As an opponent of obsolete material on the internet, it's been something of an embarrassment to me that I've had this diary of mine up on this page for over two years without a single update, but still having it look like there might be something coming any day now. You can't even tell that these posts are from 2001. Still, I wouldn't want to destroy six months of "hard labor" and personal notes (the only diary I've ever kept, perhaps) from a time before the horrible word "blog" was invented. So, future historians may look upon it as a historic artifact from the innocense of the pre-Sept. 11 world. You could be fooled by the fact that my Sept. 15 post (first one below) does not mention Sept. 11 at all, but that was just because it felt like there was a complete saturation of the media regarding the subject at the time (also, I wrote about it in another part of my web site).
So why this extra post after all this time. To tell you the truth, the only reason is because I wanted a link to my master's thesis, which I figured would be easier to post on the net rather than send around the world to various people. So, if you're interested in Georgia (the country, not state), read Burden of History: Soviet Nationality Policy as a source of Georgia's Ethnic Conflicts. This way, you could also think of this page as the chronicler of the evolution of a simple paper on nationality to a full-blown master's thesis.
A historic moment: For the first time ever, I'm updating this site on a weekend. I don't have the faintest idea why that's
historic, but at least it's a change. Probably, it'll become more of a habit once I'll have that super-fast cable-modem connection
at home sometime in the hopefully-not-distant future.
No move yet, but it's any day now. I feel like I've been saying that for awhile now, but that's just the case. Next week it
should definitely happen. Just what I said last week...
The whole family succeeded in being in the same place for two days last weekend, which is quite the accomplishment in this family. I think the last time it happened was in 1994, but there was a wedding in the family then. Maybe there's one more time here in between, but I can't remember it right now. Three times in seven years, ensures you don't get too sick and tired of the family. Usually, we're also spread over four continents, now it's just three.
The apartment renovations are approaching their end, and most of the required furniture has been acquired. With the new
kitchen arriving any time next week, it looks like we'll be able to move into our own place already next week. What I'm really
looking forward to is getting a cable-modem connection, which should make my life on the internet not only faster but also
more enjoyable. And with merery the duties of a student on my shoulders, it should be possible to totally waste my youth in front
of a computer. Well, probably not after all.
The main reason why not is that the duties of a student are not to be taken lightly. The amount of partying and drinking that
is expected in all kinds of various parties is not humanely achievable. Yesterday was the first "pizza-night", where pizza played
a very minor role. I'm going out of town for the weekend, so I don't know what happening then, but next Tuesday is "freshman-orienteering",
and it's not your usual orienteering. It's more of a drink-at-various-locations-around-the-city kind of orienteering.
It's the end August, and with it ends my summer job. Today I have a very short day, since I need to leave early in order to pick up my brother Tero from the airport. So in 3 hours I'll be free. Temporarily, at least, until university starts.
I went this week to find out how many credits I get transferred from my last university, and the verdict was quite good: 33, which is about a third of the political science courses I'll need to take here in Helsinki. So at the moment, it looks like I could get a master's in two year's time. I've decided that I'm in no hurry to enter the working life, which is why, if I get my master's too quickly, I'm thinking about doing another one. But that's further in the future, now I can concentrate on moving and beginning my studies.
We finally got a place to live in next year with my girlfriend. The good/bad news is that the apartment needs to be renovated quite extensively. The good part in this is that we then get to live in a nice-looking place, the downside is the actual renovation, as well as the fact that we'll be able to move in only in a few weeks. I'm using my last remaining days off work to do the renovation, yesterday I spent the whole day painting ceilings. It's a nice change to come and relax in the office for a change. Tomorrow I have another day off, so more work to be expected.
Oops, seems like I've neglected this page for a while. I'd like to say it's because I've had
so many other things to do, but I think it's more because I haven't had really much happening
lately. Also, once you get in the mood at work that you don't do anything, you don't feel even
like updating your own homepage. It starts feeling like work you have to do.
I've started to plan my studies next year, and I've already signed up for the first course: Russian.
I figure it's a very good language to learn at least a little bit, that way I can understand a little
bit of Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Serbian, Bulgarian etc. A good investment of my time, I should think.
University starts in a few weeks, and before I can tell what else I'll be studying, I need to get
my credits from Webster transferred over here. That might take a while, but I don't want to take a course
only to hear later that I could've skipped it by transferring another course from my previous studies.
We'll see how that goes.
