Cat and the Uppsala Life

Hubabaloo

2012-02-03T18:22:00.001+02:00

This morning I was obviously a bit down but Sirpa reminded me there is not much that is so bad it cannot be cured with a bit of chocolate.

Now the guests may arrive.

Voi Kökkeli!

2012-02-03T11:56:00.000+02:00

Two points from passing the exam from hell! I knew I was close but I also new I run out of time on the end. Started out way too slow, writing too neatly because I thought I had heaps of time for some reason. (well, 5 hours IS a lot of time, no?) I guess I'm gonna take the re-exam in two weeks then, am I inspired to study more on that subject. NOT really!

I'm mostly annoyed that I was so close but yet so far...Better take out the bag with the course material and sort them neatly again.

At least the new course is much more fun and no numbers and counting.

Now, I should finish my analytical note so I have time to clean because tonight we're getting special guests from Finland. Not feeling on top of things today though, woke up feeling flu-ish and seeing the exam results...I'm sure I feel a bit too warm....must be fever...

And I listened to the radio....

2012-02-02T17:36:00.002+02:00

...and was positively suprised that Pekka spoke so well Swedish, there was nothing wrong with his English either if I remember correctly.Lyssna: Presidentkandidaternas personlighet i fokus

Waiiit a second

2012-02-02T00:09:00.001+02:00

Where do I sleep??

Stefan is Back!

2012-02-01T22:45:00.002+02:00

...all well and safe and all French (he says it's just tiredness). I'm not sure what to do with the guy, he keeps talking and talking even if his whisky-voice (that is apparently from the airconditiong...riiight ;-) ) is already fading.

Well, I served him a good spicy meal with some real food (that they apparently didn't have time for during the exhibition) and hopefully a good night's sleep will bring back the voice and the Spaniard :-)

He was veeeeery kind and brought me some Macaron's, lucklily he only bought six as I ate them all at once. I even ate one before I remembered to take a pic. So good, mmmMMMMmmmm, loooove them!

We're still surviving...

2012-01-31T23:43:00.003+02:00

...but I'm pretty happy Stefan will be back home tomorrow.

We just had a one and a half hour walk with a girl from the dog club and her Bernersenner dog. It felt nice but now I'm knackered and full of energy at the same time, if that's possible. Time for a plate of banana and orange and then we'll see if we fall asleep or not.

Morning Walk

2012-01-31T17:20:00.003+02:00

So today was the day I was able to sleep as loong as I wanted to, all alone at home with the dog and a nice and calm day.

At 8 in the morning Faro's tummy started making so much noice I though I better take him out or his gonna explode. In the end he was just fine, I have no idea why all the rambling from his tummy, perhaps just a trick to wake me up.

We saw however, a very nice sunrise and in the end we had the whole day still in front of us when we came back. Now it feels though like I've done nothing today as I've sat in front of the computer. I was supposed to start my project for the course but instead I've sent a few job applications for summer jobs. It's not so easy to find anything close to were we are though, in either country Everything is either in Helsinki or in Stockholm. Hmm, I have to think about what to do, on one hand I don't feel like spending a summer in a big corporation, on the other hand I am not sure I can find anything related to my studies close to Lovisa. So what is more important; location or work experience?

Faro liked rolling around:

The first rays of light:

The sun was reflected in the icecrystals but it was difficult to catch on the phone camera:

Pretty snowflakes and ice:

Faro investigating:

Some own time ahead

2012-01-30T20:38:00.002+02:00

Stefan is in Paris on a business trip since Saturday, I've survived well so far in the company of the best Finns in Uppsala. We had a good time and I think Faro also enjoyed having some other playmates around. Perhaps I can manage to survive the last two days on my own now. Two days is not that long...

A Dead Deer

2012-01-26T13:54:00.002+02:00

Not exactly what you want to find on your morning walk.

I guess it must have been driven over as it was laying just by the road.

Poor deer!

Morning walk in the snow

2012-01-24T13:09:00.001+02:00

I know we don't have any snow yet compared to what they have back home in Finland but still.

Somebody that I used to know

2012-01-22T19:39:00.000+02:00

It's not so often that you hear the cover before the original. I like that they all play at the same guitar in the cover but I think that the singing is better in the original. Decide for yourself :-)

Snow

2012-01-22T14:30:00.001+02:00

Seems like we are getting the snow from Finland now. Hmm, I'm not sure I'm especially thrilled, I was sort of already looking forward to a proper spring.

If we are at 0 degrees it is still summer?

2012-01-19T14:25:00.001+02:00

I know we have had a very warm winter in Uppsala this year but biking in shorts? I think I froze my little toe just watching the guy! Brrr!

Silja

2012-01-18T21:12:00.001+02:00

Today I got to know this sweetheart. 9 years old but with eyes that melt anyone's heart. Seems she needs a new home, I almost took her but I think Faro might be too much of a wild case for such a lady.

Dentist

2012-01-17T01:00:00.001+02:00

Been to Mr. Dentist today because I really needed to go check why my teeth have been aching so bad. Well, he told me what I somehow always knew. I'm biting my teeth so hard (especially when stressed!) that I wear them down. Apparently, an old filling is worn down so there is basically a new hole. Well, at least it seems they're gonna fix it now properly but it's not exactly what I wanted to spend money on at the moment. Additionally, I have to find out under which country's social security I'm under in this case (really hate dealing with bureaucracy!).

My nightmare tonight will include me in mega braces on the wedding day.

Finally

2012-01-13T16:03:00.001+02:00

Exam is over and I'm completely exhausted and empty on my head now.

As far as I checked the points I'm really on the limit to pass so let's hope he is kind with the grading, wouldn't want to take that one again.

Climbing

2012-01-12T01:10:00.001+02:00

Now I've tried climbing as well. It seems to be the thing everybody does nowadays. It was fun and I managed to reach the top on two easy walls so I'm happy for my first time. Didn't do that much though as I concentrated on learning the knots and securing and I don't want to be super sore in my arms on Friday when we have the 5 hour exam.

Good night!

Bikram Yoga part 2

2012-01-09T11:50:00.002+02:00

Even if the Bikram yoga was tough because of the heat I did not expect to be sore in my muscles today.

I was wrong.

Bikram Yoga

2012-01-08T19:12:00.000+02:00

We took a break in studying today and tried Bikram yoga with Susanna.

