It's Wednesday I'm in love!

Life's great :).

When you don't know where to start, it is nice to start from the beginning. If you don't know where the beginning is, you can start from where ever seems suitable.
I start from survival run. It seems so long time ago now, that it's even strange to write about it, but Im so proud of me and Helen that we actually did it, that I can't not mention it :D. Well..in all honesty, before the run, everyone's main concern seemed to be that what if it is too boring. We were all totally wrong! :D
Apparently, there's a team in Wageningen who does this kind of training regularly, and they had set up our track by the river Rhine, in mud, cow shit (sorry, but really! loads of it!) bushes, ditches etc etc. It was crazy! We had to climb on ropes, both horizontally (I did it! for the first first first time ever in my life!) and vertically (kind of being "on" the rope, though I was most of the time under :/). We had to jump INTO water that was up to my neck, several times! Then we had to crawl and throw and carry things, climb, balance and so on. Eventually it also got dark, so we were just in the dark forest doing something :D.
It was so nice! During the run I even thought that I would like to do it regularly. But then, after I got home, spent an hour at the shower, wearing clothes that were STILL muddy, and smelled like it, I changed my mind. But cool anyway.
I have often thought that in nowadays world, unless you're a professional athlete, being fit doesn't really give you anything (yeah, surely you feel better and can do more things and will probably live longer with less trouble), but being strong and being able to f ex run for a long time doesn't really count outside the gym or that running competition, and you don't really need very much strength for everyday life (carrying shopping bags, babies, and taking the stairs..). So it was so nice to actually need it for once. And I am glad to announce, that if my life depended on it, I would survive! ;) I'll post some funny photos too ;).

On a more peaceful topic - I have discovered the thing I never thought I'll ever gonna even consider - I am a youtube athlete! :D:D:D   It started out rather ok - because I have the yoga mat but yoga's only once a week, I once tried youtube-yoga. And then twice, and then some more times and then I liked it so much that I started doing it rather often. Which is not too funny, in my opinion. But then, one day, I decided Im too fed up with my yoga-Tim and all these American over-excited yoga teachers whose  voice rather causes stress than relieves it, so I decided to move on. :D. Im sorry it's all so funny for me. I, by no means, want to laugh at other people who do youtube sports, but just that I have always died of laughter thinking of turning a laptop on and then starting to jump in front or with it or whatever with it, and now I'm doing it myself :D. That's why it makes me laugh so much. Well anyway, by now I have already tried aerobics, zumba, latin dances, body bump ( and booty bump :D) and even martial arts.
Well, as much as I laugh, my point is, that actually, it wasn't that bad. (just remember to put your curtains down ;D). But really, it is cheap, fast and efficient way to train. And even though all the activeness was a bit too much for me, yoga I really like. So believe it or not, this here is almost like a recommendation to try youtube sports. You can do it just at home, for as long as you want, with who you like (I think you could have 3 trainers a day and still not run out of them after a year), choose the level you like, and get professional advice and good-quality examples. I say it's totally cool! ..but just remember to put curtains down, so other people wouldn't die of laughing if they're like me.

Besides that, I think I am getting smart. I think the thing which I observed in the start, that everyone is smart and academic, is now reaching me too! Whereas in the start I rather got frustrated when there was too much to study and always felt like its impossible to keep up with everything and didn't know half the time what the teachers are going on about, because all their words made as little sense as the words they used for explaining these words; then now suddenly I am answering their questions and explaining to my classmates, and when my classmates explain to me, I also understand and..it's nice :). It's always cool to do the things at which you're good at, and the better I feel I get at studying or being smart, the more I want to do it. So I'm highly motivated in becoming the smartest person on earth! Which (I am at least smart enough to know) is not gonna happen, but I keep on trying.

And it's also hard not to feel like a scientist - today for example, I studied at university (notice how I'm not even calling it "school" anymore) how you should, of course, always be willing to discuss your research with other researchers and professors and scientists, but also be careful not to reveal too much, in case they go ahead and steal your theory to publish it under their name. I mean - who even learns things like that?! Only people who are likely to come up with something which other scientists might want to publish under their name, right? So I just stared, being shocked for having to discuss these kind of issues, and then went along with it ;).

Tonight is my first ever Dutch lesson (it is actually lesson nr 4, just first time I'll make it, so we'll see how it goes); this week is the last week of lectures, next week is study week and then it's exam week. Exciting!

