Suomi: A new experience.

beeing ill and do some work

2005-12-03T02:38:00.000+02:00

Written by Wallace

hi guys !

Actually back from our really great trip from Russia we have some final work to do for our final paper in context aware computing. But in these busy times my body starts to say "NO". Getting temperature, headache and cough. Just to say I have a kind of flu.
But final presentation has to be done and an exam in "finish economy" has to be written. Using some Aspirins i made it.

Poor me!

Thanks to the swiss people in my floor supported me these days with serving dinner and so on ....
Our final seminar-presentation we did in the same building where F-Secure has it's development department, cool. Thanks to Schö and Mattjes from Holland for the well done work !

Mattjes(NL), Schö and Wallace after the presentation in the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT).

Russia

2005-11-25T21:03:00.000+02:00

Written by Schö

Last week we had the big opportunity to explore the people, culture and party life of Moscow and St.Petersburg. It was a mixture between heavy sightseeing and party excesses. The trip was organized by Zerkalo (a travel agency organizing trips to Russia) and we went there together with approximately fifty other Erasmus students. We crossed the border without any problems in a Russian night train and arrived in Moscow Tuesday morning. The first great experience followed immediately: We took the metro of Moscow during the morning rush-hour. After a short walking (crossing the Red Square, Kremlin and Saint Basil's Cathedral, we checked in in our hotel which is one of the biggest in Russia and which is located very central, next to the Kremlin. However, Putin don’t like the view from the Kremlin because the hotel is not a masterpiece of architecture – so it want be there next year.

Some funny experiences: Russians talk to you in Russian and they don’t care if you can understand them or not. It is strictly forbidden to pee in the streets, but they don’t care about air pollution (the whole city smells like an old gas station).

Saint Basil's Cathedral (left to right: Gossi(CH), Fenix(HK), Schö, Christiane(CH), Wallace, Lucas(FR), Karina(AT), Romain(FR))

The price level in Moscow and St. Petersburg is nearly the same as in European cities, but we had always in our mind that it is cheap because that was what we expected of Russia. That resulted in a rapid decrease of our roubles.

Going out in Russia is much fun – Russian girls like European guys. ^^

In St. Petersburg we took an old “black taxi” (unofficial taxi). The “car” (car is too favourable for that vehicle) was meant for a maximum of five people – we were seven…

But that’s enough for now, just look at the pictures!

Gossi started an attack. We are in front of just another church.

In the Rossija Hotel*** (1.st row l to r: Karina, Christiane, Gossi,Wallace
2nd row l to r: Lucas, Fenix
3rd row l to r: Romain, Chinese girl :) )

Going out in Moscow (or Las Vegas??) (l to r: Schö, Romain, Wallace, Fenix)

On the bridge over the Moscow River.
(l to r: Christiane, Schö, Romain, Lucas, Fenix, Wallace, Gossi)

Wallace in front of the "Tsar bell" - the biggest bell of the world.
It weights about 202 ton and is 6,14 meter high.

Evening rush hour in Moscow.
(View from the Moscow Bridge)

The Rossija Hotel is one of the world largest hotels, registered in the Guinness Book of Records. It is like a visit card or the face of Moscow. The Rossija hotel has 3100 rooms for 5500 guests.
We were some of them.

Brands help you to learn the Russian alphabet.

A black taxi (just a private car).

I made this picture inside the Hermitage Museum. You can see the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is one of the largest, oldest and most important art galleries in the world.

You should be able to read it!

State Historical Museum, as seen from Red Square.

The first snow this winter in St. Petersburg.

Our guide Jukka (in the middle with the long blond hair). He was never alone (his bottle of alcohol was normaly in his right hand).

Ice hockey

2005-11-13T23:44:00.000+02:00

Written by Schö (status: tired)

Hi guys!

Anteeksi (sry) for the silence in here but as it is now business as usual here in Helsinki there is not so much to tell (and I don’t want to write about all the parties which are going on, it would be too much :) ).

