Hello guys! i'm in Berlin. It's been a nice trip so far and I'm gonna write something about it cuz I got time.
Yesterday I ate the mysterious apfelstrüder Sak has told us about. It wasn't bad. In fact it was very good but not as good as he has told us. After eating it we went to IMAX. We watched a film called the Hauted Castle. It was perfect for us: lots of cool 3D effects and not any plot. We also went to the world's fastest elevator and watched the most breathtaking views on top of one of the highest buildings in Berlin. Well, we did a lot of other things too but I don't remember them quite well right now.
Today we visited some random museums but my favourite place was Battlefield Berlin. It is a miniature shop. It was the best shop I've ever seen. There were full product of GW's and Privateer Press' products and other miniature manufacturers as well including Racham and Black Scorpion miniatures and many more. In fact there were miniatures for every range of miniature games I've ever heard of. Even Starship Trooper minis were there! It was a cool place to hang out so I took my time. I even bought one random Racham Goblin mini which was on discount. Only 3€! I also bought a WARMACHINE rulebook. It cost only 24,90 but it Is as big as Warhammer rulebook. WHOAA!
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Monday, 15 October 2007
Language Learning II: Svenska
Beginning in seventh grade, I began to study Swedish at school. I had decided to concentrate, and not let it suffer the same fate as my first attempt at French. The first year went well with a delightedful teacher. She wasn't interested quite as much in Swedish as she was in Italian, and in addition to teaching the seasonal festive songs customary for language education in Swedish, she made sure we knew them just as well in Italian. She also warned us of "fake pizzerias" in Italy, where they sell cheap supermarket pizza to unsuspecting tourists. Invaluable information indeed.
The following year however introduced another old teacher for the students to prey on. She was our new Swedish teacher. In some ways she seemed experienced, yet she had to be at least half deaf not to go insane due to the relative chaos which often ruled the class. Either than or nerves of steel. Unfortunately she had about as much authority as one of my Danish generals in Medieval II (forgive the video game reference), who the game rated: "Young peasant girls laugh when this man tries to tell them what to do." In other words, very little authority.
I would very much like to blame her for the ensuing dip in my Swedish skills, but although it was often frustrating to try and study in such an atmosphere, I simly threw in the towel while some others with more wisdom persevered. In the end I did realise the error of my ways, and made efforts to catch up, the most succesful of them being near the end of the school year, which seemed to have had some impact due to decent grade from Swedish.
Her lessons weren't all doom and gloom though, as her personality did have its quirks. The most notable of these was her slurry English pronounciation, which while pretty good for a grandma, was amusing nonetheless.
Pleaseplease (Origins of nickname revealed later, read on!): "So, the Swedish test will be on the tenff" (coinciding with my birthday -_-)
Me: "So when was the test?"
Pleaseplease: "On the tenff."
Me: "Err, when?"
Pleaseplease: "The tenff" *smiles happily*
For some reason I found that rather amusing, and tried again next lesson, but only managed to ask once due to the difficulty of keeping a straight face. She was very intent on speaking English to us, it being an international school and all. We often begged her to speak in Finnish, as during the few occasions when she accidentaly did, it seemed her brain snapped into overdrive and she became sharp and completely comprehensible. On several occasions she asked our principal weather or not she could speak Finnish, the answer of course being no. I am still confident that had she merely switched her language to Finnish despite this, she would have ruled the class.
The second of her quirks was her statistically unbeatable record in politeness. A typical lesson would start something like this:
Pleaseplease: "Please, please, please, please everyone, please be quiet!" (You ought to get it now...)
Pleaseplease: "Ok, lets see your homework please."
James Blunt: "Ok... lets see..." *begins to slowly turn pages*
Pleaseplease watches intently.
Randm guy on other side of class: "Teacher!"
Pleaseplease: "Yes please!" *hurries off*
I recall I wasn't the only one who recorded the amount of pleases said in the back of our notebooks. Recently my first course of Swedish in lukio began. We have a sensible teacher (albeit with dodgy eyes... yes... always something wrong with them...) and the first course appears to be entirely devoted to consolidating already learned skills, which is excellent for me, and slightly annoying for those who have no need for it. I've also been studying some Swedish during mornings when my first course is at 9:50. I would hate to miss the opportunity to learn the language. So, despite occasionally dubious performance it does seem my Swedish future is bright.
____________________
In the future I think I will do some more posts where characterful teachers play a role. We may all moan and groan about our them, but it is great to have teachers with personality to make our days more interesting. Did I say that to avoid having an angry mob of teachers demolish my house after featuring them in my blog? Yes, partly.
Also, if you are wondering where the previous Language Learning II post went.. keep wondering.
More new posts at The Almost Daily
The following year however introduced another old teacher for the students to prey on. She was our new Swedish teacher. In some ways she seemed experienced, yet she had to be at least half deaf not to go insane due to the relative chaos which often ruled the class. Either than or nerves of steel. Unfortunately she had about as much authority as one of my Danish generals in Medieval II (forgive the video game reference), who the game rated: "Young peasant girls laugh when this man tries to tell them what to do." In other words, very little authority.
