Thanks everyone

After everything that happened in Derry I feel like I should thank everyone for the last time:

Thank you

Paurick and Domnall

Feargal, Christinem Kristen, Laverne

Sara, Matt, Alissa, Mel

Darren, Ben

John 

Stephanie

Steven, Zoe

Mira

These and many other people made my trip to Derry truly amazing. So thank you, thank you all. Thanks to Foyle, CCA, (Sandinos) and to Hyria which without this trip wouldn't even had been possible. I hope my blog doesn't swarm with grammatical mistakes and that reading it is or was at least nice. I'm glad my blog is finally done although it was (troublesome from time to time) only a tiny part of everything I got to experience in the city of Derry, in Northern-Ireland. At least my school should be satisfied when I say: "I learned a lot."

Bye bye Derry

This was the busiest day of all. Today was the final full day in Ireland, because tomorrow we would travel all day back to good old Finland. I went to work just like always. Today I finally got to show everybody my finished book project. I and my coworkers quickly looked at them because soon it was already time for us to go to have a special farewell lunch. They really liked the pictures but in all the hurry I forgot to take them in to my flash drive. At lunch they all thanked me for working with them and said that they were really going to miss me. And of course I was going to miss them so I promised to stay in touch. They gave me a gift-card and said I should go spent it right away. So after lunch I went to buy myself black/white/yellow-dress. After that I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to take my work evaluation handout- letter of reference-sheet. I was bit surprised when my boss said that the hardest parts of the evaluation where the negative parts of my work. She couldn't came up with any. So I said goodbye to everyone and I agreed that I would meet my boss in the evening. I would have wanted to buy something nice to my coworkers but in all the hurry, I left them a one cup of my instant noodles, with a thank you text written on it. I was always very amused when they said how good my pot of noodles smelled because while they though my lunch was yummy I thought the same thing about their lunches.

The peace bridge at night

After work I and Mira still had some things to pack and we even had to buy extra luggage because all of our stuff didn't fit in two suitcases.
We had a special dinner with our host fathers and they gave us some really sweet gifts, like coffee mug whit the text "Frothy", postcard versions of their artwork and a "Frozen" cookie jar. I was thinking if we should have gotten them something but then I remembered the Moomin potholders and Fazer chocolate we gave to them when we met them for the first time. So we had a lovely dinner which consumed of homemade pizza and crisps and a nice dessert. Soon it was already time to head to town to meet our friends. I introduced my boss to one of my friends and I was really happy when she said: "Oh I'm not her boss, I'm more like colleague." The day went so fast, I didn't even have the time to actually internalize that we were really leaving tomorrow.

Photo I took while sitting in the bus to Dublin

Unfortunately our trip back to Finland didn't go very smoothly. In the morning of departing day Mira was really sick. She hadn't been at all on our trip so I guess this was the final change. Everything from getting to the buss to getting to the second airplane was quite horrible. Mira was feeling really nauseous and I backed some plastic bags to my bag so we'd had something she could throw up in. And of course we were in a terrible hurry once again and neither of us had slept very much. But since Mira had taken such a good care of me before I though that now was my turn. So I was strong, I didn't panic even if I really wanted to. I thought of what was waiting me in Finland: summer vacation, no summer job, my friends and family, school, writing my blog about Ireland... Sigh. I and Mira had made a deal that we would come back to Derry at Halloween. Thought of that really helped me leave, because I was certain that I could come back.  

Sunday at park

Tiniest little clover~

 This Sunday I and Mira went to discover the Waterside. We wanted to see this huge park called St. Columbs Park. There was lots of children play areas, all kind of weird swings and such (which we of course had to try out) but also lots of little paths you could walk along while admiring different trees and flowers. And not forgetting all the clovers we saw, we even found a four- and a fifth leaved one. The weather wasn't perfect but at least it wasn't raining. So here's a lots of nature pictures of the park.

There was a rabbit!

 These pictures are all over the place just because I didn't have the time nor the energy to fight with Blogspot today.

Rest of the workshops

Friday 22.5: I finally got back to work. Today was studio Hato's workshop and actually the last workshop of "Design week." There was two people along with me, a woman and the children workshop-guy. The workshop was kind of about book binding in a simpler way. In a group we choose some pages that would look good together and attached them together. There's a picture of the final result. I remember kids-workshop-guy saying "See you!" to me. Unfortunately I realized that this was actually my last full week in Derry, so I had to say that I didn't think that we would meet again. So he thanked me about everything and I thanked him. It was really nice working with him and when I said goodbye to him I started thinking how I should soon say goodbye to also everyone else.

