Challenge accepted.

Sain haasteen Dziiltä eli here we go..

Haasteen ohjeet:

-Kerro 11 asiaa itsestäsi.

-Vastaa haastajan 11 kysymykseen.

-Keksi 11 uutta kysymystä.

-Haasta 11 bloggaajaa, joilla on alle 200 lukijaa.

-Kerro bloggaajille että olet haastanut heidät.

11 asiaa minusta:

1. Asun viinikaupunki Bordeaux'ssa ja elän taideopiskelijan rappioelämää...almost;)
2. Mulle sattuu ja tapahtuu uskomattomia asioita, esim rakkaustarina chérini kanssa muistuttaa jotain rakkausdraamaelokuvaa..
3. Rakastan spontaaneja asioita, sattumia, reissuja ja ihmisiä, siinä yksi tän elämän rikkauksista.
4. Haluaisin matkustaa ympäri maailman, reppureissaten mieluiten chérini kanssa.
5. Isona musta tulee kuvataideopettaja/taiteilija/laulaja...?
6. Ikävöin Suomea, sen luontoa, saunaa, perhettä ja hyvin usein sitä jokseenkin tehokasta ja loogista systeemiä. Joskus myöskin ruisleipälämppäreitä, lakua tai fazerin sinistä.
7. Rakastan sateenropinaa ulkona kattoa tai ikkunaa vasten kun oon ite sisällä lämpimässä.
8. Oon haaveilija/seikkailijasielu.
9. Oon maailmankansalainen, rasismi ja ennakkoluulot on täyttä p*skaa.
10. Uskon kaikkien pohjimmaiseen hyvyteen, mut toisinaan sinisilmäsyys johtaa mut harhaan..
11. Haluaisin oppia elämään oikeesti hetkessä, tässä ja nyt, enkä kaivata liikaa mennyttä tai tulevaa.


Ja sitten kysymyksiin:

1. Toinen nimesi? 
 - Helinä

2. Seuraatko blogeja?
 - Jonkun verran, hyvin epäsäännöllisesti tosin.

3. Jos niin mitä? 
 - Kavereiden tarinoita Suomesta ja ulkomailta, joskus eksyn vieraidenkin blogeille, harvoin muistan niille enää palata? Check it down here.

4. Lempivaatekappaleesi?
 - Tällä hetkellä kaikenmaailman mukavat mekot :)

5.  Suurin unelmasi?
 - Tehdä se maailmanympärysmatka ja joskus +viiskymppisenä omistaa jonkunnäkösen monitoimi baari/hengailu/chillailu/majoituspaikan, missä olis asioita/esineitä ja ruokaa ympäri maailman. Luovuuskommuuni !

6. Lempidrinkkisi?
 - Hmm.. ite ku en niin paljon alkomahoolea kuluta, nii ehkä joku smoothie tai virgin margarita. Ja toki itse taikomani kesädrinksut mitä harrastan! Esim joku appelsiinimehu, vichy ja tiivistesekoitus kera marjojen. Madridissa maistettu tinto de verano oli kans hyvää!!

7. Matkavinkkisi Suomessa?
 - Kyl mä sanoisin Lappi tai Turun saaristo. Järvi-Suomessa oon viimeks käyny lapsena, ehkä olis aika mennä tsekkaa se uudestaan. Roadtripiä kehiin!!

8. Matkavinkkisi ulkomailla?
 - Tää onkin paha.. Paikoista joita nyt tunnen voisin mainita vaikka Pyreneet, nii kesällä kuin talvella, ja Korsikan jos haluaa nähdä upeita maisemia. Nii ja tietty rakas Bretagne esim Point de Raz tai miksei Irlanti/Skotlanti. Pikkukaupungeista Ljubljana ja Tallina (kyllä!!), myöskin Bergamo. Ja vaikka Arcachonin Dune de Pyla on nii perusnähtävyys täällä meillä päin, on se ainaki once in a lifetime experience;)

9. Lempimusiikkivideosi?
  - Tämäkin vaikea.. viimeks oon ihaillu kyllä Gotyen Somebody That I Used To Known clippiä, taiteellinen kokonaisuus! Ja jotenki se vaan pysäyttää.

