Friday, July 03, 2009

TIME FOR A SWIM


Finally... swimming in clear, fresh and yet not cold water of the lake Jyväsjärvi... just too bad that nice and warm weather does not last long during Finnish summer.

P.S.: The image was taken at 3:00 in the morning.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

ZADETA?



Tudi mene je doletelo pisanje verižnega prispevka - Alcessa in pozneje Nina sta me določili, da naj blogosferi zaupam, od česa sem bila najbolj zadeta. Ker sem čez vikend delala na metal festivalu Nummirock, se je čas za blog našel šele danes.

Pretekli vikend je bil na Finskem zelo pomemben - dogajal se je Juhannus, kresni večer; mimogrede, Juhannus je vedno na tisto soboto, ki je najbližja datumu kresne noči (in potem je že sam petek pred tem ena velika sobota ker je pof***n Juhannus). Kakorkoli, praznovanje poletja na Finskem pomeni množično popivanje (kajpak) ter posledično utapljanje v jezerih. In takoj na tem mestu lahko povem, kako sem se ta Juhannus ter vse ostale čase pred njim razlikovala od večine ter od česa še nikoli nisem bila zadeta. Ne sedaj, niti nikoli prej. Alkohol. Alko in jaz ne greva skupaj; tu in tam sem že poskusila kak požirek (pa ne vina, ker mi smrdi) pa mi zadevščina sploh ni bila všeč. Alkohola enostavno ne maram. Kar povzroča nemalo čudenja tako med Slovenci kot tudi med Finci, katerim je ljubezen do alkoholne zadetosti vsekakor več kot skupna. Ampak... alco is not my way, and it has never been. Čeprav vedno znova ugotavljam, da je abstinenca skorajda hujša družbena stigma kot alkoholizem...

Mogoče sem nekakšen novi hipi (a sem že omenila, da sem vegetarijanka?), ki hoče živeti zdravo in se ne uničevat s pijačo. Pa ne morem biti niti hipi, ker še nikoli nisem poskusila kadit - niti tobaka, niti česa hujšega. Ne glede na dejstvo, da sem študirala na umetniški akademiji, kjer je včasih že sam prostor šolanja dišal po prepovedanih substancah. Nad takšnimi dejanji se nikoli nisem zgražala (toliko hipija je le v meni), ni pa mi bilo do tega, da bi poskusila. Sicer ne maram biti pasivna kadilka; verjetno sem med tisto peščico, ki se veseli, da ji ob obisku barov in koncertov oprava ne smrdi po čikih. Po drugi strani pa sem verjetno spet hinavska... saj velika večina oseb v mojih dramah kadi. :D

Ali sem torej sploh kdaj bila zadeta? Zakaj sem se spravila pisat ta post, če samo bluzim o nekem zdravem in bolj ali manj sterilnem življenju? Well, let's see... Verjetno sem nasploh občutljivo bitje, in tako me zadanejo že zelo drobne zadevice, ki se marsikoga še dotaknejo ne. Ena od teh dnevnih zadevic je kava. Brez kave ne gre - in ja, razlika med mojim počutjem pred in po kavi je velika. Preveč kave, po drugi strani, pa ima prav tako posledice, saj postanem živčna, nemirna, on speed. Ampak kofein je vseeno zakon. Samo ne preveč njega.

Pozitivno zadeta sem po treningih borilnih veščin. Nekoč je to bil nanbudo, danes je aikido. Dostikrat se zgodi, da grem na trening zaspana in slabe volje, po treningu pa sem polna energije. In tisto počutje je vsekakor blizu nečemu, kar bi opredelila kot zadetost. V dobrem smislu me potem zadene še savna (sauna), sploh po uspešnem treningu, ali pa kar tako. Pa seveda metal/rock festivali, kakšna res huda muzika (Flogging Molly!) in še bolj huda besedila, zadanejo me dobri filmi, knjige, nekoč me je izjemno močno zadelo gledališče. Aja, zadenejo me tudi kužki. Imela sem dva in sedaj si (napol) lastim že tretjega; dejansko sem pogrešala tisto pravo druženje s psi. Abstinenčna kriza po psu je bedna.

Negativne zadetosti... tudi te so bile, in ker sem občutljiva pesimistka, sem različne zoprne dogodke zaznavala (in jih še zaznavam) toliko močneje. Najbolj me je zaznamovala - ter me močno zadela - nesrečna romanca. Ja, ja, seveda se to dogaja vsem. kaj bluzim... pa vseeno. Posledice tiste interakcije občutim še danes, po treh letih. I am still not cold and cool... :/ Tako sem bila po tisti nesrečni romanci močno zadeta od depresije... mogoče je bila depra bolj podobna mačku po sami zadetosti, kaj pa vem, ker pač pravega mačka nisem nikoli doživela...

