snigel50plus

Airplanes do not have rectangular windows

Publicerad 2013-10-24 12:03:00 i Dagens bild

Today I am studying for my exam in Introduction to Wood Properties and Wood Products. Since wood is a somewhat alive material it feels like there is a lot of emotions built in to it. I feel like I have another relationship to wood than what I have with other materials, and after this course a deeper understanding.
 
 A huge part of the course has been focused on the relationship between wood and water. I do not remember being particulary found of my old course Thermodynamics, but it is always fun when you get to use previous material and feel like you actually have learned something useful.
 
Wood properties are highly dependent on the wood moisture content, hence the relative humidity of its surrounding. I like the idea that it might be possible to use walls made out of wood for climate control in a room. Right now I am repeating wood properties in different dimentions and how stress concentrations can lead to cracks. I still have some material to cover before tomorrow but I have reserved the rest of the day for it.
 
I hope that the exam tomorrow will go as smoothly as the one I had Monday. Unless you were supposed to develop the exam questions a whole lot I should have done really well. Reflecting back it might have been the case since I was one of the first people to leave the room. I felt finished at least. And thought of Vickie who always is super quick. I am usually the one who is quite slow and use the full exam time.
 
What did not go so smooth though, was that the exam was written in a huge lecture hall and I chose a place far from an isle. I felt like a rookie when I had to excuse myself and disturb the others in order to leave my seat and turn in the exam.  I know what seat I m not picking tomorrow!
 
 
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Kisma

Publicerad 2013-10-13 17:02:00 i Dagens bild

Kisma is the Helsinki Contemporary art museum. It is located in the city center in between  the railway station and the bus station where I take the bus to campus.The first Friday every month they have a free entrence. So I was there last Friday and I will definitely take advantage of those free Fridays again.  Kisma is a really cool place. I can really  reccomend it! The way I understood it, they swap out their exhibitions quite often. So you will probably see different things each time. Here are pictures of some of my favorite present  installations.
 
 
 
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Late night video report..

Publicerad 2013-10-11 10:00:00 i Finland

..or how I entertained myself after missing the bus last night.
 
Normally there are quite a few busses between Espoo and Helsinki, but not on weekday nights.
 
 
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International food frenzy!

Publicerad 2013-10-07 23:19:00 i Dagens bild

Today I teamed up with my Swedish speaking Finnish friend Monica and went to an evend called World Dinner. We called us Nordic Duo. Haha :P Everyone was supposed to prepare something and then we mingled around and tried each others dishes. .  I did a misstake though, after filling my plate once I sat down. And while I was sitting a lot of exciting dishes were finished. I still got more than plenty though. It was a nice event.
 
Monica and I decided to bring two kinds of pancakes because the last time we met we started talking about pancakes. I told her that it was strange to me to have a thick pancake together with  the Thursday pea soup, and we both reaslised that we have different definitions of the Swedish word Pannkaka. What I call pannkaka she calls plättar. So I ended up cooking what I call plättar. I guess that she calls that plättar too?
 
 
Plate nr 1, clockwise from the top: chicken stir fry, Korean rice and kimchi roll, filled crêpe with cheese and mushroom, Indian lentils, a red spicy Ethiopian sauce with cottage cheese and grey bread, Some kind of dumpling filled with chicken, Finnish rye bread with a Salmon-röra.
Plate nr 2: Left over tiramisu, Finnish blueberry cobbler, Indian dhal, pasta with pesto, two different Indian vegatables mixes, pumpkin soup, Slovakian dough with a plum in the middle dipped in kvarg, Finnish bun with suger and nuts.
 
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Slot machines - part two

Publicerad 2013-10-06 21:48:00 i Dagens bild

Now I have some more information regarding the slot machines I see everywhere (read my previous post here). 
 
I have asked around among the other exchange students if they also have noticed the amount of slot machines. Their reaction and main concern was that the slot machines here take credit cards (!)
 
Wednesday I got the chance to talk to talk to some people from Ray, a Finnish gambling company. Even though they say that healty gambling is important to them I think that it feels strange that they are a part of a student project. Ray are one of the sponsors in my Product Development Project course. Some students in my course are going to help them increase gambling in Finland.
 
Talking to the company representatives them I learned that Ray do not just own some slot machines, they own all of them becauce they have a monopoly. The representives said that about 40 % of the Finnish population plays, and for them that it is not enough. They said that they wanted to increase the number of people playing and make gambling something that you do not have to be ashamed of. According to them they had not noticed any major differences connected to making it possible to pay with credit cards.
 
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Fall in Tölöö

Publicerad 2013-10-06 10:17:00 i Dagens bild

The view from my window right now. It is so pretty outside!
Birds, I do not know what kind. They were quite big and not afraid whan I approached them.
Tölöö lake.
 
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Crazy long Finnish word!!

