Far away in a bygone age...

Just as I was getting used to the sight of the pavement after nearly half a year of it being coated in snow, we get this.

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Taken from my window at about 5:30 PM on the 2nd of April, It carried on for the rest of the evening and there was about 30 cm of snow outdoors that night, when I went for a walk to Hämeenkatu that night I couldn’t tell for the majority of the journey if I was walking on the pavement or in the middle of the road. This coming after a few weeks of nice sunny weather, staying light out until at least 8PM.

The new snow also brought with it treacherous walking conditions on the slippery surface as it froze over the following nights, I thought my days of walking slower than Finnish pensioners to avoid another fractured bone was over, but not quite yet it would seem. 

This is apparently known as Takatalvi (points to whoever can guess how I already knew that word), a period where winter weather briefly returns during Spring time.

EU - Russia relations sucks so I’m probably going to drop it. The Finnish folk music course if far more interesting though, the first week the professor played extracts of various traditional Finnish music on Finnish folk instruments, he also brought in a variety of Kantele’s (more points to whoever can guess how I already knew what a Kantele was) in for us to try. He runs a foundation that raises money for young folk musicians in Finland in memory of his son who died when he was 25 years old, me and some friends brought a €10 CD from him containing a compilation of his music.

Apart from that I have only book exams to complete, which involve a pretty heavy amount of reading and writing, but hopefully I should be fully finished with studies sooner rather than later, and then be able to enjoy the Finnish spring time (or lack of). One of the books I have to read is written by David Arter, and quite scarily when I read the text I can hear him speaking his irrelevant analogies regarding gingerbread and bicycles in my head. Doesn’t make it any easier. 

So yeah, Agalloch and Ghost Brigade today, it will be epic, and the days are getting closer and close until JUDAS PRIEST come to Helsinki on the 24th which should be massive, and then Von Hertzen Brothers in the middle of all of that, so should be a quality month for live music, May is looking a bit bare on the gigs calendar though, literally nothing until the 1st of June and Manilla Road. 

Two Pain of Salvation gigs in two days was all I really had going musically in March, a great band but a dreadfully poor attendance in Klubi, Tampere, it was a little better in Helsinki on the Saturday but still no way near the kind of crowds that they should be pulling in. Also shout out to Cryptex who opened for them, great band and hilarious guys as well. 

Also first blog post of being 20, well, I started this one on Monday whilst I was 19, completing it today a year older. Onnea to me (‘good luck’ and I’ll need it). 

So I have learnt some new Finnish, “kaksi olutta ja yksi valkovenäläinen”, two beers and one White Russian. What use will that ever have outside of a licensed drinking environment? None (Not that much use in one either).

I’m currently typing this to from Telakka, my new favorite place in Tampere its a kind of ‘culture house’ with a restaurant and bar, wonderful for relaxing and socializing, the food here looks amazing, but way to expensive, I will have to eat here at least once before I leave.

This week is the period break in the Finnish university system, which is a one week break between periods three and four, but from what I have gathered from the natives, this period break has gone from being an official weeks holiday, where no lectures happened at all to being a semi-official break, where some lectures do happen and the teachers are under no obligation to stop lessons. This was indeed the case for me, the one course that I do at the moment (Nordic welfare states) was still on, but most of the Finnish students who don’t live in Tampere normally go home for this week anyway, the campus is much less busy than usual.

I have some new courses starting next week, namely, EU - Russia relations and the far more interesting sounding ‘Folk music and folk dance in Finland’, apart from that I still have one essay to write about the French presidency and maybe write a book exam about Nordic politics, the dreaded Vampires and Nightmares in post-Soviet and Russian culture that I mentioned in the last blog post I have thankfully dropped, a decision that didn’t require much encouragement.

On the music front, almost as soon as I had wrote the last blog post, I went out and brought a ticket for Agalloch who play Helsinki in early April, I missed both of the times that they had came to the UK but heard that they are an amazing live band, and with Ghost Brigade supporting it will most likely be a great show. I also brought two tickets to see Pain Of Salvation in Tampere and Helsinki, they were really amazing when supporting Opeth last December and a headline performance by them is long overdue for me, but sadly the tour they were planning to do with Von Hertzen Brothers isn’t going ahead (but they are playing their own show in Helsinki in April, so everything is okay). Apart from this, I am hoping to find someway to stay in Finland over the summer, at least past June, so I can see Manilla Road who play in Helsinki on the 1st of June.

Tomorrow I think I will walk to Pyynikki, which is one of the nicest places in Tampere, an idyllic and bohemian neighborhood about 3km from the city, also the cafe next to the observation tower has the best munkki (doughnuts) that you will ever try, it is worth it just to try them alone.

moi moi 

A lecturer in the university said this.

