Five Good Things This Week

Forgot to do this yesterday for whatever reason. Last week was full of lots of little fun things and hopefully I can remember/think of (only) five for this weeks five good things!


1) I walked about 44 kilometers from Monday to Sunday. It was nice weather the entire week so I had a lot of motivation to walk almost everyday to school. It's about 7ish km from my flat to my university, so about an hour from door to door, and the path I take goes right next to Iidesjärvi for about 45 minutes of that hour; a lake in Tampere is shocking, I know. It put me in a great mood all week and I want to do it this week as well but it's not such nice weather now. It was also good because I plan to use that route to skate to and from school once I get my skates sorted out!

I love winter but I'm so ready for nice weather

2) Speaking of roller skates, because I don't do that enough already, I finally got my outdoor wheels! I got the Atom Pulse outdoor wheels in green. I've heard great reviews about them and they already seem nicer than the outdoor ones I got with my skates when I bought them a year ago. I wasn't able to order the skate tool (for none skaters, it helps take the wheels on and off) I wanted, which is why I have yet to stick 'em on my skates and get out there. I should be able to get the skate tool soon, so I should be out skating soon! I got the wheels from Gearcheck.fi and they are just lovely. I was a bit of a noob and forgot to select the green ones when I ordered them, but noticed it straight away...once I had already paid, got the invoice as an email and noticed the colour selection was ”smoke” (black) and not ”green). I sent them an email straight away telling them it's not a huge deal but if they could send the green ones, I'd be really happy. I got a very quick and lovely response saying that they would make sure I got the green ones. I'll definitely be buying from them again!

What lovely wheels I have!

3) Saturday was spent eating. Seriously, just eating. Actually, more than just eating, but, mostly eating. Also, eating. My flatmate and I went to our friend's place to apply for apartments for next school year as all of us want to share a place together that actually has a living room (ah international student housing, how I loathe them) and is closer to town. We decided to make brunch and it was a feast. English style pancakes with assorted toppings, homemade korvapuusti, bacon, coffee/tea, turnovers (which are called something else in German but I can't remember the name), and some fruit. We actually managed to apply for four nice apartments that are all close to town, wish us luck!
As if brunch wasn't enough, Saturday evening was pizza night. And I don't just mean ordering pizza from the nearest take-out place, I mean honest to goodness made by a real Italian pizza. My good friend made me and seven other friend about five different pizzas from scratch. I can't remember all of them because I later went into a food coma, but there was margherita pizza, pizza with salami and sauce, pizza with ham and no sauce, and pizza with peppers, eggplant, no sauce and mashed potatoes. Never in my life had I had mashed potatoes on pizza but it was so yum and quite normal in Italy. My flatmate and I were so food drunk by the end of the night.


4) I had lots of fun at roller derby on Friday night. I was in a position that I haven't really had to do before. I fucked up a few times but got lots of help and encouragement from two friends I NSO (Non Skating Official) with and it really helped out my confidence.


5) Yesterday was not so much fun because my friend and I were struggling to get a statistics project done. Neither of us is good with numbers and we realised that we had to change a bunch of stuff right before it was due (we can't work on it at home or even in just a computer lab because we have to use a program that's only on the school computers and you can't talk in computer labs). We were so burnt out after the four hours of doing it, especially me since I get frustrated easily which leads to me being rude, and we couldn't face going to Finnish class for two hours. Instead of becoming even more frustrated and wanting to crush some skulls, my friend and I decided to take advantage of cheap(er) day time movie tickets and go see Captain America: The Winter Soldier ,or, as it's called in Finland, Captain America: The Return of the First Avenger. I wasn't a huge fan of the first Captain America and I didn't like The Avengers that much either, but I do love me some comic book superhero movies, especially ones that involve Marvel characters. I only know about The Winter Soldier from wikis I've read and Bucky's appearances in the Wolverine: Origins comics, and I didn't like him much in the comics (same goes for comic book Steve Rogers. Again, I've only read him in the Wolverine: Origins stuff), but laaaaawd in the film Sebastian Stan did an awesome job portraying him. I'm a sucker for tormented baddies that aren't actually that bad; and it's an added bonus if they've got longish hair. I obviously don't want to spoil anything, but it's definitely the first comic book film I've really enjoyed in long time (I enjoyed it more than some of the X-Men films, which might not be that hard to do but I really like X-Men films so that's saying a lot). I might even break away from my exclusive Wolverine comic book reading and start reading Winter Soldier stuff because I enjoyed the film so much. It was definitely a perfect thing to do after a rough first half of the morning and I really want to see the film again! Curse expensive Finnish movie tickets!

