Crazy First Week Of February

Seems like I have an insanely mad week to look forward to, but it’s OK, because most of it will be spent with family and friends in Finland.

• Monday: work, lecture (Hungarian Text Analysis), finish assignment (Measurement Theory), gym (managed to run 6K), lunch with TT and his sister.
• Tuesday; gym (body bump), going to the city centre for lunch with TT and his grandma, also need to buy train tickets and print some papers out. Work on a psychology assignment and prepare for Hungarian oral class.
• Wednesday: school work, running, more school work. Pack the suitcase. Wohoo.
• Thursday: get up way too early to catch train for Alicante. Fly to Sweden and keep all fingers and toes crossed that we will make it to the last ferry. Try to study while stressing about trains/planes/buses/ ferries.
• Friday: work, and socialise with family. Complete an assignment. Eat lots of Finnish food and drink battery. Alternatively, sit on a ferry from Sweden to Finland and then work.
• Saturday: study + play in the snow + party with bestest Magdalena.
• Sunday: maybe try to squeeze in a trip to the swimming pool. More studying.

 

Now, work is calling!

Sunday Thoughts

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m currently reading a book called The Cowards (Zbabelci) by Czech writer Josef Skvorecky. It might possibly be one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever read.

“Christ, everything in my life always gets fouled up. Always. Every goddamn time. I always have to go somewhere else when I feel like staying where I am and I’ve always got to stay when it would be wonderful to go somewhere else. Something always turned up to make things come out wrong. But that was me. Me all over. Maybe I just wasn’t made for love or for happiness, for anything. I was just made to get through life somehow or other, to live it through and observe it and be a part of it, and to… But I didn’t know why else I’d been made except I knew there must be some other reason, that I had to be made for something more than just that, like for playing the saxophone, maybe. That was the best thing I could come up with but maybe there was something else, too, something even better. There had to be”  (p. 240)

Pink Friday

Happy Weekend, Everyone! Keep your feet warm, eat responsibly and cuddle as much as you can. Make snow angels or dance in the rain. Surround yourselves with the colour of love, health and fairies. Be nice

Crêpes

Just as if three days of pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner wouldn’t be enough, we had lunch at a “crepería” (la Galette) today in the Russafa-area. For 15€ (per person) we filled ourselves with salad, crêpes, cider, coke, beer and coffee. It was delicious! (And I think it’ll take a few months before any crêpe will find its way anywhere near me again).

Sometimes I wish…

…that I had the energy to get up at 7 am every morning. The gym is a great place once you get there. Any ideas on how to achieve that level of energy?

That’s pretty much the truth of the day.

Wunderbar!

Some days it’s better to just eat (lots of) pancake and enjoy the sight of a half-naked Matt Damon on telly. (p.s. did you know that some of his ancestors were Finnish? That would so explain the babyface )

I’m sure you were expecting me to put photos of something more exciting than pancakes here. But guess what; there are days when pancakes covered in raspberry jam is the most exciting thing in a girl’s life. Those days half-naked men are quite low on the list of priorities…

ქართული საკვები [Georgian food]

One of my great findings in Moscow was the Georgian cuisine, and I have really been missing having the possibility to go to a cosy Georgian restaurant to enjoy delicious food and wine. There are no Georgian restaurants in Valencia, and none in Finland either (who’ll come with me to St.Petersburg for some Georgian delicacies?). In Manchester we found an Armenian restaurant, but nothing Georgian. Anyway, to the point. If we can’t go to the food, we have to bring the food to us. You cannot imagine the amount of exciting jumping up and down when I found this book at Fnac on Sunday. For 10€. Now I’m excitedly planning to make all my friends guinea pigs so that I can feed them Georgian food made by moi and Georgian wine bought at the nearest русский магазин.

The great thing about this book (which also has information on the Russian, Ukrainian, Azeri and Armenian cuisines) is that it’s not only full of nice recipes, but there are also lots of lovely photos.

Да!!

It seems that we sometimes create obstacles for ourselves, making some things far more difficult than they really are. For some reason we just decide that it’s impossible, and whenever we have to deal with the matter in question we suffer.  In reality those obstacles might be tiny, though.

One of my exams last term consisted of analyzing a law proposal concerning the security of vital societal functions against a certain type of threats. The task seemed never-ending: first I had to read about 250 pages written in juridical (Swedish) jargon, then try to apply supersoft decision theory to analyze and evaluate the proposition.

The topic was interesting, but it also scared me. The initial thoughts that came to my mind were “I don’t know anything about law, how will I be able to evaluate anything?” and “OMG, I’ve never written anything academic in Swedish, this is going to be a disaster”.  During the process I really started doubting my own intelligence, thinking that it might be a far better idea to start looking for a job at the local supermarket.

But guess what? I passed, and I even got a good mark. For me it really was an achievement, because I managed to prove to myself that my brain isn’t as underdeveloped as I sometimes think it is, and that I also have what it takes to analyze and estimate laws and other types of decisions. There is room for improvement (there always is) but I’m not a totally lost case.

Things we ♥ right now

Spring. It feels like spring even if it’s only January and there have been some rumours about snow on the Spanish east coast tomorrow. But. It. Feels. Like. Spring. Anyway.

You know what it feels like when that peculiar spring feeling is starting to take over your system?

No matter how uncertain life seems to be, there is a feeling of hope, of things getting better soon. Those crazy butterflies are swimming and jumping and playing in your stomach, reminding you of how wonderful life actually is. They offer you great promises of wonderful things to come, and provide you with both comfort and faith when you need them the most.

coffee, upcoming detox, endorphins, cuddling, running, the sunshine, the sore muscles in my bum, analysing decision making and problem solving, planning future trips, music, laughing with friends, colours, water, warm blankets, cold drinks, the wind in your face, good books, people watching, kisses, life.

Sometimes you need to search for those good feelings and memories, and then catch them, put them in a cage in the mind, so that they will be there whenever you need a quick happiness boost.

Soon, very soon, both TT and I will be cuddling with the world’s finest Tomi!

Treats

Cherries, fresh coriander and Swiss muesli are some of the more exciting findings of this week. A week that has been really strange, to say the least. Tonight we’ll go for dinner with some friends (to an Italian place it seems). What happens next is still a mystery waiting to unfold itself.