Af-riikka

Just something I did last year (and at least two years before last year...). Happy and stress-free new year to everybody!

I am ashamed to admit that I only started reading the main francophone Belgian newspaper, Le Soir last week - and only due to the fact that it was available free in Exki, a common chain of lunch take-away food near the Commission. The Commission sandwiches are less appetizing after a while, and I haven't had much time for proper lunches lately due to trainings, choral concerts and actual work. The main topic in paper of last week's Thursday was the possible lawsuit against the publisher of Tintin, a.k.a the national symbol of Belgium. Bienvenu Mbutu Mdondondo, a Congolese student in Belgium accuses the album "Tintin in Congo" (known in Finnish as "Tintti Afrikassa") of racism and wants it to be transferred from bookshops to museum displays. He pressed charges in Belgium in 2007 - still pending - and in France in 2009 ( Figaro article on the issue in French). Mdondondo has proclaimed to be ready to go to the European Court of Human Rights, if needed. Previ...

Time for another hobby post - last spring I wrote about my leisure activities in Finland ( in Finnish ), and I figured it would be time to do that in Belgium as well. Already six weeks (or seven?) have passed, and I have had plenty of time to slip into some kind of routine life rhythm. Dancing classes which I started promisingly in the beginning of October were annoyingly cut for some weeks because of a very persistent cough, which is now slowly fading away (I hope!). I have been able to go to flamenco classes for a few times, ballet and last Sunday also for a sabar class (Senegalese dance). A in the title of this post refers to another favourite sport of mine: the annual football league of the trainees is about to start. I was hesitant to join the team of our Directorate-General first, because it looked like I would be the only woman. In the end, that was a requirement for the team to play - to have at least one female player on the pitch during the whole match - and I'm now one o...

Warning: this post includes a lot of complaining about little things. I can't help but be constantly reminded by a friend of mine who also did an internship at the European Commission and later on worked there as a consultant for a few months. Samuli warned me: "On the face of it, everything seems to be working in Belgium. In reality, nothing works. Oh, so true. It is strange how differently and SLOWLY things function (or don't at all) in Belgium. Luckily I have been spared from taking care of all these practical things such as acquiring an internet connection, electricity and gas contracts or other, seemingly simple issues. In the end they are not that simple. Most of the things take one month. Having an internet connection? 4-6 weeks. Electricity? 2 weeks, at least, if the former tenant has called in his/her electricity contract in the apartment. Fridge? About 3 weeks. There are all these minor things that just don't make sense. For example, there is an automatic lau...

Two weeks in Brussels have passed by so quickly - it also means that already one tenth of my traineeship period at the European Commission has been completed. Have to say that I am still overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of this whole machinery of European development cooperation. From next week on, I am supposed to "replace" for a month one of our office workers who is moving to a EU delegation in the Philippines. That includes functioning as the expert on conflict prevention issues: I know the basic content of SSR (security sector reform), LRRD (linking relief, rehabilitation and development), SALW (Small Arms and Light Weapons), and some other nice abbreviations I have learnt so far, but it does not make me an expert...we'll see if I need to do something else besides taking notes in meetings. After work there is the limited amount of freetime in Brussels, which I have mostly been spending with other stagiaires. On my own I have been going to cinema, and it has lately ...

I went to Brussels for a week, and what did I get? First, the thing I went there to look for: an apartment, or rather a room in which to stay for five months. I made the decision already after seeing four different rooms during the first two days. Finding an affordable (read: less than €500 with all charges) furnished room for a short-term rental in a city with thousands of trainees coming there every year was not THAT straight-forward. It was still a lot easier than finding a place to stay in Helsinki right now. Not my house, unfortunately, but an art nouveau house of an architect Victor Horta, now a museum in Ixelles (a part of Brussels where I'll live). I'll have a smallish room with two little roof windows, facing some gorgeous art nouveau buildings across the street, in a house with five other trainees of various institutions. I'd assume it's around 20 minutes by public transport to the EU Commission buildings, and perhaps 30 minutes by foot, if I'll ever feel...

