I still live in Finland!

Before I continue with the last few installments of Spring Break/The Modern Odyssey, I'd just like to remind everyone that I'm still in Helsinki, and things are still happening here. Namely, spring has begun to sprung! Well, things are starting to melt at least, and it's making for some very sloppy conditions.

And it's staying light SO much longer now! When I got here two months ago it was getting dark at 3 in the afternoon. Now the sky is still light at 9:15! And the sun is still shinning at 8:30!!! No joke. And it gets 12 minutes later every day. How is this going to keep up until June 21st?

3:00pm January 22, 2010

8:00pm March 30, 2010

It's the most intense spring I've ever experienced. Even the people are starting to come out of hibernation. On sunny days they try to sit outside in cafes and pretend they're not freezing, and their black clothes are being replaced by brighter colors.

I went to the ballet the other night! It was the opening night of Sleeping Beauty (Prinsessa Ruusunen) at the Finnish National Opera. It was wonderful! I got completely lost in the experience. I felt like one of the many little girls dressed up like a princesses.

There was no way I could really capture the experience on film, but it really was wonderful. With the set, and the orchestra, and the building, and costumes, and the fact that it was in Europe, it was almost surreal.

There was some kind of awards ceremony (since it was in Finnish I have no idea what it actually was) at the end that I tried to video. The video doesn't really do the stage justice at all, but if you want to hear some Finnish being spoken, check it out.















It was also Earth Hour (when everyone in the world is supposed to Turn Out The Lights at 8:30) last Saturday. I was really excited about this because I found some events planned in Helsinki. And last year when I tried to celebrate it, I just sat alone in my apartment in Raleigh with the lights out while every other apartment I could see was lit up like the 4th of July. Well, Helsinki tried at least, but it was still pretty disappointing. They had a concert in Esplanade park, but the only "lights out" thing we saw happen was the main spotlight on the stage being turned off (which they probably put on just so they could turn it off). But it was still a fun time. This guy was beat boxing and was really good.

Easter is also coming, and it's pretty much the same in Finland as it is in America. Except instead of the Easter Bunny they have a witch that brings the Easter baskets. So for Easter everyone dresses up as witches and uses witches as decorations. It's almost like their version of Halloween.

Here is a semi-creepy picture I took out my window of kids dressed up like Easter witches with baskets: 

And here are some Easter displays in the store:

Okay. I have at least two more posts to write about the trip through the former USSR. And I don't want to rush them because we're coming up on my favorite country of all: The Czech Republic. But unfortunately, I have school related things to attend to. We just finished the first term of this semester and, for the first time in my life, I've failed a class. But I don't feel too bad about it because here is the  entire class's grade report: 

If you can't interpret it, it says that one student got a grade of 2 and two students got a grade of 1 (and this is out of a total grade of 5), and that 8 students have "not passed." And here is an example of the class that I "failed." It was called Multi-Attribute Forest Planning, and I can safely say it was the most boring class I have ever taken. And that's saying something. 

So maybe I spent a little too much time trying to get a sneaky video of the class and not enough time studying, but (call me crazy) when 8 out of 11 students fail the class, I feel like some sort of curve is in order. But it's not too big of a deal actually. At the University of Helsinki, no class you fail shows up on your transcript, and you have the chance to retake the exam ever month. So the only thing that happens now, is I have to take the exam again in April. 

Okay. As soon as the end of the month is over (which is when I have a lot of things due, aka tomorrow) I will write the conclusion to The Modern Odyssey. It's gonna be good too, folks.