Preparations for the "OurN"

Saturday 23.5: Today was "Our neighborhood"-projects last workshop. The same man from studio Hato was there again. He discussed with our group about a book that was going to address themes that we had gone through in our last workshops. We also scanned some pages from our notebooks which had the poem and the word practices for the book. In this workshop we also made some animal mask from cardboard, for example I made an owl mask. 

Later on I even got an email from my boss, saying that my name was also put in the book. Although it was a shame that I was sick for so many days, but overall the whole Our Neighborhood/Design week was really positive experience.

This time I really am S-I-C-K

19.5 Tuesday: I didn't go to work, because I felt a little worse than I had on Monday. Most of the day I slept with my hot water bottle. I tried to eat and drink something but it hurt too much. Mira was a great friend and bought me cough syrup and some kind of natures own throat pastilles and also more juice. My host fathers were a bit worried but I guess from their point of view laughter is the best medicine. One of them made a really funny joke about my condition (I'm not sure if I can write it here, it was a bit dirty so maybe my school wouldn't like it). But when it hurts to laugh and speak the jokes don't really help. But honestly they took good care of me (once again) and I was also glad that I was able just to be alone and sleep in my room.
20.5 Wednesday: I woke up around six o'clock because my throat was hurting. While I was lying there wide awake, shedding a few tears I decided it was time to go to see a doctor. It was truly painful. In Ireland I had the worst period cramps I've ever had and now this. I tried to sleep a bit and around 9am I headed to Foyle. I thought I should ask help there and while I was walking there I stopped at a store and bought huge loaf of bread and a ready-made-salad, so I wouldn't have to make lunch to myself and so I wouldn't be there too early (Foyle opened exactly nine o'clock).
I walked straight to the receptionist and explained my situation. She was a really nice pretty, blond woman who immediately arranged me an appointment with a doctor. I even pumped in to good old Feargal. He was same as always, very jolly. He asked how I was feeling and I answered bluntly "Horrible." While Feargal looked a bit stunned the receptionist said to him that I was sick. When Feargal understood what was going on, he slammed his hand on my shoulder and hoped that I was going to feel better soon. He even mentioned that his had been a bit sick himself.
I was told to go to the hospital (or was it more of a clinic) at 12 o'clock and they emphasized that I should tell them how it went. So I took a taxi back to home. When I got home other of our host father (one who told the funny joke) was sitting in the dining room. He looked me a bit strangely when I came back home with a huge bread in my arms. I told him about Foyle and doctors and how I was going back to rest and maybe eat some bread. He said I should do that.
12:00: Everything went well in the hospital. I just had to fill out a form of  basic information about myself. Then I waited a while and was called to see a nice female doctor. She asked me how I was feeling, if I had threw up blood or things like that. I answered "no" and she said "good". She checked my ears and throat, measured my temperature while repeating "good, good, good." For a moment I was worried that everything would be so well I wouldn't get any medicine, because at that time it was hurting so badly that I felt like crying again. Fortunately I got recipe for antibiotics and was told that the pharmacy was right opposite of the hospital. At the pharmacy I gave them the recipe and they gave me the medicine, no money was needed. I was a bit astonished that the whole doctor-thing didn't cost anything. I even walked home because I was actually really close to my home. And I even remembered to inform Foyle about how things had went.
21.5 Thursday: I still felt bad. The antibiotics where really working and I could feel getting better little by little, but I couldn't help feeling mentally bad for not being at work. Mira didn't let me go to work and I was thankful for her just for saying I should stay home. I remembered our host fathers saying how we work for free and that's one of the good reasons why we shouldn't have to worry too much about working. Of course I knew myself that the best thing right now would be just for me to get better.

Week begins with painting...