Ah, mikä vapaus gradun palauttamisen jälkeen! Vaikka sen jälkeen onkin ollut kaikenlaista pientä hommaa - rahaa pitää kuitenkin hankkia jollakin tavoin - on ollut aikaa myös vain istuskella, lukea kirjoja ja juoda kahvia. Aion jatkaa tätä vielä elokuun toivottavasti pitkään jatkuvassa lämmössä, mutta suositukseni tähän mennessä kierretyistä kahviloista Helsingissä: Villipuutarha Kalliossa, Roskapankin vieressä. + epätavallinen sijainti + sisustus + suhteellisen laaja haudutetun teen valikoima, ruokia en vielä testannut - hintavahko (tee 3,50€) - epämukava tuoli, mutta sohvia oli myös tarjolla - usein täynnä Cafe Regatta + sijainti meren rannalla - voi katsella melojia ja Espoota + kahvikupin hinta: santsikupin ottaessa saa 5 senttiä takaisin, asia joka mainitaan aina kahvilaa esiteltäessä + erikoinen kokonaisuus kaikin puolin Sibelius-monumentin kupeessa - pieni valikoima syötäviä asioita - kitschin määrä on yliampuvaa jopa minulle Viinikahvila Viola + sijainti Kaisaniemen kasvitietee...

I returned on Friday from an 11-day vacation to two of the most important cities of the Byzantine imperium: Istanbul and Thessaloniki. We spent first two days in Istanbul, then took a night train to Greece, to Thessaloniki, stayed there for two nights, then continued to a small village of Agios Panteleimon for a Greek wedding and returned back to Istanbul the same route for three more nights. Besides a lot of sightseeing - a dozen of Byzantine red brick churches, ruins, castles, half a dozen of mosques and some more ruins - and countless matches of backgammon, we indulged ourselves with delicious (and sometimes weird) food, drank refreshing white wine, shots of ouzo/raki (especially at the wedding!) and on the Turkish side at least a few glasses of excellent tea every day. Yummie Turkish tea in Pierre Loti café in Eyüp, Istanbul. But what would traveling be without learning things? I was happy to notice that my learning skills had not been totally destroyed by thesis-writing. After two...

Blogissa on ollut hiljaista, kuten aina silloin kun olen Suomessa. Vähemmän kirjoittamista, enemmän tekemistä vapaa-ajalla ehkäpä? Tänä keväänä olen voinut syyttää lisäksi gradua ajan puutteesta. Ei, se ei ole vielä valmis. Mutta melkein! Kun yritin miettiä, mitä muuta olen tehnyt tänä keväänä kuin gradua, ei tullut oikein mitään mieleen. Tarkemmin ajateltuani tajusin, että olen sentään tehnyt muutakin kuin töitä ja gradua. Tämä kevät (ja tuleva kesä) on ollut parasta aikaa koskaan harrastusten osalta. Viikot ovat rytmittyneet harrastusten ympärille: maanantaisin Kassandra-kuoro , tiistaisin myös Kassandra ry:n järjestämät bollywood-tanssikurssi ja rumputunti, toukokuusta alkaen torstaisin jalkapallopeli, ja sunnuntaisin flamenco-tunti (ks. tammikuun postaus Olé ). Parina toukokuun viikonloppuna olen tanssinut kolmisen tuntia päivässä vierailevien afrotanssin opettajien kursseilla, joista tiedotetaan muun muassa mainiolla Afrotanssi -sivulla. Muina päivinä jaksaessaan on sitten voinut ...

During the last few months, I have read four books by Paul Auster, watched one of his movies and seen him twice. Might sound a bit obsessed. The reading part was because I figured New York City would be the best place to really immerse myself in his books, although the fourth one ( Book of Illusions , 2002) I got as a Christmas present when already in Finland. In September I began with Brooklyn Follies (2005), on sale for 4 dollars at the Strand Bookstore at the Union Square in New York. Then I continued with his latest novel, The Man in the Dark (2008) which I bought for 20 dollars at the UN: the benefits of the sold books, donated by Auster's publisher, went for the UN staff Development Fund to build a library (hopefully to get some books in it, also!) in Uganda. When I moved from Manhattan to the Brooklyn side, I finished his most famous piece, New York Trilogy (1985) - Auster's breakthrough book which is composed of three mini novels. Coincidences, double lives, obsessi...

