3BT: Random Days

1. After accidentally banging my head to a cabinet in the kitchen, I ran to hubby and told him what happened and he kissed and rubbed the pain away HO HO HO HO...Yeah, I CAN be a spoilt girl!!! *cheeky grin*

2. The look on my MIL's face when she told me the story of how she met my FIL (yeah, still the look of a woman in love). They met 49 years ago and have been married for over 47 years now.

3. Practising my Finnish as I told my MIL so many stories. Go, Amel, go!!!

4. Progress. Looking back on the past and comparing them with the present gives me a boost of encouragement. 1,5 years ago after I started learning Finnish on my own for a while, I tried reading very easy children's books (with more pictures than texts) but the progress was VERY VERY slow (it took an hour just to understand fully the text on one page).

These days if I really spend time to read regular children's books (with more texts than pictures), I can move forward MUCH faster (esp. if the story interests me, then I can read more pages each day - but of course I still need to use my dictionary).

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5. Now that most of the snow has melted away from many parts of downtown, I can try strengthening my legs by using gear 2, 3 or even 4 when riding my bike. WOOOHOOO!!!

6. Buying more flower seeds for my MIL and seeing some of them being grown inside the house (it's not safe to put them outside yet) makes me feel EXCITED!!! Gonna take LOTS of pics of her flowers again later on!!!

7. Last night hubby didn't play any computer games with his friends after we went back home from my in-laws. Instead he watched a movie with me. :-D

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8. Telling hubby that I'm such a LUCKY girl to have him in my life. :-D

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Explanation About My Training

For those of you who may be confused...let me tell you that this type of training I'm doing is not a real job. It doesn't guarantee my getting a job (ideally it would, but I doubt it since it's a small village and I know they have enough workers there). It's not a "trial period" before you get a real job and I'm not getting any salary for doing it. However, I'm going to get some benefit (in the form of money, though not as big as a real salary) from the government for doing this training (well, that's BETTER than nothing, right?).

The thing is...I don't know what kind of job I want to do here in Sodankylä. I don't really want to do cleaning jobs if I don't really have to, but I also want to practise my Finnish and socialize a bit instead of just being cooped up at home, waiting for R2 to come home. The unemployment office here encourages me to go try finding a training place if I still don't know what type of job I want to do (if I'm not confident enough to apply for any real job yet). So I was the one who had to ask the library manager if I could do the training there.

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I just found out, though, that this type of training can only last for MAX. 3 months. My contract is only for one month and it can be extended until 3 months, but no more. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to extend it or not. Besides, it all depends on the library manager, too. If she doesn't need my help anymore, then I won't be able to extend it.

But I thought to myself, "Why not try, right? I'm going to get some extra money even though it's not too much, but if I don't use the money, it's all VERY good. Plus I get some experience and I get Finnish practise and I get to know more about the work places in Sodankylä."

So my training will be over on December 23rd. If I want and can extend it, I'll probably do it before this contract is over. If not, I'll just see what else I can find...if I can't find any interesting jobs that I can apply to yet, I'm going to try to find an interesting course to apply to. We'll see how it goes.

So far so good he he he he he...OK, let me blog-hop a bit. Still have no time to blog-hop too much since I had to go to supermarket after work and then cook he he he...so sorry, people, I'll try to catch up bit by bit, OK? TAKE CAREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Talk, Amel, Talk!!!

Life has a funny way of giving you the lessons you "try" to avoid ha ha ha...When life's determined to shape you in a certain way or when you're still not learning the same lessons over and over again, then you'll face a similar problem again. And perhaps again.

I've told you that I've found a place to do my training after the course ends in mid June. The problem is that I still have to meet the boss to work on the training contract. And I also need to ask about my working hours and when my lunch break is and stuff like that.

Yesterday I went to the store again to do that, but alas, the boss was talking on the phone and there were some customers there. Plus I saw another guy restocking the place, so they must've been busy. So I went home and decided to go back to the store today.

