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What a party we had over the weekend. Enklaavi ry turned 12 and it was celebrated with the respectful amount of eating, drinking and socialising. I was of course working as a photographer in the party, which started friday evening. Friday was the monopoly night, where the best in monopoly was Kaplaaki ry. Saturday was the actual grand annual party and it was held in the Lappeenranta Kasino - which was nice :). Sunday was spent having a brunch at a cave, about 40km from Lappeenranta, I have no idea where it is, as it was kept secret to the last moment.

President Bush of the USA gave a speech to the UN a few hours ago in New York. I couldn’t resist commenting on this, no matter how humble and unscientific my comments are. It is absolutely amazing that such a superpower can stand honestly behind these kind of statements without a blink of an eye. (All quotes are from Mr. Bush’s speech. Source: www.whitehouse.gov)

“Last month, terrorists brought their war to the United Nations itself. The U.N. headquarters in Baghdad stood for order and compassion — and for that reason, the terrorists decided it must be destroyed.”

How can anyone who believes honestly in these values destroy something that is there to defend these values? In my opinion, the people behind this attack saw UN and US presence in Iraq stand for the same values as the US pushed forward. Therefore I believe the attackers could not distinct between US and UN forces - they were both external threats in this case.

“The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction. It used those weapons in acts of mass murder, and refused to account for them when confronted by the world. The Security Council was right to be alarmed. The Security Council was right to demand that Iraq destroy its illegal weapons and prove that it had done so. The Security Council was right to vow serious consequences if Iraq refused to comply. And because there were consequences, because a coalition of nations acted to defend the peace, and the credibility of the United Nations, Iraq is free, and today we are joined by representatives of a liberated country.”

Ok, I won’t even comment on the weapons of mass destruction. It’s not like Iraq never had any weapons of mass destruction, but sure as hell they don’t have any now. 1500 people have been searching for these weapons for more than 5 months, without any result. I agree with Mr. Annan that standing behind this kind of logic, to attack a country in the name of peace, is seriously undermining the values that have kept the world a safe place for the last 58 years.

There are a lot more points I could complain on, but I see no sense in that. The speech itself tackles very important issues of today’s world - however the reasonings and ways they are proposed are not justified in my opinion. Mr Bush also says that he acted to protect the values of the UN, however he never received the green light stating go for the attack on Iraq.

I am only happy the presidential elections in the US are in a year’s time - 2nd of November, 2004. Mr Bush it is time for you to step down.

Well the weekend went more faster this time than I expected. I was supposed to get lots of things done, but I have no idea how I managed to throw all the time away. Oh well, we have another new week ahead of us. This week is bound to get very busy - I have to prepare for the Enklaavi grand annual ball and lots of other things as well. Also, I’ve got this little thing called school… the 8.30 classes aren’t the best motivation kick for a new week.

Well, got to get to sleep, got one of those 8.30 classes tomorrow - English! I know, I have to study it since I had no credits to bring/transfer from Mikkeli telling that I had studied English - well of course I didn’t because I had studied IN English. Oh well, g’nite!

Well, it’s kind of late and I’m almost going to bed - that’s almost ;) I received some good news this week. I am receiving 92 credit units from Mikkeli’s BBA program to my international marketing major. That means I have still some 50 credit units to get through. I will do some 15 this fall, that leaves me with 35 for the spring - a lot of studying, but then again, I don’t want to spend 2 years studying 35 credit units. After that, I’m thinking of going on exchange some where and doing my master’s thesis overseas. If you know someone with a need to have something studied in the field of international marketing or such, let me know ? :)

Ok, I think I’ve spend enough hours awake today. I had an 8 hour school day and that should be enough for anybody :) I also watched Pirates of the Caribbean, which was ok, interesting, but in a good way. I’ll be going to Savonlinna for the weekend, got to get some studying done and got to get some things from back home as well. Oh yeah, almost forgot, I will be the official photographer of the Enklaavi ry grand annual ball coming in a week’s time. Good night - sleep tite!

Finally I managed to post an update. The primary reason for this is probably that I have had no computer here in Lappeenranta since I came. Now I do! I purchased a Fujitsu Amilo A7600 series computer, a laptop that is, to get me through my studies. It was quite cheap and I also thought of the future where I might be travelling and moving around quite a lot, so this is more practical.

Also on another note, today will be 2 years since the WTC attacks - the glitter around this issue is kind of falling apart. I don’t know, it’s just that probably the media keeps on reminding us of all this so you get used to it and don’t really give a damn anymore. At least that’s how I feel at the moment of it.

What else… I haven’t got any cool photos to post as I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to do so, but I noticed 2 photos on the Enklaavi ry website where I am starring. These both are from an event called fuksisuunnistus, basically a drinking and orienteering contest, you have to get around the town through the spots and perform certain things. Well, the first one was where I was chosen to be the volunteer and act as a hangar for the other’s clothes. Second photo was where I had to slide down a small hill on a stiga - no comment on how I did.

Well, as I now have my computer - I will be posting more updates as something exciting happens here. Have a great weekend people!