Publicerad 2013-10-05 20:07:00 i Dagens bild

This is one Finnish word written twice. A Finnish friend had to write it two times to make sure that she got it right :) I was asked for the longest Swedish word that I knew. TANDBORSTNINGSINSTRUKTIONER was the best I could come up with :/
 
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Sibelius Park and café Regatta

Publicerad 2013-10-04 10:43:00 i Dagens bild

I have been to Sibelius park quite a few times already but yesterday was the first time with a camera. The park contains different sculptures and attracts a lot of tourists. Normally I go there because it is close and there are dirt roads that I can run on instead of asphalt.
 
 
Our actual goal was a café but we took the bus one stop too far and ended up with a stroll in the park. One of the girls had been at the café before and said that we had to go there. When we arrived I realised that it was the same café as I have been reccomended in "Places to visit in Helsinki" in a Magazine for Swedish speaking students (some how they got my address and know that I speak Swedish). I also realized that I have passed by the café several times without realizing that it is a café. Anyway, the café was great. I will definitely come back! You can sit outside with a blanket right by the water, buy sausage and cook it courself over an open fire, they had new baked cinnamon buns and for some reason they give you 5 cents back when you ask for a refill of coffee :)
 
 
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Downtown Helsinki

Publicerad 2013-10-03 14:05:00 i Dagens bild


A few days ago I walked around downtown Helsinki a little bit. I was looking for a gym where they have squash but ended up in the main library of Helsinki University. It did not look like anything special from the outside, but the architecture of the inside was very neat. Such a nice space!

Here is a couple of  pictures from the same area that I snapped before finding the gym.
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Helsinki by sail

Publicerad 2013-10-01 21:40:00 i Dagens bild

Just got back from sailing. So awfully cold!! The season should be over. I thought I put on a lot of clothes, but I could have had even more! It was nice to see Helsinki by sail. We went to an island called Soumenlilla or in Swedish, Sveaborg. I have been reccomended to go there by several people. I thought it was an island with just a fortress but tonight I learned that it is quite big and people live there all year round. I also learnd how to count until 10! :D
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I also found a floating sauna that was a part of the Design Week. It is called the cube. I read about it in the Design Week Magazine. It did not look that special from the outside though besides bing a perfect cube. Unfortuanately it was locked.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Finnish numbers

Publicerad 2013-10-01 09:56:00 i Finland

I have known how to count until three in Finnish for as long as I remember becauce I used to have a Finnish Swedish preschool teacher. Then I think Lauri taught me up to ten or twelve a few years ago but I forgot it again. I feel like I should try harder to pick up some Finnish. .After the Tyttösitsit Friday I am up to six again at least, because that is how many contestants there were in an all mens talent show. They were named Mr.1-6 and the girls got to vote who they wanted to win. I think that Mr.Neljä (four) won. He was playing the piano and did a pretty good job singing a love song.
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Tyttösitsit

Publicerad 2013-09-28 19:47:00 i Dagens bild

Sitsit - the Finnish eqvivalence of a Swedish sittning, a formal dinner. The all girls sitsit happened to take place the same weekend as it would back in Linköping. I got a bit worried first when I signed up for the sitsit, for instead of choosing between red/white wine, beer or cider as I am used to, I got to choose what liqor I wanted after finish singing songs and with the coffee, but it was fine. I had a good time! Apart from the extra glasses it was very important to toast with your table neighbours in the right order. Other than that there were no major differences. I think that I would run in to different sittnings traditions if I were to visit different universities in Sweden as well. Perhaps it would be enough to just visit another sektion. There was a lot of singing. I hummed along and tried to pronounce the Finnish words. I had an exchange student next to me who is taken Finnish. She could pick out the numbers of what song we were singing and translate it for me so that I at least was trying to sing the right song.
The native Swedish speakers here are members of something called Teknologföreningen. First I was not planning to go there since I am not really here to speak Swedish but after talking to a couple of members I feel like checking it out. And it would be fun to go to a sitsit where I understand the toastmasters.
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Fazer chocolate factory

Publicerad 2013-09-24 12:39:00 i Dagens bild

So yesterday I visited a chocolate factory, the Fazer factory. Fazer is the biggest chocolate producer and the most well known brand in Finland (they also make other sweets, cookies, bread, gum and serve lunch in canteens). The chocolate factory is in the outskirts of Helsinki so we had to take the metro (there is only one line which makes it very easy - you cannot take the wrong one)  to the very end then a bus. The trip was organized by ESN, Erasmus Student Network. I am actually not an Erasmus student but everyone is welcome.
 
I did not know what the factory tour was going to be like but we were, as promised, allowed to eat as much chocolate as we wanted, with two exceptions. 1. We had to eat it at the chocolate eating station and were not allowed to take any with us from there. 2. We could not drink anything which quite quickly suppressed the craving for more chocolate.
 
Besides discounts and cheap second grade chocolate they also gave us a generous goodie bag. In that sense the visit was great! However, I am still a bit disappointed that we did not get to see any of the production. I understand that they have high hygiene and quality demands but I was really hoping to get to see how they mass produce chocolate :(
 
 
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Hanna

Design och product development engineering student. Right now doing a year abroad in the Finnish capital. Coffee, the Swedish West coast and creative projects make me happy. I love film festivals and do some filming and video editing myself.

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