Just got home from the International Sociaty Annual Ball (gosh, what a long name for an event). We had a three-course dinner (which was Awesome, I was positively surprised!) and a ceilidh afterwards at the QMU. I'm so happy now I think I'm gonna burst. It wasn't the best ceilidh ever, there were too many people crammed in far too little a place, which ended up as you might guess - a total mess and lots of bruises - BUT when I realised that this is most probably the LAST EVER ceilidh I'm attending here, I got such a... hmm..? Haikea fiilis? Not a good word for 'haikea' in English! ANYWAY. Got so sad and happy at the same time. The tunes, oh I love the tunes! Those highland melodies! I took a LOT of videos to show all you folks back in Finland. And it was so nice to have fun with all my friends again. I'm gonna miss this! There's a few photos (none of me, so sad):
Lovely people: Eva, G, Dillon, Petra
More lovely people: Maija, G (again), Anna-Kaisa, Marita (A-K's flatmate).
Eva whirling in Massimo's arms.
Getting bruised!
A sort of perfectionist as I am, I have to give a brief account of what I've been up to for the past weeks, even though some of you might know that already. For perfectionism's sake.
So, AGES ago, Lauri was here. It was weird to meet him again after such a long break. Imagine, 8 weeks apart after 5 years of being together almost every day! (apart from my 4-week language course and 2-month summer in London, but they don't count 'cos we hadn't been living together before that). My heart was bumping like on our first date when I met him at the airport. And he looked so different. The sideburns were gone, and same goes for the beard. Hehe. He was trying to look neat I suppose.
So, to put a long story short, it was nice, I got to see the touristic side of Glasgow again. I managed to get us to visit Kelvingrove Art Gallery (which was a weird place, where else can you find a stuffed kangaroo sitting confortably next to artefacts from the middle ages or paintings by Dali and his contemporaries? - Nowhere, and I think that's a good thing). We also went on a tour of Glasgow School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh (nothing to do with computers, sorry geeks), which was worth every penny, highly recommended! I especially loved the library, go and see it yourself.
We also went to the Highlands with ISoc, saw owls in Inverness (find proof below), had a ceilidh (fun!), slept in a haunted castle (Carbisdale), said hello to the Loch Ness monster, and saw lots of snowy mountains from the bus window.
Some shots below.
We were dancing so hard that my foot fell off the picture frame.
Owly things in Inverness.
Loch Ness glimmering ominously behind us.
A watchful eye shall catch the evil monstah!
Urquhart Castle. Note the snow on the hills, beautiful :)
A stopover at Dunkeld.
That was the sunnier side of Lauri's trip - the darker side is the fact that I got insomnia right when he came. I had been so stressed out for over a month that it was bound to happen at any moment - his visit was the final straw, sort of. I got so much stress out of it, seeing each other for the first time since January. My wee room was a culprit as well. It was like on the night when Satu and Pasi were staying with me: during the night we ran out of oxygen and the humidity level rose up to 50%, with the consequence that I could not sleep much, if at all. This happened night after night. I got a prescription for sleeping aids, thank god, otherwise I'd ended up being like a zombie (which I actually still did, come to think of it).
Then, on a Tuesday a month ago Lauri left, and two hours after that, I set off for Amsterdam with my beloved girls (Maija, Petra and Gayathri). Amsterdam was SOOO COOOL, love that place, the whole city is like a huge outdoor museum. So cute, so idyllic, so laid-back, aawww! Best bits: Anne Frank museum (impressing, touching, deep), a big bird (below), a short bike ride (next time I'll rent a bike for myself and ride around the place all time), the atmosphere, the views.
Girls and canals. Beautiful.
A big bird said BAAP!
WAY TOO COOL...
The hostel dorm didn't really make the sleeping part any better though, so in the end I was such a wreck that I decided to go back to Finland for the rest of the holiday: to wind down, to spend time with Lauri, and to get some sleep (obviously). So that's what I did, and got stuck there for three and a half weeks! :D
At first, it was really weird to be back home again - I remember wandering around the kitchen, muttering 'Oh this all looks so tiny, why is everything so tiny...' - but it was the best solution ever. I got a chance to see all my loved-ones again, to practise sleeping again (with no flatmates banging those freaking doors all night), and to deal with the loss of my grandma (sorted out her things for example, I wanted to have all the letters she sent from the war, love those stories!).
And then, feeling a LOT better, I got back here in Glasgow just 1,5 weeks ago on Wednesday.
And you know what.
Forget all the bad things I've ever said about this place.
Well, not all.
But at least the bits about Glasgow being repulsive, grim, ugly, and so on. It still is, of course, especially if you arrive on a train from the abundant beauty of Edinburgh to Queenstreet Station, past all those appalling tower blocks with broken windows. That's what I did 1,5 weeks ago, thinking I'm not going to survive.
But the beauty of the place struck me right after I got here. The trees! The trees are blossoming! Like every other tree has flowers: pink, white, purple, you name the colour, aawww! Spring is here! Smiling faces are here! Sunshine is here! Warmth is here, to the degree that Scots are wearing flip-flops, shorts or skirts and tops, if anything (if you're a guy). I've been so high on Glasgow after I started everything anew. And I believe the rest of the spring is going to be a blast!
As for studies, there are none anymore. I had my last lecture on Wednesday and my last seminar on Friday (today, or yesterday, whatever), where I also gave a presentation on 'The Exploration of Different Identities in the Poetry of Jackie Kay' (sounds intelligent eh?), which went fine, I guess. At least it's DONE now, which is the main thing.
I have got four essays back with the following grades: A1 (best), A3, A5, and B1. I'm quite surprised - I thought there wasn't anything special about those papers, just standard essays. I must be pretty good in Scottish standards. So, happy with myself, of course, smuggity smug. Just one essay to go about the symbolism in the protagonist's name in Janice Galloway's 'The Trick is to Keep Breathing' and I'm DONE. Well, there's a huge exam coming on 29 May, but let's not think about that yet. On Monday I'll be done with the essay (I hope), and then I'll have a short break from studying. I have deserved that!
I'll indulge you with some flowery pics later, now it's time to hit the bed. With this crappy connection I have, updating one single pic takes at least 3 minutes, and if you multiply that by ten pics... yep. One thing I appreciate back home: our 24Mb wireless connection!
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