August nostalgia

August is here, and although the summer isn't over, I'm approaching the end of my Edinburgh summer - which, in a way, is a good thing, as August is the month when the centre of Edinburgh becomes unbearable for someone who can't stand masses of tourists. With the Fringe, the population of Edinburgh doubles, and while I'd like to go and see lots of comedy and other interesting shows, living your life in a city taken over by tourists and other visitors is far from enjoyable. I'm trying not to vent my tourist rage too much now, but what is it with people going on holiday, and immediately forgetting that there may be some people around who aren't on holiday, and who actually need to get to places at set times? No, let's just walk around really slowly, suddenly stopping in the middle of the street to take pictures and read maps, take forever to buy train or bus tickets or get cash out. Because it's not like we, or anyone else in the queue, actually need to be anywhere... Ok, sorry, rant over. Because the point of this post was not, in fact, to rant about tourists (although I'm sure you'll get to read a post like that at some point), but to talk about it being August.

The Royal Mile during the Fringe, a.k.a. My Worst Nightmare.

For the past *quick calculation* 18 years, August has been quite exciting. There was always something about the last days of the holidays, the approaching autumn, going to buy new school bags and pencil cases and notebooks. Later on, in upper secondary school and university, I still enjoyed preparing for the upcoming year, making timetables and planning my studies and the year ahead. I love planning and making lists, and the beginning of a new school year was always a great time for that. The excitement never lasted for more than the first few weeks, of course, but I still enjoyed getting back into a normal routine after the holidays and seeing all my friends again.

After graduating, I thought August and the beginning of September would be a bit sad, as I still missed university and being a student. This summer has helped me get over my graduation angst and accept my new, non-student identity, but I still feel a little nostalgic when I think of all those years of excitedly preparing for a new year at school or uni, and I'm sure this feeling will get stronger the closer we get to September.

I won't be having the uneventful transition from summer to autumn that I'd been expecting, though. I won't be staring a new year at uni or moving over from one school to the next, as in previous years, but instead I'll be spending August preparing for my big move to Scotland - selling all my things, finding out about taxes and national insurance, and meeting up with friends and family. I'm sure there'll be enough planning and list-making needed to keep me happy for quite some time.

Pictures: 1: here and 2: weheartit

11

I got this challenge from Anna a little while back where you're supposed to tell your readers 11 things about yourself, then answer 11 questions, then choose 11 bloggers to complete the challenge, and finally ask them 11 questions. As I'm a bit lazy this challenge has already circulated in all the blogs I follow, I'll pass on the last two bits, but I'm definitely up for the first two! (Some of the pictures are relevant to the text, and some aren't.)

1. Spring is my favourite time of year. So imagine my dismay when after quite a lovely, spring-like morning on Friday, with bare streets and a bit of sunshine, a proper snowstorm arrived in the evening. Not cool.

  

2. At the beginning of this year, I decided I would try to become a more positive person and complain less. Yeah, that hasn't gone so well... But at least now I am more aware of the complaining, and I can try to change some of it into positive thoughts as well. "Try" being the key word here.

3. I'm not too pleased about my impending graduation. This is caused by many things: I won't be around many of the people that I've become used to seeing almost daily, I won't have anywhere to go every day or people that I see every day since I'll be working from home, I'm not entirely sure what I should be doing with my life and where I should be doing it, and, most of all, the oncoming identity crisis when I'm no longer a student after being one for 18 years, i.e. over 70% of my life. Scary shit.

4. The positive thing about my situation now that I graduate is that I won't have to start looking for a job, stress about being unemployed etc, as I can just slide smoothly into the life of a freelance translator. I'm even fairly confident about getting at least enough work to keep a roof over my head and food in the fridge. With some luck the money will even stretch to buying loo roll.

5. I've recently started having random solo dance parties in my flat at night. And why not? I do usually like to pull the curtains first, though. Don't want to alarm the neighbours more than necessary.