I've also played badminton twice a week for the entire summer, but now the season's over, as the
fall schedule began and all the courts are reserved. And my playing mates are moving out of Helsinki
for the winter. So if I want to continue, I need to find a court and new players. Hopefully I'll be able
to do so at some point.
It's now official: I'm a hypocrite. I won't go see Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with friends because I think it would be a complete waste of time and money and it would insult my intelligence, but I do go watch the new Renny Harlin / Stallone movie Driven. What was I expecting from that? Nothing, but I still went. Bad mistake. There was an upside, though: Harlin made a short, decent speech before the performance (it was preview night). Another celebrity I've seen 'live' which I can add to my long list of... um... Curt Lindström.
But all bad movies were balanced out when I watched Magnolia last weekend. Now there's a good movie I'd recommend to my worst enemy if I had one. Speaking of which, wouldn't it be nice to have someone to call your arch-nemesis? All the superheroes have those, why can't regular people? You'd know if something bad was done to you that it was probably this arch-nemesis of yours behind it. Normally, life's just too confusing with some people being a bit on the evil side and some on the good side, while most mixing all up. Make it black and white, I tell you. Reminds me of that movie Unbreakable, another pretty bad movie. Anyway, they talk about that. Man this work week has worn me out.
Please feel free to congratulate a new political science student in the University of Helsinki.
It wasn't easy but I made it in. Not only did I need to read for the exam, I also needed the help
of a computer malfunction. You see, my exam results weren't enough to warrant me a place in the
faculty, but thanks to a computer error I got some extra, unwarranted points which pushed me easily
over the limit. When I went to sign up, they admitted that there was a mistake, but they let me in
anyway. The person who was next in line after me got also in, otherwise they would've lost their place because
of the error that let me in.
The scoreboard of computer errors suddenly seems a lot more balanced. Before they had only caused
havoc by destroying half-finished term-papers and the like, now I have a place to study because of one.
I'll try to remember this the next time a computer does something nasty to me. Hopefully you too find
some condolence in this unlikely story of how Jani made it to study political science.
I'm painfully aware that this page is becoming way too long. I should set up a similar archive system as for the main page, but there's just so much work at my job that I don't have the time (you should recognize sarcasm when confronted with it). In reality I'm just too lazy to do something about it, I'll get to it next week. Or the week after.
At least my back-up plan has succeeded: I made it through the math exam and am now welcome to study mathematics at the University of Helsinki. I still don't know about political science, which is my first choice, the results for that don't come before next week. But even if I just get into the mathematics department, I can still study political science, only I can't get a degree for it. I'm not yet sure if I'll execute this back-up plan even if I don't get into the Social Sciences faculty, I might still prefer just working somewhere next year. And I mean working, not just sitting in an office trying to get the time go by. I'm through with that. Well, not really for another one and a half months...
Yup, not much happening. Go to work, stay at work, go home, play badminton/read/watch TV, go to sleep, wake up, go to work etc. But who am I to complain? At least I get paid. Last Friday was first pay day, which always makes you realize how much taxes you pay in Finland. Not possible to become rich by working. Then again, who wants to be rich? Not me, if it involves hard work.
Hmm, my poll on the left on how often you check Morg gave an "interesting" result: 5 regularly, 0 anything else. And since someone admitted to voting twice, that puts the people reading regularly at 4. Not really the result I was looking for I guess, but who am I to complain.
I obviously like to write "who am I to complain" a lot. Someday, somewhere, I'll be someone to complain.
I also noticed that you can change the question on the poll without deleting the results. Hence the results for this week's question may not reflect reality.
Sitting in an office is never as bad when the weather outside is lousy. This week it has been
excellent, making office-time ever more miserable. But I guess to make a living one needs to sacrifice
some things, like a nice tan.
I spent last weekend, which was Midsummer, at a friend's summer house with a group of around 10 people,
some of which I hadn't seen in a long while. Sauna, sausage, beer: the usual ingredients of a successful
weekend. According to my calculations, I spent six hours over the weekend in the sauna, although
the figure can be a little off thanks to the known effects beer has on mathematical abilities.
Although the weather wasn't as nice as it is right now, it wasn't anything to complain about
either. Overall a very nice weekend.
This week I've been busy trying to figure out where we're going to live with my girlfriend next fall. We got an offer from a student organization that rents apartments dirt cheap, but the place was as far away from anything as you can get. Luckily there are still some other options open, one of which hopefully turns out well. No need to panic yet, there's still some months to go.