10/10 would recommend

The film was great and Winter Soldier can get it.Photo belongs to it's owner

That's it for the week! This week is going to be busy as well with events on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! Stay positive!

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Five Good Things This Week

Nothing much this past week except for a wonderfully long and boring intensive statistics course. Such fun. Anyways, there was some good last week. The best is that I'm getting better at a routine that makes me much more efficient and I'm quite liking it! Onward and upwards we go!


1) I walked about 27 kilometers between last Monday and today, and that's only the times I specifically went for walks and recorded my time and kilometers. It's supposed to be nice weather all week so I'll hopefully get out everyday!

There are lots of paths to chose from and I quite liked this one, even if it did have some steeps hills. It weaves in and out of the forest, which is lovely. I didn't reach the end but I'll be trekking it again soon once it's less icy!

2) Even though yesterday was rainy, I still went with some friends up to Pyynikki for a walk on the rocks at Pyhäjärvi (one of the big lakes that straddles Tampere city center) then of course we went for the always necessary munkki at Pyynikin Näkötorni.

At the base of that little tower is doughtnutty gold

One of my favourite spots because it reminds me of where I grew up. Always go for a walk down here before getting munkki. The hike back up the stairs of doom will make it much more deserved. 

3) Like I mentioned earlier, I'm getting a better routine down. For the longest time my sleep schedule was all over the place and it drove me nuts because I would be getting up later in the day and I felt like I couldn't start anything because it was so late. I also used to just wake up fifteen minutes before I had to go catch the bus for class and I never had time for breakfast or waking up normally. Now I've managed to get to bed at decent times, before midnight, and wake up early enough to get my morning started slow before I have to start doing more important things. I got up early on Friday and managed to have breakfast, putter around on my computer, get some homework done, and go for a walk in the woods all before noon! It makes me feel so much more efficient, I love it!

Getting up early and not feeling tired means I can go to places like this and still have time to do everything else! 

4) Monday was St. Patrick's Day! I'm probably one of the few people in Finland that has enough Irish heritage to legitimately celebrate St. Patrick's Day. My mum's side of the family is part of a very large Irish clan that's been around for hundreds of years, but being Canadian I've got some other European heritage as well. I don't know much about my dad's side other than that they are very much from Newfoundland and a fair amount of people from Newfoundland have Irish background. Regardless of their Irishness, or lack there of, Finns still use St. Patrick's Day as an excuse to drink. There's an Irish pub in Tampere called O'Connell's that had a big St. Patrick's Day shindig that my friends and I went to for a few hours. It was basically like any other St. Patrick's celebration I've been to back in Canada; lots of drinking, lots Irish music, and lots of green.

Obligatory green cider. I usually drink beer or Lonkero, but Irish cider seemed to be the cheaper  way to go for St. Patrick's Day. This wasn't at O'Connell's, but at an English pub called Soho just two buildings over from O'Connell's that we went to beforehand. 

5) I wore my new bikini for the first time on Saturday, to sauna, and I didn't feel as self conscious as I thought I was gonna be. That probably has to do with feeling better about my body as a whole and being with friends that I feel aren't judgmental towards me. Yay for positive body image reinforcement!

That's it for the week. Like I said, nothing exciting, but such is life sometimes! I think I've got a pretty quiet week this week so hopefully I can spend most of it outside since we have wonderful weather!

This was less than a 24 hour period of the area I live in. We got a dump of snow then it all melted the next day.

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5 Good Things This Week

Apparently my week has gone from starting and ending on Sunday to starting and ending on Monday. Sunday nights are now being spent watching a television show with friends and I can't be bothered to write afterwards, before I go to bed. Annnnyways, on with five good things from the week. 


