tiina's blog

titiMadaming in London town!

2008-12-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

Haha another rope of months (can I actually say that?) has passed… I think most of you have forgotten that my blog even exists but I decided to carry on writing again... This is very good therapy. Facebook has stolen all my spare time I have online BUT that will change now.

(This is Fred)
To begin with I need to talk about titiMadam. The trade show we did in June went amazingly well. We got loads of interest and the 9 deals we signed there have now grown into 48 different retailers all around Europe, I really want to hit 50 before Christmas…

We did another trade show last September that went really well as but I think the biggest news is that we decided to buy our own laser cutter. It is called Fred as it is massive, red and has bad temper and it lives in Mentmore Studios close to London Fields where Adam and me are taking care of it. Or more like Adam is taking care of it, I just try deal with the customers and PR side of the business. The business is running very smoothly and that is what I’m mainly doing now. The new collection is coming out in January, website business is doing quite nicely and over all we are making a living from our animals, which is quite amazing feeling!

Summer in Finland... aaaaah!

After the nice long holiday in Helsinki I moved to Hackney where I share a house with Inka & Signe (plus few mice that I haven’t met yet, but heard that they are quite annoying creatures). Inka is Emma’s old friend from Finland and Signe is from Copenhagen. Things are great in the house, I love living here and London has pretty much stolen my heart.

For those who remember that I got a place to do my MA in Eindhoven, I still haven’t decided to go or not… I put it on hold for this year and I need to decide before January will I go there or not. But the thing is that the ‘design burnout’ I had after handing in the major project is still there and I don’t think I want to study furniture or product design anymore. HELP!
I actually feel like doing/studying something else. I definitely want to do MA but I’m more interested of interiors or something else ‘furniture related'. I’ve done some research about MAs in London and there are where to choose from but I’m a bit afraid if I decide to skip Eindhoven I will regret it in some point. Oh well, will see.

The project I did in uni got amazing response already at New Designers. The desk has been published in many magazines around the world (the best being Wallpaper, January issue), I exhibited in few places during London Design Week in September and in January I should pack the desk and go to Birmingham for a design show. I'm shortlisted for the Young Designer of the Year Award and the winner will be announced there. In February I’m going to Germany for another design award ceremony… So lot of things are happening with my products even though I’m not so into designing more at the moment.

Now Christmas is here again… It is amazing how fast time goes… It feels like ages ago when I lived in Rochester and so many things has happened. Now lets just wait for the next chapter to begin! I have started wearing high heels, I’m into cooking (thanks to Jamie Oliver) and I’m really keen to learn how to knit. My 30’s here I come!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Ps.I went to Paris again few weeks back with Inka. I saw all my French fries there and the city was as brilliant as always. But visiting and meeting so many people from Budapest made me think how much things has changed after the great months we shared there. I met amazing people and learnt so much… I miss those times. Puszi to my Budapest!

Tiina is a bachelor

2008-05-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was our major project’s hand-in day. We’ve been celebrating for few days now but today has been the first day I’ve had time to think that my life here in Kent is basically over. Which is sad! It is time to move on and once again an important chapter in my life is close to the end. I’m going to stay here until the end of July then I go to Finland for three weeks or so. I really need a holiday and to think something else than design, actually think something else than anything to do with design.

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Anyways, I’m so proud about all of us. People made some amazing work and projects here and nobody went crazy or flipped because of the stress, and if someone did it only lasted a minute or few.

It is a bit depressing to think I’ll never sit in Kbar again and drink that awful Carlsberg they have in the taps, I’ll never again get a hummus sandwich from subtop OR I’ll never sit in the studio until eight o’clock with Adam. I’m wondering how will the second year students cope without us there..?

These years have been amazingamazingamazing and I have to say that all the people made it as great as it has been. So big kiss to all of you. Actually the whole spring has been great. We had the best vappu ever here. We celebrated for three days just chilling, barbecuing and enjoying the weather. Summer came here really early, but now it is gone again..

I actually feel a bit like when I left Budapest, but in a bigger scale. I just read some of my old posts from my blog, one year ago I was watching ice hockey games in Hungary and cheered for Finland during Eurovisions (and again we did not win gold or the song contest… thank god we bet Sweden though, hihi). These past few months have been brilliant. I haven’t had this much fun in a while. Maybe it is the spring, or the excitement of graduating…

Ok, really depressing text. Lets move on.

My major project turned out to be the best thing that has ever came from my head. 15 weeks project is really long and in some point I was so sick of it thought it was absolutely bollocks, but after Iiro took some amazing images of my table I totally changed my mind. It is just a big difference to see your work in pictures.

The idea is that you can move the green and white steel parts around the desktop so that you can create your own workspace and add things on it as much as you like. I had some problems during the making process, but everything clicked in the end. The desk is still on a prototype level, but I’ll fix it for New Designers.

titiMadam website is finally working. It still need a bit of fixing but you can buy stuff online now. We got a deal from a shop called LUX in Helsinki (Uudenmaankatu 24) and another deal from Paris. Some people contacted us after they saw our designs online and asked could the start selling our jewellery in their shop. That is cool.

Also we are doing a show called Pulse in Earl Court in the beginning of June. We made a really fast decision with it but thought that doing a trade show would be the best thing for us. Hopefully we get loads of contacts and sales and this titiMadam thing would really start to kick off! So thumbs up people.

Ok, I carry on cleaning now. I’ve been going through my stuff and throwing so much things away. I definitely have the same problem than my grandmother had… I keep and collect everything!

No more excuses

2008-03-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

I just had a look at my blog for the first time in months. Obviously lot of things has happened after last December, my personal and ‘professional’ life needs lot of updating. Also I’ve had angry feedback from Hungary, Chile, Finland and England because I haven’t been writing that much… So lets start!

After visiting Helsinki in December I went to Budapest in January. The city was as amazing as ever. It was absolutely freezing there but Szimpla and spas kept us warm. We spent crazy 10 days celebrating memories and having fun with Andrea, Attila and few other people I met during last spring. I truly had missed that place. Charles, a second year student from UCCA is there at the moment going through all the fun I did. I’ve understood that he is enjoying it as much as I did.

In the end I managed to finish my minor projects. Corian should have done the sink by now (so much for the deadline in January). I will know more about that tomorrow. I changed the decorative pattern in the end. Now it should be more functional and I think it makes more sense as well. The design divides people in two parts. One half says, like my darling sister, that the grooves are a devil to clean and the other half seems to think that the pattern is beautiful and functional. Well, it was never meant to be a sink for housewives or cleaning enthusiasts.

I participated in Royal Society of Arts Design Directions competition with the sink and got shortlisted in Ceramic Futures division. I did not won but earned honourable mention and my design will be in on their online exhibition. I’ll send the link as soon as I get it. Also my Stor chair got shortlisted in a competition by Dwell UK. They were looking for new ideas for their range. They have not announced the winners yet so keep your thumbs up!

My Darlings project (second minor) turned out to be more like a research project about stereotypes in furniture and other every day objects. I carried on the first idea of Darlings bench and started working from old and salvaged items. I ended up with 5 different wine glass designs that I’m not so happy about but I really like the chair I made. I got excellent feedback from both of my projects and I’m quite proud of myself that I managed to get everything ready on time.

I don’t think I ever mention about my urgent need and wish to do my masters straight after I graduate from UCCA. Well, I applied to three different places, to Taideteollinen Korkeakoulu in Helsinki (I don’t know why.. I’m not ready to move back to Finland yet), to Royal College of Arts and to Design Academy of Eindhoven. I got as far as the interview in RCA. By far the scariest experience in my life. I was sitting in same table with Ron Arad and Jurgen Bay among with other big names talking about my work. Or it was more like a quiz about my creations. It felt like being in Xfactor or Dragon’s Den. Seriously. I can’t remember that much about the 10 minutes I spent there.
In the end I did not get in there but the great news is that I got accepted to Design Academy in Eindhoven. I never ever thought I could get in there. I went to visit the place few weeks ago with Adam. We jumped on a plane and spent one day there wondering around my future hometown. The university is great! The building is an old Philip’s factory with most amazing faculties. I got really good feeling about the uni, one of those heureka! moments when you just realize that this is what I should and want to do. During the interview there I got this feeling that the people were truly interested and fascinated about my work, a feeling that I did not have after the interview in RCA. They interviewed 4 people from 40 that day and I was one of the few who got in. I heard there were 240 applicants in total so I did well. So that is the big news. The program starts in September. Now I should figure out what to do during the summer.

titiMadam is doing really well. Our website should be up and running anytime soon and we have expanded to Finland and to France with our animals and rings. We really want to get everything working with Adam before I go to Eindhoven. Check www.titimadam.com after few weeks and tell me what you think.

Otherwise life in Rochester is same. I know already that I will miss that place a lot. I will graduate in few months, which is totally unrealistic feeling. Time has gone so fast. I just keep thinking back what I have done during these years… Lot of things to be proud of, I think.

Well, that is it for now. I should be in bed already.
I promise to update more often. Now when I have ‘time’… yeah right.

Short update before I go home for Christmas

2007-12-14T13:28:00.001-08:00

My life has been pretty much sitting in front of my computer for the past month, one of the third year pleasures: DISSERTATION. Pffff… We handed in our first draft today (JEEEEE!), so now I can breath for a while. I still have few thousand words to go but most of it is done.

Otherwise uni work is going quite well. I finished my sink model, now I’m waiting for Corian DuPont to manufacture it. I’m quite happy with the final result. The drain groove pattern will be a bit different in the actual produced object. I’ll post pictures as soon as it’s ready.
My second minor is about ‘stereotypes of everyday objects’, why chair is like it is or why wineglass looks like it does… It is not that interesting when I write about it but my models are quite funky, you’ll see in January.

I visited Paris again last month. I was finally brave enough to take the train between England and France. I didn't see any fishes under the channel though. :(

I’m so happy to go home. I miss Helsinki loads and even though Nora is sunbathing in Thailand I’m thrilled to go back home for 10 days and see Suvi, Anne and the kids plus the Helsinki night life is calling my name.

Hmmmm, maybe I’m getting old, feeling homesick is not really like me at all.

It is really weird to think that this is my last time that I leave Kent for Christmas. This place, our beloved Chatham, is very special after all. I don’t know do I love it or hate it, will I think about it as a great place or just as a chav centre?

titiMadam is taking a quite a lice of my time. We’ve had four sales so far and the stuff is literally disappearing from our hands. We have loads of new colors ans designs. Now we are looking for a retailer from London, Paris and Helsinki.
It is a shame we cant spend more time on it, because we are actually making some money with Adam.