Somehow these benches remind me of  the Moomin house

The logo

Since the "Design week" would officially start on Tuesday I had promised to come to work on Monday and help my boss to get the place ready for workshops. I did all sorts of things, like for example I painted some little benches from green to blue and I also painted this huge board with chalkboard paint. There was also this man who I chatted with a little bit, he was painting this cool "Design week"-logo into the white wall.  I also lifted and moved around some heavy tables which I had assembled in the morning. Now that I think about that day It seems a bit blurry, I remember working very hard but at the same time I felt a bit ill. Around five o'clock my boss asked me to come to the store with her but she quickly changed her mind when I mentioned that I felt a bit dizzy. She sent me home and I went to a store where I met Mira, I had to buy some juice because my throat was starting to get a bit sore. We finished our groceries, so we would have smt. for this weeks lunch and went to home. I just hoped that I wasn't really going to be sick. Not when the super busy workweek had already started. I was even signed up for Monday evenings "Sign painting"-workshop, but of course I couldn't go. I thought that a bit of rest and juice would make me feel better again

The chalkboard-board

.

Anti-art

There would have been ”Our neighborhood”-workshop today as well but I decided to have a day off since on Monday I would have a workday. Also I had planned with Mira that we would go to local bubs art event, called “Anti Art.” Simply put you were able to draw a live model. You didn’t have to be an artist, anyone could go there and it was really enjoyable. There were two young women as models. I really like drawing live people and those women were almost perfect models. One of them was shorter and curvy and other one was tall and skinnier, they posed at the same time from about 2 to 20 minutes so you were able to choose which one you’d like to draw or maybe draw both. They had lovely outfits like for example really pretty lingerie, which were ideal to draw because you were able to see their bodies really well. The whole atmosphere was really nice, the models even walked round looking at peoples sketchbooks and choosing which one of are their favorites. The favorite also got a little award, homemade brownie or a shot of whiskey. One of Miras pieces were chosen as a favorite sketch. She was a good girl and took the brownie rather than alcohol. At the evening even our host fathers wanted to see our sketches and commented them with their usual humor. They even liked them so much that they gave us ice cream. I think it was vegan because it tastes quite funny, but it was good.
...
I wonder if this post was supposed to be about art or about food?

Our neighborhood-project

Today started the much talked about "Our neighborhood"-project. It’s a bunch of workshops that happen around same week as the “Design week”, which is also a variety of different workshops.

I had put my name to many entrant lists which explained what would happen on which day and where it would happen, also if that project would be part of “Our neighborhood” or “Design week.” So I was able to participate workshops but also help around and work at the same time. It was indeed going to be a busy week. Today's workshop was the first part of our neighborhood-project. I and a group of women (including my boss) went to a petting farm, where we were supposed to do a literature practices.

We went to there by taxi and when we got there I felt so bad my hands and legs were shaking. But there's nothing a fresh air wouldn't fixed so I pulled myself together so I could enjoy the day, or at least so I wouldn't throw in front of everyone. It was raining a bit so we did the first exercise in a gift-shop/cafe. It was about making up a new word of a word which the person next to you had written down. Maybe a bit simpler said: If a person next to me gave me paper full of words like forest, trees, bunny I could write anything that relates to those words. We did that couple of rounds and then when we got our own papers back we read the content out loud. From those words we chose our favorites and made a poem out of them. I hadn't written any poems in a while (it was maybe a year since my last poem) but it was quite nice. My voice trembled while I read it out loud but everyone was really nice so I didn't have to. One of them even complimented my little poem. There was also another little exercise and a speech about what kind of words we use to describe animals.

We ate lunch before the main task and I took some photos for CCA of the place and of our lunch.

The lunch I had to photograph

The main task was to choose an animal from the farm and then study it's behavior, study your own behavior, think how the animal would see the situation and then write it all down. approximately something like that. The place itself was huge. First there was some little birds and animals like chipmunks and rabbits, after those there was a children playing area (It was typical to throw a birthday party there) but after I had walked past all those things I saw big stanchions and lots of trees and green grass. I took lots of pictures so I think I'm going to let them explain the area.

Building where the rabbits and birds were

Luckily it didn't rain for long

 

For the exercise I chose a very annoyed looking rabbit. Including our literal practices there was also a lot of talk about the animals conditions in the farm. Some animals really looked like they weren't enjoying themselves especially when there was lots of screaming children around.

After the trip was over we went back to CCA to drink some coffee and tea and discuss a bit about the day. People in the group were very nice, smart and artistic women. So I enjoyed talking to them and listening them talking about important and not-so-important issues. I especially liked when one of the women who always had sunglasses on explained about her cats personality and peculiar behavior. 
 
On top of that I and Mira went to watch Nirvana tribute-band in the evening~
(And then there's a lot of pictures of the farm.) 

