Cамый последний день октября

Hi! Today is the last day of October and the autumn is here, bringing us a lot of sunshine and fresh breezes, I’m sitting here under a few blankets, sipping on hot nettle tea.

This morning I ran my first race. Kind of. Actually it’s the second, by the first one (a couple of years ago in Madrid) doesn’t count because it was an impulsive thing. I didn’t feel completely on top today, so I decided to jog/run at my own pace, and see where it would get me. My legs were absolutely not with me on this one, and I always forget to breathe when I’m doing sports, so it was an exhausted but happy Zsuzsi that crossed the finishing line.

The race took place in a nearby town, the atmosphere was great and participating was free. It was totally 8 km and completely flat, so it was definitely a good way to start for newbies like me ;) The weather was also perfect: a little bit windy, but sunny.

I definitely want to run more races, it was a lot of fun, but there are some things I could do better. I’ll enjoy this feeling for a while before starting to plan future adventures and challenges.

They gave me a smiley!

 

Hmm. I thought I wouldn’t pass that assignment, but I suppose it cannot have been that bad if they gave me a smiley!

subjects, objects and predicates

Yesterday I was finally able to attend my Hungarian class, and the truth is that I was a bit worried that I’d be very much behind because I had lost so many lessons. It turns out there was no reason for me to worry whatsoever. We are in our 2nd year of Hungarian and people were wondering about subjects, objects and predicates. We spent over an hour talking about those. And I thought: What? Again? It was slightly surprising when this happened in Russia: somehow it seemed very odd that university students didn’t know how to analyse the simplest of sentences. And now it’s happening again. This is something I learnt when I was 13 years old. One of the first things we were told when starting high school/6th form/whatever you like to call it, was: "you will all be expected to take a grammar exam. It’s up to you when you decide to take it, but if you don’t pass the test, you will not graduate". And yes, Swedish grammar might be easy, but it does indeed contain subjects, objects and predicates. And some other nice things, too.

You want to know my opinion? This is just sad. We are not talking about complicated grammar structures that do not exist in the Swedish language, but things that people are supposed to know. If it continues like this, I’d rather just do the homework, pass the exams and spend the rest of the time doing something useful instead of listening to people trying to figure out the difference between a subject and a predicate.  

Yeah yeah, I know. I should be nice and understanding: but, and there is a big but here. Nobody will ever remember all the information they stuffed their heads with in school and nobody can know everything, but for cow’s sake: if you are going to study a language, please do your classmates the favour and try to revise the most basic stuff if you’re unsure, or ask the teacher beforehand, or in private. Some of us are actually there to learn something, instead of repeating things we’ve known for ten years or so.

Macedonian

Right now: preparing for psychological exam and listening to Macedonian music.

Hmm.

Since I’m just sitting here and having dessert, I though I’d share a little something with you. I borrowed this from Señorita.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
I really need to brush my hair.

2. How much cash do you have on you?
A few cents... yay, I’m rich

3. What’s a word that rhymes with DOOR?
I’m not as "dirty" (in a good way) as Señorita... so I’ll say four :)
4. Favorite planet?
I always liked Saturn and Neptune.
6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?
I had the Soviet national anthem once...
7. What shirt are you wearing?
Right now? A regular t-shirt.

8. Do you label yourself?
No.. I’m too unique to be labelled :)
9. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently wearing?
Haha, my shoes are cheap. I usually wear a pair of flats from H&M. Or a pair from Reebok for the gym.
11. Did you do anything to celebrate John Lennon's 70th yesterday?
No
13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Sleeping.
16. What’s a word that you say a lot?
Pato gordo. Well, that’s two words. But I say that a lot
17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
TT Aka the boyfriend
18. Last furry thing you touched?
Narya the dog.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
None
21. Favorite age you have been so far?
22, No specific reason :)
25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Gimme the money!
33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
In school. Or actually returning from school.
34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
They don’t dare do that to me.
35. Do you consider yourself kind?
I have my moments.
36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
I’ve planned this: a long and complicated word in Hungarian on my hand.
37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
We talk fluency? Complete fluency? Like native-speaker-fluency? Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Serbian, Ukrainian, German and Dutch. When I achieve this, I can die in peace. Anyone see the pattern?
38. Would you move for the person you loved?
Haven’t I already?
39. Are you touchy feely?
All the time.
40. What’s your life motto?
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Confucius.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times?
Keys, notebook and mp3-player.
43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Bananas.
45. Can you change the oil on a car?
Nooo... I just smile innocently and do that thing with my voice. I’m sure some nice chap will come running to help a lady in need.
47. How far back do you know about your ancestry?
I know that they were a bunch of crazy, hard-working and hard-drinking Finns. Is that enough?
49. Does anything hurt on your body right now? 
Nope. 

