Language Learning I

Learning new languages is completely different to any other academic subject. In almost any other subject, spacing out for a while wont throw you completely off track. If all else fails, you can start pretty much afresh when the class moves into a new area. The opposite is true when learning languages, something which I learned the hard way. Back in England, I started learning French as a compulsory subject. For about a year I actually understood something. However, my studying practices at the time were hardly spectacular, and as time progressed any French I had previously learned began to spiral down into a black hole in some corner of my mind.

I soon found the French teacher had began talking gibberish, and as listening seemed like a waste of time, I thought I would instead do something constructive, such as building small catapults and pellet guns from ball point pens. Most of my diabolical contraptions failed miserably and only resulted in an ever increasing layer of debris at the bottom of my pencil case, not to mention a peculiar shortage of ball point pens.

Once I managed to make a deceptively simple pellet gun (ball point pen casing) which a boy sitting next to me promptly picked up; fired a shot at the class fatty, and thus paused the class for several minutes while the teacher lectured us on matureness. Meanwhile I sat terrified knowing that my tools of violence had made their way into the hands of terrorists, rather than being used to fight for freedom, prosperity, and entertainment.

My only comfort was that upon returning to Finland I would have the option to stop studying French. We returned to Finland and the day of reckoning arrived; I sat with the new school's French teacher and my parents. I told them I want to quit French. They told me that it would be an invaluable future asset, that I would regret quitting it forever, that I would have wasted all my previous French studies. Didn't have the guts to tell them I had already made sure of that. The French teacher said girls like guys who speak French. I would hate to admit that somewhere in my desperate 12 year old mind I actually considered that. Nevertheless, under mounting parental pressure, and perhaps the teacher's corny comment, the obedient little me obliged.

I regretted it, my god I regretted it. I don't think there was a single day, when after an afternoon French lesson I didn't come home complaining what a load of crap it was. After about another two hellish years of French (during which all of the remaining French in my head was sucked into the black hole) I made the decision to end the suffering. I wrote a letter to the principal. One morning, my mother had a phone call from her, asking if I was allowed to quit French. "Ah yeah, I sent a letter to the principal" I said while brushing my teeth. Dazed, my mother agreed. More than anything I felt relief, mixed with the comic foolishness of knowing I could have wrote the letter a year earlier.

When I cycled home an hour early that day, my conscience felt as though I had skipped school. Then I realised I could be in French right now, trying to seem invisible to the senile old teacher. This wasn't very hard, considering her age. I felt sorry that she had to put up with a class where only about half the people were learning anything, while the other half entertained each other by causing chaos and mayhem. I imagine the only thing that kept her going was impending retirement.

Teacher: "Blah blah blah..."
Guy1: "G 2!"
Guy2: "YOU SUNK MY BATTLESHIP! HAHAHAHA!"
--Repeat from top about 10 times.---
Teacher: "No more sinking battleships! I will kill you!"

Delighted with my success, I made sure to share my joy with everyone else, reminding those poor suckers whenever they shambled to another French class.

So ends the first part of my epic, language learning adventure... almost. This year I started lukio, or senior high school as it is to many of you. Having recovered surprisingly quickly from my French induced trauma, and hoping that the laws of physics might have been at least somewhat flawed, I began French again. I began from the very beginning (For your information "Bonjour!" is officially the first word in the French language.), hoping that perhaps something had not been sucked into the void. Unfortunately the laws of physics held firm, and I had no advantage whatsoever compared to the other first time French learners. However, this time I was armed with experience, not only did I know what not to do, by this time I had studied Japanese for almost a year and in the process had learned many techniques useful to learning a new language. I had also been inspired by how useful even a little language skills could be during our Tour de Europe.

My first French test is next Monday, and I am confident that this time, I will be the victor! Bwahahaa!! Then, I will have one more course of French after which I doubt I will continue, despite having been thoroughly pleased with my success so far. I realised again today what an annoying language it is. "What the hell is that word doing there? I swear it wasn't there before!" This has happened to me several times so far, and I don't think I will be able to take it much longer. Also if the teacher shows us any more of that horrid 80s, epilepsy inducing learning cartoon ("Muse" or something) I may well hang myself before I have a change to learn any more French.

MOTORAZR Maxx!