6. When going out, I mostly prefer to go to pubs or bars, where you can actually talk to people (and then possibly move on to a night club later if I feel like it). So it annoys me to no end that pubs in the UK seem to be unsure about who they are catering for when the weekend arrives, as I've been to many pubs who turn up the music to ridiculous levels on a Friday or Saturday night. You can't dance, because there is no dance floor, but you can't talk to people either, unless you enjoy a shouting contest. The only thing left to do is to drink silently, which may be the whole point, I suppose.

7. I love scrapbooking. Nothing fancy with different types of paper etc.,  just plain photos and maybe a few theatre tickets and such thrown in the mix. I've made massive scrapbooks about my exchange year in France, my summer in Disneyland, and my trip Down Under. Since then, I haven't managed to make any more, however, which is really sad. I saved up a whole bunch of stuff from my Erasmus-exchange in London that I could have put in, but I'm sure I've already thrown away most of it. I've also been meaning to make scrapbooks about my time in Rotex, and the time I spent in Scotland. Hopefully I can get on it soon.

8. I've always loved reading, and I used to read all the time and get through tons of books a year. Since I started studying there hasn't seemed to be enough time for reading just for fun, so while I still like to call myself a reader, I'm not reading very much at all. Another one of those "I'll get on it after graduation" type things.

9. This will be the fifth year in a row that my mum and I travel somewhere together. It wasn't even supposed to be an annual thing, but somehow it turned into one, and it's lovely. The first year it was an autumn trip to London, but since then the trips have always taken place in the spring. The first three years it was London, and then last year we decided to shake it up a bit and go to Rome instead. Rome was ok, but we both agreed - it's not London. So this year we're returning to our old pattern, and we're both awfully excited!

10. I don't drink coffee or beer, and I really wish I'd learn to like both. Especially beer. It would make life a lot easier, and a bit cheaper too.

11. I have two younger brothers - two and four years younger than me. The middle one and I have always been really close, but with the younger we used to fight all the time. We really didn't get on at all. A few years ago, however, after I'd spent a year away from home, I came back to Finland and realised that my youngest brother had turned into a really funny guy. Now we all get along really well - at least most of the time (we usually begin getting on each other's nerves after a few days in the same house) - and last year the three of us even did a little trip together. I loved showing my brothers my second home town (Edinburgh) and we had such a great time.

And here are Anna's questions:

1. What songs do you listen to at the moment?

- Bastille - Pompeii, Jake Bugg - Seen It All, - Ellie Goulding - Explosions and Dead In the Water, Haloo Helsinki! - Huuda! and Rihanna - Stay are a few of the songs that I've been playing on repeat lately.

2. What's the last film you saw, at home and in the cinema? Do you recommend it?

- The last film I saw at home was Alice in Wonderland, which I had already seen before, and quite like. In the cinema I saw Les Misérables about a week ago, and it was amazing. I cried three times.

3. Which day would you relive?

- I can't really think of a specific one that stands out... My graduation day was a good one, or then pretty much any day out of the trips I've done to London, Edinburgh, Oz or NZ...

4. If you could spend a day as a fly on someone's ceiling, whose would it be?

- This one was surprisingly difficult... I have to say I can't think of anyone at the moment.

5. If you could change something about your life, what would it be?

- A bit more certainty about my future would be great.

6. Do you regret something? What?

- Not spending more time in New Zealand when I was there. But then again, Australia was great, too, so I don't regret it too much.

7. What advice would you give to yourself from 10 years ago?

- Don't stress too much, and don't take yourself so seriously. (Which is advice I'd give to my current self as well...)

8. What are your hopes for the coming year?

- Since I have no idea what I'll be up to a few months from now, I guess I just hope I'll be happy. And get to go on lots of trips!

9. What do you wish you could do better?

- Speak German/Spanish/Italian (i.e. any of the languages I have studied at some point but never got very far in). And get stuff done in general, so procrastinate less.

10. Where are you travelling next? Or where would you like to travel? Why?

- My next trip will be to London with my mum at the end of April. There are so many places I'd like to travel, like Ireland or New York, and I'd like to go back to New Zealand and Scotland, to name a few. 
And, well, why not?

