Weeks go by so fast !

It's been almost one month now! I hope you all didn't miss me too much though. :)

I've got so many interesting and entertaining stories coming up again, so sit back, grab yourself a beer (or something stronger) and enjoy reading!

Awesome German guy Chris

Ghost Brigade !

A few weeks ago, for the first time in my life I went to a metal concert. I hear some of you already thinking: "Metal? You serious?" But I have to admit, it came to me as a big surprise as well. I always wanted to go to a metal concert, but never had the time or motivation to go. Thanks to Chris, a German exchange student who works at the venue, I got the oppotunity to join him for the concert. And since Finland is as big a metal-country as Belgium is a beer-country, I had no other choice then to go! The music was really good and less violent and harsh then I first expected. It was really nice to meet some other local Finnish people beside the usual students in school. Ghost Brigade was the main band performing that evening, a Progressive Death Metal from Jyväskylä. For those who want to check out some tunes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwwLNvkaUi0 

well-cleaned kitchen

Apparently it was the week of the "first times". I started off the week by making some 'quiche'. It was much easier then I expected and didn't take so long to make actually. It still didn't taste like mom's quiche, but it certainly came very close! Meanwhile I made a second one as well and it was almost close to perfection, so before preparing the tirth one, I should probably invite 'Michelin' and clame the stars I'm entitled to! (But maybe clean the kitchen first)

The same week I got invited to an Italian diner, but arrived a little late and brought my own Dr.Oetker hawai pizza. Tommy, the Italian guy's reaction (try to read in angry Italian-English): "Whoe puute pineaplleh on a piezzaa? Thies ies note a piezzaa!" was pretty funny... And then afterwards a discussion between two Italians about the distance between several cities in Italy. Unfortunately I couldn't film it but you will get the point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d2RlyAz6VQ .

I almost got electrocuted too! And how... By cleaning the kitchen... And that again pointed out the fact that cleaning is dangerous and should be done by women. On top of that I found out we had old types of fuses and not the ones you can switch on again. That then left us literally in the dark for a couple of days. In the beginning it wasn't that much of a problem, but after bumping into everything in our kitchen for the tirth time and waking up in the middle of the night and not finding the toilet, the day after we finally decided to buy some new fuses.

By the end of the week we got a great and interesting lecture about Sport Marketing and Mass Media in Latin America. It was really funny to hear how everything in Argentina is determined by footbal, and more specific the teams Boca and River Plate. For example when one of the teams was supposed to degrade to the second devision, they just approved a new law wich forbids either one of them to degrade, even though they would end up last. An other example of how football rules Argentina is that the ruling president of Argentina Christina Fernández made sure that every single inhabitant could watch football at home in HD on the television. Even if they couldn't afford it themselves, one was provided for them by the government. Her close relationship with national media sure isn't a surprise, but definately shows again how countries and governments can still be so corrupt these days...

Of course, like every week goes by so fast, we almost always forget to do things for school. By Sunday we had to finish our 'Beer-assignment". Writing 5 pages about the use of beer in the restaurant service. Because there weren't so many restrictions, using Belgian as a beer country was a pretty good example. Still, for the first time the weekend was filled with nothing but schoolwork. By Tuesday then, we had our first exam: 'Basics of Wine and Other Alcoholic Beverages'. As I said before, it is as cool as it sounds, but still studying every single grape variety and wine region worldwide, not to mention only the French regions, is much harder then it looks. The exam wasn't so easy either, but hopefully I'll get my "WSET level 2 Award in Wines and Spirits" (sounds pretty bad-ass) and proudly hang it up in my room.

Sometimes I really miss Belgium... :(

Almost two weeks ago, for the first time since August, I heard some real Belgian music again. On the great tunes of Sanne "Paranoized" Rogier we partied all night long.(https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=256140327755369) It reminded me back at home, and for the first I really had a moment of weakness. The good thing here is, that you're never alone. There is always someone close to you who's in for a chat or who's there to help you out. But more important, you don't have the time to be sad.
The day after we already had an other party coming up: "M-Building party".

Afterparty at M-building

For several years  now, the M-Building party has been THE Erasmus event. Europeans, Americans, Asians, Africans,... gather to share some great stories, party, have fun, and in some rare cases  they even alcohol...
For those who want to "feel" the atmosphere, here's a YouTube video a Spanish friend made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi2UXSJ4cvg&feature=player_embedded