Today I went there after the course, hoping to find the same woman I talked to last week that told me that I could do the training there. Alas, there was a different person near the counter and I didn't see the boss there. I did talk to her, though, in Finnish. I explained to her about what I wanted to do, and then she replied in a "normal" pace in Finnish, which sounded in my ears like "blrblblrrlkbbbklllrrrbbbllrlrlblblrlblrbbblrrbbbrrlkllkkllllbbbrrr".

So I smiled and asked her politely to say it more slowly. She smiled and decided to change her words into simpler ones (I know it for sure since at first she said SO many sentences!!!). THANK GOD for that hi hi hi hi...I LOVE it when Finnish people try to explain something to foreigners in a simpler way. I TRULY appreciate it!!! She said that today was her first day at work and that I should talk to the boss instead so that everything would be clear. She said that the boss would probably come either the next day or the day after, so I should come back later.

Phew!!! I actually still "dislike" talking to new people in Finnish, since I don't know whether I can understand them or not. I can prepare at home whatever it is I want to ask or say, but I have NO idea whether I can understand what the other person is saying to me or not. I guess my self-confidence is still so low hi hi hi hi hi...Plus I'm not really a people person. I'm getting better at practising Finnish (read: forcing myself to speak), but still I'm not nearly as chatty as people who are born chatty, you know what I mean? *wink* If I don't really have to talk, I prefer still not to talk HA HA HA HA HA HA...

Anyway, speaking of health, I've been doing MUCH better though my nose's still runny and every morning for the past few days I've been able to blow out some YUCKY stuff out of my nose. I described the yucky stuff in detail to Arttu and he asked me, "Do you have to describe it to me?" LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!

Ahem...what can I say? I AM a gross girl sometimes HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...You can ask my closest female friends and they'll all say the same thing hi hi hi hi...

And speaking of MONEY, remember when I said that last week I got more student money than I thought? WRONG!!! It was actually the accumulation of unemployment money. You see, I didn't know that I could have applied for unemployment money since I had NEVER worked in Finland. When I applied for the student money right before the course started, the government sent me so much paperwork to fill and they asked me to explain why I hadn't applied for unemployment money when I first moved to Finland.

Today I received the notification from them, stating that I was actually eligible to get unemployment money starting from last June, but since my application came so late, they only paid me unemployment money starting from last December.

So the money they sent me last week wasn't my student money. I'm REALLY HAPPY to get that extra sum of money, though, since I didn't even expect it!!! Every cent of it goes RIGHT into my "untouchable" account HUE HE HE HE HE HE HE...Pretty soon I'll be able to get back the amount of money I want to keep safely in that account. HALLELUJAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

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Okie dokie, I think I may exercise right now so that tomorrow morning I don't have to wake up too early he he he...I tried to take a nap, but unfortunately sleep didn't come over me, so better make the most of the time then he he...I'll blog-hop again either tonight or tomorrow, OK?

Topsy Turvy

Sorry I haven't been around. I've been VERY VERY tired. I think there's some kind of bug going on since today some of us suffer from a headache. Ugh!!! I think I'm going to ask Arttu to coin me again today to make sure I'll be fit tomorrow. I just don't feel 100% myself today, though this morning I felt perfectly fine, but after lunch break it was just horrible. Even our teacher's got a headache today!!!

Anyway, today we received news from our teacher that the course would be continued still, even though the French girl left the class. You see, yesterday we were worried that the course would stop since we once heard that there should be at least 8 students in order for the course to be opened. Phew!!! Yesterday I was a bit sad since if the course stopped, that meant that I wouldn't have enough money to buy the plane ticket. Well, I'd have enough, but that meant that I wouldn't have any spare money to use in Indonesia and that wouldn't be good, right?

And we still don't know if the course is going to continue until the end, since the Swedish guy in our class is waiting for the mine to open again here. He used to work in a mine until it closed down, but there's news already that the mine is going to open again in April or May. If he stops going to our course and works at the mine again, MAYBE the course will stop, but by then, I'll get enough student money to buy a plane ticket to Indo. Phew!!!

Another thing we have to do soon is to find ourselves a training place. Gee...I thought that they'd assign us to do our training somewhere, but now we have to find it ourselves??? We'll see if my husband can help in that area...hmmmm...I'm really not confident enough to ask around to know if they'll accept me as a trainee, you know? HE HE HE HE HE...

