back in Finland

that's it. It is beginning of September and I am back in Finland. I am still experiencing some kind of culture shock. Feeling the fresh sebtember air, looking at the ugly automarkets, understanding people in the public transport etc.

The second shock is that the summer of 2008 is irreversibly over. I hope that Stef, Julia, Michel, Saskia, Zack, Chen, Shuo, James, Royce and others do not fade away and that at least I keep the memories of awesome time when I still was young, if not so wild anymore. Thank you!

night at the castle

Night at the castle 20 kilometers away from Vienna, stranded by a rolling thunderstorm. Alone in the dark castle while the bell tower rings for quarter to midnight, only to be drowned by yet another thunder, which illuminates the windows. I would be scared to meet right about anybody here at IIASA tonight. I seem to be already too tired to work, but not tired enough yet to collapse on the carpet to sleep. Hence, I am finally updating my blog. The last month has been great and I am sad to think that the end of this Summer is very near. Lots of things happened since I last wrote, besides getting stranded at the Airport, I witnessed my little sister Minttu getting married, went to paddle at the Danube nature reserve, did clubbing and a heurigen crawl with bike, met a gay couple, learned Taiji, watched an opera recording from a big screen and probably did many other things which I should have written down while I still remembered. I planned to write off course, but I've been working a lot and coming back home in Simmering quite late and usually I've been too tired to do much.

Lets see if I can get some sleep despite the conditions.

24.7. Orpheus & Eurodyce

I am forced to upload this entry quite late as I wrote it in the plain to Finland and was not able to get online. Since then my girlfriend was around and I did not have time to update the blog. on the 25. I should have requested to get into the Finnair business lounge, as I was forced to wait additional six hours at the Helsinki-Vantaa international airport, as they jousted me out of my flight. Hopefully, they really do compensate as much as they promised. Well in the previous day I was enjoying some modern dance...

After many difficulties I finally sat down in the third row of Theatre and der Wien not really knowing what to expect of the next two hours. but what a show it turned out be. erotic yes, that was to be expected from the description on the Impulz dance web page, but still I was baffled by the strength of the presence compared to any recorded shows. This feeling was stipulated even more by few sequences where some of the dancers danced within the audience, especially eurodice who passed me by within arms length in those golden micro shorts and skimpy bits barely covering the nipples... whoa I am getting carried away here :) besides this don't look back episode there were many others more explicit ones, but trying to describe them here is pretty pointless. all I can say is that I enjoyed the show for all the money I paid for it.

going out in Vienna

My last weekend was dedicated to clubbing, and in Vienna, it is quite easy. From the Finnish perspective drinks are cheap in bars and nightclubs, the public transport starts again before the clubs shut down and there are plenty of places to chooce from. My Friday consisted of a local wine tavern in Simmering with tradiotional "Austrian" live music, salsa club in the downtown and finally into side of Saturday morning flux club with indie rock night next to the danube canal. On Saturday after recovering for most of the day, I started in a "beach" bar by the Danube canal and stopped completely exhausted in Arena closeby Gasometer after 5 hours of fervent Drum & Base rhythms. Optionally, I could have gone to the Nuke festival in St Pölten which is some kilometers off from Vienna to listen Chemical Brothers and Lennie Kravitz. However, on Friday I was still not quite sure how my bruised toes are able to cope and I did not bother to persuade people to leave the city. Today I learned that I was not the only one of the YSSPrs to enjoy the ear shattering (I had the plugs and still my ears were ringing) beats on Saturday, but we had failed to coincidentally spot each other between the 3 different dance floors and few bars and food stalls.

What is difficult, though, is the adjusting of the daily (or should I write nightly) rhythm between work and clubbing. On Friday, people started to flow into the club only after 24, which is the time when I close my eyes during the week. Fortunately on Sunday I did not sleep to long and somehow managed to go to bed at 10.30 and drag myself out of there today at 7.10.

Bad Samaritan

It is nice to have good lectures from time to time and contrast to many interesting seminars here at IIASA, the one we had today was also entertaining. If you happen to see book called Bad Samaritan The Myth of Free Trade and Secret History of Capitalism I would recommend borrowing, buying, or if you are from a poor country pirat copying the book. The book is nicely titled and will surely attract plenty of conspiracy theorists, although the author Ha Joon Chang, refuses to take the arguement quite that far. Instead, it is nicely shown that at certain extensive periods, most of the "developed" nations have sheltered their industries from free trade and more often than not this had led to economic prosperity.