Btw, another thing about Netherlands - it is so beautiful and so well-organized, that if you go biking around, it looks like you've opened a story book for kids, where there's horses and cows and sheep and nice houses and gardens and plants and fields. And the animals are ALWAYS clean and happy.
I went biking with my neighbor boys on Sunday and we didn't find even one place which didn't look like a fairy tale, or not even one dirty cow, pig or sheep. Also, all the animals play with each other, all the time, that's just how happy they are. Welcome to Netherlands!

Maybe a good thing to learn from the animals and birds and butterflies - all of them know how to play, enjoy and be happy for being alive. We shall also remember :).

Best of luck with everything!
Me

of how nice are market days

Flat and pretty Netherlands

Indian food, Chinese tea, international us, and Sunday 

Beautiful animals playing and  just being happy and clean :D

Survivors!

monki

Helen going for it! :D

About hobbies

Hallo-hallo!

No matter how academic the atmosphere and how little I understand of my fellow-students' "everyday" discussions, one can't just only study, right? At least I can't. So I've picked up some nice activities, many of which I've never done before.
They say you are what you eat. And you most definitely are what you do. So we'll see what turns out of me with all these hobbies or whether or not they'll last, but here they are:

1. From comedy to Debating
First of all things, I tried Comedy Club (just because it was on a Monday, not because it was my first priority). The point was, that some people who already have experience with stand-up comedy, theater, and other kinds of performing arts or public performing. would teach the "new people" how to perform, how to make comedy, how to be, talk, walk and behave on stage. It sounded such a good idea, and certainly about skills that one is going to need in life. Also, I was thinking, that if I am going to become a lifestyle counselor, I would only benefit out of knowing how to do public performances, how to look, and how to be amusing. And then once or twice a month, there are actual comedy evenings, where they then joke to whoever comes to listen.
I must say, I was a bit intimidated. I dont really think I can start joking just because I know I have to. And also, the way all these comedy people communicate to eachother, and to me, and how I feel like im not fast enough to react :D. So I took my friend Ben with, as a moral support or such. Ben already knew, he's never gonna join, but as a good friend (he's also my neighbor, so he probably just didnt wanna upset me :/:D), came with. Turned out, it was quite funny. I laughed several times and enjoyed myself. But..I dont know..somehow it all still seemed a bit odd and a bit like..not for me. I dont know why, but sometimes one can just feel it I guess. It wasn't made any better by Ben's announcement that if I am really gonna join this place, he promises, he will never laugh at any of my jokes ever again, because for sure I've just learned them there, so they're not really jokes but more like a practiced...art. or. what. Which really made me paranoid - suddenly I was sure that's how everybody would think, even, that that was what I was thinking myself. So that's where  it ended for me and the comedy club.
Instead, I picked up yoga on Mondays, and made a mental note, to invite Ben to the first Comedy Evening to see what we'll think.
Yoga is cool, yoga I like, and there I am definitely going to stay. (and meditation I might pick up too ;) :P:P)

But to debating, then. That's on Thursdays, so I had a bit time to recover and reflect upon my strange feelings from the Comedy Club.  As a starters, we all had to say why're we there. Everybody went like "..cause I used to do debating there and there and have done it all my life and.." so I got quite intimidated once again, because my only reason was that "I think it's a good skill to have in life". But all my concerns were totally wrong, debating is so much fun! Just as I felt a little off at the comedy thing, I felt perfectly "on" at the debating! Basically same - same, isn't it, you have to talk in front of many people, do a public performance, think of what you are saying and how; how you look, how you speak and what impression you make.
I actually didn't know much about debating before. But turns out it is not at all just a bunch of people arguing, and it is actually even nicer than when you see it on TV with the politicians. Everybody has equal amount of time to prepare, to speak, we have an order for speaking, and (my favourite of all:) you debate under the assumption that the other part will never change their mind. So it is not them you try to convince, but the judge. The judge gives points for arguments, and for role fulfillment (everyone is given a position either in the government or opposition, with different rules). Last time we were debating pro and against polygamy, which eventually got quite heated :D. but some topics are also more fun and sweet like "This house says there should also be green and yellow smurfs not just blue". :D. Anyway, debating I like, and I hope one day I go to the world's championships ;).

