Acting, visitors and TJ

This weekend has been quite a busy one. On Friday I went to Moreton in Marsh to take part in a crisis simulation on a Red Cross delegate training. As an actor that is.
I got to play a JFOR soldier, a rebel and a representative from the ministry of internal affairs. I won't go in to details of what I did, because that COULD spoil it for future participants of the training ;) Anyhow, that took from Friday afternoon 'til Saturday afternoon.
When I came back to Oxford on Saturday, I had a friend from back home waiting for me on the train station. She's been traveling in Scotland for a month now, and came down to the south (and our "warm weather") yesterday. We been wandering around the city a bit, and eating some lovely food :)
Tomorrow is back to work. Luckily I have Wednesday off, so I can sleep a bit more than I have this weekend.
I like sleeping.

TJ 28.

Wow..

I really DO suck at updating my blog right now, I'm sorry for that.

Last Saturday-Sunday, I was on my first event as a first aider. Since I'm not full qualified yet, I was "only" there shadowing. The event was quite a big university college ball. Not too much to do, though, which means the youth of today seems to be quite good at taking care of themselves.

I really enjoyed the eight hours I spent there, from 10pm-6am but I'm still quite exhausted from the lack of decent sleep.

I have Wednesday off from work, so I'll sleep then. And clean my room.. Oops...

Only like 44 days of EVS'ness left. Then back to Finland for the Groke knows how long, and then we'll see what happens.

After my EVS year I might start up a blog updating my everyday life post-EVS. Don't see why not :P

If you don't know about Questionable content, I suggest you check it out pronto. I loooove it. It's probably the best webcomic of all times. Just start reading from strip one, I'll bet you'll get hooked, just as I did while on Åland in the beginning of June.

That's it for this time, cheerio ;)

I miss you <3

Tillbaka till andra verkligheten

Har nu spenderat två veckor i Finland.
Troligtvis två av de bästa veckorna typ EVER.

Var med Sötis till Åland där hon blev student och fick träffa typ alla hennes kompisar ja bara hört om tidigare.
Den andra veckan spenderade ja mest i Pargas å hälsa på massa människor och firade en kompis 18-årsdag.

Börjar lite längta hem :P

Tack alla för en massa underbara dagar! :)

PS. Till er alla jag inte hann träffa: vi ses om typ två månader. Varför inte komma å säga "HEJJJJ" åt mig på flygfälte när ja landar? :D

Weeks fly by.

Have I told you about my Wednesday nights? I'm on a Standard First Aid course, so that I can go out on events as a first aider.

On Friday 14th my girlfriend came to visit me. We hadn't seen each other for 4,5 months. Yikes.
We had a wonderful week and a few days together, even if I had to work a few of those days.

I also had the chance to get photograhphed while playing The Lying Down Game. You can see my pictures here.

Im going home to Finland for two weeks in June, to go on Sandra's graduation and to meet some friends in Pargas/Nagu.
I HAVE to try and meet my cousins aswell. My cousins are the best. (What, me and my summer neighbours AREN'T related?? Oh well, I count them aswell)

Finnish summer, HERE I COME!*
* Terms and conditions apply
Subject to availability
Look in store for details

"Not in service" and cheeseburgers.

Note to people traveling in the UK:
If a local bus shows "Not in service" instead of a line number, you bet your ass that that bus is not going to stop and pick you up, no matter how late you are or much you wave and look at the driver angrily. Yapping on about it to your husband after the bus passes will not help either. So, wen you see a bus with "Not in service" on it, don't bother waving and make a fool of yourself on the bus stop.

From buses to snacks, without a donkey bridge.

Walkers, a crisps factory* has got somekind of campaign going on, most probably to boost their sales. They have launced 15 new flavors of crisps, and if you do some stuff on Walkers' web page based on which flavor you liked the most, you can win £10.000.

Some of the new flavors are Japanese Teryaki Chicken, British Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding and Argentinean Flame Grilled Steak. Today, I found another flavor. American Cheeseburger. My first thought was, "whaat?! No way, these prolly taste like mud" (I did use another word than "mud" in my mind, but sssch!).
I decided to buy them just to taste (now you see where the boosting sales-part comes in) and I'll be damned! They really DO taste like a ceesebuger directly from the heat tunnel at McDonald's!
Now THAT'S weird!

Hmm.. No pictures yet.. Oops.. Just tell me if you're very bored with text only :)

*Crisps are the british name for "potatischips".

Midway seminar, ashes and such

I know I promised pictures in this post, but since I am at work, that is not going to happen.
Sure, I can edit and put in some pictures later, if that makes you happy ;)

Last week we had the midway seminar, where all of the BRC volunteers got together and talked about thow the projects are going and had a a few lessons, like deaf awareness where we learned the BSL's (British sign lnguage) letters and a bit more aswell. We also got to look on an emergency response vehicle and it's equipment. Aaand we also had a bit of a self defence training! That was FUN! Even if we didn't get to hurt anyone :P
Most of all, we were able to talk to each other. Most of us haven't met since Guildford in September, and it was really nice to see all again! I don't think I could have gotten a better group of volunteers! :)

Next week, Sandra is meant to come and visit me (wihuuuu!!). BUUUUUUT because of Eijafjatlajökull, that might not happen! :(
We've been looking forward to this week for, hmm, four months now. BLARGH!
Let's hope the ashes have mercy on us.

