Hurry, Hurry, Hurry

I have been really busy this weekend. The weekend started with the end of school on Friday evening. Didn't really like the program that was organised for us. Some of the acts were related to school and teachers and I didn't know over half of the teachers they were talking about. Then we had one hour to spend and I was talking to some of the other IB1s. Then we had church, were I talked to some of my friends from compulsory school. That ended this school term. The next one starts 7.1. 

Then yesterday was super busy and I was exhausted at the end of the day. First we went to spinning, a great way to start the day. After that back home, shower, eat and leave. We went to clean our flee market table and to the grocery store to do the Christmas shopping. There were quite a lot of people and I can imagine how it will be tomorrow. Then back home and cleaning. Vacuuming, mopping etc. After that was time to go a deliver Christmas cards to people who live relatively close to us. Then back home and to prepare dinner. After dinner we watched a movie and I was sleeping by 22.30 already. So I was too tired to do a post yesterday.

Today I have spent time finalizing Christmas presents and preparing dessert. Dessert will be this year a mango sorbet. I have never before done a sorbet and it seemed quite easy. We'll see how it tastes in 2 days. 

Tomorrow is going to be all about Christmas preparations. BTW if it's unclear to someone in Finland we spend celebrate Christmas on the eve (24th). Now to watch a movie from TV and enjoy the fact that I can sleep in tomorrow. 

- Anniina 

I talk quite much here about going to the gym and different classes I go to there. So now I'll explain a bit on those classes and what are they like.

Dance classes!

There are 4 different classes where I go, one of which regularly each week. My favorite is definitely Sh'Bam45 it's a Les Mills concept class. It lasts only 45 minutes and has a lot of the music that is playing on the radio and ranking high on lists. The dance moves are not too latino for me. I really like latino dances, but not so much that I would spend 45 minutes just dancing them. The choreography is super simple in this class and it's really easy to learn after a few times.

Then to the other Les Mills concept class BodyJam. Definitely more difficult choreography and physically exhausting than Sh'Bam. Based a lot on street dances, which is a big plus for this dance. The music is really good, even though it's not the top chart music. This reminds me more of the dance classes I used to go before, since there are only a few choreographies that are practiced during the class. The only problem is that the classes are in a not ideal time for me.

Then another choreographed class that is not Les Mills, Just Dance, the most technical class in my opinion. The instructor does their own choreography. Also timing isn't that good, so I have only gone a few times, but really liked it then.

Then to my least favorite class Zumba. I really don't like the music that is usually played during the classes and the choreographies aren't that good.

Spinning classes!

Or indoor cycling, it's not spinning around like a friend once understood it. There are  two different type of classes the Les Mills concept class RPM and then the normal spinning/cycling. There are 3 different levels and I have gone to the 2 easier ones. RPM is more faster and the music is sometimes better. The advantage is that even with different instructors you know what is coming up. The normal cycling classes depend a lot on the instructor and their taste in music etc. Some of the normal classes are better since the music fits the speed whilst it's not always the case in RPM. A really nice work out for the body (except for arms).

Other classes!

As can be understood from the other classes mentioned above I don't get almost any work out for my arms. To fix this I have started to go to BodyPump, which is basically one hour of wait lifting. It's good that I go here, 'cause in the gym I woudn't know what to do and I wouldn't work on one body part for 5-6 minutes. I'm always exhausted after this class as well as spinning. Now that I have gone 3 times I already remember how the movements are done so it's easier after each time and the technique also improves.

Yoga, gone twice and not that much to say about it. It feels like stretching for me. I also sometimes go to stretching classes.

These are the ones I go usually to and then sometimes to something else. I'll write on my experiences after trying out new things.  

Winter Break Finally!

ALMOST! No classes for a couple of weeks, still a Christmas show and church in the evening today and then officially it's BREAK! We have a midnight church so that it goes a couple of minutes past midnight so that we can claim tomorrow as a school day. I really like this 'cause I still get to have a normal Saturday. We are together in the church with Madetojan musiikkilukio (music high school) at least. 

Christmas is being prepared all the time. Yesterday we organized the whole house, today mom bought the ham, tomorrow we'll clean and then on Monday food preparation begins. At the moment I am listening to Spotify Top tracks in Norway and I like how many Christmas songs there are on the list. 