I think I have never sweated so much in my life. Bikram yoga is a yoga you do in a 40 degrees warm room (although according to Susanna who saw the thermometer the room was 58 degrees, if I remember correct). So it was like working out in a sauna for 1 hour and 30 min. Not so fresh I can tell you!

I think I stick to my Ashtanga yoga even after this experience. Here you can see how it looked like when Fredrik Backman tried Bikram yoga.
Cafe.se Tränathon 2011: Bikramyoga from Kalle Wahlström on Vimeo.

Typical!

2012-01-05T20:11:00.002+02:00

Since we moved from Finland of course now they have changed the food hygiene law so that pets can be allowed into restaurants and cafés if only the restaurant owner allows it. I guess it will still not be many places that allows it but at least some, I hope.

I was missing places like that in Helsinki and I was very annoyed at the fact that people drag their screaming babies everywhere but well behaving (now I'm not necessarly talking about Faro ;-) ) dogs are not welcome almost anywhere. Inevitably that leads to the fact that as a dog-ownerit is not that easy to go for dinner or a drink in town on weekdays.

Well, perhaps we'll have the opportunity to try one of these places out one day. Closes to us in Sweden, I know there is a dog café in Norrköping but it's still an hour away and not in the direction we usually drive, but it could be fun to try out a weekend and check out Norrköping at the same time.

I suggest...

2012-01-04T23:35:00.002+02:00

....you click yourself into Susanna's blog and see some pics of our cuddly & furry friend :-)

We keep studying

2012-01-04T11:27:00.001+02:00

Love the pillow in Susanna's house!

Now we're studying in the library.

Back in Uppsala..

2012-01-03T16:31:00.001+02:00

....studying and panicking over the exam.

Happy New Year

2011-12-29T17:43:00.002+02:00

As always I've been lazy posting during holidays, but it's nice to take a break sometimes from phones and internet and the rest of the world.

For a day we didn't have a choice either as the storm came and took away the electricity for 5 hours. The internet was cut for even longer.

Go check out Stefan's blog for some cute dog pics. I'll be back when we are back in Sweden in 2012.

Until then Happy New Year!

24

2011-12-24T20:09:00.008+02:00

Five good things that happened this December.

1. Project work can really be a pain when the teacher makes the groups but it seems like our teacher got it right this time because I got to know lovely Andrea and Susanna. I really hope to stay in touch with them even after the course.

2. Lucia in school:

3. Stefan brought me home some macarons when he was in Stockholm. I looove macarons! These were licorice, glögg (gluh wine), cinnamon and pistachio taste:

4. Gingerbread:
This was supposed to be a good one but as you know the first try turned out like pancakes. The second try was hard as stone. Doh! But perhaps they make a good Christmas tree decoration for next year if they stay as hard as they are now....
I just have to pic out the "prettier" ones:

Well...better luck next year!

5. The snow finally came

23

2011-12-23T19:56:00.006+02:00

Tell about my best Christmas Memory.

This was a difficult one (all the ones that acctually require me to remember something are)

Anyhow, I like the Christmas feeling, the smell of the Christmas-tree, the food and just relaxing. Nowadays, it seems it is more a rule than an exception that both me and Stefan are exhausted when Christmas approaches so we just want to relax. When I was young I didn't appreciate those things so much as it was all a looooong wait until finally you could open the presents.

I've only soent two Christmases abroad I think. Between the Christmas in Spain and in Finland I didn't feel there was a much difference, except for the weather but it was still way better than the hot (40 + degrees) christmas I spent in Australia. It was impossible to enjoy anything unless you were indoors in the air conditioning (which was so effective it gave me a cold).

Here's some pics from Finland (2011) and Spain (2007). I count on you to figure out which pics are from where.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T18:04:00.000+02:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

22

2011-12-22T19:39:00.003+02:00

Something I'm obsessed or addicted to.

I couldn't think of anything so I asked Stefan and his first answer was lip balm. I guess he is right! But what is a girl to do when without lip balm one's lips get dry and horrible. Expecially now in winter!

This is what Stefan brought me last time he was shopping in Uppsala:) I like!

21

2011-12-21T18:32:00.002+02:00

Tell about someone I love.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that these two are the no 1 boys in my life :-)

This pic is obviously taken after we just moved in as there is not yet so much crap (ok, papers and stuff) in Stefan's "office".

I just thought of one more Christmas present we could use. A shelf for this room! Preferably a cheap but practical one as we will most probably not be bothered taking it back to Finland ( or wherever, when we are done here). Perhaps it is time to check out blocket for a second-hand one.

20

2011-12-20T13:37:00.005+02:00

What I wish for Christmas.

I always find it so hard to wish for something, at this point we are starting to have more than enough towels, kitchen stuff, etc. and none of us are very picky with what we have -as long as we have stuff that serves the purpose. Now I thought of some things but I realize that this post came a bit too late probably as it is only 4 days to Christmas.

Stefan also made a christmas list the other day. I know that he wanted a new e-book reader but, since he didn't know which one, we decided that we will go buy it after Christmas togheter instead (when it will probably be cheaper anyway). And as for me, I bought my own Christmas present this year as it was easier when I have a Swedish account. The thing is that most of my necklaces got lost in the move to Sweden (I still hope to find them somewhere, anyone seen a colourful little toilet bag made from recycled juice-packages? looking more or less like this):

So, I couldn't resist this cute one below, and the money will go to Stockholms stadsmission's work for youth and kids that are less well off. Officially this is Stefans present for me:

Anyhow, I wouldn't mind anything from Emmas webshop either or a facial treatment at their saloon.

And on top of that we would need a new camera, but I think that will have to wait until after the wedding. Which makes me thing that, of course, funding for the wedding and a honeymoon wouldn't be all that bad christmas presents either (we'd like to go to Africa! in case somebody missed the no 18 post).

Then there is also a whole list of books I would like to read, for example Skinny Bitch, Hundens språk och tankar, Badskumt and In the shadow of man.

Well, let's hope that Stefan checks this post and keeps it in mind for next year! ;-)

19

2011-12-19T13:28:00.001+02:00

Today I'm supposed to tell you about a friend who lives far away. Now I'm not sure if this counts but I'd like to share the blog of our friends' Ninnu, Petra and Emelie who are currently travelling around the world.

They are now in NZ but some days ago they were still travelling down the east coast in Australia. It was quite a trip down memory lane to follow the blog. It feels like ages ago I was there, but seems most things are just the same.

