Friday, April 29, 2016

Vappu!


The 1. of May in Finland is called Vappu. For students the celebration will take about a week, not only the Vappu day. May Day is a public holiday that is the only carnival-style street festivity in the country. People young and old, particularly students, party outside, picnic and wear caps (graduation from high school) or other decorative clothing. University students are wearing their "uniforms" student boilersuit. Student boilersuits are not meant for work but for party, all the faculties in the University have different colors.
Me and my student cap just after graduation
History and use of the boilersuit: Student coveralls have become one of the most conspicuous academic traditions at some educational institutions, despite its short history. The use of overalls started in the Royal Institute of Technology in the late 1960s, and spread around Sweden and Finland during the 1970s. Apparently protective clothing was needed in excursions to companies, which soon led to use at parties as a way to identify students of different fields and organizations. The height of the use of the overall was reached in the late 1990s. Due to quick rise in popularity, most student organizations now offer the students a chance to purchase their own overalls during the freshman year. Since the 1990s, the custom has remained popular although perhaps in slight decline as the overalls are sometimes viewed to signal a lifestyle bordering on alcoholism and drunken misbehavior, up to the point where some pubs and clubs even choose to ban the use of overall uniforms. -Wikipedia
https://www.flickr.com/photos/villefi/
Boilersuits! Normally you can only wear the bottom and knot the upper part to your waist.
In my city in Finland in Tampere, there is a tradition that all the freshmen from Technical University are dipped to the rapids in the middle of the city.

People are having picnics, drinking and hopefully enjoying the beautiful weather :D If I could name any party from Poland that could be close to Vappu it is Juwenalia ;)

I already told you in the previous post what Finns are eating when it is Vappu but here are still a couple of more pictures to show how it is done!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/karviainen/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/simongotz/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/85910084@N02/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/decade_null/
Vappu
Can't wait for our own small Vappu party and the long weekend ahead! In Poland 3. of May is the day of Constitution so that it is a free day and as 2. of May is in the middle of two holidays it is free as well. There are so many concerts and festivals in Wroclaw wright now or during this long weekend that it is even hard to choose what to do :D This Wednesday we decided to go for Jazz nad Odra festival for a jam session, the festival is going on so maybe I will make another visit there ;) On Sunday there will be a Guinness record in the Rynek, task is to break the Guinness World Record in the number of people playing guitars together. I hope that the weather will be good for this small holiday! Have a great Vappu and weekend! :)
-Camilla
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Food!

This weekend I was a tour guide for a group from Finland. I need to admit that I gained so much more knowledge about the city while studying for this tour. Before I only saw a building after building but now I can actually say something about the buildings. In the end of the tour I learned that the group brought me some Finnish bread and chocolate. I was so happy to hear this! I got a huge sack of rye bread! :)


I have missed rye bread a lot! It seems to be so much more healthier and the taste is something I can only dream about! I know that in Wroclaw in Lidl you can find this kind of rye bread but unfortunately there is not any Lidl next to our place :( I would say that rye bread is the most popular bread in Finland. A traditional form of rye bread that is from western Finnish is thin and there is a whole in the middle. It is thin, there is a hole for hanging, and it is intended to remain for a long time. Western Finland, people ate mostly this kind of dried rye bread and baked only two or three times a year in large quantities at a time.



It seems that this week will be my Finnish food (and drink) week. I'm already preparing for Vappu! I started to make this special Finnish drink for 1. of May called Sima (mead). It includes water, lemon, sugar, yeast and finally some raisins. Sima will be ready to drink when the raisins rise to the top of the bottles, about three to seven days depending on the temperature of the room where the bottles are stored. Usually, the alcohol content is low and the drink is suitable for children.
Sima before bottling

 Next weekend I will also make doughnuts with sugar and our Vappu will be ready (+some sparkling wine)! :) I will write more about Vappu celebration in Finland later this week.

-Camilla

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Visiting Gdansk!

I spend the last weekend in Gdansk with my brother. It was great to see him in the middle of the semester and spend some time together. I have been in Gdansk also before so we didn't want to use our time for the "normal" sightseeing. Instead we went to see this beautiful garden as I was hoping we could see cherry blossom. Unfortunately there was not any, but it was still visible that the spring came to Gdansk before Finland.

