Det er et meget godt liv i Aarhus!

View from the Aarhus Book Tower

Det er de første måned i Denmark, og jeg er meget glad at være her! Which probably means that "this is my first month in Denmark, and I am very happy to be here!"

I have never lived in a city with this many students - over 40 000 students and over 1000 new international students this fall. I studied for 3 years before I even thought of going abroad, and suddenly I am here, one of the 1000 international students in Aarhus University in the fall of 2014. 

This is the first time I have been living abroad for more than a month, and that was just for my first Interrail in 2011. Now I am actually living in another country, and that will look good on my cv ;)

The Aarhus Rådhus - very modern 

The first month here was confusing and exciting, with many new things, places and people to get familiar with. But then again - I haven't moved that far away, just to another Nordic country with many familiar ways and routines. What is new to me is being around new people, getting to know a new city and university, and also to get to know the Danish language. Which is not that hard for me - I have had some courses in Danish back home, and have watched some Danish series before I moved here. After I month I understand way more than I did before, which I am very pleased with ^^

Let's have some Hoegaarden 0,5l for like 6 euros?
So cheap - so good.

This is just a first post, there's more to come this week. Was supposed to do that many weeks ago, but you know how the times just flies by...

Time - where does it fly?

Here I am, after two years!

Happy news: I have almost my Bachelor's degree! Although some problems came up, and for those reasons I am back, writing for this blog. But it is nothing to be stressed over, I will see this issue as a challenge! And it is nice to update this blog.

I do not feel as comfortable writing here as I did two years back. After the course I took I haven't really been working with my English, which is really a pity. I loved being able to express myself without being this unsure. But then again, I have been practicing my Danish and Swedish, and I think it is going well. I am going to Denmark this fall, so I am not practicing my Danish only for fun ;)

The course in English I took at the University was really helpful, and now I see how much my English has changed. I wonder if I could practice my English by reading more books in this language, or should I take another course? It is amazing how languages affect each other. Feels like I am loosing a bit of my Finnish while studying and listening to Danish, and my English is not what it was two years ago.

Anyhow, times flies by so fast. I could have sworn that I took this course like 6 months or maybe one year back. But two whole years? What have I done during that time?

Well, I have been studying, mostly Film Studies, and working. I have two jobs right now! Not as much for the money, as for the experience. And I just can't say no to new challenges ^_^


But that will soon be history, since I will be starting my Master's in Aarhus in three months. Scary, exciting, fun. I am ready for new challenges!


Just as soon as I get this Bachelor's degree.. Next time I will be sure to check through my courses!

Best regards,

Anni

Final lesson!

I didn't even realize it was the last lesson before it came up during that Thursday. But here we are, after all the tasks and lessons we have had. There has been much to do at times, so it felt weird to suddenly have the end of the course. I have really liked the lectures since they have been different every time and I have enjoyed the discussions.

This final lesson was about posters. I was really happy with mine, already last week I found it all done. We had kind of an art exhibition when we placed our posters up on a wall and looked at each others posters. The discussions were not that productive but writing some comments on every poster was actually fun. There were all kinds of posters in various sizes, colors and most of all the topics were different. Some had glued some piece of information on a big piece of paper, some had printed out a smaller poster like me. There were posters about Hitler, meditation, the grotesque and so on. They were al nice to look at but my favorite was one about buddhism (nice pictures and layout), one about the Hitler myth (nice arrows and clear structure) and last but not least one about the grotesque (fun layout and interesting topic). I was happy with the comments my poster received, and the negative respons I got had to do with the font, which I actually agree with. I was focused on what to write and how it looked like, not how it would be seen from a distance. Although the printing of the poster didn't go all well I was happy with the project and it was more fun than I first thought. In the beginning I couldn't picture my poster at all and didn't understand how I would get it done, but once I started it turned out well. Even though I didn't understand the requirements of the size, I still don't get how I could have printed a A2 poster, I was happy how everything turned out.

The final lesson ended really fast and we had a good time. Before I knew it the time was up and we wouldn't have the lectures anymore. It is still hard to understand since the time has flied by unbelievably fast, but I guess I should get used to the feeling of my second year in university coming to an end and a whole summer to look forward to.