After such topics going back to my own work with crop categories, soil classes and field slopes is so boring...

Hochschwab in Styria

Another awesome hiking trip for the weekend. We took a train to Bruck an der Mur and a bus from there to Seeweisen where we started the hike from. Only four minutes between the bus and the train left me without food supplies and little water, so the advise for future hikers would be to take care of the supplies in advance (instead of say playing poker the previous night). Well fortunately my buddies Stef and Julia had food and we got water few hours later from a mountain spring. Also close to the top there is a restaurant and few more when you get closer down to the valley. The first hours went by without seeing people, but instead we met a mountain goat who took the incidence quite calmly. Should have guessed that they are used to people who started to trickle from the opposite direction when we had reached the top of the range. The weather forecast for the weekend was gloom and few times we were close to getting wet, but then the sky cleared again thanks to the heavy wind and we got even some sun shine. We reached the "hut" near Hochschwab top almost in time after about 5-6 hours of walking. The hut turned out to be a cross between restaurant and a hoster with modern interior design and prices which were as close to the sky as the restaurant. While having the coffee, we contemplated the chance that we would encounter Saskia who had taken a later train and as we declared that it would be unlikely to see her during the trip (without mobile network coverage), she walks in :)

Well we made it to the windy top an hour later and from there walked for 3-4 hours more for our potentially fully booked hut. We found it before dark, discovered that we would have beds and I had some very good dearstew, local snapsch and bier. Next morning (after night of listening to snoring) the weather was foggy and we took our time with the breakfast. We decided not to go for any more mountain tops, walked back towards civilisation, had a swim in the green lake and were utterly drenched by the thunderstorm just few minutes before reaching the restaurant close to the buss station. Thanks to Stef for arranging the hike!

ktm strada 3000

new nice fast and shiny

Sigur Ros

Just back from Sigur Ros gig close by Gasometer. For students living in Simmering this is really handy location. Unfortunately, the place seems to be more tuned to bands and the djs play somewhere else like Pyramid, which is quite a bit further away and hard to get away in the middle of the night. The gig itself was great, I can only wish it would have lasted a bit longer. Tickets were about 40 €, which I guess is quite close to what you pay elsewhere for Sigur Ros. Maybe they are consciously keeping their ticket prices high, who knows.

ballet in Vienna

I just watched the ballet school matinee at Vienna stat oper and it was great. If you ever come to Vienna during the opera be sure to check this out, the tickets are well worth 5-9 euros. There were plenty of seats left, but to avoid fighting with the staff on availability, it is better to get them online in advance. Personally, I was lucky to get a free ticket from a kind indian lady who had a spare one as her friend did not show up.

headache

I am unable to access my regular mail account. I created an email account in gmail. My username is janhel78. If you want to email me use this address IN ADDITION to the normal address.

Vienna sightseeing

Yesterday we had a guided tour of Vienna arranged by the IIASA. We mainly toured around the Stephansdom and the area of the old Roman "Vienna". There were plenty of interesting places, although we did not have time to go inside to any of the places. The iPhoto facebook photo exporter is not working and resizing and attaching pictures here is quite time consuming. Nevertheless...

I've now been here for a week and it has been a busy week. Fortunately, Saturday was quite relaxed and today I finally slept a bit longer. The fellow YSSP people are nice, but it seems most of the time is spent in working and I have been too tired to be really active in finding any social activities after the long days. Today I guess there would be a change to joint the german and polish for yet another football match, but I would be more interested in doing sports than just watching it. Last week I missed the opportunity to play football and tennis. The football I just forgot as it was not well advertised and the tennis was canceled due bad weather. I also have not had enough energy to find a nice bike from here. There are shops shelling bikes close by, but the brands they have are unknown to me and it seems the first bike I had closer look at had cheap components. well maybe next week I get a chance to do some sports.

