Best show. Ever! The Umbilical Brothers were just as good if not even better than I had expected. Though tired from my 24h Helsinki trip I still feel enormously satisfied with the experience as a whole.

Yesterday I jumped on a train at about half past noon to get from Vaasa to Seinäjöki. That’s about as far as I got until VR (the Finnish FAILway company) started fucking with me. For starters the next train I had to catch was 50 minutes late. Apparently the tracks between Oulu and Seinäjöki are pretty messed up, so the trains can’t go very fast on some parts of them. When I finally got to board the train I find out the train only goes as far as Tikkurila, and not all the way to the central station in Helsinki. Hence I had to switch trains in Tikkurila to get to my final destination. But oh, it does not end there, the train from Tikkurila to Helsinki was 10 minutes late. I guess this wouldn’t have bothered me as much if I wouldn’t have had to stand out in the miserable cold and damp weather for those extra ten minutes, on top of already waiting for the train to Helsinki another 10 minutes for starters.

When I finally got to Helsinki my date for the day (I suppose you can call him that?), Renato, was waiting for me at the station. Originally we had planned to eat dinner before the show that was starting at 7 p.m., but since THE TRAINS WERE EFFING LATE we just walked straight to Alexander theater, where the show was going to be held. While waiting for the show to start it was pretty fun to see some celebrities in the audience as well. I was this |—| close to Jaakko Saariluoma, next to him sat a few other actors from the Finnish show Putous, such as Riku Nieminen (I think?). Then I was about this |——–| close to André Wickström, the most awesome stand-up comedian ever and of course I was this |———–| close to Shane and Dave, a.k.a. The Umbilical Brothers!

As I’ve already expressed the show was amazing! I won’t get too much into detail, you can watch clips on YouTube or buy the DVD after all, but I certainly laughed more than I have in a long time. It was also the last stop of the tour for the brothers, so the show lasted way longer than expected. Shane and Dave had a great connection with the audience at all times (starting with the microphone not working at the very start of the show) and at the end of the show the guys informed the audience they were more than happy to stay and chat with the fans after the show and so forth. If I hadn’t been as hungry as I was after the show ended I would have loved to stick around for a while longer. They probably had enough fans on their hands anyway though, so nevermind.

Renato took me to New Bamboo Center on Annankatu after the show to eat, and luckily the place was still open. The food was delicious! I definitely recommend the place of you’re in Helsinki and looking for something Asian. I had the chicken curry, the portion was really big and the curry was just the right amount of spicy. After we finished our very late dinner we went to Renato’s apartment, where I got some precious hours of sleep before I had to get on the train from Helsinki to Seinäjöki at 7.30 p.m. this morning. Today I got only mildly bitch-slapped by VR though. The train from Helsinki to Seinäjöki departed and arrived on schedule, the train from Seinäjöki to Vaasa however departed 20 minutes late because of another train arriving late. Sigh.

So now I’m back in Vaasa once more and supposedly I should find the energy to celebrate walpurgis night with some friends later on today. Too bad the weather is gray and miserable, otherwise a picnic in the park like last year would have been nice.

At the moment I’m having an internal hissy fit.

Background story: I was unable to attend the first exam held in December 2009 for the course Japanese III. On the second exam date, which I could attend, I passed two out of three parts of the exam. Stockholm university does not have a third exam date, and since I haven’t passed Japanese III I can’t do the exam for Japanese IV held in May. The next exam for Japanese III will be held in August, who knows when the next exam for Japanese IV will pop up.

Conclusion: I may well be forced by the system to study japanology for a fourth year, just because those asshats are too lazy to arrange more retakes.

Opinion about the matter: #€%&!

So apparently I didn’t just end up staying at home, scratching my bellybutton. Sweet! First I went to see the movie Kick-Ass (2010) together with John, Sanni, Janne, and this other dude Mikael, who I hadn’t met before (but with whom I had actually played WoW with once or twice). Summa sumarum the movie had a way too slow start, a pretty good ending, nice fighting scenes, but way too little luls. I guess it didn’t feel like a waste of time and money like Clash of the Titans, but then again CotT at least gave birth to a new internet meme.