It's 23:34, my current phone is on its deathbed, almost on its way to mobile heaven, and I am searching for its successor, the coolest, most expensive phone I can find. Then in search of anything worthy of being design, I trip and fall into the deep dark abyss that is Motorola's website... a hellish a labyrinth of loading bars, 3D women in rubber and insanely cool product names such as the wicked MOTOKRZR K1, the somewhat feeble MOTOPEBL, and the confusing MOTORAZR² V8. All designed to allow you to run your perfect... what? household?


Believe me, I do not jest, follow to link to see the video and be convinced that this is truly the greatest piece of engineering the average housewife could ever lay her hands on.

Once you have watched it, you will experience a sudden yet very powerful urge to slaughter the CEO of Motorola with a nuclear chainsaw, whatever that is.

By the way, if anyone can recommend me a decent phone, please go ahead, although if it results in me having to watch anything akin to that video your fate will be the same as that of the CEO.

Tour De Europe - Days 9 - 11

We woke up to enjoy the regularly superior croissants we were now used to having for breakfast. Indeed, I was worried weather I would ever again be able to cope without chocolate spread. There's one thing I really liked about Germany, no stupid 0% fat 0% sugar junk. Just good ol' fatty food. Yoghurts especially put our Finnish diet foods to shame.

Back in Montreux, we were again itching to move on, and so we sped off from another beautiful city. The ride to the French border once again featured unique scenery. In fact, all of the scenery we saw was completely different in feel. Every forest was different to each other, no mountainous valley the same. Very near the border we rode to a large inn by a river in the forest, where using a system of archaic sign language and primitive sounds, we were able to order a whopping great sandwich from the French speaking natives.

It was really quite an idyllic little place, with an old dog, a younger dog, and a cat milling around and lounging in the sun amidst the people sitting outside at the tables. The owner of the house came to talk to us, luckily using English, and it turned out that he too had visited Finland! It was incredibly relaxing to enjoy the surroundings and watch the cats and dogs play with each other and beg for food from the guests.

Well fed and content, we rode a short way to the border and crossed it with once again only a sign to bid us welcome into yet another country, this time France. The difference between the various countries was far greater than you would expect. France felt surprisingly French, and all the villages and countryside we rode through felt completely different to any places we had been before. They weren't just variations of German villages, but had a complete feel of their own.


Me getting slightly annoyed that I always have to be in the picture -_- Whole village looked a bit like Disneyland to be honest.


That's better.

Although we considered staying the night in France, I thought it would be nice to return to Germany, which actually felt like home after all the other countries we had been to. We decided to return to the scenic black forest, this time riding high up on the hills.

Our once again randomly picked destination, Schapbach, turned out to be quite a charming German village, built along a river running through a valley in the black forest. We found a pleasant guest house for the night and treated ourselves to some schnitzels. The following morning our gracious hosts gave us (my dad) the resources required for us (my dad) to wash the bike.

We bid farewell to our gracious hosts and made our way back to Wiesbaden, where we were to spend the evening and the next day with our relatives. Despite the lack of constantly changing scenery, It was great wandering around the city, buying soft Weathers toffees (which I had been deprived of since England) and enjoying the great company.

With initial plans laid for a proper family get together for Christmas, we began our journey back home. Despite our greatest adventures being behind us, it was still great to get moving again. Thanks to my stubbornly waterproof gear not even the heavy rain could damped my spirits. In fact I often find the freshness of rain to positively invigorate my spirits. We later took it upon ourselves to experience a traditional German roadside kebab. A kebab my dad successfully predicted would wreak havoc in his stomach.

The riding that day was, despite the heavy rain, enjoyable once again. Even my dad was undeterred by his cold and soaked crotch, the unfortunate result of a leaking rain suit. Our riding for the day was finished at Soltau, a town reasonably close to Travemund, and also the home of a large amusement park. Once again we found ourselves a great place for the night, a small guest house run by a friendly married couple. The evening was completed by a culinary culmination at a Brewery restaurant, where I ate a delicious double layered schnitzel with mozzarella and pesto accompanied by pasta in tomato sauce. As if that wasn't enough, I then had a whopping portion of apfel strudel with ice cream and strawberry sauce... phew! Oh, don't forget the beer, it was a brewery after all.

