Yet another exciting week went by. Last weekend (the 17. and 18. September) I went on another biking trip in Jyväskylä vicinity. This time I went to the hundred years old forest where supposedly the tallest tree in Finland grows. Never mind the tallest tree as every single piece of information for visitors is in Finnish there. Again, this biking trip wasn’t interesting so much for the destination as it was for the trip itself. And as long as the weather is nice, I’ll be doing these biking trips around Jyväskylä. So yesterday I went to Säynätsalo, Lehtisaari, Muuratsalo and Muurame. (You can do a bit of virtual map exploring yourself over at the Jyväskylän Karttapalvelu.) All three are small towns on islands. And although I’ve been here for a month now and have been actively exploring my still very new environment, I am still fascinated by all the lakes, forests and nature in general. It is amazing how pristine it is. And yes, make sure you check the Suomessa image gallery for some new images from previous and this weekend trips.

As school is supposedly one of the reasons why I am here, I have been attending various lectures during the week. And so far everything has been really relaxed and my schedule really isn’t too packed. It might come as a surprise, but so far the most demanding lectures that I’ve been attending have been the Suomi yksi classes. I have six hours of quite intensive Finnish classes a week which are fun, but the teacher passes on so much information that it is hard to chew and digest it all before the next class. But at least I still have the feeling that I have learnt something new every time I leave that class. My program’s classes so far have been OK, but really nothing special, which means that I am yet to hear something I have not heard or read before.

This past week I have also met a student who was an exchange student in Slovenia. Unfortunately she attended the infamous Faculty of Organisational Sciences or the Kranj Sorbonne as it is known where I used to live. Of course, it did not take her long to figure out that she is visiting the shittiest educational institution on this planet. And imagine this, when she went back to Slovenia to visit her friends a year or so later, the new dean somehow found out about her visit and wanted to meet her so that he could apologize for all the crap she’s been through at that institution. Being smart as she is, she refused to meet him. Anyhow, as there were more interesting things to discuss, we quickly discovered our mutual interest: human-computer interaction and cognitive sciences. She promised she’ll introduce me to the faculty staff in those fields, as I am interested in taking some of their courses. I’m really looking forward to meeting those people.

However, my week was not only about academe. I’ve already mentioned in my last post that I’ve been going to the pool, but now I think that I have actually rediscovered water. This past week I’ve been to the swimming pool twice and have had a blast each time. Yes, I am still learning how to swim, but the progress has been noticeable and I have actually began enjoying it. Yep, I got my swimming goggles and cap, and as simple as those two items are, they make a huge difference in the water. So far I have been working with my swimming instructor on my front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke techniques. If everything goes according to plan, they’ll fill the pool with water for me next week … oops, no, if everything goes according to plan, we’ll begin working on butterfly next week. I’m really looking forward to that.

Now I can also say that I am reaching the point where I left my running at the end of May. Which means that I have not been running regularly for almost three months and am now picking it up again. During my first runs here I could really feel that I have lost my edge, but just two weeks later, I can say with confidence that I’m picking it up where I left it. It’s an incredible feeling. During my runs I see so many active people rollerblading with poles, doing nordic walking or running, cycling, walking or just plain running. Finns really are active and outdoor people and it’s hard not to be once you learn to appreciate what the environment has to offer. So, living an active life here is nothing special, which also means that I just don’t get the stares for running as was the case all too often in Slovenia. The only time people stare a bit is when I go for my regular after-run legs soaks in the nearby lake … well, they’ll get used to that.

Another interesting thing about running is that I have actually already managed to fire up my flatmates and even my swimming instructor about running. I already took them out on their first test runs with me and will be preparing running plans for them soon, which means they will get proper introduction to the sport. As you can imagine I am definitely very excited about that.