It has been snowing non-stop for over a day now. It's so nice and looks more like Christmas is here in 4 days time. 

Then to my break plans. Resting, working with school and being outdoors. I have a few things to do for school and then I need to catch up with History, not a ton but still some. Finish Dan Brown's Inferno. I started it when I was still in Norway, but then school took all my time and I haven't read it for a few months now. Continue reading Why Nations Fail. A really interesting book with a lot of different case studies. Skiing and down-hill skiing, snowboarding, going to the gym, eating good food and enjoying the time. 

- Anniina 

p.s. I'll post today also somethings that I didn't have time for before

Flickr doesn't want to upload photos today, so you'll get some tomorrow. We baked ginger breads today and it's always so energy consuming, but totally worth it when you get to eat them. We make the doe from the begging, so it was started already yesterday. Today I also went to the hair dresser and have a bit shorter hair now. 

I'll post more tomorrow, now it's time for bed. 

- Super tired Anniina 

Monsters University - amazing movie

Yesterday me and my dad went to the movie rental and rented 2 movies for the weekend. We watched the first one yesterday and it was Monsters University. I loved the first part when I was a child and still love it. It's probably my favorite children's movie. That's the reason why we rented this one. The movie is amazing. The quality has increased so much from the release of the first one. Even though it's a children's movie it has a nice story anyone can relate to. A story of becoming best friends and friendship in general. Something that could be seen from the movie is the idea of believing in yourself and that winning against the odds is possible.  I really rarely watch animations but it was definitely worth renting. Today's movie is completely different it's World War Z.

Kirppis / Flee market

I have been waiting for a table from the local flee market for over 2 months now. I knew it would take sometime since they told me that the waiting time is 1-2 months. Usually it's been half of what they have said. This time it was 2 months. So yesterday I got a text message that there is a table available. Of course we accepted it and when coming from the gym I went and signed the contract and bought price tags. This time we are selling books in English, winter clothes, old skiing/skating/downhill equipment and a chair. Well at least I have something to do during Christmas break now. 

I would never by something from a flee market. The idea of wearing someones used clothes etc. doesn't appeal to me. I still think that it is a good way of getting rid of old stuff. Usually what we don't sell we donate to charity. If something doesn't fit me anymore or if I won't read a book for the second or third time doesn't mean that it's garbage. It can be perfectly fine for someone else. 

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Oon odottanu kirppispöytää paikalliselta paljekirppikseltä 2 kuukautta. Tiesin, että jonkin aikaa menee, sillä odotusajaksi minulle sanottiin 1-2 kuukautta, mutta yleensä pöydän on saanut noin puolessa ajassa siitä mitä on sanottu. Eilen sain sitten vihdoin viestin, jossa kerrottiin pöydän vapautumisesta ja totta kai otimme sen. Salilta tullessa eilen kävin tekemässä sopimuksen ja ostamassa hintalappuja. Nyt siellä on myynnissä englanninkielisiä kirjoja, talvivaatteita, vanhoja monoja, pyöräilykenkiä ja luistimet tuolikin sieltä pöydästä löytyy. Ainakin on nytten tekemistä loman ajaksi. 

Itse en ikinä ostaisi mitään kirppikseltä. Ajatus siitä, että pitäisin tuntemattomien käytettyjä vaatteita ei houkuttele minua. Mielestäni kirppiksellä myynti on silti hyvä tapa päästä vanhoista tavaroista eroon. Yleensä vaatteet, joita emme myy menevät Pelastusarmeijalle tai punaiselle ristille  yms. Jos jokin vaate ei enää mahdu minulle tai en tule lukemaan kirjaa toista tai kolmatta kertaa ei tarkoita sitä että se olisi roska. Se voi olla täydellinen jollekin muulle.

- Anniina 

Talven aistit

Kuulen ritinän, ratinan jään.

Näen lumihiutaleen valkean. 

Tuoksu glögin ja pipareiden.

Maku kotoinen.

Tunnen lämpöisen peiton. 

Talvessa ja etenkin joulussa on jokaiselle aistille, jotain nauttittavaa ja erilaista. Ylhäällä olen kirjoittanut minulle talveen ja jouluun liittyviä aistihavaintoja. Monia muitakin on, mutta nämä tulivat ensimmäisenä mieleeni tänään. 