Our trip to the amusement park was accompanied by a constant drizzle, which unfortunately did not fend off the schools visiting the park. Nevertheless, we had a few face distortingly fast rides, one of them being the steepest wooden roller-coaster in the world. Several high speed experiences later we returned to the city where, fuelled by a craving for Chinese food, I took it upon myself to locate a restaurant with the bike's navigator. Indeed I found one, and my craving was well satisfied. I also made the most of the fact that practically every restaurant in Germany seemed to have an assortment of ice cream portions. A banana split was clearly in order.

Later we rode to Travemund through random patches of rain and sunshine. Worried that we hadn't eaten nearly enough on our trip, we decided to do what we could at a seaside marine restaurant. My dad treated himself to a herring dish, while I stuffed myself with more apfel strudel.
_____

It was that our journey came to an end. Even as I write I feel the same tinge of sadness I felt on the boat back home. Our amazing journey was over, and it had gone by so fast, yet we had seen so much and experienced so many things...

Gaijin Smash!

As my hordes of imaginary readers will have noticed, I've added a new RSS feed to the site. I was just surfing one night through some blogs, stumbled upon an article on kancho, and then before I knew it I was on this site (keh?). It really is a hilarious site, written by a black American living and working in Japan.

Enough of my rambling, let it speak for itself, check out this editorial on how the site got it's name.

Marine Catcher

"Look mum! I won!" "Yes dea... WTF Jimmy??"

Tour de Europe - Days 7 - 8

Braving the Italian traffic for the better half of the day was indeed tiring. Things got worse when our hungry party couldn't find a restaurant, resorting to spewing obscenities in hopes that one would turn up. When we finally found a place, we were reminded of the local custom of "siesta", that is, going for an afternoon nap in the middle of the day. This of course meant that no restaurants were serving food.

After a slight rest and a coke our morale improved in the face of such adversity. We saddled our bikes and made way to leave this traffic ridden, afternoon napping country for good. It was also time to part with Kari and his wife, who headed back home to Wiesbaden while we continued towards Lugano, Switzerland.

Crossing the border to Switzerland was as simple as riding past a welcome sing, but the clean surroundings, well maintained roads and an absence of mad traffic truly told us we were no longer in Italy. Lugano was an incredibly beautiful city cradled by mountains and set beside a lake. Incidentally we happened to stumble upon a jazz festival, and after a comically difficult search for a hotel, we walked down town for an enjoyable evening. We sat for a brilliant meal outside an Italian restaurant and soaked in the atmosphere as we watched the passers by head towards the concert square. By the time we had finished, the square was utterly packed with people. We walked around admiring the city and lake, then realised tired we were and headed back to collapse into our hotel beds.




The following morning we spent doing some shopping around the city, among then a Swiss army knife key ring and a stylish Swatch watch for mum, who when she received it commented several times amusingly on how much like cardboard it looked. Walking along the sunny lakeside, we began itching for new scenery, and hurried to the hotel to continue our journey towards the city of Montreux. Once again we ascended, this time to the Alps of Switzerland. This was one of the most spectacular and enjoyable legs of our journey, with mind blowing scenery and refreshingly cool weather.




We stopped at a small alpine cabin built into the side of the mountain. Inside was a small room decorated with all sorts of motorcycle memorabilia, and a kitchen from which were greeted. Our alpine lunch of local sausage and cheese could not have tasted better, and as we talked with the cabin's owner we discovered, he had been to Finland, twice!


One of the most amazing moments of our journey surprised us as we came out of a small tunnel in the mountains. Directly in front of us opened a huge scenic valley, and down the mountain on our left was a magnificent glacier, completely free of any tourist build up.

Waiting for us at Montreux was another jazz festival which ensured us another challenge in finding an affordable hotel. Finding one was difficult, and we had to settle for one of a higher quality than originally planned. Although our plan was to see what this jazz festival was like, after our bounty full dinner we found ourselves far too tired for such exploration.

Tour de Europe - Days 6 - 7

One of the most fascinating parts of the day was when we descended past the snow line. Quite abruptly, the snow covering the ground gave way to green grass and foliage. Due to the snow we had set off quite late today, but we were determined to reach lake Garda before the day was over. The mountain scenery was as mind boggling as ever, and we headed to a glacier which was near our route.