As I do spend a lot of time on the roads (as a pedestrian, on my bike and running) there are a few things I have noticed about their driving that truly surprised me. As socially sensitive and civilized as Finns are, their driving is nothing like it (disclaimer: I’ve not yet done any driving here, so I can only relate to the way they behave behind the wheel as a pedestrian). OK, drivers are not as wild and arrogant as they are in Slovenia where you literally have to grow eyes on your back to be safe. But still, for instance, when you want to cross the street, drivers do not stop for you; you as a pedestrian have to patiently wait for the traffic to clear before you can proceed. So it is good that they have developed a quite good system of bike and foot paths.

Of course, I don’t have a TV here, but I’m not really a TV person after all. However, there’s one show I do enjoy very much and really look forward to it every Tuesday. It’s the NerdTV. You don’t have to be a nerd from head to toe to enjoy the show, but there has too be at least a latent geek or nerd in you somewhere to have fun watching it. Maybe you should try it out and let me know if you had fun or not; it could definitely be used as a geek-o-meter. Anyways, I’ve been baking chocolate-chip cookies for those NerdTV screenings for me and my flatmates - well, so far they have enjoyed only cookies and have yet to learn to appreciate NerdTV.

In spite of not spending much time in bed (yes, sleeping at this point can still be regarded as a waste of time, as there are many things to do and try), I did manage to experience my first dream in Finnish. True, the dream was nothing like my dreams in other languages are when I can actively engage in conversation in several languages, but still, I was trying to explain something in Finnish and using probably all the words I know at doing so. I was a bit confused when I woke up, but I finally figured, hey, I must be in Finland.

Pitää hauskaa,

Mladen

Yahoo friends, Christmas came early this year. As some of you might have already noticed, I’ve finally set up a gallery. Yep, it took me a while, but now its there which also means that I’ll be finally posting pictures. To access the gallery, click the image located in the right column, sit back and enjoy the ride. And make sure you let me know how you like (or dislike, for that matter) the images. Currently there is only one set of pictures, but don’t worry, I’ll upload more soon.

I’ve begun this week with a very important meeting. On Monday morning I have met the Digital Culture program director Raine Koskimaa and we have discussed what I will be working on in the next two years. Of course we haven’t discussed the details but have nevertheless roughly outlined my study path at the university. The discussion included my wishes regarding my minor studies and possible general topics for my master’s thesis. To make a long story short: it looks like my minor will after all be information technology. To those of you who know what I’ve been up to in the last ten years or so, this decision probably isn’t surprising at all. So, I will most likely be taking some programming, software business, user psychology, HCI (for non-nerds, that’s human-computer interaction) and the like. So far this idea about getting a minor in IT sounds quite interesting.

As far as my master’s thesis is concerned I will be working on relations between art, science and technology. Which again isn’t anything new for me, but I will be taking my previous studies and research in this field a few steps further. I have to say that for me this is a very special and exciting moment because it seems like I finally get to do in school what I enjoy doing. I’ll keep you updated on details as they develop. For now it looks like I’ll mostly focus on my classes and other school work and will begin with further development of thesis ideas next spring and maybe even begin working on early drafts then too. Then in autumn 2006 I’ll almost for sure begin writing the thesis and I should have ample time to get it done by the end of May 2007.

When I think about it, this is another unusual moment in my life as I have never really planned my life more than a few months ahead, quite often picking up projects and other opportunities as they came and went rather then definitely setting with one specific topic or job. So it does seem weird to know what has to be done two years from now.

Other exciting moments this week included the first few classes of Suomi yksi. Finnish has already been seeping into my brain by just trying to figure how society and culture around me function and it looks like this course will speed the process up a few notches. So far, I cannot really say that I have learned much more then just a few new words, but the way course is set, it looks like I’ll be able puhua suomea pian. Which means that I won’t have to look like an idiot during numerous simple everyday encounters with the locals. But on the other hand, I’m sure that this knowledge will open a whole new avenue in my life here as well. The fun part is actually just about to begin for me.

