Christmas time

Hello and very merry Christmas for everyone! :)

It's 23rd December, tomorrow is already Christmas Eve!! Time has gone so fast and I've been busy... Especially the last month before Christmas break from university was pretty crazy. I had a few presentations and assignments to make and now I still have one assignment left and reading to exams... Yay. But tomorrow is Christmas, yaaaay! My favourite holiday of the year. For me it is about family time, relaxing, peace and quiet and of course, it is a time to celebrate the birth of the Christ. This Christmas I'm spending in England with my boyfriend and in January we'll go to Finland to see my family. We don't have a lot of Christmas decorations, less than I would like to have (I love Christmas things, hehehe) but we do have a pretty little Christmas tree which I just carried to living room from the bath tub (it had some problems with keeping the water in the soil rather than letting it drop on the floor...) and we have candles, of course, and a the red Christmas flower. And food. Let's not forget that. I just made gingerbread yesterday, which also disappeared already, but tomorrow I will make new fresh ones! In this post I was thinking of talking about preparing for Christmas. There are loads of things most people do before Christmas, it's kinda weird as it is just a few days but still every year people put up decorations and spend time and money for gifts and other stuff.

Christmas last year from Finland. I love that snow!!! In England we don't have snow at all...

What I have learned from my mum is that the whole house "needs" to be cleaned for Christmas. This is what I did today and I can tell my lower back is not thanking me for it right now. But why do we clean the house thoroughly for a few days, even if there were no guests coming (except Santa of course). What I think is the reason, because I am Christian, we clean the house to prepare it to be at its best as it is the greatest celebration for our Saviour who was brought to the world at this time. And it is also nice and relaxing to be in a clean and tidy house. For the same reason we put up decorations. To make the house look festive, cosy and fit for the Christ's birthday. Other people might have different reasons to do these (or not to do anything) but for me these are the reasons why I have done everything. Christmas is a birthday celebration which I like to spend with family and loved ones, eating food, chilling, listening to Christmas songs and enjoying the feeling of peace and love that is around.

Although, I can't say it's just peace and quiet at Christmas and before it, it is also quite stressful at times. At my parents' home mum spends a lot of time cooking, first rice porridge in the morning and later proper big dinner. That takes some time... She also puts up all the decorations at the beginning of December, and when you have a home for six people there is a bit of work to do (even tho our house is not big). And the most difficult part, buying gifts. When you get older it gets harder and harder to buy gifts for your siblings and parents as they already have everything! Or at least everything you can fit to your budget... Then it's time to get creative. In these things imagination is one of the best things you can have. I find it nearly impossible every year to buy a gift for my brother and dad, and when I ask what they would want I get an answer "a car"..... Okaaay. Anything else?? You are not making this any easier. And then it's again up to me to come up with something they hopefully could like. It is stressful!! Well, only if I let it be but to be honest, it is hard.

So yeah, I mentioned only a few things to do at Christmas and before it but I think those are the main things. Now our apartment is as clean as it can be and I have music and I hope the tree will not pour any water on the floor again... And I have half of my gift to my boyfriend, the other half got stuck somewhere which I'm not happy about but can't help it. Hopefully it comes before New Year. So with this post, merry Christmas to everyone again and happy New Year! See you in 2018! :)

Pentatonix - Mary Did You Know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifCWN5pJGIE

It's about the attitude

Hey! Today it's raining... And I really wanted to go running but I'm not willing to take the risk of getting sick now. Maybe it gets better later today *fingers crossed*. Anyway, since I'm telling myself I'm stuck indoors and I'm doing my best to procrastinate washing the huge pile of dishes already from yesterday (I know... gross... I was so lazy and slightly busy), I will now write about what I talked with my sister yesterday: school life, (boooooriiiiing..... Nope, if you read forwards). In more detail, school life in different countries and how people see and act to it.