Running. Is of course no news, but seems to me I'm becoming an event-runner! :D. I've normally also done 1 or 2 running competitions a year, but here it's already like 2 in 7 days already! Last Saturday, me and my team of 11 people participated in a run around Wageningen, 88 km in total! Each of us ran a distance between 5 and 12 km, and all in all it took us from 8 in the morning until 19:30 in the evening. In total we ended the day 27th out of 57 teams. It was so much fun! Mostly, of course, we waited. I ran 8,8 km with just under 45 minutes, the rest of the day I was just waiting :D. Like we all. Luckily we had a really fun team and the sun was shining! When the run was finally done (another Estonian girl Helen ran the last bit and finished for our team ;)), we all went home, had shower, and met again for dinner. Pizzas and wine of course! Afterwards a few of us wanted to go out, so we all went first to one place which was too crowded, then to another one, for a beer, but then, when the party-mood-people wanted to go to yet another place, it was too much for most of us - everybody just wanted to go home and sleeeeep. So some did, some didnt. I gave dancing a try, but no..bed won real fast ;). I post some photos of the run in the end :).
Now on Thursday, me and Helen and some others from our saturday-team are going to participate in a survival run! and in November, we (I?) have this night-race planned, where the start for 11km run is given first at 23:15! sounds cool!
I also spent some unbelievable 40 euros on compression socks because my CEP running sleeves had to retire and I couldnt find any leg sleeves here, only socks, which is SO annoying for me, as I cant be bothered with the socks thing because you have to wash them allll the time and then theyre always wet when you need them. but anyway. Other than that I hope they'll be their money worth and hold my shins fine and happy :).

Then, on Sundays, I go to church. There's a student church here, in English, and it is so very good for the soul.

And then, on top all, I seem to have also started considering myself as an arty person :D. Or maybe I have just forgotten that I am not. Anyway, I have already painted 2 paintings to my room, + one finger-painting, which Ben and I made the other day, just cause we had nothing better to do.
On top of that I have the coolest self-decorated mirror (I must add a photo of that too ;)). I always wanted a mirrror, because as we all have heard, dutch people are really tall. And they really are. So my bathroom mirror only shows from my hair til just under my nose. (also I cant use the upper shelves of my kitchen cupboard cause they're too high up :/).  So one day I finally found a mirror for free from the "physical dropbox", we have just down my street, but it was still hanging on someone's cupboard door. I didn't need the entire cupboard, but the mirror of course didnt come open from the door, so I ended up taking the whole door :D. But because the door then looked so ugly in the middle of my room, I had to decorate it. Now it has 21 flying persons and some flowers and butterflies on it. On the same time, the door hinges (???) which used to connect the door to the cupboard can perfectly be used as jewelry and hair-thing - holders ;). Such genius I am!

And then I learned that 70% of all farm land on Earth is under cattle; that there is equally many morbidly obese and starving to death people; that middle-class with their crazy meat consumption, is going to lead us all to starvation within the next couple hundred years (because we raise the cattle for their meat rather than taking care of the land and growing plants); then i watched some bad ugly movies about chicks and chicken and cows who are raised for becoming our food, and their sad little lives, and am more convinced than ever that it is the only right thing for me to do, not to cook meat when I am on my own. ( I love grill parties and when mum makes good food, which has food in, but I hate preparing meat on my own, so I never do). So I've been laughing for a while and calling myself a "home-vegetarian". But that I have been avoiding animal products as milk,cheese, eggs and all kinds of meat-products for a while too now, it seems that i am even becoming a "home-vegan". I dont know if one can call that a hobby though, but it is what it is, and I like it :).
Now, picture time!

My lovely mirror ;)

Take that, first world! Another hobby - sending letters, like a lonely old lady ;)

Playing yatziii (however its witten) while waiting for our running-turns :)

Meal of real sportsman - insect brownie. And our dietary future instead of animal meat?

Just only finishing my run, but already trying to get undressed :D

..only for the smoothest vest-change ever ;)

waiting vol 100000000, but mood stays good :)

Running last meters together :)

Team Awesome!!

19:30 - no social skills left

..but who cares? (aka we are weird, what's your problem?)

and we are three!:D

Dinner <3 

Finish! Our star-runner, directly from Estonia - Helen!

