Control yourself, Take only what you need from it...

Last weekend I was at the Estonian themed fair. I think it went well, except that one kid almost got killed in the nursery. My task was to keep an eye on children and help the performers there. Although, there was a parental responsibility for children and I even made some very visible posters for that. But kids are still kids. So, there was two boats with wheels and kids were driving around with them. While I was drawing with one kid, some other ones were driving around with the boats and suddenly there was too much speed. So one girl drove straight into the table of the sound mixer and the huge speaker fell on one kid who was sitting and reading a book on the floor. First I only saw the speaker falling, but then I noticed that there was a kid under that! Luckily there was a father of that kid driver who lifted up the speaker, because it was really heavy. It was just a huge schock for everyone. First the boy who got hitted from the speaker was just holding his stomach and didn't say anything. He didn't even cry or scream. Finally he said that his stomach is hurting, but everything else was okay. He didn't have mobile phone with him and his mom was somewhere at the fair. When the first aid guy arrived he asked the boy does he remember his mom's number. And he did! So everything was ok with his memory and all his bones were unbroken. When the mom arrived, she wasn't shocked at all. She even said that his son is always falling from the stairs or something always happens with him. So it was a happy accident, but the boy didn't want to come back there in the next day. You just have to think about every detail and thing what can happen when children are playing. I didn't decorate that room and I think it was a bit bad idea to bring the boats to that room. They were really populat, though, but extremely dangerous. But despite all this, it was great to be with the kids and have some fun with them. We even got some free ice cream :) And I saw one of my estonian acquaintance and her 6 months old baby there. It was a real surprise when she came to look for me to the nursery. She's a bit famous in Estonia and she just got married with Estonia's one of the great musicians (and journalist and writer)who was talking about his books there at the fair. While we were talking, some kids came to ask for an autograph from her. I couldn't hold back my laughter. It was a real surprise for her too. But what the hell, let's write an autograph to the piece of paper and take a picture! It was a great weekend, but I was just exhausted after 8 hours of being in people's mass and talking and walking. There was so much noise and it can be very tiring. Because our association was organizing this, we also had to clean and pack our stuff on Sunday evening. When I got back home, I just laid in my bed and watched tv.

Time has gone so fast and soon there's Christmas! But before that I need to get my school works done, i'm going to celebrate Finland's independence day, visit some friends, go to the theatre, say goodbye to my colleauges, have a dinner and Christmas party with them aaaaand go to Depeche Mode's concert. And of course, i'm going to travel to Estonia and see my dear friends and family. Happy days are coming :)

Busy times

Yesterday I went to the univerity's international evening. One of my Czech friend asked me to go there, and I thought that why not. I skipped it last year, because I didn't feel like i'm an international student. And it was a bit weird to be there because we're speaking Finnish with my Czech friend and all the other students were speaking in English. So the evening's program started with the university's president's speech. And I have to admit that his English is quite awful. Not that i'm perfect in speaking English, but really, it was awkward. I even noticed that he made mistakes in grammar! There wasn't any articles at all. I was just wondering, why some person with better English language skills didn't help him with the speech? Despite this, everything else was nice and the others who were giving their speech did it well. And there was also a performance from Eva & Manu. The girl is from Finland and the guy is from France and they met in England while they were studying music there. And they were great! I honestly had chills while they were singing. It means that their performance really moved me. And it came out that I have heard one of their songs before. From the radio, I guess. After the speeches and musical performance the evening continued with food and wine. So we just enjoyed it as much as we could since it was for free. I also met there one of my Iranian acquaintance who's making his research here in Helsinki. So I had an opportunity to practice my English as well. After the evening in the university we decided to continue it in a bar. And when I got back home, I was a bit dipsy, but happy :)


There are busy times at school and also at work right now. At the moment i'm doing my internship in a companionship of Estonian and Finnish culture which is called Tuglas-seura. At this weekend there's going to be a big Estonian themed fair in Kaapelitehdas. And everyone from Tuglas-seura has to do there something. Including me. They gave me a task to look after children in the nursery. No one knows how many of them are going to be there. So i'm a little bit scared of what's going to happen there. If there's going to be, say 100 children, and suddenly they all want to pee or start to scream at the same time, i'm going to freak out. And I have to be there for 8 hours in two days. I think i'm going to need a good rest after this weekend. But kids are fun and i'm definately going to enjoy it as much as I can. Besides, i'm going to have an another person helping me there. So it's just the fear again. And I have to get my schoolworks done before the weekend. But everything's under control and soon there's (black) Christmas :)