As it has become clear in my earlier posts I'm studying at a university in England at the moment for my second year already (still two to go though...). My sister is studying at a university in Helsinki and right now doing an exchange in Belgium. There we got three different universities and countries to compare, all in Europe though. But the differences are BIG I might say. First of all England. What should I start with... £9000 a year. Yes, I start with the money I have to pay for each year just to be able to study here. I have no clue what they use all that money for... Think about it, about 16000 students everyone paying £9000/year or more if you are an international student. And still we have tiny lecture rooms where the air runs out till the end of the lecture and at least once during the lecture someone accidentally flips their creaky tables down making everything from laptops and notebooks to phones fall down. I would really like to see their budget sheets some day... Anyway, lets continue. Besides the tuition fee we are paying our food which in university is fairly cheap, £3-5 lunch. And of course everything you need for studying, rent for an apartment which might be even £400-500 for a shared house and even more expensive if you want to live by yourself like I do, travelling and other stuff. And majority of the students here work part-time just to cover some costs.

In Finland it's a bit other story. Studying is free, no tuition fees (I'm not kidding) and actually, you are kind of paid to study. Students get support from the Finnish government, the amount depends on the level of your studies but often is around 300-400€/month. And of course you can get a student loan with a very low interest rate (not bad I can say). University food is extremely healthy and around 2€ lunch. Travelling within Helsinki is easy with monthly bus/train/subway passes with a student discount of about -50%. Renting apartment is... Almost guaranteed by the university or city. There are loads of student apartments in Helsinki rented by the city or university, shared apartments, studios or almost anything. The rent varies from 200€ to maybe 500€/month (hard to say as it depends on the apartment size, location etc.). But when I lived in a shared student apartment with two other people in Helsinki my rent was about 250€/month. And yes, it includes everything: water, electricity, WiFi. IN HELSINKI. The rent my sister and her husband are now paying in Belgium for their kind of shared apartment is ridiculous, it is more than 700€/month. And my sister told me that is the normal amount of rent in the area they live in, which is not even Brussels. Back to Finland, on top of all the previous, students get a huuuuge amount of discounts and cheap services and all kinds of opportunities for practising nearly anything you are interested in, for example sports, arts, crafts and the list goes on, which here in England I have found really hard to find. I love fashion and I want to make clothes, but I have found one fabric store from Bournemouth where the selection of fabrics was... terrible. Maybe I'm just bad at searching or then here practising these kind of interests are not supported. Which is a shame.

(google)

Anyway, what I find weird is that as can be seen from the previous, the education and all the possible services for students in Finland seem exceptionally good, amazing actually, still generally put every student there complains, and students here in England too. "I have to find a part-time job", "I have to pay rent, so much money...", "my house is so cold", "I got so much work to do", "I don't have time for all this" and so on. Yes, at university level students have loads of work to do, even in Finland. But c'mon... Now when I have seen and experienced the student life in England I got nothing to complain about the studying in Finland. Even finding an apartment from Helsinki is piece of cake when compared to the apartment hunt I went through here. I was looking for an apartment with my boyfriend and no-one wanted us. No-one wants students and if they do, they need a guarantor which needs to be a full-time worker based in UK... Well where could I get someone like that???? So yea, I don't have a guarantor. And my boyfriend is self-employed and to provide consistent evidence of income you are supposed to be self-employed at least for three years... He has been for one year. No guarantor either as he is not British. It was a hunt to find an apartment and it was a miracle we finally found one, not a great one but it has a roof and floor. And a bathroom... I am great to get lost from the topic. Complaining, it is just ridiculous in Finland. I have a tendency to do that here too which I'm trying to fix from my behaviour... But as a comparison, my sister told me how now in Belgium she had been talking with some students from Africa and they told her how their or their friends' families sold everything they had just to get their child to school. It is a privilege for them to be able to study and some of them have their own families, husband/wife and kids in another country and they don't have money to go see them even once while they are studying. And still they are happy. Because they can study, get a good education. It is a privilege. Not a duty, not a requirement. No complaining.

