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 !