1) I dyed my hair. I've had various shades of purple hair, and loved it, for over two years. My screen name for every social media is in part due to my hair and I get identified a lot by my pastel purple/lilac hair. However, it is a pain to up keep. It fades/washes out quickly and I can't be that bothered to keep dying it every week or so. Monday was about the four month mark since I've done my roots (unfortunately, I was not born with purple hair and the blonde hair I was born with has now gone very dark.), so I decided to try something new with my colour as well. I said I'd never dye my hair all green or blue, but since I starting adding the green/blue streak in my hair, because it brought me one step closer to becoming my favourite Care Bear Cousin, Noble Heart Horse, I learned to like the look of those colours. Since I've got an array of hair dyes because I mix everything to get the colour I want, I had some green and blue to try out my new colour. I quite like the colour it turned out, even though I wanted it a bit more green, but the colour reminds me of the pretty mermaids in one of my favourite films, Hook starring Robin Williams. 

I love the purple hair colour that I've had for what seems like forever, but I really dig this colour, especially when my nature waves behave 2) I went to a concert on Tuesday night! Apocalyptica has been doing a Finnish tour with Avanti Chamber Orchestra. If you don't know/haven't heard Apocalyptica before, they are three cellists that became known for doing covers of Metallica songs. They have since carved out a spot in the music world for combining classical with rock and metal music to produce fantastic original work. I saw them about six years ago at a club in Toronto, and they were as amazing in 2014 as they were in 2008. Their collaboration with Avanti is stunning and they managed to make their songs even better. The only downside was that their light show was a bit overbearing at times, but, if the only thing bad about it was a slight headache, I'd say it was a success. Still showstoppers after so many years listening to them Absolutely gorgeous instrumental version of I Don't Care. The original features vocals by ex-Three Days Grace singer, and fellow Canadian, Adam Gontier. You can check out the other videos I took during the concert on my Youtube account.  We discovered after the concert that you can get a bottle of wine for 10 euros. This is a big deal.  3) Thursday and Friday were both bar nights, albeit early bar nights. My classmates and I went for drinks after a long day of class on Thursday and then on Friday we said goodbye to another classmate as he is leaving our program to pursue other dreams.  4) I went on two nice long walks. Last Monday lead me on a new path, one that I most likely won't be taking again since I had to walk beside a busy road for about forty-five minutes. Today I took an old path to a small lake and it was extra nice because the sun decided to show itself today!  The path around the lake I haven't been here since September or October. It definitely looks different now! 5) Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were derby watching days! It was the first ever Men's Roller Derby World Championship, and boy was it a good one! Men's Roller Derby, or Merby as it is affectionately called (my friend Caitlin also loves that term so I had to mention it), is fairly new, I didn't even know that most countries had a team until this weekend, but you couldn't tell from the high level of athleticism that happened this weekend. Of course I was cheering for Canada and Finland, but I think I was cheering for Finland more than my own country. I pick Finland over Canada in this case because I actually have a connection with the Finnish team. If you didn't know already, I am involved with Tampere Roller Derby as a Non Skating Official (NSO). Tampere has two teams that have only women, the Tampere Rollin' Hos (the A team) and the Tampere Howlin' Rolls (the B team), and since early May 2013 Tampere has had a guys team, the Tampere Rollin' Bros. Since the Bros are a small team and one of only two merby teams in Finland, the other being the Sons of Peaches in Helsinki (the Finnish team has players from the Bros as well as Sons of Peaches), they scrimmage a lot with the girls teams; and some of them are even refs, so I see them much more. This is where my connection comes in. I help NSO the Thursday and Friday night scrimmages and the Bros go against the Rolls and Hos quite a bit. I've spent many an hour writing down and timing their penalties, so it was really neat to be watching them at the MRDWC this weekend, even though I have never actually met any of them and they probably have no idea who I am other than maybe as being "the girl that doesn't speak Finnish". Considering that they haven't even been around for a full year yet, the guys did awesome. They only lost one game (it was against team USA who just dominated the entire weekend and won the championship) and managed to finish seventh out of fifteen countries! And not to sell my home country short, Canada achieved third place! Way to go everyone!