Check the pics from their Aussie adventure here.

18

2011-12-18T12:55:00.002+02:00

A place I'd like to visit before I'd die.

I'd like to go to Africa because I'd like to see some of these big beauties free and wild.

Pic from here.

No 16 & 17

2011-12-17T13:39:00.003+02:00

Had a long day in Uni yesterday and went to a birthdayparty afterwards, so didn't have time to update the "christmas calender". But I'll do two today instead.

Yesterday I was supposed to tell you about me as young and today about a perfect day.

I find it quite difficult to try to remember how I was as a young and I am not sure if what I remember is correct. However, I think I remember being a quiet kid that was thinking a lot, a bit shy maybe, or at least I had a lot of respect for people older than me.

A perfect day for me is a day like today (except for that I wish the weather was better). But a day with no plans, no stress and therefore some room for being spontanious.

No 15

2011-12-15T20:22:00.002+02:00

My favorite books.

I wish I had time to read more! Mostly nowadays I read fact books, which are really good as well but of course it is nice to sit down with a really good novel sometimes. Books I've read in the last years that was not fact books and I liked very much are "The Book Thief" (a very sad one though) and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time". Adding to those I can also recommend the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett. They are not as heavy as the discworld novels by him but good fun and great adventures.

No 14

2011-12-14T19:25:00.003+02:00

A photo that somebody else has taken of me.

Photo taken in István's place by Stefan. Could be a commercial for ecological cider, it was in any case good!

No13

2011-12-13T19:08:00.002+02:00

Happy Lucia Day!

Today I'm supposed to tell you about my favorite thing in our home. I had to think about it for a while since we are only here temporarily and therefore don't have too much stuff but I think I have to say that it is the clothes-room, I guess you can call it a walk-in closet as well, it does not only contain our clothes though, but also the laundry machine and other things for storage, but it is fantastically practical. It is so easy to get an overview of the clothes in the morning instead of having to dig trough a closet where it is difficult to find anything.

Have for sure saved me time in the mornings-now I never want to live without a room like that again :-)

Pictures have to wait for the moment as I run out of prepaid internet yesterday and seems like their website for reloading value is down at the moment and Stefan need his computer back :-)

Until tomorrow! (seems like we have a bad storm outside again!-no snow though)

No 12

2011-12-12T22:29:00.002+02:00

Somebody I miss. Well, as we are living in Sweden now of course we are missing all of our Finnish friends.

However, someone we are missing anyway is Natalia and Faro's friend Vasco, since they moved abroad. Right now they are in Belgium.

No 11

2011-12-11T14:25:00.003+02:00

My future dreams.

Well, the thing is I don't really care too much. It's gonna sound like a cliché but I'm pretty happy just hanging around Stefan and Faro.

The fact that the economic crisis is hanging over us and the environmental threat (scientists agree that the 2 degree goal is not gonna be reached any longer) has made me come to terms with the fact that most probably these factors are gonna affect also us in some way. I just hope that after my studies I could get a job where I could make a difference, even if it would be the smallest one, but doing something useful about the environment would make me feel happy.

Short term though, I hope we can get married as planned next year and that I manage to finish my studies in 2013. After that, it will be time for new goals and dreams.

no 10

2011-12-10T17:19:00.010+02:00

What's in my bag is the question today....

Well, first of all as I'm back to studying I'm back to my using backpack, pehaps not the most fashionable of alternatives but it's useful. Luckily, I'm in the agriculture University so it's quite relax as far as it comes to clothes.

Inside the backpack is my wallet and iphone + loader + earplugs.

Some snack for when blood sugar gets low. Right now, almonds and dried cranberries. and Finnish gum.

Articles, handouts, notes and my calendar.

Knife and fork, as I usually take my own lunch, pens, calculator as my current course in is production economics, nail file, toothbrush (I think I forgotten it thre after we travelled to Finland last time, but it has come in handy sometimes) ipod, lip balm, more gum, throuth pastilles and cuticle cream. Additionally, my make-up bag is usually in there as well just the very basic and necessary.

No 9

2011-12-09T20:54:00.002+02:00

Today, one of my favorite songs... As I just did some Zumba and I'm tired fo the darkness and rain I thought I'd share with you a the feel-good zumba song "historia" by Wyclef Jean.

No 8

2011-12-08T18:55:00.003+02:00

Today I'm supposed to tell about a favorite piece of clothes. I really like this shirt that I bought second-hand but it's still in really good shape and very cute. It's a Billabong one so it makes me think of Australia even if I think the colours are best suited for autumn.

No 7

2011-12-07T22:13:00.003+02:00

Today I'm supposed to post one of my favorite photos. Had a long day so I'm not gonna start looking though all the photos but I found one the other day that I didn't even know we had. It's from when we still lived in Helsinki and it looked nice and cuddly.

I am not sure Faro is enjoying it too much though!

No 6

2011-12-06T21:50:00.002+02:00

Happy Finnish Independence Day to all of you!

Today I was supposed to tell you about the blogs I read.
Most of the blogs that are in the list to the right I read and then a lot of "green" blogs for news and studies, plus some other curious things. My google reader list is just getting longer and longer...Oops!

Let's see if I can manage to list (only) a few of them that I enjoy reading. I try to pick blogs that are not my friend's now so perhaps you will find something new and I won't favorise anybody.

365 Days of Breakfast
She is usually just posting her breakfast but she is a wedding photographer as well and goooosh I wish this woman would be our wedding photographer! I just think she manages to take pics that radiates warmth and cuddliness. Lovely!

Emmas Ekologiska Skönhetsblog
I've followed her blog since she started her own webshop and now she has just opened her own sho p in Stockholm with a friend. I like how brave she is just to do what she believes in. And usually she doesn't spare the words and opinions in her blog either. Fantastic!

Kemikaalicocktail
Probably the only Finnish blog I will ever read but it's about to close down :-( Anyway, she will probably keep writing somewhere else.

Pickipicki
Probably the best food-blog ever :-)

Visit Stockholm blog
Just in case there would be anything going on as we are living relatively close nowadays

Fredrik Backman
I think one of the most popular blogs in Sweden if I understood it correctly, I guess also I got hooked, he is just funny

Elsa Fries
Also food (environmentally friendly food though) and she has such a cool name!

no 5

2011-12-04T18:53:00.009+02:00

It's been a long day at Uni today doing a group assignment but now to funnier things. Today's task is to tell you about who I was a year ago....

