my last days in Valencia!

I'm sorry about not-posting again! My situation is just such that I have only a few days left in Valencia and thus I've had so many things going on and my thoughts are somewhere else so I haven't been able to concentrate on posting. Okay I've been working on one post but it's not ready yet to be published.

Soooo, what's going on? I don't know where to start. WELL. My favorite topic these days - football! Last Friday was a good day. It was finally time for UEFA Euro 2012 opening! I spent the day on the beach with my friends (it has been so hot in here that there's not much else you can do but go there) and after that, we went to a pub/bar which was reserved (by some Polish people) just for football. I seriously didn't know that there are so many Polish persons in Valencia! The place was mainly reserved for them, because as you may know, Poland (and Ukraine) is the host country of the tournament and the opening match was Poland - Greece. I went there with my Polish friends and I think there were only a few not-Polish persons (including me). The atmosphere was aaaaawesome!! Everyone was in a good mood and the noise that came out of the place, well.... haha! The ambiance was maintained even though the game ended 1 - 1. After the match, the night included Finnish drinks, wine, shots, chupitos, botellón, a nightclub..... I seriously had a lot of fun that night. I was happy. (Well, the next day, I wasn't that happy anymore...)

On Sunday it was finally time for Spain to play: Spain - Italy. Once again, we spent the day on the beach (although it was terrible, the temperature went over the top and I almost fainted because I didn't drink enough). After the beach, I took a shower, put the Spain-shirt on and headed to a pub with some friends! I felt like one of the Spanish people with that shirt because all the people on the streets were yelling "YEAAAAA VAMOS ESPAÑAAAA" or "TOORRREEEESSS!" (my shirt is nr 9 - Torres ;-)) when I passed them, haha! I think it was a good and interesting match even though it ended 1 - 1. Of course Spain could have scored a few more times but....

Poland - Russia

Okay the last things about football: On Tuesday I was watching the Poland - Russia Match again among the Polish people in the same bar as last Friday; the ambiance was again amazing and I think there were even more Polish people (if it's possible) this time than last time. Yesterday, in turn, I was with German people in a German pub, watching the Netherlands - German match. Of course people were cheering for Germany but the surprising part here is that they weren't as intense and cheerful as the Polish people cheering for Poland! Everyone was drinking beer (surprise surprise) but as I hate beer, I took wine (I wouldn't have guessed a few years ago that one day I would seriously be into red wine...) and I got maybe the biggest glass of wine I've ever had! It was the same size as my head :D After the game we still went to the 100 Montaditos. Today, it's time for Spanish match again! First, I need to go to the university to print a few papers, then to the beach with some friends and then to see the match! Too many things to do, when am I gonna pack the rest of my stuff?!

Netherlands - Germany

Yep, packing. I started a few days go. I'm gonna leave some stuff behind because I know I'm not gonna need those anymore so what's the point in dragging them to Finland (as if they would fit into my suitcases anyway..). Here you can have a hint about the situation:

the red one is that full already and i still have A LOT of clothes to be packed....

those I'm gonna leave behind.... no room for them :(

Well, what else... Tomorrow I still have to visit the International Relations Head Office to get one signature. I also have to get the rest of my stuff packed, clean up my room (including washing the floors, windows, everything.... noooo) and there's one match I would like to see: Sweden - England. But let's see about it then. I would also like to go and say goodbyes to my friends as many of them are gathering to a nearby plaza for botellon again. But I can't go out and party anymore, because on Saturday morning, we are leaving at 9am etc for the riding trip! That's a good way to finish my stay in Valencia. We are gonna be there 'til the afternoon and I seriously hope we are gonna be back on time because I have a ticket for a bus that leaves at 6pm to Barcelona. So, I have to have all my stuff packed by Saturday morning, because there won't be much time between the return from the horse trip and the departure of the bus. I'm excited about the riding trip but at the same time I'm a bit stressed about the timetables. But I'm sure that will be a good day, forecasts show over 30 degrees and sunshine. In addition to the riding route, we will have a picnic there afterwards. The place is called "Parque Natural de Sierra Calderona" and I've heard that it's a biiiig area and perfect for spending time.

Aaaa I almost forgot - school stuff! Haha, no post without mentioning the university. I had my last exam on Monday (English for business). I've already got the results of two courses - French and Marketing and now I'm just nervously waiting for the Spanish economy results....! The grade for the French course was much much higher than I expected, seriously, the level must have been low if I got that good grade with my performance (I didn't even answer to all the questions). But I don't complain, I'm just more than happy that I don't have to think about French language anymore! And marketing, well I did quite a lot for the course during the spring and I got an excellent grade for that too! It was also better than I thought but I'm so content with it, because I did actually put quite a lot of effort on that course. So I've got two excellent grades now, and I'm actually quite positive about passing the Spanish economy course - I seriously hope so because I've never put so much effort on one course and I honestly did everything I could. We are supposed to get the results before next Tuesday..!

on Sunday, the beach was FULL of people

Okay, I will finish now, this post is already too long for anyone to read! Finally, I just have to say that I can't realize the fact that I'll be in Finland in less than a week. It just doesn't seem real! But first, I still have my little vacation in Barcelona. I promise I will enjoy those last days of my Spanish life, because when I return to Finland, I guess I can't afford traveling for a while... Well, that's all for now, I guess the next post will come from Barcelona!