(google)

Why do we complain then? When we can hear stories like that which show how good everything is for us. How easy it has been made for us to study. I think it's just because it is so easy to find negative things and point them out and put the focus on them instead of concentrating on the good things in life. For example, when you are sick everything seems depressing and you moan and complain but have you noticed your partner has cooked for you? Did you thank him/her? Did you appreciate it? Or just complain how you can't taste it cause your nose is so blocked and you have lost your appetite. Maybe less complaining would be better... Like my boyfriend always says, haha.

Ed Sheeran - Perfect (something beautiful, those lyrics)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKzRIweSBLA

The way we go

Hey! October, second year in university, second year in England, new semester, new assignments, new home, new life, new beginnings and the same old me.

 

These sunflower fields... My soul rested every time I could just watch them.

For starters, I wanted to change the outlook and name of this blog as I have had it since year... 2014 (maybe..). So quite a few years and now I feel like it's time to give it a little makeover. And I can promise you I will be writing just onec in a month as my school and other life is keeping me crazy busy, which is not necessarily a bad thing, not at all.

So, what is new after all these months I didn't write here are that I managed to pass the first year of university (yay), I met my boyfriend and spent two months of summer in Romania just boiling in the sun with him, and we came back to England and after the most horrible stress ever found an apartment just before we were about to be homeless living under bridges. I can wholeheartedly say that our God has been taking care of me (and my boyfriend) with all His power. Sometimes it takes a while before I notice it but that's just because I'm a blind and slow human.

 

Way to Herculane.

This was the first time ever I went to Romania, got one more country ticked off from the list. I can't say I got a culture shock when I went there even though it is a lot different there than in England or Finland. The only thing that was a bit surprising to me was that almost no-one speaks English... So yea, for me it was a bit more quiet summer at least from my part. But I did get to hear loads of Romanian... And I had loads of barbeque, meat in general, late nights and late mornings, too much sun and heat (35 celsius degrees is a lot...), a few weddings to go to and meeting more and more new people. I like Romania, it's different from what I'm used to, it gave me nice change to the normal life. But I need to learn the language for the future... So I can actually participate in the conversations and not just chill and try to guess the topics. I like talking you know... And if I don't get to talk for a while I start losing the skill of fluent conversating. But despite the lack of talking a lot I still had a great time there. So that was two months of Romania.

 

Castelul Corvinilor 

 

And I can't remember the name of this one... But it was in Orsova!

What else... I'm trying to find a placement job for my third year of university. It's not easy since I'm not even sure which kind of job I would want to do then. Well, it will all sort out in time. I'm also trying to grow my hair long again... It's probably even harder than finding a placement job. Maybe as frustrating too. And I'm trying to get back to the normal exercising routine as I had before summer. I gained weight in Romania... And lost muscle, which is not good. But I'll give myself time and try not to push myself to the limits at the beginning of the semester, it would just make me tired already before Christmas. I find it really important to know myself, my strenghts, weaknesses and limits.

This is all for now! Have a great autumn :)

Sibiu and the church tower and eyes on the roofs. 

Hanine - Arabia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICUb7y1QCXs&index=65&list=PLa0aQD8ze9MR5nx9lR1-dMn_a2GNGmhUg

Camila Cabello - Havana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCjNJDNzw8Y&index=67&list=PLa0aQD8ze9MR5nx9lR1-dMn_a2GNGmhUg 

Here I am again

Hey again! It seems to take me a while to write here now, sorry about that. It's the busy university life (or I blame that...) but actually it's just about to get busy, haven't been so horrible lately. I've just been lazy, lol. Now I have an in-class test coming up on Monday, and it's about finance!!! Oh goosh... It ain't one of my strengths. I'm good at maths but remembering how to do all the calculations and those weird words that in English are seriously just words to me. And then there's one assignment due the end of this month... And I haven't really even started it. Oops.

This is basically how I've been lately. Nooo motivation. (pics from pinterest)

But there are also good news!! \(o.o)/ My looovely friend is coming to visit me for a few days at the end of this month, a few days after my birthday! And we'll probably go watch Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson. I'm so excited! Can't waaaait. I haven't seen her for... maybe a year?? That is a long time. And other good news is that now I have officially applied to the exchange study program here! I would really reaaaally want to go study somewhere else for a semester next year. I hope I could get to the place I put on my first university choice. It would be awesome. Oh, and I also (finally) created an Instagram account!! It took some years to happen, lol. But in case any of you are interested in following me, go look for maronn19. \(-.^)- I would be really glad :D.

