And then there was light

Spring makes everything more visible, or less depending on how dirty your windows are. Mine are fortunately clean and have been so for one entire week, since it hasn’t been raining. Wonders above all wonders!!

I came to think of this when I saw that someone living opposite me had written a big “Moi!” on theirs…

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Hairy things

Today I realized that the hair on the back of a fruit fly looks exactly like eyelashes. See for yourselves:

 

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Always be my baby

I think I’m in love. Here is David Cook singing MC’s “Always be my baby”. I’m seriously thinking of going to I-tunes to get this one…

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Tvärminne

I went to Tvärminne for two days of seminars with all the other developmental groups connected to Helsinki university. Tvärminne is one of the university’s zoological stations. It’s located quite close to Hangö in a beautiful area next to the sea.

I had a good time even though I, Shinya and Osamu were the only ones from my group to go there. And I’m probably two kilos heavier since I ate three whole meals the first day. We had food every two hours and people were starting to feel quite sick at the end.

Here are some pictures from my stay (and now you can even enlarge them if you want to…):

Shinya forgot to bring a pen and therefore ended up “borrowing” one of those that are attached to a holder.

However, before we even got to Tvärminne we went on the traditional bird-watching excursion to look at the swans that are gathered nearby. There were several dozens of swans swimming and flying all around us. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my good camera, and as the birds were so far off I wasn’t able to get a good picture of them. But the landscape was beautiful in itself!

And this was the first time that I saw wild kidneywort (blåsippa)!! Sooo pretty!

I went out for a walk, found a wonderful beach and decided to catch some sun.

And this one is for my mother!

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As we’re on the subject…

I sat next to Shinya on the way home from Tvärminne. We came to discuss many interesting things, among others the fascination for ghosts that all Asian people seem to share.

S. told me about a guy he knows that has the ability to feel spirits. This is something that I’ve encountered before in my talks with Asians, that they all seem to know someone who can sense when an evil spirit is nearby.

I guess that when you’re open for something you’re more likely to receive it. So if you believe in ghosts and spirits you’re more likely to get the gift of seeing them.

Although I do not know if this is a gift to strive and pray for…

I find it quite enough that I see them in my dreams 🙂

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It happens at night

Warning: this is going to be a very boring blog, it should only be read by other bored people or by those who already know me.

I have a very vivid imagination. During the day I can make myself believe that it’s kind of normal to make up little stories all the time, but it’s at night when it gets really creepy. Here are two of my latest dreams – in shorter versions:

(And I should also mention that I usually don’t dream about myself, and if I happen to be in my dream I’m usually trying to save the world…)

I dream about a Muslim boy. He’s around 12 years old and he has just arrived at a city in the desert. The city is made up by small white houses, all abandoned. The previous owners have left and now, homeless children are occupying the houses and streets. In the middle of town there is a big temple/palace-like building and surrounding it is a big open space and a wall/moat (vallgrav). Inside the temple there is evil things.

The boy decides, for no particular reason at all, that he is going to defeat the evil. He and the other kids attack the temple. Down the big stairs of the building then strides these ghost like creatures. They are dressed in some kind of white-beige armor with hoods. And at the same time as they exit the building a ghost dragon/spirit flies out through the door and up into the sky.

But the evil is defeated. From the moment the little brown eyed boy gets the idea of fighting the creatures you know that he is going to win.

(and another thing; I never have nightmares)

      ********************************************************************

 My second dream:

There are some children walking on a deserted road. All around are empty cars with their doors flung open. (maybe you start to see a pattern here)

The kids find a mall where they settle down together with some adults. The funny thing is that the adults never communicate with the kids. This is something that takes me a really long time to realize. But when I do, I find that all children are dead and that they are small ghosts walking around the mall amongst all the living adults.

Ok, anyone who wants to take a shot at interpreting these for me??

 

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Birthday wishes

Shinya’s birthday is today and as usual Lisa made a beautiful card that all colleagues had to sign. Zhao had, in addition to his traditional “Happy Birthday” in Chinese, drawn a little spider-like thing on the card.

Shinya: What is that??

Zhao: It’s a fruit-fly.

Shinya: Where are the wings??

Zhao: I forgot…

That’s what happens when you stare at the little creatures all day long – you finally forget what they look like 🙂

           

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Why ugly girls never learn how to dance

Warning, this is going to be a very mean and selfish blog!

I’m reading Alexander McCall Smith’s book “In the company of cheerful ladies”. I very much enjoy reading about the no.1 ladies’ detective agency, the life of Mma Ramotswe and all the people she knows in Botswana. It’s like waking up a Saturday morning and realizing that you have nothing planned for the day. It’s like sitting in a swing in your grandparent’s yard and feeling the grass between your toes. I cannot describe it in any other way…

In this particular book the secretary of the detective agency, Mma Makutsi, is taking a dance class. She arrives at the dance school, finds a seat amongst the many people attending the class, and eagerly waits for the man of her dreams to come and ask her to dance. But unfortunately, the man who finally asks her out on the dance floor, isn’t particularly handsome and has no sense of rhythm whatsoever. To top it of, he stutters so badly that Mma Makutsi hardly understands what he is saying.

This is why I hate dancing. Dancing is very much about finding your social ranking. It’s about knowing your place and having to agree on the matter that you are not as wonderful as you might think.

