Helgen

Helgen gick undan med valdig fart. Jag traffade en akta rysk дедушка (farfar/morfar. Jag gillar дедушкor/ъаъушkor), de har mycket att beratta. Han var 88 ar och jag fick titta pa hans uniform med alla medaljer fran kriget. Han visade en bok han skrivit om kriget och foton ocksa. Hans division (vet inte vad det heter) var mest i Ukraina och Tyskland under kriget. Det ar lustigt det har med kriget, for for Finland ar det ju Ryssland som varit den stora fienden. Medan kriget mot Finland bara var en liten bisak for Ryssland, for dem var det saklart tyskarna som var den stora fienden.

I sondags var jag pa ett litet berg med min andra kollega och hennes familj och akte pulka. De grillade sashliks i skogen. Oj, sa gott. Jag at mest av alla. Som vanligt. Tycker ni att jag borde skammas? Sen akte jag hem till dem och fick glogg och nagon saltgurkssoppa. Gott! Pa sondag kvall var vi till en bar dar de hade livemusik. Fyra olika band hann jag hora. Men jag fick hemlangtan till baletten nar de spelade "Luciiillle".

Fredag

I have just finished work and now I'm sitting at a coffee house and having a coffee. In 45 minutes I will go to Josefina's Swedish course to meet her students at the beginner level.

At Tuesday I had a presentation about youth and religion in Finland. It was very interesting. In Russia it's quite different from Finland. The religion it's not connected to the society at the same way as it in Finland. During the Soviet period many churches were destroyed and government was totally against religion. So they found it interesting when I told about how it is in Finland, for example that 82 % of the population "belongs" to the church and that we pay church tax. Here they don't have any education in religion in school and if you want to get wed in the church you have to have a civil marriage first.

My other presentation about design was more difficult. I don't know anything about design. But the teacher is a big fan of Finland, so she seemed pleased anyway. She was praising Tove Jansson, Aki Kaurismäki and our clean nature and so on.

She took pictures of me with the class.




Now I have to run! Have a nice weekend!

Pay It Forward

Jag började skriva på engleska, men det blev så svårt, så nu blir det ett inlägg på svenska.

En gång såg jag en film som hette Pay It Forward. Den handlade om en liten pojke som fick som uppgift i skolan att komma på någonting för att förändra världen och sedan sätta det i verket. Den här pojkens idé var att man istället för att göra en god gärning tillbaka till en person så ska man göra en god gärning åt tre nya personer. Alltså pay forward i stället för pay back.



Trevor i filmen Pay it forward

När jag var i Quebec fanns det två fantastiska personer som alltid tog sig tid att lyssna på min knaggliga franska och uppmuntrade mej att prata hela tiden. Nu när jag träffar människor som lär sig svenska försöker jag göra likadant för dem och ta mig tid att lyssna och uppmuntra dem att lära sig.

En gång när några människor, som vi inte kände så bra, körde hem min systers möbler från Åbo när hon flyttade därifrån, så ville vi betala dem. Men då sa de: “Nä, vi vill inte ha något för det, gör ni bara samma sak för någon annan någon gång”.

Min handledare var på praktik I USA för två år sedan. Hon hade en jättebra handledare som gjorde jättemycket för henne. I fredags mailade hon åt henne och berättade att hon nu har en praktikant och att hon försöker vara så hjälpsam och vänlig mot mej, som hon hade varit var mot min handledare.

Jepp, så det här fenomenet har jag tänkt på över helgen. Jag tycker det är ganska fint. Ofta gör man ju saker tillbaka för den som varit vänlig eller hjälpsam mot en själv, men jag tror inte att vi lika ofta som vi pay forward.

Ditt och datt

Yesterday I went to the border between Asia and Europa. There was a big monument and I could stand with one leg in Asia and one in Europa. So touristic, but it had to be done! :) On the way back to the city we ate delicious sashlikis (some kind of grilled meat) and we also visited IKEA. IKEA was quite small, but I guess it looked like an IKEA should do. I bought gingerbread and knäckebröd. Knäckebröd is the best thing to always have at home in case you have forgot to buy bread. And of course – it tastes good as well. I have seen some Finnish products in the stores here. Many VALIO products, for example Oltermanni cheese. I have also seen Fazerina in one store.

As if it wasn't easy to understand the people here before, it really doesn't make it easier that the people in the stores and the restaurants are wearing masks because of the flu now... All I can hear is some mumbling behind the mask. Yesterday I didn't even understand a waitress who said da svidanja (good bye). This week the quarantine will be over and the students will return to the university. I will have quite many presentations this week.

Have a nice week!

By the way

My supervisor's mother was competing in athletics in the 60's. She ran 100 m and 200 m. Her best time was 11,4. She beats me with like 5 meters... I find this quite cool. She's my new idol now.

Pelmenis

Some weekends ago I was invited to my Anna's (my supervisor) place and they showed me how to make pelmenis. Which is typical Russian food. You fill small ovals of dough with different kinds of fillings. For example meat, mushrooms, cabbage, fish... then you boil them for about 10 minutes and then eat them with smetana or something similar, we had some kind of cream/sauce of horseradish. Very tasty. To this we also had many different kind of salads, mostly based on cabbage. Other Russian dishes that I like are of course pirogies, but also the soup made of beetroot – borscht with some smetana is great! I have tried to do it in Sweden, but the ones I have had here is so much better!

Я хoчо стать полиглотом

I'm trying. To learn Russian. But it's hard. I don't really have possibilities to take a language course. There are only full time studies at an other university, but since I'm working daytime this is not an option for me. I could take private lessons, but I found it quite expensive. At work I'm not really forced to speak Russian, since my supervisor speaks English and I give all the presentations and courses in English. It's of course not necessary to learn Russian, but since I'm interested in languages, I'm giving it a try to learn a little bit more than only how to order food in the restaurants.

So I'm trying my best with my grammar book, movies, music and an audio course. I also meet with two girls, who are studying Swedish with Josefina. We meet a couple of times a week and I help them with Swedish and they me with Russian. Is there something more I can do? I'm proceeding very slowly. Either I'm getting old or it's a difficult language, because it's impossible for me to remember the words. How did we do it in high school when we had 100 of words to learn every week...

Who know if I ever will have any use of knowing Russian in the future, for something more than maybe traveling or chatting with Russian people I might meet. And you forget a language very fast if you don't use it. Is it the worth the effort? I mean in international relations today you manage very well with English. So why not start with learning English properly. But I guess as long as I find it interesting, I'll keep on trying...

I love the feeling when you slowly get aware of that you really understand a language. You have broken the code of the language and you can understand most of what is said by people. You understand what they say on TV and you're able to have a conversation. It's amazing! Have had the feeling with Finnish and French. But I don't think it will happen this time...

By the way it's a pity that Lars Winnerbäck doesn't sing in Russian, since he's the one I want to listen to now as often as possible.