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25 janvier WinterWintertime in Helsinki is simply great especially now when the days become longer and the sky a little brighter again. Walking along the Helsinki beach at -21° Celsius and having the wind blow into your face and making it an additional 20 degrees colder and feeling like razorblades on your skin is an amazing experience. Everyone is wearing leather and fur coats, hats and scarfs, tights and 2 extra pais of socks, lambwool-shoes and skiing gloves. I really enjoy it so much.... 27 novembre Sauna cultureCompared to Germany the snowlandscape in Helsinki is very peaceful and harmless in Helsinki. It is not too cold yet and of course we do have the sauna. This also differs quite a lot: The public saunas are always seperated into rooms for men and women. The Finns tend to go in there and sit down for a little chat with a stranger, throw the water onto the coals themselves and might only stay inside there for a few minutes to warm up. I've never seen anybody having excessive sauna stays like in Germany. The private sauna parties of course include both men and women, and then people go inside with a beer or a snack. 25 novembre Snow is falling downI went outtoday et voila it has started snowing. The season I was so afraid of at first turns out to be great fun. Tender snowflakes touching my head covering it with a reflecting powder, which makes even short people like me visible in the dark streets of Helsinki. Although sun rises at around 9 o'clock at the moments and sets at around 4 o'clock you certainly don't have to feel depressed because of the weather. Lights illuminate the whole city, music is played on the street or in front of restaurants and bars. Helsinki becomes cold on the outside, but it definately warms up at the inside :-) 14 novembre NokiaIt's true I am probably the only person living in Finland without a cell phone. I hate these things and in Germany I only own one because it was a gift. The scary thing about mobiles in Finland is that they work everywhere. People get phone calls in a national park, in the sauna etc. It can get on your nerves, when people cannot arrange a meeting with you, but send you an sms... and worst of all the CRAZY FROG, the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen, is extreeemly popular among the Finns...even the educated ones... 30 octobre McDonald'sIn Helsinki like everywhere in the world they have MacDonald's fast food restaurants. I pass by one every day and last time we went in to use the toilet. On the tables they have several little Nokia play/phone/whatever stations installed, so that they guests can play computer games, surf the net et cetera. This kind of disgusts me, for it makes people stay in there for a long time, ordering more and more unhealthy food. But in contrast to the Pizza Hut (where you can order a meal for the 35 Euro special price) it seems pretty cheap though... 28 octobre BathingI have a new hobby: swimming- naked. Since Sauna is such a big thing in Finland- it actually has its origin here- it is no luxury that we have two of them in the student dormitory. Yet until now I was too ashamed to go there...women tend to stare at each other and talk behind your back, I thought...this will change. Today I decided to go swimming and choose an old Roman like bath from 1918 to do so. I was lucky for it was women's bathing day (they have different days for males and females). And everybody was naked. It took me quite a while to get changed because I was so insecure, but then I just hopped into the water and enjoyed the freedom of being among yourselves, which no burdening clothes on. I looked at all the women, old and young, slim and fat, female or masculine type, Asian or Finn, but after a while this became irrelevant and I began to feel pretty. I just the Sauna afterwards for the first time that I am in Finnland and I am looking forward to see this place again, my private realm of emancipation and sisterhood... 27 octobre UndergoundThe strangest thing about Helsinki is Helsinki underground. Of course you can walk through the squareshaped streets of Helsinki past young men playing the electric guitar and elder playing the trumpet for a few cents. There you can watch the snow fall down on the neon-lights and seagulls flying above your head spreading the scent of the sea which is not far away. But you can also choose to take the underground trip and walk under the city, but yet above the subway from shop to shop, from University almost home. Almost every basement in the city center is connected with another one, the Finns really do seem to like building shopping malls, supermarkets, bus stations and McDonalds underground. Helsinki is alive- deep inside, where the cold cannot reach to. 24 octobre 1° CelsiusToday I had a torturing library-experience. I went to one of the City libraries (for Helsinki is supposed to have one of the best city library systems in the world) to borrow some German books. The library building dates from the 19th century and its staircases and the ornamented walls are just beautiful. Unfortunately I could not find my library card and I was not allowed to take the books home with simply showing my ID. They don't make exceptions! So I went home to look for it and as I could not find it it came to my mind that I had forgotten it in the music library, where they have thousands of scores, records, tapes and CDs. I went there and a guy brought a case which included quite a lot of cards divided into males and females in alphabetical order. This looked so cute, but still my card was listed under Z. I went back to the other city library and when I arrived the guy there just told me he found out my where my card was and that I could have taken the books with me. I finally got to take them home at 8 o'clock and just now I found an e-Mail telling me I should not worry about my library Card. Helsinki burocracy is so annoying, but it is so cute at the same time. If only it had not been only 1°Celsius outside while I was running from place to place (and still don't have my winter-jacket).... 22 octobre Gay ClubToday only three people of our Buddy group showed up for the meeting, but still we had a nice time bar hopping (like Helsinki's only Reggae bar with the guys who made their joints on the toilet...) with finally ending up in a gay club I chose. Actually the Lost&Found is no gay club at all and it appeared more like a big single party to me, for suddenly I found myself surrounded by six guys and everywhere around me there were newborn heterosexual couples dancing. It was only the music, who seemed a bit "gay" playing Prince, the Pet shop bys and Tina Turner.I realized again how essential it is for the Finns to drink alcohol and this made me a bit sad. They don't drink to forget or to become cheerful, They drink to break their silence.. The Finns start being communicative at around 1 o'clock and that is when they are hardly able to move straightly anymore. They go for one-night-stands a lot and whenever you leave a club or a bar at 3 or 4 at night you will only meet drunk people on the street, many of them. At every corner of the house there will be a Finn standing and peeing against the wall. Although Helsinki is supposed to be a very safe town this adds a strange color to Hellsinki nightlife. I am just not used to being surrounded by so many drunk people and I believe that havíng drunk people around you, while yourself are sober, just makes you feel uncomfortable. 