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It's funny that after spending a year in The Netherlands, I left with one luggage. Now after spending half a year in London, I left with two. During my exchange year I didn't visit home at all, I didn't even want to. But London made me want to go home for a while, only after two months. We were talking about this with Maria, and wondering if it was about the person or the place. Probably both.

But one thing I'm sure of... I'm happy to be back! Here are some reasons;

1. No more dealing with noisy kids.

2. I can have pork and beer in the fridge again.

3. Fresh air and nature. It's not even cold, as I'm wearing the same clothes I wore in London, and yet I'm sweating.

4. It's affordable to keep the houses warm.

5. Thick walls, so you don't need to listen to your neighbors' life stories.

6. Being surrounded by people, who understand social awkwardness. Or actually not being surrounded by people at all.

7. Bye stressed, miserable Londoners. Hello depressed Finns.

8.Home food. Though I will miss the foreign beers, which one of them, the best English beer, I took with me to enjoy here.

9. Just in time for some Finnish winter delicacies.

9. Clean water and proper mixers.

and finland

10. No need for an adapter to charge anything.

And most importantly, I get to be with my family. Especially my nephew Nate, who I finally got to meet and spend time with!

first time holding him

already a head banger

watching our first liverpool game

And for my surprise I found this from the cupboard:

It seems that everywhere I go, there's a piece of Breda waiting for me.

A Surprise Visit

11-16.11.2011

England vs Spain football game and see some of the top players or baby shower?

I've never been to a baby shower, I wouldn't be home for Christmas, which meant I wouldn't see the big tummy of my sister-in-law at all and feel the baby kick. And I needed some fresh air, peace and quiet, so a visit to Finland it was. It had to be a surprise as well, since I wanted to see how it would work out with only my father knowing that I was going there.

It was a bit stressful since I would have either been ringing my mother's door bell after midnight or stayed the night at my friend's place in Tampere and get home the next morning. My friend had to go to work early so the latter didn't work out.

But let's get back to the start of the trip. Just getting to the airport here in London takes ages. First you have to take the underground to get to the right bus stop, which takes 40min or so and then the bus to the airport which takes about 90min if the traffic jam isn't awful. And it seems that RyanAir in London is the only one, which really follows the 100ml in your hand luggage rule. No one checked them in Eindhoven or Dublin. So you can imagine there were a lot of people including me, who had to wait for a longer time at the security check due to those +100ml bottles. Time was running out for the gate to be open. I got there on time to just remember that it's RyanAir; they're always late with boarding.

That's when I also remembered that hearing people talk Finnish at airports isn't the prettiest thing to listen to. You also know when Finnish people are on the same plane with you is when a woman orders 3 beers. I'm used to that, but imagine the steward thinking 'tea' first and going 'oh my God' after hearing it correct the third time.

My friend was at Tampere's airport to pick me up, for which I'm thankful for and also we haven't seen each other for almost 1½ years. We had less than an hour to catch up and pick up some food, before I got on the train to home sweet home.

I can't believe I went on for a year in The Netherlands without visiting home, and now not even 3 months had passed by in London, I was already leaving the city. Wonder what the reason could be for that...

Anyways walking from the train station to my mom's place was refreshing; once again the fresh air, the peace and quiet during the night. I was back in a city which sleeps. My home.

Coming up with the plan how to make my mom open the door was last minute and goes as follow; basically I just called  the home phone, and told her that a friend of mine had left a package outside her door that she needs to take it inside.

You can just imagine her reaction when she saw someone standing outside her door in the dark. Worst case scenario was someone being hospitalized. Either one of us.

On the next day Saturday it was time for surprise #2. My mom called my brother to ensure they were at home. They had a peephole on their door and I had to cover it and hope they'd still open the door. My brother's reaction was 'Hui, what are you doing here?' and my sister-in-law 'WHAT?!' when she thought she heard my voice.

That was the end of secrecy! And I think the surprise worked.

The plan for the evening was to go to a Thai party. All I remember was the spicy food and the everlasting beauty contest.

the buffet table was 4x bigger than this

beauty contest judge

On Sunday our church's nun had made lunch for us. That meant a lot of salad and pork for me! Salad because English people eat shit and pork, because of my Muslim landlord. Was too full to eat much later at the baby shower, also felt really tired but still enjoyed it.

my sister's comment on fb; 'jaleh... shouldn't you be in london??' 'oh my lil sister... full of surprises'

no vacation without thinking

 And I was glad that not many came to ask how everything was. Now I understand my sister, who never wants to meet with anyone when she comes to Finland. Explaining the same things over and over again..

