  9:42 AM Mood: Balanced Music: Edvard Grieg - Solvejgs Lied, Peer Gynt-Suite Nr.2 I love this classical piece. Very nordic ;) No wonder, since the composer is norwegian. I think I'll listen to some Sibelius after this... Sibelius is very finnish, not only nordic. Amazingly excellent music, I'd say. When a finn listens to Sibelius s/he can really see the forests and the lakes, although s/he'd be a long way from home. And yes, I tend to get a little homesick, when I listen to Sibelius. Ok, I'm gonna listen to this next one, too. It's Pietro Mascagni's Intermezzo from his work Cavalleria Rusticana. Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) is one of the most important Italian composers of the turn of the 20th century. This piece is really, really beautiful. I'm listening to a collection called "Meditation" which includes some classical master pieces, or parts of the great works. I usually dislike this kind of collections with short excerpts. I like to listen to the complete works so that I can better follow the development and the use of the central themes and can get a better picture of the master work.
These excerpts are easy to listen, they represent the pop branch of the classical genre. But all my classical cd's are in Finland and Rico only has these collections. But! I'm traveling to Finland on 10.2. and will be staying there for a week. I'm gonna fly with Ryanair from Frankfurt-Hahn to Tampere. I'm gonna take the train to Frankfurt and my mom is gonna pick me up in Tampere. Convenient. Although Frankfurt is about a 3-4 hours trip away from here, Tampere is my hometown. Therefore it's not that bad. And most importantly it's cheap. The whole trip will cost about 100 euro, since Rico is so adorably kind and will take two days off from work and pick me up from Frankfurt when I come back.
I'm already pretty excited, since I don't know, how it's gonna be... Seeing the familiar places and hearing Finnish all around me can be a heavy experience ;) But it's only a week and then I'll be back home again, with my man and our cats and life can go on again :D Ok, it's great to travel a little again, I need that. And I can get some of my stuff, which I've been missing. Like some clothes, cd's and books. I'm also looking forward to a party and going to the familiar clubs and bars.
But we'll see. Two dear friends of mine are coming here on the weekend before I leave and I can't wait. And what a coincidence! Leena is taking the same flight to Finland with me! If we're lucky, we get to sit next to each other ;) With Ryanair it's not that obvious, since there are no seat numbers given before the flight... But like I said, in return it's cheap. The cats are doing fine. They are really accurate in waking me up every morning at around eight o'clock...
But nothing new, really. I've been busy arranging an academical career for myself. That means, I'm gonna apply for a place in the university of Zurich for the summer semester ;) I'm gonna get the last certificates from Finland next week and after that it shouldn't be a problem... At least I hope so. If everything goes well, I'm gonna start/go further with my studies, majoring in English and my minors are most likely gonna be journalism and political science or some cultural studies. We'll see. I'm so nervous, but full of hope. I don't know, what I'm gonna do, if I don't get the place... My brain needs challenges again! Oh, and check out the first version of our cats' homepage (with different kinds of errors and some bad photos ;): http://www.count-0.com/meow/ Rico made the pages last night and I find the idea really sweet :) The photos are mostly taken by me, except for the Shiva-photos.
Only the first two ones are my production. In the mean time we're planning a better site for those adorable creatures :) So, my love just woke up and his arms are far too inviting for me to sit in front of a computer... Thus, till later! 
