Maybe I'm a wimp, but I feel like I am drowning in work. At least I was, until I decided to drop one course out of 7...I know it does not sound much at all, but it feels like so much more work, compared to my home university. And in Dortmund I usually have about 10 courses per semester. The difference here is that everybody wants you to write learning diaries for every seminar, read several texts per seminar per week and also prepare essays for almost every course. In U.S. Politics and Cultures after 9/11, the course which I decided to quit, was really interesting, but we had to read 4-5 longer texts every week, and read them so well, that we could write a summary on whichever text the lecturer would randomly pick at the beginning of the class. For that course, we'd have to write 2 essays, one in the middle of the semester, one at the end. In Germany, we usually have time at the end of the semester, after all the lectures, to write our papers. Here, you do it next to everything else. How do they do it? How do they have a life next to school?! Anyway, I don't want to complain a whole blog post long. Let's move on to better news.
Visiting Eila-täti
Last weekend I visited my Finnish aunt, together with my cousin and his fiancé. Sadly I was quickly at the end of my language skills. I like my language course, but it's really going awfully slow. I feel like it was so much easier to learn a new language when I was younger. Or maybe it's just because Finnish is this crazy language with almost no similarities to German or English or any other language I know, for that matter. If you want to use the negative form of a verb for example, you need to use a different form for each freaking person! Who does that?! Anyway, by last Saturday I had learned exactly two verbs: to be and to speak. Try to make a conversation out of that! So I know my numbers, and the days of the week, can say my name and age and which languages I speak, but that's about it. Well, by now we have learned some new verbs, but still wish we could just insert a memory stick in our brain and copy all the knowledge at once. That would be neat. But this way, at the end of this course I can tell people: "I speak Finnish, what's your superpower?"
Well, I feel like I'm drifting off topic. So at first, by cousin (who is also pretty fluent in English and German) translated everything for me and back, but after a while they just talked in Finnish. And sometimes I even understood what they were talking about but at other times I felt like they were in a secret language club I wasn't a member of. I bet it would be so much faster to develop Finnish skills if you were constantly among Finnish speaking people. That way you'd be forced to learn.
It was a really nice day: we had Finnish salmon soup (except that mine was without salmon because minä onlen kasvissyöjä) and blueberry pie...nom nom nom. Also, I went home with a new plant to freshen the air and a vacuum :). I really missed having a vacuum. This is so awesome! And my aunt gave me a carpet, because the floors are getting cold in winter. I feel like it's already getting cold inside my room, since they only turn on the heating when the temperature drops under an average outside temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. brrr.
Well, I feel like I'm drifting off topic. So at first, by cousin (who is also pretty fluent in English and German) translated everything for me and back, but after a while they just talked in Finnish. And sometimes I even understood what they were talking about but at other times I felt like they were in a secret language club I wasn't a member of. I bet it would be so much faster to develop Finnish skills if you were constantly among Finnish speaking people. That way you'd be forced to learn.
It was a really nice day: we had Finnish salmon soup (except that mine was without salmon because minä onlen kasvissyöjä) and blueberry pie...nom nom nom. Also, I went home with a new plant to freshen the air and a vacuum :). I really missed having a vacuum. This is so awesome! And my aunt gave me a carpet, because the floors are getting cold in winter. I feel like it's already getting cold inside my room, since they only turn on the heating when the temperature drops under an average outside temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. brrr.
Hello October
This month is going to be so eventful! :) First, my mom and dad are going to visit for a week, then my boyfriend is coming to Helsinki. Shortly after we have one week free of classes during which I am planning to explore the city a bit more. First I was going to take a trip to Lapland but now I'm thinking, I barely have time to get to know the city during the semester, so I might as well take the chance and do it then. The week after that I've decided to live a little, so I booked a 5-day-trip to St. Petersburg. I will be missing class, but since we're allowed to miss 2 classes of each course, I hope it will be ok. It's crazy here though, one teacher even lowers your final grade over 10 points for every session you miss. Unthinkable in Germany! But I think in this case - although I hate to say this cheesy sentence - you only live once, right? So sometimes you need to take the chances you're offered and miss a little school. We probably learn much more by traveling than we ever would in a classroom.
Let this be the word for tonight. You'll hear from me again soon.
Let this be the word for tonight. You'll hear from me again soon.