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Theory vs Practice

I had the first lecture of "Intercultural Communication Skills". IWe did "Human Bingo" at first to get to know each other. Then inroduced ourselves. Interestingly, the time limit was 30 seconds. In the time, what I had to do was telling all classmates my name, what the meaning and origin of it or other stories related to it. Net, the lecturer Sini showed us 9 pictures supposed to be taken in various countries. For exmple, first one, there were yellow buildings covered with snow. Many answered it was Finland, Sweden and so forth. Next one, I saw yellow desert-like place, some guys are harvesting something, and little horse or something, so I guessed it was Afghanistan. Third one was forests and lakes. Fifth looked like somewhere in Europe, medieval town. I thought it was Spain and other students answered Portugal or Greek. Eighth and ninth were obviously somewhere in middleeast/Arabic/Islamic country because of the people and Arabic letters.
But very surprisingly, all of the pics were taken in Iran! Snowed mountains, forests and lakes, medieval-like town are in Iran! It told us that what you saw in media was only a part of the things of there. It leads stereotyping and sometimes it could lead to prejudice. We tend to think something must be, and should be something as far as we know. It is really dangerous. I’m looking forward to the following lectures. It must be pretty interesting because it’s practical, nicer than the previous theory classes.
The second Russia lecture was boring, I’m afraid. The history is not bad but from 8th century? OK there were Slavs, Constantinople, Novgorod, Vikings, etc, etc…time for nap.

NOTICE!
I can use microwave and vacuum from now on. My wonderful roommate Miika got it. I alerady his coffee machine (I'm sure I use it mush more times than he uses) Kiitos paljon, Miika!

Theory vs Practice_b0053560_1202912.jpgTheory vs Practice_b0053560_1204125.jpg
# by onlyforjmm | 2004-11-03 01:32

sliipery roads and I slipped the test partly

sliipery roads and I slipped the test partly_b0053560_6583423.jpgSince the snow, every street is slipperly and I couldn't climb hills by bike.
I was given back the test of Anthropology. Not so bad but I have to retake the test, only the fisrt part of it, though.
Today's opening lecture of Master's program of Development was great. Especially the lecturer was quite interesting. I don't remember her exact back ground but her name is Umayya Abu-Hanna, she was forty something years old, born in Haifa, Palestina. Then she went to Italia (or kind of Italian school...?), so easy to imagine, she makes lots of jokes and using bad word such as "shit" or "bitch" even during the lecture. So naturally the lecture was funny and not only that but also very interactive and there were so many oppotunities to say opinions. She's been living in Finland for 23 years and has Finnish passport. She herself said her roots is Islam but she is Christian but not so religious. Anyway, the lecture and especially the discussions which happensed sometimes during the lecture were really really interesting. Participants were, as far as I know, from Morocco, Poland, Finland, Israel, China and Japan.
The lecture was so nice but I didn't take part in the following deeper discussion because I wanted go to the gym. After that , I went the bar and met some people who is studying/have studied Japanese and chatted with them. Hmm, it was busy but nice day.
# by onlyforjmm | 2004-11-02 07:02

icing on the lake, first snow

Usually the church next to my building rings the bell on 9 a.m. sharp. But this morning, the bell started on 10 a.m. I didn’t care about it at first. Actually this annoys me every Sunday morning. After a while, I noticed something wrong. Why did it happen? Then I realized that, this is the last Sunday of October, which means that summer is over and long cold winter begun finally. Summer time has gone and I had to make my clock and watch set back 1 hour. Now, the lag between Finland and Japan is 7 hours.
I was in my room and face to my computer whole day (as usual weekends). The movies what I saw were “Secret Window” and “Legally Blond”. Both are nice, the genre is quite different, though. After seeing them, I jogged (‘cause I didn’t yesterday), went to sauna (as usual weekends as well), had a meal and went to bed…no, I have a lot of readings and must start essays!
In the midnight, finally it was snowing…
# by onlyforjmm | 2004-11-01 18:19

Pretending I'm an intellectual

Woke up at 12 o'clock, I notices that my roommate didn't come back last night. I have no idea where he went but I suppose he's been in Joensuu, his hometown. At least 3 times he went back on weekends as far as I know, during this 2 months. What a home-lover.Pretending I\'m an intellectual_b0053560_3135772.jpg

By the way, my Polish friend sent a kind of chain mail, saying the Ukraine's democracy is collapsing and petition is needed. The election is coming on Saturday and the mail has a link which is saying petition is wanted, to let Ukrainians know the tragic situation of their country is not ignored and lots of supporter are here, see this petitoin, from all over world, things like that. But how can I support it? I know where it is, OK, I understand the candidates are present and former Prime ministers. According to his mail, present Prime minister, Viktor Janukovych, is a criminal, arrested by theft not only once but twice, and suspected rape as well. Autorities, oil, money and Russia are behind and support him. He is extremely pro-Russian. Former Prime minister, Viktor Jushchenkois, is, on the contrary, pro-EU/NATO, once studied at U.S. and he has poisoned by someone and in danger, actualy he was dying, now OK but can't see him on media nowadays.
Well, that's all I know about it. Again, how can I and why should I sign the petition? I believe him, and feel sorry for Ukrainians, but I am doughtful that it can change the result of election. It's still (even though considered really doughtful) democratic election, and there're some observers to check it (of course there's a team from Japan). Is it so-called "Humanitarian Intervention"? Is there any "Terror threats"? Even so, who can intervene? United Nations? Or the super power which is having another election on nextweek? It's the key.

Now it's 23:00. Temperature is....oh my goodness, -3.8? Voi, voi.
# by onlyforjmm | 2004-10-30 23:20

Traditional food (made in Germany)

Traditional food (made in Germany)_b0053560_19505173.jpgI was totally exausted because of the Stammtisch. Naturally, then, I was sleeping during the class (not whole, I missed only some parts), "Parspectives to Finnish Society".
After I had a lunch, I took a nap for a while...1 hour! So i decided to skip the usual gim work and went shopping. I bought a orange and black border scarf which price was 50% off.

We (Angelito, Tatsunori, Kumiko, and me) went to Steph's room to have a kind of "ethnic food party" but the food Angelito brought was "Philipino" cookies sold in Spar, which is made in Germany, what Tatsunori brought was "nippon" cookies which is also sold in Spar, also made in Germany. They were really good actually but I borught a real one, "Pari-Sen" rice cookies my parents brought me last month. Kumiko did brilliant job. Using "Wafu-Dashi" which I gave her, she (I helped her some part, though) cooked "Niku-Jaga" (literrally "Meat and Potato") at Steph's kitchen. It was amazing! I admit she is a good cook.
At the party, I met Yann from France, Diana from Portugal, Eva from Poland. The others were who I already know very well, Lukas (Luky) and Philip from Germany.
# by onlyforjmm | 2004-10-30 19:50