Damn you Suomen Partiolaiset

Today Suomen Partiolaiset (the guides and scouts of Finland) decided to have a big parade through Turku. Which is lovely and all but it was such a big thing that all the traffic was being redirected and getting across the street was near impossible. Why did I decide to go to the supermarket whilst they were parading around? I had to stand in the street waiting to cross the road for about 10 minutes whilst they all marched past. It gave me a chance to see the whole thing, but it took a very long time. I guess because of this the flags were out yet again. I think this week we've only been without flags for two days!
I'd also like to point out how happy I am that United Kingdom did so much better than Finland in Eurovision. I know we were far from winning, but as long as Finland did worse it doesn't matter. I was watching it at a party with a lot of Finnish people who didn't really appreciate me laughing at them. They admitted that if things had been the other way around they would have given me even more shit for it, so I think I was justified. I like the Azerbaijani song, so I'm happy with that, but my favourites were Iceland, Denmark, and Switzerland. I don't understand why two of those countries did so badly; I think Switzerland were actually in last place. I didn't even vote but I would have gone for Iceland, and UK just to be patriotic. I think Paradise Oskar should have done better though, he's very sweet.

This week so far

It's been a very hot, sunny week in Turku so far. My enthusiasm for being here is back, so maybe bad weather was the problem. I've been out today putting english/art tutor adverts in supermarkets, and it's disgustingly hot and sticky. As stupid as it may sound, it never occured to me that it would get this hot in Finland. Of course, there are hippies everywhere, wandering around and playing music in the street. It makes for a really great atmosphere. I feel like I'm somewhere a bit more exotic than Finland.
This week I've been reminded of how much Finland likes to get the flag out - they were on the flagpoles for the past two days. Sunday was Mother's Day, but I'm not sure what the reason was yesterday. In my country the flag doesn't come out so much. I think it's quite nice to walk down the street and see them everywhere. It can be a shock sometimes to go outside and suddenly be surrounded by lots of flags. I've also been told that when someone dies the flag on their building is often put up at half mast as a sign of respect, and I have seen that a couple of times.
However, the most exciting and important thing this week - I have a job interview on Thursday! I'm so pleased, and I'm very determined and motivated to get the job. I just had a phone call about it, and I have an interview and trial period in the morning. It's at an English language pre-school, and I'd really love to get that job. Luckily, my lovely mother works as a primary school teacher, so hopefully she can give me some professional advice on dealing with large volumes of small children. When I called my parents to see if she was at home my father's advice extended to "try not to kill them." It would be so great to have a proper, sensible job and be more secure. I'm determined to make myself absolutely perfect for the position. I'm even happy to sell out a bit and adapt my appearance, seeing as that's not as conventional as it could be, and frightening the lovely children definitely won't make me seem like Mary Poppins. This means tattoos will be covered, hair, shoes and clothes will be sensible, and I need to somehow get my lip piercing out, which right now is proving difficult. On Thursday I will boggle everyone with my brilliance. If that fails, I'll just baffle them with my bullshit.

Finland artwork

When I wrote about visiting the Wäinö Aaltosen Museo here I included a picture of one piece I saw, Harro Koskinen's "Tahrainen Suomi". I mentioned that I was inspired by the piece and wanted to do something similar myself, and today I did. I felt ridiculous buying a flag from a tourist shop, but I guess it was worth it.

I felt that Koskinen's work had some negative connotations, possibly just because it was included in an exhibition themed on death. I wanted to give this work a more positive feeling, so I used a variety of colours, including some bright tones. I also included an outline of Finland, as it felt like otherwise the work was a bit lost and meaningless.

I'm pleased with it, but it was quite physical work as the flag is large, and I had to move around constantly. Now I'm exhausted. If anyone would like to purchase it, it is currently available for sale from my Etsy shop, for €25, plus postage. You can find a link to it on the "Who am I?" page.

Wäinö Aaltosen Museo

Today I've been to the Wäinö Aaltosen Museo, to see the exhibition "Death and it's Many Faces," which I've been interested in seeing for a while now. It was interesting, and I've written down a lot of artist's names to look at a bit more. I thought it was good that the exhibition mainly seemed to include Finnish artists. As I've said before, I consider this a really good opportunity to look at some foreign artists who I would never hear about in England.
The piece above, "Tahrainen Suomi" (Stained Finland), is by Harro Koskinen, and it was very bold and interesting. I'm quite keen to get a flag and make a piece following this. I'm not sure what this work referred to, because I always thought the Finns were a peaceful, cheerful bunch, but it seemed to refer to guilt and blame, and obviously, death.
The work I saw covered many media and formats, with a common theme. Another good thing was that each room focussed on a different aspect of death, such as the death of animals, grief, and the depiction of Death as a character. The animal room included a giant smile constructed from cow jawbones on a steel frame, which was a bit unnerving. The show is on until March, and even though some pieces were fairly morbid I quite enjoyed myself. It's a decent sized space too. I guess it showed that some things, such as the depiction and consideration of death, are universal.
I guess this must be art week because I want to go back to Turun Taidemuseo tomorrow. I planned to go today until I found that the new exhibitions open tomorrow, so going today would have been a pointless trip. I think the work there is generally more experimental than at Wäinö Aalto, which seemed more focussed on quite traditional painting and sculpture. There weren't many contemporary works either; most were 20th century. The Taidemuseo's primary exhibition this time is of particularly outstanding works from their collection, so that should be another chance to see a lot of Finnish and Swedish work.