Mind you, I tried to fight it when I first encountered the system.

I was seven years old. We had to dance some traditional Christmas dances at school (or was it midsummer dances, I can’t remember). And sure enough, the least attractive guy in class came up to me and asked me to dance.

I said No. Loudly!

This was worse than being picked last for a sports team. Pairing up with someone is all about being placed at the same level as that person. I was now as unattractive and as low on the social scale as that ugly boy.

I could not accept it. I would not look at myself in that way.

My teacher did, however, quickly intervene and explained that I was very, very rude and that I HAD to dance with every boy that asked me. Sulkily I agreed to this.

And I hope you understand what I’m saying. It’s not awful to dance with an ugly boy, even if he has no sense of rhythm and has sweaty palms, it’s the realization that you are just like him that’s so bad. When only ugly guys ask you to dance – what does that make you?

Either they pick you because you are nice (which I’m obviously not) or they pick you because you are just as low in the class hierarchy as they are.

Dancing is about excepting your rank. It’s about seeing who you are in the eyes of others.

And as sure as the fact that I always get hit in the head with a ball when passing a football field, I always get asked to dance by the least popular guy.

This is why I hate to dance!

Now I can only wait for the book to have a happy ending. Maybe Mma Makutsi, with her bad complexion and the big round glasses, finds herself above the fate given to her by other people. Maybe she finds that there is no need to rank people at all…

               

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Spring fling

Spring has come to Hesa, and I thought I’d go out and take some pictures:

And I who thought I’d make all you Österbottnians jealous but I hear from my mother that you’ve got rid of all the snow as well…

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Hearsay

Today Vassileios started a rumor saying that I was in love. It went something like this:

10am: I’m checking my flies in the fly-room when V. enters. He immediately starts teasing me as this is what he likes best in the world – to drive people insane. When I’m not responding he makes up a theory; the reason I’ve been so distracted lately is because I’m in love.

2pm: I’m sitting alone in the office with Zhao when he suddenly says: I’ve heard you’re in love. (You have to understand this; my coworkers have wanted me to get a boyfriend ever since I started working in the lab. It’s kind of sweet – but at the same time not…) So I know this is something that V. has told him and therefore ask what else he’s heard.

Well it turns out that I’m interested in a Swedish speaking guy from Turku/Åbo.

If I had let this go on for another day or two I’d probably been engaged!

         

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Singing guys from Ireland

I have seen a huge number of films lately. Here is a recap:

1. The Nanny Diaries
2. Atonement
3. Disturbia
4. No country for old men
5. Charlie Wilson’s war
6. Wedding Crashers
7. P.S. I love you

The last one was this Friday. We were sitting in Tennispalatset 1, which can fit around 600 people, and that was an experience on its own. I’ve never been in such an enormous room before and it made me feel quite claustrophobic. I don’t know why, maybe it was the amount of people that was seated all around me, you feel quite small in yourself with 600 others pushing up against you…

But the movie: I gave Vassileios at work a review. You can pretty much sum it up in three words: “singing Irish men”. Do you remember the guy from Grey’s anatomy? The one that had a bad heart and ended up engaged to Izzie and then dead. That guy! He was the one that the leading lady of the movie met in Ireland, where she was trying to get over the death of her husband – or maybe she was there to remember him better – after all, he too had been a singing Irish man.

Or maybe you can tell the storyline of the movie in another three words: “pure eye candy”. Here he is: Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

                     

That is a man that could only stand around and smile during the whole movie, and I would still watch it. Or better yet; they could put his picture in a little square in one corner of the screen and then – if there happened to be a dull moment in the plot – you wouldn’t mind, because you would be too distracted by watching that little tiny picture in the right hand corner.

So naturally, after telling V about the movie, we came to talk about sex symbols, or more precisely about firemen. V’s comment was this: “Why do women fancy firemen when they are completely useless? The world does not need firemen. Have you ever seen a firemen rush in to a burning house to save a poor child or woman? No! They just stand around to watch the house burn down. They don’t even put out forest fires, the military does that! Firemen are fat slackers and the only thing they’re good at is playing cards – because that’s what they do all day long.”

Mind you, I kind of disagree, but V. was so upset about this that he kept ranting on about it for at least half an hour! I was truly surprised at his outrage until I heard that his girlfriend lives right opposite to a fire department. Then it suddenly made much more sense 🙂

And suitably enough, I found Jeffrey in one of the alluring yellow and black suits as well:

 a very small picture, but still… (from the upcoming movie “the accidental husband”)

           

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Readings

I’ve replaced my daily Bible session with reading Stinissen’s book “I dag är Guds dag” (Today is a day of God, Today is God’s day – or however you want to translate the title). The book is a gift from the Henriksson family so I would like to take the opportunity to thank them: Thank you very much for this lovely gift, it gives me great joy every morning 🙂

Yesterday’s headline was “God everywhere”. It told about God’s omnipresence in His creation. And it got me thinking:

If we, as Christians, have the Holy Spirit (i.e. God) inside us, it must mean that everyone else is without Him.

Imagine the earth covered in God’s presence – I imagined it as a red film covering everything there is. But in the midst of this there are small blue dots walking around. Places where God is not. Small empty holes where He is not wanted.

It is a bit sad isn’t it, that God is everywhere in His creation, except for the places He loves the most – our hearts.

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