Has it really been almost a month since my last update? Whoops. I can only blame homework, some stupid PC games that managed to distract me for a while and those annoying I'll-just-do-it-tomorrow thoughts that kept pushing it back. But here I am.

So. One thing that happened was that the baseball game trip to Seattle got canceled. I was extremely disappointed. Since the university doesn't have its own baseball team this would have been my only chance to go watch some baseball (and Major league at that!), but no, they canceled it because of the threat of swine flu. And when I tried to sign up for a hiking trip up to Mount Baker to console myself, that was canceled too. All in all, I've pretty much lost all faith in WWU excursions. Three out of four I was interested in got canceled in the last five months or so. I'm kind of glad I didn't update my lj when I first heard about it, or you would've seen plenty of angry ranting.

Since the university obviously wasn't sending me to Seattle, I decided to go on my own. That was too days ago. I got a friend to come with me and at least I had a blast. When I visited Vancouver some months ago, the trip ended up being really boring since we had no plans what to do when we actually got there. This time (I was with a different friend) we had a list of four places we wanted to go and we ended up running out of time so that we only managed a really quick stop at the last place (Daiso, which sells cheap Japanese stuff). I showed my friend around the Pike Street Public Market and the Waterfront and then we headed to Uwajimaya, which a huge joined Japanese grocery store and book store.

We were in a hurry by that time so we skipped the grocery store (man, I would've liked to buy some Japanese food!) and spent like an hour at the book store (and I would've gladly spent another hour but we still wanted to make it to Daiso before our bus left). I bought the second book in a kanji learning series (the first one teaches the basic meanings of kanji, the second one how to read them in Japanese), a bunch of manga (English translations) and also one book and one manga in Japanese for practice purposes. I'm still really slow at reading Japanese so I didn't have the time to pick out a book on the basis of the story synopsis (it took a lot of time just to find the section of the store that had novels since all the section names were written in Japanese, half of them in kanji). I ended up buying a random book (はじめてのことがいっぱい) by Yoshimoto Banana, who is a popular, contemporary female author. I had heard before that she uses a lot of casual, everyday expressions in her writing and that's what I'm really looking forward to since the textbook we use in class was written in the seventies and mainly uses the kind of formal Japanese that you would only use if you're trying to impress your professor or something. You wouldn't use it when talking casually with Japanese friends. The book I bought also seems to have quite a lot of hiragana and a relatively low amount of kanji so it should be a good choice for my first proper reading experience in Japanese.

There's only three weeks left before I go home so I'm busily finishing my homework and packing up all my stuff at the same time. I've bought a lot of new stuff, but I should be able to fit everything I want to keep in my luggage (I'll buy a second suitcase soon) as long as I send a part of my books in the mail. I've also been lazy about looking for a new apartment in Tampere so I'll have to fill my application today. I tried sending an email to the Student Housing Foundation to see if I could move in with a friend, but apparently I'm a couple of months too late. Darn.

I know there have been a lot of small stuff going on in the last month that I meant to write about, but I can't remember most of it anymore. Hmm...

It's amazing how I've been able to adjust to the American study style. In Finland we're used to relatively small amounts of homework but we still complain about how much stuff we have to do. When I was younger I spent a lot of time on FFN.net and I always thought that the American writers, who usually mentioned their homework as the main reason why they couldn't update so often, in reality had about as much homework as I did. Boy, was I wrong. Compared to your average American high school or university student, a Finnish student has lots of free time. I only found out the true meaning of being busy when I came here, and I know people here who are taking much more difficult and time-consuming classes than I am. Recently I visited the website of a Finnish newspaper and by chance I saw an article titled something like this: "Every fifth high school girl in Finland says they can't keep up with classes". Honestly, every Finn should be required to spend a couple of months in an American school so that they could understand how easy they have it. And Japan is still a lot worse than America when it comes to the amount of schoolwork. I'm not trying to insult anybody with this, it's just subjective observation.