Just for fun I checked what I blogged about in December last year and apparently we had a dinner with my chinese colleague at Nokia almost exactly one year ago. I have never ever had such good tea as that time!

But otherwise I guess I had started to think about studying some more and it led us to coming here. Which I definitely do not regret!

Also, a year ago I managed to do my gingerbread well. This year I got the gingerbread recipe mixed up. I read liters instead of deciliters when it came to water...so let's say that my dough was a bit loose. I didn't have the heart to throw the dough away so I managed to add up with flour so and the stuff was cookable.

Turned out to be ok pancakes! With some banana and syrup they will do for breakfast for some days.

Gingerbread pancakes with glöggi:

Now the good dough is waiting in the fridge, gonna get start on the cooking tomorrow so we can finally have some gingerbread with the bluecheese we bought! :)

no 4

2011-12-04T16:10:00.002+02:00

Today was the day to tell you about a person I admire.

I'm gonna choose Lone Dröscher Nielsen becasue I just think she is so cool. She used to be a flight attendant for SAS but after she did some volunteer work for Orangutans she moved to Borneo and eventually started her own Orangutang Rescue center.

Unfortunately at the moment she has taken a break becasue of severe exhaustion. I feel very sorry for her and the work they are trying to do, it can not be easy when palm oil is big business. And where there is big money involved and ruthless people with power...well, you know how it goes.

You can read more about her here.

Lone Droscher Nielsen: Where The Wild Things Are from Qi GLOBAL on Vimeo.

no 3

2011-12-03T16:08:00.006+02:00

On the list today is to tell about my best friends.

I've never much liked putting my friends into categories like better or worse so I thought I can tell you about my bridesmaids. They are all important to me.

Cia is one of my bridesmaides. We met when I was studying and working in Arcada. It feels like ages ago now! But we had lot's of fun and many parties.

I was her bridesmaid as well (the photo is hers as well):

My sister will be another bridesmaid.

And Jessica will be my third bridesmaid. I am not quite sure exactly when I got to know Jessica since she is from the same area as me where everybody knows everybody :-) She was in the same class as one of my friend's in High School so we hanged out every now and then all of us. But some years ago she and her husband bought a house close to ours in Liljendal and then we started hanging out more and more :-) They have six lovely dogs so it was difficult for me to find a pic of her, we have a nice amount of pics of their dogs though. But in the end I found a nice one of her and her husband in their wedding.

Psssst......

2011-12-02T23:35:00.001+02:00

Stefan posted some very nice photos from here, I wouldn't believe they are taken with our camera.

Enjoy!

No 2

2011-12-02T21:57:00.003+02:00

So today is the day to tell about the city we live in. At the moment we really don't live in a city. The closest city is Uppsala, we are still in the Uppsala county, but just on the edge. Knutby is the closest town:

View Larger Map

We live still a few kilometers from Knutby "center". Knutby has a very nice resturant though, Knutby krogen, so that is a plus and I like the little grocery store Ica also.

Otherwise, unfortunately, Knutby is just known for some horrible events that took place in 2004 that I rather not think about too much, at least not when taking the dog out at night. Anyway, as I've said, there is mostly only deers around and we do live in a very nice house, so we are very happy here.

Questions for me and tales about you are still welcome :-)

Inspiration

2011-12-01T21:20:00.005+02:00

To make it an easy blog-december for myself I thought I could just join this blog Christmas calender idea I found here.

This is the list:

1. Berätta om dig själv.
2. Berätta om staden som du bor i.
3. Berätta om din bästa vän.
4. Berätta om en person som du beundrar.
5. Berätta om vem du var för ett år sedan.
6. Berätta om bloggarna du läser.
7. Berätta om ett av dina favoritfotografier.
8. Berätta om ett av dina favoritplagg.
9. Berätta om en av dina favoritlåtar.
10. Berätta om vad som finns i din väska.
11. Berätta om hur dina framtidsdrömmar ser ut.
12. Berätta om någon som du saknar.
13. Berätta om din favoritsak i ditt hem.
14. Berätta om ett fotografi som någon annan tagit på dig.
15. Berätta om en av dina favoritböcker.
16. Berätta om hur du var när du var liten.
17. Berätta om hur en perfekt dag ser ut för dig.
18. Berätta om en plats du absolut vill besöka innan du dör.
19. Berätta om en vän som bor långt bort.
20. Berätta om vad du önskar dig i julklapp.
21. Berätta om någon som du älskar.
22. Berätta om något som du är beroende av.
23. Berätta om ditt bästa julminne.
24. Berätta om fem fina saker som har hänt under den här decembermånaden.

Sorry, the list is in Swedish, I'll translate it as we go along though. Today 's subject is anyhow to tell about yourself. As I am not sure what to tell as I think most people who follow this blog already know most things about me, I thought you can ask the questions, if there is any, and I answer them tomorrow along with telling about the city we live in, which is no. 2 on the list. :-)

Go ahead! & please, let me know who you are if there is anyone reading I am not aware of :-)

Fear of the Dark

2011-11-30T22:11:00.009+02:00

I thought I wasn't scared of the dark but now when we live on the country-side I realize that it was never really dark in Helsinki, not even during this time of the year. There was always street-lamps to hang on to, even in the little forest and in the little park behind and in front of our building. I shouldn't be suprised though as I've grown up in the country-side.

Now though, if I can avoid it I don't go out with Faro when it has become dark but sometimes I have to, and if so it is of importance to take the road to the right because there is less forest on that side. When I can't see a damn thing I prefer to at least have open space (the fields) around me instead of forest. I know that it's silly but it's not really my rational side thinking, and possibly I should even have been more scared in Helsinki because what am I really gonna meet in the forest here? A deer is probably on the top of that list, which is acctually a lot less scary than most dodgy people in Helsinki.

Well, at least Faro is not scared and does not get bored of the same path, because every day there is new smells. I take the other direction of the road or go to the forest when I have the opportunity to take him out during the light hours.

The gear when we go out in the darkness:

Faro has a reflective west and a reflective collar.

Same goes for us minus the collar but plus some other reflexes. (Stefan in this case) Stefan also brings a little flashlight that he puts on when a car drives past (or when we see/hear something, usually Faro is the one who notices the deers or cats or whatever first in the dark).