Weekend pleasures

It's weekend and I can say that I have done a lot. It's like second or third weekend during last few months when i'm spending my weekend without rushing somewhere. Feels good. Last evening I went out for a speed walking after a long time. It was full moon and the ducks on the river were making some weird moves which I haven't seen before. They made some very quick moves and it sounded like a motorboat or smth. Maybe they're doing it only when it's dark? So it was kind a romnatic walk. And I also had time for my homeworks. So I finished my essay, filled in my learning diary, read and discovered Prezi.com(!). Usually i'm a bit afraid of using new things. But this time I decided to check and try the new presentation program (at least for me it's new). And it's great! I had some doubts about the Prezi, but it's really easy to use and it looks better than Power Point. Now i'm very proud of myself. Hope that there's a reason to be proud after my presentation as well. I like when things are working out and there's no need to worry. Actually, there's no need to worry at all. Never. People are worrying too much about everything. It's easier said than done, though.


I'm used to watch English tv series and films with the subtitles. But yesterday, while I was watching Midsomer Murders, subtitles suddenly disappeared (thank you, Yle). Sometimes it is difficult to understand England's English without having subtitles. But all went just fine and I understood all the killer's motives and Barnaby's jokes. But sometimes subtitles help you to learn some new word or saying.

Now I should make some grammar exercises and learn the new words. But maybe later. Now it's time to relax and do something fun, like going and feeding the ducks or read Anna Gavalda's book. Hard to choose.

At the moment I've got some time and i'm just copying my old texts from the notebook. From now on I promise to write here every day. We'll see.

Some more videos from Ted.com. I have to admit that it is quite difficult to choose something from there. There are just so many interesting speeches, but most of them are also quite specific and hard to understand. When i'm watching and listening some speech, I have to use English subtitles. And I have to watch one video at least three times to get and remember someting. I'm not very good at telling stories or paraphrasing something. But i'll do my best.

So the next video I watched was about how your brain knows where you are by Neil Burgess. The video is very interesting and there are a lot of good animations and drawings (or however these things are called). For me the speech was a bit too fast and there are a lot of medical terms. So I had to watch that video at least 4 times before I understood what's happening in our brains while we're moving around and recognizing places. There's like hundreds of billions of different neurons in our brains and the neurons are sending signals to each other. The scientists have done some tests on rats or mices and they have begun to understand how spatial memory works by recording from individual neurons in these animals while they forage or explore an environment looking for food. So also humans have the same reactions in their brains. The main point of that speech was that different patterns of electrical activity in brains cells guide us through space. Those pictures and animations helped me a bit to understand some more of that whole thing.

I should now start to watch and listen some podcasts. Enough of Ted.com. Altough BBC Radio 6 music is also a podcast, but usually i'm not really listening to it. It's just a backround.

More independent work

Now i'm trying to make up my independent work. I haven't written down my thoughts often, but that doesn't mean that i'm not doing anything. It just takes time to think and then to write something. Especially in English. It just feels like I can't say everything I would like to. I know that we can also write some stupid or "not so deep" thoughts, but when I do something, i'd like to do it properly. And it disturbs me that I don't have sufficient vocabulary and my grammar sucks. I should take some English schoolbook for the beginners and start to learn some basic stuff. Because 4 years of English lessons are not enough and I have learned from the media by listening.

I really thought and hoped that I would have more time to learn English. But it seems that I haven't done enpough. Though, I have learned some new words and how to write academic texts. At least something, huh?