I went to see a movie called "Memento" over the weekend, and it was... different. I have a tough time making up my mind about it. I do know that I liked the movie, but I didn't love it. Which is a bit strange, since I usually like this kind of strange, somewhat-confusing movies, where following the plot is an exercise in itself. I've come to the conclusion that the movie was probably too confusing, and that the director/writer found the easy way out by not explaining everything clearly at the end. It's so much easier to leave gaps in a plot than patching them all up in a surprising way at the end of the movie. Nevertheless, I definitely urge you to go see it, only because you're probably as bored with the usual stuff coming out of Hollywood as I am. Watching a story unfold backwards is an interesting experience.
Next weekend is Midsummer, the big festivity here in Finland. I'll be going over to a friend's summer house with a lot of friends, bbqing and drinking... milk. And it's about time I'd take my first dive into a lake this summer, to get rid of the "winter fur".
Yesterday was the day, and the exam is now done. Didn't go as well as it could have, but I might
still have chances of getting into the university. The more immediate outcome, however, is that I
don't need to spend every waking moment studying or feeling guilty about not studying. For the rest
of the summer, my brain's switching off and enjoying the reruns of
Sledge Hammer that are shown on TV. Bliss... I do think I'm going to be kept busy trying to avoid
getting bored, and this job ain't helping one bit. Perhaps this should be thought of as an opportunity
to "do all those things I've wanted to do." Yeah, right. I'll get back to you on that at the end of
the summer: "gee, where did all the time go?".
I took The Spark's Stress Test and received a
stress level of 9%. The test recommended I get a job. Sad thing is, I already have one...
So here I am, earning my way through the Summer. As suspected, the workload is not too heavy and the good thing about it is that I don't have to hide from my boss to surf the net or read a paper. If I go to someone to ask for something to do, none of them can think of anything. That's bureaucracy for you. I'm not sure whether I should be giving out state secrets like these, but I'm willing to take the risk.
Besides working, I have an exam to take. I actually took a math exam yesterday as a back-up
plan. Call me a nerd, but it was fun to do some math after awhile. Not that I'd want to do anything
related to math for any sustained periods of time.
But the big test is on Monday, which means that for four more days that's all I'm allowed to think of.
Any short pause in anything I'm doing, and the first thing that creeps into my mind is that I should
be studying. On the positive side, that should mean I should do ok in the exam, but we'll see.
Some of you might not have been too convinced when I talked about our little climbing trip, so here are some photos. Obviously pictures can't really show what it really was like, but maybe you'll get some feeling of what the climb was like.
 Blizzard |
 Cliff |
 Cliff 2 |
 Up on top |
Two days left in Vienna. I really like this place, and I'm sure I'll be back for more later, but right now it's nice to go home for awhile. But since there are an infinite number of enjoyable places in the world, it seems something of a waste to stay in one place for too long; you'll miss all the other good places. So even if it was nice to come live in Vienna again later, I feel I'd get more out of maybe experiencing something else. But now it's Helsinki for at least a year, maybe two.
Some certainties I've learned in the last week:
Going to Finland on the 31st of May. I have the ticket, so no more second choices.
Working in the Foreign Ministry in Finland June - August (this isn't actually 100% certain yet, but unless I've unawarely compromised national security in the last year, it should be.
Attempting entry exam for political science at the Helsinki University on June 11th.
Reading like hell until June 11th.
So that settles my future for some time. Next fall is then again still open, but that's so far in the future that even I don't care too much.
I did have my graduation ceremony last weekend. A bit pompous, with those stupid square caps ( I learned they're supposed to symbolize books. WTF?) and a black gown and a ton of speeches. On the bright side, I did receive one of the few cash prizes, which hit the spot. I was sure I'd never get any money out of this institute, they're so professional at sucking it in. Not from me anymore, now I'm just using their computer facilities and print-paper. Ha!
I spent the weekend hiking in Lower Austria, and man did I have a good time. We started out with
taking a train almost to the top of the highest peak and walked the rest. Up at 2000 meters, it was
still pretty much like winter.
But the real event of the trip was climbing out of the Grosser Höllental, the "Great Hell Valley".
Basically, it was a vertical climb of about 700 meters, which took us two and a half hours to do. There
were some steel ropes, ladders and platforms to help us out, but it was still something of an adventure.
I took a bunch of photos because I knew I couldn't give credit to the place simply through words. So
I hope at least some of them came out good so that I can post them here to show you what I'm talking
about. The worst places were those where a ladder was attached to the cliff from the side, so when
you're climbing up the ladder, all you see in front of you is the cliff-wall and the fall. I don't
think I'd do it again, but at least now it's done.
