The Other World

You may remember me ranting and raving about the tutoring outcome on 6th of April this year. Well, I'd like to update that a bit.

We had our very final tutor trainings on Monday and Tuesday. Even then I was still a bit doubtful about this; I was so regretful about ever applying for tutoring in the first place that by Wednesday morning when every other tutor expressed how much they were excited I felt no excitement none whatsoever. Which then turned out to be a good thing as I was stupid enough not to stress out and therefore did not mess with words that much (well, any more than I do usually when in contact with previously unknown people) or make that much mistakes otherwise (although one student union guy told us that it doesn't matter even if we make mistakes: the freshmen are so out of everything they're not going to notice). First I had only one woman in my group, but later the same day I had a second student to join us. Today I got an e-mail telling my group will expand with one more student on Monday. Not bad. =) I'm a deluxe tutor. I really do like being useful, knowing I am important to them. To know my tutor uniform lets other students know as well that I am there to help them all. Today I ended up helping a freshman from the technics faculty. My next step is to get overalls of my own where I can sew the nine patches I currently have.

As for the social side I was complaining about... well, I'm scheduled to be part of the World Tour company tomorrow night (we have been divided into pairs each pair having a specific country according to which we are to wear costumes tomorrow evening in the party). Otherwise that's okay, but the actual party (where the costumes are required) won't beginning until ten p.m. I mean... that's when I usually am very much home getting ready to go to bed. Last night I was half asleep by ten! Well, there's no cancelling this one so Im just going to have to grin and bear it through but I am not going to stay there after midnight: that's when I will be home. I'll just end up having my daily rhythm fucked up just when it good for scho... sorry, *university*.

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Playing now: 'Voodoo Child' by Rogue Traders

"Silent I lie with smile on my face,
Appearance decieves and the silence betrays"

Perhaps I need to find an excuse to squeeze myself with the other tutors in the English department on Wednesday?

Okay, nearly three months has passed since I began my so-called summer leave and my reading tournament. Here's all the books I have finished since the day my leave began by handing in the very last piece of assignment (31.5.) and the last day before my autumn term (today as in 24.8.).

Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid's Tale
Beauvoir, Simone de: Lempeä kuolema
Calvino, Italo: Koko kosmokomiikka
Canth, Minna: Työmiehen vaimo
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Despentes, Virginie: King Kong -tyttö
Diamond, Jared: Miksi seksi on hauskaa?
Dickens, Charles: Hard Times
Duffy, Stella: Immaculate Conceit
Eliot, T.S.: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Gliori, Debi: Magiaa mafian tahtiin
Hayden, Torey: Aavetyttö
Hayden, Torey: The Very Worst Thing
Kallas, Aino: Sudenmorsian
Kaysen, Susanna: Girl, Interrupted
Kesey, Ken: Yksi lensi yli käenpesä
Kingsolver, Barbara: The Poisonwood Bible
Kirschner, Josef: Egoistin käsikirja
Lindsay, Jeff: Dexterin pimeät unet
Morrison, Toni: Tar Baby
Nousiainen, Miika: Vadelmavenepakolainen
Onkeli, Kreetta: Iloinen talo
Saadawi, Nawal El: God Dies by the Nile
Salinger, J.D.: Cathcher in the Rye
Saramago, José: The Gosple According to Jesus Christ
Shriver, Lionel: Poikani Kevin
Snicket, Lemony: Surkeiden sattumusten sarjan osat 1-8
Twain, Mark: Matkakirjeitä Maasta
Utrio, Kaari: Kiilusilmä feministi
Wassmo, Herbjörg: Dinan kirja

It easy to notice Finland is the promised land for metal music. There's very little other type of music unless it's mainstream. So trying to track down Rogue Traders from online stores is nearly futile. I only found 'Here Come the Drums' but not 'Better in the Dark' which is what I was trying to find.

Blaah.

YIPPIKIYAY!!! WHOHOOO!!!

We went through the first half of the new choreography last night and according to the instructor we had the goldfish expression again (=the look we have on our faces during the first times of new choreography when we try to predict which way to go next and how and when we try to keep up with the instructor). I love the Rogue Traders track in warm up ("I never liked you even when I tried to"; I know the feeling exactly). It would appear there are more changes between the strikes and kicks than in the previous/current programme. But I can't wait to go through the rest of 37 at some point (not sure about the track 9, though...). But there's more Within Temptation to come: 'Our Solemn Hour' is excellent!