Great News Thinks I!

Guess who’s going to Scandinavia for 9 whole days next month. Moi! I’ll get to attend classes on philosophy, eat delicious food with Kicki, enjoy the darkness and the cold, and maybe even see some SNOW. And cuddle with the cat. Whoop!

 

Maybe I’ll even find my favourite hoodie ever somewhere among all the stuff that I have to go through in order to find my winter clothes:

Go Go Poland!!

Now.

One of the best things about working hard is that you can reward yourself afterwards. Off to Starbucks we go!

Besitos a todos.

Cheese and Coke.

Tonight I’m sleeping at TT’s sister’s place because I’m one of those crazy people who’d rather not sleep on their own. Ever. So here I am now; drinking coke, eating cheese and forming lots of useful sentences in Hungarian. Whether they are correct or not remains a mystery, but you can always give this a try: put your poker face on, grab the closest Hungarian person at hand and whisper dramatically:

"A lány megborzong az izgalomtól."

As i said, it might not be correct [in fact, it’s fully possible that it doesn’t make any sense to anyone on this planet], but in Zsuzsi’s mind it means: "the girl shivers with excitement". Maybe I should start writing poems in wannabe Hungarian? Today I’ve also learnt how to say "moan with pleasure", but let’s just leave out the dirty talk, shall we?

Is someone hyperactive? Who? Me? No, not at all. [seems like the combination of cheese and coke is very good for your imagination]

Something to think about

Nothing comes for free in this world, everything you want to achieve you have to work hard for: academic success, satisfying relationships, career, that great body, travelling the world, buying that fancy car. 

I think that we sometimes forget about this, and instead of bleeding, sweating and crying while we push ourselves to the limit, we spend time moping and expecting life to hand it all to us on a golden plate.

“Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal."

- Vince Lombardi -

Testing, testing....

Your City is Buenos Aires

You are cultured, sophisticated, and quite old fashioned. You believe traditions are important, but you are still quite vibrant. People don't know you well at all, and if they do, they totally misunderstand what you are all about. You are more interesting and more intelligent than anyone gives you credit for. You are a bit of a hidden treasure. You are creative, ambitious, beautiful, and fun. You may have a rough past, but you are always getting better.

What's Your City?

Blogthings: We Have a Quiz for Almost Everything

      

You Are a Lion

You are radiant and energetic. You have a strong sense of intuition, and you use it. You have strength, but you prefer not to use it. You avoid confrontations. You are good at getting what you want in life. You are full of stealthy moves. You are deeply creative and imaginative. Whenever you feel stuck, you immediately try another course of action.

What African Animal Are You?

Blogthings: Waste Time at Work!

The Smoothie Test

You Are Inspired

You are always thinking up new and amazing ideas. You are not bound by rules or convention. You never do something the same way more than a few times. And you never follow a schedule, script, or recipe. You love to experiment, and you just laugh if your experiments fail miserably. You're always learning something. You never get too attached to any one thing or idea. You'll just end up changing it soon enough anyway!

The Smoothie Test

The First Rule of Blogthings Is: You Don't Talk About Blogthings

   

Peachy!

 

One of the absolutely greatest things about both Spain and autumn is the fruit. It’s fresh, it’s cheap and it’s everywhere. Right now I’m addicted to peaches, but soon it’s time to start having fresh orange juice for breakfast every morning. Delicious!

Did you know that ačiū is Lithuanian and it means thank you?

Miss Grumpy Shoes is sending some sneezes from the bottom of her bed, hoping that everyone is in a happy mode a little less sneezy.

I have an interesting evening ahead, so I need to try to squeeze in as much work and studies as possible before that. And sneezing. Yay, I’m leading a tremendously interesting life. 

Use what you’ve got

Blogging about food would probably be far more successful with some photos. Unfortunately there are no photos of today’s delicious lunch so you’ll have to use your imagination this time.

Situation: a hungry person wanting food right now + a seemingly empty fridge.

