Five Good Things This Week

Nothing very exciting or particularly good happened this week. I got a rejection for an internship because I don't speak fluent German and that kind of bummed me out for the whole week, but I'm still going to keep applying for summer internships in Europe and I will prevail! Even though it wasn't the best week, I can still think of five good things from this week.

1. I got my first graduate term paper back and even though there was a lot of constructive criticism, my professor said he can see through this paper, which is the only independent work he has seen from me, that I'm really passionate about the topic, metal music, and that I'm a very bright woman. That made me feel really great and solidifies a bit more that I'm in the right place and doing the right thing. 

2. It's been sunny all week. I really love winter, which is undoubtedly due to spending roughly the first fourteen years of my life on a ski hill every weekend between December and March; it's also nice that both my favourite countries have winter in common. Winter didn't arrive in Tampere until two weeks ago, it was gross and rainy here since mid October. Now it's been hovering at -15 everyday this week and crispy cold and sunny everyday, I love it! There's something really magical about winter for me, I can't really explain it but I'm very happy we have proper winter now.

Sunny chilly days. This is about a 10 minutes walk from my apartment. More photos on my Instagram!

3. I got some “high culture” into my system. On Friday my friends I went to see the Tampere Philharmonic perform at Tampere Talo. They performed the first suite from Sibelius' The Tempest as well as Bruckner's 8^th Symphony. It was the first classical concert I've been to since high school and it was so nice to sit and listen to some lovely music. I was a big orchestra geek in high school and developed a real love for classical music, which has sadly fallen by the wayside because of the amount of popular music I listen to, so going to the Philharmonic was a real treat for me. I think we are going to try and go back in April because they are performing the music from Pirates of the Caribbean. It was great to hear some classical music, but it made me really miss playing and performing. 

All fancy for the philharmonic. Wolverine thinks so too.

The Tampere Philharmonic! More photos on my Instagram!

Above is the Overture and First Act from Sibelius' The Tempest Suite. Below is the finale, my favourite part, from Bruckner's 8th Symphony

4. I had a really nice beer on Friday. We went to a restaurant called Plevna that is a microbrewery and serves “authentic German food”, which my German friends determined was a lie. The beer was on the expensive side, about 5,70 for a medium sized beer (I'm sure the size has a proper name but I've got no clue; I'm not a beer expert, I only drink the stuff), but oh my god it was the best beer I have ever had. I would wash my face with that beer. I felt I needed to buy that beer a nice dinner and say it looked cute, it was that good. Had I had extensive amounts of cash to burn through, I would have bought more, but I felt the relationship was best left short and sweet. I shall return one day and taste its sweet nectar, but for now I'll stick to the cheap stuff. 

5. I just finished a big chunk of my thesis research proposal! It's for a class called Scientific Writing, so it's not even for my actual program, but it's going to help with the final proposal. I'm about three pages into the required six. That's not bad considering the first part of the school year was jammed packed with work for other courses so I'm lucky I even have three pages worth of material to go on!

There you have it, five good things this week. It wasn't the best week, but it also wasn't the worst week. Goals for next week are getting back to the gym, finally buying some skates, and going out on Friday night. Here's to another positive seven days!

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