More information on my room in Lukonkruuti

Hei ystävät, (Hello friends)

hope you're all doing fine and enjoying the great hot summer.

I have received new information on my appartment in Tampere. It consists of 4 rooms and I have to share it with 3 other girls. The flat has about 80 m² and my room approximately 20 m². I think that is quite big for a single room. So there's enough space for you, my dear visitors! :D AND it is a shared appartment, so bathroom and kitchen are inside and not on the floor. That's quite promising. It seems that in addition to the bathroom there's also a single toilet room in the flat that you can use when someone else is taking a shower. Quite nice!!

Here's a plan of the corridors C and D of the dormitory. My flat is probably the one on the left. (Corridor C, 4 rooms, 83.5 m²)

Click here

Some necessary Finnish vocabulary:

H = huone = room
K = keittiö = kitchen
ET = eteinen = entry, hall
WC = toilet room
KH = kylpyhuone = bathroom


I'm still waiting for the official letter of acceptance by TAMK and the welcome package. My international office sent them an email yesterday and TAMK answered that I'll get the letter by the end of this week. Hooray! Finally. :) Then I can give notice to all of my contracts and apply for "Auslandsbafög". Hope everything will turn out well and I'll get the money in time. Incredible - only 6 weeks to go!

Don't forget the farewell party on 31st of July!

Nähdään,

Sylvi

Birthday party and blog updates

Hi guys,

on Friday I celebrated my 24th birthday and it was a totally great party. Since the weather was also very nice we first went to the Isle of Youth - same procedure as every year. We were sitting at the Spree and had few drinks and enjoyed the sun. Later we went to my place to continue the party. I also had three Finnish girls there, who really loved to take part in a German party. They all study at my university this term and I'm the tutor of one of them. I got a bottle of Salmiakki, some Finnish licorice booze, and a Finnish weekend, probably with "mökki ja sauna" (summer cottage and sauna :D). I'm really looking forward to that. It's a great present!!

The party ended up in a funny drinking game session. First we played Limbo and Bob, our all-time Limbo winner, lost his position since the Finnish girls Martta and Tuulia are high-talented Limbo dancers. In the end Martta won the competition. After that we played "Bums" - this game where a group of people sitting on the floor in a circle and counting but the numbers that include a 7 or can be divided through 7 must be left out. Instead of it you have to say "Bums" and change the counting direction. Since the game was not confusing enough we started to play the ultimate "hand game". Don't know if there exist a special name for it. The group is sitting on the floor in a circle again and everyone has to put his right hand next to the left hand of his neighbour and upside down. Then one starts to knock his hand on the floor. After that it's his neighbour's turn till someone knocks twice. In this case the direction has to be changed. The loser has to drink vodka or something else bottom up. It was quite confusing and Bob ended up in drinking half or more of a vodka bottle (and was quite wasted in the end). Anyway, this barbecue party was a great one. Thank you for coming and the very nice presents!! :)

I have updated some blog preferences. The most important one is probably the option that you can now comment on all of my post without registering to the blog. Just fill in your name and email address so that I know who's posting. :) Hope you all do it regularly! :P

Time is running out. Less than 2 months to go till Tampere.

Humppa!

Sylvi :)

My new home - Lukonkruuti in Lukonmäki :)

Hi folks,

Some news for you:

I just received my room reservation yesterday. The next 11 months I'm gonna live in a dormitory called "Lukonkruuti" in the district of Lukonmäki in Tampere. It's 5,6 km away from my university and not in the city centre but it looks very green and nice. Let's see if the rooms are acceptable. I hope so!

Unfortunately I have to share bathroom and kitchen with few students. I don't know how many "few students" are but I hope it is a shared appartment so that kitchen and bathroom are in the appartment and not on the floor. At least I do have my own room!!! :) That is the most important thing to me.

Here you can see some information on my new home: Click here

A lot of good news came the last days and they are in time so tomorrow we can celebrate as hell!!! :)

The puzzle is almost assembled.

Best wishes,

Sylvi

FINALLY, I AM CONFIRMED!!!!! :) - Farewell Party on 31st of July

Hooooooray dear boys n girls, :)

I can't believe it. Today I received the confirmation email by TAMK. My exchange has been approved! That means I'm leaving you very soon for a very long time. Actually my flight goes on 18th of August, 10:10 a.m. from Tegel Airport to Helsinki Vantaa. I've already booked it. Maybe I'll be back in June 2011... or never again. ;)

I'm so happy about that - I can't describe my feelings. I'm really really looking forward to partying with you next week my confirmation & birthday. I've been longing for going to Finland for around 9 years!

The last two weeks were the most exciting and horrible ones I've ever experienced. Now the bad mood disappeared and I can enjoy my last two months in Berlin. I hope we can have some really great parties and activities til' I'm leaving. It is time...

Now the probably most important information for you: My farewell party will be on SATURDAY, 31st OF JULY at my place. Theme is... Finland - what else. :D I hope that this day is good opportunity to celebrate together once more. And note: this party needs to be a happy one - not a sad one. We'll keep in contact by Skype, MSN etc. AND you have to visit me in Tampere! Or Helsinki! Or Lapland! :D Whereever you want.

Thank you for all good wishes and finger crossings! You're the greatest!!

With love,

Sylvi

Four weeks to go!

Päivää päivää :),

the deadline of the application period at TAMK is coming closer. In approximately four weeks they are going to send the letters of admission.

Last week the coordinators of their International Office sent me the confirmation that they received my application. They also wrote: "Sinä olet opiskellut suomea tosi pitkään!!" This means "You have learned Finnish quite long." I guess this is a good sign and I am sooo excited how things will turn out.

In the email they wrote that the semester starts on 23th of August and that, in case of getting accepted, I should plan to arrive between 18th and 20th of August. I can't believe that in 3 and a half months I'm probably flying to my dear Finland. :)

I'll keep you updated.

Cheers,

Sylvi

Welcome to my dream

Welcome my dear friends,

now the crunch time has begun. My dream of living and studying (and partying ;)) in Finland is coming closer and closer. Today I handed in my application to the International Office of my university, so now it should be on its way to Tampere.

At the end of May I'll hopefully get my admission by the Tampereen Ammattikorkeakoulu (TAMK) also known as Tampere University of Applied Sciences. So keep your fingers crossed please! :)

However, they have told me that it is 100 % sure that I'll get it since they have 2 places available and I am the only applicant. I definitely count on this!

Since there might be non-german-speaking people who are interested in my blog I'll write everything in English. Of course you can comment on the posts in German, English or even Finnish if you want. :)

I'm looking so forward to travelling to my beloved country and sharing my experiences with you. Thank you for your support!

With best wishes,

Sylvi :)