Upsetting Things This Week

• “Yet, about 100,000 teachers at regional schools and educators at universities will see their wages increase by 5 percent, which would add an approximate €42 per month to their pay…”. Source: The Slovak Spectator. Vol. 19, No.34. Monday, October 14, 2013 – Sunday, October 20, 2013.

Excuse me, what? I – not being or working as a teacher and with no responsibility to inspire and teach future generations – earn more than that. How on earth is a country (not just this one but any country) going to develop if there is no investments made in the future skills and knowledge of its children? Teachers and the educational system is one of the corner stones of a functioning society, where the quality of education should be a goal. And really, who will be inspired to choose the teaching profession if one will barely afford a roof on their head and food on the table with the prospective salary?

• Slovak women ranked as the 2nd most beautiful women in the world. Or something like that. This was something I saw on facebook and can no longer find.

Anyway. Why should women always be ranked depending on their looks? And for that matter, why should nationalities be ranked? And who cares? I get that men like looking at attractive women, women like to look at attractive men, too. But why make such a big deal out of it? There is so much more to people than their looks, but especially in the case of women, this fact is often overlooked. Women are constantly – directly and indirectly – fed information about how they should look in order to be accepted.

People can be clever, funny, witty, smart, intelligent, talented, disciplined, kind, sweet, nice, caring, thoughtful, positive, optimistic, affectionate, amusing, encouraging, courageous, amicable, considerate, diligent, energetic, creative, friendly, ambitious, determined, honest, good, loyal, sincere, passionate, polite, and a lot of other things. So why just focus on being pretty and attractive?

My personal belief is that the source to a deeper appreciation for life and the world lies in the cultivation of knowledge and social relations based on internal factors. Looks are just the shell. Taking care of one’s appearance is not wrong but it should not be the only factor upon which our worth as human being is based (by ourselves and others).

Snowball Effect

One thing goes terribly wrong and suddenly bang. Everything goes wrong. And I´m not good at handling these kinds of things, as I end up blaming myself. For everything. Who cares if a server somewhere on the other side of the planet is having a momentary breakdown - of course it´s my fault and my fault only.

Excuse me, but I’m pissed off.

Days like these the thought of boxing is more appealing than under normal circumstances. That’s all I’ve got to say today, on the last day of May.

Die Frage des Tages– [or the question of the day]

Do you know a language if you can read books, follow conversations and make yourself understood in that specific language? Someone please enlighten the perfectionist and passionate language lover who thinks that the following quote fits perfectly to language learning…

…“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” (John Ruskin)

I’ve written about it before and I’ll write it again: to know a language has nothing to do with the ability to count to ten, or to talk about the weather. Geez, if it were that easy I’d be almost fluent in French.

But maybe you disagree?

Voi mikä pöllö päivä...

If you don’t like people who are complaining until their faces are red with rage, don’t read this post. Just look for something better on the internet, it’s surely filled with fun stuff.

Today is not being a good day. What’s wrong? Firstly, it’s starting to get cold. And when it gets cold my body refuses to wake up and get out of bed. So instead of cheerfully jumping out of bed at 9.00 am (which was the plan) and go to the gym and then do some studying, I woke up when my friend called me at 11.20. My head hurts. My left ear hurts. I should be getting dressed, but instead I and my coffee cup are still hiding under the blankets. In 30 minutes we should be in town.

Messing up my own plans makes me angry. Life is so much easier when one gets everything done. And manages to squeeze in some relaxing and/or fun activities as well. 

Now the plan is this: go to town – have lunch – study date with myself at Starbucks – come home – go for a run – go grocery shopping – study – study some more – go to sleep.

I’m sure at least a couple of these “links” will break.

Sen pituinen se.

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.

I have said it before and I say it again.

Certain Spanish airlines are bad, bad, bad for the blood pressure. They keep sending me mails of the following kind:

"Si no te vas es porque no quieres" - If you don't go it's because you don't want to (Sí que quiero, pero nunca volveré a viajar con vosotros. Gracias y adiós)

Not exactly so. I've spent hours on their webpage which was NOT working.  And they are ALWAYS late. And their service is about as good as the one Ryanair gives you (and with Ryanair you can fly cheap, at least!)

Yesterday we met a man...

Yesterday we met a man who had gotten himself into deep trouble. He had been thrown out from the ferry (for some dubious reasons) and arrested, all his money had been stolen. He was stuck on this island and nobody would tell him how to get out of here or where he should go to get help. Nobody would stop on the street to talk to him. The police treated him very badly (someone who would not lie is a witness), when he asked for help in a polite manner, they almost attacked him physically. They did not want to give him his things (credit cards + mobile phones), although they were rightfully his and he was no longer under arrest. They also pretended not to speak Finnish.

