Finlandia!

Moi from Nokia Land! There is not too much to say... as expected it is amazing getting away, being in green places with clean air and good friends and massive breakfasts and lots of exercise. Matilda and I spent the weekend in Helsinki at her Mum's and on Monday took the train up to Jyväskylä,where she and her boyfriend Henkka live. Working most of yesterday in the Jyväskylä University library was offset by rowing out to a little island for a rainbow trout dinner and sauna afterwards. Rough. Some photos for you before I start on one final essay. Missing you all!

Flying into Finland, all you see are islands... so many islands.

One of the islands up close, from a ferry boat, this time on the
way to Suomenlinna. 

Picnic in the park with Matilda, Annika, and Kukka

This is what you think it is: a sauna boat.
The most ingenious invention ever.
Classic Finnish people and their saunas... 

Prime real estate on Suomenlinna. 

Kukka, Matilda, and baby Viivi, who officially loves ferry rides.

Token tourist shot. 

The biggest church in Helsinki, known fondly as
'the Church of the Judgement'. 

Rowing around. 

Dinner time. 

Perfect. 

Slowly Turning into a Comatose, Dissertation-Crazed Zombie.

Hello! I'm still here.
What I've been up to the last 2 weeks does not exactly warrant blogging about. Suffice to say it involves a lot of typing, copying, pasting, colour coding, editing, e.mailing, reading, referencing, multiplying, justifying, formatting, etc. What it will produce is a massive piece of work that will determine my fate as a lowly diploma-holder or the proud owner of a legitimate Masters degree. Worryingly but probably predictably, it is becoming more and more like a hallowed firstborn child in terms of it's worth to me. HOWEVER, in 3 days I will get a lovely escape from academic reality by going to Finland!!!! This is my saving grace; even though I will still be editing a massive dissertation and working on an additional 3,000 word reflection piece, I'll be doing it in Nokia Land! Almost 2 weeks with dear old Ina, who I normally travel around Africa with, and Matilda, who I last saw on a dusty road in Goa, India. I have been told numerous times the last few years that I must come to Finland, but only in the summer. So I'm going, while it's summer, and while I am a mere 4 hours away vs. 14.

Things I have been doing lately when not writing my head off:

Visiting triangular-shaped pubs with my friends Megan and
Tricia. This one turned out to be a dump inside, but
afterwards we found a new one in the city called The Great
Gatsby. Needless to say it was cool. How could it not be?

Having one last departmental meeting for the year with  all
my coursemates and most of our professors..

Observing the installation of very oddly-placed exercise
equipment in the neighbourhood. To the right of these is
another set of apartments, so the presumably slightly self-conscious
overweight person using them has not one but TWO buildings full of
people watching them do their quad curls every morning.

Noting how much my feet GREATLY dislike shoes after a
summer in Birks.

Enjoying the wild variety of unique and colourful homes
Sheffield has on constant display..... 

Wondering what the logic behind the construction
of this was, in light of the above.

I miss you all. The countdown to coming home seems to be dragging at the moment, but I'm hopeful Finland and a particular sister coming in just a few weeks will speed things up. Lots of love to each of you. 

Represent..

Just FYI...Heptathalon gold medalist Jess Ennis -- Sheffield native and University of Sheffield graduate! 

"Home."

Back in Sheffield. Apologies for the delay in writing. It's been a strange week of feeling jet lagged (even though there's only an hour difference between here and SL) and culture shocked. It's always weird when nothing at all has changed in the place you left, and it makes the time spent in a crazy environment acclimating to all sorts of crazy things feel like it never happened. You all know how I feel about Sheffield too, so needless to say it's especially difficult leaving Africa for a place I've found it so difficult to love. But having said that, I've had a few thoughts about blessings this year.

1. In the flurry of trying to get tickets, a visa, and a a place to live last September, I decided to ignore location and take whatever I could get. This is funny because all the places I was looking at (with location in mind) would've actually been on the wrong end of town from where I've ended up spending most of my academic time, and the house I live in is a reasonable 13-minute walk from my department, part of it through a big, quiet park. 

2. My house may be in the ghetto, and people may get mugged routinely on my street, but I continue to love my big loft bedroom. I can leave the windows open day and night, do yoga in the mornings, study, dry clothes up here; it is a little oasis of calm from the chaos of outside/next door/downstairs.  

3. A few months ago, I vented frustrations about the ever-unreliable UK education system switching things up yet again and giving me an entirely new dissertation supervisor starting this month. This turned out to be one of the most positive negatives, since my new supervisor is a very relaxed, thoughtful woman, who asks wise questions, listens carefully, and has broken down the writing process really well. She also gave me the thumbs up on going to Finland the last week of August (since she'll be away in Greece anyway), which is so so so so so great.

4. My amazing little old laptop just keeps going, and going, and going. It is four years old, but with a bit of Ben's magic touch at Christmastime, it is running faster now than ever before. It got hauled to work and back everyday in SL, dealt with ants, dust, and humidity, and was the only computer we had to input data with. It has been getting sub-par 'adapter power' for a year now, but has been acutely aware of how completely lost I would be if it died. Thanks, little Toshi. 

5. The Grind Cafe. In a town full of pubs, bars, liquor stores, more pubs, and the occasional chain coffee shop, I discovered a completely unique, bright, artsy little cafe a 10-minute walk from my house. They play Bob Dylan, make healthy food, and give me half-price sandwiches at closing time. I foresee the majority of the next month of writing being spent in this place.

A few photos from the last hectic day in Freetown...

An interview with the lovely Memuna at the Marie Stopes clinic.
On the way there it was downpouring; I got so soaked I was literally wringing
water out of my pants during the interview. Professional as always. 

Can't get enough of this ad. 

Dreadlocks Saloon... out of business for quite a while now. 

The Restless Development team. 

Our favourite member of staff, the janitor, Sinay,
who brought us sweet tea every morning. 

Goodbye, Freetown. 

Dad, this is the ferry I almost took to get to the airport.
Tickets were only $1. Kind of glad we stuck with the $4 option..

Airport dinner. Cucumber and leftover peanut pasta from a bag. 

First meal back in Sheffield.