One month here or there..

The last month has been kinda.. well, not quiet, but not that much new things have happened at work.

I can tell you a few new things.
I will be giving our normal STI presentation on a year 13 assembly in April, 240 students attending at once. Yikes! :D

And last Tuesday me and Lera went with Josh, one of our supervisors, and also the line manager, to a college, and sat in on his homophobia presentation. Me and Lera will deliver the same presentation on another campus this Friday. Really good presentation, and it seems to have got the young people thinking about what they say to each other and such.
I do look forward to delivering it myself, after a few adjustments to the Power point presentation we have.

Also, our computers got upgraded to Windows XP last Thursday. We have been working with Windows 2000 up until then, and still two computers are left with the old OS on them, and one is not starting at all A fourth wont let anyone log in.
The nice man from IT who came up from London to upgrade our computers is off work this week, so we will have to cope until next week.
I got to play a bit of an IT man myself last Friday, when one of the computers wasn't connecting to the main system. Oh well.. Next week we should be all sorted again.

This weekend I went to Liverpool to celebrate a fellow vol's birthday. I had a blast! Even if the traveling there takes about 3,5 hours...

Until next time, try not to hurt yourselves ;P

Mate..

I just threw in a "mate" when I asked one of our volunteers (I'm recognized as a member of staff) how he's doing, just to see how it felt.. Man, dit it feel wrong? :D
But the volunteer didn't seem to mind, so it's prolly just my head.

Wow.. The wrongness.

December 2009

I just remembered quite a funny thing that happened while I was home in Finland in December.
I bought some stuff from the local-ish supermarket, and paid with my British debit card.

The cashier asked "Bank or credit?"
I found this a bit funny, since it's a debit card it doesn't have any credit side. It's basically a normal bank card.

When I said this to the cashier she looked at me and started to say something, but the cashier from the till behind mine interrupted with a reminder to my cashier:
"Since it's a Swedish card, we'll have to put it under credit" (The correct term would've been "foreign", but maybe everything outside Finland is Sweden for him..?)

Still trying to convince both cashiers that it doesn't have a credit side, but they didn't seem to listen, so I said "Ok.. Credit it is then.."

When the transaction was finished and I'd signed the receipt my cashier said:
"These Swedish bank/credit cards can really mess things up sometimes"
I could't help myself from saying
"It's in fact British, and it does not have a credit side, but I agree."
I like the look I got. Can't describe it though..


I miss Finnish sweets.

Red Cross element

A (big) part of my EVS year is to be a part of some Red cross group or doing some work for the Red Cross. I haven't done anything yet, but the circus around that begins tomorrow when I'll be going to Abingdon to a Red cross HQ to meet up with a volunteer organizer (no, that is probably not the right term, but anyways) and have an induction to Oxfordshire's Red cros and see what they're up too.
So hopefully tomorrow I'll know what I'll be doing for the last six months or so. Wow.. Am I soon o be half way through? Geez..

I've found some misusage of the Red cross symbol. Should report that aswell. A childrens doctors costume and a nurses dress for Valentine's day.
People who come up with these dresses seems not to have been to a hospital, well.. at all.

Oh, and that text to the Finnish Red Cross.. Haven't started yet. But there are no plans for the weekend either :P Buuut.. I guess there are now ;)

New music.

I was asked to write a text to the Finnish Red Cross' website about my first half of the year here.
Good thing I started this blog! Gives me some help.. Otherwise I wouldn't know waht to write.


I've recently discovered the Swedish duo Far & Son. They sing the amazing song Panik, and another good song called Tjeckoslovakien. One of the guys in this band is also a member of Maskinen, who plays kinda the same music. I really like Maskinen aswell.
The first song I heard from Maskinen came out when I was in the army.

Can't describe the bands music, so I guess I'll just have to show you some videos.

OH! Speaking about Maskinen. When I first arrived in the UK, a French guy listened when i played Maskinen on my computer and said, with his perfect English with the perfect French accent
"This sounds quite like a French band!". I'll give you that aswell.

Enjoy!

Cancelled weekend plans

Two volunteers from Kent were about to come around for a night this weekend, but their car broke down, so they re not coming. Quite a shame, since I really like meeting the other volunteers. But there'll be more weekends, so no worries there.

So now I'm free for the weekend.. What to do?

BTW. I did bring my camera to London, bub didn't find that much to take pictures of, so there...

Monday tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the Humanitarian Action day for the Red Cross EVS volunteers in the southern part of England.
This HA day will focus on justice and fairness.
It's going to be really nice to see some of the other vols, whom I haven't seen since September in Guildford.

I'll bring my camera, so there will prolly be some pictures up on Monday or Tuesday evening.

The informaion letter sent out to us about the HA day had a funny sentence in it.
"Lunch will be provided, but bring your own pen"
Okay, maybe that wasnt the sentence exactly, but something like it :)

Some pictures of the snowy weather in Oxford.

Back in Oxford

Now I'm back in Oxford after spending Christmas and New Years with loved ones.
I've had such a blast, even though I only got to meet about half of the people I intended to meet.
Well, I can't blame any other than myself, since I didn't get in touch with them.

Christmas was spent with family and relatives, and New years with a wonderful girl, who is now my girlfriend! Can you believe it!? :D

I'm a bad storyteller. If you want me to tell you something specific about my holidays, just ask :)
The only stupid questions, are the ones that remain unasked.