Well, today nearly all the Erasmusstudents went to Pasila (near Helsinki) to the ice hockey stadium where a friendship tournament between Finland, Russia, Czech Republic and Sweden took place. We watched two games: Russia-Czech Republic and Sweden-Finland. The pictures will tell you on which side we were. It was a good choice because our team won the tournament!! SU-O-MI! SU-O-MI!!!

Yesterday there was the first big party in my students dormitory due to the fact that we have now the key to the party room. I really enjoyed it going to a party in my slippers but too many vodka shots forced me to fall into my bed very early.

This week we will visit Moscow and St.Petersburg. If you are interested in what we are doing there: You can find some information about the trip here. Pictures will follow.

Design museum

2005-10-20T19:22:00.000+03:00

Written by Wallace

Today inspired from an artikle in the austrian newspaper standard stefan and me visited the design museum in helsinki. First getting a bit lost we found it near the old area of helsinki. Getting in without paying i started to take pictures with my digicam... seconds later a young lady was complainig to me that this is forbidden. So I can show you just these view pictures. It was quite ok but searching in the design shops placed near the museum at Frederikinkatu is more fun.

Later I bought in one of the alko shops a real austrian Stroh rum

Trying to look interested.

Modern "design" chairs.

Probably the best object, but it was not part of the exhibition: Stickers from visitors on a pedestal.

Stockholm trip

2005-10-13T18:10:00.000+03:00

Written by Schö & Wallace

This week we decided to take part in a short trip to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

We took the ferry Mariella (Viking Line). The ship set of to sea at 5:30 pm from Helsinki. We had a small cabin together with a German and a French guy. As we had to stay on the ship for approximately 12 h, we first decided to discover the big boat. And there was everything you could imagine: casino, night club, cafe, restaurant, swimming pool, duty free shop, congress center and….. try to imagine… four saunas (ok, it’s not so funny anymore). The whole trip, 12h ship - 8h Stockholm - 12h ship + breakfast was awful cheap: 25 €!

At the beginning of our trip they made a karaoke night in the nightclub “Club 7” on the boat. Crazy Finns and of course some Erasmus students were singing Finnish songs. It seems that the Finns like karaoke even more than the Japanese. Then the DJ of the club started his work and we were drunken enough to enjoy it.

We arrived next day in Stockholm at about 9:40 am. We were brave enough to get up. Stockholm has a very beautiful old city centre with many small streets (a little bit like Venice). We visited the famous Vasa museum . In this museum you can have a look at one of the biggest ships built in the 16th century: the Vasa.

Schö in "Club 7".Vasa museum.View from our cabin, unfortunately just a fake.Sweden.

Jyväskylä

2005-10-10T21:08:00.000+03:00

Written by Schö

Last weekend I visited the small city Jyväskylä. Jyväskylä is the city where Gü&Angie spent their exchange last semester.

I asked their friend Annukka if I could stay some days at her flat. The response: „Kein Problem, komm vorbei.“ Annukka speaks German very well because she studied one year in Germany.

Friday we visited Gü’s favorite bar: Vakiopaine (Constant pressure).
Saturday Annukka and her friends showed me around: a ski jump, a big modern university spread over the city, a hill with a tower and a short shopping street. That was everything. I asked Annukka and her friends if there is something else I should visit: nil return.

In the evening I took my crone and my queen (Annukkas flatmate) and we went out to a private party. Finns are nice and friendly people, I can just repeat that.
After the party we went to the new club “Gigglingmarlin” and stayed there until morning.

Sunday: hangover. We watched Annukkas favorite series “Green Wing”.
In the evening I went back to Helsinki (4 hours).

Vielen Dank Annukka!!!!

Unfortunately I forgot the camera. But a post without a picture is no post:
Helsinki Beach.

Party!!!!!