Here is the full tracklist according to Surfnux (http://surfnux.theuseless.com/2008/08/04/complete-body-combat-37-tracks-list/):

01. Summer Of '69 - Mega-mania & I Never Liked You - Rogue Traders
02. Beat It - Fall Out Boy feat. John Mayer
03. Baby I'll Let You Know - Darryn Styles vs Hypasonic
04. We Will Survive - Warp Brothers & The Great Bouzouki - Krid P
05. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
06. Stamp - Jeremy Healy & Amos
07. Let The Beat Control Your Body - 2 Unlimited
08. Sea Of Love (Hixxy Remix) - Frisco
09. Church - T-Pain featuring Teddy Verseti
10. Our Solemn Hour - Within Temptation

My cousin surprised me last weekend when I realised I had seriously underestimated her abilities. She understood what we said. If someone asked where Rape (= a teddy bear duck making quaa quaa noises) is, she had an idea where to look it from. AND she could show some of her body parts when named by someone else: ear, nose, belly button, toe (= "vaava"). And then of course the most important ones: "ei" (accompanied by shaking of ones head and having an idea of the things she is not to play with) and "gaugo" (= kauko = remote control; she is a wannabe-engineer if based on her fascination to all technical stuff she's not allowed to play with). We are yet to decipher the meaning of "taijiliji". Getting her dressed was a small miracle: she could have been Superman, she went around so fast. Putting on the shoes was the new clash of the titans when I wouldn't let go off the shoelaces until I could tie them up to prevent her tripping because of them. Eventually we both had to give in a bit but I did manage to finish the job. After a few minutes... And eating and sleeping are no fun with the teeth about to burst. Hopefully they'll burst soon, both for her sake as well as her parents' sake.

The other day I was walking home from the centrum and got stopped three times within five minutes. No, it wasn't because I looked somehow weird (well, weirder than usually) and it wasn't the Finnish police force either. Some group of twenty-something people had been set loose to talk to people.

First I was stopped by two women. They gave me a pamflet inviting me to a get-together of sorts. As a linguist accustomed to Halliday's grammar I have to admire how cleverly it was designed. No part of the paper showed the underlying ideology except for one small thing: there was their website in small print on the right hand corner, a website whose name included the word 'congregation'. So to answer their invitation I kindly thanked them and said no, and as they were in need of further explanation, I pointed out it was a religious thing and therefore I have no interest in joining them. I bid them good day and hoped it'll stop raining to make their quest a bit easier.

Thirty seconds later another pair of women stopped me, handing me the exactly the same pamflet as the previous pair. Again I declined and said their colleagues had already talked to me not a minute earlier. But -and this is important- I was still polite and relatively kind as well. The problem presented itself in the form of three young men stopping me about thirty seconds after the second encounter. These people were giving out a newspaper with different headlines, one of them catching my attention as it had the word 'God'. And eventhough I pointed that out to them and said it is why I am not interested, they just kept pushing it (very manly thing to do, don't you think, not understanding the word 'no' or anything semanticly similar?). Let it be pointed out that until then I had been relatively calm and polite. Then one of the guys blocking my way said it wasn't about religion, that it was about the love of Jesus. As I did then, I still don't understand how those two things are *not* the same bloody thing. Anyway, the next thing I know is him telling me that I "need to go to heaven". I was beginning to get pissed (not the least because a man thinks he has any right to question what I want... but that, too, is very manly way of behaviour, so I shouldn't be that surprised...). In a more irritated voice I question who the hell is it that can say that I *need* to go to heaven. And the he says the magic words: "Jesus loves you".

Counterpoint #1: "Oh, really? I was under the impression there's plenty of people out there saying exactly the opposite."

Counterpoint #2: "You mean you *think* Jesus loves me. When you say it without the preceeding clause you make it sound like you know for a fact, that you're 100 percent sure that Jesus loves me and that you cannot know."

Counterpart #3: "When you say 'Jesus loves you', what you really mean is that you think Jesus loves me but only *if* I do certain things that you promote. Being what I am now is not good enough for Jesus, and most certainly not your angry, vengeful and dictatorial God."

I should have told them to go fuck themselves.

Important things first: I have a new idol. Virginie Despentes. I don't agree with every single thing she says in 'King Kong Théorie' but I think she has a very good point in most of her arguments. Plus I enjoy the informal language she uses; feminism to the un-academic world.

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I am now also officially impaired.

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And my sheets are under siege due to a fucking huge moth that was there yesterday and might still be there. If I have to wait until the snow and a temperature below zero to be sure it's gone, then so be it. The sheets and the shirt will remain on the balcony until then (which will probably be some time next year). Or I have to beg my sister to come over and check the sheets and te shirt before bringing them indoors.

A moth... and some of you yahoos think butteflies and their evil kin are actually beautiful. I'm willing to agree the *possibility* of their beauty if they are dead, dried and pinned to a cushion which is inside a glasscube. Perhaps I should join the Butterfly Association Finland to record my numerous observations (read: moments of the innate and profound instinct of fight-or-flight) on those flying beasts of doom as they seem to be like cats and find the one person within miles to have lepidopteraphobia. Have you noticed how there are only a few butterflies around when it's cloudy? Here's my theory: when the weather is cloudy, it's too cold for them so they return back to Hell since it must be warmer down there in their home.

And a solution to the butterfly effect (= a butterfly flaps its wings, whcih creates a tornado on the other side of the planet): let's kill all the butterflies! YAY!

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Look me in the eyes and tell me that thing below is in any way cute.