Starting school

its soo going to be an interesting year.. check out the reference books i'm using for my final year project.. ;-)

Other than the kinky title actually its quite a boring, engineering book.. sigh..

new academic year

Embarking on this new academic, i've probably taken on one of the most challenging tasks ever. Not my Final Year Project, nor my Systems Design Project or even my level 5000 mod, but rather stepping up to the exco7 or CSS.

I must admit that, I probably wouldn't be making this post at 2:17am in the morning, if it wasn't for dear Chris who made me think about how God has been making things fall into place. Thanks for reminding me how God really watches over those who serve him.

1st revelation: after trying to avoid CSS after returning from exchange, I attended the Science/Engin combined CG, and at the end, everyone received a little bible passage. I'd actually almost given up on stepping up, but the passage i was given was such:
You did not choose Me,
but I chose you and appointed
you that you should go and
bear fruit, and that your fruit
should remain, that whatever
you ask the Father in My name
He may give you. (Jn 15:16)

2nd revelation: Last week, we had to choose our FYP topics, and there was this topic relating to the hotel service sector that was really appealing to me, so I decided to apply for that one. A couple of days later, a PRC guy asked me what my CAP was since the project would have gone to the person with a higher CAP if 2 people chose the same topic. He told me his cap was 4+++, which was higher than mine, so I resigned to being assigned to whatever topic was leftover. Long story short, i did get my topic, so I'm now really excited, and glad that things have worked out this way.

Not even being commissioned, the workload is already piling up, and its nice to know that whilst my attentions are currently on serving this community, there someone who's watching over all the other worries that i've been having. =D

Hyvaa Wappua~~

Student traditions, and nothing more crazy and wild than Wappu, the students' celebrations or Vappu, or May day.. It started last week with the launch of the university's joke magazine, Tamppi and was followed by parties, picnics and lots of funky, wild activities.

One of the events i attended was the annual Wappu Movie at Cinola, the students' cinema. It was a real cinema owned by the students' union.. The queues were really long since it was one of the most popular events for Wappu.. Every year they showed 2 movies, the first was always "Blues Brothers" and the other was a secret until the day itself. The twist was that were actions that we had to perform whenever something happened.. Such as if a door/window was open in the cinema or in the movie itself the whole cinema would go, "Close the door please!!" loudly in finnish and when the door was shut, everyone would shout "Kittos!" (thanks!). Also whenever music came we were supposed to dance, at our seats or the large open area at the front of the screen..

We couldn't get into the Blue Brother's movie so we ended up at the secret movie, which turned out to be Mama Mia! There were so many songs! Everytime a fast song came out (think dancing queen) the cinema was turned into a club, and everytime a slow song came (like Chiquitita) it became the couples turn to slow dance. The rest of us waved our lighters and handphones like some concert. It was really damn interesting.

Wappu Pre-party at Saha (above)
Aftermath of pre-party (below)

Can u spot Him Yi behind edward and Carolyn behind Hannah?

Gathering at the Tampere Rapids (its 10.30pm btw) on the eve of Wappu waiting for the "countdown" and "capping of the

Hannah and the panda

The Finnish Maiden statue for capping.. Gathering of Teekaris (Technology Students). With the capping of the statue, champagne and sparking wine bottles were popped and sprayed, and beers were passed around with loud cheering and singing of the TTY hymn.

Nicolas, Hannah and I got separated from the group.. There were so many people..

Smiley(probably drunk) Finnish guy posing for a photo (below)

WAPPU DAY!!

Gathering for the parade outside the Orthodox Church. See the colors!
The international students' Harvelli (Float), the Facebook Addict (below)

Part of the Wappu Celebrations were the street parade through the City Centre. All the guilds (and the international students) spent the last week constructing a float for the parade. They were supposed to contain messages, like one guild had a missile with the N Korean flag painted on it, another had a huge orange chicken (about the bird flu i think.. i'm not profecient in Finnish yet) and yet another guild had a display of the school food (which alot of people feel is horrible..), one had the dalai lama and yet another displaying the ban of non-energy saving lightbulbs in Europe. Ours (the internationals) was saying how much people have already been addicted to facebook (see the devilish computer face and the chains that are attached to us haha~)

Guy with really funky hair (above)
Check out the badges on guy's overalls (below)

Oh i forgot to mention the overalls.. it was really overalls galore at Wappu.. All the colours, new, old, accessorized overalls were there.. Each guild had its own overall colour (mine's white) and badges for events, parties and clubs are sewn on them. The more badges you have would be a symbol of how happening (gosh i haven't use "happening" in ages..) you are. People also add accessores on them, shot glasses, metal/wooden mugs, horns, bells, whistles, keychains etc.. i've got a bottle opener on mine.. ;-)