Apparently the slope leading down to the glacier was home to Marmots, a type of cuddly looking alpine hamster beavers. Unfortunately, the weather was against us and we did not see a single one. Nevertheless, the glacier was quite the sight, the bright blue icy pond below it looking especially mysterious.

We continued our journey accompanied by sinister weather and eventually found ourselves on a road at the bottom of a valley. Riding through the fields squished between the mountains we approached the border to Italy. Little changed as we crossed the border, only a sign bidding us welcome and a "Ristorante Pizzeria" immediately on our right.

The final push to lake Garda was one of the most arduous portions of our trip, not helped by Italian traffic. It was quite pitiful to see small, idyllic Italian villages only to find their small roads clogged by trucks. Although wider roads were no better, as we found the motorways to be equally jammed. Luckily we weren't going by car, or we would still be there. Despite the prowess of our motorcyclists at negotiating the jam, they were no match for the mad Italian scooters darting through the gaps, occasionally flying off bridges as mischievous truck drivers opened their doors.

Upon arrival at our destination, we were confronted by the challenge of finding a bed for the night and a relatively safe place for the motorcycles. Indeed, the latter proved a challenge, and we were forced to leave our motorcycles at a public parking space, much to the unease of my father and Kari. After having finally settled down, our tired and hungry group walked to a pizzeria. What better way to end a day which had started in the midst of an alpine snow storm, and come to an end amidst Italian palms?





The next day we spent the better half of the morning exploring Riva de la Garda, the town where we were staying. The views were spectacular and the sun was shining. We stopped at a café for espressos and a lemon ice cream. Once we were finished admiring the old buildings, clear water, magnificent mountains, pasta stalls etc, we were ready for some new scenery.

Luckily our bikes had braved the night. We packed them, and returned to the hotel to change into riding gear. Then, thoroughly sweaty, we walked back to the bikes and were glad to be off again, especially with the steadily rising temperatures of our nerves. The activity of the day would be braving the Italian traffic and eventually making our way to Switzerland.

Lukio begins....

Well, it began on Tuesday, and after a week of deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that it is a major enough event to mention in the blog. Right, that concludes the section of this post regarding the brief mentioning of the the fact that lukio has begun.

In other news, today I find myself slightly idle. Can't be bothered with homework, don't have much and it can be done tomorrow. Did some painting but eventually got bored of watching ink dry. Perhaps I should set my braincells to turbo with some CIV4, or perhaps some multiplayer... but alas, Oliver is in Wales drooling over the prospect of his new Mac. This concludes today's post. Thanks for bothering.

Tour de Europe - Days 4 - 6

The following day we set off for the Alps. Never having been to the Alps before I was very excited. As a whole the day enjoyed pleasant scenery, but arriving at the foot of the Alps was quite an experience. As the mountains rose in the horizon, we were surrounded by idyllic countryside. It was cloudy, but from many gaps the sun shone on a hilltop church or cottage. As I gazed in awe at the sights, a sudden bloody stain splashed on my visor, the only remains of some unfortunate insect.

We stayed at a so called sport hotel, a hotel used as a base for hiking trips etc. It also advertised itself as a "biker hotel." Where in some places bikers might be discriminated against, we had now entered prime biker country. The owner of the hotel was a kind burly woman who provided us with a place in her garage for the motorcycles. After a quick wash and a change into more comfortable clothes, we met up at the downstairs restaurant for some schnitzels and a pint. I admired the great view from the window, ignorant of the even more spectacular sights which would await us next day.

We set off in good time towards Austria. The day was excellent. For the first half of the day we rode across sunny fields, overshadowed by mountains.


We stopped at a petite village for cappuccinos cake.

We then rode to the most spectacular scenery yet...


Higher, and higher...


We rose into the foreboding mountains, our destination, Edelweissspitze, 2570m above sea level. The sky was once again cloudy, except for the occasional beautiful ray of sunlight. Looking at the bleak mountainside as we slowly climbed higher along the winding rode. Truly, these were so far the most amazing sights I had seen in my life. And seeing them from the back off a motorcycle made it all the better, the wind blowing in your face, the occasional droplet of rain. Sights like these are not worthy of being stared at through car windows.