On 27th of December I will take over BUDAPEST with Yann. I cant wait.

Happy Christmas everybody.

140 Roro St, Martino, Darlings & titiMadam

2007-11-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

Woah, now I’m really sorry that it has been this long. BUT I have my excuses as usually. Now it’s because university started and my whole life rhythm changed. It’s hard to think where to start…. Lot of things has happened and I spent most of my time in uni.

Well, Naroa, Vanessa and mine plans to move in together crashed because it is absolutely impossible for three international students to rent a reasonable house in Medway. You cant imagine how much trouble we went through.
Everything ended well though, Aingeru got a job in New York with Phil Poynter so I moved in to 140 Rochester Street to his old room with my favourite boys in England: Anton, Erno-Eric and Toby. Vanessa and Naroa found another house with two girls from Cyprus. I even got Toby’s room (the biggest in the house) BUT I paid a BIG PRIZE for that. I promised to make all Toby’s dished until Christmas. And boy, you don’t know how much that boy likes to cook…So I wash lot of dishes and eat excellent food every other day. Living in this house has been absolutely amazing. There is a lot of energy and my boys are good company.

Martino Gamper’s exhibition 100 chairs in 100 days was held in the beginning of October. Everything looked great and it was quite amazing feeling to see furniture I have done with him in a real exhibition. I was very proud of myself and all the sanding sweat was worth it in the end. The exhibition was published in manymanymany design magazines and it got lot of attention.

I don’t know do you remember the competition I entered in the summer? Here is the link for those who hasn’t seen it yet: http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=18&item_pk=14410&p=1
I didn’t win it but my Darlings bench was exhibited in Milan last month and will be shown in Design Miami later this month (if I’m not totally lying.. I cant remember was it this or next month). They also published book about all the shortlisted designs. So that ended well in the end!

My wonderful mother turned respectful 60 years last month. She looks like 45, I’m telling the truth!! I hope that runs in the family..
Anyway, we went to celebrate her with Yann (who fell in love with Finland and my family fell in love with him). I tried to show everything worth seeing in Helsinki during the few days we had in my hometown. It was absolutely freezing weather so we couldn’t really spend that much time out. We ate, partied and slept a lot!
My French frie came to Roro for the very first time two weeks ago. He took it quite well. No shock because of chavs, or the lack of French wines in the local shops. Yann even ate English cheese, well he eats anything really so that is not that big surprise…

Being back in Roro doesn’t feel that bad. Actually it has been great to be back in uni. We have two minor project before the major project, which starts in January. I’m working on with this kitchen sink ‘thingie’. I think it will be quite nice if everything goes as planned. I just found out few days ago that Corian will sponsor me to manufacture the sink properly. That’s great news for me! Johnny will shoot pics this Wednesday so I’ll post some as soon as I can (I promise it will happen before January 2008).
Time is just going so fast that I don’t know how to manage everything.

Now I have to promote little bit. Me and Adam got crazy idea few months ago, which includes me, him and beautiful and simple design work.
Now things are really starting to happen.
titiMadam (you spell it like that) was established last month. Titi comes from my nickname I got from primary school and Adam was teased as Madam around the same age. So together it makes titiMadam. We make simple and beautiful objects for everyone who loves purity, traditional mixed with a hint of kitsch and simplicity.

Our first project is acrylic jewellery that we design and manufacture to raise money for New Designers show next year. Here are some images about our wonderful rings. If you possible want to buy some with ridiculous prise (from to 2 to 3 pounds) you can email to titimadam@gmail.com.
We will have webpage, etc later on.

Our uni is really excited about our project so there will be some stuff on UCCA’s homepages as well.
We sold our jewellery for the first time last Saturday and they were absolutely loved!!
So everybody who has heart and will to support students go to www.myspace.com/titimadam.

I think that’s it for now. I promise to update my blog more often now.

PUSZI!!

Oh-lalaa, September came!

2007-09-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

Coucou, I’m sitting on my bed in Holland Park. I just finished packing because I have to be ready for Roro ( = Rochester by Yann) tomorrow afternoon. Blaaaah, that hole in Kent doesn’t really tempt me that much but I cant wait to get back to uni and do my things. This year will be a bit different than the first two because we have lost three important links from our group to the big cities of the world. Annuska and Mikko escaped to London and Aingeru took off to New York City for good. *tear
I faced ‘freedom’ almost three weeks ago. I stopped working at Mexicali and at Martino’s. I also said goodbyes to Da, my fab co-worker and lost my camera to Atlantic (it was attacked by sea salt). *tear vol. 2
Be sorry for our losts.

I came back from my tour de France last night... Spending two weeks just chilling, cider-ing and thinking about nothing school or work related made my mind believe that that will go on forever. Well, of course it didn’t and coming back to reality wasn’t that nice. I was so happy in France even though I got a horrible flu on Saturday and been fighting with it ever since (with some crazy French medicine that makes me so tired that I could sleep while standing).
BUT my trip was absolutely amazing. We spent one week in Paris and the second week we travelled around Bretagne and Atlantic Ocean.
Paris was as great as ever… I’m not going to bore you with my happy moments there. I’m sure you all will hear enough about them face to face.
I saw only Fishte (Galate) from our Budapest crew this time. Elfie is in Cyprus, Francoise in China and Bozan in Istanbul… so not so much my french fries left.
We did one think I’ll surely remember forever. We rent bicycles with Yann and drove through Paris by night. BEAUTIFUL. Paris is quite petite after all.

On Sunday I tasted little bit of the ‘hate’ that two French cities have against each other. Yann took me too see football game, the biggest of the year, Paris against Marseille! Now you all think: ‘Tiina has gone crazy…’
Jajaja, gals it wasn’t that boring. Actually football is quite amusing… especially the audience. I never seen so many French fries jumping up and down on their chairs at the same time. It was like watching the biggest cheerleader group of the world.
The game ended 1-1 (Yannou don’t get angry if I got that wrong), so satisfying result for both teams, I think. And I saw French chavs!! Can you believe that!? There they were with their football caps on the stadium looking like they had escaped from Chatham.

On Monday we took off to Penerf. We made a stop in La Boule where Yann’s younger brother works. The longest beach in Europe is there and on our second day we actually had a change to enjoy some sun. From that day I didn’t see that much clouds on the sky. The weather was more than I was hoping for… I didn’t believe in Yann’s strong expectations about September being the best month of the summer but we got lucky.
From La Boule we continued to Penerf. I’m deeply in love with that village. We ate, cycled, ate, drank, ate and cycled all week and got ready for the ocean.

On Saturday morning me and portion of fries packed our selves on a sailboat. I was told that the reason I was actually ‘accepted’ on this masculine adventure was that the guys didn’t want other people to think they were gay (really they wanted a cleaner/cooker/someone with high voive in case of emerengy). Ok, like you know I'm kidding. The boys made an exellent team together.

It was great to be on the sea. I missed that a lot. Like you know I haven’t had a change to really enjoy this summer so the boat trip was a perfect ending for my tour. We visited two islands, Hoedic and Belle Ile. During the whole weekend I didn’t feel like being in France at all. My narrow mind had always made me believe that France is baquette+red wine+football+eiffel+napoleon+politics=arrogancy.
Well how wrong I was.. The nature in Hoedic was amazing. There are only 100 people living on the island through the whole year so maybe you can imagine how small everything is. It is full of empty beaches and the sea is so green, no it is GREEN… Belle Ile was more touristic but equally beautiful. We rented a scooter with Yann and drove around the island. We stopped to see some of the most prettiest views I have ever seen in my life.

But everything good has to come to an end. What a boring cliché but so so true.

Let the real life start then. Summer is gone.

St. Margaret's at Cliffe

2007-08-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Annuska, Da, Adam and me made a road trip to Dover (or close to Dover). We had a mission, one mission only: to take pictures of my Darlings bench and Kanava candleholders. Hopefully the pictures will be published soonish, meaning later this autumn. We had quite ruff morning... Da, our super model, had superhangover but he did very well in the end. Then we had some problems fitting into Adam's tiny car. I didn't really consider the transportation when i designed Darlings.

Well here are some pictures of our fun day and a video clip about a great danger we faced..

Enjoy!

The final pictures you will see as soon as Mrs Dal Maso developes them!

2007-08-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

What have I been doing for the past three weeks? Well, I’ve been spending my time mostly in Hackney and in Notting Hill. After Yannou was here in the end of last month (more or less) I haven’t done much else than worked, days and nights… Sometimes I feel so exhausted that I just want to sink in to my bed.

Let me tell you a little bit more: When I moved to London I knew from the beginning that I need to get another job on top of my internship at Martino’s because that doesn’t pay. After few days of searching I got a job from a Mexican restaurant called Mexicali. The place was just about to open, perfect timing for me!! So I’ve been the blond Mexican waitress/bartender there for three weeks now.

In the beginning my hours were mental. I worked five nights a week plus all weekdays at Martino’s studio. Most of the days I woke up, worked around seven/eight hours with Martino, took underground to Mexicali, stayed there until the restaurant closed, went home to sleep and the same things all over again the following day. I haven’t had a day of since I started working. Pffff, but even though it might sound I’m complaining I’m not! I have had amazing summer. I have learnt more at Martino’s than in two years at UCCA (I’ll show our technicians some crazy tricks with table saw when I get back to uni!!).
Working at Mexicali has been really hectic and the nights are mostly really busy but the people I work with are great. Michael, the owner of Mexicali chain, is the best boss I have ever had in my life.
And when I have lot of things to do the time goes faster. I cant wait it t be the end of this month. I’m going to Paris again for two looong weeks! To be honest I cant wait to get back to uni either. I have so much ideas in my head that my brain will explode soon if I cant get them out.

We’ve been working on many projects with Mr. Gamper and Da. Mosty I’ve been helping him with the 100 chairs in 100 days (for me it is more like 1 chair in 2 days though…). We made a bench for a bar in Paris (I’ll post pictures as soon as I get some) and few other smaller design projects that will be exhibited later this year. Very nice projects in the end!

So nothing that interesting has happened in my life during the past weeks.

Yann was in London for a long weekend. He took the train from Paris and took his first time in Waterloo station very well. We spent very relaxing weekend sightseeing and napping. I had a great time… I cant wait to get back to my French frie.

