3BT: Random Days

1. Lashing out my anger/frustration in a note in Facebook. Felt SO good ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

2. Laughing, peeing, and farting at the same time - making hubby laugh at the same time. Trust me when I say that the sound of your peeing and farting becomes SO funny when you do it while you're laughing your ass off HI HI HI HI...(Yeah, yeah, I know I'm gross)

3. Meeting a very friendly Finnish guy the other week that complimented my Finnish and wishing me to have a nice Christmas. THANK GOD for friendly people who're not against foreigners living in their country!

4. Taking these pictures:




The above pic is only to show how much snow there is in our building's parking lot (and those two windows with lights are ours).


P.S. That last pic isn't our house. Dunno whose house it was. I went near the river to take some shots and this was one of them he he...so in front of the house is a frozen river.

5. Starting a joke with hubby (I started saying something silly, he continued, then I continued, and so on) and laughing together at our silly sentences.

6. Creating another product at Zazzle:

Decorative Dark T-Shirt by ailema4ever
Browse Decorative T-Shirts

7. Grateful for hubby's effort in drinking another round of "poison" (read: Chinese fertility herbs that taste and smell yucky).

8. Hubby for making me feel funny, sexy, beautiful, listened to, and cared for despite myself, despite everything.

9. Being able to really scrimp while doing groceries for the past few weeks HO HO HO...ME LOVE IT!!!!

10. Asking hubby something and he gave me a very comforting answer. THANK YOU for being such an easy-going hubby that never pressures me to do anything I don't want to do.

Bandung, Singapore, Sodankylä

Having lived in Sodankylä for around 1,5 years and THEN go back to the big cities, I find myself feeling new emotions.

Let me share some statistics first so that you get a better idea, OK?

Sodankylä - population density: 0.8 inhabitants per km².

Bandung - population density (2004): 14,976 inhabitants per km².

Singapore - population density (2008): 6,489 inhabitants per km².

In 2000, I went to visit Singapore for 6 days. Back then I still lived in Bandung. When I was in Singapore back then, all I felt was AWE since the country was SOOOOOO clean and everybody was SO swift and efficient.

Last October, when I went to Singapore, at first I still felt the awe about the cleanliness and the efficiency, but after some time, I felt that they were all SO rushed! After 2 days, I wanted to yell, "Calm down, everybody! Why are you all in such a hurry? Why don't you stop and smell the roses?"

I just felt agitated by the fact that everybody was such in a hurry to go here and there, especially around the MRT area. Boy oh boyyyy...

You should understand that here in Sodankylä, the LONGEST queue at the supermarkets here is probably ONLY SIX people at one go. Usually when I go to any supermarket, there are only 2-3 people in front of me...and the supermarkets aren't even big!!!

So it seems that I'm getting used to living in a small village, since even when we went to Rovaniemi last Saturday, I felt slightly frustrated already when we tried to find out where we could park the car and for how long we could park it there. It reminds me of the time when we went to Pori last July and R2 and I went downtown on our own. We had to turn round and round and round and round just to find a parking space that fit our schedule.

It seems to me that in big cities, it's SO easy to lose time since there're more and more people, less space, more traffic jams, so it DOES make sense that people are more in a hurry in big cities...it's really getting to my nerves after some time. I felt SUCH a relief when we got back to good old Sodankylä.

glitter-graphics.com

What's the point of this post? Nothing. Just to share my experience he he he he...R2's second brother went to Tallinn in Estonia the other week and he said to us, "There were SOOOO many people there and I felt choked. I felt as if I wanted to shoo those people away since I had so little space!!!"

I understood his words completely. We're too used to having so much space here in Sodankylä that the big city overwhelms us if we stay there too long. In each place we stay, there are good and bad sides. But it's funny to know that I used to think I wouldn't survive in such a small village since I was used to the city life filled with malls and plenty of theatres and factory outlets...I'm GLAD I can really fit in here, not just for my sake, but also for R2's sake...since if I'm unhappy here, it'll make him unhappy, too. :-))))

Language and Its Intricacies

My spring course is starting again mid January until April, then we'll have summer break and we'll start again in autumn. I must say I'm VERY excited since I'll be meeting my friends again, especially my Brit friend MC. She's such a jolly, friendly person and she always lights up the class he he he he...