Team Canada may have finished third, but I think that they should have gotten first for best logo and best beards

That's it for this week! Other than a bit of St. Patrick's Day festivities tonight, and school, I don't know what is happening this week. Let's wait and see! 

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5 Good Things This Week

I totally forgot what day it was; last week was very busy and I guess it led me to think it wasn't going to end! Not that it was busy in a bad sense, I was just having a fun week. I remembered to do this last night while I was with friends, then I remembered again while I was out for a walk but that was at about kilometer 3 of my almost 8 kilometer walk. Anyways, on we go!


1) Monday and Tuesday were food making days. On Monday my friends and I made Laskiaspulla, which is a sweet cardamom bun filled with whipped cream and jam (the traditional way is with whipped cream and almond paste, so I've been told). They are on sale everywhere before Lent starts. We all wanted to try our hand at making them and they turned out fantastic! They were so yummy that my flatmate and I made some yesterday, sans filling, and we've already eaten most of them. It was also the first time I have used yeast and now I'm not afraid to use it; I even made bread from scratch on Wednesday!
Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday, which in Canada means Pancake Day! Everyone came over to my very clean apartment (my one flatmate that is not tidy at all was gone for the whole week so we had the opportunity to keep the place clean all week) and we feasted on all sorts of pancakes. Thin English pancakes with lemon and sugar, fluffy Canadian and American pancakes with various toppings, and savory German pancakes. It was a night full of yummy eats, good music, and tons of laughs

They taste better than they look. And they look amazing

ALL the pancake toppings!

First time baking bread was a success! Rosemary and garlic bread (there's none left...)

2) I went to bed and woke up at a decent time all week and it's starting to become a routine for me. I was even up and dressed before 8am on the day my flatmate and I had class at 9. Im usually up about 15 minutes before we have to leave, so being up and dressed before her and still having over and hour before the bus was nice for once.


3) I watched an awesome film this week. It's called Prisoners and just came out in late 2013 and is the first film in a long time that I want to watch again. There was so much detail to it and I don't think I absorbed it enough with just one viewing. Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman were both phenomenal and Im so shocked it was looked over by The Oscars. I definitely recommend it.

Seriously, go watch it. *picture from Google Images*

4) Saturday was a fun filled day, and it was sunny ALL day! I met my flatmate and some other friends and we went for Nepalese food, which I had never had before and it was so yummy. Then my flatmate, another friend and I went shopping and I finally bought a new bathing suit and had some munkki and coffee from Pyynikki. And finally, my friends and I went to watch a hockey game. It was Ilves (one of the Tampere teams and the one my flatmate and I cheer for) against Blues (Espoo). Ilves lost, but it was lots of fun and we had awesome seats. We will definitely be going to another one soon.

It was very windy all day so the sun got covered by clouds from time to time, but my friends and I were sat here for 20 minutes basking the the sun when it came out. 

Half of my new bathing suit. Sv kvlt

Hockey Night in Tampere

5) Last night my flatmate and I went to a friend's place to watch a tv show that the singer from Reckless Love is in and it was hilarious. It's a sort of singing contest where the artists compete each week in a different genre and the more votes they get, the more stars they get which determines the winner in the end. Last night they did gangster rap and if you know anything about Reckless Love, you'll know how hilarious it was. 

A promo picture for the show. This photo has been on billboards in Tampere for over a week and I almost died laughing the first time I saw it. *photo from Olli Herman's Official Facebook page*

That's it for last week! This week is going to be quite busy with school but also with fun stuff. Tomorrow I'm seeing Apocalyptica perform with an orchestra at Tampere Talo (I haven't seen them live since 2008) and I think at least once this week I'll be going out for drinks with friends. Here's to fun stuff over the week!

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5 Good Things This Week with one extra

I felt really down the first bit of the week. There was a lot of school work to be done, I was stressing about money, and it's still gross weather. But, in the second half of the week I managed to get my school work done, and even handed some stuff in early, figured out the money situation, and it was sorta sunny on Saturday! As Dory says, ”just keep swimming”.