Best part were the "natural" areas

For some reason there was stuffed animals with the real ones

 (Edit: For some reason some of the text is highlighted and it doesn't show when I'm trying to fix the text, only in the final text. Same applies to the picture: they are in different order in the final version. This post is a mess.)

Rainbow project

This Thursday our host father had an unveiling of his artwork which he had done for “Rainbow project”.

What is Rainbow project?

 “The Rainbow Project works to improve the physical, mental & emotional health of gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender people and their families in Northern Ireland.”

RAINBOW POWER

Our host fathers artwork

Our spoil of the evening.

If I haven’t mentioned earlier both of our host fathers are artist (designers) and I was thrilled when we were asked to come to and see our other fathers work. On Thursday 7pm I and Mira walked to this kind of event where there was nice hardworking people, doing something for the community. And there was also free food. Our host fathers had a habit of joking around, they told us earlier about that there would be free cake (maybe they though they could lure us there with that information.) and that when we would come there we would meet all the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender in Derry. The piece our host father had done was amazing! It was really beautifully colored and was very informative about GLBT-hisory. I would have wanted to compliment it so much more but I was kind of speechless. There was also free badges and other little things and they were giving postcard versions of the big poster (of course "giving" I mean you take one and then make a suitable donation.) There also was a some important people making speeches about Rainbow projects work et cetera. Honestly it was really interesting and also nice way to learn something new, once again.  

Late

I want to write about this because of this event I felt a bit stunned for the rest of the day. Today was the last day we would have children workshop at CCA. I was thrilled, because it had been very nice to work around kids. I woke up around nine, went to shower, ate breakfast etc. etc. I was off to work before ten (or at least I thought so). I was supposed to be there ten o’clock so I could set everything up for the kids, but when I got to work the place was packed with children. I was a bit shocked. I look at the time and it was eleven. Where did my hour+20minutes for walking to work go!? I don’t know, but I hope you can imagine how confusing it was.

Sigh… So I screwed up. Apparently I still don’t know how to look at the time correctly.

I quickly threw my bag to the office room and tough I’d rush to work. Our male coworker looked me with a worried expression on his face and asked: “Is everything okay”. I gave him the simplest answer I could: “No, everything is not.” I explained that I was supposed to be at work extra early today (normally my work starts at 12am if you remember.) but ended up being extra late. He looked maybe a bit relived, then he smiled and said that it’s okay and because our boss has a meeting today she won’t even notice.

I tried to help as much as I could with the children and when they left the workshop leader came to thank me for the good work. Once again I couldn’t say anything but “noes.” I explained to him that I felt really bad about being late and that there wasn’t even a good reason for me being late. But was he angry? No, he also smiled and said it was nothing and that I had been a really big help.

I’m not sure if it’s because the fact that I tend to worry too much or because I sometime exaggerate things but I couldn’t believe everyone reacted so worry-free, while I myself felt bad.

Maybe it’s the Irish way. Even my boss said it was fine, she was a bit flabbergasted of what had happened to my brain on that morning, but so was I. In the end no harm done, but I definitely don’t want to try these kind of time lapses again.

   An Irishman's Philosophy

In life, there are only two things to worry about... Either you are well or you are sick. If you are well, there is nothing to worry about, But if you are sick, there are only two things to worry about... Either you will get well or you will die. If you get well, there is nothing to worry about,

But if you die, there are only two things to worry about... Either you will go to heaven or hell. If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.

And if you go to hell, you’ll be so busy shaking hands with all your friends... You won’t have time to worry!

I sent a card to my friend which had this text. Source

Nuts

Wednesday was once again a bit different workday. I modified my book photos almost the whole day and along with me there was a young man working that day who I haven’t met before. I heard things about him like “He’s the guy who takes care of the repairs et cetera” and that “He’s very nice.” Of course my morning started him looking at me weirdly until I told him that I actually work in the CCA. So I modified some pictures while he and the man who led the children workshop were having some kind of bookshelf modifying project. It wasn’t the bookshelf which was in the library, it was a smaller one somehow between toilet and the office space.

Here’s a picture of it after I cleaned it up

It was a nice day, I felt like the guys had their own "manly" project and I was glad I got to do my own things, I even was unprompted and went to the store to buy toilet paper, just because I wanted to get some fresh air and simply ‘cause we didn’t have any. 