Other than that, of course I can't wait to learn more Finnishhhhhhhhh and practise it!!! A few weeks ago I was in my in-laws and I was trying to read some comic strips in the local newspaper. That day I was able to read one comic strip without the help of dictionary and I could understand the whole thing. I was SO HAPPY that I even told Arttu about it he he he he he he...This is how I felt like:

glitter-graphics.com

I still remember the first few months I was here. I was making VERY slow progress in learning Finnish and I couldn't understand a thing people were saying to me. I always tried to read the newspaper or magazines in my in-laws, but I couldn't understand anything, except perhaps just a few simple words. Nowadays I can understand more words since I know more about the changes of the word forms. Even then I know I still have a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNGGGG way to go, but I'm going to CELEBRATE each new step towards understanding the language better he he he he...

One tough thing about learning a new language is this: the limited vocabulary. So, even though I can probably ask many questions (after looking up certain words that I probably don't know in the dictionary), I may not be able to understand the answers, especially if the answers are long and they use words that I don't know yet. I often experience this when I ask something to my mother-in-law and she gives me an elaborate answer. Then I'll just give her a blank look and she'll understand that I don't get it HI HI HI HI HI...and we'll both have to wait for Arttu to translate it for me ha ha ha...

Another funny incident that often happens when you learn a new language is this: you hear some words or phrases that sound FAMILIAR, yet you can't seem to remember what they mean!!! You search high and low, even in the nooks and crannies of your brain, but the meanings aren't embedded in any part of your brain yet.

This kind of experience always makes me feel like biting my finger and think REAL hard and say, "I KNOW those words, but what do they mean?" But of course it's futile since in real life...conversation goes fast...and the moment you're stuck on the words that you don't understand, you miss out on the rest he he he he he...Such is life when you don't know the native language he he he he he...

Anyway, here is a list of the exact same words in Indonesian and Finnish:

1. Tuli ---- Finnish: fire, Indonesian: deaf
2. Sama --- It has the same meaning both in Indonesian or Finnish: the same
3. Satu --- Finnish: fairy tale, Indonesian: one
4. Kita --- Finnish: mouth (of a cave), Indonesian: us
5. Lupa --- Finnish: permission, Indonesian: forget
6. Paha --- Finnish: bad, Indonesian: thigh

It's always interesting to see how different the meanings of exact same words in another language, don't you think so? The first time I learnt about "paha" (bad in Finnish), my brain always conjures up the image of a "thigh" HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

3BT: August 22-23, 2007

1. Being spooked again by my hubby.

2. Pretending to sulk for exactly 5 seconds after being spooked. LOL!!!

3. Being squeezed A LONG time last night. He wouldn't let go. It's one of the BEST feelings in the whole wide world. *grin*

4. Teeth are WONDERFUL, esp. if you've got no problem with any one of them (going to the dentist can be SO expensive). You can chew food with them and best of all, I LOVE being nibbled!!!

5. Reading these words today:

He (God) knew the size of my pain, the color of my frustration, the fabric of my fears, and the fashion of my insecurities.

SUCH comforting words!!! ;-D

6. The anticipation brewing inside me as I'm about to buy ice-cream at the supermarket soon. YIIIPPPIIIIIIEEEEE!!!! There are SO many choices. I wonder which one I'll pick today. I'm drooling already. *tee hee*

7. The wind rustling the leaves.

8. Feeling the warmth of the sun on my back MMMMMMM...

9. Hubby running to the door to hug me tightly. He came home for lunch break while I was at the supermarket. Now I know how WONDERFUL it felt to be greeted like that. *HUGE grin*

10. A cluster of birds flying away as I was passing nearby. I LOVE Finnish nature!!! ;-D