After the movie Sanni went home and the rest of us went to D.O.M (a bar), after a fiery debate whether to eat something at McDonald’s or not. At the entrance to the bar I only had a 20 euro bill to offer for the 2 euro entrance fee, so the guard let me in in the hopes of me getting some more change while in the bar, so that I could pay him with a 2 euro coin or some such. In the bar I met three of my classmates, Katriina, Miikka, and Timo, and while I didn’t buy anything in the bar I still got the money back Katriina owed me. We played some games in the bar, Janne and Miikka eventually went home, John and Mikael continued their evening at Waild, and me, Katriina, and Timo stayed until closing time at 2 a.m. Now, I was going to give the guard his 2 euros, but he wasn’t at the door when we exited the bar. I’m sorry Mr. Guard. Me and Timo were hungry (I had personally not eaten anything that day), so we dragged a slightly loud and drunk Katriina along with us to Hesburger. Damn that burger was nice on an empty stomach.

As it’s Sunday today it was time for some Sunday cooking once more. Me, John, Sanni, and Janne had pizza, Maitham joined us for a few hours as well, and as dessert (yeah, like there was much room left in our tummies anyway) we had chocolate fondue. We also had a go at a few movies, but ended up playing a game called Apples to Apples instead, pretty fun.

Now I’m at my parents’ place to do some dog-sitting, yay…

Mother Nature is clearly experiencing some badass PMS right now. First she spits her rage upon Iceland as Eyjafjallajökull erupted, and then the luls was spread all across northern Europe as the airborn ash from the volcano put all air traffic on hold. Now Vaasa has fallen victim to an outrageous snow storm. It’s April. Srsly.

Today I poked some on my raku ceramics again, this time putting the glaze on all items. It’s all an experiment really, especially when some of the glazes may potentially change color during the final burning process, depending on if the glaze gets oxidized or not. I played around with the glazes, especially on the elephant I sculpted last Saturday. The glaze colors on the picture are not final, they morph (in color) and turn glossy in the heat of the kiln and finally a crackle is created on the glaze due to rapid temperature changes. Areas with no glaze at all turn charcoal black. We’ll do the final burning on May 8th.

As I was poking on some working schedules (yay, I have finally gathered my team for the reception!) a day or two ago I started thinking about how I won’t be able to do an evening shift on 25.5, 27.5, and 29.5. Why? It’s Eurovision Song Contest time baby! I finally listened to all of the entries competing either in the first or second semi-final, or in the final. Initially I felt a bit disappointed in this year’s entries and I had a hard time pointing out any immediate favorites. I think however some songs have started to grow on me, for example Kristina – Horehronie (Slovakia) and… ok, so I can’t think of any other entry right now, but whatevs. A lot of semi-ballads competing this year, sort of lame. Also, I was really hoping Ukraine would have had a great entry this year as well, as I have been cheering for them the past three years now (Verka Serduchka in 2007, Ani Lorak in 2008, and Svetlana Loboda in 2009), but sadly this wasn’t the case.

So, anything fun happening somewhere in Vaasa tonight? I have a feeling I’ll end up sitting at home all day long scratching my bellybutton. Tomorrow some traditional Sunday cooking with John, Sanni, and Janne again, Maitham might join us too. As far as I know chocolate fondue is on the menu as dessert, hopefully the main course will be Asian-inspired. Mostly I’m looking forward to seeing Lupe again though ♥ Don’t forget to check out my awesome t-shirt I’m wearing in the pic to the right!

More like 3 minute awesomecake, amirite? This one is for that special little craving you sometimes may get, the kind of craving that will have you gnawing on the sofa at the end of the night if you don’t get your num nums. Don’t look at me like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Yeah, you.

