Names, names, names

If you have never heard anything about erazmus and/or exchange students let me tell you one thing. They party A LOT!!!n I think whomever you meet and he was an erazmus student, he will confirm this. So we felt it was our duty to have a party. Like we feel this duty more times a week, but this isn't what I wanted to say.

So this party was held at mine place/to be more exact my flatmate room- mine is a lot smaller-it would be a little uncomfortable for 15 - 20 people/. We always have neverending discussions about what we will listen to during the evening. Well that is what you get when you are friends with finish hard rock/metal fans and finish Hanson/Backstreet boys girlfans.

Just a quick offtopic note: Hanson still exist. They are now an ALTERNATIVE group, or at least they think so. Can't really tell you, have all this information from Ulla, who was crashed that the last of them - just do not ask me for names, please:))) - got married. She really REALLY likes them. End of the note...

So at this time, we still didn't know much about each other...Well they didn't, not everyone has a perfect memory for these things like the author of this nonsense. We started to speak about names and stuff, when my roommate started to laugh pretty hard. She was lying on the floor, panting, laughing and crying for 2-3 minutes. When she calmed dowb, she explained to us/not finish people/ that name Rhona or at least some version of it means a horse in finish. Well a horse without balls. She wasn't even able to say it in one time. Honestly it was pretty funny, I still cannot decide what was better, Rhona's face, Hanne laughing at floor or the meaning of the name:). Then I was told that my name actually means abscissa/úsečka:)/ which was also quite funny for everyone, I do not know why.

And one more name story. We have another scottish girl, whose name is Kirsten. Obviously some of the finish friends were having difficulties with pronouncing her name. It was quite funny - sorry Kirst- especially for Rhona/remember the horse incident?:))))/ She was quite frustrated after a while of ther bad pronounciation, which got her to a state when she told us: "Just call me Bob:)"

I do not think I have to tell you, that we did.... For over than a week...:)))) Once again Sorry Kirst:)

SUPERNICE!

Let me tell you something about our school. It is definitely a boyschool. That means it has much more boys than girls. You would say WOW!!! That is because it has subjects like informatics and maschinenbau/do not know how to translate/ and architecture. So it is obvious there are many many boys. And the consequence of having many many boys is having at least some quite boys:))))))). Well like one of the finish girls said:"Are you crazy, just look at them, I like each and everyone." :))))

It is probably only fair to say, that not ALL of them but many are handsome. So when the days were nice, we used to sit on the campus grounds and chat during the lunchbreak. Well we mostly sat there to be able to check out the boys *looking innocently around and whistling*. So one day we were sitting there again and drinking coffee and eating bisquits, when one our friend started to have a philosophical debate with herself, why the german boys do not want her.

I think it is important to say, she really is a sweet girl, quite good looking as well. She said: "I am not nice...." To which we started to object of course, you know the usual stuff like, But you aren nice...and bla bla bla...When she stopped us and continued her sentence, which we interrupted: " I am SUPERNICE!!!!" I think she wasn't really happy, when she saw us laughing really really hard:).

It wouldn't work out anyway...

So finally after a few days we managed to have a nice international party in a club called Block 17. To give you some insider information the block mostly plays alternative and maybe harder music, but you can sit there and have a conversation.

That is the reason we decided to go there. The club had some kind of discount on beer, so I was drinking it. I am living on a budget after all:) And I found out that you can actually get used to beer, the only problem is that it takes a lot of time. Also one guy from Tunisia was so I got a chance to improve my German skills. Or maybe I should say Lack of my German skills. Anyway after 25 minutes of talking with him, he did some kind of budha test/asking me what kind of animals I like, and colours and blah blah blah/ and after that he told me we are perfectly similar to each other and winked at me... I was like OK, you know the best and got lost in the crowd:) When I met him a few minutes later he asked, what was my religion. After my answer he told me sadly: " You know what, I think our relationship wouldn't work, we are too different, I am sorry." I think I do not have to say you I was crestfallen:).

When I joined the international group there was a conversation led only in German. Which was a little strange, because only me and Anna/Slovak girl:)/ are fluent in German. So imagine 6 people shouting at each other German phrases like Was sagen sie? Wie geht es dir? and so on. And I mean SHOUTING really loud. There were many Germans looking at what is happening and why the strange people are speaking with so horrible accents. I got to know many Germans that night, which was a good thing after all.

But in the end of the night came a cold shower. I was talking with a Scottish girl and some Germans about accents. They were asking the Scottish girl what she thinks about their accents. Whether they are more British or American. The answer wasn't really what they expected. She looked at them and started laughing really hard. After a while she told them: " You have so nice German accents." They weren't really happy with that answer. So I asked her what was my accent like, because usually people tell me I have an American one. And she told me, she had to think first and then she told me: " Your accent is really..... hmmm how to say it.... Slovakian:)."

