Short update

Many things have happened since the last update. Sorry for not writing that often. Anyway, here is a quick recap:

• Wrote thesis proposal & commented one. Got good feedback from Olga about mine, still waiting to hear something from LUT & GSOM....
• Contacted FinPro today to ask whether they would be interested in doing collaboration about my thesis topic. I hope the answer is positive.
• Been doing presentations & groupworks. One more paper left to deliver as well as preparing one last presentation. It will be cooool :)
• Been totally neglecting Hungarian studies. My priorities have not been good. I will correct my behavior (this time for real).
• Bought a cool woollyhat :D Also bought gloves. Now maybe I need to buy another scarf....
• It has snowed a bit in Budapest. Today was the first day when I saw some snow in here. Apparently there has been some also in some other days but have melted before I have left the apartment.
• Watched El Clasico. HUUUUUUUUGE win for Barca! Probably one of the most convincing performances I've ever seen on a football pitch. Well, that and Milan's 3-0 thumping of ManU few years ago.
• I was a bit sick, but now its better.
• Exams are starting soon. My first one is already next Tuesday!
• I can believe its Christmas in about 3 weeks. I don't want to leave Hungary
• ....which reminds me that I need to book my tickets back here for New Years and January.

I guess that's about it.

Pleaaaase forgive me!

Dear Ms. Blog,


I have been mistreating you lately and I am sorry for that. I know that any amount of explanations will not ease the situation and you have the right to feel hurt because of my ignorance. However, I want to shed a little light about the happenings of last few weeks to you. Perhaps you will then find it easier to forgive me.


About two weeks ago I welcomed 3 of my MITIM-colleaques from Finland for a 5 day visit. I had lots of fun with them. We saw many of the cool places here in Budapest, such as Gellert hill, Szechenyi spa, Terror háza, Szimpla and so on. Going around the city for many days left me of course exhausted and trailing in my studies. I managed to catch on during the weekend and last week I have been again kinda busy with the schoolwork - we have had group meetings with the guys during the last 3 days and we've spent a lot of time on our presentation and case. Luckily, those are now ready and just need to be printed and delivered.


Besides the school work, my time has been spent on studying Hungarian by myself. I am making progress, but not quickly enough. I need to put more effort in producing text and especially SPEAKING. It will be Tarzan-language, but that step just needs to be taken.


Forgetting the schoolwork and other stuff like that, I have been just enjoying life here in Budapest. I really like this city and feel great in here. I am really happy. Of course, because I am a sort of evil mastermind, I have come up with some more ideas/things for the future to gain world domination. Perhaps I'll tell you more about those later.


To conclude, I am sorry that I have been ignoring you dear Ms. Blog. I will do my best not to abandon you in the future for long time periods. I hope you can forgive me.


With love,
Joona

First week in Hungary

Now I have been in Budapest for a week. Settling down here has gone well and I really like the vibe of this city. At the moment I am staying in my temporary apartment which is in a good location at Ráday utca. The apartment is cool and in a really nice building. And so far I haven't been able to burn the whole place down with the gas stove :D


Last Sunday we went to check out Sziget-festival which was really, really cool. The island location is perfect for this kind of festival and the feeling in there was relaxed. I went there without any expectations and was just curious what it was like. I saw for example Muse which was technically very good and sounded sweet, but somehow they didn't manage to excite me. Maybe it was the lack of alcohol :D The biggest surprise was by far a tent called Magic mirror which was kind of a rainbowish experience. The host, Diva Thomasz deserves a special mention.


Otherwise I've been just checking out the city and enjoying my time in here. I've also studied the language, but with that I am on a little bit frustrating level at the moment. I can understand some things, but way too few to really converse with someone. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I am able to have at least Tarzan-level conversations in Hungarian. That would be sweeeeeeeet.

Impressive levels of motivation

First of all, i must admit that summer is definitely not the best time of the year to study anything. Well, i guess that is clear to everybody. Anyway, at the moment i feel very motivated to study. Hungarian i mean. I bumped in to the blog of this Irish guy who sets very ambitious goals (example of the latest one) when learning languages. The list of languages that he knows already is very impressive and it seems that he has found good ways to study them. I salute to that.

Somehow reading stories like these can really motivate me. After all, the guy seems chipper, positive, down to earth, smart and hard working - many of the qualities that I see in myself too. Well, most of the time :D

So now i am studying very actively Hungarian, mostly vocabulary at the moment. After all, that is the basis to build conversations on. Of course I am trying to learn the grammar too, which really does have some similarities with Finnish. Now it is/would be important to try to actually use the language to lower the barrier of using it. Then maybe when I will land in Hungary in about 3.5 weeks time i am confident enough to start trying to speak it from the first day. Obviously, I will make a lot mistakes and will speak like a retard but thats the way to learn. First you need to learn how to fall before you can learn to walk :) And of course i have the benefit of having SOME relations with Hungarians already. At least they can get good laughs from my weak attempts :D

Finnish weather explained

Link (in english and hungarian)

Bike ride

Today, thanks to a good idea by S and P (not salt and pepa) we went for a looooong bike ride. There was 9 of us taking the journey in the Lappeenranta region. The overall ride was something like 60-65km's which obviously resulted to some sore asses :D So, to overcome with that we needed to get some anesthetics - in the form of beer, vodka and grilled food. Yummy. Overall this was a very, very good day and I am very happy about all the happenings of today.