Please do not attempt to adjust your monitors or question your eyesight, you read everything correctly.

To be more specific, the “Vampires and Nightmares in post-Soviet and Russian cultures” course is where these words were spoken. I signed up for this class with high expectations, expecting maybe to discuss Wesley Snipes or Christopher Lee, but instead I get Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart…

I’m not sure if I will bother doing the essay, 5 pages for 3 ECTS credits isn’t too hard compared to some other courses but I’m not sure I can stomach having to possibly read Twilight.

Interestingly, the Russian lecturer of this course is very strict on punctuality (unlike the Finnish lecturers) and there is a sign outside the room requesting that if you are more than 15 minutes late you will not be let in. A more apt statement would be “Abandon hope all ye who enter here”.

But apart from that course, the rest of my university studies are going great, some very varied and interesting courses are taught here, we had a British lecture come over for three days to give a course on French politics and and essay to complete for a months time and then there was my obligatory course with Jukka Lahtinen, ‘Japan As A Business Area’, which like the last course I had with him involves 70% of the class turning up for the 1st 4 hour lecture, finding out what the assignment is in the first half an hour, then leaving and not attending a single further lesson.

As I mentioned in the last post I visited a school in Kangasala, last week I also got to visit another school, this time in Kaleva, Tampere, a keskuslukio (high school), where I talked to the students about topics from football to compulsory military service. I might of mentioned previously how Finnish students start university older than British ones do, but I never imagined I would be in a high school and some of the students are older than me. 

In music, there was a bit of a lull in gigs for me compared to last semester, I went to see Amaranthe in Klubi, although I am not too sure why, they basically combine pop music with some heavy guitars and a growling vocalist thrown in for good measure, but ever since I saw them with Kamelot in London last year I have really started to dig them. Apart from them the only other band I saw so far this semester was Angel Witch in Helsinki, which defiantly ranks as being one of my favorite shows so far in Finland, they played a nice mixture of new material from the very promising sound ‘As Above, So Below’ album and classics from the self-titled, and of course the classic self titled Angel Witch song, where I lost my voice screaming ‘Your an Angel Witch, yourrrrr an Angel Witch’ hundreds of times. 

But my gig calender is starting to shape up much better in the next few months. I will finally see Amon Amarth do a headline show on Thursday, having to watch them play second fiddle to Children of Bodom in Manchester was embarrassing. Also the week after Whispered are playing their first gig in nearly a whole year at YO-Talo which I am really looking forward to, and of course my Judas Priest ticket is safely in my room, waiting patiently for April. 

The weather has been playing tricks on me during February, which is supposed to be the coldest month in the year in Finland, the day I went to see Angel Witch, the 4th, it got as low as -29, with a strong wind in Helsinki making it even worse. In the following weeks it hovered at around -17, but today for the first time it was +1, the first positive temperature I have seen in months. The warmer weather meant that some of the snow semi melted and made the pavement quite treacherous, especially on campus where I nearly fell over walking to Pinni B.

I did in fact fall over a grand total of three times (to date, 21 Feb) since I returned in January, the first time I managed to fracture my elbow which began a quite bizarre experience with the Finnish health care system. I went to the hospital and was told that I would have to wait 4 days and receive the details of my injury via E-mail, why they couldn’t just tell me the same day after the X-ray is beyond me.

Tomorrow I have the vampires and nightmares course, and the very thought of it gives me a nightmare.

Moi Moi 

“I will hopefully remember to update this blog far more regularly now that I actually have something worth talking about.” 

That went well. 

I kept saying to myself, “I’ll do it tomorrow”, every day since November to no avail, until today that is, my loyal reader(s) may fret no more.

So what has changed? Much. The whole buzz of waking up with the thought that “I’m in Finland!” slowly evaporated over the passing weeks and months, and whilst I still love it as much as I did the day I arrived its now more of a “I live in Finland” thought than a “I LIVE IN FINLAND!!1” thought in the morning (or in some cases, the afternoon).

I’ve also adapted much better to the university system than I had done to begin with. For those who don’t know, the higher education system in Finland is much different than in the UK, rather semester long courses with lectures, seminars, an essay and an exam, the courses here are much shorter and vary greatly in the requirements to earn the credits. Some have lectures and a exam or essay to complete, whilst some require only attendance to the lectures and no written work at all (my favorite). My choice of courses has ranged from the traditional political science related stuff to more obscure courses such as “Cost benefit analysis and its application to health care” and I am currently enrolled for the most bizarre sounding “Folk music and Folk dance in Finland”.

A few days before returning to the UK for Christmas I had the experience of visiting a Finnish high school in the nearby town of Kangasala to observe and participate in an English language lesson and take some questions from the children, as part of the Erasmus in Schools scheme.