I remember how I used to be so stressed out about having to do one piece of homework every two days or so in Finland (no matter if the homework could be completed in half an hour or required six). When I first started taking classes here last September, I took the first two weeks pretty easy and when I was forced to realize that it wasn't nearly enough, I spent the next month trying desperately to catch up. A couple of weeks ago I realized one Wednesday morning that I had two days to learn 70 kanji, read the last 60 pages of a book which I also had to write a one page essay on, and do my regular Japanese homework which takes about an hour every day. Had this situation happened a year ago in Finland, I think I would've had a nervous breakdown or something. But now I wasn't even stressed out. I managed to do everything just fine and even managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of anime watching. If there's one thing I've learned this last year it's how to manage my time. I'm just hoping I don't fall back to my old lazy habits when I go back to Finland.

And that's all for today, folks.

( Trying to get a suntan? )

Congrats Obama and congrats USA. Listened to Obama's inauguration speech on youtube and it sure sounded good, even though I know next to nothing about politics and I wasn't really concentrating on listening all that hard. Just thought I should listen to it since I happen to be in the country at this historic moment. Most people around here sound very optimistic about the new president so I'm happy for them.

And now that I have that out of the way, it's back to my ever so boring every day life. *bored tone* Yay. As expected, nothing much has happened (and I'm way too tired and lazy to write anything long right now) so here's a short list of random and pointless happenings and thoughts from the last week:

Got told by a man in the grocery store that apparently peanut butter isn't good for you.

I found out that I'm apparently addicted to multi-tasking and it's really hard trying to concentrate on just one thing at a time.

I skipped aikido class today because I felt lazy. Although I like it, I'm considering dropping it when the Spring quarter starts. I never meant for it to be a permanent hobby anyway and I'd like to try some other club too.

I'm currently wasting my time by going through random TV series, both old and new. So far I've finished watching all existing episodes of Supernatural (which rocks my socks) and Medium, and I'm currently rewatching Smallville and Stargate SG-1. Once I get through those I'll move on to Doctor Who and Heroes. So much for any attempts to have a social life.

Half my homework in this quarter consists of learning kanji. About 60 a week. Anyone else would probably call it pure torture (I fail to see why I need to learn the kanji for gall bladder. How, um... useful), but I'm actually enjoying it. Go figure.

My Finnish continues to deteriorate from lack of use (I only use it once a week when I talk with my mom). Once I come back to Finland I'll have to spend the first month reading some proper Finnish literature.

I fed some salmiakki to an American friend. It wasn't pretty.

I have a prepaid phone which requires me to buy 300 minutes every two months or the service expires. The price isn't too bad, but the problem is that I don't use my phone anywhere near that much. In the last four months I've only used a bit over 100 minutes out of the 600 I had and I need to buy the next 300 minutes in a couple of days. I'd survive until June with the amount I have on my phone right now, but I'll have to buy 900 minutes extra to keep the phone working until June. Isn't that just peachy.

It was so sunny and warm earlier today that for a moment it felt like Finland in April. I am so not missing Finnish winters.

Can't be bothered to check this post for typos. Maybe tomorrow.

Been a long time since my last update, huh? Predictably, I've just been too lazy to write (and nothing much has happened).

I had a fun Christmas break which consisted of watching movies and anime, reading manga and fanfics (I even briefly found my interest for Harry Potter fanfiction again but lost it again in a few days) and just relaxing. In other words, I had a lot of fun. I didn't do anything special for New Years but I'm not exactly feeling sad about it. On Christmas day I had lunch with two friends (from Japan and Korea, respectively) and we all brought in something we had cooked, so it was a nice, international Christmas meal. We even had snow on the ground. There was actually a week or so around Christmas where we had so much snow that the town almost stopped because it's used to any snow that we happen to get melting away right away. The 200 meters to the grocery store felt more like 10 kilometers because no one had cleared the sidewalks from snow and my legs sunk up to my ankles or even knees with every step. I was tempted to take the bus. I had some impressive icicles hanging out on the balcony, but some handymen came and took them down because they were getting kind of dangerous. Luckily I managed to take pictures before that.

( Winter Wonderland )

Now all the snow is gone and it's raining. For some reason very few of the locals use umbrellas and are satisfied with hiding under their hoods. Someone told me that the locals are just so used to rain that they don't want to bother carrying around an umbrella all the time. Everyone complains that it rains a lot in here, but as far as I've seen we get either as much or more rain in Finland (and most people carry umbrellas!).