Special thanks to H for the lovely chicken and rice. And congrats to K for her master thesis topic :)

That's what she said!

The flights have been booked to Finland. Best news in a long long time!

WAPPU

So it is Wappu today. Well, in Lappeenranta it has been Wappu for 2 weeks already. For me it is so weird, since I have basically not attended any of the events except for Wipellys and that wasn't official Wipellys either.


I hate it that we dont have the overalls - I feel like not attending these events because of that. I should have brought my blue ones from home with me....


Glada och klara vappen för alla!

Going to Mexico!!!

So okay, here is the deal. Tomorrow I am going to leave Lappeenranta for Helsinki. On Friday morning I will fly from there to Mexico! Wooohoooooo! I can't express how excited I am about going there, for many many reasons. Well, the biggest reason comes from Europe :) Ghihi.

Anyways, really looking forward to that adventure. Going to a lot of goooood fooooood, see amazing places and meet complete idiots :D (idiots in a good way). What else can you wish from a trip? I have almost finished packing, the apartment is clean and mentally I am already on my way. Camera is charged and ready to document the trip :)

This all means that this blog will most likely be very very quiet during the next couple of weeks. Try to survive :D

Exchange on third semester.

First of all: WOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I got the place that I wanted and I am now heading to lovely Budapest next fall for 4 months :) :) I am really happy for several, several reasons. Ghihi.


I am going to study in Corvinus unless something dramatic happens. I will go there through GSOM, but it should be okay and certain. Anyhow, I also have a place to Budapest through LUT so I am definitely going to end up there. Can't wait for next fall, I know it will be so freaking much fun!! I know I will come back from there many experiences richer :)

Evening activities of past few days

On Wednesday we had a chillin' event with MITIM students. Students from both MITIM '10 and '11 were invited and about 15, maybe 20, showed up. It was okay fun, played some games and just chilled. Some left early and some continued till the late hours in the nearby pub.


Then yesterday I attended with few fellow students in "Dressing up for business"-event arranged by Enklaavi (Business students guild) and Kekäle (Clothing store). I didn't have that much expectations about the whole event so I was really pleased when it turned out to be interesting and informative. Well done sirs. Later that night I also tasted the very first pizza from our fellow student. He has his own restaurant in Lappeenranta :)

"Refreshing" weekend in Tallinn

We went to Tallinn, Estonia for the weekend with M on Friday evening. The plan was to meet T, N and R in there and that we certainly did. Amazing weekend is now behind us, at least I had a lot of fun. But not that much sleep.... Some pics will soon be in facebook, more details only in person :)


The plan was to stay in Helsinki from Sunday to Monday and conduct an interview for our SMoG course in Helsinki, but the person who we were supposed to interview called on Sunday that he is sick and thus unavailable for the interview. I guess we will conduct that via telephone on a later date.

Today when going to class...

...I heard this high pitched singing behind me. The lyrics were really deep and meaningful: MINT CHOCOLATE FREZZAA, MINT CHOCOLATE FREZZAAAA


Yup, all you people from MITIM can easily guess who was that freak behind all that :D Or actually you don't need to be MITIM, it is enough if you have even once met this person :D Life is not boring if you are an idiot. And I use the word "idiot" as a good thing in this context :)

Feeling great!

I came to Lappeenranta on Sunday evening. Spent the first night at my cousins place (Thanks L!) before moving to my new crib. Thanks for the crib Liima! It all happened convieniently since my friend is on exchange during the spring and I needed a place for the same time - so win-win.

Yesterday we had the first day here at Lappeenranta. Welcome speeches, info about Sefe, LTKY and other relevant organizations were given. Unfortunately the situation with our overalls is not clear yet. I WANT TO GET MY YELLOW OVERALLS !!! Then I would have red, blue and the yellow ones :)

In the evening we had a "Finnish evening" at rantasauna. Some good food, games (that actually wasnt that lame as I feared) and of course sauna. Some of the girls were brave enough to come to sauna with the guys. And even to the snow. Well, some of them weren't that enthousiastic of going there but still even the ended up all snowy :D

Today we have had some more info about the practialities of studying in here. Basic and familiar stuff for me, but for new LUT students this can be confuzing. Anyways, they will get used to these systems soon I think.

Overall I am feeling really great. Yesterday reminded me that we really have a great group of people in this program and I can easily see myself collaborating or at least staying in touch with them after we graduate. I am also looking forward to our actual studies, I feel energetic!

Pre-christmas party aka pikkujoulut

Yesterday we had a pre-christmas party here at the dormitory. There were about 30 people partying, which was a good number considering the easiness of preparations, the facilities and so on. Because the party was arranged as potluck, no one had to work their ass off for the party.