Since the weather got kind of nippy around here (during the day it’s no more than 10°C and nights are around 0°C), I’ve temporally switched from lakes to the university indoor swimming pool. I have to say that all facilities here are absolutely amazing and this includes the sports facilities as well. OK, as far as pools are concerned they have an olympic pool, a 25 meter pool used as a diving pool too, and three other smaller pools … and that’s all indoors. Of course, this wouldn’t be Finland if the changing rooms didn’t have saunas which I happily visit after every swimming session. And all this for 1.70 Euros. Great stuff, I’m telling you.

Another interesting tidbit is that at the university language center they have a program called Each One Teach One. It is a loosely structured language learning program that primarily relies on one’s own initiative to learn another language. Here’s how it works: you look for a (preferably) native speaker of the language you want to learn, once you find the right person you both set your learning goals, meet as many times as you want during one term and you both receive official credits for doing so. It really is a good way to learn a language since there are at almost any time hundreds of international students who teach languages ranging from French to Swahili. And why am I writing about this in the first place? Well, I could not believe myself, but there’s a Finnish girl who wants to learn Slovene. I was flabbergasted when I learned about her very unusual wish, but was not surprised anymore when she mentioned that she has a Slovene boyfriend who is not interested in teaching her the language. Weird, to say the least, but we’ll see how it goes.

Well, in short that’s it for now.

Mladen

PS: Hey Bajo, tnx for the space weather information. It has already been quite helpful … if only I could say the same for the terrestrial weather.

In the previous week so many things have happened that there’s absolutely no way to write about them all. OK, in my previous post I mostly wrote about what school is like here, so now I intend to write about activities that are not directly school related (although the two are really intertwined).

First of all there are a gazillion parties around here almost every day: from private parties to drinking fests which they call pub crawls and other group organized parties. There’s no way that I could handle all of them. Now this may sound like I’m getting old, but believe me, I’ve been sleeping for an average of 5 hours a night in the last two weeks … that’s how hard I’ve been trying to fit everything in and try just about anything that’s on offer out there. So, when it comes to parties, I usually do go, but have become quite selective about them, since there are other more interesting things to do outside of partying.

This previous Monday the Digital Culture staff organized a welcome party for all Digital Culture and Nordic Arts and Culture Studies (NACS) students. There are not that many of us there and programmes share a few common classes, so it was great to get to know people from my own and the NACS programme as well. This was also a nice chance to just chat with fellow students and professors. I really enjoyed relaxed and very informal setting. And I have to say that I am surrounded by a lot of interesting people. The other component that I really appreciate is diversity. In Digital Culture programme there are currently 13 students and I don’t think that two come from the same country (OK there are two Finns). Students come from India, Ghana, Moldavia, China, Greece, the US, England, Finland and well, I’m from Slovenia. We really are a diverse group.

All in all there are around 250 international students at the University of Jyväskylä so you can only imagine what it looks like when most of us show up at a local club. You literally can talk to people from every corner of the globe. It is amazing. And that’s what makes all those parties interesting in the first place, at least for me.

Then on Tuesday there was a reception at the university for all new degree students. I guess this was geared more toward Finnish students as everything that was said during the reception was strictly Finnish. Sure, I could listen and maybe even understand a word here and there, but otherwise I could not even chuckle when everyone else was wholeheartedly laughing. Hm, I guess I’ll have to visit the same reception next year to entirely comprehend and appreciate it. Luckily the rest of the evening was a performance by an a cappella group of 20 male singers. They sung in Finnish, but their performance was so great that I could enjoy their singing even though I understood only words hyvää paivä which were repeated several times in one of their songs.

Then there was a movie night at Richard’s place (Richard is one of the Digital Culture students) where we first ate almost half a kilogram of popcorn and drank beer before we commenced with a movie. We watched Closer. The movie was OK, but nothing really special. Then I was invited to a party in Helsinki on Saturday, but could not join my friends because I had to think about what am I going to work on in my master’s thesis. Now so far this has all to do just with the parties. There’s a whole lot more to life than just parties, as you’ll see in a moment.