Holland Park is absolutely fabulous. I adore this area of London. I love the fact that the streets are never so busy that you would have to look where you are walking without pumping in to somebody. But still Notting Hill is just next to it, if you need some action.
AND (!!) few weeks ago I found two Arne Jacobsen’s chairs from the street. Maybe it’s not so big of a deal to you but for me it felt like Christmas.
I have always been jealous to people that tells stories about abandoned design furniture they found from the weirdest places. Well now I can believe those stories. My new babies are black and in a very good condition. The just need a bit sanding and new paint and voila, as good as new!!

I’ll be back in Rochester around 12th of September.
And my next time in Helsinki will be in the middle of October.

Sziastok!

Ps. I still miss Budapest like hell.
Pps. Check this out... you can see where I spend most of my days in London:
http://www.wallpaper.com/interiors/martino-gamper-100-chairs/1586

LondON news

2007-07-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

Jajajaja, I know it has been a while. No excuses, but this is the first time in weeks that I’m sitting in peace on my sofa and I’m not in a hurry to go to anywhere. I have been settling down in Holland Park and getting to know my new 'hoods'. My life here has been quite hectic. I have lot of things to do and it is a shame I haven’t had time to enjoy London more. Like now I should be somewhere exploring this city… not staying home!

I have been working for Martino Gamper bit over a week now. There are two of us doing the internships for him. Da Sul is Korean-American (I don’t know how to say that..) and is staying in London for two months. I think we get along great. He is very easygoing, social and he likes the food I cook! Hmmm… maybe he says that to be nice?
Martino is working on with a project called 100 chairs in 100 days. The idea is to build new chairs from old and salvaged furniture. Some of his creations might look a bit weird but they are very interesting. I really like his designs.
So Da’s and my first job was start making something ‘similar’, just explore the idea of doing new things from old stuff. At least I’m having a lot of fun at the workshop! I’ll post some pictures as soon as the chairs are ready.

My trip to Paris was more that I hoped for. The city is so beautiful. We went to see all the important tourist attractions: Eiffel tower is bigger than I thought, in Champs Elysees there are the worst shops in the whole world (I was looking for a dress for the wedding), Monalisa looked pretty but I missed Quasimodo when we visited Notre Dame…
Best thing was, of course, to see all my french fries. As soon as Yannou picked me from the airport (by the way, that was one of the most nervous moments of my life… now it is just funny) we went to this bar called Popin where Fishte, Richard, Francois and Audrey were waiting for me. Bozan was fashionably late. The feeling was so weird!! Seeing them in Paris felt so ‘wrong’.. ‘They belong to Budapest’ I thought.
Now when I think about that, for them it must have been even more odd to see me there. The best thing was that nobody hadn’t changed a bit! I don’t know why I thought my fries would be different if the place is. What a silly garl I am sometimes..It’s the hair colour…
The week there went way too fast. I wish I had another week, or actually ten more weeks. I didn’t get enough medicine for my Budapest blues and for my pupukoala-sickness.

I didn't stay in Paris the whole time when I was in France. Yann took me to Penerf, in Bretagne, for few days. The place is amazing. I saw real French fishing village (or at least something close to that). We mostly enjoyed ourselves close to the sea and drank cider. I wish I could have that time back. I also had my first snails in Paris… I have to mention this because for me it was a big step on my way to becoming a Parisian.

If I should describe my first trip to France with a one word it would be perfect.

Then I had my crazy week in Helsinki. I almost missed my flight because my flight from Paris to London was 1,5 hour late but luckily Blue1 was also behind from their schedule so I made it just and just.
The weather was perfect there for the first days I spent in Finland. Of course it was great to see all my friends that I have missed so much (certain notice to Miss Lallukka who was spending her time somewhere around Finland but not with me…) but the thing I waited the most was Simona & Sami’s wedding. And when the day finally came it exceeded all my expectations! Simona was so beautiful bride and the party was absolutely crazy.

Then some career news. I participated to this Designboom competition called PREMIO VICO MAGISTRETTI with my Darlings bench (www.designboom.com /premiomagistretti). There were over 5400 participants from 98 countries. Well, few days ago I got an email that my design is among the final works and might be exhibited in Milan and Miami in October. They will announce the winners and exhibition works in September so I will tell you did I get lucky or not. For me this thing is huge. Designboom’s competitions are very ‘high quality’ and difficult to win. So keep your fingers crossed, please!

What else… I have a job interview on Monday to this restaurant in Notting Hill. Problem is that the restaurant is not open yet and I have no idea when it will… hopefully before next month. Otherwise I need to find something else. I just don’t know how will I have energy two have two jobs.

Ok darlings, I’m going get changed now and head to meet Soila somewhere for few drinks and see some life in London on a Saturday night.

I hope you are all doing well.

pusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspusspuss

Ouioui! Midsummer, Holland Park and Paris

2007-06-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

Where does all the time go?
I have been in England now for less than two weeks. It feels like ages, but I really haven’t done anything… well, that’s not completely true. I’ve been looking for a place to stay in London and believe me it is a mission! First of all the prices are ridiculous, like you can imagine. You have to pay easily around 550 euros for a room if you want to live even close to the central, any part of the central London… Second problem was that the landlords or flatmates felt always a bit dodgy or weird… or dishonest or scary or drug addicts or just not good enough to live with. So I was almost giving up hope until I got an email from Jaana, a woman my mother and me met at the airport last summer. We kept contact because I was supposing to design a table for her but then I didn’t have time and I went to Budapest (I’m still completely in love with that city and my heart is in pieces). Anyway, I wrote her an email asking does she know any place I could rent a room from etc. In that point I had used all my possible contacts. I was so desperate. Well she said that she needs somebody to look after of her apartment while she is going back to Finland for the summer. And, this is the best (or should I say most posh) part, she lives in Holland Park, next to Notting Hill.

Annuska, Mikko, Saija and Johnny (plus the two devils with tails) finally found a house from London too. They got a really nice flat from a building that used to be a church in Bethnal Green. So, they will leave lovely Medway this weekend.
I have to tell you about Minea and Vinku, Annuska & Mikko’s cats. I have never been a cat lover, but these two somehow found their way in to my liking list. They moved to Rochester a year (or something like that) ago.
In the beginning I was only friend with Vinku, she was nice and always asked for some love but Minea was a total b**ch. I’m still sure she hates blondes because she has black fur. Every time when I just passed her she hit me for nothing! And with her nails it is not just a normal splat…
Anyway, now when I have lived with them for few weeks I’ve noticed that actually Vinku is the ‘eveil’ one. She keeps dragging my shoes under my bed and her favourite place is in my closet, where she makes a mess, of course. But Minea has been an angel. I think she even likes me now days. Maybe because now Annuska has blonde hair as well so she has realized that blondes are great!

We almost missed midsummer this year. It came so fast and we didn’t have any plans until Friday night when we decided to make a road trip to Dungeness, a place in Southern England. The place was something you wouldn’t imagine to see here. Dungeness is a beautiful place with its own weird community. I believe that the nuclear power plant gives jobs for most of the people who live there. But all the buildings and houses were really weird. You should go there to understand what I mean…
After Dungeness we carried on to another beach and had our picnic there, enjoying the sun and drinking wine.
Our night ended at Aingeru’s house where he tried to barbeque with his Spanish friends… It took them a while to get the grill working. “How many Spanish do you need to start a grill?”

Then the most exiting news!
I’m going to Paris this Wednesday for a week. YAY!
Pffffffff, it’s going to be crazy to see all my French fries (specially one particular frenchie)! I can’t wait actually. I’m counting days and hours.
After Paris I’m going to fly to Helsinki on the same day. Damn, it will be a loooong day but definitely worth it. That week will be the only time I’m going to spend in Finland this summer. Thank god Simona and Sami are getting married so I have at least that short time with all my sweethearts there!

I go packing now. I’ll move all my things tomorrow to Holland Park, my new summer home.

Naroa, thank you so much for the text you wrote to my last post’s comments (people go read it). Beautifully, beautifully written and so true. But I’m happy that Malev, the Hungarian airlines, allowed 20 kilos so I had a change to take Buda and Pest with me. Lot of kisses and hugs Narooa.

Budapest blues

2007-06-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is SSSSOOO weird. I don’t know what to think.
I came back to England last Tuesday. I wasn’t sad… I was more like in a shock. Adam, a good and my only true English friend, picked me up from the airport and I almost forgot that I just left Budapest because it was so good to see him and we had so much to talk about. The same happened with Annuska. But after all the catching up, when I finally had time to think that I’m not in Pest I felt reallreallyreally awful. So much things I love was left behind and so many people are not a part of my life the same way as they used to be. I’m sure all the Erasmus people know what I’m talking about…

After most of the French fries left Budapest some things changed a lot. The city wasn’t the same at all (of course not) and in a way it felt empty. So me and Andrea had to keep ourselves busy in other ways.
During my time in Budapest I learnt a lot about the ‘cultural life’ in Hungary, but museums, galleries, etc weren’t a part of my daily routines (I wonder why..???), so we decided to visit few important places and do other touristic stuff.. We went to the synagogue, saw the House of Holocaust (which was amazing!) and the Terror House. I think we saw all the possible statues and took loads of pictures…

During my last we also paid our last respects to Menza (oh, I miss the mashed wasabi potatoes!!), Morrison;s and Szimpla… We went to West Balkan and once again we went to Rio just to make sure it is as awful place as always. We went to jump around in Zold Pardon and had palinka with awful after effects. Andrea cooked rakott krumpli, which was amazing! We went for the Hungarian dances and found a really cool new bar called Corvintato. It’s on the roof of Kaiser sZupermarket at Blaha Lujsa ter and the view from there is very worth seeing! So go there if you still are in Budapest (is anyone there?). I also learnt how to dance rock’n’roll… My partner is/was amazing.

So what can I say about England…I went to London on Thursday with Aingeru.
I have really missed TATE modern so we went there and spent hours in Dali & Film exhibition. That guy was crazy and so genius. Later that day we went to see the graduate show of our university in Brick Lane, which wasn’t that impressive, even for my ‘arty eye’ but it was cool to see people from uni and spend the night in London.

Ok and then about the biggest news. Like most of you know I was applying for an internship from a designer called Martino Gamper. He really liked my portfolio when I sent it to him in March but things were still a bit up in the air while I was in Budapest. Yesterday I met him in his studio at Hackney. We sat, talked and drank wine. So I got the job. I’ll start in the beginning of next month and will work with him until the next semester. He has really cool projects coming up. I’ll tell you more about them when I know, but we will definitely work together for London Design Week for example (yay!!). Best part is that we got along very well.