And finally some road pics just to illustrate the pitch black for you :-)

Road to the right:

Road to the left:

Snow

2011-11-28T16:07:00.005+02:00

We had some snowfall last night, I was sure it was gonna melt but some of it acctually stayed. Quite crazy, it was something like 10-12 degrees during the day and in the evening after the snow the temperature had fallen to 2.

In any case it does look much more pretty with some snow around-not looking forward to the cold though!

Also used some egg yellows for a sauce and what better to do with the whites than use them for some meringue. I'm a sucker for meringue but it's not very often I acctually come around to make some (like what do you do with all the yellow then?) even if the homemade ones are the best.

Happy first Advent everyone

2011-11-26T20:55:00.002+02:00

Had my first glöggi (mulled wine) and ginger bread today! Yammi! Have been dying to drink the glöggi already for some days now.

I had even some pics but turned out that the camera is really giving up on us so I can't be bothered uploading the pics. Seems I really have to put my faith in the iphone camera for now.

Small Kisses

2011-11-24T18:00:00.002+02:00

When Faro was younger I tried to teach him the "kiss" command but it seemed impossible he was more aiming for my ears and shoulders, for some reason. However, some weeks ago when we were waiting for our turn in agility I was bored and used the time for trying the command again and this time around he got the new command after only few repeats. He still pushes his nose into my eye or nose sometimes and every now and then I get a cute chin-kiss but it's still a fun trick to show off.

Today it was a bit difficult to get his attention at first:

after the scratch moment he was still not completely convinced:

Until he learned there was dog treats involved:

Online gif creator

The dresshunt continues

2011-11-23T17:34:00.003+02:00

Ou gosh! I have now a dress at home but I'm pretty sure I don't want it. On the other hand I know a dress that could defenitely work but there is no hurry with that one.

Who would have thought is was so difficult to find a dress??? Somehow in my head I just strolled into a store and found the one I wanted and that was it. Apparently it's more complicated.

I have a class-mate from Ukraine who is also getting married next year and she put it pretty blunt and honest; "all dresses here are ugly, really". Let's just say that most probably she is getting hers in Ukraine. ( she showed me some pretty nice models you can get done there, probably a lot cheaper too) I wouldn't say all are ugly but it's pretty difficult to find something that makes at least me feel pretty. A lot of them are very heavy and huge and have the wrong details in the wrong place. Or maybe I'm just too demanding :-P

Well, I'm not in a hurry yet but it would have been nice to find one dress on sale yesterday. Turns out that the one I liked most was next years collection-so not so cheap. On the other hand I can now take my time and see if I can find something similar cheaper, or then I just go back to the store and get that one custom-made for me a bit closer to the wedding.

Sorry, but no pics as I don't want the husband-to-be to know about the dresses I'd looked at.

Doh!

2011-11-21T00:12:00.002+02:00

Good new is I found the wedding dress yesterday when I googled around on the net.

Bad news is it is in New York and haute couture.

Not what I expected to find googling "rustic wedding dress".

Ou well, found something similar -ish today on the web so back to Stockholm tomorrow to try some dresses out. Will let you know how it goes :-)

Tolling training

2011-11-20T23:15:00.008+02:00

I have absolutely zero christmas feeling so far. Well, maybe next weekend if we go to the Christmas market in Uppsala castle as we planned it will appear from somewhere. I'm also really annoyed that our course is not finishing before Christmas, but instead we will have the exam after the holidays. I'd rather have it over and done with before.

The weather is not helping the Christmas spirit either. Today we spent the day at a toller-meeting training and it was fun but when I look at the pics from there it just looks gloomy and horrible. And quite interesting if you have no idea what's going on :-D

Let me introduce to you the art of training "tolling":

Even if we have a toller I have never trained the actual tolling part before. Basically, tollers' orange colour attracts ducks. Tollers were bred to resemble a fox since foxes hunt ducks by waving their tail, again since ducks for some reason nobody really knows are attracted and curious by this colour and come closer to see what's up. So by breeding a dog that resembles the fox, hunters could play with the dog close to the shore to get the ducks to come closer and when they were close enough they could shoot them and then the dog would do the retrieving of the bird as well.

So what we did was having a toller net up which should resemble a bush where you hide yourself and the dog behind. The grass on the other side should in a real situation be water. Then you'd make the dog quickly and repeatedly fetch a ball or a toy on the sides of the bush to make the dog visible and non-visible for the ducks which makes them curious to come closer, during that time the dog should obviously stay quiet and focused on you and not the ducks. When the ducks are close enough you'd make the dog sit or lay down and eventually give him the command of fetching once the bird(s) is down. During the training a person just threw a dummy (people that don't have dogs; a dummy is this thing we train with instead of a bird) that the dog fetched instead.

It was a very funny training and it was cool to see how Faro reacted when I started whispering and pretended to sneak up to the bush quietly not to scare the imaginary birds. He was all in with me on the sneaking up part, I almost expected him to start crawling. Later when we trained retrieving with some real birds he was less cooperative but all in all he was a good boy today.

I know the play face when I see it

2011-11-18T19:03:00.001+02:00

Has spent the whole day in the Rädda mannen conference (read more in my other blog about that). Now I'm tired and in the train home in the train. I know someone who's gonna want to play when I get home, Stefan just sent me this pic:

Stockholm trip

2011-11-17T20:51:00.004+02:00

No luck with dresses at the vintage fair today. Found one cute one but it was too small for me.

Well, we had a nice time in Stockholm anyway and stopped by Hötorget to get some Spanish snacks that are difficult to find in other stores here.

Now I better get to sleep as I'm going back to Stockholm tomorrow.

Buenas Noches!

Beetroot?

2011-11-15T19:08:00.002+02:00

It was quite funny in the store when the young boy in the cashier had to ask us what was the beetroot and the sweet potato for weighting them. (in Sweden you don't have to weight your fruits and vegetables before). Poor boy blushed when he couldn't recognize them .

I wonder if it was one of his firsts days or if people just never buy beetroot. (I am not sure I have bought raw beetroot from the store before myself).

Might show you later what we did of them.

Banana Pancakes

2011-11-15T09:00:00.000+02:00

Everytime I hear this song I get the munchies for banana pancakes.

Finally, this morning my dream came through! Yammi!