Tällä hetkellä on ihana kuulla ulkona taas jään ratinaa ja ritinää, kun kävelee, sillä viimeisten päivien + asteiden jälkeen on ihanaa ku on taas pakkasta ja ulkona on kirkasta. Aamulla mennessä kouluun, näkyi vielä tähtiä taivaalla. 

Lumihiutaleet ja lumi tekee jouluisen ja kodikkaan tunnelman. Joulu ei ole samanlainen ilman lunta. 

Pipareiden ja glögin tuoksu tuo minulle mieleen joulun. Meillä ei ole ollut oikeaa joulukuusta kohta 11 vuoteen, joten se ei tuo minulle joulua. 

Maku kotoinen. Tällä tarkoitan kaikkea sitä mitä meillä on aina jouluna. Joulupöydässä on aina graaviakalaa, perunoita, sienisalaattia, rosollia, kinkkua, lasimestarinsilliä, porkkana-, lanttu ja maksalaatikkoa. Kaikki itse tehtyä. Siksi maku kotoinen.

Tunnen lämpöisen peiton, viittaa siihen kuinka kaikkien joulukiireiden jälkeen on joulupäivänä ihana vaan olla ja öllöttää joko sängyssä lukien ihanaa kirjaa tai sitten sohvalla katsoen elokuvaa. Jouluna saa vain olla ja öllöttää ei tarvitse työskennellä tai opiskella.

Some old photos have been in the blog before, but I thought that they would fit the content of the post.

- Anniina 

p.s. Next post will be again in English, this one just made more sense in Finnish. 

Presents, presents and presents for Christmas!

I have shopped and packed all the Christmas presents and they are now under the tree waiting for Christmas eve.

As in a comment I was asked to talk about what makes Christmas Christmas for me. It's the atmosphere and all the preparations for Christmas. There needs to be snow so that there is a Christmas feeling. I have experienced Christmas twice without snow and it wasn't the same. I love to make these ice lanterns and for that there also needs to be a nice frost outside. Candles, Christmas music, relatives around me, the smell of glogg, Christmas foods awaiting... Christmas is also the time to dress up and wear nice and comfortable clothes. I couldn't imagine a Christmas wearing sweat pants. That is Christmas for me.  Christmas day is the same, but just for relaxing and spending time inside reading a good book or watching movies and eating all the left over food from yesterday.

- Anniina

Politics - where to get it from

For the past 3-4 years I have been interested on social and political issues and followed all the political debates, interviews, current affairs programs etc. Now I feel that it's not enough. I want to discuss these issues. At RCN I had the opportunity to study Global Politics in class and discuss topics with friends and follow World Today debates. Here the political life is quite non-existing for me. We don't have a politics program at the university so there aren't any open lectures etc.

I realized that I should probably join some party or discussion group, where I could express my ideas freely and find new ways of approaching issues. But my problem is which party. I know for sure that I couldn't ever be a member of some parties like our populist party PerusSuomalaiset (TrueFinns) or Kristillisdemokraatit (Christian Democrats). My opinions differ too much with these parties. I guess I am somewhere between Kokoomus (National Coalition, like Høyre in Norway) and Vihreät (The Green League). Both of these parties have happenings in my town. 

Due to the party problem a discussion group with be the best option for me at the moment. If anyone from Oulu knows any political discussion groups or groups that work with Human Rights issues etc. please comment on this.

- Anniina

9: Individuals and Societies

Back to the IB-related posts!

Now we are getting to the core of why I love the IB! The social sciences and how much is taught in them. Everyone who knows we knows, that I am the social sciences person who hates the natural sciences. The IB offers a wide variety of social sciences such as politics, global politics, history, economics, psychology, business and management, geography, world religions, philosophy etc. those are some of the most common ones.

I have experience (or will have) from 3 different subjects and those are economics, global politics and history.

