Week 19, Trips to Manchester, two orchestral concerts

The first empty week started with moving to other room in my flat. My old room had water leak going on for a moment and when I started to feel my room smelled stuffy, I had a change to change my room to other. Luckily, there was two empty rooms in my flat so I just chose one of them and moved easily by opening my door, taking two steps and entering to the new room. My new room were really pleasant as being on the yard side which is not facing to the sun.

At the same day I went to Manchester to listen Chinese Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. It was a nice different experience, you can't see everyday Chinese orchestra or even a female conductor. I like to listen sometimes traditional Asian music to relax or concentrate. The concert was interesting and some of the pieces I really liked and some of them were so tiring I was almost sleeping. Before the concert we met Jian Wang, Cello player and Lei Jia, Sheng player. Overall it was nice experience.

Next day we came back to Manchester cause his work and Harry Potter live orchestra. I spent a day just lying down on the sofa, petting cats, surfing on a Internet and practicing drawing which didn't succeed at all... At the evening we went to Manchester Arena to watch Harry Potter and Sorcery's Stone with live orchestra. What a moment. I really liked when the orchestra was in front of us, but I din't like when girls were screaming when something big happened in the movie. That felt slightly weird for a Finn. I prefer quiet audience! :D

        

I did nothing important at the end of that week. Just were planning what do next when going back to Finland and stressing every little thing there is. I had to fill some files about this Erasmus exchange and look some information about my internship. I also had really great need to recycle my clothes and some items, but I knew I have to keep them for few weeks and then I can do it. I sometimes have obsession to recycle or give away my items and clothes I won't need. :)

Week 18, Trip to Italy

This week was all about travelling in Italy. We had flight to Bologna and rent car and drove to Venice. I thought we could have time to look around the Venice on Tuesday evening, but getting a car, parking and going to hotel took more time than  expected, even finding the hotel was easy.

At that night we ate late dinner around 10 pm and I was so disappointed ordering lasagna. I assumed it to have tomato-sauce inside and it didn't. Small problems of life. The food was good, but it would have been tasting better with tomato sauce! I even think I can do better lasagna than what I ate there. :D

Next day was hot and we both had t-shirts and shorts. Everyone else had long trousers and long sleeves. We must have been looked really traditional tourist with cameras and small clothes, which turned out to be problem to me. I din't remember this rule in Italy women have to cover their knees and shoulders and what was I showing? Of course my knees and shoulders! Luckily I had my cardigan to cover something...but still, we didn't go inside Basilicas, until the end of the evening I used my fella's hoodie to cover my knees.

Venice was a beautiful place with narrow streets, old sepia coloured buildings and hundreds of small bridges to cross over canals. The weather was nice and warm and our hotel area, Cannaregio,  was cosy with those small fruit markets and not too crowded. I really like cities/towns where there're old buildings and here was lots of old buildings everywhere. Venice is not a big place so it would take maybe a year to get use to those streets.

Before coming to Venice I said I would like to go on a Gondola ride, but seeing the prices, I changed my mind. It's not good prize for student. Water in Venice was anyway so dirty so I think I wouldn't like that so much anyway. People have been romanticizing Gondolas too much without knowing how it really is, but who I'm to say anything about that.

We bought tickets to a 20 minute long boat ride to San Marco centre. After eating something I bought a small and simple leather bag for myself. I was thinking maybe to buy an even smaller one where I could fit at least my phone and wallet, but I'm happy I changed my mind and took that other bigger purse. It's just the right size to fit my water bottle and other necessary items and it just looks good! :)

    

  

After going around places like St Mark's Campanile tower and Palace Ducale, we walked towards the museum garden because I looked, and there was one small museum building about Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, which sounded really exciting in here. When we arrived, there was long queue of people with gates. I thought it's free to go there and you can choose a place to go in, then we realized anyone who worked there spreading fliers didn't know how to buy tickets to get in. We gave up and walked back a different way and drove to Ravenna.