Derivatives

2011-11-14T13:21:00.002+02:00

Believe it or not but I spent the most of the weekend studying derivatives. Seems like derivatives is gonna be an important part in the next course and I have forgotten all about them. Suprisingly YouTube came to my rescue. I didn't realize YouTube could be so handy when it came to studying but in maths it really is, I understand a lot better when somebody explain it to me than when I'm trying to read it from some boring book.

All for you, definition of the derivative:

Enjoy!

Fog and agility

2011-11-12T16:51:00.004+02:00

It's foggy almost all the time nowadays! A few days ago when I came from Uppsala it was sunny when I came home and as soon I as I got inside the fog came almost scarily over fields and blocked all sunlight and view away. Today is the same again, but we were good and took ourselves out of bed in the morning for some agility training. Pic by our trainer, here is me and Faro:

The pic is taken from quite far so you might have to use your magnifying glass to see us! Fog in the background as usual.

Breakfast smoothie

2011-11-10T14:30:00.002+02:00

Faro

2011-11-06T20:22:00.005+02:00

Faro turned two in September but today is acctually the two year anniversary since we got him. He was just a fur-ball two years ago on the snowy day we drove him home to Helsinki.

Now after two years with such an active puppy he is slowly calming down and we are so happy to have such a beautiful, funny and clever dog. He's quite head-strong which he completely use against me but nowadays I'm aware of it and try to think one step ahead of him, with more and less success :-)

But the things I love most about him is his playfulness & mischief, the way he knows to be gentle around kids and the cleverness.

Faro and his sister in Finland:

And yes, it is a breed that needs some activities or thinking every day and soooometimes we have maybe not been super motivated to train with him but usually that has not been a problem. The worst I think is the first morning walk, but that is just something that comes with every dog.

In the end I think we chose a good dog-breed for us so it was good that we took a lot of time thinking of that. Even if I'd love to have a new Faro-puppy I am quite curious of trying another breed one day. We have also been considering perhaps taking a dog that needs a new home one day, but there is of course always a risk in that. But we'll see, no more dogs until we are back from Sweden at least :-)

Stefan also posted some pics of Faro for the anniversary.

Back in Sweden

2011-11-05T17:13:00.008+02:00

We arrived early this morning back to Sweden, a bit disoriented because it was so dark still outside at 6:30. The clocks needed to be updated in the house and we were not really sure what time it was anymore since we changed to wintertime back in Finland a week ago. It was also cold in the house as we turned down the batteries while we were away.

But after a few hours of sleep and a walk with the neighbour and their dog we felt better.

All in all the weeks in Finland were good. I just get so lazy to be online as we don't have our own internet in our house and have to go to my parents place. We had a master plan and were gonna get the same sort of mobile internet stick from DNA as we have here in Sweden but it turned out they don't sell you the USB stick unless you make a contract for at least six months. Gah! Why does it always have to be so complicated?

Ou well, instead of surfing I have done som serious raking, been to the hairdresser, sauna and seen some friends.

Faro wanted to have a go at the raking:

We found out he is half-chineese:

We ate some elk-meet hunted by dad and Faro ate the bones.

And the book-fair! It was a great success even if we didn't spend much time outside the Stockmann's akademiska bokhandelns stand. I even got two books signed so I'm very happy :)
One of them was Peppe's book, that everybody have been bloging about, started reading it on the boat yesterday so soon I'll now what to think of it myself.

Enjoying the country-side

2011-10-28T11:34:00.005+03:00

Haven't done much the last days but cooking, reading and the occasional walk.

But it's been good :-)

Faro as you can see are also enjoying the lazy days.

I'm even a bit scared about going out and socializing tomorrow. Luckily I think we'll start the day in the book fair with all the book nerds so hopefully the social code is not too high :-P

Finlandia

2011-10-25T13:41:00.004+03:00

Back home in the Finnish the country-side for a couple of weeks, so will not be updating to much for the next days I think.

Our first day back was fantastic just because we got to go to sauna, I've missed that in Sweden!

Yesterday, we spent at the kennel and took Faro to the physiotherapist's place that treated him a year ago after the accident. Apperently he was quite tense from all the agility so it was good we went and he need to loose about one kilo. Ops! :-) that's my fault I think, I thought that he seemed so skinny a month ago and that it was ok to give him some more food as we have been training so much with him but apperently not really...Finally we also got some excersises to train the deep small muscles in his back legs, seems that he is taken a lot of strenght to the front legs only or it might be because we have trained a lot of contact-training where he has his back-legs on top of something and front legs on the ground.

I forgot to show you our diploma from one of the courses :-) Haven't got a diploma since primary school I think so that was fun

Almost finished with the first course!

2011-10-21T21:40:00.004+03:00

phew, it's been a tough couple of days. Yesterday we presented our projects and got some feedback from other students. We celebrated with a nice dinner and went out afterwards as it was the last lecture of the course but we still have to work on the final version of the project, which we did the whole day today. So now I'm tired and will continue tomorrow...

Now bedtime & I leave you with this video, I'm quite impressed with their co-ordination! I wouldn't manage:-)

Horse-riding

2011-10-18T22:08:00.001+03:00

Stefan's birthday present this year was a ride on icelandic horses, I think he got tired of me going " oooh, horses!" everytime we saw horses by the road, since here's a lot of them. So finally this saturday was the horseriding day.

My legs are still a bit sore but it was fun! I didn't realize I look like a 5-year-old though with all the pink and jeez the horse look small on the pic! :-D My toes were frozen after 2 hours though so either I need warmer shoes for next time or better wait for the spring.

Peeping Tom is a Deer

2011-10-17T21:29:00.007+03:00

We have a window in the bathroom facing the forest, but sometimes in the night when it is light indoors and completely dark out and you can't see a damn thing through them, I would prefer to have at least blurry windows to know that nobody looks inside. When it's windy you hear noises too, and since you can't see a thing, my imagination starts playing tricks on me. Sorry for the blurry picture-but you get the idea, this is our bathroom:

Today when I went for the morning shower and what did I see on the outside:

Someone was enjoying breakfast. As long as it's a little deer I'm ok but the day it's a bear I might wanna move back to the city.

And tickets for Finland are bought 23.10-4.11 we'll be back in Finlandia.

Swedish Dates

2011-10-15T00:49:00.003+03:00

I don't know when I'm gonna learn to write them in the wrong order! Like: 2011.10.14 when the correct way is obviously 14.10.2011!

