Woot! I went to that job interview today and as you can see from the headline I totally aced it! So now I have a summer job, what about that? :) I haven’t got a clue about how the job will be, will I hate it, will I love it, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. Nevertheless I think I’m going to like it. Okay fine I know the only reason you are reading on is because you want to know where the hell I got the job: I’ll be working as a reptionist at Top Camping in Vaasa. All in all the interview was nice, I really liked the person who interviewed me and I really hope this will be a summer job I like!

The guy (interviewer) talked something about a voluntary security guard training they would arrange sometime in May. I suppose it could be useful now and in the future too, or what do you think?

Other than that Finland-swedes are celebrating the national Pampas day (Pampas Nationaldag) today here in Vaasa. For those who do not know Pampas is a term used for basically the area of Ostrobothnia since the landscape is really flat (just like Pampas in South America). It’s an event in which students participate. They arrange the Pampas Olympic games, party like rockstars and whatnot. And what do I think of all this? Okay so frankly speaking it honestly feels like the finland-swedish hillbilly-palooza. I’ve not been very interested in student happenings let alone this one, which literally has a pig as its mascot/symbol/whatevs.

Last but not least, ONE apartment to go (= to check out) and I’m starting to feel kind of depressed. Nothing seems really great and I don’t feel like I would like to live in any of the places that have been offered to me. Meh…

Since my last post people didn’t stop calling to offer me even more apartments. I have turned down most of them though, due to problems with either the rent or location of the apartment.  So far I have checked out, um, 8 apartments and I still have three to take a look at. There was one apartment that I fell in love with, but OF COURSE they were the only ones who weren’t too keen on pets. Why God whyyyy?! It’s so UNFAIR!! *cries*. Ok so there was also another person ahead of me in the “queue” for that apartment and I don’t know if she took it or not, but I hope she didn’t and then they would call me and start negotiating. Please please please please ohmigod I want to live there so bad :’(

The other apartments have been kind of crappy. Livable, but crappy. I can’t really see myself moving into any of them, so I suppose things aren’t looking too bright right now.  Talking about bright: on the actual bright side of things I have been invited to a job interview for a summer job I applied for a while ago. Squeeeeee! I feel quite confident so lets hope I get this one eh?

Sooo… here’s the deal:

Tomorrow: 5 apartments to check out
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 1 apartment each day
= 8 apartments to check

I’m still waiting for a call from another person, so I suppose the number might rise to 9. I’ve also gotten a bunch of offers that I have had to turn down simply because the apartments have been too far away from the center of town.

The rent has varied from 320 to 400 euros, I suppose I’ll try to stay on the lower end of that… or rather I have to stay on the lower end of that.

PHEW.

Yup, I was taken in for two nights after not being able to drink or eat anything (or rather not being ble to swallow whatever I put in my mouth).

So there I was in an uncomfortable hospital bed wearing an ugly-ass pajamas going from high fever (head in an oven, body cold and shivering like it was in the freezer) to sweating like a pig after the medicine started to kick in. Of course nothing lasts forever, so after six hours or so I was feeling crap again and they had to give me more medicine, through an IV btw, and so I started to sweat again and so forth. I also received some random fluids of course together with antibiotics.

I’d also like to express my unconditional love to the painkiller ketoprofen: I love you <3

I’m starting to get better now, but lets see how long this fever is going to last…

Infectious mononucleosis, also known as kissing disease, or Pfeiffer’s disease, in North America as mono and more commonly known as glandular fever in other English-speaking countries. It occurs most commonly in adolescents and young adults, where it is characterized by fever, sore throat, muscle soreness, and fatigue.

a.k.a. körtelfeber in Swedish and mononukleoosi/pusutauti in Finnish.

SYMPTOMS CHECK LIST:

√ Fever—this varies from mild to severe, but is seen in nearly all cases.
√ Tender and enlarged/swollen lymph nodes—particularly the posterior cervical lymph nodes.
√ Sore throat—White patches on the tonsils and back of the throat are often seen
√ Muscle weakness
√ Mental fatigue (sometimes extreme)

Some patients also display:
— Enlarged spleen (splenomegaly, which may lead to rupture) and/or liver (hepatomegaly) (let’s hope not…)
— Petechial hemorrhage
— Abdominal pain – a possible symptom of a potentially fatal rupture of the spleen.
√ Aching muscles
√ Headache
√ Loss of appetite (partly)
— Depression
— Skin rash
— Diarrhea (thank God no)
√ Dizziness or disorientation (just the dizziness)
√ Uncontrolled shaking at times
√ Unable to swallow due to enlarged tonsils
√ Dry cough (not too bad)
√ Supra-orbital oedema—the eyes become puffy and swollen—may occur in the early stages of infection (dude… my whole neck is puffy)

I want to eat but I can’t. I want to drink, I sort of can, but it hurts so damn much. I suppose I might have to be put into the hospital tomorrow to receive fluid and nutrition through an IV. Awesome. Today I was to the hospital to take a few blood samples to check my CRP-value. There wasn’t any sign of a infection in my body though, so that’s how they concluded what I have is viral and not bacterial.

If I don’t get to go home for Easter… ugh, I’m so fed up with this! I’ve also had fever for 12 days now, tonight I peaked at 38.5°C. Ironically the doctor who has cared for me, my boyfriend’s dad, called and said with mononucleosis the fever could peak at 39, then go up and down, and I just said that luckily my fever had been very low all the time. Well this mononucleosis sure showed me!

I was supposed to write and EXAM tomorrow. Also, they called me from a place I had applied to for a summerjob and they want to interview me. I had to of course make a rain check regarding the date of the interview, I hope this doesn’t mess up my chances to actually get the job :S.