I wasn’t expecting any philosophical or deep intellectual debates of any kind, but when the teacher confessed to me that the most pressing questions the children had for me were “Are you gay?” and “How many girlfriends do you have?” I was preparing for the worst. Luckily it was quite fun, I was (rightly) branded a pussy for not having tried out a sauna in the 5 months I have been here and was met with pure resentment when stating that football was unequivocally better than ice hockey, which it is. But it was a fun experience and hopefully I will be visiting another school sometime later this month.

The weather only really started to turn ‘Finnish’ in early December, when it finally started properly snowing. I feel most sorry for the exchange students who are only staying the first semester and didn’t get to experience much of the winter, especially those who come from places where they will never see any snow. Apparently at the moment their are highs of - 5 in Tampere and lots of snow, but the natives have told me that it should have been like this in November.

But on to the real reason I came to Finland, music and specifically, that of the metal variety. The Stratovarius show I saw in November has been filmed for a DVD, since it was Jörg Michael’s last ever shows with the band. I’m definitely going to buy this when it comes out, Lauri Porra’s bass solo alone will be worth the price tag. I also got to meet the Von Hertzen Brothers in Tampere and got them to record a little message for one of my favorite British bands, Jurojin, after their concert, check it out. Apart from that I have a ticket for Judas Priest, and Angel Witch have announced a Helsinki show in Febuary, on top of a load more bands that I want to go and see. On some of my more stranger experiences at a concert, some Finnish gentlemen taught me a new word, homo porno, at the Iced Earth show in Helsinki and I got chat up by some 40 something year old Finnish women at the Stratovarius show.

So there is my belated update, I’ll attempt to keep far more consistent with the blog during the second semester, I’m going to try and write every 2 weeks or something.

Moi moi.

So last Friday, I had the honour of attending my first football match in Finland, and my first ever international football match, the local derby between Finland and Sweden at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium.

Football of course plays second fiddle in Finland when it comes to sport, with Ice Hockey being the most popular by far. Their 6 -1 victory over Sweden in the 2011 Ice Hockey World Championships last May being far more important than anything that could possible happen tonight.

Indeed the Finnish football team has never been able to come anywhere near emulating the success of their hockey counter parts, having never qualified for a World Cup or European Championships, and with nothing to play for tonight except pride, I wasn’t expecting anything other than Sweden to leave with 3 points, especially considering the 5 - 0 mauling that the Blågult gave them in Stockholm last June.

Whilst Finland arguably had more possession throughout the match, the Swedish team were far more skill full on the ball and after just 8 minutes played, Sunderland midfielder Sebastian Larrson broke the offside trap and slotted the ball past Lukas Hradecky, and by what was sure coincidence not one minute after Sweden took the lead it started raining heavily, and didn’t stop for the rest of the match.

Finland created a decent amount of chances at the other end, but their players lacked the final touch that their counterparts had and the majority of their chances tamely floated over the crossbar, and didn’t give Andreas Isaksson too much to worry about in the Swedish goal. The now atrocious conditions not helping either team, nor the fans.

The beginning of the second half almost mirrored the first, this time Blackburn midfielder Martin Olsson had an easy task to tap the ball in after Hradecky made a great save to deny Zatlan Ibrahimobvic a goal. Not long after the second goal and Finland manager Mixu Paatelainen brought on Leeds United striker Mikael Forsell, Finland’s second top scorer of all time, as they tried to get back into the game, in my opinion Forsell should be starting matches for both club and country.

And Forsell’s introduction proved to be the catalyst that Finland needed, a scramble in the penalty box saw the ball fall to defender Joona Toivio, who despite being clearly at fault for Sweden’s first goal, drove the ball past Isaksson to get Finland back in to the game.

The goal, 73 minutes into the game seemed to make Finland realise that this game was winnable, and with 22,000 fans behind them finally started taking the game to their neighbours, some great play from Roman Eremenko and Teemu Pukki forcing Sweden to make some defensive substitutions, as Finland kept pressing for an equaliser.

English referee Mark Clattenburg turned down two very strong calls for a penalty after a Swedish player hand-balled in the box and then in a separate incident a clear shove in the penalty area on a Finland player, much to the annoyance of the fans, but I did manage to get a “2 - 1 to the referee!” chant going for a while.

But sadly Finland’s new found spirit came to late to bring another goal, and the match finished 2 - 1 to Sweden, and Finland’s players and management applauded their fans in front of what might well be their last home match of 2011.

Considering the Huuhkajat were humiliated 5 - 0 against their neighbours last time, this result was a clear improvement, it was a case of what could have been had they not run out of time when the team finally found their back bone. The players and fans could at least be proud of their performance for a change.