Interdisciplinary and policy relevant

the key words of YSSP. I do not know how many times that combination has been repeated during these few days.

day 2 at IIASA

I woke up at six and could not sleep. I guess its stress. Well today's program consisted of tick shot (tick is probably the most dangerous thing in Austria, at least the amount fuss was considerable), melzen form and desposit for the flat, passport picture, plenty of computer problems because of wireless lan and finally hour long talk with my supervisor Tatiana Ermolieva. I ran out of cash because of the deposit and heard from the IIASA people that establishing a real account in Austria might be slightly difficult for somebody not receiving salary for an austrian account, like me. The other more likely account type is supposedly without way to retrieve cash from an ATM. Austria is yet to experience the revolution of plastic money and credit cards are rejected more often than accepted.  Taking care of practical matters such as banking is made even more difficult by IIASA, which expects people to work long hours. Add to that an hour of commuting after work and you do not make it even to the grocery shops which close around seven.  the shop DM which I ended up in did not have any products that need cool storage or that would spoil such as milk and bread. Eventually staff escorted me to the counter as the shop was closing... so I am having austrian brains for dinner (look at the picture)

First day at IIASA

I am too tired to write now all that much. The YSSP people were much nicer than I expected. I do not know if it is because of all the hype or because there is just something special about the atmosphere, but definitely I have a good feeling of the summer to come. OK it was also bit mixed as part the message from the organizers emphasizes the social significance and part claims that you have a great challenge in succeeding with your research project. Well I have an early morning tomorrow so better get some sleep.

Vienna

I moved to Vienna yesterday.  I have not seen much of the city yet. I  just took the metro to the Simmeln area, where the student flat is located, unpacked and walked around for a while.  The day was hot and the bars and street stalls full of people.  I will be staying here for three months while studying at the International Institute of Applied System Analysis (IIASA), so I have plenty of time to see the sights.  After living in my own flat for few years, moving back to student commune feels strange and brings back memories from my undergraduate years at University of York.  There is plenty of research for me to do during the summer months, so I am not planning to spend too much time on blogging, but nevertheless I will try write few lines regularly.

earlier blog which I failed to post

Egypt 14.4.2008

Lähtöpäivänä hotellista soitettiin herätys 03.30, jotta olisi 04.00 aulassa, jotta olisi 4.20 bussissa, jotta olisi 4.30 kentällä, jotta saisi lipun ennen 5.00, jotta voisi aloittaa koneeseen nousun 6.00, jotta kone lähtisi 7.15. Itse matkaan hotellilta ei mene edes kymmentä minuuttia ja kolmessa ja puolessa tunnissa oltaisiin jo puoli välissä Suomeen. Lentomatkailu on kyllä aika älytöntä. Egyptissä turvatarkastuksia oli kolme, joista ensimmäinen jo ennen lipun saamista. Se palvelu mitä kaipaisin törkyhintaisten virvokkoiden sijaan on sähkö, mutta pistorasioita ei penkkien lähimailta tietenkään löydy. Lähtöportti on ruudussa eri kuin lipussa ja lentoyhtiön henkilökunta, joka on itse väärällä portilla sanoo että kannattaa noudattaa monitoria. Sähköongelma kuitenkin ratkesi kun sain turvamieheltä pyynnön tulla niiden penkille portin eteen. Sattuupa jotain positiivistakin, harmi että ei ole antaa tippiä hyvästä palvelusta. On tietysti hieman vaivaannuttavaa yrittää kirjoittaa kun joku tuijoittaa ruutua vierestä vaikka lienee selvää että kielitaito ei taida kantaa näiden harakanvarpaiden kääntämiseen. Viikon loma on nyt tosiaan takana päin ja on ollut hieno reissu. Yöelämä ja bailaaminen jäi sukelluskurssin takia vähemmällä, mutta enpä usko että olisin täkäläisissä klubeissa koko viikkoa jaksanutkaan pyöriä. Headkandi oli aivan kiva mesta. En varmaan ole aiemmin hiekkarantabilepaikassa käynytkään. Viiteen asti juhlittiin ja eilinen meni tosiaan hieman krapuloissa ja lopulta turnauskestävyys loppui. Mitään yleiskatsausta Hurghadasta on vaikea antaa oman reissun perusteella, koska lähinnä aika kului kaukana itse kaupungista ja vielä veden alla. Kuulemma El-Darra, eli vanha kaupunki on mukavampi miljöö kuin uusi hotellikatu, mutta sikäläiset basaarit yms jäivät näkemättä. Ei ollut yksinkertaisesti intoa alkaa tinkaamaan. Noh meressä riittää näkemistä, mutta yhtä hyvin seuraavalla kerralla punaiseen mereen voi tutustua Sharm-El Sheikistä käsin. . 

