It's been a while since my last post here, but nothing really has happened during the week. Just the last two days are worth telling about, I guess.
During the week I've been to university almost each day. I learned more Finnish! Especially interesting was the short information about reconstructed historical Finnish. It made many things so much clearer for me! And even some Finnish people I told about that were surprised. It's always so interesting to learn a language because people who speak that language since ever are having a totally different view on it. That's actually why it is so much fun to me to teach people my own mothertongue, German. Because they see things I do not see. They make me think about why I say something like this and not otherwise. So I'm really happy to have another language tandem again! I'm going to teach one Finnish girl German and I'll learn even more Finnish from her!
Apart from Finnish courses, I did also have courses related to Baltic Sea Region. I really like the course Knowledge about Finland - although I do already know about half of what is taught there.
But I actually did not want to talk about university at all actually. Except for the Euroopan Kielten Päivä maybe which was at friday in the Educarium building. Some students have prepared tables with information about, well, Europe's languages obviously. Also, some institutions of the university like the language center have introduced themselves. It was really nice for me to learn some words in Hungarian. :D They actually became rather useful later on!
Because ...
duh-duh-duh
... at Saturday evening there as a Get-to-know evening organised by TYRMY, the association for Heavy Music here at the University of Turku. It was really nice to meet some new metalheads! Although I spent - unfortunately actually - most time with the other exchange students.
For the first time I've been talking to this one Hungarian girl who is also in all three Finnish courses I'm having. I knew that she was into metal too, but, well, as always, I'm just too shy to approach people by myself. But yesterday was kind of different. And it came in handy, too, that I learned a few Hungarian words. :D Not that I needed to talk in her language - not at all, she speaks English and Finnish too - but it was kind of nice to surprise her by saying "Égészségeré" or however it is spelled. xD (For those who don't know, that's "Cheers" in Hungarian.)
After that very entertaining evening there with the metalheads, I went to a karaoke-bar together with a few of my new acquaintances. Three of my friends were already waiting there and I suppose they were actually pretty pissed that they had to wait for that long (my apologies to all three of you! ._.)
It was really fun though in the karaoke-bar. We all metalheads ended up singing Ensiferum's Lai Lai Hei. :D It must've sound awful. :D But it was fun!
I'm so looking forward to next weekend because then even more TYRMY-people will go to the same karaoke-bar! That'll be awesome!
Today I had my first lesson in medieval sword fighting. Woohoo! :D
I learned how to walk correctly. How to hold a wooden stick to make it look like a sword, how to stab people with a dagger and how prevent being stabbed myself. :D
I can now truly say: Minä tapaan ja tapan uutta ystävää. (I meet and I kill new friends.
-- This is one of the funny things of the Finnish language: These two words sound very similar and for a foreigner it's really hard to pronounce the difference. So whenever I say "I meet a friend", it may sound like "I kill a friend" to all Finns.)
I'm really interested to take this sword-fighting course! Why actually not?
Sonntag, 28. September 2014
Samstag, 20. September 2014
One spontaneous adventure...
Last saturday after the Moonsorrow-concert I made acquaintance of a guy named Aki. We were chatting a little bit after the concert and when Honoka left me, he stayed with me waiting for my bus to leave at 5 am.
Now, this thursday he gave away a free entrance to a festival in Helsinki called Unioni-festival. I've been seeing posters for this festival everywhere and I was so sad that I could not go there because there was going to be Insomnium and Arch Enemy playing. But since I've already been to Helsinki last week and I'm constantly being low on money I decided not to go there. Well... but then it happened that he actually made it possible to skip the entrance fee for the concert. Still I was thinking like maybe the whole day if I'd want to go there or not (Of course I wanted to go there!) and calculated how much the bus tickets would be. In the end they turned out to be some 28-ish euros because I booked so late. I think that was pretty okay for seeing two bands I really like!
It even got more crazy. When I arrived to Helsinki, Aki was mentioning "Ah, by the way, we're going to meet Arch Enemy at around eight."
I was like "What? ... Wait ... what?!"
Of course, that was the day when I just left my camera at home. xD As usual. If something like that happens I always forget something anywhere.
I was pretty excited because I've never been backstage in my whole life before. Apart from that ... well, these band people are just people like you and me. They use the same toilet paper as we all do. (Hopefully...) Still, it was interesting to see these people from so very close. And to be present when an interview is just being taken is also very interesting.
And uh ... to prove that I was there there's been made - of course - a photo too. xD
Ah, I just don't like how I look there. But no one looks really amazing. Alissa can look so much better.
Of course, as always in situations like that, I end up saying something entirely stupid. This time it was "I like your hair!" as if I was just some ... girly fangirl-thingy. xD But it's true, her hair is pretty amazing. (I wonder how often she has to dye it to keep the blue colour upright...)
Also, I of course left more money than I actually wanted because I had to buy this Insomnium t-shirt.