1. I went skating twice and it was loads of fun!

The ice rink I go to every week! Have I mentioned that it's underground?

2. I found a music festival in Finland I can actually go to before I head back to Toronto for the summer! Sauna Open Air got cancelled this year and I was bummed about it cause it's apparently a great festival and it's right in Tampere. I didn't think I was gonna go to any here this summer since everything was after I left for Toronto, and none had great lineup, but this new one seems pretty great! Skid Row, W.A.S.P., Shining, Reckless Love (which will be hilarious to see at the same festival as Shining), Santa Cruz, Egokills, as well as a few others are all on the lineup. It should be pretty fun! If you wanna check out the festival, go here

3. I got a concrete budget down to get me till June once I can start working again. My dad was surprisingly very relaxed and helpful about the whole thing, which is not how he usually is when I have to talk to him about money

4. I got a package from my mum! It was being held in Customs since the beginning on February (I think it was because Mum sent it through her company). To get stuff from Customs you have to prove your identity, and since the customer service office in Helsinki is closed down now, the only way to do that is through your phone contract or your bank account. Well, I don't have a Finnish phone contract because I'm a foreigner and I just got a Finnish bank account and I won't have web banking for 3 months, and you need web banking login information for the identity confirmation. I thought that I wasn't going to be able to get the package and my mum spent $70 Canadian dollars to send me something nice and it was going to get sent back but, I got it in the end after I sent an email asking about it and getting a reply straight away! She sent me some cute rainboots, socks, and cookies!

I love getting mail!

A tiny bit too big but I love them so much! Now I won't wreck my other boots in the wetness!

5. I had a really nice movie night on Friday with my flatmate and another friend. Since the Olympics my friends and I have been meaning to watch the documentary about the ice hockey player Teemu Selänne (if you don't know him, he is a really big deal here; like the Finnish version of Wayne Gretzky). Friday was Kalevala Day aka Finnish Culture Day so we thought it was a good excuse to watch a film about a Finnish hockey player! We all snuggled up on my bed with junk food and wine and watched it, as well as The Mighty Ducks. The movie about Teemu was great and we had such a nice time!

It's a really good film, especially if you know how famous this guy is. Check it out. *image from Google Images*

6. I walked almost 7km yesterday. I wanted to see what kind of shape the path that goes from my flat to school was in since I want to skate on it once the gravel is cleaned. I really enjoyed myself and my leg didn't hurt till I was basically at the end of my walk (I have a messed up left knee/leg/hip which can make walking for extended periods a bit of a pain). It might be a bit difficult on skates, but I think I went the wrong way at one point and next week I'll try a different way that has less hills. 

Diverted a bit off the sidewalk to walk in the forest a bit. This is right beside the highway. 

The path took me to my favourite church, Messukylän vanha kirkko

Next week will be some more skating, pancakes (Tuesday is pancake day!), possibly ice swimming, and a hockey game on Saturday (Ilves vs. Blues)!

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Five Good Things This Week

Another sorta lame week even though it actually wasn't. I'm still feeling a bit out of sorts, but I shall push through!


1. I went ice skating on Monday. That's not much different than most weeks since I try to go once a week. However, it's been so warm lately here in Tampere all the outdoor rinks have gone out of commission. So how did I manage to go skating? I went underground! Finland is nifty and puts lots of stuff underground, like infrastructure, to help with sprawl. I didn't think they put ice rinks underground (this one is actually two rinks), but it was really neat and convenient for those of us that are not done ice skating this year!


2. I went to Helsinki on Wednesday. It was a school trip to the studio of the biggest commercial television station in Finland. It was really interesting and then later my classmates and I went for drinks and food. It was a fun, albeit long, day.

These were our visitor badges from the tv studio. We got to keep them

Looking out onto the Gulf of Finland. More on my Instagram

3. I finally got to go into what I think is the prettiest building in Helsinki. I always thought that Kappeli was a fancy restaurant, but as my friends and I were walking around before our train, my Finnish friend said they also have a little coffee bar so we went in! It was expensive, I didn't get anything, but it is just so pretty in there. I'd really like to go back in the spring or summer.