Snowy walk

I've been for a nice snowy walk in the park to clear my head up a bit. Again, it was the park with the amazing views of Turku. It snowed earlier today so a lot of the sludge has been replaced by real snow, which is obviously much prettier. It doesn't really feel that cold anymore, but I'm not sure exactly what the temperature is.
For some reason going to the park makes me feel a lot calmer. I think I need that at the moment though. It's so quiet there, you can just hear the hum of traffic but it's very gentle. You can see absolutely everything in Turku from there, as I pointed out here. Looking at the photos from that day it looks so different - green and lively. I wouldn't describe it as bleak now, but it's a lot plainer and seems emptier without the grass and leaves. Also I noticed in the park there's a random Russian flag. Why?
It really helped to go there and think about some things in peace - I feel like my life has become far too manic recently. I want that to change now. I really am glad that I'm here, even though sometimes I've wished I'd never come here. I know why I felt that way, and hopefully that can change now. More and more I'm thinking that after I've finished my degree I'll come back to live in Turku. By then I should be in a much better position to come here. This time I really didn't think it through, and I wasn't very prepared. I'm much better off now though, and I can't believe I've been here for almost 3 months, with only one week spent in England. If all goes well I have another 8 months to enjoy here. Sometimes I've wanted to run like hell away from here, but I think I'll be happy now.

Cultural learnings for make benefit glorious nation of England

I don't know why I'm awake so early. My body clock is still messed up, and last night I slept at 11.30, which is very early for me at the moment. However, Finnish office hours start at 8am, so by the standards here I guess this is reasonable.
Yesterday Emma and Tommi took us to see Turku castle, and to Naantali, where the Moominworld theme park is. I also got to see the older part of Turku, which I liked, and the countryside between here and Naantali. It was really beautiful. Unfortunately yesterday was very wet, dark and cold, so Naantali harbour was deserted and quite depressing. I'm sure it would be much nicer on a pleasant day.
I've now eaten Finnish soup, pizza and orange juice. The soup was really nice but the orange juice tasted like syrup, it was too sweet and disgusting. I also found salt and vinegar crisps, which was exciting. They had a Union Jack on the packet, but unfortunately they tasted foul. I think the Finns are mocking me. In the supermarket I saw some different pastas I could eat, and some tasty looking cheeses. It would help if we owned a saucepan and frying pan so I could cook proper meals. I was a bit worried about the food here - what I'd seen in supermarkets in Helsinki wasn't very appealing, but on closer inspection I've found plenty of edible things, so I think I'll be fine. There's also a Chinese supermarket nearby, and I always shop in those in England for cup noodles, Lo Han Chai and soy sauce.
Finnish supermarkets are a big strange though. They have fruit machines in them! Who goes to the supermarket to gamble? Unless you're very poor and are desperate for food money, in which case Finland may have a point. Jussi said proper gambling is illegal here, and compared to my country Finland has a lot of crazy laws. I already knew you can't buy alcohol between 9pm and 9am (thanks to that law, I went to a club and met Jussi in Helsinki), and it's illegal for bars to sell a double measure of spirits, which is standard in England. Also you can't buy spirirts in a normal food shop, only in one government-controlled off license chain. For such a big drinking country they have some fierce alcohol laws.
They also have machines to recycle bottles and cans, and for each can you use you get paid 15 cents. I think that's a good idea, I'm going to use those. The tills also have strange vending machines for cigarettes; you choose the brand you want and it comes down a conveyor belt and lands amongst the rest of your shopping. I'm finding supermarkets fascinating here.
Yesterday was apparently United Nations day, and all the Finnish flags were flying, which I'm told always happens on holidays and special days. It looked quite impressive - from our living room window I counted 8 flags, and from Emma and Tommi's balcony I could see 7. When we walked to their house every street had several flying.
I'm learning a lot, and today I think we're sorting out jobs and benefits for ourselves. Me faced with Finnish red tape....