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And today our teacher also told us about a national Finnish proficiency exam that would be held NEXT MONTH. If we want to take the test for free, then we should take it during this course. It sounds a bit "silly" to be honest, since we'll have only been learning it for 2.5 months during this course when the exam is held on April 12th, 2008. However, since it's for free, then why not find out how far we'll have gone by then, right? The actual exam fee is around €125 €77.

THAT meant that we'll all have to try and practise MUCH MUCH more. I must say that this is really making me a bit stressful since we're taking the intermediate test as per our teacher's recommendation. If I pass it, it'll make me VERY HAPPY since in 3 years, I can apply for a citizenship without having to take the test again. However, if I fail, at least I know what the exam is all about. I just have to make sure that I don't push myself too much to get good grades and just relax.

This kind of exam reminds me of the free exam that our faculty paid for us on our last semester at the university. It was a grueling affair, taking hours and hours. And we had to do a separate speaking session at TBI (The British Institute) where we were paired up and we had to go into a room where we were asked to do different types on conversations based on pictures or questions. In the room there were one native speaker and one TBI teacher taking notes about our conversation and our conversation was recorded on tape.

I guess that the national Finnish test would be more or less the same (reading comprehension, listening comprehension, grammar, writing, and speaking). The only difference is that we'll only speak to a microphone instead of having to speak with a partner in front of a native speaker.

We'll see how it goes then. That means that I'll probably not be able to blog-hop too much during weekdays, since I'll really focus on learning more Finnish and memorizing more words and reading more Finnish texts until the exam is done. So pardon my absence, okay? I'll try to blog-hop during the weekend, though. Take care, everybody!!!

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Farewell to Another Classmate

Yesterday I battled with bureaucracy. Finally I received some papers from KELA, but I was surprised since they weren't the papers I was waiting for. They sent me the papers concerning some unemployment benefit starting from last June until last month. They also attached a piece of paper where I was supposed to explain why I submitted the application so late.

Gee...how was I supposed to know that I was entitled to get some unemployment benefit from them? I thought that since Arttu had got a permanent job starting last June, that meant that I wasn't qualified to apply for an unemployment benefit. Other than that, I had never worked in Finland before. Why would I apply for something that I thought that I wouldn't get in the first place, right? Oh well...

Today after a quick lunch, I went to the office to submit the papers. My Brit friend's hubby had told me that the girl who spoke English in the office was taking a week off, so I would have to use my basic Finnish knowledge there. I went inside the office and the girl told me to go to the inner office. Hey, it was good to know that I understood that bit of the sentence that she said in Finnish HA HA HA HA HA HA...

Then I came into the inner office and an older woman was sitting there. I came in and gave her all the forms, then she said something very quickly in Finnish, which I only understood about 5 seconds later HA HA HA HA HA HA...But at least I understood it, right?

Then after checking the forms, she asked me something (again very quickly) in Finnish. I knew some of the words, but I wasn't sure what she meant. I told her (in Finnish) that I only spoke a little Finnish, and she said, "I don't speak much English" and laughed nervously ha ha ha ha ha...She asked me the same question, but more slowly, and I finally decided to play a guessing game. Turned out that my guess was right. I was supposed to submit my hubby's salary statement and she thought that it wasn't there yet, so I pointed it out and she said, "Oh yesss..." and so I didn't need to submit any other papers (I hope not!!!).

Well, it was good practice, even though I only spoke a few sentences in Finnish, but I managed to speak only in Finnish HE HE HE HE HE...;-D I still don't know whether I'll get something from them concerning the unemployment benefit or not, 'coz I heard that if your hubby's salary reaches a certain level, then you won't get any. Oh well...at least that was done. ;-D

And when I came back home today, what did I find? More papers from the office and this time they're the correct papers for the course. On one piece of paper, it's stated how much I'll get per day and how much taxes I have to pay. So at least it's very clear now that I'm getting the student money which I DESPERATELY NEED so that I can buy a plane ticket to Indo. I'm not going to book a ticket yet, but I have to consider when I'm going to Indonesia as soon as possible (at least I think maximum next month) so that Arttu can negotiate his summer holiday.




