Back to school

Internship at the technical university is now over and it is again time for school after five months of non-studying! Time is flying so fast. The German system of starting the semester in May and ending it in the end of July is still a little bit weird to me. How is it possible to sit in a class room or in an seminar if it is +28 degrees and sunshine outside?

Luckily my courses are amazing and the other students really motivated. Also a good long pause after last lectures in Helsinki might have helped in my case. Anyway, I think I'm learning a lot and full of ideas how to do my master's thesis. Somehow I still feel that I don't want to graduate yet... Should you then start behaving like a crown-up person?

My cultural adaptation curve has reached the point that the first "hurmos" with Munich is over. Same time it feels more and more like a real home, same time I miss more and more my friends in Finland. Please do write me and don't forget me, you are always part of me wherever I be. We're visiting Finland in August, hope to see you'all!

With lots of love, Heta

Marienplatz (the same day somebody vandalized my bike. Grrr!)

Königsee

Hiking with Lars

Pros... and Cons

After all the praise I have to admit that there are also things that could be better here...
Here's my list.

1) Smoking. It is so sad how many people smoke here... Outside of Gymnasium, which I pass everyday on my way to work, 95 % of the little fourteen-year-olds are smoking.

2) Opening hours of the supermarkets and grocery stores. EVERYTHING closes strictly at 08:00 pm... and of course they are closed Sundays.

3) Über-Bureaucracy. My Simcard got locked without any warning because the mail for me was returned as somebody forget to put "c/o" to my address.

4) Cars driving too fast in the city centers. Even if I never was in the dangerous situation here I feel often uncomfortable because of the hectic driving-style here.

5) 1945 kilometers to Finland.

But of course, Essi's mother would now say that if these are my biggest problems, my things are pretty good at the moment...

Heta (with short hair!) and Nora in the Biergarten Viktualienmarkt.

Me and Lars and the Architects

At Chinese Tower Biergarten with Julia and Benni

Odeonsplatz; one of my favorite places in Munich

Summer is here!

lots of love, Heta

Das freundlichste Volk auf dieser Welt

Life in Munich is getting busier and busier... Luckily I'm one those who survive with small hours of night sleep. And in the end of March I got some beloved visitors from Finland! We had a long weekend with shopping, Mexican eating, picnics, alpine skiing and dinner with German friends - as well as the Party night in a Finnish way, including drinking songs and traditional Finnish eating and drinking. Hopefully the neighbors didn't mind...

With my friends here I realized how nice people the Germans actually are! So polite, helpful, easy-going, reliable and funny. We were amazed by this many times over the weekend.  Or is it only Bavarians? I have to admit I'm so lucky that I have found such a nice people as friends here.

When my friends were gone, I started to feel the real home-sickness for the first time. Somehow my brains had thought I am going home with them. But no, I am actually staying here at least until February 2012 because I will do my master thesis for Bosch Siemens here. But I also realized that the things I really miss in Finland, will be there for me for ever... Things like my family and closest friends, beautiful Finnish nature, silence and the weirdest culture in the world. It is funny you learn to appreciate things near to you only when you get far away.

Everyday life here is still busy, my first language course is ending and next one starts already next week.. I will also enjoy Lars' visit this weekend! Hopefully we can enjoy the +20C weather like today.

Rathaus, Marienplatz

Japanese Tourists

Happy hour all night long!

Skandinavians @ Zugspitze

ja lunta riittää!

And if I'd had a chance, I would always want to be there...

Team Deutschland

Sushi and Zugspitze

Days are running fast this March. I can't believe that I have already half-way through my internship at TUM! My language course is intensive and requires very much motivation - three hours of modal verbs is not exactly my favorite thing to do in the evening.  But of course, it muuust be useful for me. 

Because the evenings are full of studying, I am trying to enjoy myself at mornings. A good walk in Englischer Garten or breakfast in my sunny and warm balcony really make my day. And of course ex tempore apple pie baking or home-made sushis with my Tunaworld friends :)

Saturday we drove again to the alps, this time to Zugspitze which is the highest mountain in Germany. Despite the lack of sleep (we had all joined Anna's birthday the evening before) we had a great day with lot if snow and sports. For me the results were lots of muscle pain, one pair of broken skiing glasses and sun-burned cheeks... but must say that it was worth it!

Home-made sushi!

Heta and Armin excited

Bergen

2900 m

Gondol full of people

and the most important part: Coffee and cheesecake

Living alone... for the first time in my life!