Since I made a post about my sister's and brother's birthday earlier, I might as well make one for my own as well. So for those of you who didn't know (or forgot), today's my birthday. Please, no gifts, checks will do fine.
Looks like my options in the poll last week very badly chosen, as "someone else" won the Ice-Hockey World Championships. The Czechs, namely. But Finland came close...
Just had my last final exam. Two more hours of school and I don't ever need to enter this building again. Doesn't feel like much.
Since yesterday, I've decided for sure (or as sure as one can at any one time be) to go back to Finland
at the end of this month to do the entry exams. So in roughly four weeks, I'll be back. For those of you
living in Finland, start making arrangements.
Because of the fact that I won't be coming to school regularly any more, my updates might be a bit irregular for the rest
of May. They may not, but you've been warned.
I finally got a roll of film developed, so I thought I'd share some pictures from it with you. It wasn't a great batch, so you'll have to do with panoramic pictures of various cities we've visited in the last few months.
 Schonbrunn |
 Bratislava |
 Salzburg |
And you'll never guess who I bumped into at the worst amusement park in the world, the Budapest amusement park. The only thing amusing about the place was how unamusing it was. Had enough of the word "amusing"?
I wish my summer plans were final by this time, but they're not entirely yet. What's happened is that my application to get accepted to the Helsinki University directly was rejected, so if I want to study there next year, I need to go through an entry exam. Not that I'd mind that otherwise, but it means I need to go back to Finland at the end of May and I wouldn't be able to enjoy the Viennese summer, nor the summer job I got here. But it still seems like the best thing to do, because it would allow me to at least have the chance of studying something sensible next year. If I don't make the exam, I'm open for any kinds of weird ideas on what to do with a year. On the other hand, I haven't had a break year yet since I finished high school, so maybe it's time to have one of those finally.
Yes, I got my last research paper done on the weekend, meaning that I just have a couple of
exams to do and I'm off the hook for awhile. What's annoying though is that I still don't know
for sure where I'm going to spend my summer. I wish I'd hear from the University of Helsinki soon,
otherwise it's going to get complicated for me. Next week I need to sign a contract for the company
I'd start working for here, so I should definitely need to know by then.
Last Friday I was a part of a panel deciding what to do with a couple of students that had forged
some signatures on scholarship papers to show their banks that they have a source of income. The
way they did it was just so unbelievably stupid that it would've seemed wrong to expel them simply
of it. So I thought we were pretty lenient, allowing them a chance to graduate anyway in a few weeks,
like they wanted to, and now I heard they just appealed the decision. I don't know if the appeal decision
can get more severe than the original decision, but I'd imagine that's the only way it can go. They're
not going to get off any easier, or at least they shouldn't.
It came a little later than last year, but it now looks as if the sun's here to stay in Vienna.
Yesterday was simply an awesome day, and today looks no worse, about +25 centigrade. Unfortunately,
today I have to sit inside the whole day, but I'm still not complaining.
We did take that trip to Salzburg last week and it was definitely worth it, even though the day we
were there it did not stop raining for a minute. At one point, it was actually snowing. But we got
to see the main sites like Mozart's birthplace and the castle. And now I have a better conscience
after having somewhere in Austria besides Vienna.
The ice-hockey game went nicely as well, 5-1 for Finland. A friend of mine was wearing the Finnish
jersey before the game downtown, so a huge group of Finns asked her where the match is being shown.
We showed them to the bar we were going to see it, so there were a lot more Finns than Austrians
actually watching the game. Once it was time for that national anthem at the end of the game (and after
quite a few beers for everyone) the nationalistic mood really hit a high. Excellent.
Two more weeks of school, with two papers and two exams to do. Time is on my side...
Two more days of "peace and quiet" after which a friend of mine from Finland will arrive. I've
just reserved a night in a hostel in Salzburg at the end of the week. During the almost two years
that I've lived in Vienna, I haven't done a single trip anywhere else in Austria, so this will be
the first time.
Before Petri has time to leave, two more people will come over. For one night we'll be crammed,
all five of us, into our small two-room apartment, but hopefully the two new visitors will go to Budapest
first, during which Petri will leave back for Finland. The weekend after the next one, we have a table reserved
for four at a local bar which will show the opening match of the ice-hockey world championships
, Finland- Austria! We just have to hope there's no repetition of last year's embarrasing 3-3 tie...
With this busy schedule, it might be that I won't be updating too much in the coming few weeks, although I'm sure I'll
be able to slip something in at some point. Hey, it's always better than actually doing some schoolwork.