Today my female French friend said goodbye to us, since she was contacted by her former employer about a certain job offer in Greece (she works in the travel industry). She's really considering taking that job, so today we parted with some tears. Well, at least we've exchanged email addresses, so we'll surely keep in touch he he he he...The room is gonna feel emptier than ever soon, but we'll keep studying hard he he he...

I have an idea to give to the teacher at the end of our course. I want to take a pic of each of us and then print them out and put them on a piece of carton along with our names below our individual pics and then give it to the teacher later on. I have to talk about this to the others first, though. ;-D If possible I also want to take a group picture. ;-D And for sure I'll put the group picture in my blog later on so that you can see it HE HE HE HE HE HE...

Anyway, I'm SOOOOOO tired right now, so I'm gonna take a nap now...hope you've been doing well, my friends. I'm gonna blog-hop later on, okay?

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Lost in Translation

This morning Arttu woke me up again since I couldn't drag myself out of bed ha ha ha...Not long after that, he laughed and said to me that I made lots of noises last night. He told me that I had snored and farted a few times at the same time during the night. He tried touching me to make me move so that I'd stop snoring. Gladly I did stop snoring once he managed to make me move my position HI HI HI HI...I still CANNOT believe that I snored AND farted at the same time!!! Unbelievable!!!

Today went well. I got plenty of practise again, but I couldn't take a nap even though I'm SO tired. I guess I should just go to sleep early again. Last night I went to be already at around 10.30 pm. Maybe I snored since I was so tired???? Hmmmhhh...I don't snore a lot, though. Well, at least not that I know of HA HA HA HA HA HA...Nobody had ever told me that I snored back in Indo. I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that the air here is so dry or not. Just weird. I used to sleep in the same room as my brother for years, but he never told me that I snored in my sleep (he's an early bird, unlike sleepyhead me).

Oh well...no homework today, but Finnish words and phrases are swimming in my head. It's been like that ever since the course started. Whenever I try to sleep, my brain keeps on repeating the lessons today or what I heard today.

One funny thing about being in an international class is that it's easy to get lost in translation ha ha ha ha ha...I had lunch in the kitchen with the French guy and the Thai girl. Both of them don't speak English fluently. The French guy speaks Finnish pretty well since he had lived in Helsinki for 3 years. When we were talking, sometimes I had to translate what the Thai girl meant to the French guy. My grey brain cells definitely have been working quite diligently these past few days ha ha ha...

Being in an international class also means that you've gotta be good at guessing and reading body languages. Even if you can't understand every single word that someone utters, you need to be able to read between the lines and just take a (sometimes wild) guess. VERY interesting, challenging, and fun!!! I can't wait to learn more things from the teacher and from my classmates.

One thing for sure, though, if I don't get enough sleep, I'll be in HUGE trouble since I need to REALLY concentrate on listening to either my teacher or my classmates who don't speak much English or who speak more Finnish than English. So I'll still be a sleepyhead no matter what HA HA HA HA HA HA...

Side note: I know what Arttu's going to say if he read my last paragraph. He'll say, "Excuses, excuses..." LOL!!!

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Update on Our Finnish Course

The other day I just found out that our Finnish teacher will stop teaching us since she's been too busy, so her family doesn't want her to work during the evenings, as well. I don't know yet how it's going to be like now: whether or not the course will be continued or whether or not the local government has found a new teacher.

The bottom line is that there should be at least 5 students in one classroom and we (my Brit friend, hubby, and I) don't know yet whether the others are going to enroll in this spring class or not. After all, two of them had just given birth and another one is now heavily pregnant. As to the other one...hmmm...maybe she'll enroll in this course, but still that means we need another one.

Well, whatever happens, I'm still going to force myself to learn Finnish from websites and books. :-))) And of course I'm going to practise it with my in-laws HE HE HE HE...