I would very much like to blame her for the ensuing dip in my Swedish skills, but although it was often frustrating to try and study in such an atmosphere, I simly threw in the towel while some others with more wisdom persevered. In the end I did realise the error of my ways, and made efforts to catch up, the most succesful of them being near the end of the school year, which seemed to have had some impact due to decent grade from Swedish.
Her lessons weren't all doom and gloom though, as her personality did have its quirks. The most notable of these was her slurry English pronounciation, which while pretty good for a grandma, was amusing nonetheless.
Pleaseplease (Origins of nickname revealed later, read on!): "So, the Swedish test will be on the tenff" (coinciding with my birthday -_-)
Me: "So when was the test?"
Pleaseplease: "On the tenff."
Me: "Err, when?"
Pleaseplease: "The tenff" *smiles happily*
For some reason I found that rather amusing, and tried again next lesson, but only managed to ask once due to the difficulty of keeping a straight face. She was very intent on speaking English to us, it being an international school and all. We often begged her to speak in Finnish, as during the few occasions when she accidentaly did, it seemed her brain snapped into overdrive and she became sharp and completely comprehensible. On several occasions she asked our principal weather or not she could speak Finnish, the answer of course being no. I am still confident that had she merely switched her language to Finnish despite this, she would have ruled the class.
The second of her quirks was her statistically unbeatable record in politeness. A typical lesson would start something like this:
Pleaseplease: "Please, please, please, please everyone, please be quiet!" (You ought to get it now...)
Pleaseplease: "Ok, lets see your homework please."
James Blunt: "Ok... lets see..." *begins to slowly turn pages*
Pleaseplease watches intently.
Randm guy on other side of class: "Teacher!"
Pleaseplease: "Yes please!" *hurries off*
I recall I wasn't the only one who recorded the amount of pleases said in the back of our notebooks. Recently my first course of Swedish in lukio began. We have a sensible teacher (albeit with dodgy eyes... yes... always something wrong with them...) and the first course appears to be entirely devoted to consolidating already learned skills, which is excellent for me, and slightly annoying for those who have no need for it. I've also been studying some Swedish during mornings when my first course is at 9:50. I would hate to miss the opportunity to learn the language. So, despite occasionally dubious performance it does seem my Swedish future is bright.
____________________
In the future I think I will do some more posts where characterful teachers play a role. We may all moan and groan about our them, but it is great to have teachers with personality to make our days more interesting. Did I say that to avoid having an angry mob of teachers demolish my house after featuring them in my blog? Yes, partly.
Also, if you are wondering where the previous Language Learning II post went.. keep wondering.
More new posts at The Almost Daily
Friday, 12 October 2007
Johannes Starts Photography
Hi everyone! I'm going to start taking pictures and leaving video making for a while (that is a few days until the next idea pops up!). But what I mean is that i'm going to start photography. I'm hopefully going to be bothered to set up the studio in the basement this weekend and be more "ideaful" with it this time. If I need to, I can get another worklight so the lighting will be in perfect balance. I also recently got into Photoshop CS 3 and therefore, I have been more into image making. Another main idea for this is because right now, I suck at picture editing.
Other than that, there is a new look at the Mortar Studios website. A new banner, new theme and almost got the poll working! :) (It's buggy!) Go and have a look at:
www.mortarstudios.blogspot.com
If you have any ideas related to photographs, leave a comment! I promise I will read every single one!
P.S: If you don't think that it's appropriate that I post 3 times in a row, just tell me and I won't do it again :)
Other than that, there is a new look at the Mortar Studios website. A new banner, new theme and almost got the poll working! :) (It's buggy!) Go and have a look at:
www.mortarstudios.blogspot.com
If you have any ideas related to photographs, leave a comment! I promise I will read every single one!
P.S: If you don't think that it's appropriate that I post 3 times in a row, just tell me and I won't do it again :)
Saturday, 6 October 2007
Helsinki Market Place
The product of a trip to Helsinki Market Place:
Please leave a comment! :)
(As seen on: www.mortarstudios.blogspot.com)
Please leave a comment! :)
(As seen on: www.mortarstudios.blogspot.com)
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Ipod Classic!
It's time for me to show off my brand new ipod classic (see image).
It has 80gb of space, ability to playback videos (which every ipod seems to be able to do now except shuffle) and 3 games. It has a load of stuff and I don't have enough music and video to fill it up . We ordered it from the internet so I got my name and country on the back.
(As seen at www.mortarstudios.blogspot.com)
It has 80gb of space, ability to playback videos (which every ipod seems to be able to do now except shuffle) and 3 games. It has a load of stuff and I don't have enough music and video to fill it up . We ordered it from the internet so I got my name and country on the back.
(As seen at www.mortarstudios.blogspot.com)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)