So this is my life at the moment. I can’t wait for next month. Now I’m staying in Rochester with friends. This town is so sad...
But hey! London is calling!!!
And I do miss BudaBest.

Here are my babies, the chairs I designed during erasmus. The task was to design conference chair for any public place (schools, airports, restaurants...). I made two because I had time and me and my tutor always faught which one should I present in the final presentation ;). I liked Stor, the one with the storing place under the seat better, while he prefered the design with one armrest.

Viva La Budapest

2007-06-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

Oh life, it is so beautiful.
I remember when I came here to the city that will always stay in my memories as one of the best places I have ever been. I was so nervous and actually disappointed because I had to leave England. What a silly girl I was!! This place has treated me so well and I love every single part of it, including the homeless people on the streets (even the one who always yells at me because I don’t want to give him any money), the angry cashiers in Match at Blaha Lujza and even the ticket officers who are always so scary.

I will cherish my memories forever.

Paloma wrote in her farewell email: ‘
So now it all ends, and is frustrating cause you feel that time goes away and you can’t do nothing at all! I now close a cycle in my life, a cycle where you had appeared! I had the opportunity to really know some of you more than others, but you are all important in this stage of my life. I will always look back and see you all in the party’s, in the Morrison (holy Morrison!) in the szimpla, and in some many other places!”

That is exactly how I feel.

So thank you all my angels from France, Italy, Spain, Finland, England, Israel, Germany, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary. I love you.

Puszi, muak, kiss, pusu, becot, kuss, bacio x 100000000

Blurbs about feelings

2007-05-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

So much has happened during the last few weeks.
My feelings are going up and down. I feel very sad because (now I can really say this) our time in Budapest has come to an end. Most of the people are going home this week. So I dedicate this post for all of you who have made my four months here so amazing. When I read back my blog I can’t stop smiling. We have done so much, went to places and partied but mostly we have laughed. I will never forget this experience. Budapest has a piece of my heart and rest of it is travelling mostly around Europe…

Ok, now I’m going to cry (again) if I keep on writing like this!

The weather has been great. It has been so hothothot, easily over +30 degrees every day. We have been swimming a lot and I feel like I’m having my long needed beach holiday here. Perfect!

Uni ended last Wednesday. My final presentation went well. The situation was a bit odd though… None of us really got any kind of personal feedback. It felt that the presentation was more for other students than for the tutors. I actually had to ask an evaluation after the event. I got a first, which felt really nice after the hours and sleepless nights I spent with my chairs. Again there was lot of people from MOME, people from magazines and some people from different manufacturing companies.
After the presentation I felt really odd. I realized I’m not going to see my tutors anymore or most of the people in university. It felt great to be ‘free’ from school again, but still I think in away I hoped it would not have ended yet. Here is a pic of one of my babies. I will post more when I get better ones.

My darling Yael went home last Thursday. She wanted to go to Balaton for the last time so we packed Andrea’s car and drove there for a day. We had a very relaxing weekend. I was more eager to get back to Pest because I wanted to spend every possible minute in this city before I go back to England. (I’m still wondering how will I cope in London this summer, mentally I mean…!)

Yaeli I miss you!! Nobody handles my sarcasm as well as you do! You are so dear to me. Come back Yaeli Yafa!

On Monday Susana left home. She came to wake me up in the morning, just before her taxi arrived to take her to the airport. She told me that she took much looooonger shower that morning because she could not stop crying. Susana and Paloma you have been the best flat mates I’ve ever had in my life.
Now I’m alone in our flat and it feels way too big for one person. Thank god Paloma comes back for one more week!

‘Tiina jajajajajajaja’’
Puszi to both of you. I hope Madrid treats you well.

This week has been quite heavy to every Erasmus students’ liver. We have been celebrating our last days here every night. Some how it feels, sadly, that all of us are making much more effort to enjoy the last days here than during the last month. There is this strange atmosphere in the air.. And like you can imagine the feelings about leaving are divided into two. Some are really happy about going home and some, most of the people, are not done with this city yet.

I think four months exchange program should be illegal. It is far from being enough to live in one place. Just when you get use to everything you have to leave and the worst is that you can never get this time back. And don’t tell me that life has to go on. I know that, but it’s so wrong!!!!

Yesterday we celebrated Andrea’s 22nd birthday (oh, those times!). We had the best party in a while. Everybody came to her flat, also the police so around four o’clock we had to leave from her house to mine. The party carried on until the early morning.

We said goodbyes to Christof and Galatee (my Fishtee, I hope you swim well in the sea of life. I love you a lot!). And you, Christof, have given me hope about German people. Now I have more sweethearts there than I ever would have imagined! Big hug to you and I hope I’ll see you soon.

Well, I’m going to take a nap now and when I wake up I hope it would be 7th of February, my first day in Budapest.

Patriotism

2007-05-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry, it’s been a while. Last week was a bit too patriotic for me and
I think I had to cool down a little bit before writing…
Oh, sorry about the mistake I wrote Sweden not to be in the Eurovision finals.

Let’s start from Monday last week. Bozan left home on Tuesday so we went to Margit island and made a big fire (almost like kokko). We grilled sausages, sang songs and some people tried to play guitar… Some of them with better talent than the others but we heard lot of Nirvana. That night was a very nice change for our normal Mondays and I believe it was a great goodbye party number 1 to Bonbon. I don’t know where the boys found all the wood but the fire was on all night long. We even got a visit from a police that evening because somebody had call them and said that Margit is on fire.

On Tuesday we had a party in my house for the first time in a looooong time. That was the party number 2. Lot of people came to celebrate Bozan’s last night… well maybe celebrate is a bit wrong word. We changed pictures and I got some ‘real Erasmus pearls’ from the first months we were here. I forgot half of the things we have done.

Rest of the week was mostly about ice hockey. The whole tournament was so stressful... almost too unhealthy for me. I was a nerve rack for the most of the games, ate all my nails and bite my sleeves. Everything went so well before the finals until the big BUT… I was actually quite sure we were going to make it this year. We played so well but once again Finland’s, our, bad luck was there. I don’t understand where does it come from? I blame Aki Berg and the whole Finnish defence and the Swedish referee who preferred the prettier Canadian players.
We had very international supporting audience; French, German, Israelian, Finnish, Norwegian, Hungarian... That was nice. And they so shared my misery.

Well, I’ve always liked silver jewellery better anyway and at least we are the best in Europe. And we didn’t have too embarrassing song in the Eurovision either… I just didn’t get why Hanna was so angry…? Hihi

Now life is pretty much same old. I’ve been working with my chair models all week.
It’s great to do something actually ‘creative’ for a change instead sitting in front of computer.
I have to say that we are very spoiled with our workshops in Rochester. MOME does not have even the half of the facilities than we do in UCCA. Only one band saw! Think about that!!

I got the work experience place from London. It’s 80 % sure now. I’m going to work for Martino Gamper, really cool, my kind of designer and my first choice of all the design companies too. So I will be in London 12th of June, in three weeks. Crazy!

Bonbon, Budapest is not as great without you here. Who’s making me happy now in the flat parties? I’ll see you in Paris latest in October. Putzi x 1000

Ai nii, mulla on treffit huomenna yhden valokuvaajan kanssa.
Ma punastelin kun kirjotin ton lauseen…

What a day!!

2007-05-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

What a day for us!
First we won USA (suckers!!) in ice hockey, which means we are in the best four of this year's championship. On Saturday we'll play against Russia for the final place. And oh boy, what a game it was!!! Proper ice hockey! Well done Leijonat. Now I'll definitely marry J. Ruutu (on the right in the picture)!
On top of that Sweden dropped from the Eurovision final. What a shame... Sorry my friends in Sweden!
So Saturday will be a big battle for 'Fineland', like some French people call it.

2007-05-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday bennie! I hope you got a gift card to IKEA as a present. See you soon!! x x x

To Hai'Lee and my Dirty dancer

2007-05-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

We didn’t celebrate vappu eve here in the original Finnish way. We went out, yes of course, but nobody really remembered the meaningless event. Though lot of people were out because first of May is a holiday here too.

Morrison’s was as full as usual. It was a good night to be there. Everybody came. Bjorn was back from Germany. He was there for his mother’s birthday and Andrea was brave enough to confort the full bar for the very first time after she had the accident with the trampoline. She still has to wear the splint for few more weeks, but she doesn’t walk like a duck anymore! After Morrison’s we went to a boat bar called A38. It used to be a Ukrainian stone carrier and now it’s a summer club offering all kind of different events. It was cool to dance outside.

I also got a new 'friend' that night. Bjorn dragged this 19 years old Hungarian boy with us. We met him at the buss stop. He was on his way home and carried this huge book about poker. Bjorn thought, for some reason, that Andrea has a huge urge for a boyfriend so he thought that a young boy would be the easiest way to fill this need as fast as possible.
Well, it didn’t go that well… As you can understand Andrea wasn’t that found of this hook up-try but I think we all enjoyed our night. The kid included. I think that was very exciting night for him. 15 exchange students all around from Europe kidnapped him and took him into a bar… WAU!!

Tuesday, surprisingly, everybody made it to our far panned picnic on Margit island. Margit was full of people, bands were playing, people performing and enjoying the day. It was nice and hot. We ate well and in the evening went to see some good ice hockey. Finland lost to Russia but we played very well and I’m proud of my home country.
I was in bed at 9 o’clock...

Before the weekend I worked a lot. We have our last tutorials next week, which leaves us two weeks to finish our models and everything else. The final presentation will be quite a big thing. There will be people from magazines and furniture manufacture companies to see are there anything interesting. Also, of course, all the masters, head of the university, etc. will be there. It is strange that my group is the only one where the exchange students will take a part of this presentation thing as well. It’s good though!

Hayley and Fergus left Budapest last Saturday. We went again to Trofea. I haven’t laughed that much in ages! It was a great ending for their three months, I think. After we carried on to Audrey’s flat party and West Balkan. It was sad to say goodbyes. I didn’t cry!!! But a tear came from my eye but I blame all the smoke on the dance floor.

Yesterday we officially started the summer with a barbeque party. I went there with Outi and Ari. Alex’s, the guy who's place we went to, lives in Buda side. He lives there with his parents and yes, it was a bit different from the other flats I’ve been here. Swimming pool, garden, three floors… A lot of space.