There was a Christian Contingent in the parade also.. They were singing songs and carrying placards with stuff like "Jeesus Rakkasta Sina" (Jesus Loves You)

Above: Bioengineers -> Black Sperm and Pink o+
Below: Electrical Engin -> Finnish Sitcom Character

Picnics and a gathering at the Tampere Rapids

The highlight for Wappu was the baptising of the Fuksis (Freshmen). Every year, fuksis (including internationals) were given a passport to accumulate points. Only after you got enough points (300 if you're there for a year and 200 if you're there only for one semester) you, and once you get baptized you finally can be considered a Teekkari (technology student). So you see the huge cranes with the baskets (below) carry students who would be plunged into the freezing Tampere Rapids, a ritual that all teekkaris have to go through. Each basket could hold 10 people, and people brought in sparkling wine and stuff to pop to celebrate in the basket, though it was over in less than a minute..

When it was our turn we stripped out of our overalls and climbed into the basket. The basket was raised high and we had a great view of the entire area, until we were lowered into the rapids. The base of the basket was a mesh so the freezing water just came flooding in.. Queenie ended up totally submerged and i had freezing water up to my shoulders.. i couldn't feel my body up to my knees.. Queenie and Him Yi were screaming so loudly.. So in and out of the water we kept getting dipped.. Some of the others in the basket with us (really crazy) kept shouting at the crane operator (who incidentally was wearing clown's wig) to keep lowering the basket, so we were dipped 5-6 times in total.. We could barely walk, let alone climb out of the basket after that, but it was really a great experience.. After getting dressed, we just laid down on the grassy patches to get sunned.. It was such a nice day to just lie in the sun..

One other really interesting thing was that town was not just crowded with students and families. There were alot of old guys too, wearing the teekkari cap (unfortunately exchange students can'tget the white cap) roaming around the streets. It was a huge carnival atmosphere, with tents selling food, candies and balloons all around.. The bars were all crowded and there was no way u could get in..

Now, Wappu has ended and its time to finally get down to work.. Exams are coming up really really soon already.. Hyvaa Wappua!!

AbsolutLoveBoat to STOCKHOLM

Over the last couple of days were we on the LoveBoat.. Basically this is a cruise organised by the International Students Club here in TUT. They do it every semester and its basically loads of fun on the boat and in Stockholm. Its quite convenient coz the bus took us straight from sch to the Helsinki Ferry Terminal and the also around Stockholm once we were there..

Tulli, one of our Finnish Tutors. High pitched voice and full of nonsense. Had lots of jokes about the Swedes. Finns typically have this rivalry with the swedes so they think they'll all gay. Had lots of usless and often blatently untrue infromation about Finland and Stockholm. Lucky she's an engineer, since she'd probably have a horrible career as a tour guide.

The ship we took, the Silja Symphony

Jamym from Malaysia

Edward, Claire, Him, Jin-A, Nicolas, Carolyn, Queenie and Me

Stockholm Cathedral. Really Beautiful

St George and the Dragon

Huge, Old pipe Organ

The Palace, the guards, the cannons.

Check out this pic. The statue's wearing Snorkels

Well, the trip was great. Lots of partying on the ship, drunken sailors all around. Stockholm was really really beautiful. I think that Swedish girls are hotter than Finnish girls now btw. Live bands and performances on the ship. Sailing through stormy, snowy seas (seriously was snowing outside!!)

Haven't the Foggiest

Experiencing the seasons was one of the drawing points of going for exchange in Europe, and especially Finland. If you're going to see snow why not go to where there is the most snow? The differing weather conditions, daily sub zero temperatures, its currently 10.30am and its -2 degrees Celsius with light snow falling outside as I write.

Yesterday was another nice weather phenomenon, it was the first time I've seen fog! Well, at least I found it exciting. So I took some photos while walking slowly to school. Thoses photos below were taken close to noon time by the way:

The pathway on the way to school

Insoorinkatu

Tampere University of Technology

We're already past the middle of march, and its still snowing. I'm so excited for spring to come. Hope it doesn't rain too much, I don't have an umbrella.

I miss Budak

Sigh.. so bored today.. suddenly felt like watching Budak Pantai.. damn farnie.. never been to the rooftop of YMCA's blud moo till Budak.. so i turned to youtube.. found some of my fav songs.. though the quality isn't so good..

Unbreak my Heart:



Why do men have nipples:


Hey Delilah:



Pedro's Song:

overalls party @ love hotel