And the prices for alcohol in this club were just like hell. 6,50 for one beer! I'm so looking forward to going back to Germany if it comes to affordable alcohol. Other than that, I'd really like to stay in Finland forever. <3
Needless to say that the rest of the evening was just plain amazing! I missed almost the whole gig of The Man Eating Tree because I needed to get some cash for that Insomnium t-shirt but what I've seen has been quite nice.
Lost Society was also a new band for me but their live performance was really enjoyable. These guys just have so much energy! Amazing!
Of course, Insomnium was great! I actually discovered them only this year just a few weeks before I went to see them live at a festival in Germany. But I really love their melancholic music.
And Arch Enemy. Whoah! I saw them already at Wacken and at Rockharz. I think Alissa is doing her job pretty good! Although I must say I never saw them live with Angela, so I can not really compare it.
Yes... I've been here in Finland for a bit more than a month now and already been to three awesome concerts. I'm very curious about what'll be coming up next.
Now, this thursday he gave away a free entrance to a festival in Helsinki called Unioni-festival. I've been seeing posters for this festival everywhere and I was so sad that I could not go there because there was going to be Insomnium and Arch Enemy playing. But since I've already been to Helsinki last week and I'm constantly being low on money I decided not to go there. Well... but then it happened that he actually made it possible to skip the entrance fee for the concert. Still I was thinking like maybe the whole day if I'd want to go there or not (Of course I wanted to go there!) and calculated how much the bus tickets would be. In the end they turned out to be some 28-ish euros because I booked so late. I think that was pretty okay for seeing two bands I really like!
It even got more crazy. When I arrived to Helsinki, Aki was mentioning "Ah, by the way, we're going to meet Arch Enemy at around eight."
I was like "What? ... Wait ... what?!"
Of course, that was the day when I just left my camera at home. xD As usual. If something like that happens I always forget something anywhere.
I was pretty excited because I've never been backstage in my whole life before. Apart from that ... well, these band people are just people like you and me. They use the same toilet paper as we all do. (Hopefully...) Still, it was interesting to see these people from so very close. And to be present when an interview is just being taken is also very interesting.
And uh ... to prove that I was there there's been made - of course - a photo too. xD
Of course, as always in situations like that, I end up saying something entirely stupid. This time it was "I like your hair!" as if I was just some ... girly fangirl-thingy. xD But it's true, her hair is pretty amazing. (I wonder how often she has to dye it to keep the blue colour upright...)
Also, I of course left more money than I actually wanted because I had to buy this Insomnium t-shirt.
And the prices for alcohol in this club were just like hell. 6,50 for one beer! I'm so looking forward to going back to Germany if it comes to affordable alcohol. Other than that, I'd really like to stay in Finland forever. <3
Needless to say that the rest of the evening was just plain amazing! I missed almost the whole gig of The Man Eating Tree because I needed to get some cash for that Insomnium t-shirt but what I've seen has been quite nice.
Lost Society was also a new band for me but their live performance was really enjoyable. These guys just have so much energy! Amazing!
Of course, Insomnium was great! I actually discovered them only this year just a few weeks before I went to see them live at a festival in Germany. But I really love their melancholic music.
And Arch Enemy. Whoah! I saw them already at Wacken and at Rockharz. I think Alissa is doing her job pretty good! Although I must say I never saw them live with Angela, so I can not really compare it.
Yes... I've been here in Finland for a bit more than a month now and already been to three awesome concerts. I'm very curious about what'll be coming up next.
Donnerstag, 18. September 2014
One month in Finland!
This is with much delay, my apologies.
I will just copy something I have previously posted. These are some thoughts about what I have already done here in my first month in Finland and what I am still up to.
Previously published at 15. Sep., 10:52 am
Oh noes, I missed the date totally because I was too busy recently.
But three days ago, the 12th of september was the day. I am now in Finland for one month already. 4 months to go.
I thought, this would be a nice occassion to think about what I have done so far and what is still on my to do list.
What I've done so far:
- I inscribed to university and got (almost) all paperwork done. (I still need to print and sign one paper for my home university which I only received two days ago and I did not have access to a printer until now.)
- I've been to a finnish excavation and found a lot of iron nails and met many interesting finnish people there.
- I made acquaintance of quite many people from all over the world. Of these acquaintances there is only a small handful of people with whom I'm spending my time. I'm glad that among these people are only three other Germans (three German guys, because I don't like girls), then a Swedish girl, an American girl, a Japanese girl, a French guy. ... I think that's it.
- I got to know far more Finns than foreigners, which is great! I try to become friends or at least good acquaintances with these Finns, because my purpose of being here is to improve my Finnish after all.
- I've seen my beloved Helsinki.
- I've been to two concerts. :)
What I still have to do:
- Go to sauna. Yes, I haven't been to sauna yet. What a shame! I need to do that, but probably I first need to get rid of my flu.
- See northern lights. Apparently there was northern lights activity in southern Finland last weekend, but I was too tired on friday and was inside of light-polluted Helsinki on saturday so I did not see them, unfortunately. :(
- I want to go to Northern Finland.
- Visit Stockholm.
- Visit Tallinn.
- Watch an ice-hockey match in a stadium.