BTW I finally changed the header/banner/heading-picture, I'm not sure if I like it or not but it stays there for a while now, until I'm active enough to work on it. What do you think about it?

flower power

beautiful day. beautiful weather. beautiful city. beautiful flowers.

i'm supposed to give an English presentation tomorrow. i still haven't decided what i'm gonna talk about. i think i'll take the easiest way and give a brief presentation about Finland. the teacher doesn't really care about the topics (she said we can talk about anything we want), the main thing is the fluency of the speech. the presentation is supposed to take only 3-5 minutes. easily done.

in exactly four weeks i'll be back in Finland. i'll possibly spend my last weekend in Barcelona, i'm not sure yet. i miss that city.

David Villa is not playing in the EURO 2012 tournament. that piece of news ruined my day. that's not good for the Spanish team as Villa is definitely one of their best players.

just some thoughts.

random stuff + nervousness!

(written yesterday, I just didn't get it published)

Just to avoid school work (French oral exam tomorrow - I'm gonna die), I came to tell some random things. Just to ramble something.

Firstly, it's weird how Spanish (and some other foreigners too) find it sooooo weird that I live on my own in Finland. For them it just doesn't make sense that I'm only 20 years old and I live alone. I always have to explain that no, I don't mean I have an own room, and no, I don't mean that I live in a student dormitory / residence because of school, and no, I don't mean that I share an apartment with my friends - I seriously mean that I live on my own, in my own (rental) apartment, only me living there. Usually that's enough of explaining, then they just look at me a bit weirdly. They can't see why people move out of their parents' apartments so early. One day I had this conversation going on again, with a Spanish guy. In addition to these basic questions and explanations, he asked "but who cleans up there?" and "but who cooks?" :D He just couldn't imagine that I would do also that kind of things by myself. hahah the astonishment on his face when I was like "ehhh... me?". And when it came to the fact that I also have a job and I also work along with the studying, that was far too much for him to handle :D "what! why!!"

So yes, foreigners, just to clarify that at least in Finland (a) it's quite common to live on your own at the age of 20, (b) if you live in your own apartment, you cook and clean up by yourself (no housekeepers or personal chefs, at least if you're not rich & lazy :D), (c) we do have domestic education at school (during the junior high school - basic education about housekeeping skills and knowledge, including cooking), (d) almost every student (at least at the university / academic level) is working along with the studies, just to earn some money for living (even though we also get some student allowance, of course).

Another thing I wanted to tell about is HOW IRRITATING IT IS THAT SOME TV PROGRAMS FINISH THEIR SEASONS WITH TERRIBLE HAPPENINGS AND THE WATCHERS ARE TORTURED TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT SEASON THAT IT NOT COMING OUT IN A WHILE. I'm sure that many of you agree with me on this one. And in this case, I'm talking about Grey's Anatomy - they have made it too many times. I shouldn't watch season final episodes before the next season has already started because I can't handle the waiting. On Friday I watched the season 8 final (that came out in the U.S. on Thursday, in Finland it's gonna come out in a month or so) and _they_did_it_again_. I warn you, be prepared if you're a GA watcher and you think you've already seen it all during the 8 seasons. You haven't. And now there are too many months to wait.......

 (written today)
As you can see, I was quite bored with the school stuff yesterday. I went out for a while just to clear my mind. I went to "Jardin de Ayora", a little park I had passed by a few times when cycling to a shopping center - every time I passed it I thought that I have to go there one day, so yesterday I did it. There were a lot of older people spending their Sunday :) The sun was shining when I went there - but just out of nowhere, the sky looked like this:

So I decided to go back home. The thunderstorm came but it took only 20 minutes or so, and then the weather was sunny again. wtf :D Later I got so stressed about everything that I though I was gonna blow up.

 
Today I've been just nervous because of the French oral exam. And I still am, I can't concentrate on anything right now. Me and my partner's exam is at 7pm, and we'll meet at the university at 6pm, so soon I have to get going..! Please, fingers crossed that everything goes well. I will probably come and update something after the exam - if I'm capable to do that and not too angry or disappointed etc because of not passing..... I will pass it! I WILL!

edit 19.45: WELL PASSED! i'm soooo relieved!!