It has been mission impossible to watch ice hockey games here!
I got lucky once, when we were playing against Russia. A sports bar called Box utca showed the game on TV, but Hungary is really a football country. So instead of world championships they show UEFA cup, of Champions League, or some coca cola tournament. That really pisses me off!
Today there was a game, which was too personal to miss. We played against our darling neighbour Sweden. Like I said, specially on Sundays, football comes from 100 different channels and ice hockey is totally ignored.
Well, thank god for the 21st century technology. I found a site from internet that shows the games online and live. It costs almost nothing and the quality was surprisingly good.
After the first 20 minutes we were moaning because we couldn’t hear Antero Mertaranta presenting so we looked for Finish radio channel and listened it at the same time than watched the game.
It was a proper mission to do all this but definitely worth it! We lost 1-0 but it was veryveryvery good game!

Hyva Leijonat! Ruutu oot niin MURU ja LENNI!! Mari miiiiii !!!!!

Here's a pic about the recycling thing I told you earlier. People just leave their unwanted stuff on the streets and you can collect what ever you want. And all the streets in Budapest looks like this...

Bebeee, paljooon onnnneeeeaaaa!! pusmus

2007-05-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

Finland this morning (I'm actually a bit malicious):

The beginning of the end

2007-04-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

This week has been, I think, the most normal one I’ve had so far in Budapest… maybe because of that one of the best ones too. I haven’t done that much, but for a change it feels great!

End of April is the time of the year when everybody has birthdays. So I’ve been celebrating a lot for other people getting older. Outi had her 25th birthday on Tuesday and Charles his 22nd on Friday. We went to eat in a restaurant called Trofea (or something like that). All you can eat and drink for about 10 euros. Not bad, yeah? We sat there as long as we could, three hours. Then they kicked us out. It was a very nice night. Lot of sparkling wine!!

On Friday Fergus talked us to go out in Buda side, the granny side, as we call it. It was his last weekend here so we gave up and went for drinks on castle hill. The view from there is absolutely amazing. Pest is the best, so beautiful.
On Friday I tried on new kind of shoes too. We went bowling! I haven’t done that in ages, but I’m sure that my final score was satisfying enough for a ‘beginner’. I think I still have some hope to be a proper bowler and the shoes are quite cool...

It starts to be the end of Erasmus program for some students. Many people, like Hayley, Fergus and Bozan are going home in few weeks. It is really sad… Luckily I’m able to stay longer but it will be weird without some of my closest friends here. It’s not going to be the same at all.

The sun is still shining here and past few days has been amazingly hot, boiling actually. I’ve been on Margit island every day just hanging around and doing some work. This week has been a bit more successful with my uni stuff. I decided to give up the packaging design course. Simply I don’t have time or energy to do it. My chairs are doing very well. We got the final presentation date and now I have to start building the models and finish my presentation boards.

Oh, it starts to look like I will spend this summer in London. I’ve got three work experience offers from different design offices. I’m very happy about that! And it might be that I have to travel to London before the end of May for job interviews so everybody in Rochester, maybe I’ll see you before summer!!

For those who are not following the world championships of ice hockey I have to tell that Finland has won all the games they have played so far.
On Tuesday they are playing against Russia. It will be the first not so easy game to win. Denmark and Ukraine weren’t that much of adversaries…

I write more later this week… I’m so tired after yesterday that I need to go to get my beauty sleep. Last night was crazy. We went to West Balkan and, well, you all know what happened!

halipusimuiskaukset

To Sanna (Matami)

2007-04-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

Like almost everywhere in Europe right now the crazy hot weather has been carrying on here too. I cant get enough of the sun and being outside. It makes me so relaxed but otherwise it is quite dangerous, specially to my schoolwork… I did finish my essay last Friday but after that I haven’t even gave thought about my university career. Uuups!!

I was thinking about this time last year and I’m pretty sure that it was exactly the same. Nothing but having fun was on my mind and the back yard in 24 Rochester Avenue was my favourite spot, even though I had that massive old red van next to me. Matthew, if you by any change read this I really miss you and that tin can of yours. Last time I heard from you, you told me that your van is actually working (in the true meaning of the word). I hope it hasn't changed!

Monday was a normal night in Morrison’s. That place starts to loose its fascination though. It is still a great change to meet people you otherwise would not meet so often, but the fact that it’s always TOO packed has started to really annoy me. And the three free beers are too dangerous to my belly…
Oh, I met Andrea for the first time in weeks. It was great to see her and realize she hasn’t changed a bit. Yeah, it’s only been three weeks but it felt like a lifetime here!! She is so poor with her leg. She is as slow as a turtle but still keeps on smiling and keeps on trying.

Funny thing happened to me on Tuesday. I got a text message from an old, old friend of mine from Helsinki. I haven’t spoken with her in years but every time when I contact her or actually do some serious thinking about all the time we spent together in the 1990’s (God that sounds that I’m old!!!!) something special has happened in her life.
Well, on Monday before I got the message from her I thought what's going on and how is she.
I was thinking about the time when we made a totally random trip to Turku and Tampere. We had hardly any money and we were under 18, but some how we ended up in crazy bars all around Southern Finland.

Wednesday and Thursday were like all the other days. Hanging around in Budapest and enjoying life but Friday… Oh dear, I don’t even want to remember Friday! We had a small dinner party in my flat. As usual it got totally out of hands and we ended up in a club/bar called Szoda. We danced all night and had really, really good time, as far as I know. But the hangover I had on Saturday... You know, it was so bad that I have to mention it.
I haven’t felt like that after my high school graduating party, when I felt so sick that the taxi driver had to stop in the middle of the highway so that I could go speak Norwegian.
Yes, Pirjo came drop by on Sat morning too. I still managed to drag myself to Margit island and moan to Andrea and Galate about my miseries.In the end I survived and had a good night at Galate’s flat… Even though the red wine didn’t taste that nice.

Today we went to Szechenyi spa. Budapest is full of different kinds of spas. Some of the are only open during the summer time, but the one we went today is open all year around. It is a bit different than Kumpula in Helsinki… Here’s some pictures from there. We had relaxing time and went swimming again. The water was a bit warmer than in Balaton…

Now I’m in Szimpla with my computer. I had an interesting day today in other ways too but I can’t really talk about it yet. I'll let you know later!

Puss o kram

If you go visit Andrea's blog there's a quite funny video about English and salmiakki.

Annuskalle iso kiitos etta oot aina (jossain) mua varten. Oot rakas.

2007-04-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

I did my weekly routine today: bought Budapest Sun (don’t laugh, it’s not as bad as it might sound) and went to read it on my favourite spot next to Danube. It is strange how you miss simple stuff when you can’t have them… Like I really miss a proper newspaper. It is not the same to read them online.

I love Hesari

Anyway, there was an article about how happy the citizens of EU member states are with their work life. Finnish were the second happiest after Danish.
The article claimed that in general you should live in Northern Europe, leave education as late as possible and preferably run your own business to be satisfied with your life.

Hungarian people are the second miserable with their career lives. Almost 65% were dissatisfied with their incomes and they claimed that they are too stressed and get too much responsibility at their jobs… Now I found out why Hungarians don’t know anything about customer service.

The ice hockey world champion chips starts next week, 27.4. Can’t wait!
I have to mention that Sweden lost to Hungary in a friendly game last month… What’s going on Tre Kronor?

Life less ordinary

2007-04-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here are few pictures to show you how hard my life has been for the past few days… It looks exhausting, doesn’t it?? The weather here has been absolutely amazing. I can’t believe that it’s this hot in April.
When I woke up in the mornings I almost, just almost, hope that it would be a little bit cloudy because I’m so faaaaar behind with my uni work. It is just physically impossible to stay inside when the sun is in the sky all by itself.

I was working really hard with my essay last week until Anton, the saving angel, told me that the deadline is not until Monday next week. I was relieved but annoyed at the same time. I spent most of my Easter holiday week writing it, but when you sit outside in the sun postmodernism in not the first thing on your mind... Even though my mat was very willing to work with me.

Our trip to Berlin was cancel the day before we were suppose to leave. So we decided to do something else and made a trip to Balaton, the biggest lake in Europe, Northwest from Budapest (I think?).
We booked a hotel from a village called Tihany. Quiet and peaceful, proper granny town actually, but all we wanted, apart from Fergie, was to eat, sleep and sunbathe. The hotel was great. Only thing we missed was some vegetable at the breakfast…

We had troubles on our way to Tihany… We woke up before the sunset on Saturday morning just to be sure we don’t miss any of the amazing weather. The trip there took almost three hours even though it’s only 130 km away. There are at least 20 stops on the way there (next time we’ll rent a car).
Well, we checked the timetables from internet (of course) before Sat but when we got to the train station there wasn’t a train to our destination…!
We asked about it from a very nice ‘English’ speaking lady at the ticket office. She told us “plat form seven, plat form seven”. We went to sat in the train but found out it was a wrong one. Yes, it went to Balaton but the wrong side of the lake. And believe me, it is a big lake. So we missed our train and we had to wait two and half hours for the next one. Thank god Hayley and Fergus lives on the Buda side. We went to have some breakfast to their flat.

By the way Andrea, we are not making any trips without you!!

Luckily Balaton was worth waiting for. That place is so unbelievable beautiful. Tihany reminds me little bit of St. Anton, the village I worked in Austria. Cute houses built on the hills, small shops and restaurants.
It was nice to be in the countryside for a change. Yes, yes, everybody knows I can’t survive without a real bed and a hot shower but still... Grass felt nice under my feet and I even went swimming!!! Twice!! The water was freezing though.

On Saturday we sat outside I, drank few beers and enjoyed the sun and our huge terrace. Sunday was pretty much the same. We ‘broke in’ to this private beach. We didn’t have any problems until an angry looking Hungarian guy came and told us we are not allowed to stay there, at least we think that was what he said… But Gaby went flirting with him and in the end he let us enjoy our day there.
And we stayed until Fergus started to go mad/crazy/bored after four hours. He didn’t enjoy the sun as much as girls so we left the beach, rested and happy.

Now I’m back in Budapest. Feels like I came back home.
School week starts again tomorrow. It feels a bit odd. I haven’t been there in two and half weeks. But maybe it is good to have some meaningful to do again.

I think that’s about it about my last week. We haven’t played molkky in ages. People have been away because of the holidays but hopefully we’ll do it soon again. I need my weekly entertainment and excitement.