- Find a finnish boyfriend. xD (Well, this is semi-serious. I know how much of a problem I have with closeness and then I will be gone back to Germany at january so it would not make sense at all! But ... hm. I'd really like the idea to be married to a Finn some day, because I love these finnish lastnames.)
Well. Anything else I want to achieve here? I will think about it and tell about my progress at the 12th of October. Perhaps. Or later, if I forget. :D
I will just copy something I have previously posted. These are some thoughts about what I have already done here in my first month in Finland and what I am still up to.
Previously published at 15. Sep., 10:52 am
Oh noes, I missed the date totally because I was too busy recently.
But three days ago, the 12th of september was the day. I am now in Finland for one month already. 4 months to go.
I thought, this would be a nice occassion to think about what I have done so far and what is still on my to do list.
What I've done so far:
- I inscribed to university and got (almost) all paperwork done. (I still need to print and sign one paper for my home university which I only received two days ago and I did not have access to a printer until now.)
- I've been to a finnish excavation and found a lot of iron nails and met many interesting finnish people there.
- I made acquaintance of quite many people from all over the world. Of these acquaintances there is only a small handful of people with whom I'm spending my time. I'm glad that among these people are only three other Germans (three German guys, because I don't like girls), then a Swedish girl, an American girl, a Japanese girl, a French guy. ... I think that's it.
- I got to know far more Finns than foreigners, which is great! I try to become friends or at least good acquaintances with these Finns, because my purpose of being here is to improve my Finnish after all.
- I've seen my beloved Helsinki.
- I've been to two concerts. :)
What I still have to do:
- Go to sauna. Yes, I haven't been to sauna yet. What a shame! I need to do that, but probably I first need to get rid of my flu.
- See northern lights. Apparently there was northern lights activity in southern Finland last weekend, but I was too tired on friday and was inside of light-polluted Helsinki on saturday so I did not see them, unfortunately. :(
- I want to go to Northern Finland.
- Visit Stockholm.
- Visit Tallinn.
- Watch an ice-hockey match in a stadium.
- Find a finnish boyfriend. xD (Well, this is semi-serious. I know how much of a problem I have with closeness and then I will be gone back to Germany at january so it would not make sense at all! But ... hm. I'd really like the idea to be married to a Finn some day, because I love these finnish lastnames.)
Well. Anything else I want to achieve here? I will think about it and tell about my progress at the 12th of October. Perhaps. Or later, if I forget. :D
Moonsorrow! (13. Sep.)
One of my favourite bands - Moonsorrow - was giving a gig in Helsinki last saturday. They were accompanied by Crimfall, a band I vaguely knew thus far and which I actually found quite good. I have to admit though that I'm not at all a fan of female voices (hah, although I'm a female myself xD) so ... hm, I preferred the male sung parts of Crimfall.
But Moonsorrow! Aww, it was soooo awesome!
I went to the concert with a japanese girl from my finnish class. Yes, it's awesome, isn't it? Here are people from far-away Japan who are learning how to speak finnish! Also, a Japanese girl who loves finnish metal. Plain awesome! Honoka, I love you! :D
It was a very nice day we had together. And this although I had a big and ugly flu and therefore took some Aspirin to get rid of my headache. Of course, I needed to drink some beer too. I only thought one would get drunk more quickly if you take Aspirin and alcohol. But apparently there's the danger that your tummy may bleed which is not nice at all. I was lucky that day, but please, kids don't do that at home!
I will ask Honoka later if I'm allowed to add some of her photos to my blog.
And for all who are interested, the setlist of Moonsorrow looked as followed:
Tulimyrsky
Pimeä
Jumalten Kaupunki
1065: Aika
Taistelu Pohjolasta
Jotunheim
Muinaiset
Pakanajuhla
Sankaritarina
Plain awesome! One of the best concerts I've been to this year and by far the best gig of Moonsorrow I've seen.
But Moonsorrow! Aww, it was soooo awesome!
I went to the concert with a japanese girl from my finnish class. Yes, it's awesome, isn't it? Here are people from far-away Japan who are learning how to speak finnish! Also, a Japanese girl who loves finnish metal. Plain awesome! Honoka, I love you! :D
It was a very nice day we had together. And this although I had a big and ugly flu and therefore took some Aspirin to get rid of my headache. Of course, I needed to drink some beer too. I only thought one would get drunk more quickly if you take Aspirin and alcohol. But apparently there's the danger that your tummy may bleed which is not nice at all. I was lucky that day, but please, kids don't do that at home!
I will ask Honoka later if I'm allowed to add some of her photos to my blog.
And for all who are interested, the setlist of Moonsorrow looked as followed:
Tulimyrsky
Pimeä
Jumalten Kaupunki
1065: Aika
Taistelu Pohjolasta
Jotunheim
Muinaiset
Pakanajuhla
Sankaritarina
Plain awesome! One of the best concerts I've been to this year and by far the best gig of Moonsorrow I've seen.
University and the first gig! Week 4 and 5 (1. Sep. - 14. Sep.)
University in Finland is a bit different to what I'm used to in Germany. The greatest difference may be that here each term is divided into two periods. And that has a huge impact on the process of creating a timetable.