11. Helsinki or Stockholm?
- I'm not very familiar with either one to be honest, but maybe Stockholm? Dunno.

2012 Roundup + A look into 2013

So, here we are again, another year is almost gone. As is the custom around this time of year, I'd like to take a look back at the year that was, because frankly, I'm not really sure what I've been up to. (Sorry about the lengthy post, but a year is a long time!)

So, let's take a look at:

2012 as I saw it - and a look at what's next

Trips
First of all, I have to point out that 2012 was the first full calendar year that I have lived in Finland since 2009 (and before that it was 2005). The past two years I've spent half of each year living in the UK, so this year was quite different in that sense - no need, or chance, to set up a whole new life somewhere where I knew no one or nothing. It's strange, but I thought I'd feel stuck, or smothered or something from living in Finland long term again, but I really haven't. The year has clearly been split in two as well, though, as the first 5 months I spent living with my parents in a small town, commuting into uni, and then from June onwards I've been back in my old flat, living on my own again after a year of living with other people.

Also, there has been a fair share of trips, so I didn't really have much of a chance to get too settled in my ways. Especially in the summer I felt like I was always packing overnight bags and not sleeping in my own bed nearly enough. In total, I travelled abroad 6 times this year. I spent a weekend each in all Scandinavia capitals. I got two new countries onto my list of countries visited (the Vatican and Norway), giving me a grand total of 21. I visited Edinburgh twice, and my longest trip this year was the second trip to Scotland, when I spent two weeks there. Most trips I did on my own, when I visited friends, but my mum joined me on the trip to Rome, and my brothers joined me for a part of the two weeks in Scotland - which was the first (but hopefully not the last) time that the three of us did a trip together (without the parents). A strange thing is that this was the first time that I didn't visit London since the first time I went there in April 2009.


For next year I have one trip booked so far - a weekend in Copenhagen to see my dear friend Sophie - and I'm probably going to visit London with my mum after Easter. I also want to visit some friends who are doing their Erasmus exchanges, one in Alicante and one in Leeds, but I'm not yet entirely sure I'll be able to pull those off. I had this idea that it would be fun to get to 25 countries visited in the year I turn 25, but we'll see how it goes.


Studies
Having originally planned to spend a year in Scotland, this year turned out quite differently (study-wise) than I had planned. In the spring I wrote my Bachelor's thesis, and then in the fall I started working on my Master's thesis. At that point I still thought I'd do a whole year more at uni after finishing my thesis, or at least half a year, but I still decided that I wanted to finish my thesis by Christmas, i.e. in 4 months instead of a year. You know, just because. Then it somehow dawned upon me that despite it making no sense whatsoever, I would be able to get enough credits by the end of the academic year to actually graduate in May 2013. So it seems like that's what I'll be doing.

For 2013, then, there is some pretty big stuff ahead in this department. In January or February I'll hand in the final version of my MA thesis. In March I'll get my BA degree, and in May I should get my MA degree. It will be my last spring as a student, and then I'm off into the real world. Scary stuff.


Work
As I was living with my parents for the first half of the year, I didn't have to work, which was a nice change. Then, after having no luck at finding a summer job for the past few years, I managed to land an internship, and worked as a translator all summer. Then, in the fall, I started working as a freelancer, did a couple of small things for the company I'd been an intern at, and suddenly, from somewhere, I'd also landed two large translation projects from other companies, one that I'll spend the rest of my holidays on after Christmas, and another one that will begin right after the first one is finished. Again and again I see how much of an asset it is in this business to be able to translate into Swedish.

So, next year I've got quite a bit of work, for the beginning of the year at least. Then, once those projects are over, I'll probably need to start establishing a few more business contacts. I'm not planning to look for a summer job this year, but to do freelance work at first once I graduate, while figuring out what I should do with my life, and see if there happens to be any jobs going that I could see myself doing. I don't think I want to be a freelancer forever, but it's a good place to start - one that doesn't leave me hanging in a limbo of unemployment when I'm fresh out of uni.