10. Popparit vai sipsit?
 - Molemmat! Leffaan popparit, muuten maissilastut ja itsetehty guacamole...

11. Lapsuuden haaveammattisi?
 - Ha! Ekaks laulaja, myöhemmin opettaja.. enpä niistä edelleenkää oo hirveen kaukana:)

And this is for you LIINA & Untouchable Place !

1. Mikä susta tulee isona?
2. Mikä asia vie sua tällä hetkellä eteenpäin elämässä?
3. Mitä sä pelkäät?
4. Lempipaikkasi (kotona,Suomessa, ulkomailla tms)?
5. Mitä haluaisit tehdä parin vuoden kuluttua?
6. Mitä arvostat ihmisissä?
7. Lempiruokasi?
8. Illallinen kotona vai ravintolassa?
9. Mikä on tärkeintä ulkonäössä (omassa tai muiden): hiukset, pukeutuminen, kasvot?
10. Mikä biisi kolahtaa just nyt?
11. Ensimmäinen toive joka tulee mieleen?

MWAOH.

¡Hola Madrid!

¡ Iida en Madrid !

Here's a short story about my lastest trip to Madrid to visit my dear friend Pinja.

 I arrived there on the wednesday night, January 16th, from Marseille. 

I had couple hours in Marseille after my 6hrs trip from Bordeaux.

 It was my second time in the southern capital of France. So I simply wandered around taking some photos of the European Capital of Culture 2013.

 

La nuit à Marseille

 

***

Pinja at Lauriina's doorstep

On thursday 17th I got to know the Spanish capital while walking around the town. I really liked the city with all the beautiful and colorful buildings - it was a nice change after Bordeaux's plain sandstone architecture. For my great suprise my australian friend Holly back from Rotary exchange happened to be there on exchange as well! It had been four years since I saw her the last time, so I was really looking forward to seeing her again. And the funniest part is that she's living in Madrid with another Finn! The girl also used to be a Rotary Exchange Student but in New Zeland! I didn't have an occation to meet her though, which really is a shame.

 
During those 5 days of holidays I met Lauriina, Pinja's friend from her university back in Finland, and her roommates from all over the world.
We had such a fun time with them! I obviously tasted some tapas and churros y chocolate, and went to el Parque del Buen Retiro.
We visited two art museums, the famous Museo Nacional del Prado where I found lots of paintings we had studied in art history like Velasquez or Greco, and the contemporary art museum Reina Sofia where I got to see the Picasso's famous Guernica !

My short holiday was absolutely relaxing and chill after the hard autumn full of work, a break of everything, without being forced to think about school. The Spanish living rhythm is completely different than in France for example, especially when the girls had classes only on the evenings! So we woke up at 10 at the earliest and didn't go to sleep before 2 am ! The trip wasn't really for gaining strength but I really needed that break, it surely was worth it!

Here are some photos from this amazing trip,
take a look & enjoy!

Out for some tapas

¡Que delicioso!

Pinja<3

Museo Nacional del Prado

Girls night - get togethering with Holly!

La Maja desnuda

Madrid by night

Retiro

Las chicas

Churros y chocolate

...mmm...

    Besos, Iida

Kuljin katuja pitkin..

Musta on ihanaa kävellä Bordeaux'n kapeilla yksinäisillä kujilla. 

Niille pääsee pakoon suurempien katujen autojen melua ja ajatus pystyy taas lentämään vapaana. Mielenrauha laskeutuu takaisin kehooni.

Eilen kotiin kävellessä poikkesin tutulta, äänekkäältä kadulta pikkukujalle, josta en ollu ennen kulkenut.
On jotenki rauhoittavaa olla välillä yksin, turvassa korkeiden, pari vuosisataa vanhojen talojen suojissa. Silloin tällöin saattaa vastaan tulla jokunen ihminen, matkalla kotiin, sattumalta noille kaduille harvemmin eksyy.

Mieleenkiinnolla katselin tuntematonta reittiäni, silmä keskittyi katsomaan yksityiskohtia ja muotoja.
Tutuilta kaduilta poikkeaminen, vaikkakin vaan omassa kaupunginosassa, saattaa johtaa siihen, että suuntavaisto katoaa ! 