There can be courses which will be offered in period I and II. That likely means that the course - like in Germany - contains one lecture in the week and lasts until the end of the term.
Then there's the possibility that a course is only meant for one period. In this case it's likely that there will be held two lectures in a week. The tests will then be written at the end of the term.
Then there's courses which are twice a week but go through the whole term.
And there can be so-called Blockseminare like on Germany. That basically means that the whole programme of the course is put into 4-5 longer sessions. This can be quite annoying if these sessions are inmidst of a week and therefore impossible to come to all sessions of the course, except if you skip the other...
It was sooooo difficult and frustrating to generate my timetable this term because it's so much easier in Germany! There you just go into the internet platform, roll in for the courses you want to visit and it automatically generates your timetable. But I guess I did it quite well here in Finland nevertheless.
Another thing which is different are so-called book-exams. You don't go and listen to a kecture and write a test based on what has been said there, no. Instead you are given one or more books and have to read them on your own and then finally write a test at the end of the term. I would have loved to listen to a lecture about Finland's prehistory, but unfortunately, this course is one of these book-exams. So I decided not to take this course, unfortunately.
I did not only want to talk about University here, although the title says so.
Also, I've been at a little concert organized by TYRMY at the 5th of September. It was held in a small pub here in Turku called Rokbar. There were three not so well known finnish bands presented: Iskulintu, Gladenfold and Korpikuusen Kyynel.
Iskulintu was pretty interesting, something I've never seen before! There were just two guys, one playing an electric kantele and singing, the other playing a drum with a stick which ressembled very much a stoneage-hatchet. :D They are most likely to put into the wide category of folkmetal or something, but it was so refreshening that they were so different. There were no bagpipes, no whistles, no violin and all the like, just the kantele. So very pure. And it sounded like they were straight coming from the midst of a dark, finnish wood. I really liked them and I'd love to see them on a medieval market maybe.
The second band, Gladenfold was something like Power Metalish, perhaps. I really liked them, they were powerful and not boring to listen to because their music was pretty varied for me. Also, I really liked their vocals which is by far the most important thing for me. If I don't like the singer's voice, I won't like the band.
And that was the case - unfortunately - for the last band of the night, Korpikuusen Kyynel. I was expecting something like a Korpiklaani-clone, so a partyband singing songs about drinking booze and stuff... I listened to one of their songs beforehand on Youtube or Facebook but shut it off because I did not like the female singer's voice at all. So I did not even stay for their gig but went home instead.
Also, it was very interesting that evening to meet two German guys who both are into Metal obviously and who both do not live so very far away from me in Germany. The world is soooo small. <3
There can be courses which will be offered in period I and II. That likely means that the course - like in Germany - contains one lecture in the week and lasts until the end of the term.
Then there's the possibility that a course is only meant for one period. In this case it's likely that there will be held two lectures in a week. The tests will then be written at the end of the term.
Then there's courses which are twice a week but go through the whole term.
And there can be so-called Blockseminare like on Germany. That basically means that the whole programme of the course is put into 4-5 longer sessions. This can be quite annoying if these sessions are inmidst of a week and therefore impossible to come to all sessions of the course, except if you skip the other...
It was sooooo difficult and frustrating to generate my timetable this term because it's so much easier in Germany! There you just go into the internet platform, roll in for the courses you want to visit and it automatically generates your timetable. But I guess I did it quite well here in Finland nevertheless.
Another thing which is different are so-called book-exams. You don't go and listen to a kecture and write a test based on what has been said there, no. Instead you are given one or more books and have to read them on your own and then finally write a test at the end of the term. I would have loved to listen to a lecture about Finland's prehistory, but unfortunately, this course is one of these book-exams. So I decided not to take this course, unfortunately.
I did not only want to talk about University here, although the title says so.
Also, I've been at a little concert organized by TYRMY at the 5th of September. It was held in a small pub here in Turku called Rokbar. There were three not so well known finnish bands presented: Iskulintu, Gladenfold and Korpikuusen Kyynel.
Iskulintu was pretty interesting, something I've never seen before! There were just two guys, one playing an electric kantele and singing, the other playing a drum with a stick which ressembled very much a stoneage-hatchet. :D They are most likely to put into the wide category of folkmetal or something, but it was so refreshening that they were so different. There were no bagpipes, no whistles, no violin and all the like, just the kantele. So very pure. And it sounded like they were straight coming from the midst of a dark, finnish wood. I really liked them and I'd love to see them on a medieval market maybe.
The second band, Gladenfold was something like Power Metalish, perhaps. I really liked them, they were powerful and not boring to listen to because their music was pretty varied for me. Also, I really liked their vocals which is by far the most important thing for me. If I don't like the singer's voice, I won't like the band.
And that was the case - unfortunately - for the last band of the night, Korpikuusen Kyynel. I was expecting something like a Korpiklaani-clone, so a partyband singing songs about drinking booze and stuff... I listened to one of their songs beforehand on Youtube or Facebook but shut it off because I did not like the female singer's voice at all. So I did not even stay for their gig but went home instead.