Ski-jump

Magnificent view

During the contact-free school week a lot of people went to Russia on holiday. Because Sanne and me don't have a international passport (probably the only exchange students who don't), we couldn't go on the trip. But that wasn't a reason to hold us back to do other, way more awesome, things. I came up with the great idea to get up at 6 and walk all the way to the ski and activity resort, in Laajavuori, 6km from where we live. Few people joined and off we went. We arrived pretty early and start climbing the ski-jump, from where we had a magnificent view over Jyväskylä and surrounding cities and of course the many glistering lakes and vast forests. Unfortunately the sky was pretty cloudy, so we couldn't see the actual sunrise. But nevertheless, it was a superb experience and maybe we can go again one of these days.
Next on the Erasmus-menu was as real Finnish ice-hockey experience. A couple of weeks ago we bought these awesome ice-skates and finally D-day came. The only experience I had where a couple of hours of falling and getting up again in Belgian ice-rings. Apparently Finnish people start ice-skating even before they start walking. Seeing 5-year-olds dribbling and shooting hockey-pucks all over the ring, didn't really help either. But anyway, after a few minutes it all started to come back.

It IS getting cold

Off we go...

Are we there yet...?

The end of the free week was getting close, so we decided to get out off the city ones again and go on a hike. We planned to go to a Spa-hotel in Peurunka, a 26km walk trough woods and swamps but fortunately mostly metso-trails. (signed and marked trails for cross country skiing) In the beginning everything went very smooth, but after a few hours I got more difficult. Crossing swamps and getting soaked wet feet, losing track of the trail and seeing the sign "Peurunka 17.8km", 30 minutes later then "Peurunka 17.2km", didn't really help either. But the nature and the surroundings where so beautiful and the sauna at the hotel was waiting for us. The hotel looked more like a retirement home, apart from the Finnish karaoke there wasn't that much entertainment, but that allowed us to get a good night sleep. The day after we found a mini-golf course that probably hadn't been used for ages and played some bowling in the hotel's private bowling alley. By noon we gathered our stuff and tried to hitchhike our way back to Jyväskylä. Hitchhiking is really easy in Finland and the people are very kind. Even almost before we were able to put our thumbs up, we got a save ride back home.

Stay tuned !

Do they have McDonald's in Lithuania?

Although I have so many things to talk about since I wrote my last last blog, I didn't find the time yet to amuse you all with yet another episode in my amazing Finnish adventure.

Sanne, you asleep?

Last week we made a great trip to Estonia and Lithuania. We left on Friday morning quite early, and because I'm  not yet very familiar with the "actually making homework for school" system, and my assignment had to be finished on Friday, It became a very short night. Nevertheless, we got up at 5 and headed off to Helsinki. Fortunately we we're able to catch some sleep in the car.

Hannes saying: "Oh there's no wifi on
the boat, that sucks, let's go back !

We arrived in Helsinki quite early so we had to wait a little bit to get on the ferry which would sail us safely to Estonia. On the ferry everyone could take place wherever they wanted, and when we realized that with our still half-sleeping faces, the only place left was a uncomfortable table in the middle of the bar with horrible 80's music. But we explored the ship a little further and watched to beautiful Helsinki harbor and its gorgeous small islands from the deck.

Sanne saying: When god created Finland,
he gave them lots of useless islands!

Of course it also didn't take us long to find the ferry tax free shop.


After singing loudly and making some stupid dance moves on the lower deck where the car was parked we entered the Estonian harbor. Markus, an other exchange student, born and raised in Tallin took us under his wings and decided to spend the day showing us this beautiful Estonian City. It was really nice knowing where to go (or not to go) and having someone guiding you around. Tallin surprised us again every single minute with its magnificent buildings and culture and definitely not to forget its (recent) history.

Old city - new city - old-Soviet-city

 When we talk or learn about history back home or at school, we study about the World Wars and French, German, Italian, American, etc history, but less or even never about Baltic countries. It was then very shocking, but astonishing to learn something more over this beautiful, young country and its recent past with the Soviet-Union. Hearing a 22 year old talk about the foundation of his country that's even younger than himself, and having it hard to control him emotions was very touching.
After the short and great history lesson we went to a pancake place and enjoyed a real Estonian diner.

Estonian pancakes, with meat

When we went back to the hostel, 3 other students, who hitchhiked there way to Tallin arrived as well. We then got ready for the music concert of Chase and Status. (That actually was our main reason for the trip). After missing Chase and Status myself two times during the summer holiday, I was very much looking forward to eventually seeing them. We then arrived at the concert hall and saw a few thousand people standing outside and in line to get in. After 30-45 minutes of pushing and pushing nothing changed and people started to get angry with each other and trowing a kinds of stuff. The entrance was maybe 8 meters wide and doors kept closed the whole time, entrance and exit, same way in and out. Eventually some people came out saying it was a madhouse inside. All together we decided not to wait any longer and to not take any more risks, and went safely back home.