Pictures don't do it justice. This is just one part of the building. 

So pretty inside as well!

4. I did a lot of school work today and yesterday. It always seems to be a constant drip of work that I have to do so I can get a bit discouraged, but I think I've worked it out to make a list for what I want to do during those days and it helps me organise a bit better and feel like I actually did something


5. Canada won Gold in Men's and Women's Olympic Hockey! It's a big deal.



That's it for this week. Next week is going to be quite busy with quite a bit more school work. As always, I'll be exercising as much as possible (on Saturday I want to walk the path I found for roller skating to see what it's like) and sticking in some fun stuff, I'm sure. 

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Five Good Things This Week

I've felt sorta blah this week. Nothing has been happening and I feel like I'm stuck in a bit of rut. I've started to make plans for stuff in the summer and it can't come quick enough, but until then I'll keep looking at the nice things that happen, not matter how small. On to good things this week!


1. Tuesday was a friend's superhero themed birthday party at one of my favourite bars. I went as my all time favourite, fellow canucklehead with goofy hair, Wolverine.

It still needs about a million more spikes, but my vest is still way cooler than your vest. 

Went with blue and yellow since it's probably his most well known costume colours. Also, I've got demon eyes for some reason...

2. I feel like I'm making strides in my exercising. I didn't do much on Thursday and Friday, but I feel like I'm getting stronger.


3. Friday was another themed party, this time it was Moomins! I went as a flowery looking horse that I remember from the comics I've got back in Canada, which I've been told is called Primadonna's Horse. It was a bit of a messy party for some, and I woke up with a bitch of a hangover, but it was fun nonetheless!

Really obscure character, but I think I pulled it off well! * I ended up making and wearing antlers/antennae as well *

4. Probably triggered by Tuesday's superhero party, I've been on a huge Wolverine and X-Men kick lately and I've finally started reading the comics. I've been a fan since I was about ten. As silly as the films and television shows are, I just love them and Wolverine is possibly to blame for my love of sassy men (he was my first fictional crush). I've always wanted to read the comics, but 1) I've never known where to start and 2) always been intimidated by the sheer amount of comics and story arcs. After reading about where a good place to start is and getting some stuff from a friend, I've already gotten through half of Wolverine: Origins, started on Dark Wolverine and have a pile of others to waiting for me (Gambit is also another favourite of mine, so I've got most of his stuff queued up as well). I'm really enjoying them and I'm not as lost as I thought I was gonna be * praises self for spending countless hours on X-men wiki's instead of doing other things *



5. Canada beat Finland in men's Olympic hockey tonight. As much as I love Finland, I have to cheer for my home country, especially when I'm in a different country. 

We all wanted to watch ALL the sports so we had 3 screens going at the same time. * Taken from my friend's Facebook since the photo I took didn't turn out well *

That's it for another week! Next week I'm going to Helsinki for a field trip, going skating on Monday, have a shit ton of school work to do, and loads of roller derby stuff on Friday night. And I'll also get some exercise, comic reading, and Olympics watching done in-between all that! 

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Five Good Things This Week

Fun stuff this week! Nothing overly special, and I don't have any pictures, but it is the little things that count

1. I took my flatmate skating for the first time. She's never been on ice before, she's from England if that explains it, but she bought skates earlier in the week with the aim of learning how to skate over the winter. I've skated for twenty years and have taught one or two other people to skate, so I offered to teach her. She was amazing. I only had to support her for about thirty minutes, out of the one hour we were out, before she figured out her balance, how to propel herself forward, and speed control. She kept telling me how much she loved it and that made me really happy. We are hopefully going to go weekly!

2. I hit all my exercise goals for the week! 

3. My friends and I had a fun Olympic Opening Ceremony party on Friday. It was less watching them as much as it was critiquing the outfits of the various teams (Canada still has the best alternative to waving flags via our maple leaf mittens) and drinking and eating pizza.

