New people, new languages, new skills..

One part of the university

I know I haven’t exactly been the most active blog writer lately but I will try to mend my ways. As I already mentioned in my latest post, last week we had the welcome days at the university which meant getting to know a lot of new people. Surprisingly enough Finns are the second largest group among the exchange students right after the loud and lively Italians, and so last week we found the fifth Finn Heini and rumor has it there are still four to be found. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I will leave here in August speaking also some more Italian then what I’ve learned from Elisa di Rivombrosa...
What’s at the same time a bit amusing, annoying and most of all confusing, is the mixing of languages in my speech now that I’ve been talking more English with the exchange students. Many of them speak fluent German whereas a few speak for now very little or none, which means changing the language according to the members of the conversation. So you can imagine that after meeting a bunch of new people within just a couple of days, it was not only troublesome to try to avoid asking for someone’s name, nationality or major for the third time but also to remember in which language we last had our conversation. So it’s not only once that I’ve started a nice conversation in German only realizing after a moment of silence and a very confused look that I had chosen the wrong language and the other person had not just understood a word I said.

The sight of Freiburg from Schlossberg

Well, back to activities. Here in our student dormitory there is not only great opportunities for doing sports or having a picnic, but also parties on a weekly basis in a house which is for free time use only and located right next to our building. So on Wednesday I got to experience something that, as far as I know, has not yet reached Finland – a Déjà vu -party! I just admire the inventor of this simple but brilliant idea: every drink you’ve bought before midnight you will get for free after midnight! (Mom if you read this, I don’t want you to worry – this party takes place only once in a month…)
Another great thing about the parties here in our dormitory is billiard! This is the first time in my life that I’ve played billiard (two times here now) and I don’t understand why I haven’t done that before. I just love the game! Lucky me I have the chance to play it here every week almost for free. Isn’t that what student exchange is for, learning new skills…?

Speaking of games, on Sunday I took part in playing soccer with other international students. There was not really much going on here at Easter (which gave me the chance to get some rest), many students were spending the holidays for travelling and so we had only 6 players this time. But it was so much fun! Although I don’t have that much experience in playing soccer, nor do I enjoy watching it on TV too much, I do love to play it. And if the billiard wasn’t already great enough, playing soccer is also possible every week!

 My days here have been quite filled all kinds of activities, hanging out with friends and trying to get my courses and studies organized, but on Easter I had some time to just take it easy and spend some time just by myself as well. It was nice for a change, but on the other hand I also had more time to think about what is going on in Finland and how my family and friends are doing. And my dogs. I miss them so much. I’ve dreamed about them, I’ve talked about them and I’ve shed a few tears watching pictures of them. It’s weird living here without them for the first time, although the fact that I have roommates helps a lot since there usually is always someone home – only a few days ago I noticed how fond I am of their company. 

There is nothing more important I could have on my wall.