Za konec lahko povem še to, da je omenjena nesrečna romanca poleg negativne zadetosti prinesla vsaj nekaj pozitivnih posledic. Zadetost s Finsko, njeno kulturo in predvsem s finščino. In ta zadetost še traja. Ihan jees! ;)

P.S.: Koga naj tegam, če ste že vsi napisali svojo izpoved?! Kakorkoli, če kdo še ni napisal takega posta in bere moj blog, se lahko spravi pisat. :P

Sunday, June 07, 2009

FESTARIT


Source (click): Kiroileva siili, The Cursing Hedgehog

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

THE TIME FOR SUMMER MUSIC


Tuska, Helsinki 2008

June in Finnish is kesäkuu and since kesä means summer, June is thus summer month. And so it is, regardless strange weather, sunny 28 degrees one day and then rainy cold of barely 7 degrees the other day within the same week. June in Finland represents the beginning of school holidays and the time of summer festivals; the time of open-air, live music which lasts all the long way to August. There are so many rock-and-metal festivals and Finns is summer are a festival nation.

This year, I am looking forward to at least some of these festivals, but I am also waiting them with slight excitement... and there are some reasons. For the first time I am not going to be the audience, but I will belong to the festival crew... eeek, sure I am a bit scared! :D

Saturday, May 30, 2009

FAIR TRADE




For the consumer that eagerly buys organic and fair trade products...

Dear consumer!

It is very nice to see you care for the nature and for the fair world. Regardless the higher price, you stay loyal to those better products, and basically everything what you have is either organic or fair trade. You might also be vegan/vegetarian as you don't support the cruel food industry. However... (there will always be a however if I am writing, OK?)... so, however...

Dear consumer,

there is something I don't really understand. You seem to be so supportive towards nature and, most of all, fair trade products; you don't want to be ignorant as so many other consumers are., just buying the stuff, no matter if it was done by a poor kid somewhere in India. Yet, my dear consumer, you are ignorant. You care about the world, but you don't care about those that live close to you; near you. You care about fair trade, but you don't care to organise a fair sharing of the, for instance, student appartement. You don't care if the pipes in the bathroom get stuck, regardless the fact that you sometimes take shower even twice a day. You can use a kitchen-item and you don't care to either a) ask about it or b) say thanks. You don't feel like sharing the shelves in the common kitchen, also. And you still don't ask if this or that would be fine with others. Overall, despite some good impressions that you can give, especially with the choice of the products you make, you seem so very ignorant.

Dear consumer...

Are you sure you understand the meaning of organic and fair trade? Do you really support the ideology behind these products? Do you really care about some poor kid in India? Do you really care about trees if you don't care about your actual neigbhours?

Dear consumer

I am afraid you don't actually support neither organic nor fair trade ideology. Well, actually you think you do, honestly you think, but all your other behaviour is controversive. Thus, my dear consumer, I would dare to say you are only following some general trends, some Cosmopolitan writings that scream to you buy organic, buy fair trade! Because it's cool., because it's so trendy... because you have to show you're different... you have to at least pretend you're not ignorant.

However, my dear consumer, you are very ignorant, and buying all these organic and fair trade products feels so very phony, careless and empty...

Saturday, May 16, 2009

COSMO GIRL

Lately, the style of my clothing has been moving between this...

... and this.


Of course, I do not wear these two things together. One day I am a devoted metal fan and the other day I am closer to a hippie; in both cases I still prefer black. However, I am probably too much dealing with shopping...

Saturday, May 09, 2009

AN APPROACH TO INDIVIDUALISM



In my previous post, I was writing about Finnish food, so let’s just continue with my recent observations of Finnish culture. When I have checked keyword analysis of my blog, I have noticed that somebody visited my page due to the word finish individualism. Thus, I am offering one of the possible approaches to the subject; however, please be aware that Finnish individualism has many faces, and this is just one among many. The post might feel a bit black-and-white as I am just writing from my angry part of self. Of course there are always some nice exceptions – but do they only prove the rule?


The beginning of my interaction with Finnish individualism reaches about four years into the past. Even then I had some feelings the society might be very self-orientated. However, when I have started to live with Finns and when I have started to deal with Finnish society more active, my experiences have grown. What bothers me, and sometimes also hurts me a lot is the fact that what an outsider would perhaps see as individualism might actually be egocentrism. The I-only-care-for-myself-and-my-own-good attitude. Egocentrism surely is a part of human nature after all; my friend M. would even say that altruism does not exist.


Blame it all on the developed capitalism. Finland is among the richest countries in Europe; their social system is functional and standard more or less high. They have never gone through the socialistic system as Slovenia did – and I guess here is one of the differences. In a way, society feels less compassionate. For me, it seems the sense for sharing and cooperation almost does not exist. No ‘together we can do it’ feeling. No care for the other, no care for the people around you; thus meaning those people that are not a part of one’s own private world, but still in close distance.


Lately, I have been reading some forums where the Finns themselves were complaining over their Finnish flatmates; and no wonder some magazine was writing how to behave towards those that live with you. In this society, everything feels like a competition. I was here first, I don’t care about you. This is mine, I don’t care about you. If one is too soft and too kind, one gets hurt; the developed and welfare world is cruel. No, I guess young Finns are not so introverted – they can be just so very ignorant. And that ignorance produces social coldness here up North; the frost among people which might also appear as daring individualism.