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I survived midsummer’s eve and am now in Savonlinna again. The pictures ought to be coming online in a week or so. That is because tonight I am going to South-Eastern Finland with my cousin.

What else… the party in Punkaharju was pretty good, except for the weather. It rained somewhat and that made it a bit disappointing, but didn’t restrict the partying a lot. Also, I just received an email that Ilosaarirock is now sold-out again :) and I have a ticket! Yee! This is all for now, and come on… I know it’s cool to surf on the web, but it’s summer… go outside! unless you’re working of course ;-)

Today has been a very good day. Looks like everything has worked out the way I planned it, and that in this situation is something to be happy about. I was in the entrance examinations to Lappeenranta University of Technology today to apply to continue my BBA to masters degree. It went suprisingly well, about 18 correct and 7 or 8 wrong, according to last years statistics, I should be able to get in, but let’s wait until 4th of July.

I also had my birthday on sunday. It was actually a very nice day too. I spent the whole day in Joensuu, parawaiting, but also talking with paraglide pilots from there. That’s the atmosphere I missed the most from Granada…. having the whole paragliding scene around you. We were kept along the runways waiting by this guy, and this guy. Jarmo took the time to play around with his new paraglider, UP Summit.

We decided to leave the airport and head towards Mustavaara, a slalom hill that was directly facing the western wind. We caught two small slides from there and were able to fly a bit. Well, that was that. Now I’m setting my camera ready for Juhannus as it will be here in only a few days. Have a good one!

I’ve got a plan for this week: I’m reading for my entrance exams and working! Just to prove this, I had a photo taken of me :) and by the way its not faked! We were cutting wood for my friends grandmother. Good job, get plenty of exercise and so on. Hmm… better continue reading, that way I can make it earlier to “work” and get earlier to Sillansuu for the “thursday beer”. :)

I received my SAT score a while ago. Doesn’t look very impressive :). Anyways, I’m happy to say that I have now done it and can intelligently discuss issues that may arise about the SAT 1 exam in the near future with personal experience…. what?! Who am I kidding?! The test is pretty ridiculous in telling how smart or “ready” people are to university or where ever they may use this to get into.

In this sense, I value the university test in Finland more. You at least have to read material regarding the university and major you are applying for, business material for business schools for example. I bet anyone could study a full year for the SAT and do sufficiently well. Than again, if Finnish universities used questions in their entrance exams that required critical thinking skills based on the material they have read, now that would be something. This would almost allways require an essay based exam. Another question that may arise from this topic is their comparativity between each other, who is to say that someone’s answer is better than the other’s?

Then of course there’s the system they have in Germany, for example. Everyone is accepted to the university to study the subject they want. The 2 year “play-offs” decide who are qualified to take it all the way to the end, the others fall out in the process. This is very typical to the Germans, the strongest survive, thus vreating the most optimal situation in the future job markets. But it is not very humane, you may not study the subject ever in your life in any university in Germany. Well, what can I say, if I would have to decide between these, I would say the German entrance exams are the best (as there are none) and then to continue from there, the Finnish way would be the best. If they only could see in the parliament that these two systems don’t rule out each other, but make each other more complete, we would live in a very nice world :)

*Don’t take it too seriously, see the humour in it* :P

AND FINALLY, I remembered to share it with you, I got accepted to Hanken, the Swedish Business School in Helsinki to study Advanced Financial Information Systems as a major. Sounds cool eh? :) well, at least I have some alternatives for the autumn.

I just came back from a job interview. I’m not sure if I’m aiming too high or what, but this must have been my 6th or 7th interview this year. You’re now thinking probably that what is this guy doing wrong that he’s not getting a job…? You tell me… I dunno :) Anyways, this interview was for Mikkeli Polytechnic Corporate Services thingy or something like (notice the problem of translating words from Finnish to English), it was actually almost what I could want to do for a long time, but let’s see how it’s gonna go. I was left with a positive impression of the whole thing, but I ain’t gonna say dis or dat before they send me that letter or give me that call.

Yesterday I went too see Matrix Reloaded. I have to say, the first one was a lot better. Why does every movie have to be made into a trilogy? Matrix could have worked being only two parts, now they made the story so, that to find out how the thingy ends, you have to and see the third part… that sucks. It’s also becoming very “X-Files”ish…. Well, the Wachowski brothers deserve their pay, but c’mon guys… money’s not the most important thing in the world or is it?!

What’s new? Nothing really, I’m still unemployed, reading for the entrance exams to Lappeenranta Technological University. I’m hoping to study there either this coming fall or the year after. This depends if I get a year’s job as an IT Specialist in Savonlinna. It’s something like a substitute for a maternity leave (Ôø?itiyslomasijaisuus), but sounds good, I could gather a bit of money and continue my studies then.

Anyways, I’m not really up to anything fancy these days, just trying live on a few euros per day and that kind of narrows it down for me what I can do. I’m really eager also on going to Ilosaarirock, which is organized 11.-13.7 this year and most likely the tickets will be sold out in 2 to 3 weeks. The price 45Ôø? and if I can’t solve a few knots in my life, can’t really go :(…. but anyways, I will continue with the reading now. The next photogallery will most likely be Juhannus 2003…