The Winter Quarter started today and I had most of my new classes. I'm taking four classes but those are only worth 12 credits which is the amount required to maintain my visa. I wanted to take on a smaller workload than last quarter so that I'll have time to try to search the university library for something I can use in my Master's thesis. I also bought two extra books unrelated to the courses I'm taking. They're for a Japanese history course which I'm unable to take because it overlaps with one of my other classes. I intend to read the books even though I won't get any credit.

One of the courses I'm taking is a class where we watch Japanese classic movies (without subtitles) and then write an essay (in Japanese) on each of them and hold discussions (also in Japanese). I'm not actually qualified to take it as the course requires more courses in Japanese that I've taken, but I got special permission to do the coursework in English and just take part as best as I can (I would even have gotten permission to skip the discussions, but I want to go and see how much I can understand). Another course will have me learning 50 kanji per week, on top of the 15 a week that I will be learning in my normal Japanese class. Can't wait.

Today I had a really nice day, with lots of small positive things, until I came home this evening and found out that my old roommates expensive vacuum is missing. She moved out at the beginning of Christmas break and left some of her stuff (including the vacuum) here that she intended to pick up later. The same day my new roommate moved in and asked to borrow the vacuum to clean her old room. I know I had no right to loan it and now I feel damn guilty for not checking if it was brought back. She claims to have returned it ten minutes later, but I was an idiot and didn't check (it was hidden behind a sliding door). That was the last time anyone saw it. Now it's gone and someone's got to pay. My old roommate just came by and suggested that we each (she, me and my new roommate) pitch in with 70 dollars to get her a new vacuum and so we don't have to go the university police or anything. I wish I had at least checked if it had been brought back so that if it had, my new roommate wouldn't have to be part of this. *bangs head on the desk* Funny how you can first feel like you're having the best day you've had in a long while and then someone comes and pulls the carpet from right under your feet. I just hope we can put this behind us soon and that it won't hurt my relationship with either my old or new roommate.

This weekend I'm going with my aikido group on a Misogi (purification ritual for the beginning of a new year) which means that we'll hike somewhere (first it was supposed to be Mount Baker but now we're apparently going to a beach or something) and do a thousand sword strikes. Go figure. I'm going, 'cause its one of those special events that I want to experience while I'm here.

Anyway, year 2009 seems to have begun on both a positive and a negative note (I got a fortune cookie that said I'd soon experience a pleasant surprise, I hope the few small ones I've had weren't it). Let's hope it'll just get better from now on.

Happy New Years to everybody!

So. I've posted some pictures under friends-lock, but haven't really sat down and written about the things that have been happening here. Now would probably be a good time because I'm trying to watch The Fifth Element without much success (my god, this movie sucks big time) and not doing anything intelligent. I do have a lot of reading to do, but that can wait.

My classes are going fine so far. I haven't really dared to speak out in class (other than that first day when the professor just had to call on me), but I'm slowly gaining confidence. I'm probably going to spend this first quarter just listening and getting used to things before trying to actually participate in class. I'm pretty glad right now that I only need to get the credits for my classes and that I don't have to care about what kind of grades I get because these courses aren't a part of my Major and I won't even get a Minor out of them. I'm taking them mostly because I'm actually interested in learning about East Asia and it's up to me to decide how much I want to get out of the classes I'm taking.

One of my classes, "Religion and Society in China and Japan" has turned out to be pretty much a philosophy class where we're expected to discuss and analyze the thoughts of several ancient Chinese philosophers. Right, how nice. Except I happen to detest philosophy with a passion and I usually have absolutely no idea what philosophers are talking about. I somehow managed to get a B+ for my first paper, although in my own opinion it was utter crap. The first test is coming up soon, and I'm hoping not to fail because I can't remember which philosopher said what. I have to read seven books for this course.... gah.

My Japanese classes on the other hand are going a lot better. I'm a bit behind on some things and a bit more advanced in some because I've learned things in a different order, but everything seems to be going alright despite that. I still need to read through the text book and see what the local students have already covered during their first year that I haven't yet learned, but that shouldn't be such a huge task. Japanese is the one thing I definitely have motivation for.