Tonight, Finland are away to Hungary in Budapest. A much lower ranked opponent than Sweden, if they can play like I saw them last Friday, then there is nothing to stop them getting a victory, and ending the competitive year on a high note.

Moi moi.

If I wanted to be pretentious I would have looked up the Finnish for ‘Welcome to Tampere’ and used that as this blog posts title instead, but in 47 days in Finland I have just about mastered three words: Moro/Moi, Moi Moi & Kiitos. But luckily just about everyone here speaks English, except the old man who waits at the bus stop outside Lapinkaari every Monday morning and seems intent on giving me his life story in Finnish.

So, I am in living in Tampere, Finland until around May 2012. Tampere has a population of around 220,000, not to different from my hometown of Reading (about 223,000), the cities are roughly the same size as well, the only difference being that Tampere is the third biggest city in Finland (or second depending on who you ask) and Reading is the 21st biggest in the United Kingdom. In terms of population, this country is tiny, just 5.4 million people reside in Finland, to put that into some context, nearly 12.5 million live in London and its metropolitan areas alone. One of the least densely populated counties in the world. 

But apart from size and population, the similarities between Reading and Tampere begin to end. Tampere (and Finland in general) has to be one of the cleanest places on Earth, no litter whatsoever when walking down the street to university or in the city centre. People here actually make use of the bins, an interesting concept when you get use to it. Tampere is located in between two beautiful and clean lakes Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, two of the 187,888 lakes in Finland. 

But the question that the Finns wanted to know more than anything else about me was why did I choose to take an exchange in this country. The first couple of times I lied and told them that I wanted to see new parts of the world and experience a new culture etc. etc, but the real reason why I came was simply because of the amount of music that I listen to that is Finnish and the opportunities I will no doubt have to go and see them whilst I am here. Although there are not that many metal fans here as I had anticipated, hearing Stratovarius and Amorphis on the national radio on my bus ride from the airport to the city plastered a smile across my face. 

My university studies, the thing I am actually here for, started about a month ago. Sorting out my timetable was a far more tedious task than I would have liked, the university lifestyle here is far more independent that what it was like for me in Salford (which was quite independent in itself). Instead of being given a timetable with a list of lessons and their room numbers, I had to just pick the courses I wanted to study myself and turn up at the right place at the right time, and unlike Salford where you take three  modules per semester, each one being worth about 10 ECTS, the courses here are worth about 3 ECTS each, and in order to get to my quota of 27 for the semester, I am taking 4 courses and 2 independent exams. 

The university facilities here are also far more impressive than those of Salford. Each of the main university buildings has a very nice and cheap restaurant, where a meal costs about €2 for a main course, salad, bread and a drink. Even if I do not have a lesson on a certain day I usually go to university anyway just to eat, as it is far cheaper than buying my own food (and far nicer than me attempting to cook it). The student union, Tamy is also much better than what we have at Salford. They provide amongst other things, van rental, rental of sports equipment and board games and of course the student card that provides a discount for a whole range of activities, from 50% off train travel to free entry to certain nightclubs. All of this though comes at a price of €99 for the year.

And it is indeed price that is one of the main setbacks of living here. Finland is the fifth most expensive country in Europe. Although my rent for Lapinkaari is quite cheap at €258 P/M, doing basic grocery shopping at Lidl’s, the cheapest supermarket in town, can come to a quite astonishing amount. But the more important product, alcohol, is where Finland’s expensiveness really begins to show. Alcohol is taxed very highly here, and according to someone I spoke to, is set to raise even higher quite soon. It is not uncommon to spend nearly €30 - 40 on what I would consider to be a “cheap” night at Ale Bar (‘ale’ being the Finnish word for discount). And the most popular brands of Finnish beer, namely Koff and Karjala and not good. Lets leave it at that.

But that isn’t to say that you cannot find good prices if you look hard enough. There are numerous independent second hand stores and flea markets all over town where you can pick up some cheap clothes, cutlery and various other stuff, as mentioned the university restaurant can give you a cheap meal every week day and a short bus ride to Ikea can provide you with cheap food and household appliances, Vappa Valinta, or ‘Finnish Ikea’ as I like to call it also sells various cheap products.

It has just gone 8PM here and is already nearly dark out. When I first got here it stayed light until past 11PM. Autumn is here and winter will surely follow, the days where I could walk to university in a t-shirt are long gone. Part of me is actually looking forward to experiencing a real winter, and how I can laugh in the faces of my friends when they complain about the temperature back in the UK, but how much can you actually look forward to temperatures of −20 °C? 

I will hopefully remember to update this blog far more regularly now that I actually have something worth talking about. But until then I should really get on with studying procrastinating. 

Moi moi for now.