ABC

This week's three days of school just became two as our French teacher had sent us an email that today's class is cancelled. Fine by me, mainly because it's French. Now I should be reading marketing stuff for tomorrow's mid-term test as I was too lazy to read enough during the weekend but instead, I did some laundry, got up from the bed just a moment ago and now I sit here trying to come up with something to write about. Or actually I already have an idea for this post. It's called ABC of my life (I had this idea from one blog that I read). And I'm gonna make this easier for me allowing myself to use both English and Finnish words, ha!
 
PS. all the pictures are taken during the weekend.

last Friday, the temperature rose over 30 degrees in the sun

Okay, let's go.

A - Apulanta (my favorite Finnish band), Apple (and I don't mean the fruit..)

B - Barcelona, beach

C - Californication, Cosmopolitan, cats, Christmas, coffee, contact lenses

D - Disney, you're never too old for it.

E - Espoo, my hometown!

F - FC Barcelona + Finland + FACEBOOK! + friends + football

G - Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl

H - hugging, horses, home

I - Ibiza (26.4.-1.5!), ice cream

J - Johan! 8 days left!!

K - kesä (summer)

L - Laurea... (my home university [of applied sciences]), Little My (from the Moomins), love

M - Malaga (can't wait..!), Moomin mugs, MacBook <3, music, money, movies

N - Nomination-bracelet, the only piece of jewelry I wear everyday.

O - onnellisuus (happiness), old pictures

P - Pepsi Max (how many of you got surprised?!), palm trees, ponies

Q - quietness

R - relationship, riding

S - salt liquorice!!, Somersby apple cider, shopping, Spain, sun, stress

T - traveling

U - unelmat (dreams), ulkonäkö (appearance)

V - Valencia - my home right now.

W - Wikner, the stable I used to go for riding lessons
X - ?!

Y - yöelämä (nightlife), yliopisto (university)

Z - zoos !
Ä - ärtymys (irritation), ässä mix -karkit (vielä vähän jäljellä! - finnish candies)

Ö - örinä :DD (don't know how to translate)

I was actually wearing a skirt?! I never wear them..

heading?

Nothing special to write. I'm having a flu - thanks to the lovely fact that it's colder inside the house than outside <3... that's just so wrong!

Yesterday - welcome meeting at the university. got my timetable. Mondays - just 2 hours of school in the evening, Tuesdays-Thursdays - 2 hours in the "morning" and 2 hours in the evening, Fridays - just 2 hours in the morning. not too hard, except for the French course that I'm so not going to pass as my head is already messed up because of English and especially Spanish. talking to J via Skype for almost 2 hours.

Today - my voice was gone. I had to escape the coldness (inside the house) by going out. so i went for shopping. I skipped the library tour as i felt terrible when i came back from the shopping session. fever - i guess not, but my voice is weak and my throat is killing me. talking to J via Skype over an hour with my lovely voice.

That's all for now. I'm a bit upset because of this damn flu and stuff. Tomorrow I have to feel better as it's time for Valencia CF - FC Barcelona.

J, I wish you were here now. Miss you, a lot.

Valencia

Here I am in Valencia! I will post later more about this place, now I'm just confused and I can't realize I'm not going to home for a while now. At first I'm staying here at Ksenia's place and in a week we are supposed to get our apartment very near to the University.

Btw, I really don't know why the pictures in earlier posts are not available?! at least I can't see them and I really don't want to load all of them again because blogger doesn't load them very fluently... >:(

Just a few pictures from yesterday:

Barcelona airport, that floor is confusing, I'm always near to falling when I look down while walking :-D

I almost went to buy David Villa -shirt but I will do that when I go back to BCN in March >:)

that one I was waiting for. wasn't a long time to wait but it felt like eternity as i was sooo tired and having mixed feelings.

empty airport in Barcelona

leaving from BCN to VLC

landing, my first view of Valencia!

9 days left!

Image: Sujin Jetkasettakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Just over a week left in Finland. Excitinggggg....!

During the last week here I still have some things to do. Besides the packing process, I have to get my apartment ready for my friend who's moving here, so that means I should go through all the stuff here - throw away all the useless stuff - and find a place to all the useful stuff (like clothes that I'm not gonna take with me). Luckily there is some free space in my storage closet downstairs - I think it enough for my stuff.

I also have to make an appointment to a hairdresser as I want to get rid of my root growth! I may want to have some highlighting in my hair too..

On Saturday, I'm having my farewell/send-off party. About 30 persons are participating, mainly my fellow students. Nice to see them all before leaving.

soon it's time to go to the airport again!

Next week I still have to see my relatives and try to spend some time with them. Last days I've spent almost all the time with J and I think we'll go on like this 'till I leave. Hopefully. I want to spend as much time as possible together with him now that we still can. I'm gonna miss him so much. Thank god he's coming to Spain in April, we have a vacation booked to Málaga for a week then :-) Looking forward to that!