                     

    

   

Next day was warm and we spent our time at the theme park Mirabilandia. They say there's one of the best rides and I couldn't disagree, even if I haven't visited so many theme parks. Six actually... :D One of the weirdest rides was a  water ride called 'Divertical.' It had some parts as a boat and some parts as a roller coaster with wheels. It is the tallest water ride in the world and it comes really fast down to the water so your clothes will be wet.

   

  

In the evening we had a problem when trying to find a place to eat. Our hotel restaurant didn't serve any food because they had school group eating in there. We found one restaurant near to the beach whose owner had a family dinner but told us to come in and eat. That restaurant was not open usually at this time of the year. Also tried to find some desert to eat after dinner because we didn't want to disturb the owner anymore, but there was nothing open. Nothing at 9 o'clock at evening, not even supermarket...

Friday and driving back to Bologna day started with going back to Mirabilandia, changing a shirt to a bigger size and going a one last time to ride Katun. You can go there on the next day with the same tickets, without paying any extra. We also walked in centre of Ravenna.

  

                                 

Near Bologna it started pouring with rain and we were disappointed cause it was meant to be sunny and warm day, but suddenly raining stopped. After parking, we met my friend who have been on her exchange in Italy. She showed us some main places in Bologna and one of the museums, where I only took pictures of the ceilings. There was also really awkward situation inside museum. A young woman performing some kind of painful looking show while she was rolling and crawling on the floor. I have no idea how to act in situations like that. To me it looks hideous and awkward and I was laughing. I couldn't look at her for more than 3 seconds.

It started to thunder, rain and hail at the same time when we tried to get out from the museum and find some place to eat. But again we didn't find places to eat or any cafes with enough places. Italy has this weird eating habit. Restaurants' lunch time is until four and next time they're open is at seven or eight! Such a horrible system which I won't understand at all. Luckily after wandering around maybe an hour we finally got some food!

   

   

Next day we had flight back to England. I have to say I got really disappointed about Italian restaurants' opening times. :(

Week 17, Final school week and trip to London

Last week of school and The First of May passed by sleeping and resting in my bed and trying to get better. Again I had these busy days before assignment deadline and I have to rush! This time the reason is having a cold. I remember the Tuesday morning after waking up and walking to the kitchen and realizing my flatmate ate strawberries and the smell of strawberry hurt my nose! How awful!

At Wednesday, I was feeling better and continued my shoe project in Avenham Park with my friend Nina. We bought some treats, picked our stuff, sat under a tree in a sunny and hot day and started again this horrendous sanding. We ate some strawberries, dried mangos and crisps and found a new dog friend who sat in front of us.

I also had this small panic spray paint hunt when I realized no one is selling the paints I wanted. At least I got something, but I didn't really like to pay for 9£ for a spray paint which I use only once...But I had to buy those to finish my project, which turned out to be more difficult than I thought. I had several small mistakes or accidents so I had to paint something again.

After spraying maybe 3 layers of gray primer paint, I prayed 2 layers of white paint to my shoe pieces. And at this point I made the orange buckle from foam, which I almost forgot to do. To continue, I used masking tape over white parts and left orange line parts revealed and prayed the orange layers, which didn't turn out so well. My masking tape were leaking everywhere, so after a repairing session, I was almost ready.

Final touch by gluing parts together and my "Fiskars" wellie was ready! It turned out to be good, even some accidents at final day. I took some quick pictures with white background and went to the hanging out evening with other students and some teachers. I wanted to eat some nachos cause all the courses were finally over.

        

I hag really 'haikea' feeling at that day. It's a Finnish word and means feeling when you have to leave or end something what you liked. At the same time it's sad, wistful and melancholic (I don't understand why there's not word for that in English language).

All the courses, study environment, teachers and the guys in our class were so amazing! I'll miss when I see our teacher's Robbs face after I told something about myself, what I did or Finnish habits. He shrink his eyes, start laughing with words 'Oh, God' and moved hand to his forehead. And usually asked from me and Nina: 'What is wrong with you guys?' :D He is one of the nicest people I have met.

