This Christmas has thought me:

After spending three days in my apartment due to the flu, I stepped out to find a pile of spruce needles outside my door.

Lesson: Even though a Christmas wreath (julkrans) might look pretty on your door – if you’re living in an apartment building you might want to get one made out of plastic, or at least one that’s not breathing.

It’s a given that Turku would have its own Christmas market.

But even though it’s a beautiful city I won’t be spending my Christmas holidays here, but from 22.12 to 3.1 I’ll be in Kvevlax with my family

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Happy New Year!

So today I bought a new computer.

I know nothing about computers, but the purchase went quite well since I called my brother before even consulting the salesperson.

I: So I need a laptop, 15”, I don’t play any videogames - I just want the battery to last for longer than 10min. And I don’t want an Acer!

S: Well, we have some nice Acers…

I: I don’t want an Acer!!

S: Ok, you don’t want an Acer Here’s a good HP.

And then I guess he tried to explain how good it was but all I heard was bla bla bla, GB, bla bla bla.

And I ended up getting that one. After calling my brother again, just to confirm that I wasn’t getting ripped off.

Then the salesperson wanted me to really consider (he said it twice) paying 200 € extra and then if my computer broke in the first two years I could just bring it back to the store and they’d fix it for me.

I said no.

Then he wanted me to get an insurance that would cost me 200€ so that if something happened to my computer (he suggested that I’d spill some cider onto it) I would get a new one for almost nothing at all.

I said: 200€!! No.

Then he asked me if I had a program to protect my computer from viruses.

I: I don’t really know…

S: You don’t know?

I: Well I guess I do have one.

Which is basically true since I remembered downloading some program that my brother said would be good.

Then he asked if I had Office.

I: I don’t really know…

S: You don’t know?!

Then I tried to explain, in Finnish, how my computer had crashed when I was abroad and how I had to get Office from an American student who had got it from her school – and how this was not quite legal, but to conclude: I did not have an Office per se, like on a disc, but just on my current computer.

I don’t think he understood much of what I was saying.

I: But what if someone I know has Office – maybe they could just give it to me?

This, I later found out, is quite illegal as well but the salesperson was a nice guy and said something about how everyone was downloading it anyway.

So now I’m the owner of a butt ugly HP that will hopefully work. I say hopefully since I haven’t turned it on yet.

This is how much I like computers; I can’t even muster up the enthusiasm to charge the batteries. It will have to wait until I get home to Kvevlax where my brother gets to play with it.

Just a nice picture of me and Li Min in Italy. More to come when I’ve recovered from my flu…

We met an exchange student from the US who had been in Athens for at least half a year. She and her friends were now traveling through Europe before returning home for Christmas.

A: So, I don’t… Where exactly is Finland?

I: Do you know where Sweden is?

A: …

I: The Nordic countries?

A: …

I: Scandinavia?

A: …

I: Well, it’s way up north. It’s the country Santa comes from.

A: aah

And I could just hear the following debate on whether or not Finland actually is at the North Pole – because isn’t that where Santa’s from??

And I’m not the least bitter, because I myself managed to live almost a year in Hong Kong without ever learning the names of the different provinces of China.

The theme of this year’s Christmas party was “Every sperm is sacred”. The boys had us sing the theme song and then handed out hats so that we’d have the right attire for the night.

We were split into groups and named according to the theme. My group was Fertilization – and we actually ended up winning the first prize!

Sticking to the theme, the boys had made a sperm piñata, filled with words that we later had to make into a poem.

The food was just great; cream potatoes, steak and various salads. For dessert – Irish coffee cake

And then a quiz – I now know everything there is to know about sperm…

My boss Matti gave his annual magic act. Nina is assisting and Marko was the light master.

Tricking the underwear of both Heli and the other boss, Jorma

And then Oliver was found a bit lacking…

The evening ended in dance and I saw the greatest party trick ever; getting everyone onto the dancefloor with a video on how to disco:

For exactly 2.5 hours last Sunday…

Three things that made me happy today:

1. I aced my interview for the PhD school. I was so good that I even made them laugh!!

2. I was so incredibly smart that I put some rubber finger pads on when I went to inject my mice. They could bite all they wanted but to no use – nothing could penetrate my rubber

3. And I found 200g of chocolate just lying on a shelf in my kitchen. This equals one very tasty mudcake!

So Markus is blogging from the US. He’s my second-cousin (little cousin, if translated straight from Swedish) my younger second-cousin from my mother’s mother’s side of the family. That  means he’s tall – like all my grandmother’s brothers and he’s also inherited my family’s musical talents. Currently he’s residing in Chicago, getting to know the music scene and the soup kitchens there. And finding out the truth about America - it’s exactly like we imagined it, annoying commercial breaks and all!

I was so hoping it would survive. The little mouse with the kidney problem. But here is what’s left of her.

The piece of the scalp that her mother thought too hard to swallow. She ate the brains though.

Poor little thing. And poor me who had to take care of the remains