Loveyoubye!
Me

Two years later :/:D

Wageningen

aka Alati tahtsin maaülikooli minna, nüüd viimaks sain

As I moved to the Netherlands, to a small town Wageningen with 40 000 people, to do my MSc in Nutrition and Health at Wageningen University and Research Center, I figured it's about time I reactivate the blog :).

I've only been here for 3 weeks and uni only started 1 week ago, so I'll just put my first impressions down. 

I have cows as neighbors! Really really - what I would call the back yard of our houses, there's cows. On the other side, there are fields, and within a ca 500m radius from my house, one can see cows, ponys, horses, sheep, and many many fields. My friends study Plant Science, Landscape Architecture, Animal Sciences and Food Production, for example and are all from different countries. We all bike. No matter if it's 10m or 10km distance, we bike. On every Wednesday and Saturday, there's market at the town center by the church, where everybody buys their fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, meat, cheese and bread. The town is lovely! On the one hand, it is small enough to have this small-town feeling, on the other, there is always something going on. There are so many students here as well! It's a little bit funny, but also very nice, that we all live in the same places, we all bike, all go to Uni - are all so different but on the same time the same, too.

And everybody seems so smart! The atmosphere is really academic (even after one week of studies I can also see why, the workload at Uni is crazy!) and discussions are always so smart and far out :D. It is very nice and very inspiring.

I am so happy and grateful that life continues to be an adventure, keeps surprising, entertaining and educating me. 

I'll write again before another 2 years pass! :)

Kirsi

2 months later :D

Heyhey!

I'm sorry if there's anyone who comes to read my blog to see if I'm doing well. The thing is (at least so it seems), the better I'm doing the less I post here :/. And now I haven't posted anything forever because it's strange after such long break. This here is a small post so it wouldn't be awkward to write the next one.
The break has been so long because my computer broke down, because summer was fun, and because during the whole summer I didn't have even one day when I didn't have any physical injuries or illnesses so I felt too whiny to write.

Now I'm not whiny at all - I'm still in Estonia, doing the last of my internship at Sparta sportsclub, which I really really enjoy; I've chosen a theme for my BA thesis, which I'll start writing in October and which is due to January; I'm recovering well from all those injuries and illnesses I had during the summer and will run a 10 k competition on Sunday. Right now it's Friday evening, sun is shining and I'm ready to go out for one last light run before Sunday. Tomorrow me an mum (who'll be running on Sunday too) will eat pasta (yep, that's the only thing on my 'to do - list' for tomorrow :D)

I'll write about it all soon! :)

1 month later

Long time no writing, I'm sorry.

But I think with me it's that if I haven't posted anything for a while, then life is just being unusually cool. This time at least it has. My first month in Estonia:

I've been babysitting, horse riding, chilling with my friends, working in the garden, shopping, biking (my mum has the coolest bike!), making pasta (homemade :O), cleaning home, being home, partying, eating, cooking, reading and working out like crazy (a book review about that coming soon!)

I also started with my workplacements, but as that's still quite new, and that there's sooo much to write about, I'll make a separate post for that.
However, that's going to be first in about two weeks, as from tomorrow until the end of next week, I'll be travelling around Estonia - first the summer capital Pärnu and then the opera days in Saaremaa. I'm going with the two best little persons ever - Kristjan and Kaspar - the two boys I'm babysitting, and with their family, and I think, hope and know, it'll be amazing :). Life is pretty awesome when all you have to do all day is play :). And they're really really sweet.
Of course I also have to work on my online internship and (hopefully) work out, but I love these too :).

I've been working out quite hard for three weeks now, and can finally feel how I'm getting strong again, can lift more, manage more repetitions and more sets, run longer, bike faster, and its all really cool. And the almost fit body fits with my Hiiumaa-made tan. Life is good :). (and strawberries ;))

In order not to write another hippie-post, where I'm so happy and satisfed with everything, I could write about my being stressed. I don't know if it counts, but I can try:

When I thought of coming to Estonia, I kind of imagined some completely carefree life - doing my workplacement and other than that just .. whatever I want to do. But as soon as I arrived, I realized that there's so many people I should see, so many things I have to do and so many places I have to go to. And it's all about  making plans and schedualing my time and..kind of not being in charge of my own time. So I got kind of stressed and freaked out. But actually it's just that dumb - I didnt know how to react to not getting what I had imagined, so I thought I'm stressing, but when I think about it- I enjoy all these activities. And enjoy so much that I even forgot to write my blog and do all other kinds of stuff.