After some serious searching for ingredients in the cupboards (going to the supermarket was a nono since I’m too cold today), I ended up making whole grain pasta with chickpeas in tomato sauce. Ingredients: pasta, chickpeas, 1 garlic clove, some frozen spinach, tomato sauce and tabasco. The meal was simple, quick and satisfying. I’d especially recommend chickpeas, since they are a good source of protein, dietary fibre, iron, and other minerals.

Tuesday already?

Someone tell me where all the time goes. So what’s new this sunny Monday (oops, Tuesday)? Well, I think Mr. Autumn Blues is knocking on my door. Could it be that SAD is genetic as these symptoms always hit me at this time of the year? And now it’s neither dark nor cold outside, so it doesn’t make any sense otherwise. Times like these I feel like the biggest and loneliest failure on the planet, and it’s not really a fun feeling at all. There’s the feeling of not being enough. Not clever enough, not thin enough, not willing enough. My mind tells me that I’m a selfish person because I’m doing the things I enjoy. Not being able to please everyone is horrible, but so is giving up the me-time that I need. There’s so much I want to do, need to do. I plan it carefully, write lists, dream about the future. But then something comes crashing down. At night I can’t sleep because I feel guilty: guilty for not having done the dishes, or gone grocery shopping, or watched telly... guilty for being a terrible girlfriend, friend and family member... and then the little devil inside my head starts talking: it says that I really belong in a dull office, having a dreary job that doesn’t require a lot of thinking, because, let’s face it, I will mess it up. Why, asks the devil, do I even think that I’m good enough for all those things I want to do? And don’t, the devil adds, even think of trying to change situations, you’re simply not worth it. And then it spits me in the face. Believe me, I have done my best to get rid of that thing: I have only managed to put it asleep. Once in a while it wakes up to torture me again.

On a more positive note: our first psychology assignment got very positive feedback from our tutor. It’s sunny outside, and I’m so going to have something delicious for lunch.

Quickie.

Today I have been walking the streets with the sun in my face and said goodbye to my family. It was lovely to have them here for a visit, and right now I’m feeling quite sad. Goodbyes are always saddening, even if it’s nice to get back to normal living and all it means. With the house full of people, your life sort of stops. My mum has a good rule when it comes to guests: "guests are like fish: after three days they start to smell." 
Now I need to start doing an assignment for BRP which is due today.

Have a lovely week, everyone!

p.s. I didn't know that this quote came from Benjamin Franklin. Thanks Jess for informing me :)

Love.

One of the most fantastic things in life is observing people who are falling in love with each other. Oh, that happiness.

Detox Tea & Body Pump

Now is the perfect moment for a quick hello! So... hello :) Today is being a busy, but exciting day, and I can’t wait for tonight when my family is coming for a visit. Before that I need to clean the house, work, do some grocery shopping and I feel like baking, too :)

This morning I went to the gym with a friend of mine: the extremely clever idea was to do some body pump. At 8.30 a.m. Neither one is a morning person. It was actually enjoyable, but we are both so weak that it’s almost funny... anyhow, the good thing about being weak is that you can only get stronger, the only way is up!

By the way, jumping from one topic to another, did I tell you that I managed to kill my energy drink addiction? Well, I did (and deserve a big pat on the head), but in true addict style I cannot go on with my life without an addiction...

Say hello to my new breakfast, lunch, snack AND dinner:

 

Crisp bread + lots of cheese.

 

Photo

I’m a complete disaster

For the past couple of weeks I have been stressing about my clashing schedule: both work and Hungarian grammar on Wednesday evenings. Well, turns out Zsuzsi the Disaster has gotten it all wrong and Hungarian grammar is on Tuesdays. Yay, go me!! (the teachers probably hate me by now :()

Sataa, sataa ropisee.

It’s only Tuesday but it feels like a typical Sunday here in Valencia. It’s a public holiday so nobody is working /except for me/ and the rain is pouring down. It’s so nice and cosy, just sitting here, drinking tea and listening to the rain. We had a nice lunch with friends earlier, I’ve been working and now I’m thinking about going for a run in the rain to clear my head, get some fresh air and re-charge the batteries (there is nothing as energising as a good run in Zsuzsi’s world) .

Give me time!

When I have a moment to spare, I would like to turn our extra bedroom into a study room. The room isn’t very big, it’s got some furniture (wardrobe, bed and table + a lot of junk) but not much more, and it’s not a very comfortable place to be in. Actually I prefer to work from the living room sofa, or even worse, my bed. The point is: I want a place where I feel inspired and effective.