It’s not that exciting anymore though… we always beat the French team.

pusipusimusihalipusisuukkomuiskaus

2007-04-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

Check this out.

www.britishcheese.com/morethanjustcheese

and click the link 'Cheeseboards of the future revealed".

2007-04-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

Monday: I went to Magrit island to write my essey. It was warm.
Tuesday: I went to Margit island again... It was a bit cloudy but ok. Some crazy Hungarian bloke offered me money and tried to take a picture of my feet... I said no.
Wednesday: HOT!! First proper tan lines and I burnt my shoulders. Essay writing is not going so well...
Thursday: HOTHOTHOT!!!

Helsinki & bosom soup

2007-04-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

Back in Pest

Helsinki was cold. I was waiting for nice spring weather but it was +1 degree, windy and rainy. Absolutely super cold. I couldn’t wait to get back to Budapest because little French bird sang that the sun is shining and that it was ridiculously warm in Pest. But of course Finland was wonderful in it’s own strange way. It was great to sleep in my own bed, see family and friends. Oh, I have to mention that Nora’s boyfriend is great… Full 10 points. All tough she can’t talk about piereskelysta with him yet. Hahaha.

On Tuesday morning I went to see a dentist. I booked my next appointment for 20th of June so that is the latest when I have to be back in Helsinki. I fell asleep there as usually. I don’t understand why people are so horrified about going to dentist. I think it is relaxing.
In the evening I saw Suvi. We enjoyed some Finnish delights all night, cider (oh dear I’ve missed proper cider), salmiakki, chocolate, Baltic herring and new potatoes (Mika on silli englanniksi?). Nora was with us too.
Wednesday was the day for the funeral. Of course it was very sad but in a good way, if I can say that. It felt like a closer and the ceremony was beautiful.
My mother’s crazy cousins were there also so after the funeral the evening was full of laughter.
We went out every nigh. What a surprise…! But nothing special happened so I’m going to save you from boredom.
I was back in Budapest on Friday evening. My French came to pick me up from the airport.

I had one of my top 10 weirdest experiences in Budapest on Saturday. We went to this club called Studio. I heard before that it is a very fancy place, the club for posh and rich Hungarians BUT I think it was more like a circus. Seriously.
They had all kind of silly performances there: dancing midgets, rocking angels, dancing devils (men with leather shorts and capes), dance group dressed up as alien characters, cheerleaders… etc.
And the people there!! Oh my God! Studio wasn’t full of the cream of Budapest. It was a mixture of meat counter and bosom soup. The experience was interesting but I definitely don’t have to go back there.

It’s quite quiet here at the moment. Many people are home for the Ester holidays. Andrea is in Eger. She just sent me a message that she broke her angle… Poor girl. Now she has to wear a splint for six weeks.

Ok, that’s all for now. I have to go cook some meatballs.

See you later!

Helsinki here I come! 2.4.2007

2007-04-03T03:27:00.000-07:00

Once again I have an excellent week behind me. The beginning was quite heavy though. We had our mid term presentation on Friday so I was working my ass off all week (sorry the language). On top of that my mother and my sister came here on Wednesday so I was busy showing them the best terraces and shoe shops in Budapest. In total they bought fife pairs of shoes in four days. Quite impressive, I have to say. Now you know where my shoe-holism comes from…

I was really nervous about the presentation. It’s been a while since I had a critic and specially because of the language barrier I was wondering who will it go. Attila saved me, as usual, and translated my presentation.
There were six masters from different design departments evaluating our works. I presented two chairs instead of three. I had to skip one of my ideas because I have so much work to do with the other design course. All of the masters gave us numbers in 12 different categories, like presentation, design ideas and skills, time management, etc. I got a really good mark, 89 % in total. The masters were so excited about my designs that they said I should keep on working with both of them.
But once again I noticed that I was nervous for nothing...

On Friday we went celebrating. It was a normal night out, except we drank a bottle of Salmiakki kossu with French and German exchange students. They loved the drink but hated the candy. I don’t understand what’s the difference? Salmiakki is wonderful in every way you can eat or drink it…

On Saturday we went to Escer flea market again with Kaisa and my mommy-dearest. They were amazed of the amount of stuff there was and spend money on weirdest things. My mom bought an old toilet flusher. You know one of those ceramic ones that hang from the ceiling.

I was so tired after the night before that I went to bed at 10 o’clock on Sat night. It was nice to sleep though and great to wake up without alarm clock.

On Sunday we had our Molkky tournament again. The weather has been crazy good for the past few days. I’m seriously working on my tan already. Hih.
We sat in Margit hid all day, drank wine, ate and played. It was a wonderful day.

And now I’m sitting on a plane on my way to Helsinki. I have to go back for my uncle’s funeral, which is held on Wednesday. I’m a bit ‘nervous’ but at the same time it is great that I can see all my favourites girlfriends; Jani, Suvi, Anne and Nora. AND I’m going to meet Nora’s boyfriend. That’s so exciting!!
You know this is the first time ever all my best friends are in a relationship at the same time, me included. Fabulous! I’m happy because important people around me are happy.

We finally booked the car for our road trip to Berlin. Me, Yael and Gaby are leaving from Budapest on the 11th and coming back on 16th of April. The drive is about 12 hours so I have plenty of time to write my essay in the car (isn’t the hand-in on 17th?). I don’t think the girls trust me to drive…

I try to get some sleep now.

Putzi x 10000

Ps. All the newspapers in Finland are full of Eurovision news... Already!! The competition is no sooner than in May... And I heard that the Ark (one of my true loves) is presenting Sweden. So I tell you already now that Sweden will win this year with exellent band.. of course Swedish are going to kick our asses in Helsinki.

Sufe 27.3.2007

2007-03-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

Eger and Extreme tooth pick

2007-03-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

I’m really busy with school at the moment. Our mid-presentation is on this Friday and to be honest I’m a bit lost with my work. There’s so much to do and I suck in time management. On top of that my mom and my sister are coming here on Wednesday and I can’t leave them on their own on the first day. I know I’ll survive though. I always do, but I can’t stop worrying! So I’ve been home almost all week just doing my uni work.

Last Friday we made a trip to Eger, a city famous because of their wine cellars. We took the train there and after two and half hours we arrived to this very cute place, which is like a miniature version of Budapest, river in the middle of the city and beautiful buildings. But for some reason the place was absolutely dead… Felt like we were the only people there even though the tourist season started in the beginning of this month. And on top of that the weather was awful! It rained and the wind was freezing, luckily cheap wine kept us warm. It was a shame we only had one full day there. When we arrived it was already dark and on Saturday we didn’t have much time to see the sights because we hurried to the wine cellars…
So all we literally did was eating (Hayley and Yael lived with hot chocolates and apple pies through all the the trip), drinking, clubbing, sleeping, drinking and we had ‘Extreme tooth pick tournament’. Gaby was easily the winner. Extreme tooth pick is a game where you have to get a tooth pick up in to your nose just using your mouth and tongue. It looks silly but we had so much fun playing it... The video is for demonstration so you can see what is the game about. (No, I haven’t lost my mind..).

And of course credits to my darling dirty dancer Fergus, a.k.a. Fergie, who always makes me smile! AND who invented the name and the second level for Extreme toot pick.

After all we had a great time in Eger. I hope I can go back there later.

Yesterday we played Molkky again. I just have to mention that team Finland beated the French easily. Thank you Ari and Harri for the excellent team spirit and for the good games. And team France, some day you’ll get there... :)

This post is dedicated to Toby and Emma (tomorrow). Happy birthday pumpkins!

Oh, one more important thing... Go see Anton's 'Beatbox'- clips for D&DA Annual Student Award competition. Absolutely fabulous!! Well done Anton. I've watched them maybe 50 times..
(http://antonwaldburg.blogspot.com)

Friend sickness

2007-03-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Today I felt home sick for the very first time since I came here, or more like friend sick.. I wish you could all be here with me!

Mikko, you can still sleep in the kitchen when you come to Budapest. I'm not that angry with you. :)
Annuska, I hope that everything is ok and you are taking care of people while I'm here. I know you will though, as always my darling mama Rochester.
Nora, I miss you SSSSOOOO much. One day when I'm no longer a student and we are married I promise to pay you back half of your phone bills which has been huge because of me... Yes, I've lost my hope with men. I only love you from now on! And don't even think about marrying Affe instead of me. We can have much more beautiful children than you and him.
Suvi-kulta, hopefully you are feeling as fantastic as you are!
Anne, I'm happy that I can see you soon. I miss you and the rest of the family Austero a lot!!
Erno, kuis kaara kulkee??
Anton, Germans are much more nicer people than I thought. But you're still the best!
Rob, Adam, Adele and Yaseed I hope you'll stay as wonderful as you are. Because of you I haven't lost my faith in English people (even though Yaseed, you don't really belong to that category!! Hahahahha)
Paris and Georgeous I miss talkin Cyprian with you!
Bennie, when I'm back I'll buy you a lunch. And if you behave we might go eat the lunch in IKEA... You're the best Scandi fan I've ever met!
Finally my darling mother. You're the best of the best. Soon I'll give you the biggest hugg ever!

And of course Toby, Lonkero, Katri, Krisu and the rest who's pics I didn't have here with me. I miss partying with you!!

2007-03-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

Time is FFFLYYYIIIINGG here! I can’t believe it is already mid March. It’s horrifying to think that I’ve spent almost third of my total time here… I don’t want to come back to England. Yack!!
Yes, yes, of course I miss all of you there in Rochester and in Helsinki.

We went to see the 10th annual furniture fair in Budapest, called Laka’s Trend Fair. It was quite different from the design fairs I’ve seen in London and in Helsinki. Hungary doesn’t really have own ‘design culture’ like for example Finland has. Of course they have long traditions in art and craft but the design (fashion, industrial, furniture…) doesn’t really exist because of the past communism. So the fair was quite small. All the big brands, Cappellini, etc, had their products exhibited there but the Hungarian brands were quite different from the rest of the European design styles.
We spoke about this with Attila and he was maybe a bit jealous that Hungary is in such a state. I told him that maybe for the young designers, like him and Tuan, it is very good situation. They can actually bring Hungarian design on to the map. What I’m trying to say is that maybe young designers has a bigger change to actually make it.

