Stay at home GreenBitch

  

I had planned to first wait for the greetings of our Asian explorers, but since they have assimilated to the local culture so well they are busy (or, are stuck with Chinese censorship like Weeber. Can you feel the… irony? :D) I decided it’s time for GreenBitch to show up.
So, I’m the anti-itinerant of us, the one who truly was left behind. In fact, most of my friends have fled from Finland by now, to study abroad or just to chase the sun with a backpack on. When I explain the situation to some people, they always ask me “so why did you stay?” It seems like staying at home, not adventuring the world, has become a statement too.

 So, Why did I stay indeed?

Hmm.

*Thinking*

 

Well looking out of the window doesn’t help much…

Why did I?

I didn’t feel ready to leave. I had just settled down in my new home in Tampere when everybody started applying for foreign universities. The idea of changing place and people around me felt too distant, too soon. Before studying international relations I was traveling around from place to place, from continent to continent, feeling greedy to see and experience as much as possible, and it was awesome!

 

…At the time. But after two years I started to get sick of constant hellos and goodbyes, language barriers, culture shocks, packing and unpacking, the sense of rootlessness, which is often the reverse side of the feel of freedom while travels.

 

 I wanted to feel home again. I missed my Shire. And that was Finland, with all its trees, sauna, lakes, fresh air, grumpy and shy people, my own weird language, and of course family and friends too. And, at times, life has treated me well up here. I try to appreciate the little things that make life beautiful. As one of my friends once said, you can travel to the end of the world but you can never escape from yourself. You have to learn to feel comfortable in your skin, walking in your shoes, wherever you are.

 

Okay, after all this beautiful blah blah philosophy I have to admit that sometimes I really miss traveling! I can’t help getting jealous to my traveling friends, throwing longing glances to the World’s map on my wall, or feeling guilty about neglecting my backpack under the dust in the corner of my room. And when I’m copying the words of my professor to my notebook “Learning diary deadline: no avant-garde, no creativity, dull and formal = good”, the little traveller inside me screams: “Let’s go to India!!!”

On the other hand, I think I should feel a little embarrassed about having existential anxiety that most of the people can’t afford. As a member of the privileged Western fat-ass generation, I can circle around the questions like ‘to see or not to see the world’, because I have so many choices what to do with my life. My passport works as a VIP ticket to anywhere. And what I do with this lucky position? Whine and make an issue out of it!

A little more whining now when I got the taste of it: I often miss my friends abroad, Finns and non-Finns. My dear posse of itinerants! Where’s Sportesse when I have to make foam out of eggs and sugar by hand? Where is TeroGilbert to make parties more eventful by spiking the punch with her deadly 80% vodka from the east, and where’s.. how the hell I’m supposed to write his name anyhoo the guy from Lapland getting intoxicated and funny by it? Where’s Lassemon when there’s something politically incorrect to be said? Where’s Weeber taking us to some hipster activities?

It’s not all about complaining. In the middle of the yearning, petty existential crisis and “something bad happened”-phone calls, I’m happy to have a lovely someone bringing me Ben&Jerry’s from the darkness and coldness, reminding me that ice-cream still tastes delicious and all in all,

life is good.

Infinite reading lists, beer and catification.

Hej alle sammen!

Seems that me and Sportesse are invading this blog completely, because our Asian explorers are conforming to the local efficient culture quite well. In the end of this year I'm looking forward to see that guys have published texts in a peer-reviewed papers and completed three studies about political events of the Far East or such. Luckily someone of us are really studying, because I can't really say I should got a smiley faces and goldens stars for my achievements...

My face when we had a surprise quiz in a Politics of Political Islam- lecture

Although, studying in here differs a lot from the way I'm used to in Finland. One reason might be that I'm completing the master level courses even though I'm on my second year in university. Still my noobiness is not that much a problem compared to my laziness. When it comes to studying I like to be independent and have time to do my readings and tasks properly. I also like to use and apply the new information I have got. In here we got those damn reading lists! In every week (or on one course, twice a week) I gotta seek around the web the articles for the next lessons and read them. It would be okay if: 1) Articles would be easily accessible AND 2) There would be a convenient amount of reading. BUT NO! At first, we got here something similar to Nelliportaali in Finland - which is a database for articles - but even after a uncountable efforts I haven't managed to get acces to articles. So I gotta google every article and hope for the best.