Start of a new week meant also a visit to school. Talking with my teacher of next spring and the future in general made me less distressed. The fact that on our first year only 2 out of 50 passed the computer skills test and being told that's it's not compulsory to pass, then later on our last year told that it is, made me really angry and stressed. Just think that not getting the 1 study credit meant no graduation, but luckily there wouldn't be a chance for that. Also hearing that being uncertain of the future is completely normal, eased my feelings. The main tip was not to be hungovered during a day off, but.. Hahahah.

In the end when she told me that when you're in your thirties your highlight of the day can be a wildlife documentary on TV. That's when I started to get worried of the future again.

A German friend of mine, Sarah who was also in The Netherlands with me was doing her exchange in my school was the only friend I met with. Or actually the only person I told that I was in Finland. I didn't say goodbye to her when I left for London, and she's leaving soon to LA to be best friends with Christina Aguilera so I had to meet up. But of course when your at school it's inevitable to run into school mates.

After answering many questions we went to Coffee House (Dutch people like to think it as Coffee Shop), and Sarah complained of me buying ice cream during that cold weather. Which leads to the fact that if you need to complain about something, go to a German person. They're professionals in that field.

They feel you, they understand.

I had a good time catching up with her, and I'm glad she's fallen in love with Finland and Jyväskylä. I hope to see her in paparazzi pictures with Christina.

Being more relaxed now, I wanted to spend the last days doing nothing, but to listen to the latest album of Arcade Fire and watching the short movie 'The Suburbs' based on the album. The theme fitted those moments, since it's all about childhood and changes in life; my brother and sister-in-law were just packing their stuff to move to another city. Last chance to be at their student apartment. So at the same time I came at a bad time, as people were yelling at each other and feeling stressed. It was like I brought London with me. Hmph.



Another thing I was glad of was the chance to play the air guitar to the whole Nevermind album, if you read my Nevermind, you depress me article, you'd understand. You'd also realize the funny moment when I left their apartment for the last time, I got my birthday gift in advance;

Seven years late. But still love it, and now for the first time I officially have two copies of one album.

The most pleasant thing though was to feel the baby move a lot on my last day! We were thinking that he hates me, because he didn't move at all during the other days, even though I yelled 'HALOO' to him ;) But he warmed up at the last moment!

Glad I didn't go watch football.

Ps. this is my 97th blog post. 100 is up soon. Any ideas what I could write about? You could either leave a comment here or in In Jallu's Words Facebook page.

Friends

During your teens you start to really develop your music taste of what it was when you were a kid. For example I really liked Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. When I was 14 that changed to Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Muse.

I'd say the critical turning point was the start of the Interpol phase. Because of that I was able to listen to 'difficult music', and dive deeper into the alternative scene.

About six years later I find myself being really into electro rock/pop, and people say that at some point you almost stop being into new music and stick to the old favorites. I don't know when that will happen, but I can say that nowadays there's so many new acts around that it's hard to keep up, and sometimes you get tired of anything new.

Part of my job is to be checking out over a hundred of music blogs and through that I've heard new music. The main reason, why I've checked out acts such as Zola Jesus (pure love), Lana del Rey and Neon Indian, is the massive hype. Of course I have to know what the fuss is all about.

A month ago an exception happened. I came across with a feature of this band called Friends. First of all I wasn't sure if it even was a band's name or something else. But what really grabbed my attention was the picture in it:

My first thoughts were; what is this overly retro thing going on..they look disturbingly odd in this, but still in a good way, wonder what kind of music they play..the girl on the right looks like a young Vanessa Williams..

It was written that Friends are the hottest band coming from Brooklyn at the moment, and that they might be the future of alternative music. Wow. It takes a lot to state something like that, considering how today's music is just a mimic of something else. Still I wasn't quite yet convinced to listen to a song of theirs.

Until I saw the the still image of their video I'm His Girl. In my opinion it's as interesting as their group photo. I'd actually want to know if that image was chosen by the band or YouTube. You might think what the hell am I talking about, but the colors and how some of the band members are placed in it was enough for me to have a look. Will you too? ->



You know that moment, when the first 30 seconds of the song tells you that you've perhaps found your new music crush? This was it. I've been waiting for so many years to hear something fresh and a band that could be added to the list of  'acts that played a big role in my music taste evolution'. I actually thought that there wasn't any hope for that anymore, but I guess I have to have an Obama face on now.