Varsinkin kun keskittyy ympärilleen katselemiseen, ei siihen suunnan pitämiseen.
Näin mulle kävi eilen.
Bordeaux'ssa se saattaa olla paljon helpompaa kuin Suomessa, sillä täällä kadut kaartuilee mihin suuntiin tahansa - jos luulet valitsevasi oikotien kun olet matkalla vaikkapa vasemmalle, valitset kadun joka menee näennäisesti suoraan, mutta kääntyykin tiukkaa V-malliseen mutkaan oikealle, saatat löytää itsesi pari korttelia kauempaa mihin oli tarkoitus mennä.

Niimpä, mikäli haluaa pysyä kartalla Bordeaux'ssa, suosittelen tutustumaan niihin katuihin perusteellisesti vaikka Google-mapsin avulla ennen riskien ottoa.

Mutta tämä mun suuntavaiston katoaminen, jonkinlainen eksyminen oli oikeastaan aika hauskaa, suorastaan jännittävää! Ja kuinka ollakaan, löytäessäni taas tutun kadun seikkailuni jälkeen, huomasin olevani paljon kauempana kotikorttelia kun olin kuvitellut.

Toisinaan kadut vie mennessään ja tutuilta reiteiltä poiketessa saattaa löytää jotain jännittävää katseltavaa! 

Suosittelen!

Nyt takaisin opintojen pariin, taidehistoria ja humaaniset tieteet kutsuu vielä muutaman päivän ajan ennen tenttejä.. Sormet ja varpaat ristiin että läpi menee!

à la prochaine,

Iida

Two years

Paris, autumn 2012

Dear lecturer,
it's been long time since I wrote the last time. I'm sorry for that, but my life's been quite hectic from the last time, and I decided to do other things than writing a blog. Today though I feel like sharing my thoughts with you.

I just realized that it's been two years since I actually moved to France. Before those two years, I frequently visited the country after my exchange, because I wanted to know some more about it. And obviously I came here after my chéri. To years ago I changed a page in my life when I finally graduaded from Finnish Upper Secondary School and I started a new, independent life abroad.

I was thrilled to move on and actually start "living" a life of my own, with my chéri of course. My first spot was a little town of Douarnenez in Brittany or Bretagne. It was a brand new kind of France I've never known before; the weather, the landscapes and the people were very different than the people I used to know in Bordeaux for example. I didn't know anyone but my chéri and there were moments it was hard for me. Hard to change a crazy, busy life full of studies and work to a chill, unplanned life without routines, mornings that start with an alarm waking you brutally up. No, everything was really new for me and I think I really needed that periode in my life.

As the time went by, I learned to love Douarnenez's shores and cliffs, the extremely nice breton people and the different kind of living. I didn't work during that spring at all and in the end, I couldn't have gone further with that kind of living, eventhough it was really good for me after that crazy autumn. I decided I wanted to study in France, and live with my chéri, so I applied to École de Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux and to Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3 for a Banchelor program in Visual Arts. I got accepted to the University so I moved to Bordeaux by the end of August 2011.

I enjoyed Bordeaux life as I used to, but this time I was actually free to "live" for not being an underaged exchange student but an actual student. Eventhough Bordeaux offered a lot of things to do, I didn't enjoy that much of the student life and studies in the University. I got new friends, couple really good ones as well, but the studies seemed feartuless, too theorical and a bit oldfashioned to me. I had an apartment of my own while my chéri lived with his parents working with his dad. I enjoyed life eventhough I had lots of work in the Uni. I studied hard during the first semester, just to know how much I would need to work to keep a good level among my grades. Everything went better than I expected, I got 13,5 out of 20 for my overall score, which isn't bad at all for a foreigner as myself.

When the spring came with the results, I let myself to chill out a bit more and enjoy life. I still got 12,5 with way less of work than the first autumn. I really loved living in France, especially while my life was divided between a life in a big town like Bordeaux and a very calm countryside village like Aillas, were the parents of my chéri live. Nevertheless I slighlty started to miss Finland because I was always comparing the two countries, which, I believe, is quite natural. I do not prefer everything in Finland, not at all, but there are moments when I really miss an organised society where things just happen when they should, where people are motivated to work and where they don't blame about "everything". A place where the art studies are strongly PRACTICAL and where the young artists are encouraged to find a way of their own, without always trying to dig inspiration out of the old ones, out of an art that has already been made!

