Memoirs

22-6-08 Weather: Rain

Midsummer went by. We missed the kokko (bonfire), we came too late, but we had great fun.

We played kroketti (croquet) on a "very heavy metal track" designed by Jaakko, and later on, an epic game of Carcassonne. We ate more meat than socially acceptable. 

We failed our bets on how many people would drown (see previous post) since the bad weather discouraged people from boating and so only one man actually drowned

There was no complete darkness during the night. Only a dark dark light and a blue sky. The moon was so big I thought it was a big balloon.

This morning we left for Lappeenranta, where we'll sleep at Henna's godmother's.

We watched "number 23" with Ville; it's rather creepy.

26-6-08 Weather: crazy

Lappeenranta is much nicer than the other finnish cities, which are usually functional but ugly as hell.

Lappeenranta has three nice churces, especially the orthodox one: tiny but filled with gold and treasures.

This country is completely queer. Bunnies frolic freely even in the capital and squirrels are all around. People collect used cans and bottles from the street and recycle them, so they get some cash. The sun shines at night during the summer, while in the winter it's rarely seen.

Lakes are everywhere; I would like to have a boat.

28-6-08 weather: "hot", 22+

Qua in Finlandia sono tornato in quel mondo fatto di incomprensione, comunicazione interrotta, parole spezzate e larghi sorrisi come unico medium interculturale. E' un mondo diverso e difficile.

In Irlanda potevo avere lunghe discussioni con chiunque. Il problema erano ogni tanto le parole troppo difficili; qua il gergo di ogni giorno è una sfida. Le persone vivono nel falso credo che la lingua sia il più semplice tramite di comunicazione, ed essa sia solo un modo per trasmettere fatti, informazioni. Invece, l'atto comunicativo stesso è un fatto, talvolta potente, talvolta creatore di fatti.

There are three keys to enter a society; language is one of them.

2-7-08 weather: warm

Se per sopravvivere è necessario muoversi, allora io vivrò a lungo.

Dopo una settimana a Lappeenranta ho passato una notte a Lahti. La giornata dopo -ieri- a sbronzarsi a casa dei genitori di Mikko. Lì ho passato la notte ed ora sono ad Helsinki. Lo zaino è sempre più vuoto, si svuota di tutto il superfluo, mentre la mente si riempie di novità. Se volevo girare il mondo, ci sto riuscendo. Non passo due giorni nello stesso luogo. Nulla è facile come lo era in Irlanda. Ma quella nazione è passata, la storia scritta. Passerà ancora molto tempo prima che io vi ritorni ancora.

L'estate finlandese regala emozioni forti, a differenza dell'inverno spento. 

Paris

I've been for a workweek in Paris, for - easy to say - work.
Work was great but tough, especially phisically, I came back home sick, but now I'm feeling better.
I had some time to sightsee the city and as I did already 4 years ago I was puzzled by its romance. I love that city. The architecture is great everywhere in the innercity, there's no palace or building which is not tuned to the overall atmosphere.
The suburbs are times worse. I've been in Saint Denis and Neully-Plaisance, two outer areas, served by metro. Two aspecta I have to outline about them is the uglyness of the streets and the multicultural component.
The street are quite ugly as what concerns architecture and urban care. Some positive spotlights of course are churches.
Paris is really multicultural, and I think the racial integration is better than any other places I've been to... I'm wondering if it's even better than american metropolis like New York, where there are still "niggers" ghettos as far as I know. There in Paris arabs, asian and africans live together with european frenchs, without - apparently - problems.

I think I would never move to Paris even tho I liked the cosmopolitan way of living, the easy trekking with the metro, the events and occasions. I think I would likely move to a satellite town of Paris, a nice and good looking one, like I saw passing by by car.

Now I would like to discover more about smaller cities and towns of France. I've been once in Avignon and the nearby cities, but I can't recall many things. I should see them again under a different light.

I learnt french for 3 years at middle schools (that's to say: 11 to 14 years old) and I loved it, I was motivated and I was good in it. After so much time I didn't forget much and I was still able to conversate with french people. I'm fucking upset with my high school studied: I wasted 5 years with inadequate and unprepared teachers. I didn't learn a word of english (while I could have been a mothertongue speaker by now under different conditions), I wasn't taught math and phisics (like, instead, it was intended to be), and I had to relearn on my own at university (I learnt in a couple of years tons more than I didn't in 5 years), I learnt an unuseful latin, while I could be a good french speaker or even a german speaker (hate to say, things would have been different if I knew german). I don't remember anything of the literature and history studies which were just sticked to my mind for a few days after exams, the only thing I benefit from these fuckin'horrible 5 years is philosophy.
Ok I'm going too far with this topic.

So back to Paris: it's a pretty good place to spend some time, surely more than a tourist week...