En tiennytkään, että osallistuin poliittisen elokuvan festivaaleille. Viime viikon aikana DocPoint -festivaalit täyttivät Helsingin elokuvateatterit, ja sekä työvuorojeni lomassa (olin toista kertaa peräkkäin vapaaehtoistyöntekijänä, nyt teatterivastaavana Bristolissa) että ehtiessäni niiden aikana onnistuin näkemään yhteensä 12 dokumenttielokuvaa, keskimäärin kolme päivässä. Festivaalilla esitetyt elokuvat heijastelivat tämän vuoden teemaa, joka oli "Totuus". On ymmärrettävää, että dokumentit herättävät jotenkin enemmän ärsytystä, tuohtumusta ja ahdistusta kuin tavalliset fiktioelokuvat. Ovathan ne, ainakin jollain lailla, "todempia": tunteet nousevat pintaan eri tavalla, kun tietää tuon kaiken tapahtuneen oikeasti, oikeille ihmisille. Samalla dokumentit ovat aina jonkun ihmisen - yleensä ohjaajan/käsikirjoittajan - näkemyksiä kuvatusta aiheesta. Kuinka ollakaan, monella katsojalla on eri käsityksiä asiasta, ja mitä kiistellympi aihe on, sitä varmemmin hän haluaa...

Olin eilen pitkästä aikaa katsomassa flamenco-tanssiesitystä. Edellinen kerta oli viime helmikuussa, jolloin ihan oikea espanjalainen tähti esiintyi Aleksanterin teatterissa. Eilen olin lähiössä, Kanneltalossa, ja hintakin oli opiskelijalle kohtuullinen, vain 10 euroa. Esityksen nimi oli "Rojo - punainen", koreografina Maija Lepistö , musisoimassa bändi La Pandilla ja tanssimassa 13 Lepistön oppilasta, jotka olivat harjoitelleet vuoden ajan erityisessä koulutusprojektissa - tuloksena tämä esitys. Eturivin paikka saattoi vaikuttaa siihen, että musiikki, tanssi ja tunnelma tempaisivat mukaansa. Vaikka tanssijoiden tekniikka ja koreografioiden vaativuus olivat - ymmärrettävistä syistä - eri luokkaa kuin viime vuonna näkemässäni teoksessa, olin todella otettu. Sen, mitä saattoi vielä puuttua teknisistä taidoista, tanssijat korvasivat tunteella. Seurasin tiiviimmin esiintyjien kasvoja kuin kantapäitä. Ilmeet ja tanssijoista huokuva asenne kertoivat enemmän kuin itse liikkeet; hei...

Although I'm not physically in New York City anymore, I'll probably keep on writing about it a few more posts. The previous post implied that there is a niche for every possible country or culture in New York - that is the essence of that city. Being an Africanist, I 'had to' get acquainted with the African-ness of New York and found it in very different places, some by coincidence, some I was really looking after for. African Music Night at St. Nick's Pub 773 St. Nicholas Avenue at 149th st. (subway A to 145th st.) Review on Not-For-Tourists website ; somebody's blog entry on the night with some blurry photos; on the history of the pub on their website I spent my last night in New York, a Saturday night, in St. Nick's Pub. Mainly because I was exhausted after all the packing and going around Brooklyn, rushing through the last places I still wanted to see and didn't want to go somewhere two-hour subway-ride or an expensive cab-ride away. St. Nick's...

Either I was deliberately searching for them or I just happened to bump into these things. Little traces of Finland in New York, in places I did not expect to see them. Nokia. I know, it's global, but where else do they have a whole theatre sponsored? NOKIA Theatre Times Square is according to its webpage " New York City's finest concert venue featuring the hottest rock shows in Manhattan". I dare to doubt this, however - for example, I'm not sure how hot or rock is LL Cool J, one of the upcoming artists there. Nokia just can't be cool - Apple is cool, Nokia is just...well, you know. Teuvo Tulio. Yes, our very own Latvian-Persian-Turkish-Polish film director Theodor Antonius Tugai, born in St. Petersburg but later grown up in Finland and known as Teuvo Tulio (1912-2000) was consecrated a 4-movie series called "Master of Melodrama" in the Brooklyn Academy of Music in November. I went to see two of the movies which were very cute and nostalgic to me...

Wow, how quickly can one week pass by? I'm leaving New York City tomorrow, for those who did not know. I had so many things I was supposed to do this week - some of them I did, most not. I was hoping for more time to sit, enjoy New York, to read and to relax, but instead I slept late, went around Brooklyn, tried to pack my things in my bags and failed (until now, with a new bag) and just...didn't feel like I was leaving at all. I've gathered a small photo collage here to show some of the things I did this week: Snow. It had snowed before, too, but the flakes had always melted when hitting the ground. Yesterday (Friday) it snowed the whole day, and last night New York was one big slush zone. Today it has been more icy snow and freezing - colder than in Helsinki at the moment. It was funny to see people's reactions to snow: in the Bronx, where I visited the arts museum and just had a look around as Otto did when he was here, people were filming their children throwing sn...