Also, it was very interesting that evening to meet two German guys who both are into Metal obviously and who both do not live so very far away from me in Germany. The world is soooo small. <3
The third week (25. Aug. - 31. Aug.)
The beginning of the week was as usual: I spent my days from the early morning until the late afternoon at the excavation. I found a few iron nails, enjoyed my stay there with my finnish fellow archaeologists and of course got wet again.
If I'm allowed to (I will ask beforehand) I will upload one picture here which I've done with my mobile phone because I found the construction so interesting. Because it rained to much, the finnish team has built some kind of roof out of plastic planes to cover the archaeologists from the heavy rain while they were working. It looked pretty funny and adventurous but actually proved to be quite efficient!
That were the first two days of the week.
Wednesday began the Orientation Week for all new Exchange Students. That's why I was not able to go to excavation anymore - unfortunately - but stuck in university. It was quite nice though to meet the people I'm going to spend a lot of time during the next few weeks and months. People from all over the world! How interesting!
One thing which bothers me though is the fact that among the exchange students there are too many other Germans. I try to avoid having contact to Germans as much as I can because I'm not here to speak German. Of course, it's not possible to avoid them entirely. Most of the time I'm speaking english even with the Germans. xD Mostly because we're in a group of more people and there's at least one among who does not understand German.
Well. Since Serena has mentioned it in her blog (I may link this later if I don't forget), there was a welcome fair at friday of this week where different studentoranisations presented themselves. It's so very interesting what finnish students are doing here! What kinds of clubs and activities are offered at this university!
There's even one club for Heavy Metal. It's called TYRMY. I found this very interesting! It was actually Serena who introduced me to this club. She's an American girl doing her Masterdegree here in Finland (oh how I envy her!) and she's studying musicology. Actually, she says, she's a very introvert person who has difficulties with getting into contact with other people (just like me, heh), but she took herself together and spoke to me in order to ask me if I heard of TYRMY already. I suppose this is how a nice friendship was born. :D I will continue envying her. I hope she's okay with that.
Well... what happened else in this week? Nothing much more, I suppose.
One thing worth mentioning is maybe that the weather - of course - stopped being bad and wet as soon as I switched my archaeologist's rubber boots to more comfy university sneakers... -.- As soon as I have to sit in crowded lecture halls, the weather got sunny and shiny and beautiful again! So ... probably Joonas is just right if he calls me an evil weather-witch (I just must not tell him that he's probably right with that...!)
I may add something more later if it comes to my mind.
If I'm allowed to (I will ask beforehand) I will upload one picture here which I've done with my mobile phone because I found the construction so interesting. Because it rained to much, the finnish team has built some kind of roof out of plastic planes to cover the archaeologists from the heavy rain while they were working. It looked pretty funny and adventurous but actually proved to be quite efficient!
That were the first two days of the week.
Wednesday began the Orientation Week for all new Exchange Students. That's why I was not able to go to excavation anymore - unfortunately - but stuck in university. It was quite nice though to meet the people I'm going to spend a lot of time during the next few weeks and months. People from all over the world! How interesting!
One thing which bothers me though is the fact that among the exchange students there are too many other Germans. I try to avoid having contact to Germans as much as I can because I'm not here to speak German. Of course, it's not possible to avoid them entirely. Most of the time I'm speaking english even with the Germans. xD Mostly because we're in a group of more people and there's at least one among who does not understand German.
Well. Since Serena has mentioned it in her blog (I may link this later if I don't forget), there was a welcome fair at friday of this week where different studentoranisations presented themselves. It's so very interesting what finnish students are doing here! What kinds of clubs and activities are offered at this university!
There's even one club for Heavy Metal. It's called TYRMY. I found this very interesting! It was actually Serena who introduced me to this club. She's an American girl doing her Masterdegree here in Finland (oh how I envy her!) and she's studying musicology. Actually, she says, she's a very introvert person who has difficulties with getting into contact with other people (just like me, heh), but she took herself together and spoke to me in order to ask me if I heard of TYRMY already. I suppose this is how a nice friendship was born. :D I will continue envying her. I hope she's okay with that.
Well... what happened else in this week? Nothing much more, I suppose.
One thing worth mentioning is maybe that the weather - of course - stopped being bad and wet as soon as I switched my archaeologist's rubber boots to more comfy university sneakers... -.- As soon as I have to sit in crowded lecture halls, the weather got sunny and shiny and beautiful again! So ... probably Joonas is just right if he calls me an evil weather-witch (I just must not tell him that he's probably right with that...!)
I may add something more later if it comes to my mind.
Mittwoch, 17. September 2014
The second week (18. Aug. - 24. Aug.)
Finland has greeted me with very warm and nice weather when I arrived (I had like two jackets on on my arrival date, mainly because they did not fit anymore into the suitcase, not because I expected a harsh cold up here) and I sweated like nothing. However, the weather pretty soon changed from this nice and sunny feel to something more uncozy: The temperature was around maybe 14°C and the rain did not want to stop at all.