So it Is a hippie-post.
I love life. And so be it.


I'll post some photos, go to sleep, wake up and go training at 7:15, and then'll be on my way to Pärnu! :)

xoxo
(ps. my friend Thomas is at Ibizza and I've never been more jealous :O:/:D)

Lolita Louardes

Kadi-L :)

Master Cave 

Pasta  <3

at the beach with the boys at 3 am

Sunset - Sunrise

Last days in Denmark and East Europe roadtrip

My friend Juhan came to pick me up from Aarhus a week ago. Crazy - he drove all the way trough Eastern Europe and didnt even use the highway in Poland.
However, he was fresh and ready once he arrived to Aarhus, so we did a lot of sightseeing, went to the movies, to bars and pubs and cool places to eat. Was so much fun :).

Then we picked up another Estonian girl and drove all the way back to Estonia. Craaazy trip - we visited Hamburg and Berlin, where I practiced driving a manual car in the centrum, but the other two - Juhan and Liisa were brave. Liisa was happy not to be sleepy anymore, and Juhan was only worried about the car. Anyway anyhow, I managed. Then continued driving on the highways trough Germany and Poland, which took us (even though driving at least 140km/h most of the time) the whole night and half of the  following day. And about 2 liters of coffe for me.
Lithuania was a bit better, Latvia seemed almost home, and then Estonia, where we had to drop Liisa off to Viljandi before continuing for the capital Tallinn, the distances seemed sooo small and everything was chill and cool. And the amazing feeling when you finally start understanding the signs, posters, places, money, language, uuuuh..felt amazing after all this crazyness on our roadtrip.

Today I've been sleeping and unpacking - settling down at mum's, where I am going to live during the summer to do my workplacement at Sparta sportsclub. Looking so much forward! And it's so nice to be home. Later tonight I am going to see my bestest best best friend ever - Miili, who I missed even more than home :), chill with Juhan, and tomorrow we'll drive to the island where I come from - Hiiumaa. Thats the real home. (oooh, life is amazing and me happy :D)
We'll celebrate midsummers eve and Juhans birthday, then I'll do a bit of babysitting, a bit of resting and relaxing, and then come back to Tallinn for my internship.



Also, I miss running or any kind of moderate/high intensity exercise like craazy. Resting, chilling, eating and drinking are only nice if I do them sometimes, and between all the other stuff I do. However, if they become what life is made of, it feels quite..uncool. So I am very motivated to do as much training as possible and to start my internship as a trainer and a nutritionist :).

If someone asked me right now to name one bad thing about my life, I couldn't :).

Have fun and happy summer :)
xoxo

life changes

Heyhey :),

Life changes. So much and all the time.
Last week I was so busy changing it, that I didn't even really noticed, how it all happened. But by now it's so different.
From Monday to Wednesday last week I finished up the marketing plan, which was the final thing I had to do for school before the start of the internship and then writing the Bachelor thieses. Thursday was a training/cleaning/washing clothes day, Friday and Saturday were full-day-working days and the night between I packed all my stuff in the apartment. Saturday night was a party at work, and on Sunday we did the final cleaning in my apartment, moved all the stuff out, and moved myself over to a friends place, where I am now going to wait until the car arrives that takes me home to Estonia. :).
So suddenly I am really done with schoolsfuff, don't have an apartment in Aarhus anymore, dont live at Rundhoj kollegiet anymore and the saddest - am not going to the halfmarathon afterall :(. My shins wouldn'tcouldn't and I guess running myself to an almost invalid is quite stupid, when it happens for the first time, but on the second time it'd already be ridiculos. :/ :D

I dont think the changes are bad. I planned them, I made them happen and they are really cool. But it's just starnge how it happened so fast..like..never again I am going to go to the apartment where I've been living for the last 2,5 years. And never again am I going to go to classes in the school where I've been going to for the last 2 years, since it moved there. And besides that I have a bad cold :/.
However, I am at my friends place that is so nice and so close to everything and I have nothing that I need to do besides working and waiting for going to Estonia, so I can just stay here, treat my cold, rest a bit and adjust with the changes :).

After that it'll be a roadtrip to Estonia. Looking forward and life is cool :).
Happy new week to everyone :)

xoxo
me