Vilnius sleeping place

The day after we had a nice breakfast and visited the old town again. In the evening we took the night bus 700 km south to Vilnius. After not sleeping for almost the whole night we arrived in Lithuania. Of course the first question was: "Do they have McDo in Lithuania?". Luckily for us, they did, and with a menu costing only half the price you pay in Finland (or Belgium), we had a decent, real Lithuanian breakfast!

Do you where your teenager is at 5am
in the morning? Mac-MacDoncald's !

Diana, a girl from Lithuania, guided us around in Vilnius and provided us with an awesome sleeping place a little bit out of the city center. We could sleep with a guy who build his own music studio in his house, fully equipped with music instruments, a true heaven for 7 Music and Media students! That night he invited us to an incredible Raggae-DnB party in the underground scene of Vilnius. Afterwards we took the taxi home, but first stopped at the Mcdo drive-in (open 24/7!) and spent our last "Lollars" (how we called the Lithuanian money) on cheap burgers, without thinking about having to pay the taxi. That of course leaded  to a hilarious situation, but still we managed to get home safely. the day after we took the night bus again to Tallin and headed back home.

The same day two Belgian friends arrived, and still very tired from the sleepless last 7 days we started partying again in Jyväskylä. Wednesday we were able to catch a match of the Jyväskylän icehockey team. It was the first time in my life and definitely not the last!

JKL icehockey ring (© Michel Aubroeck)

But every amazing and good story has to come to and end... After my friends leaving back for Belgium, I started to feel a little bit sick and tired.
Must be the combination of to much sleep, not enough partying and not enough alcohol!


ps: For those who have a lot of time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WpS5o9by70
the first day of our trip in 15 minutes
Thanks to Sanne Rogier !

Blogger de blogger de blog !

Dear bloggers.

Where shall I begin this?

Squirrel eating barbecue left-overs  

Last week flew by so fast (again), and I have to admit, it's not easy to finish my blog on time every week. There are so many thing to do around here. Also going to the supermarket, preparing food and cleaning up take much more time then I would've imagined a month ago. But no worries, I'm not starving over here, and I do manage to keep my room clean, sort off...



Laundry day!
This week it was the first time that I did my own laundry. I was very nervous and couldn't get any sleep the day before. But it wasn't as hard as I imagined. Non of my clothes shrunk or changed colors. And of course I could not let this special occasion pass by unnoticed. So I had no other choice then organize a real "Laundry day after-party". A lot of people showed up, in clean clothes of course, and it was a great time to talk about my frightening experience with the washer and dryer that day.


Wednesday we had our first course of visual communication. Although I'm not very creative myself and I have no knowledge of any visual creating programs, the teacher was very convincing. I really want to learn more about this and maybe eventually see things in a different perspective, like I never saw them before.

Thursday I had my first course of "Español 3". It actually went very smooth and I was surprised that after 4 months of not speaking a single word in Spanish, the beautiful language is still somewhere present inside of my head. I also met a very nice Spanish girl called María, since her English is not that good (yet), and my Spanish can always use some support, we decided to come together on several occasions and help each other to improve our knowledge of both languages.
We normally only have 1h30 of 2h of each course every week, but the downside is that we always have to prepare something for the next. "Homework" they call it, sounds so 2000. But fine, it compensates with the nice and friendly teachers and the interesting lectures we get!

Drinking wine in class?

Thursday afternoon our "Basics of wine and other alcohol beverages"-course started. And yes, it was as fun as it sounds. We had to taste 40 wines over these 3 days. Because it was an intensive course, we also had to go on Saturday. Of course Friday evening is party-night, so we really needed to go out. Apparently the last bus back to our apartment is at 2h05 and NOT 2h15. I missed my last bus, so I had no other choice than going back to the party and not have fun at all... Thus, Saturday morning it was quite hard to get to school at 9, but the tasting of the sparkling wines certainly helped me to wake up!

Chris (crazy German guy), and me :)

Kozzmozz, Retro Acid, Star Warz
We promote !

Saturday evening we found the first dubstep/drum&bass party here in Jyväskylä, since our arrival a few weeks ago. It was really nice to finally here some not commercial dance or RnB music the Finnish people (and clubs) are so fond off. Still, the party ending before 3 o'clock and no after-party? Not getting used to that.

Maybe I do miss Belgium a little bit?

  Ps: Mam: I'm really not starving, I even managed to make some bacon and eggs  

Ps: Dad: 4.26€ for ONE Orval! You would be ruined...

Moi, mun nimi on Daan (Hi, my name is Daan)

Monday’s still are pretty much the same as back in Belgium. You have to wake up to early, and you forgot to buy milk and cereals, because you were in a party mood all weekend and didn’t go to the supermarket, so there is nothing to eat… The good thing is I survived the weekend and I was really looking forward to our first Finnish lesson. After a few minutes I realized, that learning the language would be even harder than I imagined. You can’t relate to any language and it’s really hard to pronounce any word at all. The teacher didn’t speak English very well, so that makes it even harder to understand anything at all! But we did enjoy it, and a Spanish guy trying to pronounce the Finnish “J” as in “Javier”, is pretty funny as well.