Friends
Having actually been around for a change, I've got to spend some really amazing times with my friends this year, and because of the trips, I've managed to see a fair share of my friends abroad, too. Memories from Hogmanay in Edinburgh a year ago still make me smile, and there are some great pics that show the mood really well. We also did a weekend trip with most of the Hogmanay crew in August. There's been dinners, nights out, lunches. There was a hen night and a wedding, and the birth of a beautiful little boy. I've made several new friends as well, mainly through work, and a couple through couch surfing, and there are a few people who I knew a little bit before who I know consider proper friends.

As always, though, there were friends I didn't get to see at all, or as much as I would have liked, and there were people whom I didn't manage to stay in touch with as well as I maybe could have done. I'll do my best to correct this next year - starting with visiting Sophie in Copenhagen, as I haven't seen her (outside of skype) for over a year.

Family

I've definitely spent a lot more time with my family this year than I have done in previous years, especially with my dad and step-mum, who I stayed with for 5 months, and with my youngest brother, who I don't see often enough normally, but whom I got to see almost every weekend while living at my parents'. I've also been present at any family occasions I may have missed out on while living abroad. There hasn't been too many major changes this year, except that my youngest brother finished his military service and got a permanent job, and my dad turned 50. We'll see how next year turns out - some events coming up will be the two graduations, when both Jani and I finish our studies, and my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Jani is also planning to head Down Under for a working holiday, which is of course really exciting for him, but I know I'll miss him tons.


So, that's part of what I've been up to this year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

On endings

As I may have mentioned here before (can't be bothered to check at the moment, to be honest) I recently realised that I could actually graduate this spring (the Finnish uni system is really flexible, so this isn't as obvious as you may think if you've studied elsewhere). It came as a total surprise, as I had thought that, at best, I'd be graduating a year from now. But May it is, then!

Some time after this realisation hit me, I also realised that if this is my last year, then it'll be a year full of lasts. Come May, I won't be a student anymore, I won't be spending my time on campus, I won't be hanging out with a lot of the people I regularly see now, I won't be going to events and activities organised by my student association... A large chunk of my social life will be gone. And even thought I haven't been overly active in participating in these things in recent years, it still makes me sad. Of course I can still hang out with my friends outside of uni, but there will always be some people that I only ever see at uni, but whose company I enjoy, who I'll lose contact with after graduation.

As I've been giving up various things - and friends - quite often in recent years, I should be able to see this as nothing more than another transition in life, similar to all the ones I've gone through before. But five years is a long time. I just read a blog post by someone who's studying in London, who said that it feels like she was just a Fresher, even though she's now half-way through her studies. Well, she was, because that was just six months ago. Three years go by quite fast, because you've only just started and got the hang of something when the end is already drawing near, but when you set out on a five year "journey", you don't start thinking about it ever ending until that fact hits you in the face, right before it happens.

I used to think I'd be a student for ages, that I was in no hurry to graduate, and that I had ages left to enjoy everything that comes with being a student. But real life is knocking on the door, and even though I won't have to answer straight away, I won't be able to keep it off forever. And while that is, in some ways, exciting, it's also irreversible. Sure, I could always go back to uni, but this is when I was a student, and I won't get that back. And that's a bit sad. As I'm sure most things are once they're over.

Disclaimer: I may have had a few drinks before writing this.

Music and moments

I have a bad habit of playing songs to death whenever I find a new one that I like. I sometimes find whole albums that I like, but that's quite rare. Anyway, this habit of playing stuff on repeat often leads to certain songs or albums getting very closely intertwined in my mind with certain experiences. So, often when I listen to something that used to be a favourite of mine, it reminds me of a specific event or period in my life. Which I find quite nice. I know some people are reminded of events by certain smells, and for me, it's music. Does this happen to anyone else?

I decided to have a look at some of these songs in the form of the following challenge:

Pick five random songs from your music library that remind you of something, and describe the event/place/person that is connected with that song. Once you're done, challenge someone else to do the same.