ECONOMICS: Is a great subject. You learn a lot and it's definitely something I couldn't have studied outside the IB before university level. We have 4 different parts and they are studied in the following order; Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, International economics and Development economics. Micro deals with single markets and Macro with whole economies. I haven't studied the others yet at all. What I did of Macro, I liked it much more that Micro. I just think that Micro is extremely boring except for the government interventions, market types and market failures. When studying HL (like me) in the finals there is a Paper 3 that is pure mathematics within economics. It's calculations and making exact diagrams.

GLOBAL POLITICS: As a subject I enjoyed it, but as a class didn't. I have strong political opinions on issues that are largely in the news in Finland, so mostly domestic and European. We didn't talk anything about Europe! Everything was Middle-East vs. US. Finland is not apart of NATO, so we are not effected that much by the Syrian civil war, the intervention in Libya, the war in Afghanistan or Pakistan... Many of the people in my classes were from countries where these were talked about much more and therefore knew much more about them and could talk much more. Due to this class I started reading CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera almost everyday and still continue to do it even though I don't need to study it for school. Choosing Global Politics definitely made me understand that I do care about our society and how the world is run at the moment. Therefore hopefully in 2 years time I will be in some university and studying something related to politics.

HISTORY: I haven't had a single class of this subject yet, but I have been catching up with what has already been done. I really like it. It's like politics, but you know the outcome already. More will come later in February when I have actually studied it for sometime.

- Anniina

p.s. This is my 100th post in this blog. Never thought that I would write so much here,

7 & 8 : Double post on Christmas time

I didn't post yesterday, because I was so tired of making 20 Christmas cards and knitting a sock for most of the day. At least I got a lot of CAS-hours and our relatives and friends will get nice Christmas Cards. I'll post pictures later. 

On Friday I spent the day snowboarding and downhill skiing. After a year's break I went snowboarding and became exhausted. Also it got dark and I couldn't see the bumps in the hill with my awesome helmet on, so I changed to my skies and continued for some 2 hours. Super fun! Then we got home, made food, ate and the rest of the evening we where watching the presidential independence day celebration. The concept of the celebration was  a little different this year with a concert and literary extracts from Finnish literature. The idea of the concert was much nicer then the usual ball. 

Then yesterday was just making Christmas cards and knitting a sock at the same time as we watched Plan-fundraising gala. All of these charities have wonderful causes and ways of fundraising. But I feel that there have been too many different galas televised in the past month. Yesterday I stayed inside for the whole day since there was about -20 degrees outside. 

Today morning when I woke up the first thing I heard was that there is -27 degrees outside. YAY! Another day spent inside then. We ate breakfast and then packed our things up and left home. After coming home I have been studying chemistry and economics and my parents have built our Christmas tree, feels more like December and Christmas time now. 

Tomorrow I'll have a long day ahead, school from 8-16 and then after that several hours of my service activity and coming back home after 8 p.m. 

Now I'll write a few posts ahead so that not posting wouldn't happen again. 

- Anniina   

6: Independence Day // Itsenäisyyspäivä

Today's post will be in Finnish, since it is the 96th Independence Day of Finland. Non-Finnish speakers can use the translate tool.

Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää Suomi!

Itsenäisyyspäivän kunniaksi kirjoitan tämän postauksen suomeksi.

Olen tällä hetkellä mökillä ja tämän päivän suunnitelmissa on laskettelua/lumilautailua, joulukorttien askartelua ja oleskelua.

Blogi on samalla tuulella, kuin minä eli laiska tänää, joten en kirjoittele sen enempää. Huomenna sitten taas enemmän tekstiä luvassa.

 Anniina 

5: Language B and ab initio

We need to study another language besides our first language. Here I have 2 first languages and no language B or ab initio. The opportunities would have been Swedish B SL and French ab initio SL. At RCN I studied in the beginning Chinese and then changed to Norwegian.

Ab initio languages are from the beginning. First you learn how to count and how to introduce yourself. B languages on the other hand are meant for students who have studied the language for about 3 years at least. Here many students have English B and that was my original choice during Pre-DP. When going to RCN I knew that I didn't want to study self-taught Finnish and therefore took English A. Now after doing English A for over a year listening to what B does is super boring...

I really miss studying Norwegian. I looked up Norwegian courses in my town and there are none. So I guess the next opportunity to study it is in university.

This is not as interesting as the other subjects and therefore this was a super short post today.