4. Saturday was my first official day NSOing for Tampere Roller Derby! TRD played against the Hamburg Harbour Girls and won both of their games. I was only needed for the first bout, but I still had tons of fun. I really enjoy the position I was in and the NSO (Non Skating Official) crew is just lovely. Some of my friends came and I'm really glad they all enjoy it and derby is being spread around. I'm going to do a derby post at the end of the month, hopefully, so keep watching this space!

5. I've come to terms with going back to Toronto for the summer. It's going to be too expensive for me to stay in Tampere during the summer and I've basically already got my old job back in Toronto. I asked my dad and he is more than okay with me staying at his place over the summer again. I also feel that I will be able to get a work placement, which is required for my program, in Toronto much easier than in Tampere. And I do miss Toronto, and my friends and family, since I haven't been there since August. It should be a pretty fun summer even though I won't be in Finland, but I will be back here in September.

Next week shall consist of more exercise and skating, watching some more Olympics, and two birthday parties. Here's to being positive!

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Five Good Things This Week

1. I did a really good job eating well and exercising this week. Even though I ended up not being good from Thursday to today since I went to visit a friend, I still did a damn good job for the first part of the week. I'll do even better this week.

2. I managed to go skating all by myself. It sounds silly, but this was a big deal for me because of what goes on in my brain when I do sports things by myself. I really enjoyed myself and other than the first two minutes of “shit, I'm here by myself. Everyone is looking at me”, I was okay. I even did non stop laps for 15 minutes! (then I wanted to die cause I was so tired)

3. I went to visit one of my best friends. I probably shouldn't have because I don't have the money and I should have done school work, but I haven't seen Lily since the beginning of November. She was having a party for her language school friends on Friday, so I packed my bags and headed to Pori Thursday night and stayed till Sunday. We didn't do much, but it was nice to see her and her boyfriend.

4. I got a hair cut! Don't panic, I still have my signature side cut, but I got the short side shaved again. I've need it done since before Christmas but I never had the time to ask someone to do it. I have my own clippers and was going to do it myself at the beginning of January, but the damn clippers crapped out on me when I went to charge them. Thankfully, one of Lily's friend's had some clippers and Lily was able to give me a shave on Friday. 

Nothing like a fresh haircut to make a girl feel like a million bucks!

5. I got caught up on Supernatural. It's probably the only show I watch religiously, but since it started back up from its Christmas break, I forgot about it; I don't watch tv on a television so I don't have commercials to remind me. Tumblr spoils stuff for me so I sorta knew what happened, which is why I haven't really been stressed about not watching it, but since I had time to kill this weekend, I watched the 3 episodes I was missing.

There you have it, five sorta unexciting positive things from this week! Next week I want to get back on my exercise and diet schedule and not break it (I know I'll break it on Friday night because we are having an Olympics party), skate at least one time, get some important school work and emails sent out, and do well at NSOing my first big derby bout on Saturday! I've also just been invited/told that there is a thing with my friends on Tuesday night. That means I've got something to do every night this week except Monday and Wednesday. Lord help me. 

Not a lot of pictures from this week so have one that I took while waiting for my bus home from the city center tonight

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Five Good Things This Week

Last week I had three goals for this week and I am proud to say I accomplished all three!

1. I started back at the gym. I hit a tough spot after my horse died last March and got heavy enough that it was starting to affect the way I was walking and it was taking a real toll on me mentally and physically. I lost about twenty-five pounds over the summer, but have put about ten back on because of the realities of student life. I'm finally in a place where I'm feeling motivated enough to get healthy. I'm using an app, which I have to use via Internet because it's still in Beta phase for Windows Phone, called HeiaHeia. It tracks your exercise, has tons of different exercises and sports to chose from, and you can set goals for yourself, not necessarily weight goals but also how many times or hours you want to exercise. I set up a three month program that will start on Monday. I will undoubtedly not be able to follow it as closely some weeks because school will get in the way, but like I said, I'm the most motivated I've ever been to do this and I plan on sticking to it.

