5 posts tagged “diving”
I love it. I don't know why, but I like every part of this little mermaid piece of pottery. And I found myself a bottle of Franziskaner Weissbier. Have a good friday.
There's just a lot of packing going on in our corner of the woods these days. Again, only a few hours until take-off. Only this time I don't get to go. Sami is leaving for Paradise in just a few hours and he's stressing around the flat. He printed all the main routes for me, to the nearest booze store where ever I might probably want to go. So now, when our broken-ass car gets home from yet another trip to the auto-shop, I'll have no trouble finding my way.
You know how people sometimes name their cars? I've thought about naming the Citroen too. The only thing is that it would have to be called Satan. Cuz that's what we yell at it most of the time anyway. It's being fixed for the parts that haven't been broke yet. I think not all of them (both of them..) though, because then we would finally have a normal, fully functioning car again. And that bird just don't fly. It just sucks to know that every time a mechanic so much as passes the car, it goes ka-ching and deletes another few hundred euros from the bank account. Again. Thank god for the motorbike.
We got Sami's ring from the shop already, mine's still under construction. The crappy part is that we noticed when we got home and his hands weren't sweaty from driving, that the ring is too big. Don't know how, because we measured it when we bought them, but it's still wobbling around. And there's just absolutely no time to fix it before he leaves, so he'll have to hold on to it really tight for the next few months. And now I'm shit-scared that when I go to pick up mine, it'll also be too big. I really hope not, because it's always an extra half a day when I make a trip to Helsinki, and I'd just really like to have the ring already.
But right now Sami's running around the flat in his boxers, convinced that he only needs two pairs of underwear for two months (I know, men...), constantly being interrupted by friends and family who want to call just once more before he leaves. He packs a lot of freaky things though. I just helped him to pack a propeller, and the suitcase is already full of sausages from HK. He's taking them to their contact in Paradise. Finns just love their meat. And man are they gonna wonder in customs....
This week went by so fast, and I'm missing him already. Part of me thinks it's a good thing that he's going (fantastic opportunity and all that) because I know my stress levels will skyrocket once the lectures and work starts, and I don't want to take it out on him. Bon voyage baby, have fun.
I got my diver's license! Now I can go diving where I want to. Almost. Anyway, I am officially a diver. It feels great!
Yesterday we went to see the simpsons movie with a few of our friends. It was a fun movie, really cheeky but it kind of took something out of the movie just because it was the simpsons. You know to expect certain things because you've seen them on tv for ages. Overall it was still a good movie, I recommend it to anyone. After that The Bride and Groom went home and me and Sami went for a few beers with The Co-worker and his Wife. Another one of Sami's buddies from work joined us and so, gradually, a few beers turned into a lot more. I haven't been partying all summer so all I would've needed were just those first few beers. But nooo, the beer had to be cheap, and it just had to be happy hour. So you know how it all ended. I was the queen of the dancefloor. All the beers and all of this weeks work caught up with me though, and I started getting very tired. You should never drink alcohol when your'e tired to begin with. You'll either fall asleep after your first 2 beers, or end up like me. All energized at first, and you think you could go all night long, but sit down once after dancing and you're losing. So we came home at probably one o'clock, but we still had a lot of fun. Buddy From Work stayed over at our place and we had a few drinks more and a few laughs back home.
Today the guys are going partying again. They have a get-together with all their course-buddies from back when they were in the army. So you know Buddy (who is staying with us today too because he lives 40km away) and Sami will be plastered when they eventually come home. No worries though, I'm gonna try to gbet Juhani to go with me for a few today, or we might just watch a movie and gossip like the good ol' days :)
As you can see from the first pic, our midsummer started a bit unorthodox. We were going to spend midsummer with Sami's parents and realatives at this island about 1 km off the coast. They went to the island a day before us since they got off work so early, and we were going to meet them there bu friday morning. They offered to pick us up in a little rubber boat, but Sami thought it would be more fun to swim to the island. I was up for the challenge and off we were! What you see here is us in drysuits and water-resistant backpacks (I believe they were called dui-packs, don't know why, probably the brand or something..). Under the suits we are wearing long underwear and a cotton uniform to keep us warm. Since the material the drysuit is made of doesnt store any heat, and you don't have any air between yourself and the suit to keep you warm. It felt kind of funny because ok, we were able to keep our bodies warm, but the idea is to get all the air out of the suit so you can swim around in it instead of just bobbing around like a ducktoy. The water squeezed surprisingly much, but it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. Except for when the waves were hitting us in the neck and the back of the head. Man that felt nasty, because the finnish archipelago isn't as warm in its water as most of the archipelagos out there.
