The Last Week

Dearest Blog Readers,
I apologize for neglecting you, I have been busy and when I do have some extra time to myself I use that time to sleep.
It is Thursday evening of the last week of Summer School.  It has been a last-week sort of week.
Sunday was rather relaxing and I spent most of it alone.  I was able to sleep in and then do some much needed cleaning, taking out the trash etc.  I went to English mass at noon.  Before it started the priest came around and asked where I was from, I said the United States and then he said Oh, alright so you speak English well, will you do the first reading? Uhhhh... yeah I guess (I mean really, how do you say no to a priest when he is that direct and you have no excuses?) So I read during mass and then we had coffee afterward.  Two women from Kenya hosted in the basement of the church.  It was really quaint. It was a small affair, the two Kenyan women, a man from Somalia (I think?), an au pair originally from England but had been living in France for 15-16 years, a guy from Poland, my American friend Charlie and then me.  I'm glad that coffee after church is practiced world-wide.
After that I headed in the direction to get back to the dorms but my feet led me elsewhere.  I climbed to the top of the largest hill in Jyväskylä and then further up the tower that overlooks the city.  It is called Harjun Hill/Harjun Tower.  Wow. You can see a lot from up there.

The Tower

Like a good tourist that I am I took lots of pictures.  

The City Center

City Center/Main Lake/Part of Campus

Harjun Stadium

Dorms and the Ski Jump

After a peaceful walk and a nap I had dinner with Merle, we made French toast and an omlet.  It is a funny how everyone has their own version of the same food.  Before we met up and were in the planning stage she told me we should make pancakes.  From earlier meals I learned that pancakes to non-americans is the equivalent of a crêpe.  Turns out we made french toast.  She had a Dutch word for it but I don't remember it.  Doesn't matter what you call it, it tasted good.  Once our bellies were full we went and played soccer/football for about an hour.  Then sweet sleep.

My final class, Argumentation and Rhetoric started Monday morning at 9:15.  It is an interesting class.  It is offered from the Philosophy department, so lots and lots of thinking.  The amount of questions that can be asked leads to an infinite loop.  Just as you think you have something resolved another question comes up and breaks down your entire statement or claim.  I shall elaborate on this class later, too much to tell in this post.  After class my friend, Becca, from Kansas and I made a pasta something dinner together.  We talked about boys, ahhh one of my favorite subjects.  It was fun and refreshing to talk about such a light subject after such a heavy day of class.  

Tuesday was class again, heavy again, lots of thinking again, more philosophy, more listening (and not listening) to lectures.  That evening the free time program was to have Sauna in the student union and make "pancakes" which are actually crêpes.  The room that is the student union is swanky.  It is modern and feels young.  I liked it.  We were able to chat and listen to Finnish radio and enjoy various worldly versions of crêpes.  There are three new Dutch guys that are here just for this week of class.  We had some very intense discussions about politics.  Oh joy.  They are extremely anti-gun rights and just couldn't understand why it was even an issue.  I wasn't prepared to a debate and did not have energy after a day of philosophical questiony class.  I did my best though to get them to at least see the other view point.  So much learning going on over here.  It isn't just class, it isn't just the obvious, explicit stuff.  Mostly it is learning about people.  It was still pretty fun, regardless of the controversial topics discussed.  Bed.

Middle of the week, Wednesday, attended class.  Worked on some homework, took a nap, then we had a girl's night.  Lauren, the girl from San Diego, left today so last night was her last night.  She invited the girls over for wine, pizza and painting nails.  I ate some reindeer pizza, it was pretty delicious.  The wine was nice and sweet.  My toes and nails are ready for sandals and admiring.  It was weird to think that we have been here for so long, yet so short of time and we most likely never ever see these people again.  So much has been shared between all of us and just like a snap we'll all go our separate ways never to cross paths again.  So our goodbyes were said with Lauren.  I'm sorry that I was so harsh toward her in the beginning.  I did not fully understand all her story, I still don't but I have more information to formulate my opinion of her and in conclusion I don't mind her company.  I don't know if I would ever be her best friend but I could consider her a friend.  I wish her well in whatever the future holds for her.

Which brings us to today, Thursday, June 13th 2013.  I walked to class this morning and smelled the glorious lilacs along the way.  Their smell makes the walk about 20 times more enjoyable.  

Class, oh class, oh so very interesting Argumentation and Rhetoric class.  So far we have covered pragmatic dialectic argumentation styles and what makes a good argument, etc. etc. lots of jargony philosophical stuff.  Most of this stuff seems pretty obvious to me but it is important to define things and come to general consensus.  An example of something I found obvious and redundant to be discussing in class is the 4. Relevance Rule (Van Eemeren and Grootenberg, Amsterdam School of Argument)

"Standpoints may not be defended by non-argumentation or argumentation that is not relevant to the standpoint." My immediate thought was well, yeah, duh, you can't throw something irrelevant into a standpoint to make an argument or counter-argument.  It just doesn't make sense to do that.  Oh, aww that is the point.  It is logical to me.  Logic, what is logic? What is logical? What makes something logical? Why is it logical? How can we know it is logical?  And on... and on... and on... We have to define something, even though it seems simple, because without order, reason, logic, definition then there is chaos and argumentation with no end.  Accepted understanding gets us closer to solving problems and making decisions.  

The Classroom

Can you see how this class is exhausting?  Besides talking about the elements of argumentation we also have discussed the Milgram experiments and we were assigned to read the Petsko letter.  If you are not familiar with these things I suggest you use the very accessible internet to your advantage.  I specifically want to talk about the Petsko letter.  This is a letter written in 2010 by Gregory A. Petsko to the President of SUNY (State University of New York in Albany).  In my sense of goodness, I valued this letter as good.  Of course then you can ask what is goodness? What makes it good? How do you know it is good? Is it logically accepted as good? but we don't want to get into that.  In my opinion it is a good paper and I think you should read it also.  It talks about the importance of being educated in a wide variety of subjects and having a broad knowledge of sciences and humanities.  The context is that the president of SUNY is facing some serious budget issues and he has decided to cut some humanity departments.  Before reading this paper I probably would have sided with the president and used the same pattern of thinking as him to reach a decision.  However, this article was persuasive enough and I find his claims powerful enough to change my mind.  In the future I hope that I keep this in mind.  I hope I can see as many perspectives as possible and reach the best decision.  Tomorrow is Friday so we have an essay exam scheduled for class.  This one might actually be difficult.  I also have to finish the homework assignments.  

The free time activity planned for tonight is a pub-crawl/karaoke night.  As much as I enjoy socializing I think I'll turn in early in order to study and complete the assignments.  I'll let you know what I end up doing in future posts.  ;) Stay tuned for final weekend happenings.

Looking forward to returning home.

Cheers,

McCall

What time is it?

Let's play a game.  Who can guess what time these pictures were taken?  Comment, Facbook, e-mail, contact me with your guesses/answers numbered 1-10 and if they are correct I may bring back a Finnish treat to the person with the most correct answers.  Good Luck!

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

Picture 10

Third Week

Hei Blog Readers, Friends and Family,

Saturday, June 8th has rolled around and I'm in my third week of Finnish living.  This week was an interesting week because I continue to learn all about this funny world we live in.  My class this week was Interpersonal Relationships and Social Networks in a Multicultural World.  Again I participated in the Free Time Activities and created activities of our own.
Monday I played basketball for an hour or so with Sasha, Egyvn (sp?) and Charlie.  After that Merle and the new students, Christopher, Endre, Kent, Mira and Nicci joined us and we went to the beach.  Endre and I jogged to the beach while everyone else took bikes. The water felt really nice after the jog--not too cold but just right.  The boys were fun, they are from Norway.  We ended up trying to play some version of volleyball with a football (round soccer ball) in the water.  Nicci and Mira are from the Netherlands, more Dutch people.  The beach was fun and after we were tired of the sand we went back to the student village.
Tuesday was class again.  This class was a lot of discussing, so lots of talking and listening, which can be tiring even with native English speakers.  It was really tiring because the language barrier between all of the students just added another element of difficulty.  After class I met up with Becca and we tanned.  Katalina and Desponia, two Greek girls from my class, also joined us.  After an hour or so Merle found us and we moved locations to another beach.  The Greek girls did not come because they didn't bring their swimming suits that day.  This beach was full--lots of people, and I can see why, the water was a delightful temperature and the view really isn't hard to look at either.  There was about twenty people in our group so the conversations were lively.  After some swimming and ice cream we played the Finnish game Moukly (sp?).  I had Kent (Norway), Nicci (The Netherlands), Mira (The Netherlands) and Becca (USA) on my team.  I started the game and had a really nice hit.  We were doing pretty well for a while but then not so much.  While abroad I've realized that I'm more competitive than I thought I was.  I like to win, and I especially like to antagonize (playfully, of course) the other team to add extra value to bragging rights.  Unfortunately, we lost, twice.  Can't win 'em all.  Beach time, fun time.
Wednesday my class did not start until 12:15.  We were assigned a group project for this class so we took the time off from class to work on it.  I met up with my group, Lauren, Katalina and Sasha at 11.  Class was released at 3:15 and then Lauren and I walked around campus for a while.  We found the pool.  This pool was the sweetest, sickest, most awesome pool I think I have ever seen!  It somewhat resembles what I would think is an olympic training center.  A HUGE lane pool with bleachers surrounding it. A pool with a curly slide, a shallow kiddie pool, and then, and then... wait for it... A Double Decker Pool.  What?! That's right, let me repeat, a Double Decker Pool.  A pool on top of another pool and they connect!  It is pretty awesome.  Lauren and I absorbed all this pool awesomeness and I'm hoping to return sometime this week to not just look at the pools but actually get in them.
Thursday was class again.  During the evening we were supposed to go to the Island and Sauna we went to the first week but it was Thundering so we just went to a Sauna on the roof of one of the dorm buildings.  Charlie brought cards so we indulged in some competitive card games.  We improvised the game spoons by using assorted pens and highlighters.  I won two times and was runner up the third time.  I would like to take this time to thank my family:
     Dear cousins,
          Thank you for playing card games when we get together.  It is good training and practice and I am a champion because I have had such good training.  I hope when you meet other card players you will share my success.  Being talented in card games is a good skill to have, in my opinion.  Thank you, I look forward to playing with you when we have more bonding time.  Hurrah!
Sincerely,
Kevin
So, in review, Thursday night--cards, sauna, talking, licorice, heart-to-hearts, joking, learning useless Dutch words, counting in Norwegian and the Greek alphabet, fun time.  People are so fascinating and I enjoy interacting with them, most of the time.

Friday we presented our group projects talked more about stereotypes and interacting with other cultures.  We finished class at 12:15.  We watched a Finnish movie, Rare Exports at 4pm, then Charlie, Merle and Luuk ate Taco's at my place around 6pm.  Then people came to my room around 9pm to hang out, we played King Cup to get to know each other better.  After that a smaller group of us went to the City Center to a dance club.  I love dancing. Which resulted in a 5am bedtime.  So. Much. Fun.

Today I slept in. I needed the sleep I was really exhausted after this week.  This afternoon is a cruise/boat ride that lasts three hours.  It goes across the second largest lake in Finland.  Hoping to work on my tan some more.  Right on cue, I need to leave to make it to our meeting place for the boat ride.  That was my week in a condensed summary.  Learning lots in and out of the classroom, having fun and  soaking up life in Finland.

Hope all is well with you,
Cheers,
McCall

Homework

You can't run away from homework.  It still is assigned when studying abroad.  Imagine that--school work during school.  I'm learning lots while here.  Some things I learn in class, some things I learn out of class.  Still having a wonderful experience.  More posts to come!

Sad Day in Finland

Dear Readers,

Please take a moment of silence for respect of the significant loss suffered today.

I have lost my most beloved bike.  I am so heart broken about my now missing mode of transportation. I parked my ever-so-lovely bike outside of my classroom building this morning and when class was released this afternoon it was no where in sight.  A piece of my soul shriveled up into a blackness of crushed ash.  I was sad.  I still am sad.  Please mourn with me for a few more moments.



Although, I must take into consideration that I did not have it locked I still am in denial that it is completely gone.  I love my bike dearly.  It is not the shiniest, prettiest, fanciest, fastest bike in the world.  It is actually rather shabby.  Part of the saddle part is torn off.  The tires are slowly but steadily running out of air.  There is sporadic rust spots.  There are no hand brakes, to stop one must back peddle.  I say this in the most endearing way, but my bike was kinda crappy.  No matter to the shape of it though, it was still mine and I loved it for all that it was.  Naively I left it unlocked because I have survived two weeks without a lock so far with zero problems and because of the shape it is in I didn't think anyone would care to take it.  Wrong-o.  Yet again, McCall likes to learn things the hard way.  Don't leave a bike unlocked in a region that revolves around bikes.

I am still in the denial phase though.  A piece of me still believes that tomorrow it will show up.  Maybe  I just forgot where I left it and I run into it.  Or perhaps someone, a really nice someone, saw this beautiful bike and that its tires were low so they took it to air it up and it will returned to its place in the morning.  How sweet would that be?  St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, has heard from me this afternoon.  My hopes are that he can help me out.  In my (now walking) commute to class in the morning I hope to bring some understanding/coping to my lost bike.

All hope is not lost.  Stay strong my friends.  Either my bike will return to my possession, or a new bike  will replace it, or I'll just become a really great walker.  Always look on the bright side.

Goodnight and Good Luck,
McCall

Wow! What a week!

Greetings Friends and Family,

I hope you are all doing well in your corner of the world.  Finland is treating me well.  I'm having a wonderful experience.  I'm in awe that it has already been two weeks.  Two classes down and two to go.  Time moves so fast sometimes.  This week was full of activities and I stayed very busy.

Monday: Monday started a little overcast and cloudy.  I woke up early and left my dorm about two hours before class was supposed to start at 9:15.  I wanted to leave early to give myself time to find the new classroom and then most importantly use the wifi.  As a peddled through main campus I searched for the correct building.  From what the website said I should look for AgC 322.  I didn't quite understand what the abbreviations were but I certain it wouldn't be too hard to figure out.  Well, I guessed wrong because I cycled all around main campus with no luck.  I was forced to ask for directions, which I really don't like doing.  I would rather get lost and have to take the long route to get somewhere then ask for directions, but in this case when I was on a time schedule for class I had to concede that I needed to ask for directions.  Luckily, a kind middle-aged man was able to send me in the right direction.  At least now I knew which building it was in.  Down to the other campus, right on the shore of the lake.  Ag stands for Agora building. C is the wing.  This is a beautiful, modern, clean, academic building.

The Lobby of the Agora Building

       Easy enough now, I just had to go to the 3rd floor and find room 322.  Wrong.  Not so easy.  By this time I was still good with time, but I still had to hustle to keep enough of a cushion.  I was a little sweaty from the bike ride and the nerves and stress added to my overall glistening look.    I climbed the stairs to the third floor and find room number 319, 320, 321..... No 322.  What?! Panic. Panic. Panic. More sweat.  I wander through a small hallway that leads to offices.  Nope this isn't it.  So I go back downstairs to the big open lobby area.  I noticed when I first came in there were signs and posters and important looking papers on a bulletin board.  So this time I gave the bulletin board more than a passing glance, it had a sheet of paper which class names, times and locations. Aha! Emotions in sport performance, 9:15,  room 233. Oh! The mistake, 233 not 322.  I again climb the stairs this time to the 2nd floor, turn the corner, find the door with 233 and as I open it, it's a classroom! Phew! Relief sweeps over me as I find comfort in the familiarity of desks.  I also had the small victory of making it there on time, not by much but I still was there before 9:15.

The Classroom

      Turns out I wasn't the only one to have trouble finding the class because everyone else came late and looked just as frazzled as I imagined I looked.  Not the most ideal way to start the class but it started none the less at 9:30.  The class was Emotions in Sport Performance, a psychology class taught by Yuri Hannin.  An extremely interesting class.  It was a lot of information in a very short amount of time but extremely interesting.  We were released from class at three.  I cooked dinner and then Becca came over to eat with me.  It was a nice evening.  We talked about conveniences of U.S.A. and the differences between cultures.  We shared our observations of our fellow students and how each of them interacted.  It was a really enjoyable evening of good conversation.  That was Monday

Tuesday:  Tuesday was not as eventful or stressful.  Class was from 9:15 to 3:35.  It was pretty intensive but so interesting it was worth it.  The free time activity that Tehja (Finnish student) planned was to go to another beach.  Everyone met at 5:15 to trek on to the beach.  Just before we left I discovered I left my key card on my desk, in my room.  Well shoot!  I didn't want to leave it unsolved until we got back to the beach because after six they charge more for night hours so I called maintenance to rescue my card key.  I told the group to leave without me and I would catch up with them later.  I already had an idea of where the beach was so I could find it.  Merle, a friend from the Netherlands, volunteered to stay with me.  They left and we went upstairs to my room to wait for the guy with the master key.  So so stupid of me to forget my key.  It was sitting exactly where I thought I left it.  I was so mad at myself.  Anyway, once that was taken care of Merle and I decided to take our bikes to the beach, a much faster option.  We got to the beach about the same time that the group did so we didn't miss a thing.  Just a short swim, the water was pretty cold, then a picnic meal, then a game of moulke.  It is a Finnish game with pegs and throwing a stick.  Quite simple and fun but difficult to explain through text.  A fun evening came to a close with a bike ride back to the dorms and some much needed sleep.

The Beach

Picnic Group

Picnic Group

Moulke, the Finnish Game

Wednesday:  During the day I attended class and enjoyed hanging out with the other international students.  They have grown to become good friends.  It is sad and odd to think that this short amount of time could be the only time ever to see them.  In previous days we  had talked about having a meal together some night.  As the planning progressed it was decided to have a mexican fiesta on wednesday night, everyone bring something to share.  Lauren, another American from San Diego hosted and it actually turned into quite the feast.  Lots of yummy food.

 I was wiped out from class because the content is so dense, so I left somewhat early for some sleep.

Thursday: Class again.  It was a down day.  Everyone seemed to be wiped out.  Usually bouncy, chatty people were more somber and quiet.  The lunch and coffee break conversations were not as lively.  I think everyone was tired.  After class I biked to the city center and went shopping.  It is so overwhelming to go shopping in a hypermarket.  They have so much!  I had such a difficult time deciding what to get.  Eventually I got an entire outfit! I never buy full outfits! Another big deal is I got skinny jeans! Whoa! I don't wear skinny jeans, well now I do.  I am the proud owner of a very cute pair of black skinny jeans.  It rained that afternoon/evening.  Whenever I hear thunder I'm instantly reminded of summer.  I just love it.  Late that night we stayed up to see the sunrise (which happens sometime around 2-3) because Sebastian, Robia and Túmas all were leaving Saturday.  They only stayed for two weeks.  It was somewhat of a goodbye event.

This is the Sun around 3:30 in the morning

Friday: Friday was very exciting.  Class only lasted from 9:15 to 10:45.  After class Robia, Merle, Luuk, Juli,  Jia and I went to the Museum of Central Finland to get some postcards and then we met up for a late picnic lunch.  Everyone dispersed for the rest of the afternoon for naps and such.  At 5 we reconvened to head to a Sauna.  Tehja led us to Kiviniemi--a cottage that is near the lake.  It has two sauna's a regular and smoke sauna.  It also has a fire pit for cooking.  The sauna was fun.  Swimming in the lake was fun.  It was warmer than other areas of the lake but it wasn't as clean.  We roasted sausages and marshmallows over the fire.  Some very in depth conversations occurred.  Around 11pm we left.

     

A smaller group of us planned to meet again at 11:45 to go to the city center.  After a very fast shower and wardrobe change we journeyed to the city center.  From word of mouth we went to Shaker's, apparently the best place to go.  It was really contemporary.  I felt so chic being in there.  There was techno music playing and we danced to it the best that we could.  It took some people a while to loosen up but once someone brought up the fact that you'll never see these people again it doesn't matter if you look stupid dancing, the limbs moved more freely.  Around 2am, Shaker's grew old so a few of us went across the street to Escape.  Shaker's was a bar, Esacpe was a dance club.  Dancing! Lots and lots of dancing! Loud music! Young people! Neon lights! Fun!  The club shut down around 3:30.  Of course we stayed to the close.  It was the weirdest thing to come out of the dark club, knowing it was three in the morning and it being light. Normally when I''m out this late it is pitch black dark.  Here it is light and getting lighter.  Seeing drunk people stumble around in brightness is so strange.  Luuk and I had our bike's and Robia did not so Robia rode on the back of my bike back to the dorms.  Sebastian and Jia walked.  Robia and Sebastian had a taxi to meet at 4:30 so I stayed up with Robia until her taxi came.  She finished packing and gave me some of her left over food.  I said my goodbyes to Robia and Sebastian.  It was sad to know that I may never see them again.  I finally went to sleep around 4:45...but not for long

Saturday:  I didn't sleep for very long because I had to get up again to catch a train to Tampere.  A town  in between Helsinki and Jyväskylä.  We planned to meet at 7:15 so I was awake by 6:15ish.  I struggled getting out of bed but I eventually started functioning.  My morning started off wonderfully because I calculated what time it was at home and then decided to FaceTime my dad.  He answered and it turns out several of our family's friends were over for a get together.  I got to say hi to my family and my friends--a perfect way to begin the day.  I'm sure many of you readers were at my house Friday night when I called Saturday morning.  ;)  It was good to briefly talk to all of you.  Love and Miss Ya!
      After that phone call we went to the city center to the train station and then on to the train.  An hour and half later the six of us, Becca, Lauren, Charlie, Merle, Teresa and I arrived in the working city of Tampere.  It is bigger then Jyväskylä but smaller than Helsinki.  We ate at a lovely little coffee shop.  We strolled through a market.  We walked through a tree-filled park.  We came to a tower overlooking the city.  We saw the views from atop.  We ate famous Tampere doughnuts accompanied by an ever so delicious mocha.  We went to a museum.  We sat on the bench soaking up vitamin D and chatting.  We walked some more.  We tried Hesburger.  And then Charlie, Merle and I took the return train to Jyväskylä.  Lauren took the train to Helsinki.  Becca, Teresa and Tumas remained to attend a music festival.  It was a nice day.  I wouldn't say it was the best day.  It is unfavorable to wander a city with more than two or three people, especially tired, hangry people.

The view from the top of the tower at Tampere

Sunday: After a very full night of sleep I woke this morning in time to go to church.  Although I still did not understand the language I was able to give thanks and contemplate the universe.  Back in my apartment I cooked myself some lunch and began writing.  I was able to do some laundry this afternoon and believe a nap or suntanning, or both are in my near future.

It was busy week.

Love,
McCall