Outlandish

* I tend to demand things, not ask: it's very impolite and quite arrogant /  It's also very effective and I usually get my will across. * I am an extrovert: culturally in my home country this is quite unacceptable behavior, it's not OK to be too loud or too open about differing opinions; it all can be embarrassing for family and friends /  I make friends easily because I am very open-minded and willing to try new things, which all leads to not being judgmental. * I am emotional: culturally (again) quite strange, sometimes I am unable to control myself, especially negative feelings can take over my entire body (head ache, heart attack etc.)  / I come across as genuine, honest and caring person, so people find it easy to trust me, which is the base of any friendship. * I value free time/freedom of choice over money: there’s no risk of me ever becoming rich / I am happier when I spend more time with my friends and family and am able to do things t...

It’s a common joke in Finland that people who graduate from Universities graduate to be unemployed. Unfortunately more often than not this is very true. In my case as well as many other cases. I had a job when I was nearing graduation but in the end if I wanted to graduate by Christmas 2012 I had to finish my thesis and in order to do that I had to sacrifice a lot more time to the research and writing. So I quit a job as a sales assistant in a clothing store. Thankfully I already hated the job a lot, so quitting it wasn’t a big shock, moreover it was a positive thing. So, I graduated and after New Year had gone by I found myself “standing on nothing”. At that moment it didn’t much matter because I still had plans. And money left in my savings account to realize these plans, like going to Paris for a long weekend. But after the trip the harsh reality started setting in when I had to start applying for all sorts of jobless benefits and proving to all kinds of entities that I ...

This challenge has been going around in Facebook for a while already but I’m jumping on board only now. It’s been funny and interesting to read people’s first work experiences, it has given a little window to see how they have ended up where they are now, what sort of path have they traveled. And there have been some very surprising ones also, that I would never have imagined that some of my friends would have done as work. Somehow this has (as far as I know) been concentrated on the Western world and especially young people living in Nordic countries. It is a fact that in Nordic countries people start working and move out of their parents’ place much younger than in other parts of Europe. So quite many of my friends can’t even list as many jobs as seven because their first work experience is from after they graduated University.  But I sure can! #1 Library assistant My first ever job was a one-month-long summer job for the City of Turku. I was 13 so legal...

Finally my trainee period of 4 months has ended and I am officially a Project Manager. A title I’ve been aiming for ever since I entered University. Why I aimed for that particularly? Because a project is a completely open concept, it can be anything and there are usually many of them at the same time, which means it’s a perfect job for me, because I don’t want every day to be the same and, most importantly, I want to be in charge :D And since I am now officially an employee I am entitled to use the holidays that have gathered up so far. And what would be a better way to waste my one week’s worth of holidays than fly to Central Europe to see some of my favourite people and places! But before that I am traveling first to Turku to see friends and family, since there’s no need for me to be in the office when I can work from wherever. Ok, I might have organized things so that I wouldn’t have to be in the office in June and scheduled all new trainees to arrive in J...

This gorgeous summer weather already in May (yes, up in these latitudes it’s a rarety that May is warm and sunny, usually we can expect snow any minute) is making me nuts! I’m so happy, I feel like a balloon that’s too full of helium on the brink of exploding. Any moment I might just jump up from my work chair and start climbing the walls and laugh uncontrollably without any proper reason. Just because I feel like it and it’s this woooonderful warmth and sunshine that is doing it to me! Last week I traveled home to Turku on the first morning boat. I was sooo tired and as always also quite grumpy. Before 10AM is just too early to be expected to be jolly about anything. But sitting there on the view deck at the front of the ship, watching the sun rise from the East and two swans flying diagonally past the front of the ship no matter how tired and grumpy, I smiled to myself. On Thursday morning me and my brother and his girlfriend drove to the Turku Archipelago to ...

It's May!! Summer is sooo close! May 1st, also known as May Day is a festive day all over the world. But nowhere do people appreciate this day as Finns do! And as always we celebrate the eve of the big day and it's traditional to go for a picnic on the actual 1st May. This great event is called Vappu and I really recommend you visit Helsinki or Turku during this festival of Spring! (Unless you're a really uptight person who cannot bare seeing people consuming too much alcohol in a public place and being very loud.)  Vappu, like most our festivities probably originate from Sweden and it was firstly seen as a celebration for Spring. Then the industrialization came along and today the day is seen more as a working class's holiday around the world. In Finland the day has been taken over by university students. They roam the cities in their colourful overalls and at 6pm on the Eve of May 1st they are allowed to put on the white caps that we receive when we gradu...

Having finally managed to move to an apartment that I can truly call a home and that has all the things I have always wanted my apartment to have (except the bay window) I also want to keep it clean and in good condition. I’ve never been the kind of person who has to have things in order and who can’t stand a centimeter layer of dust on their table tops. I have been quite content living in a dorm room with a floor-covering carpet and a steady layer of dust on it, so ample that my daily route between the bed, desk and door was quite visible after few months. Only when my parents were coming over for a visit I borrowed a hand vacuum cleaner to get the most visible layer of dust off the floor. I have also always been very content with the huge stacks of used or tried-on clothes covering a chair or a bed. But now I have experienced a change. I like my flat clean, I like it with things in their right place and I like it without bread crumbles all over the table top and floor. A...

Spring, what a wonderful excuse for shopping! The days in Estonia have already grown long and the Sun shines all the way to 7pm. Sun. Exactly, it has been seen multiple times in the past month and snow is only a bad memory (may it stay that way!). The bare trees still look a bit miserable but from the way my eyes are starting to itch I can tell there is pollen in the air, which means there is hope, even though the next few months will be challenging for us pollen allergics.  Spring makes me so happy every time. And the least you can do to celebrate such happiness is to look good. I never get out of the door if I'm not happy with what I see in the mirror but winter with the coldness and wetness made my choices clothing-wise very limited. I never wear the same shoes two days in a row but in winter I don't have a choice. So when spring comes and the streets are dry I take all joy out of my neglected shoe closet (yes, I have a closet full of shoes). With the shoes I...