Last Saturday was absolutely freezing. Before the sunny weather this week the spring ended as fast as it came. Even though the weather was awful, very English, rainy and windy, we decided to go to this flee market out side of Budapest. That place was amazing. I’ve never seen that much stuff in my life. It was a proper treasure island. You could find anything from the last 60 decades there. It was very inspiring place and I can’t wait to take my mother there when she comes. Beautiful, beautiful things, I spend my money in old movie posters and matchboxes (don’t ask!)

After last weekend the weather changed completely. The sun has been shining all week. Actually today is the first cloudy day in a week. It’s so summer here and I love it. Makes me smile.

On Wednesday we had our traditional Molkky tournament on Margit island. Margit island is like Hyde Park in London: big green spot close to the central. It’s a beautiful place and lot of people spent their days there. Anyway molkky, for those who doesn’t know the game, is Finnish version of petanque. But instead of balls you throw wooden blocks. Each of the twelve sticks has a number on them. You have to collect 50 points to win but it’s not as easy as it might sound… There are many rules that makes the game really, really fun (specially after few beers). There is a group of exchange student, me among them, who are absolutely hooked with that game.

15 of March is a national holiday in Hungary. Maybe you heard about the riots they had here. I was told that you shouldn’t go out all day, because it might be dangerous. So me, Outi and Ari made a roadtrip to Szentedre.
Szentedre is a small town 20 km north from Budapest. It’s a really nice and cute place but not too big to spend the whole day so we decided to go to Vienna. Yes, we actually drove to Austria in two and half hours. It was crazy! We went for pints with Harri, Ari’s friend who studies there. Vienna looks pretty much the same than Budapest but it's much, much cleaner.
Vienna is a beautiful place. I have to go back. And I saw at least 10 H&Ms there..!!! “Oon ma juonut viinii Vienissa…” Who knows that song?? Here's a picture from Vienna. Some important building in there. Looks like a church to me.

Andrea and me went to the zoo last Saturday. They have the first baby rhino born in Europe and it was so cute! I wanted to take it home. It wasn’t that small anymore… a size of a lamb or something. I was more excited about the hippos though, as you can see. I saw giraffes and polar bears for the first time of my life. But we are sure that some of the animals were plastic, becuase they didnt move at all!

I have to go and carry on working now… We’re having a small party in our flat tonight and I have loads to do before that.

Talk to you later!!

putzi

Aiti soitti ja kerto etta mun eno nukku pois viime torstaina. Kaikki ok, mutta aika paha mieli aidin puolesta. Ranskiksen kanssa juttu loppu aika seinaan talla viikolla… Pitka juttu. Selitan myohemmin. Voin ihan hyvin nyt, tilanteeseen nahden, mut olin aika rikki muutaman paivan.

2007-03-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

Palinka
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pálinka is a traditional type of brandy that is produced in Hungary and Transylvania (region of Romania, where it is spelled Palinc_). The origin of the word is Slavic stemming from the word páli_ (in Slovak) which means to distill.
It is usually made from plums (traditionally called "szilva"), apples, pears (called "vilmoskörte pálinka"), apricots ("fütyül_s" barack) or cherries ("cseresznyepálinka") and is double distilled. The alcohol content is between 60 and 80%[citation needed]. A less strong version (around 40% alcohol) is called _uic_ in Romania. The most powerful kinds of pálinka are referred to as "kerítésszaggató" in Hungarian, which literally means "fence-tearer" and refers to a drunkard's loss of balance.

2007-03-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

I took my summer shoes out for the first time yesterday. They really enjoyed Budapest and begged me to go take them for a walk soon again.
I can wait for the summer! I’ve been in an excellent mood for the past few days because the weather has been wonderful, sun is shining and you survive outside without a jacket. On top of that my university work is going really well. Attila told me that Stefan, he is my master, has started to study English so that he can communicate easier with the exchange students. That’s so sweet! So life here is as beautiful as ever and I’m very, very happy (one French guy might have something to do with it too)

On Thursday we celebrated Bjorn's birthday with icecream. We went to his flat where he lives with some Hungarian man. The flat use to belong to his grandmother so we found some weird stuff from there... Really cool bags, glasses and clothes as you can see. After that we went dancing in Csango, the place I told you about earlier. Finally I engouraged myself and went dancing. I haven't had that much fun in ages! And it wasn't that difficult, except for Andrea and Fergus (you can see them 'dancing' on the video clip)

On Saturday me and Andrea went to this quite famous Hungarian restaurant called Menza. We sat there for hours and drank Martinis with olives. Very sex-and-the-city. Menza is really cheap and the food excellent. Once again I was amazed about the things you can find from this city. Budapest never stops surprising you.

On Saturday we went to little China with Fergus, James, Haley and my other half, Andrea. Little China, or Jozsefvarost Market like the local people calls it, is a market at the east side of Pest. The market is famous because most of the hawkers are Chinese with Romanian helpers. They are using the Trans-Siperian railway to transport huge variety of all kind of stuff, clothes, food (I’ve never seen that much fish in my life) and fabrics from China, South Eastern Asia and Eastern Europe. All the goods are sold at knock-down prices, but of course the Puma shoes there are not actually Puma shoes… Annuska, we have to go and visit the people there. You might learn something about train travelling in ;)

The feeling there was quite random, like I said it felt like being in China. Only thing was that most of the Asian people I’ve met during my short life has been very friendly and nice but there they were rude, cocky and sososo important. Yeah, I’d say it was full of Chinese Donald Trumps selling fakes.

My sex-and-the-city weekend didn’t end after the Martinis. After the market Attila took me to see a fashion show. A friend of his, Tuan, exhibited his clothes there. Tuan studies fashion design in our university but is having a year off because his business is going so well. He is spending this year just to build up his showroom and doing his designs.

Otherwise life here is pretty much same old, same old. I’m getting ready for our first big presentation, which is held in the end of March. We need to have three different designs for that and I have them all. Now I just have to finish the details and do the drawings.

I still don't know what's going on with the missing poits.. But Caroline, from the exchange office in Maidstone told me not to worry too much about it.

Oh, I almost forgot! We had our first Hungarian lesson on Friday. Oh my good is all I can say. First of all I think the teacher learnt more English than we learnt Hungarian. She didn’t speak that fluently and for specially English people it was hard to understand her. The lesson lasted only for an hour and during that we went through Hungarian alphabets (did you know that they have 14 vocals) and numbers. Crazy!

Viszontlatasra!

2007-02-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

Raw fish and problems

I received an email from our exchange secretary in MOME that I’m not going to get enough ‘points’ while I’m studying in Budapest. By points I mean the credits (I think they are called ETCS or something) we have to collect every year to graduate on time.

I got almost angry because the information I’ve received about my studies here is close to nothing. Nobody ever told me what courses I have to take and what are the options. And of course with the tiny language barrier it’s even harder.

I wrote to UCCA, talked with my master (I’ve started to like using that word) and with the head of design department and nobody seem to know what should I do.
I’m pissed off but decided not to panic, at least not yet. It just feels strange that I, along with the other Erasmus students, have to found out everything by myself…

Yesterday we went to restaurant called Wasabi for some sushi. It’s a buffee, eat as much as you like for 14 euros. The prize is quite expensive when compared with other restaurants here. Normally you eat and drink with 5 euros.
Anyway, it was a really nice place. They had this long, I don’t know what to call it, service line going around the restaurant with the strangest Japanese dishes I’ve ever seen. I can’t really describe them, you should see the food to understand what I’m talking about. Green jelly soup and sweet fish egg dessert just to mention few of them. But the sushi was good and I didn’t have any surprises when I ate. We sat there almost for three hours and I ate around 200000 sushis and makis. It was so good... I couldn’t stop!

I did something brave yesterday. I cut my own hair. Kitchen scissors just aren’t the best choice to do it. But it looks ok. Thanks for the tips Aingeru!

Toby asked me to mail some Hungarian words for him but I thought you all might want to learn something (written as pronounced):

2007-02-26T04:16:00.000-08:00

It’s snowing here! I can’t believe it. It seems like where ever I go I just drag the snow and cold weather with me. I also have flu. Feels like everybody are catching a cold.

I had a good weekend. Friday I took two girls from Israel, Gaby and Yael, to Szimpla. They are doing the same course than me in MOME. I’ve never met people from Tel Aviv before and belive me they told some strange stuff that happens in there. We really do live in a bubble in Europe…

Szimpla is my favourite bar here and just around the corner from our flat. They have amazing furniture and I think the decoration is really cool too. Lot of students and young people go there to drink and hang around.
I talked with one of the bartenders there and he told me that most of the stuff they have are found from the streets. I was a bit surprised... He explained that once a month people in Buda and in Pest put all their unwanted stuff (furniture, clothes, dishes…) on the streets and other people can just go and take what they want. I think that’s quite nice way to recycle.

On Saturday me, Galatee, Haley & Fergus (they study photography in Maidstone) went to West Balkan. West Balkan is the ‘hip’ club in Budapest, the place to be. And it actually is really cool too. We danced all night and I came home around six o’colck in the morning… So you can understand that I haven’t done that much work during this weekend. With the flu I’ve been superduper exhausted all weekend. I have tutorials tomorrow so I have loads to do!!

I found out there’s a bar called Vittula. We were supposed to go there on Sat but didn’t have time. I read that it’s a Finnish bar but still it has nothing to do with Finland. They sell only Slovakian beer and the mentality in the bar should be very Finnish + the drinks very cheap… Who knows what can you find there. I let you know when I have time to go!

Doesn’t anybody want to know how my date went??

2007-02-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

I just got an email that Hungarian lessons for erasmus students are starting friday next week.
Well, I'm excited because I already know some important words in Hungarian:

'Fulolaj' is said to be the most beautiful word in Hungarian. It means ear wax.
'Elkaposztastalanithatatlansagotokert' is Hungarian version for epajarjestelmallistyttamattomyydellisyydellaankaansaankohan, which is the longest word in Finnish.

So soon I'll be writing my blog in Hungarian!!

Hello my darlings!

2007-02-20T06:58:00.000-08:00

20.2.2007, Tuesday

I had the strangest experience last Thursday. Andrea took us all in to this Hungarian folk dance bar/club. It was crazy! The place looked like a school gym class, there were Hungarian and Romanian bands playing but the coolest thing was that all the people there were around my age. Greatest thing was that the people took it so seriously. People weren’t drunk. They were there to dance. Sweat was flying when they danced in massive circles! It was almost like looking Hungarian River Dance. I have always thought that ‘tango culture’ dies when we get older but apparently not in Hungary.

