All these exchange students. (Ok, I know I'm one of them but still...) Never can there be any decisions taken. Frustrating sometimes. I think we were supposed to go out tonight or something. Then everybody was just gone and I have no clue what's going on or what the plan is. So now I'm back and watching Sixteen Candles and waiting for further notice. But honestly, I lost my mood for going out.

christmas vacation

It will be a warm Christmas this year too. Last year I was in Singapore celebrating it with A and my two newly found friends. This year it will be celebrated with my family in Alicante, Spain, for a whole week. Nice to get away to warmer weather.

Looking forward to it!

another thesis

Not much going on here.
Have been trying to figure out what to do with my 'master' thesis next semester (not really master, the Swedish 'magister', but that's what you would translate it to). Trying to figure out whether I should write the thesis for a company/organization or just do it on my own, so been sending out some emails. It would be interesting to write a thesis for the Swedish Trade Council, but then I first have to figure out the topic. Have no clue yet. Should do some research.

eastern promises

Was tired of sitting at home tonight. So I met up with E&A to go to the movies. We watched 'Eastern Promises', a really great movie about the Russian mafia in London. It was realistic and you cannot believe that the mafia is actually working like this today. I can take a lot of violence, but in this movie it made my stomach churn. It's brutal and it's a movie you'll think about when you walk out of the theater.

international dinner

Been a busy week. And I guess I've been too lazy to update. Now I'm back in the game. Unfortunately still busy. Got my tough presentation done on Thursday, where I had to talk about 'Institutional Foundations of Impersonal Exchange' for 30 minutes. Sounds interesting huh? Well, kind of is, and it went quite well since I didn't have to reed too much from my notes. It felt good to have that big presentation done, but now I've got to start on a term paper of 7 pages due in one week. The plan was to start yesterday, Friday, with the research. Problematic though when the internet stops working, just terrific. So instead I watched Scrubs the whole day and then in the evening I went over to A&W's place and they were cooking with the Indian guys. Perfect timing for some food and talking. It was great to have some Indian food again, I've been missing that. Also some Chinese dessert, similar to what I tried in Singapore, and some Danish potatoes au gratin (we have that in Sweden to though).

st petersburg

St Petersburg, called the Venice of the North. Also an amazing city, with amazing architecture and history. Many beautiful cathedrals and churches, where we could see the tombs of many powerful, historical people. For example Tsar Nicholas II and his family who got executed after the revolution in Russia, and Peter the Great.

Then of course we got to see the Winter Palace, which must be most impressive building I've seen so far. The palace was wonderful with all it's decorated rooms with high ceilings. Some of the ballrooms was just taken right out of a Disney movie. You could imagine the woman walking around in the hallways and rooms with their beautiful dresses, or dancing during a ball. It also consists the Hermitage Museum, which has one of the biggest art collections in the world with 3 millions works of art. The Hermitage Museum is comparable with the Louvre in Paris. Many impressing pieces of art by famous artists.

We also got to see the Catherine Palace, also called the Summer Palace. Another beautiful palace but not as impressive as the Winter Palace. Although, Catherine Palace is not fully restored after the second world war so we could only visit some parts of it. There is a recreation of the famous Amber Room in Catherine Palace. A room completely covered with amber, sometimes referred to as the "Eight Wonder of the World".

Annabelle and I at a bar.

The Winter Palace on the right.

One of the many 'rooms' in the Winter Palace.

A hallway in the Winter Palace.

The Catherine Palace.

The impressive Amber Room in Catherine Palace.

More pictures from Moscow and St Petersburg can be seen here and here.

moscow

Maybe it's time for the update about Russia I promised.
It was a really great trip. I always wanted to go to Moscow and now I finally got the chance, unfortunately we were only there for one day. We took the train from Helsinki Tuesday night and then also left Moscow by train at midnight the next day. The trains looked typical Russian, well, at least like I would imagine them. It felt like being in an Agatha Christie novel, Murder on the Orient Express. I was just waiting for the police to come and say that somebody was found dead in their compartment and someone on the train is the killer. Fortunately it didn't happen, I wouldn't really want to be in an encounter with the Russian police.