And I know I'm not the only one who says that the base line is sick and that the video is just way too cool. You'd have to be sitting next to me, so I could explain every single cool part of it. Anyone willing for that, let me know.

The rest of the day passed by with having the song and video on repeat. Earlier this autumn I stated that Anna Calvi's Suzanne and I is the best video I've seen. I almost took my words back, but then I realized that it isn't fair to compare these two videos, since they're way too different from each other.

Q: So are Friends Brooklyn's hottest band at the moment?
A: No. They're hipster world's hottest band (which will probably change soon into just world's hottest band, since Friends are too hyped for hipsters now).

Q: Are Friends the future of alternative music?
A: I'd rather say they're the alternative for the alternative. Cheers to that.

Q: Can you say screw Dr. Phil, because I'm His Girl's lyrics can be used as a foundation for any healthy relationship?
A: Yes.

Friends Official

Friends' second London, UK gig. (Click the link to get yourself a ticket, the first one sold out already, so be quick. Like me, leaving work early to get to the box office, since I still don't have a credit card).

Nevermind, you depress me.

25.9.2011

It's been 20 years since one of the most important records of the music scene ever had been released. At that time Nirvana's second album 'Nevermind' made people think Van Halen is boring (my boss' words put into my own). But who am I to say anything about those times, since I wasn't living it. Or I was, but I could barely form sentences back then.

I think it's better to just tell about the Nevermind times I remember living; I used to be a huge Nirvana fan during my teens- all of the CDs, merch, books, self-composed ring tones etc. I had the 90's thing going on. Nevermind was the album I had to have, but at that time it had the full album price for all time. However it was put to mid-price for a while before Christmas and I was planning to buy it. But my brother kept on telling me to get their third album 'In Utero' instead, so I thought I would be getting Nevermind as a Christmas gift.

So on the holidays when I was opening a gift from my sister-in-law, which"surprisingly" had a shape of a CD, I had prepared to use my surprised face, which I had been practicing for quite a while. Just to realize that I actually needed it.

Though a great gift, as I did enjoy rockin the album through my air guitar during the holidays. But I also realized that no Nevermind and no more discount. Now how would I ever get to the rest of the Nirvana albums, because of having a plan to buy them in order?

My problem was solved quickly, thanks to the after Christmas sales. Luckily the 9th grader had a few hour break before the next lesson. So through the winter cold (by bus) to the center and back. By the time I finally got home after school, I didn't even dare to listen to it. Know when you've been wanting something for so long, and when you finally have it, you're not able to do anything? That was it. I also had the fear of the album being a disappointment. Well massively hyped things always are!

And so was the case with Nevermind too. After listening the album through, I felt so empty and confused. Waiting for so long and for what?

Don't cry ugly child (a Finnish saying). Things tend to grow on you. And so it did by listening to it over and over again. I learned to love all the 'bad' songs and hate people, who only knew 'Smells Like Teen Sprit'.

Nevermind was/is the dearest CD in my collection, so dear that during a fight with my brother he took it and threatened to scratch it. I managed to scratch him pretty well in the throat.

Then of course came the time when I started to become hipsterish. Basically stating that In Utero is so much better than Nevermind, but that's another story.

So, to the 20th Anniversary Exhibition itself in Brick Lane. I started to feel ashamed of not listening to Nirvana these past few years. What a bad fan I was. And what's worse was Linda calling me after the exhibition and asking how it was. Note that Linda calling wasn't the worse thing, but the answer I gave; the exhibition made me depressed.

I realized that the future will not hold a music act for us anymore, which would make people go 'wtf' and bring all of us together in good or bad. Nothing is going to shake us anymore.

This is the first time I wished I had lived my early twenties 20 years ago.

It was also the first time I felt sick of new music being shoved in my face constantly. I'm happy that it's easier for bands to get their music out there without any major label's help, but on the other hand is it really better, since you have so much more competition against you now? This is a bit out of topic, but it sometimes makes me want to relive those days as an MTV kid being in front of the telly like a zombie, and then getting excited when my favorite song started playing.

Life was much easier without options, when you were eating out of a major's hand. Then ten years later that music, which wasn't appropriate for the mainstream became your favorite.

That favorite was/is Nevermind.

And after five years. Exactly this moment. You wish you could be rockin your air guitar and screaming like Kurt Cobain in your mom's living room. Music turned to the max. Cause you know it would piss her off.