I must not forget to mention sauna. But before I go on I must mention that I’ve never been to any kind of sauna before and thus cannot compare it to any other saunas. Sauna in two words: broiling fun. I was amazed to learn that I can sit in 90C room for 15 minutes. Of course you sweat your guts out but it feels unbelievably relaxing. And I guess the whole point is that when you are in sauna you cannot do much more than just sit and enjoy. In sauna sometimes even talking can be too demanding. You must bear in mind who’s saying this: a person that too often talks even while asleep! So there you go, if you really want to shut me up and make me happy at the same time, I have a solution for you: stick me into a Finnish sauna. I know I’ll be quiet only for an hour or so, but is better than nothing, right.

Sitting in sauna is just half of the fun. The other half is definitely going for a swim between three or so sessions that you do in a single sauna visit. There are always showers to do the cooling, but then again, I am in Finland, and I guess that there are just as many lakes as there are showers. In the last week I’ve been to sauna three times, and I’ve been using lakes to cool off twice. Yeah, the lakes are cold and that’s the whole point. My friend Heather who’s been working for years at pools and is a swimming buff, expertly pronounced that water in those lakes is no more than 14C. But I would be wasting precious fun if I used the lakes only to cool off in them, so I did go for a swim a few times already and so far I swam every time in a different lake (except once). Which wasn’t exactly hard to do, as there are almost 180.000 lakes in Finland. Three down, 179.997 to go.

In my previous post I mentioned that I got myself a brand new mountain bike. Yep, it is a red little beast. I guess the bike is nothing special in the MTB world, but it is special to me, because before I got a bike, I was walking at least 15K every day and since my cargo was a week late, that means I did all the walking in the same pair of shoes. My heels and feet couldn’t take it anymore. And then I got a bike. True, it cost me 200 Euros, but it’s a flying machine too, especially if you ride it down a skiing slope, which I did last Saturday. This feat was part of the little mountain biking excursion around Jyväskylä with Heather (who coincidentally got her bike on the same day as I have). Wanting to explore Jyväskylän surroundings meant riding through forests which from time to time meant carrying the bike as some trails were obviously not made for riding, if there was a trail in the first place. I will be doing a lot more of those biking trips around Jyväskylä and hopefully around Finland too. Let’s just hope that the weather doesn’t get too wet too soon.

Because Finland has rather pristine nature it is not that surprising to see lots of animals. I quite often observe squirrels jumping from tree to tree right outside my bedroom window. True, I live in an apartment house located on the top of the hill in the forest. And then, when I go for a run around one of the Jyväskylän lakes I see hares on almost every run. But last Friday when I rode my bike to the city center at around 1000pm I was taken by surprise when a moose was standing in the middle of a bike path. I think we were both equally surprised and scared as we were only about 20 meters away from one another and I have to admit that the animal was of respectable size: it was as tall as I am, maybe even taller. We both stood there for a few moments, but not long enough for my camera to react and make the snapshot. Now, that day I’ve seen squirrels in the morning, a few hares on my evening run and a moose when going into town. So when I was on my way home later that evening I thought to myself: I only have to meet Snow white and it’ll feel like I live in Disneyland.

I guess I wrote about quite a few firsts already, but there is definitely one more that I absolutely must mention. On Saturday night I saw an aurora borealis. It is one of those phenomena that is extremely hard describe, you have to see it for yourself to enjoy the stunning beauty of moving colored veils in the sky. Even if the occurrence was static it would be jaw dropping, but no, these northern lights actually move and change pretty quickly too. I did take some pictures with my digital camera, but they are really crappy. Anyways spotting an aurora borealis was definitely one of my wishes … and I guess that wish was fulfilled sooner than I expected.

This has been a pretty long post. I hope that I’ll be able to find time for posting here more often and write about things as they happen and not a week later. Well, I hope you enjoy reading it and that you’ll come back for more soon.

Have fun, everyone.

Mladen

Life is fine in Jyväskylä: running trails are terrific, tap water is unbelievably clean and tasty, the city is lively, youthful and diverse, people are nice, weather has been quite warm, even university cafeteria food is decent, after two weeks of quite tiresome walking I finally got myself a bike which means that I do not have to take a single step from now on and today I even received the long awaited cargo. Yippee!