At my third day of excavation I looked out of the window and wrote a textmessage to Joonas "Good morning, uh ... are we out today?" I expected him to answer something like "Nah, not today", but the opposite was the case. He said: "Put your waterproof clothes on and come out." Well... I did not bring any waterproof clothes to Finland! So ... the start of the second week of excavation was actually not so pretty nice. But it got nicer with every day and the end of the week it was dry again. Hooray!
My highlight of the week was that I bought myself a pair of winterrubberboots for a huge amount of money. But that was totally worth it!
Because not much else happened, except for the excavation, and I do not want to annoy my dear readers with details - not to mention the fact that I actually am not able to recall all details anymore - I will just copy another text I have already written back then. It compares German and Finnish archaeologists, based on my own observations.
(originally published on the 24. Aug. at 7:24 am)
The digging method
Well, I have to state beforehand that this excavation here was a research excavation. There's a difference between research excavations and rescue excavations:
The first are carried out by universities and they are rather slowly proceeding. There are a lot of students who may have never worked in an excavation before, so they're there to learn it. I've been to only two rescue excavations now, one in Germany and this one in Finland and I'm not sure yet if the comparison is legitime...
I've been spending much more time on the latter kind, the rescue excavations. These are carried out by the office of preservation of ancient monuments and they need to be done as quickly as possible. This is also where money is to be expected because usually there's someone behind (private person or more commonly an orginasation) who wants to build some buildings onto the land which holds ancient monuments. We have pretty well knowledge (in Germany) about where monuments are to be expected. Se before anything can be built, archaeologists have to be send there and rescue what is still there. You can imagine, there's a lot of pressure because these people want to build their buildings as soon as possible. There's a lot of holes to be dug, hard physical labour. But also fun.
So... In Germany, on all my rescue excavations and also on the one research excavation I had to dig holes into the ground, using a shovel and a spade mainly. In Finland it's funnily very different. :D The area is divided into 1 x 1 m squares and each student gets one or two of these squares. Then he/she sits there on the floor and scratches away a few centimetres of dirt using a little trowel. You can imagine, the progress here feels really slow for me. But it's really relaxing. <3
I have to add there's a pretty interesting tool the finnish people are using: It's like a combination of shovel and spade I haven't seen before in Germany. I'm pretty sure this comes in quite handy.
The students
In Germany, studying archaeology seems to be equally popular among boys and girls. Perhaps there are a few more male people, resulting in a relation of 60/40 or 70/30 (men/women).
Finnland is different! On this excavation there were only 4 boys and about 20 girls. It confused me pretty much once I recognised that and I started asking if it's normal that there are so few men. Everyone said "Yep, that's normal!". One girl stated, the relation may be something about 10/90 or 20/80 highest. Funny, for me.
The smoking
One thing which really disgusts me at german excavations is that almost everyone seems to be smoking. Maybe I was just a bit unlucky with my team in this matter (these are awesome people nevertheless! they're just having a bad habit).
In Finland, I've seen only one smoker on the excavation so far. And he seems to be so ashamed that he's hiding far away in the bushes to smoke his cigarette. :D
The footwear
In Germany it is obligatory to wear safety boots with steel bars, since the spades have to be really sharp in order to cut the earth easily and tidily.
Finns however wear normal rubber boots on their excavations. :D Without steel caps. Okay, it's comprehendable if you read my complaints about the wet finnish weather carefully. Still it feels weird for me.
In summer, when the weather is nice, I've even seen a picture where finnish archaeologists wear sandals. Or walk around barefooted. That's not allowed in Germany.
I think these are all observations I can think of right now. I may add more if more comes to my mind.
At my third day of excavation I looked out of the window and wrote a textmessage to Joonas "Good morning, uh ... are we out today?" I expected him to answer something like "Nah, not today", but the opposite was the case. He said: "Put your waterproof clothes on and come out." Well... I did not bring any waterproof clothes to Finland! So ... the start of the second week of excavation was actually not so pretty nice. But it got nicer with every day and the end of the week it was dry again. Hooray!
My highlight of the week was that I bought myself a pair of winterrubberboots for a huge amount of money. But that was totally worth it!
Because not much else happened, except for the excavation, and I do not want to annoy my dear readers with details - not to mention the fact that I actually am not able to recall all details anymore - I will just copy another text I have already written back then. It compares German and Finnish archaeologists, based on my own observations.
(originally published on the 24. Aug. at 7:24 am)
The digging method
Well, I have to state beforehand that this excavation here was a research excavation. There's a difference between research excavations and rescue excavations:
The first are carried out by universities and they are rather slowly proceeding. There are a lot of students who may have never worked in an excavation before, so they're there to learn it. I've been to only two rescue excavations now, one in Germany and this one in Finland and I'm not sure yet if the comparison is legitime...
I've been spending much more time on the latter kind, the rescue excavations. These are carried out by the office of preservation of ancient monuments and they need to be done as quickly as possible. This is also where money is to be expected because usually there's someone behind (private person or more commonly an orginasation) who wants to build some buildings onto the land which holds ancient monuments. We have pretty well knowledge (in Germany) about where monuments are to be expected. Se before anything can be built, archaeologists have to be send there and rescue what is still there. You can imagine, there's a lot of pressure because these people want to build their buildings as soon as possible. There's a lot of holes to be dug, hard physical labour. But also fun.