The repair-guy  even offered me some nuts around lunchtime (or maybe snack-time), which were covered with sugar. I couldn’t believe it first the popcorn and now nuts Now I’m certain that the biggest culture shock was all the weirdly sweet tasting food. It’s the little things that matter. My nice day ended up with all three of us talking about who would be coming to work tomorrow. Neither of them was coming, so they joked about me being in charge. Next day I was back to work with the nice woman I had done paperwork for.

Rain

I watched the rain from my window

Grey Derry

This week I would be working mostly alone and with one of my coworkers. For your information if I’ve had forgotten to explain: I myself think that I have three coworkers (two women and a man, regular staff) and a boss (woman) also there are some people who are much more random because they don’t’ work so regularly at CCA, like the man I assisted, when there was children’s workshops. Many of the regular staff at CCA also work only for some days of the week, like Tuesdays and Thursdays but there can also be variations with that work schedule. What I’m trying to say that I was always a bit clueless who would be working on which day.

It was a bit strange that there was only one person with me, but I had my own book project so I was happy doing that. I also got to do something that I haven’t done in CCA, I got to do some paperwork. Another new experience which I guess most people would find dull, I found interesting. I even talked about the weekends Jazz-festival. I sat in the library/workshop-room, drinking tea, doing paperwork, listening the pouring rain. I pictured myself working in some sort of office and thought: “Finally the weather is like it should be in Ireland.”

Inconvenient convention

I don’t talk much about free time because first I see this blog mainly as a place to document what I have learned when working on abroad and secondly because some parts of my free time is something that I’m not allowed to mention in a school blog. I can mention that usually me and Mira spent time shopping clothes and video-games in our favorite shops like in a secondhand game shop where the cheapest ps3 games costs around 2$. We drink tea and eat cake in nice cafes, when it’s a good weather we sometimes draw outside or just walk around the town looking for new interesting places and shops to visit. When the weather is bad we draw at home, or watch series like “the New Sherlock Holmes”, “Fargo” or every Finns favorite “Pasila” (Because I’ve never watched it).

So yeah we don’t always do something special or huge but for this weekend we got to do something awesome. As I mentioned before we had bought tickets to Comicon and this was the day we would go there!

Source

We woke up super early so we would get to train that would leave at 7am. Everyone had complimented the train route because it went next to the coast and because of that the view would be great. Our host fathers even gave us special transportation-cards, so we could get discount from the train tickets. We walked a while and then went the rest of the way with taxi, because we were in a hurry. At the train station we heard that all of present-day trains were cancelled but we could take a bus that would take us to another train station which would take us to our destination: Belfast. It was a bit of a hassle but luckily we managed to get to the bus which was supposed to leave at 7am also. Actually I ran to the bus and asked them if they could wait while we buy bus tickets.

So our travel started with a bit of transportation problems. At least on the other train station we saw some cosplayers and knew that we were heading for the right direction. When we got to Belfast we had to walk from train station to King's Hall where the convention was held. Of course after a long trip we were hungry. There was lots of cute cafe's and fancy restaurants. We went to Subway.
We also asked how to get to Kings Hall and the Subway staff and some nice elderly couple advised that we should take a bus to get there. Then the elderly couple looked us a little closer and the woman said: "But with your legs it might take less than half an our." And so we walked to King's Hall with our long legs. Luckily it was good weather because I had forgotten to take my umbrella with me..

Finally after a longish walk we were at the Comic-con! There was lots of people, some nice outfits (thought it wasn't as much as in some Finnish conventions). It was interesting to compare the differences and the similarities between Finnish "Cons". The whole large hall was filled with different stalls that were selling anime, figures, plush toys, self published comics, art prints, even real life weapons, but strangely no manga. Maybe in Britain they appreciate more anime than manga. Personally I like manga more, but of course I ended up buying loads of anime-series and -movies.
We walked around the convention, exploring every stall again and again. It was really fun because I've always wanted to go to a convention abroad, although we were told that Belfast's Comic-con is actually kind of small convention.

We even saw Spiderman (But don't have any good pics of him)

We stayed till the end of the convention and then went to search someplace were we could eat. It had started to rain a bit but when we finally were at the same Subway as before it was pouring. And we were soaked. We ate and tried to dry up a little. We didn't have any idea when our train would leave but near the train station we saw our train standing on the station. We ran so it wouldn't leave without us. But unlike the bus, the train didn't wait. We had to wait a while for the next train, under a shelter, still soaked and freezing.