We arrived at the summit, and made to decision to stay at the lodge there, rather than continue to a slightly lower altitude to a perhaps more comfortable hotel. It was raining now, and after admiring the views we retreated to our rooms to relax slightly. Once again it was time for the proper relaxing, a big ol' schnitzel and a beer.

Next morning I was woken up by my dad "Have a look outside." He was accompanied by his brother, also unsuspecting of the sight that lay ahead. I looked at the window, it seemed to be completely white from fog. I opened it, all was still white, except for a rocky outcrop... covered with snow. As the wind blew in my face I closed the window, and fell back grinning in amazement.

Time for some frolicking in the snow!

Plenty free parking space today...


Can you spot where the snow ends and the mountains begin?


Snowmobiles are waaay out of fashion.


Later that day we were luckily able to continue. With the ground warm, it was possible to clear the snow to reveal the road. However, extreme skill was required to ride down the treacherously wet and steep cobbled road.

We made it down to a safer road and continued riding, eventually past the snow line. A tough day of riding was ahead, a day which would see us through snow covered mountains, past glaciers, and eventually to lake Garda in Italy... Look forward for the next update!

Minesweeper, The Movie

One of the most hilarious YouTube videos I've seen in a long time...

More blogs!

I've just added a list of other sites which I blog on to the right. The Reilu Kerho features me and several other writers, my good friends, and has articles on our interests, including gaming, miniatures and what we've been up to.

The IGC is a site which is used to coordinate casual multiplayer games, such as Age of Empires II. While the essential posts are also displayed in The Reilu Kerho, the IGC is also intended for friends abroad, specifically my old friends in England, who also join games quite actively. Following some Summer inactivity, we are about to start a big Age of Empires II campaign, and the site should see quite a bit of activity with the various factions introducing themselves and their background.

And last but not least, Brighter than a Thousand Suns, written by our resident metal head and Civilisation IV addict. Check out his blog for consistently intelligent posts, and Civilisation IV.

Tour de Europe - Days 1 - 3

At last, it is a time for the full account of our epic motorcycle journey through Europe. On Thursday afternoon with all our stuff packed we headed off to the docks in Helsinki. We would travel straight to Travemunde, with a half cargo, half tourist ship. I was expecting the journey to be exceedingly boring, since it would take almost thirty hours. Most peculiarly however, the three activities the ship had to offer, eating, sleeping and going to the sauna were enough to fill the hours.

It was Friday evening when we arrived at Travemunde with our new friend whom we had met on the ship. Matti was also a Harley enthusiast and would join us for the first leg of our journey, seeing as we would be going the same way. Our destination from the dock was the Finnish Seamen's Church of Hamburg, where we would be spending our first night, the only night we had planned ahead. Although the journey there was, looking back, in no way scenic, I thoroughly enjoyed absorbing the sights and the atmosphere of a new country.

Upon arriving at the church, we were greeted by a friendly member of the staff, parked our motorcycles in the garage, and went to change into some more comfortable clothing. In celebration of Germany's beer drinking age of sixteen, we also immediately glugged down a beer. Then we set of to explore Hamburg, but we didn't get very far and found ourselves in a bar. After enjoying the beer and the good company, it was already quite late, and we headed to bed.

Our next destination was Wiesbaden, right next to Frankfurt. Here we would meet up with my fathers brother, Kari. The ride through Germany was arduous, but there was plenty of interesting scenery. Wherever you go in Germany, there will always a be a few castles and towers on far hilltops. For lunch we stopped at random at a nice looking restaurant. As we settled down at one of the tables, I was slightly worried the place was unnecessary posh, and we would pay the price, quite literally. Despite the immaculately decorated venue and professional service, the huge platter of beautiful sandwiches we ordered cost a measly €3.20. We also rode through the Harts forest, where we stopped at a small village for two generous swathes of cake. Later on we parted with our comrade in motorcycling, and proceeded for the final push to Wiesbaden.

With evening closing in, and many kilometres to go, we opted to ride the autoban. I find it quite odd that most people who I have told of our story are incredibly excited by the autoban, and seemed to think it would be our primary route. Rather, whenever possible, we would set our navigator to stay clear of motorways, so that we would end up (hopefully) in winding little roads going through small villages and countryside. We arrived at Wiesbaden quite late in the evening, and bottoms thoroughly aching, we dumped our stuff in Kari's apartment and headed for a local Chinese restaurant. No, schnitzels quite yet.