So, the question is: what could I do to make the room nicer and cosier? Firstly, I’m thinking of a colourful rug to give the room some colour. Strong colours such as dark pink or dark blue could be ok, since the rest of the room is white.

Secondly, a couple of shelves are a must. Plain and basic is fine, but the shocking amount of books and papers needs to be hidden somewhere. A ladder bookcase would be perfect, and oh so pretty. A small table for tea could give a nice touch.

I also want a big inspiration board for ideas, thoughts and pictures, as well as a blackboard for creative moments.

We’ll see how this goes: I will definitely keep you updated. 

Hungarian Verb Conjugation

I have a little tip for anyone struggling with Hungarian verb conjugation. I’d recommend you to learn how to conjugate the verbs by heart, but if you for some reason need some quick help, then this site might be useful.

Sok szerencsét!

Rise and Shine :)

This post was supposed to be published a few hours ago, but the internet connection was being S-I-L-L-Y.
Hello people! How was your weekend? Are you ready for the new week? Here it’s sunny and it seems like we are going to have a nice day. I already walked the dog and worked for a while, and now it’s time for breakfast and planning the week ahead, before rushing off to the gym with a friend of mine.
So what’s happening this week?

• Work: about 25 hours
• Hungarian class on Wednesday night: need to prepare for that one properly. Also prepare lecke 13 in the book and read about possessive pronouns and formulating questions.
• Psychology: need to read a few chapters + do a little project.
• BRP: finish the document about the laws + do some tasks.
• Gym: Monday & Thursday with Å, Wednesday with PT.
• Running: try to get in 3-4 sessions. Did one todaY in the gym!!!
• Birthday dinner on Monday
• Barbecue on Tuesday
• Parents + one piece of little brother coming for a visit over the weekend? (they’d better! Confirmed. Whoop! )

I hope you’ll all have a nice week!!

Weekend.

The weekend is finally here. For me that means good food, a bit of running, work and reading 200 pages or so about a law proposal concerning Swedish national security. Yup, this is the result when you decide to live a more flexible kind of lifestyle :)

Maybe, hopefully, there will be time for some adventures. And sleeping.

Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?

Happy Weekend, everyone!!

Reminder

“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."

“A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."
- Lao Tzu -

Efficient Thursday.

Today I’m quite satisfied with everything I’ve managed to do: almost get killed in the gym, do a lot of laundry, work for a few hours, spend a few hours in the fascinating world of Hungarian possessive pronouns. Now I’m  going to do the dishes, tidy up a bit and cook lentil soup. And then I might finish the book we are reading for Risk Analysis. In the meantime I just might listen to Fringe in Hungarian for some brainwashing. Yup, yup. That sounds like a good plans.

The gym was great again. Today I was "taken care of" by another person, and he was really nice. Touched me less than the other one, and talked more. Apparently he had recently moved here, and one of his best friends was Finnish. (that’s odd, wherever you go, you always meet someone whose best friend is Finnish, we’re everywhere, conquering the world so WATCH OUT!). And yeah, the exercise (lots of cardio intervals) was quite effective too, I almost threw up at the end.

Girly

Magyaros gombaleves (Hungarian Mushroom Soup)

The other day I made Hungarian mushroom soup (also having it for lunch today, actually). You can find the recipe I used at the end of this post, I did modify it a little bit, though (used red onion instead of white and added green pepper. There was no fresh parsley in the house either. Skipped the sour cream). It could also be a good idea to add carrots if you feel like it. I like this dish very much, since it’s both spicy (oh yeah, I added a lot of paprika) and creamy at the same time. I’ll give it a 4+ out of 5.

 

HUNGARIAN MUSHROOM SOUP

12 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 c. chopped onion
4 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
1 c. milk
1-2 tsp. dill weed
1 tbsp. tamari
1 tsp. salt
2 c. chicken stock
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. fresh chopped parsley
Fresh ground pepper (to taste)
1/2 c. sour cream
1 tbsp. Hungarian paprika

Saute onions in 2 tablespoons butter, salt lightly. Add mushrooms, 1 teaspoon dill, 1/2 cup stock, tamari and paprika. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Melt remaining butter in large saucepan. Whisk in flour and cook whisking a few minutes. Add milk. Cook, stirring frequently over low heat about 10 minutes, until thick. Stir in mushroom mixture and remaining stock. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes. Just before serving add salt, pepper, lemon juice, sour cream and extra dill, if desired. Serve with parsley garnish.