Secondly, we're supposed to buy books in here. And yes, we have a library, but it's nothing compared to Tampere. If you are lucky, you can borrow the book in need for a day and it's definitely not enough time for me. Unfortunately I'm not born the silver spoon pointing out from my rectum (plus I'm quite a stingy) that I could buy the academic books, whose prices are normally notorious. And thirdly: I really wanna focus on what I'm reading and it's not possible to do when you got pain in your ass to finding all the articles and finish all the 120 pages before the next lecture. And the same thing in all three courses. Not nice. So normally, I read those articles I get and improvise the rest and hope it's allright.

Courses here are built all in a same pattern. In every course you get 10 ETCS if you are genie enough to get it though. You got those darn reading lists, the delightful 1200 pages per course. Then you have the lectures once a week in time of the one semester and do your readings. At the end of the course you have either oral or written exam. My bad I got only written exam which means I'm gonna write three lovely 15-page essays to charm my professors and lecturers. 45 pages  with my academic english would be funny to read... Waiting for them... But the end of my studying whine I gotta say that courses are damn interesting and in such subjects I never gonna get in Tampere. Just noticed that Finnish way of studying suits me better.

About the another side of life in Copenhagen; I've had helluva lot of fun! The last friday I had an epic night with my gang (which name is not announced to the public) and I laughed from 1 am to 3 am continually. Therefore yesterday I got a slight hangover and tender abs. The most of the people here are awesome, especially international students!

The inside joke. Brrrr, Psssst!

This is a long post but I gotta tell the one more piece of news. The sidekick of my life and me are now cat owners! Our lovely princess called Pernille Nielssen -Nille for friends- showed up to our lives about a week ago. We had a stroll on thursday night in our neighbourhood and suddenly heard a sad meowing nearby. We petted a cat for while and continued our walk and noticed that Nille was following us home. We tried to find owners from web and spreading some notifications to the neighbourhood. Nobody contacted us, so Nille seems to be ours now. I'm happy! She's very cute and has a wonderful personality. It's awesome to have a little kitty cat at home who wants to interrupt your reading or surfing because of playtime :)

Pernille "Nille" Nielssen

Me and my charming kitty-cat

TeroGilbert checks out for now! I'm really waiting those Asian texts, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.

TeroGilbert's great venture to invade Copenhagen

Hej mine venner og veninder!

Here's TeroGilbert writing, the first one who flew away from our dearest Tampere. I've been already getting lost around København since the beginning of August. At the time I've earned 7,5 ETCS, some new international friends, and certainty that danish is impossible language to pronounce. Unless you happen to be drunk and still able to speak swedish.

Two good reasons visit Denmark 

I'm living in a cozy apartment with the sidekick of my life, who bravely shares my adventures here in the promised land of "hygge". His superpower is ability to speak norwegian and even understand the hellish mumbling what the locals call their mother tongue. Rents here are higher than folks in Christiania, so our budget is targeted for the pasta-based nutrition. My current aim is to become more or less herbivore during this year. By now it seems that complete veganism is a some kind of curse word in a country which is inhabited by more swines than humans. More of this topic in the following posts!

Yea, you can afford electronic price tags but not a single tofu in a hypermarket!

For the summary, last weeks have been going with danish lessons, chilling out at the Amager beach and in the Rosenborg garden, watching millions of Futurama episodes, practicing the awesome bike riding culture, getting the street wisdom and the normal stuff you do when moving to new place. My style of writing is more topic-based, so I'm sorry I didn't make the introduction very thorough. At the end I would like to share a poster from our nearest S-train station which looked very current for us Itinerants.

...And I'm making the most of it!

PS. All u pettifoggers, inkhorns, nitpickers, and grammarnazies I know I make u cry blood, but no can do. I'm not going to use my precious year correcting my English grammar. Sowwy. 

The itinerants is a blog about six Political science students, adventurers, and fellow hippie douchebags, located in 6 different corners of the globe for one year. 

TeroGilbert: Happy, hippie douchebag from eastern Finland located currently in Köpenhagen.

Sportesse: a sporty city girl from the heart of Tampere experiencing the sex and the city of Oxford.

Weeber: a hardcore hipster who is skilled in martial arts that even the Asians do not know of. Looks for new strange hobbies in Shanghai, China.

Lassemon: A man from the rivers who has spent countless of  hours mastering the sacred art of writing traditional Chinese characters. Also knows pretty much everything about East Asia. Relocated himself in Taipei, Taiwan. Ohho.

에로: A nomad from the vast wilderness of Lapland. Carries reindeer flesh and blueberry tea in his back bag. Lives in Seoul, Korea.

GreenBitch: a sad tree hugger that was left behind in the coldness of Finland. This blond part+time party animal reports about the life in our common stronghold, Tampere Finlandia.