Other than school, I've been occupying myself with watching movies (my roommate has a huge collection that I'm browsing through) and taking part in various activities. People who know me in real life have probably by now realized that I'm not exactly the most social person around, but that's one part of myself that I'm trying to improve while I'm here. I'm persistently trying to take part in most activities arranged for us exchange students because I really don't want to feel left out. It seems to be working because I'm on speaking terms with most other exchange students and on friendly terms with several. Jose is still the one I talk with the most (besides my roommate Kailey), but I'm also making other friends. I admit that I'd been hoping from the beginning to make some Japanese friends while I am here because I thought it would be nice to get to hear about Japan from native Japanese people and to maybe get to practice my Japanese skills later on in the year. The only problem is that Asian people tend to stick together and it's not easy to get between them. Luckily for me, we had this barbecue party around two weeks ago (I posted some pictures earlier) where I got to meet some Japanese girls. They turned out to be interested in Finland (or more precisely, Moomins) so it was easy making conversation. I've gotten to hang out with them occasionally since then (went out for some sushi) and I think we can be considered friends by now. One of them has even started aikido with me.

Okay, now about aikido. Like some people may remember, before leaving Finland I talked about possibly signing up for the aikido club here because I've always been interested in learning some sort of martial arts. Well I did join. It's not really a club in the sense that clubs usually are here because it's situated downtown instead of on campus and the meetings are more like aikido classes than club meetings (and they cost 25$ a month). There are also other people taking lessons besides WWU students. Anyway, I've been there now three times and I think I'm going to stick with it for the whole nine months that I'll spend here. The meetings are thrice a week (which is a bit too much considering all the other things I also want to do), but it looks like it doesn't matter how often you show up as there's a different group of people every time I go. I was pretty surprised to find out that we have to follow Japanese customs (bowing, greetings, etc.) in the dojo (practice room) even though no one there is actually Japanese or studies the language. It was pretty cool. I got one of my new Japanese friends to come with me to the aikido class and she seems interested in continuing it with me (which also gives me a lot more time to interact with her, yay!). The classes are interesting, and besides learning self-defense I also get a good workout every time. The first couple of months are probably not going to be that much fun because it's really frustrating that I can't keep up with the people who've already practiced a lot, and I can't yet be a proper practice opponent to them. I also feel really clumsy. There's still a long way to go before the movements will come to feel natural.

The one thing I really love about being here is the whole campus thing. Most students live here so distances are really small, and the campus offers a huge number of different kinds of activities for everyone. It gives people the chance to make friends with people who aren't taking the same classes as they. In Finland it's usually really hard to meet people who have other Majors or who have started studying before or after your own starting year. That's why it seems like the only way to meet people in Finland is to go to parties and bond by getting drunk with them. And that is so not for me. In here I've finally gotten to notice that my social skills aren't actually that bad if I just get the chance to talk to people without the whole thing involving alcohol or partying (note that legal drinking age here is 21, and they're very strict about it too). Why can't Finnish universities have more clubs?

I've been experiencing so much recently that it's hard to put everything I'm feeling right now in words. I'll write more when I manage to gather my thoughts, but I think this should do for now. Just a couple more random facts before I go to sleep:

1. I realized only after getting here that Washington is actually situated in an earthquake zone. I heard that they're expecting a huge earthquake to strike here sometime in the next 50 years or so. I'm probably crazy for half-hoping that I'll get to experience a tiny earthquake while I'm here.

2. My roommate is interested in bugs. She actually owns a couple of tarantulas, but is considerate enough not to keep them here. Her uncle is looking after them for her. I could almost faint from the relief. She says hi by the way.

3. There have been a couple of cougar sightings in the area around campus over the years, the last one of which was in May last year. I sure wouldn't want to bump into one of those.

4. I brought way too many winter clothes with me from Finland. Right now it's still a bit warmer here than it has been in Finland this whole summer (well okay, it's quickly getting colder), and if I understand right, at most the temperature will drop to -1 degrees Celsius in the Winter. I almost melted from the heat when I first got here.

Okay, enough. Time for bed.