Well now I'm still recovering from the stomach flu I got on Tuesday, nasty stuff. And I missed a day from our practicals which are assessments each day. I hope I can do a catch-up-session later on spring so I won't lose marks. Oh, and I got evicted from our house because some pest controllers came to spray it and we can't enter it for 2 hours. How nice (-.-).

Has there been anything remarkable lately... Hmm. Not really. February passed by as if it hadn't even existed. Same with January. And now it's already almost mid of March. Craazy how time goes, and I'm about to get one year older in two weeks time! But actually I don't even feel that old, even though majority of the people here (=students) are either 4 or 5 years younger than me. One of my classmates was actually shocked when she heard how "old" I am, lol.

I've gotten to the 6th season of Game of Thrones finally!! But now I can't really watch it anywhere... might have to wait till summer when I go back to Finland (probably) and I can get the free trial month of HBO, lol. And binge-watch some Gaaame of Throoones, hahaha. For some reason I haven't found HBO app which would work in UK.. Is everything wrong with this country?! Awell...

Oh and I've also been drawing a bit! I'll post some pics later on when I've finished them and if I'm happy with them.

Why do I love manga? For this. ;)

Now, have a good day!

Imagine Dragons - Believer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg0KurYDuT8

Rag'n'Bone Man - Human

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk

Foodie

It's been nearly two months since I last wrote here... -(o.o')- Well, in my defence I had A LOT of things to do, with school mostly. We had four assignments to write over Christmas and one exam in January. So yes, I've been busy and my Christmas wasn't much of a holiday.

I went to Finland for Christmas and mostly spent time at my parents' house, chilling out with my family and doing my school work. I did meet a few friends too! -(^^)/ But my actual holiday was in January after my exam. I went back to Finland for about 10 days and I spent most of that time freeloading at my big sister's or my friend's place. It was a good little vacation. With my friend we ate looooads of good food and sweets, haha. But we also went to gym twice. Or I went twice, she a bit more... I hadn't gone to gym for.. maybe two years!!??? And I felt it in my arms and legs, lol. But it's good pain!

For this post I thought I could put several food pics since I have a lot of them -(ü.ü)-

Before Christmas holiday I went to eat gorgeous ice creams with two of my friends.

I also made myself noodle soup with king prawns and some turkey fillets with noodles and veggies before going to Finland. Those are really easy and quick to make so they fit perfectly to my busy days :D 

Finally some food from my Finland trips! This pic below is from a Thai restaurant in Helsinki. I went there with my friend and we had a looooot of food! It was a buffet... haha.

This one was also from that restaurant.. -(^^')- It was on a door of one toilet.

This was our Christmas table at my parents' home. All kinds of delicious foods!

Then on my second trip to Finland we made these meals with my friend. The one on the left has sweet potato mash, salad and smoked salmon and the pic on the right has chanterelles, egg, veggies, cottage cheese and sweet potato mash. So delicious meals -(n.n)/

 Those days when I'm too lazy to cook I eat simple foods like the one below: meatballs, scrambled eggs, salad and lingonberries. I miss eating berries... They don't have good berries here in England.

We had a meeting at my work and we were offered free pizzas! Mine was called Vesuvio, it had chili, jalapeno and pepperoni. After our meeting I went out with a few of my friends to listen some live music and just chill out.

And now I got sick... Got that flu I've been trying to avoid a few weeks already. Well I made some hot veggie+meat soup to get rid of it. It was hot, in many ways. I put fresh chili, ginger, onion, veggies and minced meat into it. And spices of course too. It ´turned out pretty good, I like it! \(ë.ë)/

 Alessia Cara - How far I'll go (I haven't yet seen Moana, but I will at some point, but this song from it is really good. I like Alessia's voice a lot and I can relate to these lyrics so well!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hSAiL2oOW4