2. I finally got some ice skates! All Canadians are birthed from the icy shores of Lake Ontario with hockey skates strapped to their feet and a stick in hand, right? Maybe I'm exaggerating, but my family is a hockey playing family. My dad played for the Ontario Hockey League, and subsequently lost his upper front teeth, and my brother played on an all star team. I have skated since I was three and played hockey collectively for about five years, as well as figuring skating for about four years. I was never that great at either, hockey is the only time I've ever broken a bone, but I am a good skater and I really enjoy it. 
          Finland is wonderful for the fact that ice skating is part of school for kids. In Tampere, there are rinks set up virtually everywhere and I can only think of one that costs money to use. I told my dad this and how I was probably going to rent skates to go once or twice, and he ended up sending me money at Christmas to buy some skates for myself. I fully intended to buy some while I was in Helsinki over Christmas so I could go skating with my mum, but the thought of lugging them plus everything else back to Tampere made me decide against it. This week I finally got to the Intersport at Koskikeskus and got a pair of Easton's for less than sixty euros (yay for sales!). I even got the chance to go skating on Friday at the massive rink by my university (think the size of two football (soccer) fields) and I was on cloud nine for the rest of the day. I'm going to be going skating there as my treat for the week since Fridays are supposed to be about an hour and a half of cardio. I hate cardio; running is no fun, stationary bikes hurt my knees, treadmills are like running purgatory and there are only so many times I can put up with an elliptical. Not only am I going to enjoy doing laps on ice skates, it's going to help immensely with my roller skating and will build up my endurance so that I can skate to and from school with ease come spring time and clean sidewalks. I've also convinced a few of my friends to pick up some skates so we can all have something fun today together!

My new friends. Designed in Canada....made in China

3. I went to a concert Friday night. Everyone knows I love music a lot and it was a large part of why I fell in love with Finland and decided to come live and study here. Hell, music is why I'm in a Master's program! I've missed out on a few concerts since August because of lack of funds, but sometimes it pays to spend a bit of money when you get to hear some good music. JP Leppäluoto was randomly performing at Jack the Rooster, a very nice if not expensive bar, and while I appreciate his voice, I'm not super into the stuff he's done nor have I ever really kept up with what he's done. I have seen him perform at Raskasta Joulua (a yearly series of concerts with Finnish metal musicians performing Christmas songs. It's possibly the best thing ever), and was impressed with that enough to give him a try on Friday night since my flatmate and another friend were going anyways. He managed to start almost a whole hour behind schedule, but the place was packed considering it was not promoted very much. He performed some good covers of mostly 90s songs, but I wanted to get home early and was basically out the door as he started singing Rebel Yell. Other than having to get very sassy with three guys getting all up on my friends and I, and there being an obscene amount of people wearing plaid that night, myself included, it was a fun night spent with good friends.

If you have no clue who I'm talking about, JP used to sing in this band, Poisonblack. While he is a very good singer and I'm sure I would have been into them when I was younger, it's not really my thing anymore. 

4. I got a lot of school work done yesterday. I'm almost done my first research proposal even thought the due date got moved from today to March 9^th. With the new due date and being almost done, I can do a properly literature review now. 

5. I had my second walk on a frozen Näsijärvi today. I went out on Näsijärvi, one of the two big lakes that sorta straddles Tampere, when it was frozen back in March 2012 but didn't get too far out. Today some friends and I walked from Särkänniemi, the amusement park, out to the tiny island that has a light house on it and to the shore near Finlayson. I guessing it was about 3km in all, but I'm not sure. There were a ridiculous amount of people doing all sorts of things like walking, skating (there is a specific path you can use to skate across the whole lake), biking (which was weird and a lot of people were doing it), cross country skiing, ice sailing, kiteboarding, and even dogsledding. Clearly Finns know how to deal with winter. After walking we went to the Pyynikki kahvila that is in Keskustori for munkki and coffee. A Sunday well spent!

Tiny light house. More photos on my Flickr and Instagram

Looking towards Särkänniemi. More photos on my Flickr and Instagram

All in all, this week was a good week! I accomplished some goals, got some entertainment, and got outside. Next week I want to do well with my new training program, get ice skating at least twice, and get my research proposal done.

Here's to being positive!

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