Since I got this strage flu I have started to sweat like a pig while sleeping. Seriously, I woke up 5am last night and my pillow was wet like the Pacific ocean and I have no idea why. It’s not too warm and whatever fever I have should not cause me to sweat as much as I do.And why I’m calling this flu strange is because first I had fever for 5 days, then I didn’t have fever for a day but a lymph node on the left side of my neck got swollen like hell and I got a strange pain in my throat. The day after the swelling had gone down some but my throat still hurt and I had slight fever again just like today. Weird.

Anyway. This morning Toffe’s phone rang at about 10am, it was our landlady telling us she had put a notice into today’s paper (since we are moving out and she needs to find new tenants) and some person had called her already. Alas she wanted to show the apartment to this person at 5.30pm. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. The apartment looked literally like the local garbage dump. We even have our rats to complete the illusion, even though they are in a cage. I suppose I said something like “Okay get up and start cleaning, NOW” and so we did. The cleaning and tidying up took several hours, I guess we must have been done at 3 or 4pm, after which we went out to eat (didn’t really want to stay here when the landlady would turn p with her “customers”).

Also, you know the whole procrastination and deadlines issue I was talking about? And how I said I would start working on my papers earlier if I actually got bad marks for them? Well I got a 4 for that popular culture essay so HAH. Tomorrow I have to write a 7-page load of crap. The deadline is on Monday, of course. *pats self on back*

Plot summary:

Based on a novel by Philippa Gregory, “The Other Boleyn Girl” revolves around the ferociously ambitious Boleyn sisters, Mary (Scarlett Johansson) and Anne (Natalie Portman), who are rivals for the bed and heart of 16th century English King Henry VIII (Eric Bana).

A sumptuous and sensual tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in European history, “The Other Boleyn Girl” tells the story of two beautiful sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn who, driven by their family’s blind ambition, compete for the love of the handsome and passionate King Henry VIII.

Ramblings: The movie was okay, but perhaps a little bit too melodramatic. I think I enjoyed it right up to where Henry dumped the beautiful Scarlett for miss Portman. Yes, it is a crime to have such a sad (yet happy at the very end, I suppose) ending for the pwettiest actor in the whole wide world :( According to me of course.

At least the story was fairly historically accurate, which often isn’t the case in movies like this. Then again what’s the point if you don’t spice up the plot a bit? Isn’t that what Hollywood is for?

The actors suited their parts well, both Johansson’s and Portman’s looks suited their roles (blonde and soft vs. dark and stern) and the rest of the actors… well… uh… okay so except for Bana perhaps. I mean look at this:

Can I possibly make it anymore obvious? Sure I don’t think Bana is particularly attractive, but the comparison in the image should probably speak for itself.

Also, as a fan of Ugly Betty I couldn’t help noticing this tiny detail in the movie…

Score: 2½ out of 5

Misc.: Check out the trailer at Apple Trailers or read more about the movie at IMDb!

I feel like crap. My head aches and it hurts when I move my eyes. My skin is sensitive to everything and my throat feels icky.

So here I am in my little bed-fortress feeling sorry for myself, hungry as hell and even my own mother won’t reply to me on MSN, how’s that for a sucky day. Luckily I have my own private nurse filling me with pills and liquid, which always counts for something I suppose.

*cough moan whine*

Yeah bitches! I had checked out these babies already a few months ago at the Bianco Footwear store here in Vaasa. I have been on a hunt for a pair of winter boots that

a) are waterproof enough
b) don’t have humongous heels
c) are warm and comfy
d) look good.

I was happy when I saw these but I got sad quite quickly after seeing the price. 129 euros. Yeah right no way I’m paying that much for a pair of shoes! Do I look rich to you, huh?!

So anyway, today I was browsing through shops and popped by Bianco and guess what, the were down to 60 euros and my size was still available! Okay so I suppose it’s a wee bit too late with the whole need-boots-for-the-winter thing but I still have use for them for a month or so and of course I will wear them next winter too.

The only image I found of them on the web was the grey colored version, so I had to shoop the image here, which is why it may look sort of funneeh, but yeah they’re dark brown and awesome!

Deadlines… man…

You can tell me I have months until the deadline of an assignment and I will still write it at the last minute. This time I had to write an essay on a popular culture subject. We got it in the beginning of January and the deadline was set on 3rd March, a.k.a. today. I had a bit less than two months to write the damn thing and when did I actually do it? TODAY. Gawd.

So I think I e-mailed the teacher of the course a week ago or so.

Now as to what you write about: have you looked at the set book (John Storey) yet? It doesn’t seem so, because there you will find heaps of material that relates directly to your subjects.

Hell no I haven’t?! My meeting with him (to discuss my first essay topic) was hilarious and tragic at the same time. He was all concerned about being so close to the deadline already, I honestly felt like going “darling, do you honestly think I will even read this Storey book before Sunday?”. No, it’s not a question of a bad attitude towards my studies, it’s a question of not wanting to continue my studies anymore. As I wrote to Theo yesterday I want to do something fun, not over analyze a bunch of subjects and write down a bunch of academic and pretentious crap. Let’s just say studying English was not a good decision. At all.

So anyway, I just got home from the university, where I went only to turn in my express essay into the teacher’s pigeonhole. My essay is titled “Popular Culture and the Female Identity: Anime and The Women in Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki“. Actually it turned out pretty good. Maybe that’s the problem, since I would probably stop the damn procrastinating if I started to get bad marks for my rapidly produced last-minute-essays.

I based the essay mostly on a book by Susan Napier called Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (2005) and it’s actually a really good read to check it out if you’re interested!