18 octobre UnicafesIn Germany I used to avoid the "Mensa" and prefered to cook my own, delicious food. Since I am in Helsinki I changed my opinion on that. Not only because I do not own any pots and pans, but because the food at the Unicafes is very tasty and I like the concept of buying a main dish and taking as much additional food as you want very much. I am not much of a Vegetarian anymore, since they offer great fish dishes. After paying for the main dish everyone can choose from the buffet the amount of salad (sometimes fruit too), rice, potatoes and pasta he/she wants. But what I like most are the different sorts of bread, which vary from day to day, and usually there are about 5-6 different ones available each day: Smörrebröd, light or dark bread with seeds or without and sometimes even one with licorice taste (but THAT is disgusting  ) and you can choose between different toppings. Hmm, it's just a pity that I tend to sleep so long and miss the huge variety of the day most of the time. But even that is just a minor problem, since food is served until 7 o'clock p.m....14 octobre Domus AcademicaI live in a very modern student dormitory in the center of Helsinki. I have my own 20 m² apartment with a comfortable bathroom, air-conditioning, four stoves and an oven, two beds and wooden furniture...feels like living in a Marburger corporation ;-)... I have free laundry facilities, sauna and a pool and of course a free internet connection. It is very different from what I know from Marburg, but not everything is that much better: The doors lock automatically and I am always frightened to lose my keys. And there is of course they fire-alarm, which has been set off about 20 times or more since I moved in. Whenever somebody burns a piece of toast or places a bowl with cooking water underneath the fire-alarm, it starts ringing...then everybody has to go outside, whether it is 2 o'clock at night or 9 o'clock in the morning. Actually it is a nice picture to see all the exchange students in their pyjamas freezing outside for quarter of an hour, while the fire-men are storming the house to see whether there is something burning. That is why sometimes it just happens that a fire-man is knocking at your door to see whether you smoke inside your room. And if you ever forget to call the police to tell them that it is a false alarm it is 400 Euros to be paid by the student...Finns... 13 octobre UniversityUniversity in Helsinki seems to me even less structured than in Germany. This offers the students ots of opportunities: they can decide freely what to focus on for their research papers and take exams whenever they like to without even participating in class. For disciplined students this is paradise, for me it is hell with a helping hand from my women's studies teacher. She requires us a lot of work to do and I finally feel challengend after two years of relaxed studies. This course makes Helsinki worth being here, for it has already enlightened me in several aspects. The teacher is very strict and demanding, but fair. And she is such a charismatic type of feminist I have not met before sharing differentialist views up to a certain degree, but still being devoted to the American roots of feminism at the same time. She is soft, yet ambitious, whereas I often feel like including a second pair of ellbows in my prayers to get along on the streets of Helsinki... 12 octobre Helsinki NightlifeBeing an Erasmus student just means partying a lot. Whether in the city center or in one of the dormitories students like to get together and drink most of the time. This can get very exhausting by the time you have done it more than 4 weeks in a row, so I started picking locations different from the ones we go to just because they are cheap and there are a lot of exchange students there. For instance the irish pubs. Today I went to the Jazz Club I discovered recently on my long night walk. I was actually lucky to have somebody with me who invited me, since this dirty old bar with lots of old pipe smoking people in there was just so expensive (Alcohol in Finland is very expensive, but this exceeded the 5 Euro limit for half a pint of beer...). The atmosphere was strange, the piano player stopped playing soon and the room got empty, but suddenly lots of mercedeses and limousines arrived and even more old people stormed in, neatly dressed, to enter the jazz basement. We got curious about it and wanted to go downstairs as well, but the waiter looked at us impatiently as if he wanted us to leave (maybe it was the Austrian's coloured skiing jacket which didn't fit the black and white colours of everybody else or the fact that we could not afford any more drinks and sipped on our glasses way too long...), so we finally left withouth having seen the band play. I guess none of us liked jazz that much before tonight, but now we will probably stay with the clubs suitable for Erasmus students and avoid these manager-after-work-parties... 11 octobre Silence of the FinnsIt is true, the Finns are quiet. Only when they are drunk they become relaxed and start talking, but still mostly to people they know. This gives me a hard time getting to know any real Finns. On the other hand when I think of the construction workers in German streets who ca never resist to talk sexist, whenever you pass by...I tend to like the Finns politeness in that respect. The Finns are still a mystery to me- yet I am very eager to find out more about them!
Besides,I live in a student dormitory with students from so many different nations. Most of them seem to be Germans, but still there are also people from Switzerland and Austria (I love the charming Vienna accent!), Belgium, France, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Estonia, Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, Italy, Latvia, UK and also from outiside Europe: Brazil, Canada, Japan...basically from all over the world  ...9 octobre Stars over HelsinkiYesterday night we went for a walk along the beach. The water was so calm and it mirrored the many stars in the sky, which seem to be much bigger here than anywhere else. For although Helsinki is the capital of Finland, there are quite many parks and green areas, botanic gardens etc. even in the center of Helsinki. This makes every walk so pleasant, since you are always connected with nature and culture at the same time. When you go to the opera you can take a walk through the park afterwards, if you attend a concert in Finlandia Hall you can sit at the sea for a while and after my courses in the university buildings I can jump on a boat for and island...And now I will go outside and watch the beautiful sunset, which I can already imagine from my window on the 5th floor.
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