Since the beginning of the last week I’ve mainly been busy with various orientation courses at the university which have helped me with getting to know how Finnish educational system in general and the university in particular work. And I have to say that almost everything runs smoothly here. One of the major differences between the Slovene (which I’ve got to know down to absurd details over the years) and Finnish school systems is that in Finland the purpose of administration is to actually make things work as efficiently as possible, whereas in Slovenia they tend to complicate even the simplest tasks and thus just frustrate people. Here university employees at least know what their responsibilities are and are even eager to help.

Based on the lectures I’ve had so far, it also looks like I will be enjoying my studies here a great deal. The lectures so far have been quite lively. One thing that I really enjoy is that a lot of time so far has been dedicated to group discussions. And attendees come from so many different cultural and professional environments that it is really interesting to listen to what they have to say. And on top of that the variety of courses at the university is absolutely enormous: from The Cultural History of Western Madness to Accelerator Based Condensed Matter Physics. I also really appreciate the fact that all classes are public, although a great majority of lectures are delivered in Finnish, so I’ll have to stick to English ones for now, but will hopefully be able to actively attend some of them next year.

In Finland the school year is divided into two terms and each term is divided into two periods plus a fifth period which takes place during the summer months. Which means that courses usually begin at the beginning of each period, last a few weeks and then there is an exam week before the next period begins. So you’re really not stuck to one and the same lecturer and subject throughout the whole year and are thus exposed to loads of variety. And on top of that I was told that at least in programme that I attend students can expect loads of guest lecturers, artists and business people. All this means that I will be exposed to a wide variety of subjects and will hopefully even develop new interests.

Just for the taste of what I’ll be doing in the first two periods, here’s a list of my courses: Theories of Digital Culture, Digital Art and Culture, Documentarism, Man and Information System, Cultural Theory, Analyzing and Interpreting Visual and Textual Materials, Forays into Nordic Archeology, Research Communication and, guess what, Suomi Yksi. That’s a list as of today, but since their system is really flexible, you can register and unregister from all courses whenever you feel like it and you can take exams as many times as you want. So hey, I’ll probably be sampling a whole bunch and then just attend those that I really like. The only problem might be that there are so many to choose from that good ones can be easily overlooked.

Another thing that I really appreciate at the university is how well the computer system is organized. Not only did they set up Internet connection in my room only two hours after I have applied for it, but computers are spread throughout the campus. You can login with the same user/pass combination on all of them and can access your private folder on the server which can also be accessed via net. And each student also get 50 MB on a web server, naturally. There are also quite a few wi-fi areas on the campus, but I am yet to check that out, since I do not yet have a wi-fi card for my computer (but I’ve heard that those can be borrowed from the university). Another neat thing is that materials for all core lectures that I’m taking are available after the lecture on a system called Optima. Which basically means all presentations, related readings lists, links to interesting materials on the web and discussion forums. All information is extremely easily accessible to students of the courses. I’ve been waiting for something like that for years and it probably won’t happen anytime soon either.

So far the only truly unpractical thing is the access to the main library which is open only during weekdays and for a short time during the weekend. I’d expect that at least the main library would stay open 24 hrs a day, but I guess that has a lot to do with Finnish work morale: it seems they work a lot, but within reasonable limits which means that free time is an important and respected asset of every Finn. But practically anything regarding Finnish work culture and attitude is still out there for me to explore, so I cannot really say much about it just yet.

Lots of interesting things have been going on around here, but each day only has 24 hours which means that so far I couldn’t really find much time to set up the image gallery. Now, I am finally working on it, so you can expect to see some images from Jyväskylä soon.

Anyways, Uroš thanks for the comments. Keep it up, because it is cool to hear from you. And this can also serve as an invitation to others: let me know what you’ve been up to. If you don’t feel like posting a comment, than just drop me an email and I’ll respond as soon as I can.

Mladen