In Croatia

Last few days in Bern were hectic to say the least, returning the last report to the university, visitzing Gurte, swimming in Aare and having a barbeque on Friday and going to Zermatt (we were too late to snowboard, it was unfortunately only in the morning) to hike around Matterhorn and having a long night (ending in Dead End, a place worth its name) on Saturday.

Then it was time to go to Ljubljana via Lugano and Zurich. In the train I got the first rtemainder that I´m leaving the good old Switzerland and going to te wild east. I had a reserved place in the train, but that car was not working (no battery, no lights, no air conditioning and it was over 40 degrees hot inside) so it was left to Zurich and I had to get a place in another, totally full, car. Well, nice way to spend some 10 hours..

After a couple of days in Slovenia I am now in Croatian coast, enjoying the temperatures of almost 40 degrees...warm ;) Travelling with two friends from high school, so having good company as well.

I will write more later, see you!

Want to get a surrealistic feeling?

I'm writing the last report to University, due tomorrow, my snowboard is leaning against the wall again because it is going to be used on Saturday (it was put away already three months ago) and next to it is my empty backpack, which should be filled up before Sunday for a two-week trip to a former war-area...and in the middle of all this I'm trying to tell myself that it really IS 12th of July and not February or smtgh...

Already earlier today me and Elin were given funny looks in sports stores when we were both trying to find bags for snowboard/skis, surprisingly in most of the places we were told to come back in the winter :P Finally we found bags for ourselves, so we can leave Bern before the next winter. Why are not more people flying with ski equipment in July? I just wonder what they're going to say to me at the airport, if I ever make it there...

Yesterday we made an evening trip to Thun, small town but definitely worth a visit. Even if it was raining for half of the time we were there...

Nice place, this Thun...




...just a bit windy sometimes.

Some poor guy was left alone in the rain, so Elin and Jussi kept company to him.

Another castle.

I got a train ticket from Lugano to Ljubljana for Sunday-to-Monday night, so I should head to Lugano on that morning. Then I'll be the next two weeks somewhere along the Slovenia-Croatia-Bosnia-Serbia-Hungary-Slovakia -route, or at least close to that area. I wanted to make some top-lists of Switzerland, but they have to wait until I've been to Lugano (and snowboarding in Saas Fee or Zermatt on Saturday), because Lugano is still a favourite to end up in the Top-5 cities of Switzerland -list...just have to see it myself first!

Just a quick note...

...because I don't feel like writing long stories about anything (well, it's a bit late already and I should still work with my last report, which should be 5 pages long and due on Friday noon). I'm still alive. I've got results from most of my exams, and they were surprisingly good. Probably I shouldn't write this yet, as one exam and this report are still missing, but still. Positive surprises on that front...This is more or less my last week in Bern (on Sunday I'll go away for two weeks and then I come back here only to pick up my stuff, say goodbye to some friends and fly back to Helsinki), or at least that's the plan. As you all know, plans are just plans and can change on any minute. Still it's good to got some plans, just in case things happen to go according to them ;)

Last weekend was spent mostly in Zurich, as Züri-Fäscht turned the whole city upside-down. An estimated 1,2 million visitors on Saturday made the city totally crowded, fireworks lasted for half an hour (and looked just perfect when watched from a balcony of a lawyer's office just by the lake...oh how did I end up in there? Well, thanks to our host Nico and his friends...) and now I know for sure that it's possible to make loops and fly upside-down on a helicopter and stay still in the air with an airplane. Been there, seen that on my own eyes...

I also saw the first fight, a drunken woman beating a man she was walking with, and the first theft during my time in this country, so now I also know that there is criminality in Switzerland. I had already started to doubt that.

Still many places to see and things to do, it's going to be a busy week (just hope the weather gets better, until now it's been rainy and cloudy most of the days and that doesn't make me too keen to go out and do anything)...

Open Air St. Gallen

I'll change into English (at least for a while), because someone from Mexico was complaining that this exchange has made my Finnish so bad that she cannot understand it...no, it was not Niina ;)

Last weekend we were in Open Air St. Gallen with Bruno, Elin and Terese. Well, Martina, Bruno's roommate, and some Bruno's friends from St. Gallen were also there. So no need to feel lonely nor to speak Finnish. Some good bands, some not so good (I just can't understand why Arctic Monkeys is so popular now, don't impress me in any way...) but the most remarkable thing was the general athmosphere. Some differencies between Finnish festivals and this:

• Here, even if people are totally drunk, they can still behave. No-one was killed because of grilling in the tent, I didn't see a single fight during the two days there (not even any situation that was close to a fight) even though people were throwing water on each other etc., and even on Sunday, when the rain started just befor the festival was over and everyone was leaving at the same time, people were happy when they stayed one hour or so in the queue out of the area...happy nation.
• Everything worked. Even there was the queue out of the festival, it was not due to a lack of buses that were carrying people back to the city, but because they couldn't be loaded all at once. When one bus was full, the next came immediately and it was loaded with people so, that it was full but there was still room to breathe in the bus. A bit diffrent compared to the trains carrying people from Ankkarock back in the days...

I guess my German has been improving as well, because there I was asked if I'm from the Netherlands or even Germany (ok, those guys must have been totally wasted, but still...). Well, still not a Swiss ;)

Tentit sveitsiläisittäin

Viime viikolla oli kivaa, neljä tenttiä maanantaista torstaihin. Ja kolme niistä keskiviikkona ja torstaina. Niinkuin saksankielisissä maissa yleensäkin, Bernissä tentit on ärsyttäviä nopeuskilpailuja. Aikaa on yleensä 75 tai 90 minuuttia, ja kysymyksiä enemmän kuin suomalaisissa 4 tunnin tenteissä. Onneksi kysymykset ovat yleensä suhteellisen helppoja, kyse on lähinnä luentomateriaalin ulkoa oppimisesta eikä opitun tiedon soveltamisesta (HSE:ssä joutuu välillä tentin aikana oikeasti ajattelemaankin, ainakin rahoituksen puolella). Tentin aikana ei ajatteluun ole yhtään aikaa, pitää vaan yrittää mahdollisimman nopeasti ymmärtää mikä osa (mahdollisesti) muistiin ängetystä tiedosta pitää oksentaa millekin kohtaa vastauspaperia. Noita kun tekee pari päivässä niin on illalla aika tyhjä olo, aivokapasiteetti riittää ehkä suunnilleen seinän tuijotteluun...

Mulle tollainen tenttityyli sopii kuitenkin paremmin kuin esim. argentiinalaisille, jotka joka tentin jälkeen ovat valittaneet ettei aikaa riittänyt jokaiseen kysymykseen vastaamiseen kun ekat parikymmentä minuuttia menee pelkästään vastaamisen aloittamiseen. Lattareiden aikakäsitys...Ite oon yleensä heti tentin alussa jakanut koko tenttiajan yksittäisten kysymysten maksimipisteillä ja käyttänyt yhden vastauksen tekoon vain ko. ajan. Tolla taktiikalla joutuu välillä jättämään vastaukset vähän puolitiehen, mutta ainakin ehtii kirjoittamaan jotain kaikkiin kysymyksiin (jos nyt sattuu muistamaan jotain kirjoittamisen arvoista...).

Nyt sit odotellaan tuloksia ja katsotaan miten meni ;)