I wish I could be here longer time just because the school. It's just so amazing thing in here. When students have to pay for school, they expect to get the service and teaching what they have paid for and I can see it! Teachers are more open and they have to help every time. School has lots of people working for mentoring, career help, gym, information, accommodation, health care and many many more.

One of the best things, at here,I have been saying to everyone is library. At first of all, I haven't been using it so much I could, but let me tell. It's big building with three or four floors, not only filled with school books or magazines, but there's lots of other books like Harry Potter for example. So many books, and I haven't red any of those! So sad....

Anyway, there's huge areas to study, lots of printers and scanners you can use, student information centre, lots of librarians to help you to find some specific information, people who read your essays and give advices how to write it in better English or better. I can't forget the UCLan print. You can print your module reports as a book, your cat's face to a shirt or to a mug! And everything inside school library!

Think outside the box they say... 

I spent weekend at London, which was too short time. One day at the centre of London and other at Warner Bro Studios' to see Harry Potter tour. At London centre we walked through the main sights and ate nice dinner before seeing Royal Philharmonic Orchestra presenting film music.The first ever Orchestral music performance I saw or heard and I really liked it. Only bad thing was I was quite tired and there was some parts when I almost kind of fell in sleep... :P

        

Sunday was day what I waited for! I bought Harry Potter tour tickets many months before, and it was perfect timing I say. Just opened Forbitten Forest section attracted more people to the studios, and it's hard to get now tickets for suitable days.

I have been Harry Potter fan for a long time and I feel liking more and more Harry Potter books and movies. I wanted to go to HP Studios for so many years and now it came true accidentally coming at here to study. I'm fascinated about Harry Potter, but never been so big fan who would like to own lots of Potter related items.

     

 

                            

During the tour I realized that one of the inner thoughts of becoming designer, must be cause HP movies. I remember watching video about talented people making the sets and props for the movie. Their skills were so good and together those people created something really great and lasting. Industrial Design/Product Design are not so close to those jobs, but it's something similar and gives me inspiration for future.

       

 

Week 16, Trip to Scotland part 2

Second last week of school started. That meant many hours smoothing my shoe model with really fine sandpaper. My teacher sprayed one layer of primer to everyones shoes and at this point when we started to sand it, you could see the scratches all over your model. So, I got my earphones, turned the music on and started horrendous sanding.

Sometimes I like to bake and cook a lot. This week I spent lots of time in the kitchen, and I dunno where I got that energy to do that, it just comes and goes. I had some chocolate I had to use and huge need to bake, so that lead to chocolate muffins. Nina baked some Karelia pies and we made a trade. I got some delicious Karelia pies and Nina got some muffins. :)

At Wednesday I went at the same time to Edinburgh with Nina and her friends. We took train and rushed to different directions after departing. I went to see Scot monument in Princes Gardens, which is next to train station and between new and old town. Atmosphere was relaxing and the view of Edinburgh Castle was beautiful, even the castle was so much higher.

Corner of the gardens was two different churches I visited. The Parish Church of St Cuthbert is basic looking church whit courtyard  and many vaults. It's believed the church was build at 850 which makes it really old to me. Church of St John the Evangelist is Gothic architecture and more modern. I loved the ceiling it had! It was really beautiful with those circular shapes and brown and white contrast was perfect.

                  

    

After eating a nice soup at new town, I went towards to Dean Village (centre of successful grain mill area) where I saw other Finnish tourists. And of course as a true Finn, I didn't say a word and just listened what they were taking about. I took few pictures and walked on the riverside, through Dean Gardens to Royal Botanical Garden. I didn't plan my road and it was good idea. Nature around me felt so refreshing and gt me more excited to see my destination.

Arriving to Botanical Garden, I noticed it was bigger than I though! Many different areas like Chinese Hillside, Native Woodland, Glasshouses and Queen Mother's Memorial Garden. I saw lots of trees, squirrels, many beautiful flowers, ponds and peaceful landscapes. One of the best places and moments was when I found small forest area with birch trees and chickweed wintergreens. So peaceful part of the garden, where I felt like I'm middle of the Finnish forest. :)

          

It wasn't busy time of the year so I had many moments to wonder around without seeing any other human-being. I had a plan to just to have quick visit at garden, but I think I spend at least 4 hours in there. Nature makes feel better and clears mind, it is proven. To me, being quiet near nature is one of the precious times you can have. I have noticed during this exchange I wont need whole forest around me (of course that would be perfect), but I find happy moments even finding nettles from ground.