It was a busy day in Moscow, since we only had one day in town. But we were a little bit unlucky because it was the 7th of November, a former public holiday, the date of the Russian revolution. That's why the streets to the Red Square were blocked by police men in green clothes. Luckily they opened up some of the streets for a while later on so we could actually walk on the Red Square. Wouldn't have been fun going to Moscow and not been able to walk on the Red Square. We didn't get to see the Lenin Mausoleum because that was also closed, that is where Lenin's embalmed body is. Then we got to see Kremlin, where president Putin works. There is also a couple of beautiful cathedrals in there.

The subway in Moscow was incredible. Instead of building a palace for the people to come to and enjoy, they literally took the palace to the people instead. With chandeliers, decorations, paintings, and statues it is the most beautiful subway I have ever seen.

Moscow was a great city, the architecture is amazing. It was a quite cold day though, so I was freezing a lot. But of course it was worth it since I got to see Moscow, the capital of Russia.

The Red Square. With Kremlin to the right and St Basil's Cathedral in the back.

Here I am in front of St Basil's Cathedral.

The police guarding the Red Square.

The amazing Moscow subway. They wanted to take the palace to the people, so they did.

The great train from Moscow to St Petersburg. Really comfortable.

More pictures from Moscow and St Petersburg can be seen here and here.

i'm not the one to surrender

I just watched a disturbing British documentary on TV, called 'Obedient wives'. Basically the point was to teach a couple of women how they should become more like a housewife and surrender to their men. The point was to become more feminine to help the marriage. This woman was saying that you should let the men take care of the finances since men are usually better at this(!). (A bit disturbing thought for me since I study economics and I'm economical...) The woman said that if you let your husband pay for you, you would feel like you're always on a date. That's a startling opinion, and then seeing another woman cutting her credit cards. In the final minutes you hear all these women saying how good their marriage have become since they surrendered. It gives me the creeps.

i'm alive

Still here. Just haven't really been alive this week. I've been lying in my bed recovering. I managed to get one presentation done, although with a little bit of coughing and a hoarse voice.

People haven't seen me around for some days so they have started wondering where I've been. Been here in my bed watching a lot of tv-series and movies. I've been catching up with two of my favorite shows, Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy. The other day I watched the complete season three of Laguna Beach. I know it's lame, but it's fun to watch stupid rich girls. I don't really need much entertainment when I'm sick.

But tomorrow I need to be done feeling sick and sorry for myself. I realized a couple of minutes ago that I've got a term paper deadline in two weeks and I haven't even started. Good thing that I'm not going to the Lapland trip next week.

back from russia

There has been a week off from the blog. This since I was traveling in Russia. We visited Moscow and St Petersburg, truly amazing cities. Although I usually travel without prejudice, you usually have some thoughts in the back of your head, I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised.

Unfortunately my hotel roommate gave me her cold so the last two days were not the best. Still I managed to discover the city, but the nights I spent at the hotel resting. So the first day back in Helsinki I've just spent in my bed, reading random blogs and watching tv. More info about the trip will show up soon.

nonproductivity and chocolate cake

The day started with nonproductivity. It continued with some kind of productivity in the afternoon. Between the partly productive hours I managed to bake my famous chocolate cake. At the end of the day I had been able to produce something for school. And a chocolate cake. The friends were invited and the cake was gone in seconds. At least it gave us a few minutes of pleasure. As an end to the night I finally watched Blood diamond, truly great movie. And now I'm saying good night.

they do have quinoa in helsinki

This week I finally found quinoa in a supermarket here, I've been looking in a couple of food stores already. So I made myself a quinoa salad for dinner. Really good.

Quinoa, with tomato, red onion, fresh basil, olive oil and some spices.

200th

This is post #200.

Should I write something wise and profound?

No.

This will do.

no party, just sleep

Into the last minute today I was still indecisive of whether I should go out or not. My head said no, but my heart wanted to. But in the end i decided to stay at home. Since I was really tired I doubt that I would have enjoyed it.

And it's crazy busy now the last days before I go to Russia on Tuesday. (Woohoo! I'm going to Russia!) Have one paper to write, one case, and two presentations to prepare. And I've got almost five days.

Can I make it? Well I have to. At least I've got Russia to look forward to.

study!

I need to make myself study!

Study!
Study!
Study!

It's not working...