But in the end the train arrived. With wet clothes we sat in the train once again trying to warm up a bit. Of course the trip wasn't over because we knew that we would have to get to a bus to get back to Derry. Apparently we had much more like with buses than trains, because we didn't have to wait the bus to Derry at all. We just walked in to a bus, bought tickets and soon it started to head back home. But it still wasn't time to rest because Derrys train/bus station was on the Waterside and it was still raining. We really didn't want to walk home. So we found a nice little Chinese food-restaurant and asked if they could call us a cab. After a long day we were home around 10pm. Our host fathers wanted to hear how our day had went. We told that it was fun but at that moment we just wanted some dry clothes. We made some tea and of course filled our hot water bottles, as our host fathers recommended.

Picture from the Jazz-festival.

There was also a Jazz-festival in Derry from Thursday to Sunday. So we enjoyed the Sunday walking around Derry listening some big-band and Jazz music. It truly was an eventful weekend. Of course we also agreed that we would go eat Chinese food some other day. 

Children

There are couple of work days which I tend to reminisce with warmth, they were days that once again taught me a lot of useful new skills. Couple of those days were days when I got to be a workshop assistant.

I met a man who was somewhere between twentyish or thirtyish years old, very nice ginger fellow whose eyes were like blue glass. Just for the record: I have a bad habit of not looking people in the eyes when I speak to them, but this time I really tried and that’s the reason why I still remember his peculiar eyes. Also of course because they were indeed, so peculiar.

But enough about the eyes. He had come to CCA to keep an art workshop for elementary school students, him being an artist as well. The workshop was about Bea McMahon exhibition which involved themes about nature and especially wolves. After my boss had made a speech about the exhibition he introduced me and the workshops leader to children and teachers, so we could get started.

Bea McMahons works

The instructions: (which usually changed a bit with different groups and days) went something like this: You’re going to think of a word that describes your feelings towards the exhibition, nature, forest something like that. And then you’re going to write it down with bubble letters and draw something in to small paper that goes along with the word. Like if you write down “Wolf” you can draw for example a pair of sharp wolf teeth. Then when you have the word and the picture they’re going to be attached by making a slice in the paper which has your word in it so the small picture can pop out of the bigger picture, just like in McMahon's works. Also there was some fake fur and feathers which could also be attached to the work. 

Making a slice to the paper and trying to get all the little parts and fur to stick in the paper was “adults job” so I got to help around whit that. Also I got to talk with the kids, offer coffee or tea to teachers and naturally clean and tidy up (there was fake fur and colored pencils everywhere.) I was really surprised how well all the children behaved. Sometimes they were super excited to hear that I'm from Finland and wanted to hear some Finnish words. I had lot of fun talking to kids although sometimes I wasn't sure what they were saying. Little kids with Irish accent can be a bit confusing.
It was also nice getting to know the man who lead the workshop. He was really nice and we talk little about art, children, teaching and such. On the first workshop day we had two groups, one around ten-eleven o'clock and other around one o'clock. So I got to eat lunch and tidy up before the next group. Working with kids really gave me bit of confident and it really makes things easier when you're working in a nice environment with nice people. Children really are draining bunch, I was always a bit exhausted after every workshop.

From CCA's Facebook

May Day

Oh look there's Mira right behind me!

Today was yet another normal day, expect for us who had come to this land of leprechauns all the way from Finland.  We Finns were going to celebrate May day, Vappu.

I and Miras May day consisted of explaining what Vappu means, what we do in Finland to celebrate it and missing our graduation hats because this would have been the first year when we could have used them. Of course because we both had to work on Friday (I would have to wake up earlier than usual) we didn’t go out to celebrate or anything like that. We bought a cake and died our hair.

Hurray, what a May Day! On that day I finally became a fake ginger head!

Business card

(CCA logo source)

As I previously wrote I like to tell about different things I do at work. Today I was asked to make business cards to my boss and one of the coworker. I had heard about them talking about me doing their cards but I really wasn’t sure if I’d do them or not. Simply put I felt like I could finally do them and get it over with, I was a bit terrified. They had the design of the old cards and using Photoshop I designed some different backs for the cards and hunted another font that would go together with the official one. In the end they were pleased with my work and so was I.

Reason why I was nervous was because I knew I had to use Photoshop. I still don’t feel very comfortable using it but after modifying so many pictures of books I think I should be more secure about working with Photoshop.