-Anni

Last lesson in April - 26.4

This was the last lesson before the very last lesson of the course, so there was not much left. We had still our posters and essays to finish. This was actually a really nice lesson with some discussions in groups, a class presentation and an exercise with a short story.

First of all we heard a presentation by Santeri, who talked about stand-up comedy and his favourite of them all. The presentation was nice as usual and the Prezi was clear. The topic was fun since we have had quite many presentations about Finnish grammar or language or history. This was a presentation focused on hobbies and it worked. The video was fun to watch although it was animated and not even by the artist himself, just a fan. The animation was good, I don't deny that, but maybe it would have felt more authentic to see the artist himself.

Next we got our essays back, the second draft, that we gave in last lesson with some ideas and thoughts written at the end of the essay. I really liked the idea of writing some thoughts and handing it in, just so we would get it back. It is nice to get some response to my own writing and especially when we don't get that in our courses in literature. I wrote about some doubts I had and questions around my phrasing. This lesson we could just sit and read through the answers the teacher gave us and ask some more questions. This kind of process really helps the writing and gives us a feeling of control.

Next we were supposed to talk about our posters "and how they are developing". I had actually pretty much finished mine since I worked on it for about two hours on a Tuesday and my aim was to finish it. My only problem when making the poster was the printing and the size - one library I visited had A3 papers but no color-printing. I then turned to Aleksandria where there were no A3 paper, but surely there was a color-printing mahcine. Just my luck. I found out that one was allowed to print in bigger size than A4, but only if you buy the paper yourself. Then I went through two bookshops before I found a A3 in Stockmann. During the class my poster got some nice comments, but just one I was afraid of: "The size could be bigger". After some failures I decided to just print in A3 and add one sentence. So my poster was pretty much done the first time. This lesson we didn't focus on posters more than this, the last lesson would concentrate on them much more.

The last thing before the time was 13:45 was for us to read a short story "The God's Script" by an author named Borges. This was one of my favourite exercises since it was about literature and the opinions we had about the story. I thought that we were supposed to talk in groups, so I didn't write as much about the story that I could have. In general the exercise was nice and I wonder if we are going to get some comments about the things we wrote and what the comments are based on. After this it was time to go home and say hi to my roomies cat.

19.4 - Discussions, drafts and Dracula

For this lecture we did various stuff from discussions about essays and Hitler to exercises. We talked with the people sitting in the same table about our essays, which we were supposed to make a second draft for this week. We were not supposed to talk about the subject, just the process. For me it wasn't that hard to start the essay but to write some main points is a bit harder. Somehow I know what I want to write about but to write down the actual main points is a bit harder.
The essay is still under progress, though :)

So my subject was about the novel Dracula and after a few drafts it still feels interesting. I am happy with choosing Dracula as an subject since it is closely connected to my studies (Dracula isn't really nordic literature..), I found it kinda as an accident and the academic article I have for the essay is interesting (David Seed: The Narrative Method of Dracula).

I'm going to use Dracula in another task too: we are supposed to make some posters for the next lesson. I have not been sure about the whole task, since the poster we have been looking at has not inspired me that much. It felt messy and I had a hard time imagine what my own poster would look like. What would the subject be? Luckily we were made clear that we could do a poster based on our essay. This helped me a lot since I have pretty much all the information I need to build a poster, I was just not sure how it would be structured. How does a poster about a novel look like?

The last group discussions was one big theme this lesson. Since there were only two people having the discussions we were divided into two groups with approximately 6 persons per group. This means the groups were bigger than before and it was interesting to see whether the discussion would be different. Our group talked about Hitler and the myth around him. One of the questions was whether the same kind of propaganda could happen nowadays or not. The large group came with different kind of aspects. We talked about the media and ways to communicate and whether is it easier to form radical groups today. This led into a debate around reclusive people and loneliness as a cause to radical actions. which led to a discussion about the school-shooters that we unfortunately have had here in Finland. Somehow the discussion ended with destiny and different aspects on that. I was a bit confused with the new topic, but the topics before were interesting.

What else? We did some exercises during the lesson and they were actually fun to do, especially "Looking at the bright side"which I did with Santeri. At the end of the lesson we were reminded about the posters, which would be an challenge.