Erasmus people hanging out

Warming up for footbal game

Italian pasta and sausage

The best thing here in Jyväskylä is that you’ll never get bored. Every single day someone throws a party or organizes an activity. Last week for example on Sunday we gathered to play some football and eventually we ended up playing against a local Finnish children’s team.
This week we also had an international diner. But because we can’t make any French fries here and you can’t find any high-value Belgian beers in the supermarkets, we decided to arrive an hour late (typically Belgian!) and just bring some chocolate.
Last weekend we went to bar Ruma (literally means “Ugly”), and for the first time I was surprised that they do know some good music around here as well. And not only the commercial dance and RnB. Afterwards we ended up at the Italian’s place, where he started to make a late-night pasta meal for 8 people.

Finnish nature on way to supermarket

Last week we didn’t have a lot of courses yet. Monday and Tuesday we still had a day off, and when we arrived at school on Wednesday at 8am, we discovered that our teacher was sick and that none of the exchange students got informed about it. The course that we were going to take on Wednesday afternoon, “Safety & Security”, got cancelled for the whole semester because not enough students enrolled for it. The first real lesson we had was the “Sports marketing and mass media”. After the introduction we realized that it was not going to be so much about the sports itself but more the commercial side and even how politics are involved in all these major sporting events. Next week we’re going to start with “Visual communication” and “Basics of wine and other alcohol beverages”, which I’m really looking forward to!


  
 Moikka! (Finnish way to say goodbye)

ps: a quote to end with
Spanish guy saying: "Alcohol is so expensive over here, I started trying to drink these cleaning products we have."
  

Sunday allready?!

The first few days here went by so fast...

Beautiful waterfall on the way home

Thursday and friday "the orientation days" started at 8:30, so we had to wake up quite early. But on the upside, luchbreak starts at 11! They talked us trough library services, computer systems, student health care, how to survive in Jyväskylä, but the thing we remebered the most is the Student Union JAMKO & International Club IC. We received an event calender with lots of parties, trips to for example Riga and Lapland and even a cutural tour.

Meeting some Finnish people

Friday afternoon started off with a beach picnic at "Tuomiojärvi" beach. It didn't take long before we met some other students. The funny thing is, we practically only met local Finnish people. Everyone told us it would be very difficult to get some Finnish friends, because they are very much on their own, not very sociable, but they are really friendly and kind. We just kept talking all afternoon, until we realized we couldn't go back to the appartement by bus anymore. So we had to go straight to the afterparty at club Bra. First we went to the Macdonald's to get a real Finnish meal and prepare ourselfs for another night of drinking lots and lots of tapwater.

Spanish lunch invite

After arriving home with the nightbus and waking up quite early because the sun was shining so bright again, we prepared ourselfs to go the beach 300m from here. We spent the afternoon relaxing and meeting other exchange students. It was even very nice to just take a swim. Then we got invited to a birthday party in someone's appartement, about 50-60 in a really small place. A lot of Spanish people were hanging around and invited us to a Spanish lunch the day after.

Today the sun is shining again and they predicted 25° outside, so we're probably going to the beach again this afternoon.

So see you again in a few days !

Arriving at Jyväskylä

Dear friends and family

Still trying to figure out how this blog"thing" works, but until then, this is my first impression...

Lake "Myllyjärvi"

Despite the fact we missed our first train from Helsinki to Jyväskylä, everything went very smooth. Our tutor Saana was waiting for us and gave us a fast introduction to our home and facilities around here. This morning I first started to realize this is the place we are going to stay for the next 4 months. I started the day with a good run, and so I could explore this beautiful place a little bit more. Our flat is in the middle of the forest, and we have a lake almost literally in our backyard. Everything around looks so calm and peaceful, almost like a fairytale, nevertheless, the city center is only 10 minutes by bus and 5 minutes on foot there are a few supermarkets and even a MacDonald's! 

Weird clouds, big power supply

The only thing we still need to figure out are the busses and their routes. Today we ended up  in small village called "Mustalampi", with a busdriver not speaking a word English... But eventually we did arrive home and prepared dinner: "Dr. Oetker's famous Ristorante!"

One thing I was a little bit afraid of, that acohol would be very expensive, but 15€ for 20 cans of beer and 15 cents for a recycled can, is just perfect! It's almost like earning money to drink beer?!

And on that bombshell it's time to end my first but certainly not last blog!


Moimoi (Finish for goodbye)

ps: Quote van de dag: Sanne zegt: "Zo nen bos maat, tis gelijk gans d'ardennen op énen berg!"