Right?! :-)

Unfortunatly, I had got it completly wrong on the phone as well. We were supposed to (I thought at least!) have the car check-up today but turns out it's 14th of NOVEMBER! Holy macaroni! I blame it on the Skåne-guy on the phone, he basically spoke Danish and was impossible to understand. Well, we'll try calling them on Monday to get it re-scheduled. Otherwise we'll just have to wait I guess.

Now Faro is not-so-happy because we are not yet in bed so nighty nighty!

Stefan's Boss

2011-10-14T12:15:00.001+03:00

Stefan's new boss came to check that he really is working. No lazyness allowed!

Tired

2011-10-12T23:51:00.004+03:00

Pheeew, seems there is too much to do and too little time nowadays!

Should read some articles for tomorrow and need to work on the project for next week. Also I should get some sleep!

Just wanted to tell you that I past my first exam! The Swedes have a wierd scale though goes like this:

U (which is FAIL)
3 (20-29 points)
4 (30-34 points)
5 (35-40 points)

I got a 4 so I'm happy. The silly thing is I got a 10 points for the question I thought was most difficult, I guess it was easy once I finally remembered the correct answer. Perhaps that's why I answered less good on the other questions because I kept thinking the whole exam who the f*** was Mintzberg? Luckily, I remember thar just in time to write the full answer and score a jack pot on that one :-) ( and if you're wondering Mintzberg has a theory on stategies, how to position yourself on the market)

Well, bedtime, Faro is already snoring after the agility today.

The Typical must-take cruise-pic of us

2011-10-10T23:34:00.002+03:00

Strange People in Uppsala

2011-10-10T20:01:00.003+03:00

Back in Uppsala yesterday with my friends in the trainstation we were sitting down on a bench and opposite us sat a woman that looked pretty normal but after a while we noticeed she talked to herself. When she started to creep out my friend she came up to us and asked if she can borrow her a phone. None of us really wanted her to though so she walked on.

Today when I was waiting for the bus I was checking my messages on my phone and didn't notice her at first but it was the same woman who came up to us yesterday, today she was asking me for money.

She didn't look like the avarage begger, so I was a bit puzzled. She seemed mostly disoriented and confused, like you imagine an alzheimer patient. She seemed to young to have alzheimer though but who knows....

Helsinki trip

2011-10-09T21:52:00.002+03:00

We had a rocky ride on the boat on the way there because of the storm but our first glimpse of Helsinki in the morning was beautiful so it was worth it.

I spent the whole day with a friend. We had lovely brunch at Sis Deli, spent some time in the book store and finished the day having dinner in the new restaurant Vapiano in Helsinki. I loved the fact that they had spicy Italian sausage on the pizza. Our old favourite italian restaurant stopped that because "Finnish people don't like spicy food". Bah!

Now I'm back in Sweeden, tired from the party on the boat, seems like these guys also had a tough weekend:

On My Way

2011-10-07T13:21:00.001+03:00

Feeling better and on my way to the cruise, waiting for the bus in Knutby.

Lovely weather ain't it?

Fever!

2011-10-05T18:37:00.004+03:00

Ounou! I was happy last week because I had not caught the flu from my classmates but I spoke to soon...the last days I had a cough and flu and now I have fever :-( (ok, 37 degrees but it's a lot for me)

Just had one of these, (luckily we had ginger at home since I tried to make this recipe some weeks ago) Now I go back to bed-hope to be well for the cruise on the weekend.

Tobago chicken was good:

I dare you to check this out!

2011-10-02T15:40:00.002+03:00

Stefan made again a funny post-about "scary" animals in Sweden.

The Swedish Way of internet banking

2011-10-02T09:34:00.001+03:00

As I finally got my bank-account in Sweden I also got my "codes" for the internet bank. Except for that the codes are in a machine that looks like a small calculator and you have to insert your card in there. The thing looks like this:
So everytime you want to log-in to the internet bank you have to 1: put in a code to the machine the internet bank gives you 2: remember your card-code and 3: put the code the machine gives you in the internet bank and then finally you can log-in. It's a bit more annoying than at home where you have the codes on a piece of paper that is easy to bring with you and you only have to remember your own usercode for the internet bank.

And finally I got my Ica-card as well and I was thrilled to get another little machine:

I hope this enhances the security or something becuase I really don't see the point.

Or perhaps it's an environmental thing? If it uses less energy and resources, making the small machines in china once (which will have to be shipped over?) or making the paper bits with codes several times. I wonder....

Chocolate

2011-10-01T20:24:00.003+03:00

Since we are anyway on the food-subject I need to show the yammi chocolate that my classmate made me for my birthday. Darkchochlate mixed with dried cranberries and some nuts and into the freezer and you'll have the same!

Ajvar Relish

2011-10-01T19:56:00.003+03:00

I was looking in vain for this sauce in Finland so was I happy when I found it even in our small Ica here.

Super yammi with chicken and rice!

Oat-porridge or havregrynsgröt

2011-10-01T19:35:00.006+03:00

Believe it or not but we acctually ate porridge for breakfast! I got inspired by the book I bought by Noora Schingler, where she wrote to eat porridge with fruit and berries.

I was fine with it until my berries were finished. It was ok with honey and banana too but oat porridge will never be a favorite of mine.

Autumn pics from yesterday

2011-09-30T17:19:00.006+03:00

Week in pics

2011-09-29T01:07:00.012+03:00

So now the exam is over but project work is instead coming up. Somethings I have managed to do though except for studying.

We took Faro swimming to the nearest lake:

and took a hike in the nice autumn weather:

I wanted to climb the tree but I was crap at it so instead Stefan managed:

Behind our house is the perfect field to train retrieving on (which we probably should do more)

There is a nice video here, (I guess it has been on Finnish TV?) where Faro's dad is retrieving and the kennel owner, from where we bought Faro, is explaining a bit about how to train retrieving with a toller. The bit with the tollers start more or less in the middle of the video.

On Sunday we also joined a rally-obedience course. We have done rally-obedience courses in Finland when Faro was younger, so it wasn't really anything new but it was good practise and a nice change from the agility that we do now twice a week.

and yesterday my classmates Sirppa and Pien were over for the group-project work:

Which leads me back to the point where I need to get back to working on it, or perhaps get some sleep first.

Buenas Noches!