Needle in a haystack

I usually like to write about different things I did at CCA. Of course while doing these little things, like cleaning, painting walls, going to the shop and things like that I was always also doing my “photos of books”-project. On Tuesday I did it all day, except the last half an hour of which I and my coworker did something really frustrating: We went to the infamous storage room and we had to look for one little screw, which apparently belonged to an exhibition that had been in the CCA half a year ago. So for the last 30 minutes we looked for the screw and talked about how awesome it would be is the whole storage room could be organized, it was kind of our mutual, annoying dream.

More pictures of that dreadful storage room.

 In the end we didn’t even find it. But the good news where that on Tuesday I and Mira bought tickets to the Belfast Comicon!

Popcorn

Task of the day: Make popcorn, both sweet and salty. I burned the first ones, but then I got the hang of it and rest of them were actually quite perfect. I wonder if I can write it to my CV: “Can manage to make popcorn for great masses.”

At three o’clock adults, children and dogs were all set to watch a movie called “Ernest & Celestine” a movie about friendship of a bear and a mouse. My boss had already fixed the projector so movie watching went smoothly. I took some pictures of the event, watch a bit of the movie and ate some sweet popcorn.

Movie day went well, I cleaned up a bit (children + popcorn= popcorn everywhere) and got the rest of my Saturday off. It was really nice of CCA to throw such an event, just so people could enjoy a free movie and a bowl of popcorn. I have to say that the sweet popcorn was so weird (I never had sweet ones before) that I decided to buy a package to take with me to Finland. 
I searched picture from the movies cover from Google and because unfortunately I don't have pictures from the main event here's a link for CCA's Facebook site where there are lots of great photos from different exhibitions and events.

White wall and home alone

CCA always tends to surprise me.

On Friday I had a simple task which was that I had to paint a white wall in the library area, white. I putty little holes in the wall and painted the dirty and grayish spots with white paint. Once again I really liked what I was doing, whichever it was because of the feeling of painting for the longest time or just because I was wearing this gorgeous orange overalls.

Anyways I did this odd little job because on Saturday there was going to be a free screening for children and pets (and anybody who wanted to watch a free movie). I had bought popcorn and I and my boss had dug out a video projector and a DVD player from the storage room. So everything was kind of set for tomorrow, expect that the projector wasn’t working, but still my boss decided that I could leave earlier.

At evening I ate dinner with my host family, without Mira, because she was at Dublin with her boss doing some work things. I was constantly asked if I miss Mira or feel lonely without her. I didn’t miss her, of course I didn’t she left this morning and would be back on the around 9pm. But at the same time I couldn’t help picturing how weird it would be if it was just me and my two host fathers…

Rest of the evening I was completely alone, fathers had once again gone somewhere (birthday, party, restaurant etc.) Alone, all by myself I felt great. It was weird but at the same time refreshing. I made some tea and sat down in the dining room, whit my sketchbook. And I did what I sometimes do when I’m home alone in Finland in my family’s dining room: I drew, sang, talked to the cats when they passed by and enjoyed the fact that I was just by myself.

This must have been the only time on my exchange period when I was home alone. When Mira arrived I told her about my great day and asked her about Dublin. I told her that I didn’t miss her (although our host fathers would tell otherwise) but in the end I was glad she was back home.

Lunch

Tuesday started as like any other normal nice workday. Usually I bring my own lunch to work or go to the store at lunch break or even eat with Mira (Subway). Sometimes my coworkers have a habit of eating together. One of them goes to store and buys (it seems like it) anything that could go in to a salad or with salad for example cheese, lettuce, bell pepper, tomatoes, beans, ready-made-salad with rice that you can eat with your homemade salad and of course weird and delicious bread like pumpkin seed bread. Today I was asked to join this fun for the first time, maybe it was because I was about to have lunch at the same time as them (usually I eat it later than others and I thing it somehow strange.) I was really taken when my boss said I could eat with them, not because of the food but because she said that I'm part of the team. It was nice, I listened them talking about work, politics and such and it was really interesting. Of course it was nice and fun because what wouldn't be in Ireland? Well everything can't be perfect and after lunch I got the worst headache I've ever had. I started to feel nauseous but I kept on working. It wasn't nice at all because my coworkers would have wanted to go somewhere together with me in the evening. When it was time to head home I apologized that I should have to stay home today because I felt simply terrible. They were worried but at least I was able to explain what was wrong with me. I even got some medicine from one of my coworker, which didn't really have any effect because they were mostly caffeine.
I went straight to home and called Mira and told her I wasn't feeling very great.
At home I explained the situation to my host father and he said I should use hot water bottle. Apparently hot water bottle cures everything from stress to cancer.
I rested the rest of the evening and couldn't even go to work on Wednesday.