Hurghada Day 5

Egypt 13.4.2008 Lähtötunnelmia päivän kääntyessä seuraavan puolelle. Tavarat täytyy kuulemma kantaa aulaan jo 4:00, joten montaa tuntia unia ei ole luvassa tällekään yölle. Vika päivä oli ehkä pienoinen antikliimaksi, kun tuli vain löhöiltyä rannalla ja altaalla ilman kummempia sattumuksia suuntaan tai toiseen. Ilta huipentui Hardrock cafe Hurghadassa, jossa kokeneemmat sukeltajat jutustutelivat viikon sukelluksista ja aiemmista kokomuksistaan. Kuvittelin että BBQ hotellin rannalla olisi jatkunut pidempään, joten oli pienoinen pettymys huomata että hotellilla olikin aika kuollutta jo kymmen aikoihin ja keskustan ei vaan jaksanut enää lähteä. Väsyttää ja tulin sitten nukkumaan pariksi tunniksi.
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Hurghada Day 4

Egypt 12.4.2008

I am now qualified PADI open water diver, hurraah. The last two days have been busy with the diving course. Yesterday there was my first dive from a boat and also the exam for the qualification. and do I hate exams, but the coral reefs were great. The exam was not too difficult although I did not do too well with the dive charts. As for my work letting a computer to do the number crunching would be the thing. From tv it is difficult if not impossible to grasp the diving experience; submersion, weightlessness, scale and variety of surrouding corals and discovery of all kinds of fish just minding their business when you float by. The visibility of the water was not as good you'd expect from the tv documentaries. I guess they shoot them when the conditions are just right. When you add little bit of salt water within the mask, being slightly cold and having your ears do weird things you start to approach the real scuba diving experience. I am writing this early in the morning as I have been too excited/nervous to sleep after about 5.30 when a loud group of Finns woke me up. Maybe they were the two Finnish guys Mika and Jukka from the diving course, returning to the hotel. They will not be diving today and I need to find myself a new diving buddy. Hopefully, somebody who can use compass better than I do. I went out with them last night. (At the time of writing) for people who are tired of hotel lounge bars in Hurghada, I could point out Papas bar. According to our instructor it is a place where diver's go to have a pint or two, and the atmosphere indeed was relaxed. Today if all goes well I will clubbing in Headkandi. Less than five hours of sleep last night might require few of hours of sleep during the day though. Tomorrow, there will be no diving as the flight on Monday is so early, that the precautionary time between flying and diving is not quite enough for a meaningful diving day. but I am getting ahead of myself. .

Hurghada Day 5

Hurghada Day 3

Egypt 9.4.2008

The risk of traveling alone is that at some point you will get bored. I am not quite sure if this problem is universal or not, but for me there is point where I am too tired to actively find myself some company, for whom I would not feel too pushy to approach. It might have something to with my own social inhibitions, but then again people who attach themselves to strangers do risk of just being annoying and avoided anyway. It does not really help if you happen to be non russian speaker in a hotel where majority of people speak russian and maybe a bit of english too. Following from the same problem comes another one; there is lot to admire as a virile Finnish bloke, but practically nothing that you could do besides “devouring by looking” ;) I could imagine that all the good looking girls will get tired from the attention they get just by walking along the street paved with the Egyptian gigolos. Maybe it is only lone guys that get bored and the girls rather find themselves tired?

So much for the social frustration, the main attraction today was diving or learning how to dive. I am quite happy with my own performance. For some reason the first ten intakes though through the regulator where much heavier than I would have expected and it even crossed my mind that this is it; there will be diving for me, but after a while I managed to shrug of the feeling of not able to get enough air and was quite comfortable under water since then. We did the PADI confined water dives 1 & 2 and started with 3, but where not able to finish as one of the guys in the group had problems in finding the right buoyancy and with the no air, grab your buddy's extra regulator exercise. Hence we run out of the time. Although, part of the problem was that the scuba boats returned and our insructor Juha Nissinen decided to call it a day. It was fun to look at the ship wreck and I could have stayed at the site for longer. Well tomorrow there will be more of diving.
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