So February in the shared flat is over... My last night in the WG happened to be at Fasching, the carnival on Germany when wear funny costumes. And so I have moved to a studio apartment. First I was pretty worried how is it going to be, like a total disaster? In the beginning I really had a couple of problems. I had lost the internet password and was totally disconnected for the first days. And I couldn't find the deck and it really was freezing during the night! So I slept with winter jacket and skiing trousers. After a couple of nights I found the deck and figured out that you can add the temperature of the heating. Heh.

After all I have settled  here quite nicely and enjoy the morning sunshine in the apartment. I also bought a coffee machine with thermos and  very good Bavarian coffee from the coffee shop. Nam! This coffee machine actually turns off itself automatically so even better!  I haven't been so alone as I was afraid, as I meet still the friends from the shared flat frequently. My intensive language course has started and I spend most of my time at the Uni.  And Friday we actually had a small ex tempore housewarming party! I made tomato-soup from the Emmi Kulta's recommendation and it was really easy! ( o.k. I know, I'm still a little bit allergic to tomatos..) The weekend has been very relaxing, Bavarian breakfast and hang-around in the center. Next I head to try the Bikram Yoga!

Bis bald!

Fasching; Alex and Anina

Fasching; Blondies 

Armin and my tomato soup

Bavarian breakfast

Sara made me delicious cappuccino! 

Spring is here!

Skifahren @ Österreichische Alpen

Four weeks in München and something new and great every week. After my flu I have slowly started jogging again, mostly with my roommate Armin. Also my work has gone forward, and I am finally managing the diagrams without bigger problems with the German excel. How is it possible that there are not a single multilingual excel package in an "Elite University" like TUM? Well, at least I learn something new.

I also went to Moritz's birthday party in Greek restaurant Paros. Greek restaurant seem to be trendy in Munich and they share some funny characteristics,  such as throwing napkins in the air at 10 pm and waiters walking and dancing on the tables later in the evening. And still they are considered as fancy restaurants :)

The highlight of this week was of course Saturday with alpine skiing at Austria, Tirol. We ( me, Armin, Michaela and Johannes) left home at 05:30 in the morning and were already skiing before nine o'clock. We were so lucky because the weather was absolutely perfect and still there were not too many people and only short queues. From Munich you need to drive only 1,5 hours to the Alps and one-day-ticket costs 30-40 euros. This is something I really want to do again and again while staying in Munich!

2020 m

Armin

Wonderful sunshine

So warm!

Jogging with Armin in Olympiapark

Moritz's birthday at Greek Restaurant

Sick Days and Salzburg

This week I was sick for the first time. Somehow it is more nasty to be sick abroad than home. Of course you you can't do anything ( I had fever 39,3C) but in addition you feel a little bit helphless when you don't know where the doctor is and you don't know how to get the medicine. Anyway I recovered very fast in couple of days.

We have also continued our discoveries in Finnish and German kitchen. In one photo I am cooking oven apples, and in another you can find the buns we made with Armin. In the other hand, today we did fondue with Armin, Benni and Eva and Tanja and Josef. I ate most my fondue with cheese and  turkey and different sauces.

In the weekend I also did an ex tempore visit to Salzburg ( Austria). It was really cold but still it is always great to see new cities. It is quite affordable to go there, as Bayern Ticket ( free travelling in Bavaria in one day for 5 persons) costs only 29 euros. Not bad. Must say that the public transportation here has really exceeded my expectations. You must almost never wait more than two minutes, the trams go through the night and I still didn't have to use taxi here at all.

Heta and Armin

Fondue

Salzburg

Neue Freunde

It is the second week in Munich and I am starting to feel like home. I know how to get to the city center, work, University, post office and shopping mall. But the most important thing is that I have met really nice local people with whom to cook or drink coffee, go for a walk or beer (except I can't still drink it!), watch movies and listen to music.

One day this week was my new friend Anina at our place and I promised to cook something tradition finnish food. Even though the rye bread and fresh fish were not available, I think the salmon soup was quite eatable. Who knows, maybe I really learn to cook here when I can't enjoy Mum's or Eeva's delicious cookings every weekend?

By the way, if you visit Munich I warmly recommend to pack the Outdoor sportswear with you. Englisher Garten is fantastic and you can  every time find a new path there. But truly great is also Olympia park where you can climb in the top of the hill and see the whole Munich.

Salmon Soup

Dogs play in the park

Anina

Richtig?? (danke Anina für das neue Haar!)

Benni und Eva

Armin

Tanja und ihr Österreichscher Freund