GAMBATTE KUDASAIIIIIIIII, say the Japanese!!! ;-D

Operation Speak Up

Karen wrote Silence is Golden in her blog. I told her that in my life, I have to learn the other way around, especially here in Finland. I'm always afraid of trying to practise my Finnish. So the creative Karen has made me a button to launch Operation Speak Up.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for this button, buddy!!! ;-D

This operation is for everyone who's shy, who's afraid of making mistakes when practising a new language, who's afraid of speaking up their thoughts in general. This operation is to challenge anyone to move outside their comfort zone and to take risks by speaking up their minds.

I have promised Karen that I'd try to speak to my mother-in-law yesterday before I launched this operation. Turned out that I didn't have to do anything much as she was the one who initiated the conversation. Arttu was taking a nap after lunch, and since I wasn't sleepy, I got back to the living room where my mother-in-law was cooking. I thought even if we couldn't talk, I'd be able to help out if she wanted to. However, she was almost done already, so she didn't ask for my help. While waiting for the food to be cooked in the oven, she then tried to talk to me.

First of all, she said this slowly: "How old...(then she spoke some words in Finnish)?" I thought she wanted to know the age difference of my parents, so I held up four fingers. She realized I didn't get it hi hi hi...so she took a Post-It note and wrote down her own age on it. Then I realized that she wanted to ask my parents' age. So I told her and she said, "Ahhh...nuori, nuori." (nuori = young)

Then she started asking about other stuff, as well. It was a pretty funny conversation 'coz sometimes she repeated her question several times just to make sure I understood. My problem was that sometimes I understood her question, but it took me a long time to find the words in Finnish and to create a sentence using the words, so she thought I didn't understand, so she repeated the question. Next time I should find out the words for: "Let me think." He he he he he...

Then at one point we had a hard time understanding each other, so she went to her room, took out her pocket English dictionary, and tried to find words to help her explain to me what she wanted to know. I TRULY appreciated her effort in trying to converse with me. I've gotta tell you that I was sweating during the first 5-10 minutes 'coz I knew I was all alone (Arttu couldn't help me) and I had no dictionary with me. But it turned out to be better than expected. Why? Because she was so determined in talking to me with her very limited English, it encouraged me to talk to her with my very limited Finnish. Plus we got to laugh in between when we had a hard time trying to say something in those languages he he he he he...

At another point, we had another difficult time in understanding each other. Gladly by then Arttu had woken up, so he helped me a little. He refused to help me a lot, dang him! Yeah, I know it's good for me to practise, but sometimes I hope he'd help me more by giving his mother a more detailed answer (I can only give simple answers) he he he...

I've gotta tell you that with very limited knowledge, one has gotta be a good guesser, too ha ha ha...One time she asked me about my parents' jobs. I didn't know the Finnish word for "retired", so I told her that my Dad stopped working last year. She then tried to look up the word in her pocket dictionary and showed it to me, and I said YES!!! It felt GOOD to be able to understand each other he he he...

I also told her that my brother was going to get married this December. Then she said, "Oh, but you're here, so you can't go to his wedding, right?" I said that he'd send me pictures of his wedding via email he he he...Then she asked about taxes system in Indonesia (at this point Arttu was our translator 'coz it was too hard for me to explain) and about Christmas celebration he he he...

Anyway, when we got back home, Arttu joked, "I should leave you alone in my parents' place for a few weeks." GRRRRRRR he he he he...

But all in all, I felt SO HAPPY 'coz yesterday I spoke the most Finnish ever since I moved here! I'm gonna try to practise my Finnish with them again next time I see them. It seems that they're eager to ask questions about my country and family he he he...

WHOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPEEEE!!!

I feel like jumping up and down the place (and I stopped sweating after those 10-15 minutes had passed) HA HA HA HA HA...

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Good news is that next Saturday's our first wedding anniversary. It doesn't feel that way 'coz we've only been together in real life for about 7 months now. The other day I asked Arttu when we'd spend a night at the cabin again, and yesterday he told his mother that we MAY go there next weekend. YIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!! I LOVE going to the cabin 'coz there's no computer or TV to bother us. Just the radio, us, and nature!!! ;-D Plenty of quality time. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

P.S. Next time I'll remember my pocket Finnish dictionary so that I can talk more with my mother-in-law HE HE HE HE HE HE HE...