You’ll need…

• 4 tablespoons of flour
• 4 tablespoons of sugar
• 1½-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons of milk
• 3 tablespoons of oil

And how do you make it, you ask me. Well… Mix the flour, sugar and cocoa in a big, microwave oven safe mug. Add the egg, milk, and oil. Mix until the mixture is smooth and pop the mug with its contents into the microwave oven and blast that brownie at maximum power for three – that’s 3 – minutes. Let the brownie cool down and om nom nom away!

Mug in image from Iittala’s Taika series.

It is absolutely heartbreaking to have to say good bye to the best TV-show ever created. Watching each episode has been such a wonderful experience and life will simply not be the same without Betty and the rest of the characters/cast of Ugly Betty. I mean, what will now fill the void of watching Betty’s relationship adventures, laughing at Marc’s and Amanda’s witty remarks, following Wilhelmina’s evil schemes with excitement, seeing the trials and tribulations of Hilda, Justin, and Ignacio…

I know this may not mean much to anyone, but I want to express my sincere gratitude to the creators and cast of Ugly Betty. Thank you for all four seasons, for all four years, for everything. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Apparently I have a knack for sculpting stuff. This was my second attempt at (western) raku ceramics, and I somehow decided to sculpt an elephant. Don’t ask me why I thought of doing one, it just popped into my head and I couldn’t let go of the idea. The previously made hashioki had dried up nicely, hopefully my elephant stays intact as well. Anyway, it was nice getting so many compliments in class, even the teacher seemed to have a certain admiration for my new-found talent. My elephant has slightly stumpy legs, but I figured it was better to make him more… stable.

Andreas flew back home to Gothenburg this morning, my apartment feels awfully empty and quiet all of the sudden, but I feel like I’ll get used to the peace and quiet pretty quickly. Andreas’s last day in Vaasa was spent eating at Rosso, again, and watching a movie, Clash of the Titans (2010). The food was good, the movie wasn’t. As I explained to my friend John, who decided not to accompany us to the movie theater: Take Lord of the Rings, Avatar, Star Wars, and Greek mythology and throw it in a blender, filter out all of the awesomeness and presto! You have Clash of the Titans. I wasn’t even particularly thrilled about the 3D effects.

Now only one question remains: When will I get to visit Gothenburg?

You may bask in my glory.

Photos by Andreas Skoglund.

Today is the last day of Andreas’s visit in Vaasa, tomorrow he’ll leave by plane in the morning. The last day I blogged about waaas… Monday, so let’s pick up where I left this stuff.

The visit to my parents’ house went well I suppose, although I can’t really see how it could have gone bad anyway. We arrived in the afternoon, and got a ride back home into town in the evening, after having dinner and such in Maalahti. Tuesday was not very eventful. Me and Andreas had some pizza for dinner and then just spent the rest of the day being retarded in my apartment.

On Wednesday things picked up again, as Janne and John joined us for dinner at Amarillo (well, technically John just had water and fries). The evening spent at Amarillo was great fun, the Habanero Burger I had was delish’, and the ‘party’ continued at John’s place, where we (read ‘I’) made midnight cinnamon rolls. We also watched How to Train Your Dragon (2010), a pretty good movie actually. Janne left us midway through, but me and Andreas stuck around John’s place until the end of the movie, and hence we walked home in the middle of the night.

Yesterday me and Andreas started the day by having the very much anticipated photoshoot we’ve been talking about for ages. I’ll post a few results in a separate entry. In the late afternoon Janne picked us up and we drove to Replot in some sort of attempt at mandatory sigh-seeing for Andreas, which ended up being one boring ass ride in Janne’s car. We drove back to the city and went out to eat, again, this time to Rosso (an “Italian” style restaurant), where I had a pizza. After the pizza the plan was to grab some donuts as dessert, but the donut shop had just closed. So we though “Hey, maybe some ice cream then!”, but alas, no. Mickey D’s smelled like they had some serious sewage issues, and the ice cream machine at Hesburger was broken. At the end though John save the day and baked us delicious cookies. The evning escalated in a very retarded yet hilarious Skype convo between Andreas, me, and his buddies Marcus and Jonas. Good times.

Today we are thinking of going to the movies to watch Clash of the Titans (2010) in 3D, but we’ll see.