Gdansk and Sopot are beautiful cities but it was also annoying. I heard way too much Finnish, Swedish, English... There was too many tourists. In Wroclaw I have used to hearing only Polish and sometimes some other languages but normally only Polish. Tourists don't annoy me in any other tourist destination, but for some reason I felt that they don't belong there (my beloved Poland!). It was weird walking in the streets and hearing so much Finnish, I can easily understand why there is so many Finns as the cheapest flight to Poland from Finland is to Gdansk. I could never live in Gdansk as I would get too annoyed.

I could recommend Gdansk for my readers from Finland, it is a beautiful city and cheap compared to Finland! Perfect for weekend trip, shopping and sightseeing!

Every time that I'm flying to Finland I fly from Gdansk. It is time taking as first I need to take the train to Gdansk (6-7 hours) and then fly. But in the end it is worth the trouble as it so much cheaper than any other connection. Thank you Wizzair!


I can not wait for summer and seeing my whole family again! :)

-Camilla

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Learning Polish!

In the very beginning when I came to Poland my language learning started well. Before the University started I was in a Polish class for foreigners for 2 weeks (organized by the University for exchange students and foreign full time students). After this I knew some basics and it felt that my learning has started even when the pronunciation is beyond difficult. Pronunciation is hard and specially when my first teacher was concentrated to the correct pronunciation. After the 2 weeks course real University started and I started to attend obligatory Polish classes once every week. In the beginning we went through the same things than during the 2 weeks course.

This obligatory one-year Polish course was maybe too easy. We moved forward too slow. The reason might be that all other students were not so active. Sometimes I was alone with the teacher and when the others came we needed to repeat everything.

The most I have learned through my friends. I’m listening when they are talking, talking in phone and then I'm just reading the situation. I’m able to understand surprisingly… a lot but when it comes to speaking I can only put words after words so that they are not in the correct form (as the grammar is so different from English or Finnish). The most important thing for language is communication, I’m not worried if people can understand what do I mean. 

I should get more motivation to learn new Polish words to be able to understand even more and to use the words by myself. My motivation has been lost after the year obligatory Polish course. I needed to start learning German for my studies but I would have loved to continue Polish. It is weird that I only had 2 semesters of Polish but now I need to learn 3 semesters of German. I will try to learn German and Polish at the same time, learning the words I need for German classes but also learn the same things for myself from Polish. All the languages are mixed in my head, I wouldn’t be able to answer for simple question in Swedish :D Even when my level in Swedish is better than in Polish or German.


I bought these word cards to learn Polish. It is nice and easy way to learn as the hardest part is to get motivation to start learning and with these cards I don’t need to use so much time. I can only pick few cards and continue to do something else. I promise to myself (and to my friends here) that during the summer I will step up my game with Polish ;)






-Camilla

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Wroclaw cafes!

I had a wonderful week with my sister in the city. We were walking about 15km everyday, so I'm exhausted but happy that we were able to see so much and enjoy our time together. Now I would like to introduce my favorite cafes in Wroclaw. I was thinking this as I wanted to take my sister to my favorite places. The restaurant and cafe culture is different compared to Finland. Here, people are spending more time in cafes and restaurants also alone. Here you have so much more great choices than for example in Tampere.

Polish Lody
I already mentioned this place before. This is my favorite ice cream place in the city. They have only 3 normal tastes and 2 tastes that are changing every day. I have tasted for example nutella, kitkat, mango, rasberry, carrot.... Pure love :D This ice cream is worth waiting in the line for an hour!

FC Caffe
This place is great for studying as you can see the University from the window. You won't be late from classes :D The window is as big as the front wall so that the place has a lot of natural light. Caramel cappuccino is the best!


VinylCafe
Hidden place near the University. The atmosphere, decor and music are amazing. They are playing real vinyls in the cafe and the customers could choose the music. Even without choosing the music on your own, it is always perfect. The cafe costs about the same than in big company's like Starbucks or Costa cafe so I prefer this local small cafe. The stuff is very friendly every time!
Picture by my lovely friend Maria when we were together in Vinyl! Follow: maria91413 in instagram :)


Manana Cafe
They have a jazz concert every Wednesday evening, last semester I was there almost every week and now I'm hoping to get back to the habit. It is a nice place to listen some great music with friends and just enjoy the atmosphere. Great place for couple of drinks and girlish talks!


Pochlebna
I fall in love with their juices and shakes! So colorful and healthy. The place is full of natural light and there is a lot of choices for vegans also. All the foods seem to be very natural and they are taking into consideration different allergies: lactose-free milk and gluten-free bread (hard to find in Wroclaw). The dark bread in the picture reminded me of Finland so I wanted to take my sister to this place. Healthy juices are in fashion now, so this is my choice!




-Camilla