2005-10-02T14:04:00.000+03:00

Written by Schö & Wallace

Party in Finland is always exciting, especially with Fins, because they have so many strange patterns of behavior. Wednesday we joined the law-students who organized a trip to a cottage, which is situated 60km from Helsinki. I thought it would be a small cottage for ten people, but we were two busses with approximately 120 students. Most of them were Finns (except our little group of exchange students - we were ten).

The drinking already started in the bus with the obligatory drinking song:

Wer im Jänner Geburtstag hat steht auf, steht auf, steht auf,
er nimmt sein Gläschen in die Hand und sauft es aus bis an den Rand, sauf aus, sauf aus, sauf aus!

Of course they sing it in finish! The trip was well organized. Five minutes after arriving at the cottage they started to cook and after one hour we sat down at the table and the singing really began. For two hours they sang as it were the last thing they can do! As the lyrics were printed and available for everyone, we also tried to sing those finish songs.

Some of the Erasmusstudents decided to reveal their true ethnicity.

Then the sauna was heated and there were people in the sauna all night long! We stayed there for one hour, only interrupted by jumping in the lake(we did it three times: sauna- lake- sauna- lake- sauna- lake!)

Each Saturday we will have private sauna. Normally sauna is not mixed. But if you book the sauna you can do whatever you want ;)

My flat (again) and Internet in Finland.

2005-09-28T00:47:00.000+03:00

Written by Schö

Today I will present some pictures of what you get for 350€/month. My room has 23 m² and my first impression was not the best but now I’m really happy with it. Just look at the pictures.

If someone considers it lovely – everyone is invited!!

I had to organize my internet access on my own. The price for an ADSL connection was unexpected low:

256/256 kbit/s 17,90 /month
512/512 kbit/s 19,90/ month
1M/512 kbit/s 24,90/ month
2M/512 kbit/s 34,90/ month
8/1 Mbit/s Full Rate 44,90/ month

No download limit, no additional costs for the router ore some other costs!
I took the second one. What are the current rates in Austria?

My computer arrived in Finland some days after me! It took the postal way. The parcel was badly damaged and I had no hope that it would work. But after putting it together and pressing the power button it worked. Unfortunately I had no monitor. So I went to a strange second-hand computer shop nearby my flat and I asked the Russian seller what the price of the monitor was. He wasn’t able to speak one English word, but, don’t ask me how, ten minutes later I bought one for only 15€. I hope I will never be that drunken that I put a beer on my unprotected computer components...

(View from my flat over Helsinki)

Doing some work and Austrian dialect

2005-09-26T11:34:00.000+03:00

Written by Wallace

As you can see, an Erasmus semester is much fun. Nevertheless some work has to be done. As I mentioned our course “Context Aware Computing” has already started. The draft of our paper is finalized now! First proof of not just doing party here in Finland :-)

The last days I had some time to explore the campus at our technical university called "Kumpula". Hey, I have to say the fins really try to boost their universities with very new equipment and we have to say that there all computer terminals work per default under Linux. Yes, you are able to boot to windows, but it seems they don' t want you to work under this platform because it is not configured and works very slow. Loitering around the campus I found the old PC of Linus Torvalds. He was studying here, and now things became clearer.

Tomorrow we are starting with our seminar work on the finish sauna culture. It deals about the behaviour of different nations in sauna. We discovered in our research that most people from France and Belgium refuse to be fully naked. Actually sauna became more and more important in my life. In my student dormitory there are three different saunas and I try to make two sauna days a week. Next month we will make a mixed sauna on every Saturday in a private rented sauna. Yes, we try to become real finns!

Today my friend Tobias from Switzerland tried to improve his (he thinks) very good Austrian dialect. After doing some training with Tobi I think the result is quite ok, but hear for yourself!

Tobias from Switzerland tries to speak Austrian dialect.

If you guys think the weather here in Helsinki is bad you are on the wrong way. Only about two short rainy days in three sunny weeks are the reality. Sitting on the beach with some friends and hearing K & D, hey that's Erasmus!

