other things, such as working or studying. So I came up with an amazing solution: I should get a place in London, and then just fly down there a lot! I could live in Finland, so going to London would be a holiday and not my everyday life, and I would get the best of both worlds!

Now that I have this brilliant plan I just need to find a way to finance it... Suggestions? :)

A week off

The uni-equivalent of test-week has started - my first one since getting back. Technically, it's supposed to be a week when we either have exams, or just work at home; teachers tell us not to call it at holiday, but a 'teaching free week'. In reality, it's a week off, because the teachers (at least the ones in my department) kindly have us take their exams the week before, or sometimes after. I guess they want a week off, too. Kind of hypocritical, but I'm definitely not complaining!

I once calculated that since we have four months of summer holidays, one month of Christmas holidays, and four of these extra weeks off*, we basically study six months of the year, and have six months off! Not bad!

This time, as on any 'test week' before it, I have great plans for what I'll get done during the week. I have a very daunting list of things to do sitting in the middle of my desktop, containing some school-related things, like essays and translations, as well as lots and lots of cleaning. And as on most of these weeks, I'll probably achieve very little on that list. You'd think a whole week off gives you a great chance to cath up on things like that, that you can't possibly just do nothing for a week. Think again. It's happened before, and I'm afraid it'll happen again. It's not something I'm proud of - really annoyed is actually the correct sentiment here - but at least I'm realistic about it. It all realtes to the procrastination-issues I told you about before.

I'll let you know how badly I failed with my list...

In other news, I'm going back to London!!! I couldn't stand missing it so much, so I'm going there for almost a week at the end of March/beginning of April. I'm so excited!! And on top of everything else, it'll be spring over there by then!! Spring shoes, yay!

That's all. As you were.

*Ok, to be honest, and to calm down any potential nitpickers out there, one of the four weeks of Christmas holiday is technically a 'teaching free week', but since we have one week off for Easter it evens itself out.