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.

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

I know, I should have written this post a few days ago, but there is so much going on in my life at the moment that it’s a bit hard to stare at the computer and write while there are so many other more exciting and engaging things to do around here … so, finally, here we go.

Touchdown! I arrived to Jyväskylä on Saturday night. Yes, it was a long trip considering that both Slovenia and Finland are in Europe, but time wasn’t money so the trip with Ryanair, Appartmenthaus zum Hahn and VR costed me roughly two days and 120 Euros (instead of one day and 800 Euros if I were to fly from Ljubljana to Jyväskylä). The journey itself was nothing extraordinary: late planes, punctual trains and lots of waiting. The decision to fly to Tampere and then take the train to Jyväskylä wasn’t bad at all because I first got to see Finland from the air and then enjoyed the countryside from the ground.

Actually, before I go on here are my immediate impressions and associations about Finland and Finns (after being here for a few days): reserved but very friendly, language challenge, lots of space, green, tidiness, expensive and definitely, water, and lots of it too … in all forms and directions.

Jyväskylä is located in the central Finnish region also known as lakeland. Now, this is interesting, because Finland is full of lakes, so from the perspective of practically any visitor, whole Finland could be called lakeland. It’s really hard to believe, but there are 180.000 lakes in Finland. There are numerous lakes in and around Jyväskylä, which also means that there is one right next to the building where I live. One might wonder where does all this water come from, but once you spend a few hours here, you simply cannot miss the biggest source of lake water: it rains on and off every single day. Even so that practically no matter how hard it rains, there are a lot of people walking on the streets who simply don’t pay attention to all this rain. At first it looks weird to see people strolling without umbrellas through the city while the rain is literally pouring on them. But you do get used to all this water pretty quickly. I can’t wait to see what the real autumn looks like when there’s supposedly even more rain, because, mind you, now it’s still August.

One other thing that made much more lasting impression on me is Finnish language. Although I’ve tried to learn some Finnish while I was still back in Ljubljana, I think that no matter how hard I tried back then I’d still be stumped upon arrival. It is downright amazing how different this language is; it doesn’t even sound familiar and on top of that Finns speak it in quite peculiar manner which makes it practically impossible to distinguish between words. So it is not surprising at all that they have a hard time with consistency in writing. Also, I have never seen so many meaningful long words in my life: they quite easily reach 20 characters and beyond. So what I am doing right now is learning how to read completely from scratch. All my Finish friends are laughing their asses of when I am tackling one word at a time, almost a letter at a time - and on top of this not even pronouncing words correctly. But I think we are both having a great time: they get a good laugh and I get to learn something from their linguistical guidance.

Now, as far as their silence and reservedness is concerned: yes, they are a bit quiet and reserved, but when approached can be very friendly and helpful. But, for example, when I walk into a store and try out my Finish on them, they just stare at me and almost ignore me half of the time. As if they want to say that it is OK if you speak English, just don’t touch our language. Finns below 30 are an exception, because they can be very talkative once they engage in a conversation.

Another thing that really stands out is nature and their utmost respect for it. True, Finland is one huge forest by the lake, but they also know how preserve their nature or not do any harm to it in the first place. It starts with their meticulous recycling of trash (they separate it into five categories) and extends to cleanliness. But there is one very important detail: they don’t overdo it, so it isn’t kitsch like in some Alpine countries like Austria and Switzerland.

But life has a price tag here, and a hefty one too. Some prices are just obnoxious. Here are a few examples: a beer in a pub can cost you 4,5 Euros, a packet of cigarettes is anywhere from 2 to 5 Euros, daily newspaper 2 Euros, a bottle of water 1,5 Euros, a liter of gasoline 1,3 Euros, rent for a 24 sq m apartment in Jyväskylä runs from 350 Euros on, and so on. Finns seem to be happy and relaxed people in spite of all those expanses because it looks like they earn enough so they can afford to live a normal life here.

Although I’ve been in Finland only four days now, I must say that so far I really like it here. The nature is spectacular, people are friendly and relaxed, the city is rather quiet and it’s extremely easy to get all sorts of bureaucratic things done in an instant. It’s amazing how easy life can be if there are no ill intentions, greed or envy.

Well, that’s it for now. Check back in a few days when I’ll write more about my continuing Finnish experience. And in meantime I’ll also upload a few photos, because I know that some of you out there are anxious to see those.

Mladen