End of the day I walked back to the centre of Edinburgh and had a dinner with girls before taking train back. I slept maybe too well during the next night and day... :D

At Friday there was old/graduated students talking about life after graduation including hard and good times they had. I also got some tips how to make an impression and get a job and it sounded harder than it maybe is. All day listening when other people talk is hard, so I took a nap after that, which have been coming as a habit to me again.

Saturday rushed so quickly at Blackpool theme park, Pleasure Beach. Evening tickets were cheap, so why not go there. It was much better weather than last time and one of the closed rides were open this time. At 10 PM, there was also firework show and when it end we drove back to Preston. At the next day I had a cold.

Week 15, Trip to Scotland part 1

Second week of Easter Holidays started with lazy Easter Monday. I wanted to bake Easter cake at weekend, but I didn't really have any inspiration for that, so I decided to make a Easter crepe cake with mango and chocolate at next Tuesday, which was slightly late. At Tuesday morning I noticed my delicious mango was already rotten, so I changed plans and made a raspberry chocolate crepe cake! I have never done any crepe cakes, so it was my first to try.

Haha. It looks good, I have to say! :P 

I also cut my hair at hairdresser. My hair ends was in really bad condition and I had a voucher for a hairdresser, so I used my change. Only bad thing was they washed my hair, used conditioner, hair oil and and hair foam. Every hair product had a different smell so I literally stinked after and I had to wash my hair again at the evening cause I couldn't bear that smell anymore and my nose was runny.

Early at Wednesday morning we took train to Edinburgh, Scotland and spend one day at there. At first we went to Edinburgh Castle, which cost a lot to get in and we spent there about two hours going around. Castle is top of hill of the city and the view was great. Inside the castle was many museums about Jacobites and war, too many I say. I'm not really a museum person, so just went trough some of the museums.

Outside the castle was a tourist shop which I wanted to check, and I think it was one of the best decisions. At inside was many rooms filled with scarfs, duvets, kilts and other products from wool, cashmere, alpaca wool, goat wool and merino. Such a heaven! They even had weaving machines below the shop. Before I came to Scotland, I looked I could maybe find a scarf for myself and I did. I wasn't so excited about the colours they had, but I found a scarf I liked. After coming out from the tourist shop, I saw many other scarf shops.

On the way to hill called, Arthur's Seat, I saw The Elephant cafe, where J.K.Rowling wrote her books and had quick peak inside National Museum of Scotland. Arthur's Seat is big hill on the right side of Edinburgh and it's 250 meters high (822 ft.). Our luck we took the longer way and walked long time a circular movement. Way to the top was slightly exhausting. It was promised to be cloudy and slightly rainy, but weather was sunny and hot. It took almost few hours to get there and the view was amazing. Way back we walked almost straight path, which we didn't see before climbing up hill.

                           

  
  

Next day we took a train to Glasgow and spent a day there. My first time at the tearoom was eating Scottish haggis (savoury pudding with sheep's pluck) and carrot cake. We really liked haggis the way it was served to us, I think there might be similar traditional foods also in Finland.

We walked around the city centre, went to the People's Palace & Winter Garden, Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow Suspencion Bridge and Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral. Made lots of steps during that day as day before. At the evening we ate good and cheap food at Jamie Oliver's restaurant 'Jemie's Italian'.

        

  

             

                                                                                                                                                                

                                   

This was the last day at Scotland now and I would like to travel around there more. Unfortunately cities and towns are so far away from each other and every movie destination is middle of nowhere. At least I have visited at the main cities and later on it's good to come here and visit places I haven't seen (Which takes ages to travel every place I want to see in Uk and it cost lots of money. But someday I will!).

At the weekend I watched my first football match. It wasn't so bad than I expected. :P