Some conclusions and reflections

It is May now and that is something I have a hard time to believe. The time has just flied by this Spring and soon it's the end of all my courses. I have been happy with my English course, even though there have been times with much work. The group discussion I held went well, my essay is okay, I'm pretty happy with my poster, the Prezi-presentation was fun and overall I think I've been active in discussions we have had in small groups. I've talked to many new people and I have always looked forward to these lectures.

In my spare time I don't speak English everday. The English I hear is when I watch movies or series, I have subtitles in English when I watch movies and series I usually watch without. Almost all the movies and series I watch are spoken in English, just to be clear. When reading novels I read in three different languages: Finnish, Swedish and English. Novels in English I don't read as much as in the other languages, but every now and then. I enjoy reading in English and don't find it that hard. Although I must confess: I don't read classics in English, especially the ones written in old English style. Albert Camus novel The Outsider is a novel I've read in English, but the language was clear, the novel wasn't that long and I read it in Finnish a bit before. When I was Inter-railing last summer with my boyfriend we stopped by a bookshop in almost every state we were in. We bought some of the cheap classics in soft-cover, usually by the "Penguin Classics". I read The Secret Garden and my boyfriend read The Prince by Machiavelli. So now when I think about it I have read some classics, but I could do that more. Especially novels like Dracula, which are long and not written in Modern English.

How about spoken English then? I sometimes talk a few sentences in English with my roomies, when telling a joke or something. So I can almost everyday see the impact of English language at home, even though we mostly speak Swedish. It's not pure Swedish, though. One of my roomies spends most of his days in front of the computer, watching different videos and series in English. So he can be really fluent in English at times. I myself am pretty comfortable in speaking in English and how my pronunciation sounds like, although when I'm nervous I stumble up on some words. But my problem is my vocabulary, which is not that wide (This last sentence contains two words that I had to look up). I can see some changes and expansions with my vocabulary the last months, but it is not that big of a change.

In overall English is an important language to me. Besides my closest languages - Finnish and Swedish - I use English often than other languages and that is why I want to work on it. I have another blog I try to write only in English and nowadays I only watch movies with English subtitles. Atleast I try, since there are some movies where I can only choose as a subtitle one of the nordic languages. Why is it like that?

The Finnish horror movie "Sauna" by A-J Annila

A week ago I was visiting the small but cozy movie theater Orion and watched a Finnish movie released in 2008 – Sauna. During the movie I felt excited, fascinated, scared, breathless, confused. In other words I just stared at the screen and forgot the candy I had in my lap. Just like I should do during awesome movies.

The movie Sauna is located in Finland at the end of a long war between Russia and Sweden, in 1595, when a new border is needed. Two brothers are in this project – Knut and Erik – and they find a desolated Sauna in the middle of a shockingly quiet swamp. They stay at the nearest village, the existence and meaning of which remains a mystery to the viewer until the end of the movie.

It is interesting to ponder about the brothers – Knut is an academic young man who feels a huge guilt when he shuts a girl into a cellar and later finds out that his brother didn’t let her out. Erik is the older one who has been so long near the brutalities of the war that he can kill easily and violence is a inseparable side of him. Even though he is accustomed to death he carries within him a number – 73. At least until he lefts the girl in the cellar, then it’s 74.

Personally I was impressed by the usage of Finnish deserted areas and fields in the movie and how well they suit the horror theme. Especially the sauna itself gave chills, already when I was watching the trailer. It was interesting to see how the mythology around the sauna is used in this movie. In the old days there was belief that the sauna was a place to wash your sins away – like the brothers wish and in the end can not avoid.

In this text I have used the original name Sauna, since the translated name – Evil Rising - is not good at all. It does not describe the movie in a mysterious way like Sauna does since it is a movie with unexplainable things and psychological issues. The name Sauna raises questions and so does the mysterious events – and the movie does not answer them. Still it is an amazing movie and just the kind of horror I want to watch. Sauna does not explain itself and it doesn’t need to, since the horror is in the minds of people and it continues to live out there.

First lesson in April - discussions

After the Easter holiday we were back at the university and our English course. The Easter week went well, mostly it was about meeting relatives and not doing much at all at home. You would think that you had time for some homework and late assignments, but no. The time just flied by and before I knew it was Wednesday afternoon and I had an essay in literature to hand in, a draft about Dracula for the English course to be ready and a group discussion I should prepare. Luckily I finished almost each one of them in time.