Before I give some updates on what I possibly might be doing during the summer, I have to write a bit about my studies next fall. I've now received rejection letters from both schools in England that I applied to, which means I'm down to the Helsinki University, from which I haven't heard anything yet. There, I might get in directly or I'll have to do an entry exam in June. And that's basically what my summer plans hang on: if I get in directly, I can stay in Vienna over the summer; if I have to take the exam, I have to get to Finland. If I stay in Vienna, I'd work for a web development company, writing some simple web pages or parts of more complex ones, get paid well and probably enjoy my time better. If I have to take the exam, I'll fly to Helsinki at the end of May, start working for the Foreign Ministry in June and take the exam at the appropriate time. If the work was anything like last summer, when I also worked there, I'd mostly sit in front of a computer doing nothing. So those are my choices: sit in front of a computer with something to do, or sit in front of a computer and have nothing to do. Perhaps not the best options for how to spend the summer, but I might be able to squeeze something more entertaining in between there as well. I'll let you know once I know something for sure.
But before the summer, there's still one BA to finish. Things don't look too good on that sector, as for the remaining five weeks, we're going to have friends and relatives over from Finland during three of them. How I'll be able to do the remaining school work in between all that is a mystery, but I don't think it'll stop me from graduating. Probably nothing at this point could, which is why it's a little difficult to get motivated to do much. Oh yeah, another edition of that school newspaper should be coming out at some point as well...
A friend of mine came over to Vienna to see his girlfriend, so we decided to make a tradition
out of our last year's Bratislava trip. Bratislava: capital of Slovakia, nice little town with few
tourists or attractions, an hour away from Vienna, dirt cheap. Basically the day-trip consists of
as much eating and drinking as humanly possible before catching the last train back to Vienna. With
the rates in Bratislava, you're practically making money for all the money that you spend. For example,
a pint of beer for 35 SK (or FIM 5, or ATS 12, or $0.9) just forces you to drink. I'd hate to live there, I'd
become a fat alcoholic in no time.
Of course there are pictures from both our trips, but I don't think I'll be posting them anytime soon.
After all, there are reputations at stake here. Having a bacon coming out of your mouth and cucumbers on
your eyes is not necessarily the kind of publicity we're looking for, at least not all the time.
This actually happened during my spring break already, but I forgot to write about it earlier,
and it was pretty fun, so I thought I'd write about it now. A friend of mine working in the Austrian
military took me for some skeet and pistol shooting one day during the break. I'd never done the
skeets before, so we did the easy one where the skeets just fly directly away from you, rather than
sideways. And I have to say, either I'm a natural talent, or it's a lot easier than what it looks like.
Roughly, my average of hitting the skeet was maybe about 40%.
After we'd shot some rounds of skeets, we went to completely waste a target board on the pistol range.
With pistol, I'd shot before in the military, but there you were allowed to put about two shots in the
magazine and shoot them, and then wait for everybody else, change magazines and do the same thing again. Not this time.
We had two magazines of 15, which we just kept blasting into the target, all 30 shots at a time.
Excellent.
At the end of the day, we went for some real juicy, stuffed Schnitzels. Definitely one of those
testosterone days.
Today I've tried to waste the day away while sitting in the school library (I get paid for it). Usually, it's no problem, because you can always surf the net. But today the computer people had succeeded in wrecking the library computer totally. So I had to duck from one computer to another outside of the library, until I got blamed a couple of times for not being in the library and "supervising". Damn. Well, at least I got some school reading done, but I definitely hope the geeks will have the computer fully functional next week again.
I've said that one of the reasons for making this site was to "put my HTML-skills in practice". Now, having finished a web animation course, it might not have to be just HTML anymore, but also Flash, Gif animation and whatnot. Then again, there's probably little chance I'd be successful in creating anything remotely interesting that also looked good. This as an introduction to presenting you with the Flash project I did together with another student in that class. I think you need a Flash plug-in to watch it, but I'm not sure. Anyway, that's pretty much the level where my skills are. Seems unlikely that I'll be making Toy Story 3 anywhere in the near future, eh?
Just tried to watch that animation myself. Either the connection I have is really slow, or there's something wrong with the animation itself, because it doesn't load. So even if you do have the Flash plug-in, you'll probably not be able to watch it. Oh well, at least it's now safely stored on the Internet.
So the vacation week went fast, unsurprisingly. I didn't read or watch movies that much, as was the plan, the time just
went by. Oh well, at least we made it to Budapest.