Distances and my home

2005-09-25T00:15:00.000+03:00

Written by Schö

As I am always complaining about how I am situated here in Helsinki I will now give you an idea of my inconvenient situation.

(You can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them)

I'm not so far away from my home country Austria, just around 1500 kilometers.

I live approximately 10 km (straight line) away from the city centre and the main university (Uni1) where most of my courses take place. The technical campus "Kumpula" (Uni2) is 5 km away from my flat.
Helsinki’s public transport is one of the best traffic systems in the world but that is no reason to spend at least 2 hours a day in busses or trains! (The bars and clubs are located in the centre)

My flat is big enough for me (and some ants) and I have my own kitchen and bath/toilet. Here in Vuolukiventie live mostly Erasmusstudents from Germany. That's the reason why most people call it German ghetto.

Another interesting fact is the number of the saunas. Do the Finns really think five saunas are necessary? I am not sure, but normally not all the people want to use the sauna at the same time, which would be possible...

A weekend in Tallinn (Estonia)

2005-09-22T18:04:00.000+03:00

Written by Schö

Last weekend I visited the smallest country I have been so far: Estonia.
Some short facts about Estonia:

Area: 45,226 km²
Population: 1,350,000
Ethnic groups: Estonian 70%, Russian 25%
Currency: Estonian kroon (1 Euro = 15,5 kroons)
Member of the EU since 2004

We (I went there together with Bea) started the trip at the harbour of Helsinki. There we took the ferry “Rosella” (www.vikingline.fi). It took the ferry three hours to transport us to Tallinn. On the ferry a band played old, romantic songs and some old people were dancing. So we decided to pay 19 euros in order to be able to enter the all-you-can-eat restaurant. The food was delicious.. mmmmmhhhh.., but it made me carelessly and I wanted to be a typical fin and so I lost some euros at the slot machine.
In Tallinn we got lost and it took us nearly one hour to find the proper trolley-bus which took us to a young girl (Jenny). I found Jenny through www.couchsurfing.com, consider this great website! She gave us her keys and left us alone in her flat because she had to collect her father from the airport. On that Friday we went out in the “hippest” locations in Tallinn. We visited an exclusive cocktail bar in Viru Keskus (big, modern shopping mall). After some cocktails we visited the club Decolté, where Arash played his song “Bora Bora” and some other strange songs. It isn’t the kind of music I like, but the girls in the club, which were dressed like bitches, made up for this. ;)
On Saturday we wanted to be typical tourists and so we made a sightseeing tour. Our hopes that Estonia is a country with low prices died after visiting some shops. The only things which are really cheap in Tallinn are food and drinks.
In the evening we visited an Indian restaurant and afterwards we drunk some beers in a small bar which is located near the main square of the old city of Tallinn. After the bar was closed we took a taxi which should carry us back home. Unfortunately the Russian taxi driver got lost.
On Sunday Jenny drove us to a lovely restaurant, to the beach and finally to the harbour.

week 2

2005-09-17T11:42:00.000+03:00

Written by Wallace

A hard week is behind me. At technical university at kumpula about 4km away from center they already stared the courses. People are very cool and relaxed there. They have very modern equipment and all things work perfectly. The first course I make is context aware it’s a kind of seminar and deals about pervasive computing stuff. This course is hold from two PHDs (http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/floreen and http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/linden). The strange thing is that we have four assistants for our questions for about 10 people taking part on the course!!! Another big part of my last days were making party and doing some sightseeing and make new friends. But I think the photos tell you everything.

first week

2005-09-15T09:23:00.000+03:00

Written by Wallace

hi !

The last week many things happened. To many tasks at the same time had to be done. Sleeping the first day in the flat of an finnish girl i moved in to my new dormitory in Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 28. Hey man, very luxury. The next 3 days I was waiting for my luggage (never fly with baltic airlines !). Now the first week could start. Making new social networks, orientate in helsinki, orientate at the university, doing party.....
I will try to write from this time on to write something in this blog at least once a weak.
greets wallace