Next day I woke up at twelve, just in time for lunch on the balcony. We made our preparations, and rode down south, now with Kari and his wife on their Harley. This leg of our journey saw the best scenery yet, as we rode through the foreboding black forest. In the evening we arrived at the beautiful city of Freudenstadt. After circling the city centre a few times, we chose to stay at Hotel Adler. The manager was very friendly and even moved her car out of the garage to accommodate our bikes. Then it was time for a large schnitzel and beer. Well fed, we set out for a walk to admire the city. After some delicious ice cream constructions at a local ice cream bar, we were entertained by my dad, who after playing over some fountains set into the ground, completely soaked his jeans.

The Top Ten Weird and Bizarre Japanese Soft Drinks

Japan has a drinking problem... but if you've got a thirst for adventure, it's where you want to be.

In honor (or in horror) of these bizarre beverages seemingly not fit to rinse your septic tank, raise a cracked glass to the Top Ten Bizarre Japanese Soft Drinks, our first ten inductees into the Soft Drink Hell of Fame... Jeers!

Our rundown of the Top Ten Bizarre Japanese Soft Drinks gives a pretty good indication why most of the 1000 or so new soft drinks and beverages launched in Japan every year fail miserably.

Look on the bright side, though: they may not be good to drink, but you can't say they're not good for a laugh.

Continue reading...

How to sell milk

Now depending on your taste, that may either cause to never touch milk again or... never mind. Personally the singing (?) really worked for me.

The Vatican's driving commandments

Was just skimming through bbcnews.com and I came across this article on the Vatican's new commandments for motorists, sensible yet amusing. "Thou shalt not drive and drink", "thou shalt not make rude gestures behind the steering wheel" and "help accident victims" are among the 10 recommendations for motorists.

SOURCE

Insects

One of the slight inconveniences here in northen Finland, especially for a city dweller like myself, is the abundance of mosquitos. Especially when one is trying to get to sleep. Luckily, my brother and I have years of experience in nightly mosquito hunts, and it is not long after we here that aggravating and familiar whining of a mosquito that the walls are decorated with yet another mosquito corpse, a grim warning to all mosquitos who dare disturb us.

I considered impaling several mosquitos on cocktail sticks and propping them up as a warning to the foolish buggers, but I guess that might have gone a little too far...

Library Addict

So far I have been at the library for one and a half hours. Some point I will probably go eat, then lie around for a while before going swimming, after which I will return to the library and think again about what an earth I should write about. Generally when I begin to aimlessly ramble, like so, I end up being very very boring... I really need to become better at being able to sit down and write, think of something witty.

For example, I was reading Kotaku earlier and pondered for a while about what to comment on a post about a boring fishing game. I came back a few minutes later and found a collection of downright hilarious comments.

Now that I have accomplished somewhat the feat of writing several lines, I will continue to make the most of the public computers, probably until some old library attendant will kick me off for being an unhealthy computer addict, or because my mother must be very... very worried about where I have been all day.

The story so far...

One of the main stories of this blog is to write about the time I spend in Japan. That however, is a long time away, but there is plenty to say about the preparation process. So, the story so far.

Since I started my Japanese lessons a bit under a year ago, I fantasized about a year as an exchange student in Japan. The more I thought about it, the more interested I became, and the better an idea it felt like. I think I mentioned the idea during one of our lessons. A fellow student there was a member of Youth For Understanding, a respectable, non-profit exhange organisation. I checked out the website and ordered an info packet. I read the info packet and dismissed the application forms as it was too early to apply for this year.

Time passed and I suddenly found myself in a big hurry. I had forgotten to send the application forms as soon the application became open, so for several days I worked hard to fill in the lenghty forms, and write an essay on why I should be accepted. When everything was ready I sent the forms. Several days later I was invited to an interview at the YFU headquarters in Helsinki. I was quite nervous as I had heard from many that applying to Japan is difficult, and that there are very few spaces. The interview went very well, and I left happily due to the hints from the staff there that I had a good chance to get through. Looking back on it I think the deciding factors were the fact that I had plenty previous travel experience, and that in the interview I had said that in the host country one must be adaptabile and one can't be picky, and once you're there you play by their rules, that as long as I get there I am happy.