So... In Germany, on all my rescue excavations and also on the one research excavation I had to dig holes into the ground, using a shovel and a spade mainly. In Finland it's funnily very different. :D The area is divided into 1 x 1 m squares and each student gets one or two of these squares. Then he/she sits there on the floor and scratches away a few centimetres of dirt using a little trowel. You can imagine, the progress here feels really slow for me. But it's really relaxing. <3
I have to add there's a pretty interesting tool the finnish people are using: It's like a combination of shovel and spade I haven't seen before in Germany. I'm pretty sure this comes in quite handy.
The students
In Germany, studying archaeology seems to be equally popular among boys and girls. Perhaps there are a few more male people, resulting in a relation of 60/40 or 70/30 (men/women).
Finnland is different! On this excavation there were only 4 boys and about 20 girls. It confused me pretty much once I recognised that and I started asking if it's normal that there are so few men. Everyone said "Yep, that's normal!". One girl stated, the relation may be something about 10/90 or 20/80 highest. Funny, for me.
The smoking
One thing which really disgusts me at german excavations is that almost everyone seems to be smoking. Maybe I was just a bit unlucky with my team in this matter (these are awesome people nevertheless! they're just having a bad habit).
In Finland, I've seen only one smoker on the excavation so far. And he seems to be so ashamed that he's hiding far away in the bushes to smoke his cigarette. :D
The footwear
In Germany it is obligatory to wear safety boots with steel bars, since the spades have to be really sharp in order to cut the earth easily and tidily.
Finns however wear normal rubber boots on their excavations. :D Without steel caps. Okay, it's comprehendable if you read my complaints about the wet finnish weather carefully. Still it feels weird for me.
In summer, when the weather is nice, I've even seen a picture where finnish archaeologists wear sandals. Or walk around barefooted. That's not allowed in Germany.
I think these are all observations I can think of right now. I may add more if more comes to my mind.
Dienstag, 16. September 2014
The first week (12. Aug. - 17. Aug.)
This is a copy from a few thoughts I have previously written and published, on the 15. Aug. at 1:40 pm:
Suomessa
I am in Finland now for already 3 days, 4, if you take the day of my arrival into account too. I don't, because I only arrived at 5 pm and was tired like hell!
I only found the time to write a thought here just today.
I spent the other two days mainly with the mighty quest for doing the painful, but unfortunately necessary paperwork. Well, I want money here in Finland, so it needed to be done as quickly as possible.
I had to run from one place to another - luckily my tutor was with me, so I did not have to look for these places myself (I wouldn't've been finished by now...) - and finally put all into an envelope and send it back to Germany.
Now, I only have to wait for the offices to respond.
I really hope badly that they'll raise the money I get to a satisfactory amount. The prices in Finland are like hell!
In Germany I pay about 280 € for my 24 m² flat. Here, in Finland, I pay about 420 for 18 m². In Germany I can get a warm meal for 3 (= very cheap) or 6 (moderate) €. Here, a very cheap meal is around 6 - 7 €.
You see the drift, I guess.
I already ran out of money for this month because I have to pay two rents which have cost more than my actual income is.
***
Yesterday and tomorrow, I have been on the excavation in Turku. (You can read it in English and German as well...) The excavation method here is a bit different from what I have experienced in Germany. But I have to say that most of my experience in Germany is based on rescue excavations, and this here is a scientific excavation. These work completely differently. (If you're interested, I may talk about the difference in another thought...)
It's really nice to be here, though. I just miss one of my friends from Germany, who was also at the last excavation with me, who wanted to come here, too. Unfortunately he did not have time and money, so I am all alone. :(
Hardly anybody of the Finns talks to me.
I must be a really intimidating, evil looking person. Nah... it's just the stereotypical shyness of the Finnish Folk that plays a role here. They do not like speaking, especially in a language they haven't mastered. And my finnish is unfortunately not good enough to talk about more than about the weather or stones. But I'll try to improve because that's what I'm here for.
At least one thing has been really nice:
One of the few boys at the excavation has told me that he first thought I'd be a Finn because my pronounciation is so well.
Well, that was a really nice thing to say! :) I'm glad that at least my pronounciation is good, when even my vocabulary is small.
Yes. What I wanted to add, too, is that I'm glad to be back to Finland.
I really missed it. I just like the way the finnish villages and towns look like - I like the very finnish kind of architecture (at least what I see as very finnish) -. I like to hear the people speak Finnish even though I understand almost nothing except a few words here and there.
I hope, I can improve my knowledge of the finnish language during my stay here.
And for now, I guess I rambled enough.
I may tell more later.
Nähdään! (See you)
Suomessa
I am in Finland now for already 3 days, 4, if you take the day of my arrival into account too. I don't, because I only arrived at 5 pm and was tired like hell!