Besides the vacation in Malaga, I'm having quite a lot of traveling ahead of me! In February there's an Erasmus (the exchange organization) trip to Andalucia, that consists of visiting Jaén, Granada, Sevilla and Córdoba. Sounds so attractive that I think I can't avoid participating. In March my sister is probably coming to Barcelona and I'm gonna meet her there. Yay for Barcelona, lovin' that city!

^ a few photos of my trip to Barcelona in 2009

The trip to Málaga with J is in April, and in May we have an Erasmus cruise to Ibiza! Whoa, a lot of things to see and experience! Can't wait! I almost forgot I have to study there too... :-D

Btw, now I supposedly have an apartment in Spain. I'm moving together with my friend from Finland (she has been there already for the first semester) and two other exchange students. They had found a nice and clean apartment with 4 rooms, situated in a good location. Better than fine for me! The rent is affordable and the apartment seemed very good (based on the pictures I saw). Hopefully we get the apartment - if everything goes as expected, the apartment will be ours from the beginning of February till the end of June. I hope more than anything that everything goes well!

That's how i feel right now about going to Spain :-)
Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

recap of the year 2011

...or at least the things that I remember! I've been looking for my last year's calendar so that I could check out what has happened, but I haven't found it.. but let's see what I can recall.

January 2011

- we had A LOT of snow here in Finland

- I had quite a many parties (not school parties but private ones)

- I went on with my studies as the second semester began

- I stopped riding as I hadn't enough time for the pony that I rode a few times a week :(

February 2011

- I just can't recall anything special for this month.. I guess I was mainly looking for apartments, studying studying and studying

March 2011

- just the basic studying and student parties (I also got to know the guy I'm now in a relationship with!)

- I was stressed because I didn't have an apartment to move to (I had to move because of a renovation work)

- I broke my black touch-screen mobile that I really liked!! :(

April 2011

- I got a study place from the University of Valencia for the spring 2012

- The concert of Enrique Iglesias! ;)

- Moving to another apartment, I got the apartment just a week before I had to move. I hate moving!

- LOB-cruise (Laurea on the boat) to Stockholm - the cruise of partying and having a hangover

- We celebrated the 1st of May already on the 30th of April, as usual in Finland, fun time with random persons!

May 2011

- The second semester of school finished

- I bought a smart phone and it was hard to use at first :D

- We went to Holland with my friend to see my other friend who was there as an exchange student! The place was the Hague and we had a lot of fun! Our flights were via Riga and we had a loot of time to see that city too.

- I started working in a café / summer terrace place at the same time with my other job in an advertisement office (since August 2010). A lot of work but I liked it there.

@the Hague

@Riga

@Riga

June 2011

- At the beginning of June I worked A LOT as I had two jobs

- I went to our summer cottage (I hadn't been there in a few years) to "celebrate" the Midsummer

- I went to Kaivohuone quite a many times, okay, a lot less than last year :-D

July 2011

- still a few parties at Kaivohuone (for example celebrating the 4th of July - the theme was America as can be expected :D)

- my friend who we visited in Holland came back to Finland

- I spent a week at another summer cottage with my relatives and two dogs:)

August 2011

- We spent one night in a hotel in Tampere as our family friend got married there

- We took a day cruise with my three friends to Tallinn, Estonia! My first time there, which is weird among Finns that usually visit Tallinn many times per year

(ps. you can find own posts for these happenings earlier in this blog :-)

^ a few picures from Tampere

...and from Tallinn

September 2011

- Studies began again and so I began to work at our school's restaurant every other week as a part of our studies

- Student parties! I started to have a thing going on with the guy that I'm now in a relationship with :-) also a few private parties that my friends organized

- I moved back to my previous apartment as the renovation work was finished, this is my REAL home :)

- I turned 20 years old!

October 2011

- I had my birthday / housewarming party in my tiny apartment

- I started riding again!

- I had the first real date with J :-)

- We had our school's Halloween party and a pre-party at my apartment, I dressed up as a cowgirl :D

- I started to make my friend familiarized with my job because she's going to take it over next spring as I'm then in Spain

- We made our relationship official with J <3

© Maria F.

November 2011

- Another LOB-cruise (that student cruise thing), visiting Stockholm

- For the first time a guy introduced me to his relatives - I met J's sister & cousin and their husbands

- I bought my flight to Valencia for January 20th

December 2011

- I was working at my boss's birthday party as "a waitress"

- I had a few pre-Christmas parties and a few other parties

- I was stressed (big time) because of all the school stuff and presentations and projects

- I spent Christmas in a traditional way

- Spending New Year's in Oulu with J :-)

So that's about all the "special things" I can recall from last year.

...And I can tell, writing this took me like, several hours :D