Studies

2011-09-24T14:51:00.002+03:00

As I have been busy with studies for the exam on Monday you can check out some pics from the summer in Stefan's blog. The pics are taken at the natrual history museum when his parents were visiting.

Houses for Sale

2011-09-20T18:06:00.003+03:00

It seems honestly that every second house here is for sale. I wonder if that is only a presumption as they advertise it by the road much more than at home or if it really is more houses here for sale than at home and if that is the case, then why?
In any case if you feel like buying a house close to Uppsala here's a whole lot to choose from!

University

2011-09-18T20:56:00.008+03:00

I thought I would write a little bit about the University and the studies in SLU (Sveriges Lantbruks Universitet) in Uppsala as I think there might be some people interested in that.

I am very happy I attended the information days before the first week of classes because we really started off from day one with serious studying. Already the first week we had a seminar in class which needed to be prepared by with reading an article and writing a paper. However, we have a very inspiring teacher and it's been interesting so far so I am not minding doing the work. The exam is already next Monday (after more or less a month of classes)-which means I will do a lot more studying during the week that is coming up. But after that we will mostly have external lecturers which will be interesting but hopefully a bit more relaxed. During this first period, which will last until end of october, I acctually have only one course but it is 15 studypoints so we're required to put some effort, the course is called Environmental and Social Responsibilty Marketing.

Overall the University is quite focused on sustainable issues-their slogan is "Knowledge for a sustainable future" and it is in their strategy at least until next year.

I have all my classes in the same classroom in the economy-department building. Just under the classroom is a "fika"-room, where you can have coffee or lunch. This is shared between students and staff but that has not been a problem yet. Apperently it is also very common here that students and proffessors take a coffee togheter during breaks.

At least we have enough microwaves during lunch (note also the different bins for all kind of different trash). There is also two dish washing machines, one for dirty and one for clean-which I think works really well, this way the clean and dirty don't get mixed (at least not so often)

In general it seems that most people bring their own lunch as the student lunch cost the same as for externals, but also the staff and professors seems to bring their own lunch. Which is good because I have also made an effort to bring my own and hopefully it will save me some money during my studies. Also in the student union house there is a similar place for eating but it is always crammed during lunch so I prefer to stick to our department which is a bit more calm.

This I think is the restaurant building, but the student union building looks similar-it's an old barn that they have renovated.

Otherwise it is very green around Campus, which is nice. Not that I know if it will make much difference in the winter. This is just outside the economic department:

And international students playing kubb on the grass (my team was a disaster, I didn't remember kubb being so difficult!):

In general I like the campus very much, the only minus could be that we are a bit outside from the center so it lacks a store and an ATM. There is a University store though but they sell mostly pens, paper, SLU-shirts etc., you can find some snacks there but not food.

They are also building on the campus area so I think that in a year everybody will move to the new buildnings. Perhaps even after New Year's? Not really sure. Not really sure either why they are buidling new as the old ones seem to work ok but I guess they have their reasons. Will update with more pics later, when and if, the new buildnings get ready.

Catta & Knives

2011-09-18T08:00:00.000+03:00

I have bad karma with knives. Cut myself a few years ago when trying to cut cheese with a knife (which was a bad idea from the start but at the time we didn't have a cheese-cutter) so bad that I needed stiches in the hospital.

Anyhow, as the one knife we took with us from Finland was in really bad shape with a crooked edge I decided to buy a quality fiskar's knife. Which was a good idea since it is really sharp-but a bad idea since it is really sharp.

Already cut myself twice. Not bad but small cuts that bled a lot.

For some reason the cuts are also on different hands. How I managed that I am not sure myself. You only get a pic from one hand though.

In any case the single purpose of this post was anyway just to show you what a beatuful floor we have in the house.

And secondary I just wanted to remind you to be careful with knives.

Faro 2 years-old

2011-09-17T23:30:00.006+03:00

We spent his birthday back in Fjällnora natural park as it was such a nice place-the weather was also on our side today.

Tip

2011-09-14T15:22:00.000+03:00

Stefan posted some more nice photos from the weekend.

Weekend guests

2011-09-12T20:30:00.011+03:00

My blogging is not really going according to plan at the moment as the blog Iphone app refuses to upload any photos. Anyone else had a problem as well? Tips on how to fix it???? Already tried deleting the app and download it again.

Anyhow, I wanted to share with you some pics from the weekend when my Aussie friend's were over for a visit. We did heaps of stuff:

Guard change in Stockholm:

Skansen zoo:

Kung Björn's hög:

Faro getting aquinted with goats:

Old Uppsala:
Uppsala Culture Night:

Öregrund:

It was all in all a very nice weekend and I felt very at home with listening to some Autralian accent again.

Here is where we will train agility

2011-09-08T22:57:00.004+03:00

Miss Jay on Finnish language

2011-09-04T17:00:00.000+03:00

He's pretty good imitating Finnish! (Stefan hates these top model shows but I secretely love checking out the photos from the shoots they are doing, otherwise I don't find them so very entertaining)

Agnes Obel

2011-09-04T15:00:00.000+03:00

Saw the add for Maaemo restaurant in this blog this morning. The video is nice and everything but the music was very nice. Had to investigate a bit and found out it is Agnes Obel singing, she wasn't known to me before but I'm very curious to hear more from her.

Puma

2011-09-04T13:02:00.005+03:00

Our landlord's dog resting on our porch. She's adorable but big like a pony. (Great Dane)

They had a lovely Rottweiler as well but had to put her away because of cancer :-(

Skype

2011-09-04T00:27:00.001+03:00

Jess! We managed to get a much better mobile internet. So now it doesn't take ages anymore to update and best of all: I can skype!

In case this is valuable information for somebody :-)

Fjällnora

2011-09-03T21:52:00.012+03:00

Fjällnora is a natural park/recreational area close to Uppsala and where we spent our day today.

Faro saw the light, the lake, that is.

Happy Dog:

He found a couple of new friends:

Faro was behaving suprisingly well infront of the sheep. No barking, but very confused about the "baaaah" sound!

Old house

2011-09-01T20:43:00.001+03:00

Old house from 1823.

As I most of the time feel old here I'll put the house as a reference so I can say young woman going out for party 2011:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Engelska parken

2011-09-01T17:37:00.001+03:00

Walking through the "English park" which turned out to be a graveyard. Reminds me of the one in Hietalahti in Helsinki. It is also equally difficult to find the way out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone