2007

As i have corcked the sparkly, i wanted to take a short moment to wish everybody a happy new year! It's been a really great year for me, and i hope the next one has as many new and great things to offer. Make some sound new year's promise (i promised to tone down the nasal in my helsinki accent).
Peace.

TIRAMISU - la cuisine de Gaia

Make strong coffee, espresso preferrably and let it cool down.
Mix in the alcohol, marsala I think its suppose to be. I don’t know cause Gaia said she doesn’t like it, and makes her tiramisu without alcohol.

Separate 4 egg whites and the yellow part.
put four tablespoons of sugar with the yellow things, mix.
Add 500g of mascarpone, mix again.

Whip the egg whites.

Put some of the whipped egg white, little at a time, into the mascarponemixture, turn it over, don’t mix hard, until all the egg white is all in there – this is what will make the mascarpone fluffy.

Dip the biscuits (I think they’re the ones with a lot of egg in’em) into the coffee, just to dampen them, not soak them. Place them at the bottom of the bowl/plate so that they form an entire layer. Pour a layer of mascarpone ontop of the biscuitlayer. Then spread a layer of cacao on top of it, some of that bitter stuff, the VanHouten or whatever it is. Repeat this until your container is full/you run out of stuff.
And then finally, they say your supposed let it gather taste for a while in the fridge.
grab a spoon and dig in – its good.

Long live cultural exchanges, et la cuisine de Gaia.

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS?

For me, christmas is finland. Its the sauna all the men of the family have, accompanied with good food. Its the porridge my grandmother makes. The presents, the giving. The good food. The friends, all out on vacations. The nights out at bars. The warmth in the midst of the dark winter.
So, understandably, i was a bit taken back, when on friday night i came to the airport and asked the lady where the my check-in desk was. 'For which flight?' --- 'I'm sorry sir, your flight does not exist.'
Now, speaking from experience, let me give you a little advice: say you want to book your flight for december, then you should actually book it for december, and not, say, september. Do you see the difference?
As i tried to dam my nervous breakdown i also tried to find out if i could still get home for christmas. Unfortunately, it was so late, that everything was closed. Fortunately, some man at the end of some phone line told me there were still some flights with space, that i should come to the S.A.S desk tommorrow morning. 'What time do they open?', 'let me check so that i give you the right information... 7.30.' Unfortunately, the man was misinformed. When i came to the airport at 7.20, there was a line, and all the flights were sold out. As well as for Finnair, Swiss Airlines, Air France. Fortunately I had found a flight on Air Berlin on the internet. Unfortunately i needed a credit card to book it. And neither my sleeping father nor my drunken sister provided me with the required information. Fortunately my father woke up and helped me out, and now i have a flight for christmas eve! (which is more than i can say for my drunken sister, who later texted me asking if i was annoyed, wether i had done her christmas shopping for her, and if her mailorder boots had come. no, i'm not bitter, not at all).
So hope to see you finns soon.
If anything else goes wrong, i will end my days by sticking my hand in my coffeebeangrinder.

FOR ALL YOU FINNISH STUDENTS

who not to vote for.


Opintorahaan ei tule korotusta ensi vuonna

Arto Astikainen
helsingin sanomat

Opiskelijoiden opintorahaan ei tule korotusta ensi vuonna. Asia lyötiin lukkoon tiistaina eduskunnan budjettiäänestyksissä luvuin 105–82.
Opintorahan korotuksesta oli jokaisella oppositiopuolueella oma ehdotus. Suurinta määrärahaa, yli 70 miljoonaa euroa, esittivät budjettiin kristillisdemokraatit, kun esimerkiksi kokoomukselle olisi riittänyt runsaat 14 miljoonaa. Kaikki lisäysehdotukset kaatuivat.
Äänestyksen jälkeen oppositio nosti salissa kovan mölyn, kun opintorahan korotusta syksyn aikana vaatineet tai lupailleet hallituspuolueiden kansanedustajat äänestivät tosi paikan tullen korotusta vastaan.
Antti Kaikkonen (kesk) ja kuusi muuta hallitusryhmien edustajaa teki opintorahan korotuksesta virallisen aloitteenkin, mutta he kaikki äänestivät tiistaina korotusta vastaan.
Opposition puolelle lipesivät ratkaisevassa äänestyksessä vain demarien Marjaana Koskinen ja Esa Lahtela.
Opintorahan korottamatta jättämisestä on ripitetty erityisesti kulttuuriministeri Tanja Saarelaa (kesk). Hän selitti eduskunnalle, ettei korotus mahtunut budjettikehyksiin. Saarela oli pois tiistain äänestyksistä.
Opintukeen tuli budjetin eduskuntakäsittelyssä pientä parannusta, kun korkeakouluopiskelijoiden ateriatukea korotettiin 20 senttiä aterialta ja vanhempien tulorajoja päätettiin korottaa ensi marraskuussa.
Eduskunta päätti tiistaina opetus-, valtiovarain- ja työministeriön määrärahoista. Niistä piti äänestää yli 150 kertaa, ja muutamat äänestykset olivat niin monipolvisia, että edustajille tuli virhepainalluksia.
Esimerkiksi Kaarina Dromberg (kok) äänesti vahingossa omaa ehdotustaan vastaan. Ehdotus koski kirjastojen laajakaistayhteyksiä.
Valtion ensi vuoden talousarvion on määrä valmistua eduskunnassa keskiviikkona.

LAYING LOW

Hey people, been a while.
I have been laying low this week, trying to be a good boy.
I got my first essay back, which i thought was pretty good. 10/20. sounded okay as a grade, until i asked what was the minimum to pass the courses at sciences po. 10/20. shait. So i thought i would have to start putting considerably more effort into school. Also i have an exam on saturday - first exam. You can't write in pencil it has to be a pen. because its france, man. Also did fencing this week. Even though i started halfway through the class, i've managed to catch up with almost everybody - unfortunately not to my personal credit: my fencing group is the most unsportive (not a real word, but you get it) sorry bunch i've ever seen. No, they dont read my blog. Cause i havent made friends with any of them.
Last week it was the independence day of finland! we took all the finns out and went to a bar. Well, the bar was a dutch bar, and it was dutch night. We had raw heringue and i had a shot of warm vodka (the bartender couldnt believe what i was ordering..).
So, we had a little christmas party (kyllä, pikkujoulut!!) the scandinavian way friday and made glögi and glög. We had ice cold vodka, reindeer, and ruisleipä. It was a splendid party.
Have to say though, we had a German little christmas party on saturday, and they made their glögi - we lost. Check it out. somebody had bought the sugar from Germany. Why? because it has to be in the shape of a pyramid. You have heated the wine, with oranges, and only god and the germans know what else. You take a grid, you know the ones you use in the oven, and place it on the casserole. Then you put the sugar pyramid on the grid and soak it with rum, and finally, light it on fire. The sugar melts with the burning rum and falls through the grid. Add more rum until it has all dissolved. Delicious.
But yeah, coming back to my home country in little bit over a week. So i hope to see ya'll finns at wanha kettu at the very latest. Take care people, snuggle up into that christmas spirit.

Oh yeah. I was on two gigs too.

On sunday, i saw tool. i saw tool. I can't add anything to that.

On tuesday i saw sergent garcia, which can be described with one word: fiesta. It was awesome, everybody dancing for two hours and a half. The smell of marijuana was thick like the taste of syrup. My friends told me.

So here is my top three of bands to see live (all for different reasons):

1. tool

2. sergent garcia

3. lemonator

Oh yeah 2. Julia's friend Johan came over, and we decided to go to a restaurant on isle st louis. We found a nice , narrow, place with somebody playing the piano. We quickly realised that the couple next to us were on a date and did not hesitate talking about it in our incomprehensible maternal language. Julia analyzed that the couple was clearly a mismatch. We also analysed who were the most asshole people we knew. When the guy got his cake, it looked too good. I told Johan that if i stabbed him in the neck, he would take the cake, and we'd meet up outside. When their date ended, the woman got up and looked at us and said: "Hyvää illanjatkoa teille".

it is now perfected.
fresh ground coffee and croissant.

'le connectable'

’It’s special, its all i can say about it’, she said.
‘Come on, anything else?’
‘No, it’s the only word that comes to my mind, its special’.

It was two o’clock Sunday morning and we were standing outside the restaurant-like bar, without the faintest idea where we were. And it was closed, windows dark, not a soul on the streets. What were we supposed to do now?
- but wait! From some obscure sidestreet, figures come out. They knock on the door of the restaurant. And somebody opens the door slightely! whispers, words are exchanged, and the figures narrowly slip in as bizzarely as they came to existence in the first place.
Julie knocks on the door, and somebody answers. ‘We are closed!!’ they say. ‘But we just want to have a drink!’ we says. ‘Go away!’ What the long german girl said, has escaped my blurred mind, but finally the door narrowely opened for us, too -‘Just one drink, you can have just one!’
The windows had been covered – with, I would now guess, curtains – and the chairs were on the tables. Only one light was on inside, the one that lights all the bottles and the barcounter a little, you know? And in front of the counter, were three empty stools, for joonas daniela and I !
The characters were at least as particular as the place. Frenchies, from thirty to fifty, at least as intoxicated as us. One of them swayed around with a guitar, singing French things. It was so French, that I could bet money that he was singing about wine women and love. Still, there must not have been more than nine of them.
The bartender was an middleaged charming french woman, who poured us three gin& tonics into glasses that could have been buckets. And they were good. They could have been wells also, because as we drank them, she just kept adding more into the glass. She told us stories about her dog who’s rastas smelled like weed and got stopped at the customs, and I tried to translate. She saw that Joonas was the most clearminded of us all, and said he was responsible, and should take care of his friends. And this made Joonas feel very proud.
And there we were. And it was probably the best moment I have had in Paris.

THE WEEKEND

The weekend was nice.
Friday it was Heidi's birthday(the finnish girl from sciences po who lived at our place) , and we all crammed into her 15 square meter yellow flat. We had made a cake and had bought a book, which we realised was incomprehensible after we read a page of it. Not to say that the cake was good, although everybody said it was. I know it was bad. We dont have an oven, and these people dont know what kakkupohja is! From Heidi's we moved to a local bar, and then back to Heidi's. The party was swell, the company was good.
Saturday we had a late start, but Gaia had hooked us up with a Japanese restaurant. She knows one of the cooks from her french language courses. She had asked him for the cheapest possible assortment of japanese food. You could see, entering the restaurant, that normally it would have been way over our budget. And then they came - all the weird plates full of unkown (and still unknown) foods. The plates were so many they didnt fit our eight-person-table. And then when we had finally finished the smoked fishes, chicken, meat oysters, seasnails, crabs, crayfish, liver, ossobucco, etc, etc, there came a second serving - a huge plate of sushi. Spectacular, i think there was just one item i didnt like. Thank you Gaia! I also got the impression that the cook really went all out for us. We finished the night off at Lars' flat, who had a huge balcony with a view onto the Tour Eiffel and Les Invalides. Lucky bastard.
Sunday was the first sunday of the month, and the museums were free. We FINALLY went to a museum. After fifteen minutes in pouring rain, the Musée d'Orsay and its main hall opened up in front of us. It was definitely, after the museum of Rodin, the museum to see in Paris. Van Gogh, Cezanne and Degas kick the Louvre's ass any day by my standards. We ended sunday by making German christmas foods.

The Last Visit

Its been a confusing week, there has been some kind of fête every night. This Erasmus exchange life is rougher than it is made out to be.
Anyhow, we had visitors - again - last weekend.
It is horrible in some way to say, but also horribly logical, but I've had the best times in Paris when people from Finland have visited me. I guess i just have kick-ass friends.
Our little sister, Olivia, came over on thursday. It was her first time in Paris so for a millionth time, we had to climb up that mountain to see the Sacre Coeur. Although, although: I noticed that 1) there is an elevator going up the side of the mountain 2) my magnetic public transport card is valid for the elevator!!!! Haa!! that was first class tourism, watching all the suckers sweating up the stairs in the rain, while sitting in an elevator. What else did we do.. My mind is drawing a blank.
Oh yeah :) , we made tortillas and headed over to Jan Markus' birthday. The kir must have been a little strong for our little sister. She sat next to a German boy and asked him: 'so where are you from?' 'I'm from Germany.' 'Oh! like everybody else here!'. Thirty seconds later, she asked him the same thing. the reply was the same. and so was the finish 'Oh! like everybody else here!'. Then a minute later, she asked the boy where he was from. etc. 'Oh! just like everybody else here!'. You go sis!! hahaa.
I think saturday the girls went shopping, and Julia tried to choose between buying a white rabbit fur vest, or a completely golden glitter top. Ugh, do they sell good taste somewhere?
Then saturday night, Joonas and Daniela came, and the game was on. We went to the Indian restaurant right next to our door, which was really good! Then we missed a party, went up, had some wine, went to a surprisingly empty hideout-bar.
The next day we did what i said i would do with no friends - la tour eiffel. But, i held my ground, Joonas and I went to a bar when the girls proceeded up the stairs. Besides, im scared of heights.
For sunday, we quickly organised a cheeseparty, with a good (and again mostly German) turnout. It was cheesy, and winey and went on late. After this, the bravest of us proceeded to a rather unique bar - but that deserves a chapter all on its own.
Monday and Tuesday were more calm. We went to the Notre Dame, and finally we went inside it as well. It was Really Impressive, but at the same time, that religious stuff creeps me out. I know it gives faith to people, but i cant help thinking about how the church was built, why it was built, and a faith saturated with suffering icons... Well, everybody else was much more at ease inside the church than I.
Tuesday night was torturous then in a different way - i had my first oral presentation in French. Much like i fear heights, i fear performing in front of people. I had written it all down, word by word. The class was almost at its end, and the teacher still wasnt letting me hold my presentation. So finally i had to squeeze thirteen minutes, into the ten remaining minutes of class we had. They say i was as red as a stop sign. Oh glory!
Big hug to y'all
and milk this weekend for all its got,
Niklas