I went to the taping of the Conan O'Brien Show this afternoon. The tickets had to be reserved something like 6 weeks in advance, today being the first date with available seats. Since the maximum amount for one person was four tickets, I booked them all and advertised the extra ones on our UN intern Googlegroup. To my surprise they were all gone in about 20 minutes - and I thought that Conan O'Brien is famous only in Finland... Due to lack of time (or a two-hour lunch today, last office lunch with my colleagues in a nice Spanish restaurant) and forgetfulness, I didn't even check tonight's guests online. I was happily surprised to hear that Hugh Laurie was the other guest to be interviewed, whereas the other's name I still don't remember. But besides guests and the show itself, even more interesting was to see the big machinery working behind it. Probably a dozen employees were just guiding the audience to our seats, counting and re-counting us and giving us orde...

Viime viikolla Amerikassa juhlittiin yhtä vuoden suurimmista juhlapyhistä, Kiitospäivää eli Thanksgivingiä. Ainoan täysamerikkalaisen kollegani mielestä Kiitospäivä on ehdottomasti paras juhlapyhä, koska se ei ole uskonnollinen, sillä on hieno ajatus ja yleensäkin, on vain mukavaa syödä yhdessä ja kerätä ihmisiä pöydän ääreen. Hän kysyi omista suunnitelmistani ja ehdotti illallista ystäviensä kanssa, vaikka olikin itse pois kaupungista tänä Kiitospäivänä - olin kuitenkin sopinut jo suunnitelmia, joten sinänsä houkutteleva tarjous täysin tuntemattomien ihmisten kanssa illallistamisesta jäi käyttämättä. Matkustin keskiviikkona töiden jälkeen Metro-North -radalla Hudson-joen länsipuolella pari tuntia pohjoiseen, Otisvillen asemalle. Alunperin tshekkilainen, 1970-luvulta lähtien amerikkalaistunut perhe otti minut lämpimästi vastaan, tarjosi kanagulassia ja valkoviiniä (kalkkuna odotti varsinaista Kiitospäivä-ateriaa seuraavana päivänä) ja matkan lähimpään isompaan kaupunkiin, Port Jervisii...

Kysymys, joka iskee aina ensimmäisen viikon aikana ulkomaille muuttaessa, on "mitä minä oikeastaan täällä teen?". Vastaus siihen löytyy ennemmin tai myöhemmin, tai viimeistään siinä vaiheessa kun on palannut takaisin kotiin. Koetan tässä postauksessa vastata tuon yleisluontoisen kysymyksen yhteen osa-alueeseen. Kysymys, jota useimmin kuulen - niin YK-harjoittelijoilta kuin ulkopuolisiltakin - on "mitä sinä tarkalleen ottaen teet töissä?". Tiedän, että monet harjoittelijat tekevät jotakin projektia: raportteja, selvityksiä, nettisivuja, tiedotteita tai julkaisuja. Omat työpäiväni kuluvat harvoin vain yhden asian parissa. Viime viikolla esimerkiksi kommentoin ja kirjoitin juuri julkaistulle erikoissivulle ihmisoikeusjulistuksen 60. juhlavuodesta . Aloitin myös etsimään artikkeleita ja mielipiteitä seuraavaan Civil Society Observer -uutiskirjeeseen, joka ilmestyy parin kuukauden välein ja jota tehdään yhteistyössä useamman ihmisen kanssa. Edelliseen elo-syyskuun numero...

The next post is written by my dear boyfriend who visited New York for six full days and nights this week. Text is his, photos and captions mine. Enjoy! I Feel Safe In New York City The following is a collection of notes and tidbits from my brief stay at NYC, New York as requested by my gracious hostess. Since I am a pretentious ponce, I think I shall call them Vignettes of America. 1. I Have Nothing To Declare Except That I Am Awesome Are you tired of waiting for an eternal damnation in Hell? Fear not, you can simulate your future in the Netherworld at the John F. Kennedy Airport immigration queue. A cramped cattle drive of tourists carrying their screaming offspring, the line that moves approximately a yard in minute, just long enough that you want to put your bags down, but just short enough that you must pick them right up to drag along a step or two. The room is heated but not air-conditioned and naturally the people standing before me at the queue have filled their Visa Waivers w...