Nevertheless, I was hardly confident as I waited for the letter from YFU. One day at school my dad texted me: "Letter from YFU, shall I open it?" I answer "No", he replies "Are you sure you don't want me to open it?" "Yes." I returned home and nervously approached the letter on the table. As I drew the envelope near I suddenly punced at it and opened it! There was a letter, I had been accepted! I danced and jumped around in joy and celebrated my success!

To my dismay only further beurocracy awaited me. The wad of paper beneath the initial letter was so thick and daunting I merely brushed it aside. Ah, the deadline isn't far. Several weeks later the initial joy was wearing off, and I began working on the forms. The deadline for the forms was the 25th, that very day! I panicked and skimmed through the various papers; transcript of grades, placement information, health certificate, dentist's signiature; there was no way I could get that all in time! I remembered I had a dentist's appointment on the 14th of the next month, a perfect excuse. I then called YFU and politely explained that I could not get the papers in time due to having to wait for the dentist's appointment. I was told it was OK, and that the papers won't be sent to the host country in a long time anyway, but I should do them as soon as possible. However, even that proved a challange as it was somehow incredibly difficult to find three measly pictures of me and my life to send. I was not very happy with the pictures I chose, and it worries me that I was not as representable as possible.

Now, with that wad of papers sen't I wait anxiously for more beurocracy, probably something to do with visas, generic travelling stuff. But, I wait enthusiastically to see who my host family will be, and I can't wait to get in touch with them via email. I also hear there will be a "preparation camp" before the trip. Usually I'm not into that kind of stuff, but I think it will be great to get to know likeminded people.

If there is anything I have learned it's that: 1. Apply early! 2. Do the dam paperwork already you lazy slouch! If you follow these guidelines, problems are minimized.

Summer Holiday Blues

After two fun filled weeks at Tapiola following the end of school, I suddenly find myself at our grandparents, in Ylivieska. A six hour train journey from Helsinki. The hectic times just before the end of school, and the two weeks I spent busily enjoying my Summer holiday, have left me feeling somewhat agitated now that I am (by my standards) in the middle of nowhere, completely idle. Luckily the library computers offer some consolation.

In order to fill up my time here with something constructive, I have decided to take plenty of excercise in the form a 6km run every morning and a 1k swim in the afternoon. I also packed with me my Japanese textbook, so I should be able to throroughly study everything I need to know for my next course, rendering it somewhat pointless. My bag is also packed with books to read, in an attempt to improve my Finnish skills. Currently I am reading the Finnish translation of the Fellowship of The Ring. Any time left will be spent eating the delicious cooking of my grandma.

Today it seems our grandparents will drag us to the local church, where my brother and I shall observe it's beauty and pretend we are interested. Luckily they aren't complete bible heads, only as much as old people in general.

Oh yes, I will also be frequenting the library playing various dull, browser based MMO's and writing my blog.

Australian old people play Wii bowling!

We all know that everyone, no matter what your age, loves the Wii. This retirement home in Australia has adopted Wii bowling as a regular social activity. The young fellow graced by the name of Junglist, takes on Marion, the local senior champion of Wii bowling. The ultimate showdown of youthful vigor versus people who look like dried prunes awaits, who will win in this epic struggle?

The biggest light show ever seen by human civilization on its way!

...maybe. A massive supernovae about 150 times the size of the sun exploded last year. This is the biggest exploding star ever observed. "Of all exploding stars ever observed, this was the king," says Alex Filippenko, one of the Nasa backed astronomers observing the phenomenon.

Scientists say the exploding star, SN 2006gy, is similar to a huge star in our own galaxy, Eta Carinae. According to scientists it is possible that Eta Carinae will explode at anytime: "We don't know for sure if Eta Carinae will explode soon, but we had better keep a close eye on it just in case," says Mario Livio, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

The explosion would truly be a spectacle. Dave Pooley, at the University of California at Berkeley said "it would be so bright that you would see it during the day, and you could even read a book by its light at night."

Personally, I would absolutely love to see something like this, would really make life worthwile.

SOURCE

Millimetres Matter

Amazing must see Youtube video of the day, if your squeamish about insects and er... pies, don't watch.