Back in Helsinki, need a holiday

I'm back in Helsinki and was rather abruptly thrown back into the cycle of getting up early, going to uni and enduring the busses that take the long route through Lauttasaari. I travelled back to Helsinki on a night train from Oulu, but as usual, couldn't sleep before 2 and after that woke up every hour. My friend M (duno if she wants her name on my blog) came to stay the night so we dumped all our stuff in a taxi and went to my place. We talked all day and went to eat and shop, then came back and had a 'middle class picnic' (think brie and olives) and watched Casanova (the one with Heath Ledger). In any case I didn't sleep until 12 and M's alarm went off at 6, after which I couldn't sleep. So, about 9 hours in two days :D

This morning I had to get up and go to university to start tutoring the new students. It was nice to see who had got into uni and they all seem nice. It'd be nice to see some of them taking part in fuksiaiset, but I'm not sure. It was a bit stressful because foreigners (including myself) bring allsorts of paperwork problems with them when they arrive here and today was no exception. It's hardly surprising, you get hit with a paperwork bomb and are expected to clear up the debris yourself.

After I was done tutoring for the day I met friends from Unilang. One is from Finland and the other is Hungarian. It was great to meet them and and I'm thankful for the cherry liqueur choclates, thanks!

Tomorrow I have another long day of tutoring but A comes back from Japan tomorrow and I can't wait to see what he's brought me as a souvenir (never mind him coming back, all I'm interested in is what he got me :D) and to see the pics he took.

Zoo update

I'm so glad I went to the zoo in Ranua today. It's an arctic zoo so you won't find any elephants there or anything. I got the best picture of a bear I will possibly ever take. There it is on the right. It was really great because although there were tons of cars at the zoo, there weren't many people following the paths while we were. First we saw an otter, it was curled up in such a cute ball of fur next to its mate. It was asleep, though, and even though we came back to it after seeing all the other animals it was still asleep. Next I saw a beaver, but it was asleep too, same problem. A mink was really active and didn't seem to be afraid of people, I got some nice video footage of it. It was black, and had great looking fur (which I suppose is the fashion, since it's a mink) and it was immensely cute.

After the 'rodent house' there were owl enclosures. I got a nice pic of a snowy owl and a tawny owl, they're on my flickr if you wanna see. But there was this amazing golden eagle which had built a massive nest and was staring at the people looking at it. It was huge, I had no idea how big they actually are. I also saw hawks, waterfowl, pheasants, partridges, wild boar (they were funny :D), the bear above, wolves, a wolverine, all kinds of deer including the bambi kind, mooselets/elkettes (they weren't fully grown), foxes, musk ox and reindeer. The reindeer were just having dinner when I got there and there was a family speaking Sámi right next to them which made me laugh, it's the most stereotypical place you could find a Sámi family :)

We also got to see the polar bears being fed, there's a pic of one named Valeska on my flickr. It was funny, because the bear named Valeska was playing with a ball and trying to drown it by backflipping her head onto it. The bear she was with really didn't want to get wet and just avoided the water at all costs. There was a male bear in the next enclosure laying totally relaxed on some rocks and only woke up to go and munch an apple that the guide threw him. I didn't think they'd eat apples and oranges, I thought they just ate meat. Oh well :)

Oh, how I love The Body Shop

I had a major love fest in the Body Shop today. I came away a good few euros lighter but feeling much girlier and of course, it has the added bonus of fairtrade and whatnot. And besides, students are supposed to be poor, the balance of the universe would have been destroyed had I not bought that stuff, so I actually had an obligation..

Anyway tomorrow I am off to the zoo (yes you heard right) in Ranua. The book I translated briefly mentions it and since it's not too far because I spent the weekend in Rovaniemi I thought I'd pop by and greet some bears. I'll let you know how it went.

Have humbly decided that Facebook is okay for new socialising adventures, but still, if you actually KNOW me, please email me or something instead, 'tis much nicer than building a virtual aquarium ;)