The word of the week: memorable + languages in Finnish

From a very good online dictionary:

Sana memorable löytyi seuraavista sanakirjoista:

Käännökset englanninkieliselle termille memorable:

tanskaksi - Danish:
mindeværdig, uforglemmelig

saksaksi - German:
denkwürdig, unvergessbar, unvergesslich

englanniksi - English:
memorable

espanjaksi - Spanish:
inolvidable, memorable

viroksi - Estonian:
mälestusväärne, ununematu, unustamatu

suomeksi - Finnish:
elämyksellinen, ikimuistettava, ikimuistoinen, mieleenpainuva, muistettava, unohtumaton

ranskaksi - French:
mémorable

unkariksi - Hungarian:
emlékezetes

italiaksi - Italian:
memorabile

liettuaksi - Lithuanian:
isimintinas

latviaksi - Latvian:
neaizmirstams

hollanniksi - Dutch:
gedenkwaardig, memorabel

norjaksi - Norwegian:
minneverdig, uforglemmelig

puolaksi - Polish:
godny zapamietania, pradawny

portugaliksi - Portuguese:
memorável

venäjäksi - Russian:
незабываемый, памятный

slovakiksi - Slovakian:
pamätný

ruotsiksi - Swedish:
evigt minnesvärd, minnesvärd, oförglömlig

turkiksi - Turkish:
unutulmaz

Coffee!!

Finally! I’ve swapped my energy drink-addiction for a coffee addiction. Good or bad? Well. If I drink one or two cups of coffee a day instead of one Red Bull, I’ll be able to pay for my gym membership with the money I save. I kid you not. One Red Bull a day totals 36 euro a month, and I’m paying 38 euro for the gym. Incredible.

Yes. I joined the gym. Don’t know what to tell you about it since I’ve gone only once. Today. A guy in a green t-shirt named Quique showed me around and got a bit touchy-feely. Mind you, I’m an icy woman from the Cold, Cold North so I prefer to maintain a certain degree of personal space (i.e. anyone who invades that space is automatically touchy-feely): I don’t think he touched me any more than he would touch any other unknown person, but I found the situation rather odd.

Anyhow, we did legs. And we ran: well, I ran and he watched. And on telly they had an interesting discussion in Valencian about breast feeding, so I got to watch a lot of naked boobs while trying not to fall off the machine. How tremendously exciting. And tonight I’m going for a run (hopefully without anyone watching), so tomorrow my legs will probably be completely dead. If you’re in Valencia and see someone walking like a limping duck, you can come and shout hi!

It’s working!

We had no internet yesterday so I was forced to take a day off from my translations and my Hungarian class (not good since I’m missing most of them due to work anyway). At least it’s working today, which is great because that means that I won’t have any problems with job #1, the chat. Phew.

Now I’m just wondering why the sound (of the computer) isn’t working...

Dear Santa, Miss IT-prodigy is hoping for a bulletproof laptop for Christmas. One that won’t break under any circumstances and that is pure perfection. It’d be nice if it could be pink, too. 

 

Thinking Soup and Spanish Drinks

Yesterday TT (and the rest of the gang) were celebrating his birthday with tapas at La Tasca and then drinks and craziness at a random bar. The music was very bad, but nobody really cared since we were all behaving like a bunch of 5-year-olds anyway. The überstrong Spanish drinks might have had something to do with our behaviour. I ended up giving the first drink I bought to a friend, after which I tiptoed to the bar and asked for a "rum and coke, with very little rum and a lot, and I mean A LOT, of coke zero". The bartender probably thought I was a lost cause because she also gave me a straw and started to explain how to use it. Yeah thanks... I know how to use a straw :)

Lately I have been craving for soup, so I think I’m going to make this a "Polish and Hungarian Soup Week". Soup is hearty and healthy (and usually cheap to make!), and oh so tasty, so to be completely honest, I have no idea why I don’t make it more often.

Some of the soups I’d like to try are: Hungarian Mushroom Soup, Kapusniak (cabbage soup), Zurek (ryemeal soup), Zupa Grochowka (split bean soup) and of course Barszcz (i.e. beet soup).

Would you be interested in getting the recipes and photos of the end results?

Jee, let’s go running!