We entertained him for a couple of hours, witnessed very bad behaviour on the behalf of the local police, gave him a ride to the ferry terminal and bought him a ticket so that he could go home.

This man's only mistake was that he was a member of a minority that has been inhabiting Finland for the past 500 years. A minority that has never been considered as part of society and that still receives a lot of crap from everyone. He was a gypsy.

I don't like.....

.. Spanair!! I don't have much time for explanations, but said airline is driving me completely nuts. Somehow they always manage to mess things up (although, to be fair they might have a good reason this time!). Never again.

Torikokous uima-altaassa

Lately I have been swimming a lot, mainly because it's a good way to empty my head. I'm not very quick, but my goal is still to challenge myself and my body, to do it a bit faster than last time. That's the point with exercise, isn't it? To push yourself, to get results, to have an effective work-out, to feel that you're actually doing something.
Well. To some people the swimming pool seems to be the place to gossip about everything that is happening in the mighty municipality of Finström. In order to do so, the whole line needs to be occupied. Nobody is allowed to pass, and everybody else has to adapt their speed to that of snails. Arrrrgh.
Now, don't get me wrong. Everyone could and should exercise according to their own capacity, but ruining the whole experience for the rest because gossiping is sooo important? Come on people, we don't care if Pelle Eriksson went to Sweden last week to buy some milk.

Juhannukseksi marjapiirakkaa

Tänään Zsuzsin sijasta heräsi kunnon äkäpussi. En tiedä minkä takia on niin riittämätön ja turhautunut olo. Vatsa on vieläkin kipeä, eilisen illallisen jälken oli niin paha olo ettei mitään määrää. Yritän keksi kaikkea hauskaa ja viestittää että haluaisin tehdä jotain erityistä mutta ei mene perille ei. Onko siinä jotain väärää että haluaisin juhlistaa opintojen loppumista, Espanjaan muuttoa ja työpaikan saantia jotenkin vähän romanttisemmin? Näköjään.

Juhannusta tuskin juhlitaan mitenkään perinteisesti (aika vaikeaa on kun ei ole saunaa eikä kunnon ruokaa). Ärsyttää sekin että vaikka huomenna tekisin kuinka namin suomalaisen lounaan juhannuksen kunniaksi kukaan muu ei siihen koske ("kämppikseni" eivät syö vihanneksia eivätkä taatusti keitettyjä perunoita... täällä kun on paistettava AIVAN kaikki, ei ihme että vatsa on sekaisin). Marjapiirakkanikin saan syödä yksin koska siinähän on marjoja (VOI KAUHISTUS!). Onneksi täältä ainakin löytyy Finduksen pakastemarjoja. Tuoreet mansikat ovat suhtkoht halpoja mutta vadelmien ja mustikoiden hinnat hipoavat jo taivaita.

Työ alkaa maanantaina kahdeksalta. Vihdoinkin. Odotan ihan innolla :)

HUOM: Espanjalainen ruoka on tosiaan hyvää, minun kohdalleni on vain sattunut kaksi erittäin nirsoa (vaikka muuten ihastuttavaa) ihmistä. En tiedä mitä traumoja ovat lapsena kokeneet mutta pasta-nuudelikeitto-chickenwings-paistettu liha- akselilla on vaikea elää. Kunhan löydetään oma asunto keittiössä tulee määräämään minä! Muhahahahah.

Kuvat netissä

Ystäväni löysi kuviani netin sivuilta jonne en ole niitä itse laittanut, aika kammottavaa. Oma vika tietenkin että olen niitä blogiini ja Facebookiin laittanut, pitää nyt kuitenkin miettiä kuinka saisin pitää yksityisyyteni.

Kyllä kaikki järjestyy...

Onko mitään mukavampaa kun heti ensimmäiseksi kuulla viiden huonosti nukutun tunnin jälkeen..."älä ole huolissassi kulta, kyllä sä kerkeet kaiken tehdä jos laitat asiat tärkeysjärjestykseen". Siis mitä? Asiat kun ovat jonkun muun ihmisen koiran ulkoiluttaminen, jonkun muun henkilön kaverin synttärilahjan ostaminen (ja "kyllä sinä jotain löydät, en tiedä mitä, mutta käytä mielikuvitustasi")... eikä tässä mitään, kyllähän minulla on tässä aikaa juosta muiden asioilla, siinä samalla kun kirjoittelen lopputöitä ja aineita. Oi, ja kyllähän siihen suulliseen tenttiin valmistaudutaan kymmenessä minuutissa, aivan sama jos on avaruuskielellä. Siis tosiaan, korvistaa höyryää vieläkin.