I don’t know can you see anything from the video clip. I didn’t have my camera with me so I had to use my mobile phone to record some evidence that I wasn’t dreaming. I was amazed after seeing the dances and can’t wait to get back there! I heard they have dancing lessons once a week and we decided to go next Thursday. I have to at least try it! It didn’t look too difficult.
(Annuska & Mikko we are SO going there if you come here!!)

We had the first house party for Erasmus students last Saturday. There are around 40 of us studying in Moholy-Nagy and around half of them arrived to our party. We had really good time. Only one glass broke and nobody threw up or anything, except the day after… J
I had my real proper club experience on Saturday too. I don’t remember the name of the place but it was huge and full! It was almost impossible to move around which was a shame because once again the building was so beautiful. Good music and people.

I’m spending most of my spare time with the Spanish girls and surprise, surprise with some photography students. (You know, with the chair project and people who speaks ‘camera’ it sometimes feels I never left from RochesterJ.)
Bjorn and Andrea are from Germany. Andrea’s parents are Hungarian and she also speaks the language. Her local flat mates have been a huge help when we’ve been looking for good bars, etc. They are heavy partiers and always up for something fun. Then there are the French people. If there are lot of Finns in Rochester, there are a whole army of French here. I really want to learn their accent!

Tonight I’m going to a gulash party. Gulash soup (or stew) is traditional Hungarian dish with meat and vegetables. It’s really good. You usually have it with bread and some kind of alcohol. Well, it feels like people here eat bread and drink alcohol with every meal.
Maybe that’s why Hungary has the highest suicide rates in whole Europe… who knows?

I almost forgot to tell you… Some Erasmus students are putting together a football team. They already got a place to play in Margaret island and now all the need is a coach and the cheerleaders (I think I belong to the last group).

I’m falling for Budapest. I can’t believe that I ever had seconds thoughts about coming here. I’ve met awesome people, this city never sleeps and I have my first date this weekend…!

Pics are about me, Susana & Paloma, me & mi French mate Francuais who broke his tooth after two days in Budapest and Andrea & Attila. Attila is the angel who takes care of me in our tutorials.

Got to go draw some chairs now!
pusspuss

Ps. Toby, your card and cookies don’t count! You have a loooovvveeeerrrr!

Pps. Annuska, mullakin on kova,kova iksu sua!!

2007-02-14T12:07:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! I hope you got lots of love and care from everyone around you. I send you kisses and 100000 hugs from warm and sunny Budapest.

I totally forgot the whole Valentine’s until I put the TV on (for the first time since we moved). We have about 70 channels but only one !!1!! English … All the others are German and we are in Hungary for god sakes! Anyways… I was watching CNN News (or CCN?? ;)) and one of the main stories was that has Valentine’s Day become too commercial?
Of course it has. May I just ask has any of you or anyone you know got a self made Valentine’s card during the last decade? I haven’t and I definitely don’t know anyone who has or has given one to somebody. I miss those days when you were eight years old or so and found these secret and not signed cards hidden between your schoolbooks. That was so romantic! Yes, this city has some magical romantic powers in it. I’m talking “soft”…

I had better luck today when I went to uni. I met my life-drawing teacher who also teaches photography and visual communications. We had a long talk about KIAD and the photography degree there. He had nothing else than good things to say about it but was quite surprised that Rochester is turning into Little Finland. He was really nice and helpful AND he even spoke very good English.

I also met the “master of product design”. Hungarian teachers are masters… not tutors or professors, masters. I don’t know should I call them that or do they have first names?

So this product design master speaks only Hungarian and it felt like he was a bit nervous about having exchange students in his classes. So far I know that we will be doing same task for four months. It sounds like a looooong time but the designs has to be perfect. We have to figure out every single detail and make models, 3D drawings ( I don’t know how I’m going to draw something with Rhino.. Thanks a lot Thomas…), technical drawings, etc.

The task in product design is a water tap. It can be anything and it is a competition for some Hungarian company. It sounds quite interesting. I haven’t heard the total brief yet but apparently you can win something too. Sounds tempting…

I had a quite bad luck with the furniture design brief. It is a CHAIR. I didn’t believe my ears when I heard about that. The difference is that it has to be a chair specially designed for public places like schools, restaurants, airports… and it must be stackable or foldable and totally made out of wood. So there are quite many “limitations”.
I’m going to the product design tutorial tomorrow morning and see what is like. I have to decide until the end of this week what will I do.

We had a uni party yesterday. It was a bit different than parties in Kbar... There was a live band playing all night, fashion shows, a musical and the drinks were so cheap that I’m not going to even start with those.
I’ve been out few times now and it’s been good fun.

Oukkeydoukkey, I go to bed now!
See you later!

Ps. Pics are of the house I'm living, Moholy-Nagy university and a video of the apartment. I hope it works...

Budapest

2007-02-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

9.2.07, Hotel Touring

Finally I’m here!
I was so nervous on Tuesday night before I left Rochester! Seriously my stomach was making full rounds and I constantly thought how much I would miss everything and everyone. But as soon as I got to the airport with my 27,4 kilos of luggage all my nervousness was gone.

My first contact with a Hungarian person was on the plane. His name was Pascal. He was fun, adorable and SO cute, until he started kicking my seat. Apparently for fife years old it is loads of fun to disturb other people on the plane… Yes, Pascal was a kid who was visiting some family in London with his aunt (who had no control with him at all!). He sat behind me, got bored on the plane and could not stay still. Well, that is all forgiven now…

I arrived to the hotel around fife o’clock absolutely exhausted after all the travelling and stress. I took a taxi from the airport BECAUSE I didn't have the strenght to be adventurous and YES I can afford luxury here!
When I got to the hotel I fell asleep while watching Sex and the City.. that was about six o'clock.
And nothing more to tell about my first day in Budapest! Oh, I did see a massive Tesco ☺

On Thursday after visiting my new host university (what a place!!) I went to see few flats. They were ok, but with too many no-no’s. The other apartment was a bit too far away from where everything is happening (yes, I mean the shops, clubs, bars…) and in the other flat there was this German guy living in who seemed a bit odd… and not in a nice way at all! I have one German in my life and I think that is enough for now ☺ (and Anton has made such a good impression about Germans so I didn’t want to ruin that!).

I think this is the most beautiful and romantic place I have ever been. The buildings are absolutely amazing! People are friendly but don’t speak that much English. Luckily body language works here the same way than everywhere else. So far I’m happy to be here. I need this adventure and hey, I’ve always been a bit bad staying still.

Take care!

11.2.07, hotel room

Today was the last time I had to take the train from this awful hotel to the central of Budapest because we found a perfect flat! By ‘we’ I mean myself, Susana and Paloma. I met them yesterday and found out that they are starting exchange program in Moholy-Nagy University as well. I was desperate for flatmates because it has been a mission impossible to find a nice flat/room just by myself. For some reason landlords here doesn’t want to rent one room in a flat of three.

Our apartment is quite big, 90 square meters. The three rooms in the flat are ridiculously high with huge windows. (I post some pictures as soon as I can) The flat is close to the central of Pest and it shouldn’t take more than half an hour to get to uni. My future home is veryveryvery nice!!! I’m happy that I had the patient to wait… You all know that I don’t have any patient in my body.

Susana and Paloma are from Madrid and, I’d say, very Spanish, passionate about life itself. Both of them study fashion design but are far way from the category of English fashion students (thank god!). No blingbling, bad attitude or cockyness. And as soon as I heard they had bought all the six series of S&C to "keep them company in Budapest" I fell in love with them. Susanna and Paloma are funny, beautiful and benevelant people.

The past three days has been strange in a good way. I haven't done that much. Well, I have but nothing that you would like to read about...mostly just turist things. I went to see Van Gogh’s exhibition in the Museum of Fine Arts. I just have to say that man knew how to use colours. Seriously. I have kept myself busy by walking around and I’m still amazed of the architecture. My neck aches because I have been looking up more than forward.

Anyways I have to pack my bags now and go to bed. Tomorrow is a big day for me. The uni starts at two! I’m not nervous, more relieved actually. I miss doing my stuff and I’ve been so inspired by this city that I have to start doing something…!

Catch you later!

Ps. I don’t miss Rochester at all but I have this strange feeling because I haven’t had a beer in three days!

13.2.2007, home sweet home

I’m even more in love with our flat! Everything works and it’s just so beautiful. No problems with water pressure or heating. Real wooden floors and I even have a working TV in my room.
And of course after we moved in we had to go to IKEA (it’s dangerously close to our home… just few metro stops). We bought stuff for the flat, sheets, dish brushes, etc. But I was more excited about the food section. Finally I got salmiakki, proper cheese and Kalle’s kaviar! That was all I had for dinner as well. Hehe.

Maybe I should say something about the uni too... The first day there was a total chaos. Nobody actually knew what is going on, when actual classes are starting, who is their tutor… I still don’t know when, where or what I’ll be studying/doing here for the next four months (don't tell anyone!). I heard rumours that I can choose from product, metal, furniture or packaging design. And that we can take life-drawing and sculpting classes. Yay!

After the frustrating Monday I finally met some tutors and local students today. In Hungary to get a design degree takes five years so I’m in the same class with third years. I was quite surprised that the man who teaches furniture design doesn’t speak English at all! “Alvar Aalto” was all I understood when he spoke to me. But there was this VERY cute Hungarian student who translated our conversation...

I’m on my way to some party. Don’t ask… I don’t know where or what but I got to run now!
And for everyone who are making bets about my "bf's"... I have to say it's gonna be hard to stay under 10! haha

pusspuss

angelis light, 2005

2007-01-21T12:52:00.000-08:00

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FOR TIINA HAKALA
this light was one of the first projects i did in UCCA. the brief was to design a decorative light. i used lace, plaster and laquer to make it look almost like ceramics.

balhanger, 2006

2007-01-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

kanava candleholders, 2005

2007-01-21T12:44:00.000-08:00

cheeseboard, 2006

2007-01-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

darlings bench, 2007

2007-01-21T11:46:00.001-08:00

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FOR TIINA HAKALA
this is an university project from this year. the task was simply to design a chair or a seat. my concept was to get shy scandinavian people to be more social and talk to eachother while sitting.

silversmithing, 2004-2005

2007-01-21T11:43:00.000-08:00

all the metal work i've done are made in karis, the art school i went before i started univeristy in the uk.

drawings, 2004-2006

2007-01-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

i studied live drawing for a year before UCCA. i absolutely loved it!