Let me just advice you, never ask a native speaker about your accent. You may not like the answer:).

PS: THANKS A LOT for the comments. I appreciate it:)

Coffee - the wonderful sometimes black liquid

Coffee is something I do not need, but like to have. Possibly everyday, most preferably with sugar/tons and tons of sugar, people who saw me drinking coffee, would understand;)-right Veron:)?/ and a lot of milk.

That is why Ibought a boling can in the first days of my stay in Wismar. Usually everyafternoon or sometimes evening as well, my friends come and we have coffee/tea together. We have a little Slovak/Bulgarian coffee team;) Well we had this group, now we added a third nationality. Right my beloved Finish:)

I was talking to my cell mate /no prison cell, but cell as a flat, we use this name in SVK pretty often/, who is Finish, and some of the finish girls as well. When my friends came, and told me: "We are here, we can have the coffee." All of the finish girls looked at me like I am an Angel from above. I didn't get it first.

But after a few seconds they asked: "Do you have coffee???" I answered, that I did and asked if they wanted some. They almost shouted: "YES!!!!"

So I got them thir cup and put some instant coffee in, when they asked me, what the hell I was doing. I answered:"Coffee." They were looking at me like I was from Mars. I didn't know what I was doing wrong. I looked at Anka/Slovak girl/ and she was mouthing: "I have no idea...."

They told me: " We have never seen anyone doing coffee like that. We always use coffee makers." Well they didn't even know, it is possible to make the coffee with boiling water from the pot;) Afterall Finland is a developed country.

After finishing the coffee my cell mate;) told me: " Everyday I am here I learn something new;)." Before leaving one of the girls told: " Thanks for the coffee, you are an angel, coffee drinking, but still an angel;)"

German aren't precise at all

Our international department held this cultural workshop.

That's what what was written in the introductory email.When we came there, one woman was sitting on the floor. Do you remember the 70's children of flowers? Well that is exactly how she looked. Long hair, long skirt, no make up.

We started the usual way, telling names and countries. And then it started, she was asking us questions like: Where would you like to go, where have you already been, how many siblings do you have, religion, politics......

I didn't even paid any attention in the end because she was speaking so fast. When I looked at the finish guys, they had the dreamy faces, I just knew,they didn't know what was going on.

Another task was to write some stereotypes about Germany and Germans. I was in a group with half of the finish people, of course, with whom else;). We came up with some interesting ideas, for example, that Germany is famous for Claudia Schiffer and Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil. /And yes, we presented the Schnappi thing loudly for everybody to hear:)))), and it came out that not really that much people know the poor crocodile:)/.

The hippie lady told us, Germany isn't a nice country to live, that the people do not like foreigners, aren't precise at all and drink too much. And yes actually she was German.

But in the end the most important answer to the last question/what do you like the most about Germany/ was given by my friend: "Well. I really really like the handsome German guys."

What else is to say to this, maybe only: "Me too:)."

Project week

Finally the classes have started, well only the project week , but hey, anything is better than nothing. People who know me a little might be a little surprised, that I actually wanted to go school, however there is a limited number of things that you can do in the "city" of Wismar ;), so I was really impatient to go to classes.

So the main reason of the existence of the "Project Week" is for the people to start the semester nice and slow. The design and engineering students do projects, the others just sit at school. Well our project was to sit and listen to nice gentleman talking about English law, to be precise Anglo/American law.

Imagine a small room, with five/six rows of tables. In the first row all the finish girls, who understand English quite good, but they don't speak with the professor because they are busy with looking up words in the dictionary.

The second row is row we call: "Russia together", because only Russian girls sat there. It is only fair to tell, that the name was their own expression:). They are pretty fluent and do not need dictionaries, so they have time to answer. Unfortunately the answer wass usually wrong. Like the professor said: " Russian law system must be the best one in the world, if everything is going like you said." I think I do not have to say that this haven't discouraged them at all from shouting more "correct" answers:)

The third row, well Bulgarian girls and Slovakia:), Bulgarians do not think it is important to listen to professor, so they spent most of the time daydreaming. And we, let just say, I really really do not like interactive lessons. On the other hand teachers just LOVE them.

Last but not in any aspect least, our GUYS:) The two finish guys, spent the lessons playing some kind of game/they tried to explain it to me, but trust me a game that took 3 years of lectures to develop is pretty complex and hard to understand:)/

And our fantastic Polish guy. I would like to tell you something more, but the only words he says to me are Hellos. So maybe I will give you an update of the situation soon.

The classes of the law were usually pretty boring, unless we were solving a case. That was nice, and I actually discussed it with the professor. Not that I really wanted to, cause actually I didn't. But someone had to and I was bored waiting for the other people to say something. It is not really funny to sit in a silent class when the professor is looking around for his next answer victim:).

My friend told me: "Although we didn't really like the law, we had a lesson called "From boredom to asertivity:)".