Of course Santa, actually two Santas, joined the party with full sacks and left with empty ones. Unfortunately I didn't get the pony I had sooooo hoped for. But still, I am very pleased with the hairyballs throwing game that I got.

Fun night overall :)

Being busy or something

It's been many days since the last update. Ooops. Well, a lot of stuff has happened and somehow updating the blog hasn't been on top of the list of priorities. Quick recap of the past days:

- Lots of classes and tests. Classes on management of intellectual capital (MIC) and managerial economics (ME). In-class tests for the both subjects. For MIC the test was actually(!) mid-term and its weight on the overall grade is 30%. Not a small test then. I think it went pretty well for me, somehow it just felt too easy. In ME we had second quiz in the class, not a great success for me. I think I scored only 2/5. :/

- Group work project work for almost class that we have.

- Birthday party on Thursday. One of the most memorable bday parties I've ever had! I share the bday with a fellow student, Hungarian David, so we had a combined party arranged by the Hungarian posse. Lots of cool people, lots of beer (Thanks guys for the present: 26 cans of beer! :) All of them had one character in and they said "Dear Joona, happy birthday!" which equals to 26 characters :)), good company, freaking delicious Hungarian food. Whats not to like. Also, the pink tissues and kinder egg with a pink car inside were so cool :D

- On Friday we had MITIM research seminar where there were representatives from few large multinational companies (Intel, Nokia, Microsoft, Sato, ULS group, Human search) telling about current business climate and challenges as well as future trends especially in IT and technology management. Afterwards there was a cocktail reception with the same people and some of our professors, during which we got the chance to really get insights from the business representatives which was cool. Overall really cool event (and offered an opportunity to suit up :D)

- Today we had presentation skills seminar. Quite a waste of time in a way, even though it is good to think about this kind of stuff time to time. 7 hours was waaaayy too long time for this kind of event.

- Also, today we had a blackout. A colleague of mine was stuck in the elevator for 3 hours in the dark....

So, many things have happened. Next week is going to be even crazier! I don't have the energy to go through it now, maybe I'll post update tomorrow. But lets just say as a teaser, that we have again school from Monday to Friday....

Oh the future managers

Today we had a pretty okay snowfall here in St.Pete. Of course, one of the exchange students thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to have some kind of snowball-fight :) Because most of us live in 2 different dormitories, it was quite easy to get some kind of rivalry on and get people excited about this. The battlefield was the nearby hotel Park Inn where we met for a little "playful" match. Unfortunately only a few persons arrived from S dormitory (because they are chickens) so we had to split the teams differently. Nevertheless, the fight was so much fun and everyone got their share of snow and smiles. :) Definitely worth being wet from toes to the top of my head.

Highly recommended :)

Halloween

Yesterday I was in Halloween party for a first time. I went there as a corporate asshole (Halloween suit-up!). A bit lame costume, but hey, Halloween is quite lame happening to me :D The first part of the evening was spent at one of the exchange students apartment nearby our dorm before we headed to center. When we got there, I didn't actually feel like going clubbing so instead chose a more peaceful option of just going to this chilling bar with a friend before coming back to dormitory. Another fun evening in here.

Note to myself: If needing a costume for next Halloween or whenever go as an emo-kid (great idea from "Rudfia" :)), a doctor (for the nurses :D) or then just keep suiting-up (because that is cool ).

Today in schedule: Russian studies and reading a couple of articles for tomorrows class.

This is how we roll

Yesterday was one of those days when you know that you have done something good in your life. The kind of day when you realise how much good people you know. The kind of day what you will look back years from now and think "wow, that was a great day" with a smile on your face.

One of my dear classmates had a birthday yesterday, so we arranged a surprise for her: we had booked a limo. Not just a limo, but it was a cool purple one :) (Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it now, but I will definitely upload when I get one) So, after school many of us, something like 14 persons went to the limo which was waiting nearby the school. Few others "had to do group work" with the birthday girl for a while so that we can get in to the car and get everything ready. Then, they made an excuse of some kind to go somewhere else and brought the bd-girl to the limo. The expression on her face... well, happy :)

We drove around in St.Pete for about 3 hours before jumping off and went to eat to this place called Liverpool. While cruising the birthday girl got congratulated in 10 or 11 different languages :D Tells something about the group in which we rolled. With a great group of people we had so much fun in the limo as well as in the restaurant/pub. Later on we went to this club called Mod with a smaller group which also was quite fun. Overall, a night to remember, definitely!

In Liverpool I ate the best burger I've ever eaten! I guess this quote is pretty close to the feeling I got when I sunk my teeth in that delicious piece of cuisine:

That first bite-oh, what heaven that first bite is. The bun, like a sesame freckled breast of an angel, resting gently on the ketchup and mustard below, flavors mingling in a seductive pas de deux. And then… a pickle! The most playful little pickle! Then a slice of tomato, a leaf of lettuce and a-a patty of ground beef so exquisite, swirling in your mouth, breaking apart, and combining again in a fugue of sweets and savor so delightful. This is no mere sandwich of grilled meat and toasted bread. This is God, speaking to us in food.

- Marshall Erikssen, from the tv-show "How I met your mother"