I'd been to Budapest twice before, once in -93 and once in -98, but remembered just some things from here and there. I did
remember that it looks a lot like Vienna, and I wasn't wrong: besides the fact that most buildings are in worse shape than
here, the city as a whole looks very similar. Obviously, the best thing about travelling in Eastern europe are the prices.
Budapest isn't one of the cheapest places, but there too you can eat and drink without worries. Even a poor student can feel
rich there. Why more exchange students don't go study abroad in Eastern Europe and live comfortably is beyond me. Instead,
they come to all these Western cities, where nothing is cheap, least of all dining.
If I had a digital camera, I'd be able to put up some pictures for you right away, but as that's not the case, and since it's
probably going to take a couple of more months before we get finished with the film, I guess you'll have to do without pictures
of me and Katja in Budapest. I'm sure you can live with that.
This week, no school. In fact, nothing that needs to be done at all. The biggest problem is how to kill time. I'm planning to read "Catch-22", but for some reason I keep postponing starting on it. Maybe because once I'm finished with it, I don't have much else to do anymore. But hey, I'm not complaining. A week's probably the maximum time one (or at least I) can spend without any duties. After that, it's no longer relaxing, but actually more stressful trying to think of something useful to do. So in a way I'm happy that I'll be back in school next week. Especially since that marks the beginning of the end: only 8 weeks left of undergraduate studies...
Last week of the term. Usually these are pretty bad with exams, research papers and whatnot, but this time things are pretty quiet. I'll have two easy exams in the next two days, the project for my web animation class is already finished (I'll definitely link that once it's up and running on the web) and that's pretty much it. Next week is then "spring break", meaning that I won't have anything to do but to get some reading and moviewatching done. Looking forward to that. Also, we're planning on going to Budapest with my girlfriend Katja in a couple of weeks, but more about that later.
Nothing much happened this week. I worked on a paper for my Media Literacy class, which I'm definitely going to write more about on this site at some point. It has to do with the theory of evolution and how much of it is actually proven. Really fascinating, because it seems that most people take for granted that it's a fact (I did too until a while back). I'll get back to that at some point, probably over at the World pages.
Today also marks the day I finished the school newspaper. Once it's up, I'll post a link so you'll know what it's like. Nothing spectacularly magnificient, but at least I got the job done.
Oh, I watched Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat ("Drifting Clouds" in English) last weekend. One of the few Finnish movies to make it somehow abroad: it was nominated for the best movie at Cannes in 1996. Keeping with the tradition of Kaurismäki films, it was completely and utterly boring. But after so many foreigners that I've met knew the film, I just had to see it to know what it was about. The answer is simple: nothing.
I finally got to scanning and uploading some pictures from my trip to Kenya. Click on the thumbnails to see a bigger picture and a short description.
 Cheetah |
 Elephants |
 Leopard |
 Vultures |
 Savanna |
 Car |
 Pool |
 Plane |
I caught something of a cold this weekend, didn't feel like doing much else but sit inside and watch movies. Now I'm trying to get my application for master's studies sent to the Helsinki University. After working on it over the weekend (they want an description of my studies so far and how they relate to courses taught in Helsinki, ehh..) I found out today that they've changed their courses completely from last year. And obviously I used last year's study guide to do my comparison... I really don't feel like going over the courses all over again and try to match the right ones, but I guess I'll have to. In case you're wondering (why would you be?), I'm going to finish my B.A. in May, and am currently applying to do my master's in, in addition to Helsinki, London School of Economics and Oxford. The good thing with LSE is that it's only a year, and because Oxford would take longer, I've pretty much decided against it already (before hearing anything from them). I think I can handle a year in England, but definitely not more than that...
So here I am, spending another day building my web pages, when I should be doing something useful. Right now things don't look too bad, though, since I don't have too much to do for school. Except for a short psychology paper (Why am I studying psychology? Good question) due in two days and, of course, the school newspaper remains a constant nagging thought in the back of my head. I took up the editorship for the paper to help me finance my studies (they pay a little below the minimum wage according to my calculations), the only bad part is that I have to turn out a student paper in a school where there are no students interested in writing for a student newspaper. Oh well, I'm not taking too much pressure from it, I'll just call it the student leaflet if it comes down to that.
I was planning on putting up some photographs from our Christmas trip to Kenya, but obviously I haven't managed to scan any yet. Let's see if I can get something done later this week.
If any of you happened to be interested in what kind of stuff I have to do for school, I uploaded a paper on nationalism I wrote a few weeks ago. You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to read it.