So here are my five songs (+ 3 albums, cos I cheated a bit) - it might be a bit London-focused, but then again, so if my life, so let's just go with it:

1. Mumford & Sons - The Cave

Ok, starting out with one of my favourite songs. For me, this is very much a London song. I first heard it during my Erasmus term in London, when my friend Natalie and I were shopping on Oxford street - I think it was in New Look. I asked her if she knew what the song was called, looked it up when I got home, and have been playing it a lot ever since. If I were ever to get a tattoo with a line from a song (trust me, I won't, but if I were to get one), it would be a certain line (or actually lines) from this song.

2. Alicia Keys - Wait till you see my smile

This one's a bit random, but I listened to it a lot a few summers ago. It always reminds me of going for walks in the empty city during the summer, I get this image of the streets around my house in sunny, warm weather into my head when I hear it. I rarely listen to it anymore, though.

3. Coldplay - Fix You

Maybe I should have put Fork as performer, even though it's a cover, but it works for both versions. The first time I "properly" heard this song was when I went to see one of my favourite bands on their gig in Turku last year, and they performed Fix You. The stage was dark, with the only light on the lead singer, and as it's a cappella, there was only her voice, and some background vocals. It was an amazing performance that gave me goosebumps.

4. Cocoon - Hummingbird

I first heard this song during a language camp for new exchange students where I was working as a tutor. There's always a sort of talent night where the students get to put on little shows, and two French girls sang this song. Since the camp was held in August, this song always reminds me of those nights towards the end of the summer, when it's already getting dark (darkness isn't something we get a lot of here in the summer), and sitting by the water - just a very Finnish summer, basically.

5. Coldplay - Cemeteries of London

Not surprisingly, this one also reminds me of London. Before my first ever trip there in the spring of 2009 I found this song, and started listening to it (mainly because it had London in the title, and I like Coldplay). When listening to this song, I get that exciting feeling of expectation that I felt before that first visit - a feeling that I've sadly lost. The thrill of going to my favourite city is still there, it's just very different from that first time. The song also reminds me of that first trip - mainly of my shopping spree, and certain shoe- and bookshops, for some reason.

And then on to my extras/cheats:

+1. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More (most of the album)

While The Cave, Little Lion Man and Winter Winds are all London songs to me, I didn't really listen to the rest of the album until the following year, when I moved to Scotland. On a three-day tour to the Highlands we listened to the album on the bus, and I looked it up when I got back to Edinburgh. From then on, of course, I played it on repeat, and now many of the songs remind me of a very specific part of my time there: the bus journey to work, ridiculously early in the morning (when I had the 6 o'clock shift), when it was dark and cold and wet outside. Not a particularly happy memory, but I like the songs nonetheless.

+2. Hurts - Happiness (entire album)

One last London reminder, I listened to this Hurts album a lot during my exchange in London, so the songs simply remind me of my tiny, slightly depressing room at the student halls in Wood Green, which was always either freezing or uncomfortably hot. In that room I spent hours writing essays, drinking mugs of tea, eating frozen pizza and watching episodes of Torchwood (to name a few random things). I almost miss it a bit, now that I'm writing this and listening to the album (clearly those memories have grown a lot sweeter with time). Oh, and speaking of Torchwood, I guess I must have listened to this on my trip to Cardiff as well, cos it reminds me of that, too.

+3 Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal (entire album)

This, again, is a very specific one - surprisingly so for an entire album. Earlier this summer I read the book Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (I may write about it sometime, as that book really moved me). I'd just found Of Monsters and Men and loved their entire album (which is very rare for me, as I usually only like specific songs), and for some reason I put the album on repeat while reading the book - I think it was because I got annoyed at the stupid radio presenters who kept ruining the mood. Anyway, the book was so very moving, and I got so caught up in it, that now those songs always remind me of it.

So here's my list of 5 (+3)! What's yours?

I also challenge Anna to make a list of her own!