And if you're wondering what was wrong with me I can just say: "God, do I like being a woman!"

Ewing Street

Today I and Mira finally fulfilled our trip to the Ewing street!

Why was it so important to visit there?

 1. It’s sounds kind of funny, ‘cause we say it emphasizing the “Ewwwww”-part. It’s an inside joke.

2.  Before we were sure of having a host family, we thought about having a place in Ewing street.

Me~

Beginnig of the books

My work area.

For a few days I did listed up some of the important stuff in the storage room and making excel sheets out of it. But after the inventory was finished something great happened.

CCA gave me my own project which I could do whenever there isn’t anything more important to do. They wanted me to photo every one of their books in their library (Library being one bookshelf) so they could use those pictures in their website. I was little unsure because I don’t care much of taking photos but when I started this project it just sucked me in. It sounds dull but I liked it. I got to work with books and a system camera, I even got to use Mac computer to Photoshop my pictures. It was about ten to twenty different pictures of one book, there was no time limit and I got to work all alone. It felt great.

"Blankets" I'd like to read it again

 On that day I also discussed about graphic novels with my co-worker. She told me how she doesn’t really like to read them but at the same time she really wanted to hear my opinion about them, because comics and graphic novels are really close to my heart. She even lent me two books, “Blankets” and “Saga, part one.” This is just a one example how nice they really were and how I was able to discuss with them as they treated me as one of their own. I always remember my boss saying that I’m part of the team now, I remember feeling really flustered and most of all happy.

Back to work

...to this.

From this...

My first full workweek started on Tuesday. It was nice to be back and my boss was asking if I had done anything exciting on Monday. I told her about our PC world adventure, because for me walking and getting lost in new places in a foreign country, that’s exciting.

Tuesday wasn’t about cleaning, it was about sorting. I got three boxes full of wires and was told to Velcro tape them so they would stay rolled, you know, so they’d stop being a big pile of tangled up wires.

Just a little corner of the horror.

 Once again I enjoyed these little tasks that might seem somehow futile. But what I learned was that no work is futile, especially when it comes to cleaning and keeping things in order. Besides it’s nice change of pace when you have different things to do.

I even got to hear plans about cleaning up the storage room. It’s a really small space backed up with everything from wineglasses to Nokias cellphones. I’m certain that that room is going to give me nightmares, because I knew that I would have to work with it, maybe even clean it and the whole thought just gave me chills. It was like this: “I wanted it to be cleaned and I wouldn’t mind cleaning it, but it’s such a huge job to do that even the thought of it is overwhelming.”

But for now I simply started out with inventory.

Waterside

On Monday I and Mira took a little trip to the other side of the bridge called: Waterside. Reason why, was because my laptops charger had stopped all of a sudden and I had to go to place called PC world to get a new one. We had a map and after asking our fathers and Foyles opinion about where we should go, we had a destination called Crescent link and that PC world would be there.

Despite everyones suggestion of taking a buss, me and Mira decided to walk all the way, mostly because we thought it would be more fun that way, more of an adventure and because we still didn’t really get that in Britain everybody uses either a buss or taxi most of the time. Also walking = cheaper and healthy. It was about 3,2miles from our house to PC world, expect it was even more because we got a little lost.

We got lost even though we had our little tourist map which didn’t even have all the roads in it so can you really blame us for being lost? We asked help from a nice man who worked in a pet/gardening shop. He drew us a map which was way better than ours, even if it was really quickly drawn.

Honestly this was way better than the map we had before.

We continued our journey walking besides a motorway. We even saw some kid wearing their school uniforms, they were strangely fancy and cute at the same time.

Moving on we finally reached our destination: “PC World” I was very proud of us and tired and hungry. But as if an reward of our long trip, I got free charger for my laptop. Don’t ask me how, nice fellow just handed me a one from their storage room and said it was free.

Before heading back home we ate in a Subway (Subways in Ireland were so much cheaper than in Finland so they quickly became one of our haunts.) We went to the nearest bus station and waited a while. After all that walking it was really nice to take a bus back home (enough exercise for one day).

At home I was finally able to open my laptop and start writing my blog about Ireland, except I wasn’t. 

My laptop didn’t work. Was I pissed? Yeah...