I also have started to read my academic book for the class presentation. This book is called "Naming and Identity. A cross-cultural Study Of Personal Naming Practices" by Richard D. Alford. Why that book? Because at the moment i'm interested on people's names and also identity. I would like to do my Master's research about my name. I've got some ideas, but nothing specific. For example I could interview estonian women in Finland called Kai. It's because Kai is a men's name here in Finland (and also everywhere else, except in Estonia). I have had some weird coincidences and situations in Finland and I also didn't like my name when I was a child. So that subject just seems interesting for me. And also personal. I'm having some great courses about names and naming, so I hope that this will work out.

About my academic book. It's about naming rituals and naming in general in different societies. There are very interesting examples of name bestowal in different societies. For instance the period of naming is varying from society to society. It depends on society's beliefs and traditions. In most of the nordic countries you have to name your child after at least 6 months after child's born, but e.g. Ganda children are named in a group ceremony after they are weaned at three-plus years of age. The difference between name givers is also quite big.

Alford says that to name a child is to help shape that child's identity. Nietzsche suggests that name giving is an act of power by which the name giver takes possession of the named entity. In some societies parents (or some other name givers)first are giving an ugly name to their child or just calling her/she "boy" or "girl". When the child has grown older, he/she can pick a new name for him/herself. I found it really impressive. Sometimes parents really don't know what tey are doing by naming a child. There can be very awful and insulting names that parents can give. At least there are naming laws in most of the countries, but not in America for example.So parents can name a child "Destynee" or "Krystougher". But still there are weird names in the countries where naming law applies. So if you really care about your child's future, give him/her an ageless and easy name.

Stop killing animals

What else have I done for my independent work module? Well, I watched a speech kalled "Leather and meat without killing animals". It's just incredible how far can the science go. In that video Andras Forgacs tells us, how hea has created new technique to make leather without killing animals. He is using animals cells to grow leather with them. He takes cells from some animal and then coax these cells and after that grow the sheets. He also had an example of the piece of that leather which is made without killing an animal. I understand that this is a big problem when people are killing animals and all the fabrics are destroying our environment. But isn't it too much? Do we need leather at all? Ok, yes, we need shoes and stuff like that, but maybe there's another opportunity to replace leather. People have killed animals for ages and that is for a reason. They want food. And when you kill an animal for food, you also have to remove it's skin. Sounds discusting, but that's how it is. Now you can say that we don't have to eat meat at all. Ok, at least not that much as in US. But it's the most important food to get necessary iron. And I think that in a climate like here or in Estonia you just have to eat some meat. At least a bit. Bff, I really don't want to argue with this topic, but that video made me think of things like that. I totally understand that killing animals has gone too far and there's a lot of animal fabrics which are causing problems for the environment. People's wishes to get meat and leather have grown and there has to be something done. So here's the one option - to grow animals cells without killing them.

My English blog begins

Oh well, what can I say...I can be very stupid sometimes. I started my blog (or diary) by writing down my thoughts in the notebook. When I told my friends about that, they laughed and asked, why am I doing this and wouldn't it be easier to use my old blog and just continue with that. So here I am again. But this time I have to write in English. Hope my teatcher's going to forgive me that it took so long. Now I just have to make some double work. But I think it's worth it and it's easier for my teatcher to read from the blog (not from my handwritten diary!).

In the beginning I thought that yeah, this is so original to write in a notebook. Plus it's healthier, safer and I can do it where ever I want. But it came out that I need to use computer anyway to use dictionary or check something from the Google.

I should jot down my thoughts about independent work or whatever comes to my mind. So here it comes...

When our English class started, I watched on Ted.com website a video about how schools kill creativity. In that video Ken Robinson is telling us that being afraid of being wrong is the main problem in schools. I can't agree more. He says that public education is focused on producing university professors. I think it's because our society affects us and everything is focused on producing more money. You just can't be rich if you work as a dancer or musician. That's what people usually think. In my opinion the Ken Robinson's speech is very good and he gives a lot of vivid examples. He's also funny and meanwhile it felt like he's a stand-up comedian or something. But I totally agree with him that we're over producing people with high education and it's getting more difficult to get a job after graduating from university. And high education is not for everyone. I also think that teatchers should take every student into account separately and target them. I know that it's difficult, but not impossible though.

And I decided to keep my posts public. Maybe for my friend it's not so interesting to read, but then they can see how i'm using my free time. And have a great laugh maybe :)