- Anniina 

4: Language A

Language A is the language you speak the best, within the IB language subject. The group has purely literature subjects, language and literature subjects and language and performance. Literature and language and literature are the most often offered subjects. I am studying both. I have Finnish Literature and English Language and Literature (I usually refer to Lang&Lit in this blog).

I took Lang&Lit at RCN also. The subject of course has the same themes and subjects here and there, but at least in my opinion the speeches and news articles we look at here are better and more interesting. Political speeches, news articles and articles about how culture affects us are among the topics we have looked at. The language part is divided in 2 different parts and the literature part is also divided into 2 parts.
The language parts are language in a cultural context and Mass Media. 
We are now done with the the first part and we had our Further Oral Activity presentations. I analysed Kennedy's inaugural address and did well. The Further Oral Activity is a part of the Internal Assessment for Lang&Lit. Later this school year and next year we will study literature.

I wanted to originally take Swedish B instead of Finnish Literature, but I wouldn't have had enough Higher Levels then. Finnish Literature has been nice for the first part. We have read 3 books now. We did part 4: Literature and Film and read The Great Gatsby, The memoirs of a Geisha and P.S. I love you. Next we will read 3 books for world literature (part 1). I can't really say anything else about Finnish Literature since I've only had it for a bit over a month.

- Anniina

p.s. 20 days til Christmas!

3: IB - introduction to the introduction to the IB

I will be writing a series of posts on the subjects I study or studied in the IB. I talk a lot about my school work here, but the majority of you probably don't know what I'm talking about if you are not an IB student. IB is it's own world, a secret world you don't know unless you lived it.

The IB makes students to take subjects from 5 or 6 different groups. These groups are called Language A, Language B, Individuals and societies, Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Arts (or another subject). Then we have Creativity, Activity and Service hours we need to do outside school. Theory of Knowledge (TOK) is a subject about "how do we know what we know". Then there is also the Extended Essay- monster.

Then we need to do internal assessments for the IB in all subjects. The internal assessments are graded my our teachers and then some of our work will be sent to the IB with the grades and they grade our teachers. So all the grades might go up, stay the same or go down by a few points.

At the end of two years we do the final exams. We have for all Standard Level Subjects 2 papers and 3 for Higher Level. All papers are from 45 min to about 3 hours. So the IB has a much harder time limit than the national program in Finland.

In the next posts I'll talk about the different groups and my subjects both here and those that I had in RCN.

- Anniina

21 days left til Christmas! And I left RCN 2 months ago... Miss you all 

2: Christmas preparation traditions in my family

Christmas preparation starts in my family on Independence Day 6.12.2013. Then we usually bake the first ginger breads and build our Christmas tree. Yes, we build our Christmas tree. We have had a plastic Christmas tree since we lived in the US. It's so much nicer than a real one. We don't have the needles and the tree is thick and nice. The only thing that is missing are the needles. 

After Independence day we can bake and eat Christmas pastries as much as we want, which is usually a lot. Usually around Independence Day me and my mom make our Christmas cards and send them out at the last minute so that they still reach homes before 24th of December. 

We usually do not really decorate the house a lot and the outdoor lights are forgotten/left for months. 

Then it's already the 23rd and we go to the grocery store that and buy all the Christmas groceries. We start to prepare the food on the 23rd and then on the 24th finish everything. In the afternoon around 16:30 usually me and my dad get my grandparents and they come and eat the Christmas Meal. After they have left it's time to open the presents. 

I'll do a new post on the Christmas Foods, later on. Remember to check the blog for a new calender entry every day!

- Anniina 

Christmas Calender? What is this?

To make this blog more active I'll start a Christmas Calender project. The idea is that I will post a new post on something related to my life everyday until 24th of December. I've planned the calendar, but a few days are still without topics so suggestions are welcome! I got this idea from last year that my friend did in her blog with a slightly different idea of introducing.other blogs.

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Aattelin tehdä tälläisen joulukalenterin, jotta blogista tulisi hieman aktiivisempi. Ideana siis on että kirjoitan yhden postauksen päivässä asioista, jotka liittyvät minuun jollain tavalla jouluaattoon asti. Idean tähän sain viime vuonna kaveriltani, joka teki viime vuonna joulukalenterin, jossa hän esitteli toisia blogeja.