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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