I only found the time to write a thought here just today.
I spent the other two days mainly with the mighty quest for doing the painful, but unfortunately necessary paperwork. Well, I want money here in Finland, so it needed to be done as quickly as possible.
I had to run from one place to another - luckily my tutor was with me, so I did not have to look for these places myself (I wouldn't've been finished by now...) - and finally put all into an envelope and send it back to Germany.
Now, I only have to wait for the offices to respond.
I really hope badly that they'll raise the money I get to a satisfactory amount. The prices in Finland are like hell!
In Germany I pay about 280 € for my 24 m² flat. Here, in Finland, I pay about 420 for 18 m². In Germany I can get a warm meal for 3 (= very cheap) or 6 (moderate) €. Here, a very cheap meal is around 6 - 7 €.
You see the drift, I guess.
I already ran out of money for this month because I have to pay two rents which have cost more than my actual income is.
***
Yesterday and tomorrow, I have been on the excavation in Turku. (You can read it in English and German as well...) The excavation method here is a bit different from what I have experienced in Germany. But I have to say that most of my experience in Germany is based on rescue excavations, and this here is a scientific excavation. These work completely differently. (If you're interested, I may talk about the difference in another thought...)
It's really nice to be here, though. I just miss one of my friends from Germany, who was also at the last excavation with me, who wanted to come here, too. Unfortunately he did not have time and money, so I am all alone. :(
Hardly anybody of the Finns talks to me.
I must be a really intimidating, evil looking person. Nah... it's just the stereotypical shyness of the Finnish Folk that plays a role here. They do not like speaking, especially in a language they haven't mastered. And my finnish is unfortunately not good enough to talk about more than about the weather or stones. But I'll try to improve because that's what I'm here for.
At least one thing has been really nice:
One of the few boys at the excavation has told me that he first thought I'd be a Finn because my pronounciation is so well.
Well, that was a really nice thing to say! :) I'm glad that at least my pronounciation is good, when even my vocabulary is small.
Yes. What I wanted to add, too, is that I'm glad to be back to Finland.
I really missed it. I just like the way the finnish villages and towns look like - I like the very finnish kind of architecture (at least what I see as very finnish) -. I like to hear the people speak Finnish even though I understand almost nothing except a few words here and there.
I hope, I can improve my knowledge of the finnish language during my stay here.
And for now, I guess I rambled enough.
I may tell more later.
Nähdään! (See you)
One month delay - time to catch up a bit!
What this blog is about:
Well, I am a German student of prehistorical archaeology and I am currently doing an exchange term in Finland, at the Univerisity of Turku.
I wanted to go there not especially because this university offers a variety of courses in archaeology in English (in fact all archaeology courses are given in Finnish), but because I just love this country, the language, the finnish people. So my interest in being here is not academic but rather personal. I want to improve my knowledge of the Finnish language which I have started to learn autodidactically around 10 years ago.
So, I've been here in Finland for more than one month already.
Actually I've been thinking about creating a blog for my stay here as soon as a friend of mine - who is also doing an exchange semester - told me about his blog. But until now I've just been too lazy to do so. Currently I'm thinking about whether to write this blog in German or in English, I haven't decided yet. And since I am speaking English here most of the time actually it feels quite natural to write this blog in English. And besides, I need to catch up one month or something, so I'm going to copy a few thoughts about my stay here which I have already written and which are in English. Maybe, from time to time there will be something German in between. If I feel like it.
Good. That being said.
I think I will start to tell about my first few weeks in seperate posts, sum up one week in one post or something because - to be honest - not so much has happened here in the first few weeks. If there's something more interesting I may write a separate entry for that.
Yes. Otherwise, have fun with this blog.
(I need to find out how to tweak the appearance a bit. Are there comments possible? Because I really appreciate comments.)
Well, I am a German student of prehistorical archaeology and I am currently doing an exchange term in Finland, at the Univerisity of Turku.
I wanted to go there not especially because this university offers a variety of courses in archaeology in English (in fact all archaeology courses are given in Finnish), but because I just love this country, the language, the finnish people. So my interest in being here is not academic but rather personal. I want to improve my knowledge of the Finnish language which I have started to learn autodidactically around 10 years ago.
So, I've been here in Finland for more than one month already.
Actually I've been thinking about creating a blog for my stay here as soon as a friend of mine - who is also doing an exchange semester - told me about his blog. But until now I've just been too lazy to do so. Currently I'm thinking about whether to write this blog in German or in English, I haven't decided yet. And since I am speaking English here most of the time actually it feels quite natural to write this blog in English. And besides, I need to catch up one month or something, so I'm going to copy a few thoughts about my stay here which I have already written and which are in English. Maybe, from time to time there will be something German in between. If I feel like it.
Good. That being said.
I think I will start to tell about my first few weeks in seperate posts, sum up one week in one post or something because - to be honest - not so much has happened here in the first few weeks. If there's something more interesting I may write a separate entry for that.
Yes. Otherwise, have fun with this blog.
(I need to find out how to tweak the appearance a bit. Are there comments possible? Because I really appreciate comments.)
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