I’ve done some digging online, and found a running program at Runner’s World that might be useful for my 8K. My goal for the race is mainly to... survive (but it would also be nice to get under 50 minutes).

The first week of the plan (4 weeks in total) looks like this:

Monday
4 km warm-up, then 6 x 600m or 2 mins, with 400m or 2-3 min jog recoveries, then 4km cool-down

Wednesday: 10 km easy, inc 8 - 10 x 100m strides

Thursday: 5-7 km fast but controlled

Saturday: 10 km easy, inc hills

Sunday: 10-11 km easy

 

Additionally I want to do two sessions of pilates and two sessions of strength training (upper body + lower body)... this is actually exciting, all I need to do now is get organised and put this in my calendar.

Mökkihöperön Lokakuu

Finnish is a great language for a lot things, like catchy headlines for blog posts. The above means something like "the Cottage Lunatic’s October) and it describes my feelings pretty well. Yesterday was a bad day, today is being even worse. After having spent a while crying it’s now time to try to solve the problems, after all, that’s why we are facing challenges: to overcome them.

At this very moment I am:

• very dissatisfied with myself: my face is drowning in spots and none of my trousers fit well.
• sad: there are lots of great things going on in my life, but unfortunately I can’t share them with anyone, because quite frankly, those things don’t interest anyone I know. What hurts my feelings isn’t really the fact that people don’t like the same things as me, but that they don’t even make the effort to pretend or try to be interested. It makes me lose both motivation and faith in myself and my abilities. I am fully aware of the fact that this is a problem that has its roots in my personality and personal experiences, though, so I probably need to look for other ways to motivate and believe in myself.
• lonely: I work at home, I study at home and I even exercise at home. Most of the activities that require leaving the house I do alone. I have some good friends but unfortunately we are not seeing each other very often because our schedules clash. This means that I have too much time to spend with my own head.
• worried; considering the amount of work I do, I earn quite well, but it doesn’t mean that I have a lot of money to spare. Everything has to be calculated carefully. If anything unforeseen happens, I will be out in the cold. Right now it’s my laptop that is causing me a headache: it keeps "crashing" once a week (sometimes it simply won’t start, and sometimes it doesn’t connect to the internet). It’s essential for both work and school, and if something happens, I won’t be able to pull 500e from my pockets. 

So, these are basically the problems that make me want to hide under the bed and never come out again. This month I want to eat more healthily and do more exercise (and run that 8K), so at least I should be feeling better about myself at the end of the month. It will be tricky to combine this with the lifestyle of the people around me, but I’ll have to find a way. In the long run my health and wellbeing are far more important than pleasing the people around me. My skin has always been complicated, and it’s probably worse now because of all the bad food and negative thoughts.

The loneliness is probably the most acute problem: I like being on my own and I don’t mind spending the days alone, but it might be a good idea to find a running buddy (where? none of my friends run), join a gym (can I really afford it?), meet friends more often (how will we arrange that?), and squeeze in little adventures into my daily routine (what? where? how?). I though about doing voluntary work as well, but... can I find the time? And where can I find that? Another things I’d like to do is meet East-European people here in Valencia and practise my language skills... where do I find them?

Money... ah. I always have the Finnish government to turn to unless everything else fails, but I hesitate because I already have one university degree, and I don’t want to live on other tax payers’ money*. So... how can I earn more money and still have time for studying? Selling myself is probably not a good idea (I doubt very much that anyone would be interested: see point 1 :)). what else can I do? I have thought of giving private English lessons since I speak better English than the average Spanish person. Where could I find potential pupils? Maybe some translations could be a good idea?  Starting my own company? That’s a little dream I have, but is it something I would be capable of? And what would I do?

Well. This is what will keep me busy in October... hopefully I will be writing a far more positive post on November 1st.

One more thing: if you have read this post all the way to the end and have any opinions, suggestions, ideas, wise words or advice, then they’re more than welcome. At this point I could really use any help I could get :)

 

 

* Finnish students receive both study grants, living aid and student loans (totalling an approximate 800 euro/month) from the government (the sum is higher in the Åland Islands).

8K

Good morning all you fantastic people! Last night I finally did something about my running: I signed up for an 8K that will take place at the end of the month. Yay.

I’m still too tired to write anything more interesting than this, instead you’ll get to see a picture that shows why it’s sometimes good to live in Spain.

Now: work and then to town to search for present and STARBUCKS... haven’t been there for like 6 months so it’ll be nice for a change.