Golden October

Today it was rather autumn than winter. See these colours:
But tomorrow there will probably be snow during the day and frost at night.
Especially on such a cold day it was nice to sit in a café with my two Finnish language partners Emmi and Laura talking about politics in Germany, winter in Finland, differences of courses at German and Finnish universities, this and that ... Next week we want to see a movie together at the German Film Festival in the Goethe institute! A good plan for cold and dark evenings :-)

WINTER!!

During the last days and weeks I enjoyed the autumn colours in beautiful sunshine, even though it was already quite cold.

But well equipped with frontlet, scarf and gloves biking is still a pleasure.

However, today we had the first SNOW! In October, unbelievable. Yet, it didn't remain on the ground, but melted immediately. One morning when I went running, some bridges and parts of the grass were already frozen.

Equinox has passed, so the days are shortening. From the beginning to the end of october the hours of daylight decrease from 11.5h to 9h. The minimum is reached at the 23.12. when here at 60° N the sun rises for 5:46h. In comparison Hannover (52° N) has then 7:40h of daylight. So the difference is not as big as I had feared.

Check it yourself on http://www.acl-worms.de/WebForm-Sunrise-Sunset.aspx !

Imagine what is the best you can do on a cold winter evening in Finland?! Of course, sauna! Our students' apartments house has its own sauna and today was the women's turn. I went there with my two French flatmates. That was great. According to the house rules we are actually not allowed to wear any swimwear in the sauna due the chemicals in it like chlorine. But it is possible to cover oneself with a towel. That's what we did, but all the others wore bikinis. So we'll probably also do it next time. But I think the real Fins go to the sauna naked, we exchange students on the contrary don't.

Helsinki

Lena and Alissa stayed here for 3 days. They were the first who visited me here, but hopefully not the last ones! We found out that it is possible for 3 persons to sleep in my 10.5 m² room.

We visited the Russian-Orthodox church, the white cathedral ...

... and one modern church which was built into a rock! Light enters the church through glass windows in the cupola.

The second largest fleet of icebreakers in Europe is positioned in one of the harbours of Helsinki. They are really impressive! Their names are for example VOIMA (force), SISU (persistence) and URHO (bravery).

Furthermore, we ate lots of porridge with blueberry soup, played Doppelkopf with my cousin Emil and Lena and Alissa visited even some lectures. Since their departure I have started to study diligently again ... But in 2 weeks we have one "free" week, i.e. only one maths exam and two lectures because one professor who is now at conference had the "brilliant" idea to postpone the lecture to our holidays.

Another boat trip

Fortunately I didn't need to leave from Sweden alone, but Alissa and Lena joined me :-) From the ferry we could see Stockholm in another perspective.
Compared to my boat trip from Travemünde we had quite high waves! But we survived the tour and had the deck outside nearly for ourselves alone.
Alissa and me (sometimes we have been taken for sisters):

Lena and me, inseparable flatmates:

In the next morning we approached Helsinki! Before arriving we passed the fortress Suomenlinna on an island.

During the passage the waves were ok for me, but when I left the ferry, everything around me was still wobbling and wavering. This state lasted for 3 days...

Stockholm

It was the official Swedish "Day of the Cinnamon Bun" (kanelbulle) when we went to Stockholm where we enjoyed them in a café :-)

There are beautiful colourful houses in Gamlastan, the old part of the town. Two years ago I took nearly the same picture: with Regina instead of Lena...

This Svenska Akademia contains the Nobel museum:

Sweden is still a monarchy and we could observe a ceremony in front of the castle with soldiers and the brass orchestra.

Weekend in Sweden: Uppsala

2 hours from Köln to Stockholm Arlanda - I didn't go back directly to Helsinki, but Alissa and I visited Lena, my previous and sadly missed flatmate from Göttingen who studies now in Uppsala. Leaving the plane, I was shocked by the 8°C after t-shirt temperatures in Germany! Lena showed us the pretty town: river, nice café, old library, big cathedral...
In the evening there was a party in her corridor.

On the second day we went hiking in a wild forest. For our picknick we even found a fire place! We crossed black water over wooden planks, found some blueberries and got quite wet in the rain. But it was a great trip into the beautiful nature!

1 week in Köln

Our theoretical paricle physics seminar group met for the fourth time and during this week we learned a lot about supersymmetry. In fact, we have become a "sgroup" ;-) (insider for physicists). In our (little) free time had a guided tour through Köln in the evening, visited the cathredral (Kölner Dom) where we spotted amazing details like a fireman and a steinbock (this word is indeed the same in German and English) on the facade! Of course we also climbed on 533 steps to the tower.

Weekend in Hannover/ Göttingen

I spent the weekend in Hannover where I met my family and many friends. I also went with Alissa to Göttingen. One day before the election of the Bundestag the politing parties were still presenting themselves at the market place. The first picture shows whom Alissa and I met in Göttingen, the second is from Hannover.

Conveniently, I was in Hannover on the 26.09. so that I could vote personally. Afterwards I travelled to Köln.

2 hours in Riga

All I knew about Riga before was from the thriller by Henning Mankell: "Die Hunde von Riga", but my 2 hours at the airport of the Latvian capital were not as frightening as described in the book.
First of all, the main reason for my journey back to Germany was a kind of "holiday course" about supersymmetry in Köln (in Germany they still have their semester break), but I combined it with many other trips and meetings.
And then why Riga if I was travelling to Germany? Well, on Friday 25.9. I flew with Air Baltic and had to change flight in Riga. During the 1 hour from Helsinki I could see the Gulf of Finland and Estonia. Although Latvia has the currency Lats, I could pay a coffee at the airport in Euros and got the change in Lats. I read in a magazine in the plane that they want to introduce the Euro in 2 years.

The sight on the second flight from Riga to Hannover was so good that I could see the sparsely inhabited countryside of the Balticum and even the narrow headland near Kaliningrad (Königsberg). Yes, Helsinki is not only far in the north, but also in the east.

Finally I arrived at lunchtime at home.

Orchestra rehearsals

After the first orchestra rehearsal I had even more the feeling to have really arrived here. The people in my orchestra (Ylioppilaskunnan Soittajat) are very nice and I try to speak only Finnish there. Luckily my viola neighbour studies German, so she can help me when I don't understand everything.
I thought every Finnish orchestra would play Sibelius (most famous Finnish composer) regularly, but in this term we play music by exclusively German composers: Wagner and Hindemith with German indications like "Sehr langsam" ;-)

big update

After nearly one month it is really time now for a big update! Some routine came to my everyday life and lots of homework belongs to every week. But in between I travelled to Germany and Sweden :-) So I have enough now to write about...