This homesickness hasn't left me alone, this autumn it has been even more powerfull than ever and I do believe the longer I stay away, the stronger it gets. I'm not saying I would like to move back to Finland to stay 'til the end of my days, but I can't deny it either. I just came back from the holidays and I seriously longed to stay there longer than ten days. I miss the most my family, because while being away I've really realized what they mean to me, and how I'd love to spend more time with them.

I think two years might be the moment, when you do know "too much" about your new home country to actually know what's wrong with it. I admit before I saw only the positive aspects of France, likewise now I know enough about the bad sides. I still love France and many things in this country, but at this point I've seriously started to respect and miss my very own Mother Land, its landscapes, the sauna (!!!), some of the Finnish mentalities, friends and my family of course.

Nevertheless, I'll stay here at least the following semester. For next year, I hope to get accepted to Erasmus exchange program to be able to get to know the Spanish version of Art studies and to aprender a hablar español! Wish me luck!!

Bisous,

Iida

Well, today wasn't my day..



A beautiful rainy day in Aillas



First in the morning I wake up, get in to the tram and realise on my way, that the essay I had take with me (the one I needed to do for to day) was the 1st version of it! Not the good one as obvious.. shiiit. and the next class will be the last one, oh well..

THEN, when I finally arrive at the university, I go to buy a coffee. Happy to have it, I start to climb up the stairs and well OUPS.....I fall down....with my coffee..

Luckily, it didn't fall on me. And I hadn't even touched it!!!

After another essay we wrote on class, we were discussing about the topic on tram with my friends, I realize I had wrote in the introduction (about "What pushes an artist to make a representation of him/herself?") that since the FIFTH century the artists have been making autoportaits... I meant to write since FIFTEENTH century.. another shit!

Until the night I didn't do anything stupid... Around seven I was about to take a train to mon chéri's, but he hadn't told his parents, who should have come to pick me up, and well, they had left somewhere, where he couldn't reach them. A night alone then...
 I arrive back home, I go to the frigde and want to drink some apple juice... well, dunno HOW it happened, but I tropped it on the ground...it was a glass bottle... and yes, it did broke. I didn't mention it was almost full??!

Well, this was Iida's Thursday's Gone Bad, hope I'm not gonna have many of these...

I have this dreaming about travels -feeling after having read my drawing teacher's comic book about the life in Madagascar, so I probably gonna watch Eat Pray Love just to tease myself.. hehe.
And to dream even more.
Well, I enjoyed sharing this with you, thanks for it.

Bye bye!

Long time no see

I'm sorry haven't been really active blogger lately, because of all the work I have had to do and still do! And because of some technical problems with internet..

I wanted to write in English so that most of my friends would be able to read this.

It's incredible how the time flyes, I'm almost done with my first year of university!

I have less than two weeks left of classes, 4 exams to go..

Eventhough I'm not so found of this French University system, I can't say I haven't learned anything.

I've learned to draw better, to analyse my thoughts and productions, to mix painting to find other colors, new techniques, art history, contemporary art, aesthetics, methodics (that i really think is worth of nothing..), graphics, cinema history and even Spanish!

Fantastico!

I've got lots of new friends, learned how to live alone (or almost alone..) and to enjoy my time, as I didn't know it anyways muhaha.. Enjoy Bordeaux and the lovely contryside.

Nevertheless, I'm happy for the end.

I really look forward to the time, I can just do or create what and whenever I want, enjoy the weather or just do nothing. Nothing at all.

The 9th May we'll head up to Irland with mon chéri for 3 awesome weeks, it'll be amazing.

Then I hope I'll pop up to Finland for an entrance exam to see everybody and enjoy Finnish summer, the best of them all!

And to be able to stop in Scotland at my cousin's with my dear friend Liina and retour to Bordeaux with her and our lovely Linda!! Second round for Chat qui pêche and all the pubs in Bordeaux, beware youselves people, it's gonna be Le-gendary!

I gotta retour to my work, but I just wanted to present you some photography of my latest work for Personal Mythologies. These photos are just the main elements in my final work, you'll get to see it soon enough, pinky promise!!

Love, Iida

Idea: ME!

Photos: Elvira Bakhteyeva