It was my turn to have a group discussion in English. During the course I had been a bit worried about that, since I've never really had those. And in normal group discussions I can be a part of the discussion, but not the loudest one in the group. And now I were supposed to lead the conversation? I chose a topic close to my main subject, literature. Someone close to my suggested to have a discussion about a book, but the problem is that everyone should have read it. I thought it would be nice to talk about a current event and after some surfing on the internet I found an article about slow reading (think about slow food) and another named "Young people read a lot less" in The Boston Globe on boston.com. I chose to talk about youngsters reading less, since it was a shorter article and an easier subject.

I think I was well prepared for the discussion with my article, my questions, the list of words and so on. I didn't feel that nervous until the point I started the discussion. On the whole everything went well. We talked about reading among youngsters through many different questions. How well is the article showing us the true situation? Can the American results (presented in the article) be compared to the results in Finland or Europe? What kind of reading are we talking about here (anything, even newspapers? Classics?)? And so on. I was surprised how much the discussion went on by itself: the questions I thought I would ask were answered even before I asked them. It was nice to just go with the discussion, but when the silence came I was startled for a moment. I had to read through my questions and figure out what we hadn't already talked about. But as I said it went well, and hopefully the group members thought so too. It was an interesting thing to try and I was happy with my performance.

After the break we shared our group discussions in new, small groups. Afterwards we started to talk about our drafts of the essays we are supposed to finish soon. We shared our subjects and discussed about our writing process. My personal main subject is literature and my topic for the essay is about Dracula - the narrative method of the vampire classic we all are familiar with. My writing process is about thinking of some main points to discuss in the essay, then to start with the actual essay and next I will expand the ideas and points. Finally I will expand some more and then go through the details and make it all work together. Personally I try to take a subject near my interests, if possible, or deal a question through a novel I personally like, therefore I hope I have more to say about the topic. This can not surely be done in every subject, but at least in literature. One girl in my group told us she has issues with starting an essay. I understand this, I have had the same. But I thought about this a while and felt that I have not that kind of issues when writing about literature: I usually start with mentioning the novel I'm going to present and then bring up the issue or question I'm going to deal in the essay.

I guess that is it for now. For next Thursday we are supposed to hand in our second draft of the essay, so I better start :)

Sleep well!

Lesson 29.3 - academic articles and essays

For this weeks lesson we were supposed to find an article connected to a subject we wanted to write an essay about. I also finished the night before an essay about last weeks Prezi-presentation, which I were supposed to write due to an earlier lesson I missed.

It feels a bit exciting to write an essay about a subject connected to our studies. We can choose anything in our field and write about it in English, which I'm not all used to. The essay isn't that long, so I don't need to worry too much about it. That is why the length is an influence on my eagerness, too.

However, I must confess: I had some difficulties finding the article. I wasn't sure how I would get it to Moodle, since all of my articles I got from my courses was in paper-form. I decided to use Nelli (http://www.nelliportaali.fi/V). In my studies I have somewhat become familiar with Nelli, although all results don't have a link to the whole article. I started with searching for a subject about nordic literature, but I didn't find that much in English. So I decided to look through different writers and books I knew about and that I knew were researched. I tried searching words and names like "Ian McEwan", "Camus", "The Outsider", "Jane Eyre", "Stieg Larsson", "popular literature" and so on. At last I tried with Dracula and found some good articles.

During the lesson we started preparing for our essays by reading through the articles we chose. I found out that my article was actually a book review and way too short for any use. I immediately started looking for a new article on Nelli and found one I'm really happy with: "The Narrative Method of Dracula" by David Seed. It is a 14 pages long article which I'll use writing my essay. I don't feel at all nervous about the essay, I feel it is going to be useful to write an real essay in English about my own subject. Reading the article was not that hard, there were some words I didn't recognize but I don't except myself to understand every single word of an academic article.

It was nice to prepare for the essay during the lesson, I found myself concentrating much better than home. Afterwards it feels easier to continue with the draft and the real essay. For next lesson, after the Easter holiday, we are supposed to be ready with our draft for the essay and we will have some group discussions. I am one of the discussion leaders, and hopefully I will get some inspiration for a topic everyone in the group will be interested in. I have never been a discussion leader to a small group, so I am both excited and nervous.