That slue of exclamation points is my way of electronically conveying the huge grin that is on my face about getting through my first semester of graduate school! I am also equally as smiley because now I get to go home for the next month!!! I am beyond excited about getting to visit with everyone for a while! And it'll surely be good for my soul to be home for a bit.
I just wanted to share a couple of photos from the last couple of weeks before I disappear from blogland for my holiday! My past three weeks have admittedly not been very exciting, because it's mostly been filled with homework, but I still have a couple of fun pictures. My time not spent doing homework has been spent watching a plethora of movies from a free Netflix trial I scored for a month! And while the temperature has dropped dramatically, it has truly made it so beautiful outside. I am going to miss the pristine feeling that the snow evokes within me, but I can trust that it'll be here when I get back.
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| I wasn't kidding about the temperature dropping... |
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| But then it looks like this outside, so beautiful! |
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| And like this.. a snowy train ride to Helsinki! |
I also had a great last day of my semester yesterday because I had an epiphany! Let me explain in grave detail! Basically since we started school back in September, we were told to start thinking about what we would want to do our Masters thesis work on next year. This is obviously a big deal because whatever we decide to do will likely heavily influence our life after school. I mean it'll be what we are all semi-experts in after all. I have been rather intimidated by this idea of picking a thesis project/topic because I want to make sure that it'll be something that I will really enjoy and feel passionate about. The problem is just that I have so many interests that I would love to do work on, but that is obviously not possible with limited time and resources. So wading through my ideas and interests has proven a rather daunting task. But more immediately we have a project next semester of doing a literature review over a subject of our choosing, and then with that knowledge we will write a paper and give a presentation about our findings. So it has been advised to choose a topic that we are likely considering pursuing as our thesis because then all of this research, reading, and writing we do won't be in vain, but can rather contribute to our thesis. Well anyways, we had our last class of the semester yesterday, and we were to choose what our topic will be. I have known for a while now that I want to do a thesis project about green infrastructure and the multi-faceted benefits that provides, and in addition what has worked in some cities versus what has worked elsewhere. This topic is unfortunately too vague to be tackled in one thesis, and so I've been trying to decide how to narrow it down. I've also really wanted to look at the biodiversity conservation benefits of green infrastructure, but I wasn't sure in what capacity. Anyways, while in class, and listening to everyone else talk about their ideas and what they think that they want to work on, and trying to not get caught zoning out while I was laying half asleep on my computer, I had an epiphany! I'd been hoping to have an epiphany this whole time about this issue, and it FINALLY came to me! Bees! I want to look at how green infrastructure can compliment urban bees and how they are mutually beneficial to one another. I have been really concerned about the idea of the colony collapse for about a year now, and this would be a really cool way to approach this topic. And since urban beekeeping is banned in so many cities this would be a cool way to approach this topic and see what can be done. I'm not entirely sure of what direction this will all take yet, but I am excited about finding a way to integrate all of this into a cohesive project. And I learned that there is a professor in Helsinki working on bees and green roofs, and that would be perfect because green roofs are the most exciting piece of green infrastructure, to me! :) Yayy! Plus this will help me to finally work on overcoming my completely irrational, yet very real fear of bees!
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| This will be me in no time! |
Lots of Christmassy things have been going on as well, including Valeria and I exchanging gifts! She made me a super cool dreamcatcher! I am really pleased with this because I'd been needing a new one for a while, my old one was full of bad dream dust! I need to learn how to make things though because I wish I could give handmade gifts! I've actually thought about trying to learn how to knit while I'm home, especially because this would come in handy with being able to make myself hats, socks, scarves and all kinds of winter gear! We'll see if this actually happens.
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| No more nasty dreams for me!! |
Lastly, my immature self laughs every time at words that are in Finnish, but have a completely different meaning in English, for example note the following..
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| Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever grow up. |
Well that's all I have for now! I can't wait to get on a plane in 11 hours!!!!!!!!! And to be in the warmth of the desert, my bones need it! And to make some money working at Lauren's restaurant! But most importantly I'm excited to be surrounded by the people I love most in this world for the next 30 days!
Finland, I'll be back for you, and shockingly enough I will miss you a bit, you've already started to build yourself a fond spot in my heart. Or maybe I'll just miss your little nuances that I already adore.. like going to sauna! But more than I will miss going to sauna, I will miss hearing the screams of naked men outside of my window yelling as they roll around in the snow! Alcohol + sauna + snow + nudity = free entertainment! At least that was my night last night haha. Moi moi Finland! :)
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