After we got to the island, we went canooeing (is that a word?) . Paddling on a canoo. You know what I mean.
Then it was time for the real action, diving! On with the suits again. Long underwear, Teddysuit (because it's warm and fluffy) socks, wool socks, drysuit (which, by the way, is like pulling a condom on your head), diving socks of neoprene (or whatever, all the divers know better than me), diving gloves, mask, snorkel, lead belt (because you can't get to the bottom just by your own bodyweight), flippers, and finally, the huge canister of air and a bcd (Buoyancy Control Device, that's the vest I'm wearing, Mom) and you're good to go. Before you get to the water it's pain. You're sweating, you wheigh a ton, you're just very very uncomfortable. But once you hit the water it's really nice. You forget all the device on you and concentrate on the task at hand. And as you can see from the picture, the only part of my body that can possibly get cold is my lips. So I survived. Sami had a mask that covered all pf his face because he's considerably more pro than I am. This was only my second dive in open water. So we were attached to each other by ropes and had the buoy so we wouldn't get hit by any boats, and so that we could be found in case anything happened. Nothing happened Mom.
So off we were, me firmly holding on to Sami's hand so he just wouldn't lose me. You really can't see that much since the Gulf of Finland is so polluted, but the place we were was sandbottom (instead of the usual mud) so we could see about 4m straight ahead. Of course I was only looking down because there was so much interesting stuff going on at the bottom. Actually nothing happened but the bottom looks a lot different up close and moving than it does from the surface. All the algae is actually very pretty. And thanks to my sharp concentration on the sand, we found treasure! Just the prettiest rusty propeller I've ever seen. It had probably laid in the sand for a number of years but we took it with us. And as Sami later informed me, the propeller is obviously quite a bit of treasure to find in these waters. A very successful dive all in all.
After that, we headed for the sauna and started with the real midsummer-activity; partying. And no, I'm not sad or tired on the picture, that's just what I look like without make-up. But as long as I was holding the bottle of bubbly, I didn't care. We had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful, warm nightless night (the land of the midnigt sun, you all know?), good company and just lots of fun.
The morning after Sami didn't have that much fun. He was incredibly hungover. I had wen't to sleep a little earlier than him because, quite frankly, all the swimming, paddling and diving exhausted me. He had gone to sleep a lot later and even then only after his aunt practically forced him (no no I won't go, I'm a big boy now). He actually woke me and his sister up because he started laughing so hard. All the boeat was snoring so loud (not me!) and when you're drunk, that's pretty funny. In the morning, he wasn't laughing. Me on the other side, I was jsut dandy. So me and Sanna went sunbathing. I hadn't looked in a mirror in a few days, and nobody informed me my face was already read as a boiled lobster. So instead och getting a suntan, mu face got a sunburn. Good times anyway. We came back home in the afternoon, Sami's cousin offered us a ride back to the opposite shore (from where we took a walk, a bus and a tube home), but the engine died in the right in the middle. So Sami got to paddle us to the shore. Mikko, the cousin didn't get the engine running on his way back, so we saw him grabbing the oars and start to paddle. Then we saw the oars break in two and fall in the drink. After that Mikko jumped in to save his oars but he was still in a pickle with no working engine and no oars smack in the middle of the sea. So we called the relatives on the island and told them to pick him up. These people are obviously not the lifeguards we hoped they would be. It took us another phone call and a good 10 minutes before we saw another little boat depart from the island. Still, Mikko got back safe, although a little pissed, and we got home.
The next morning I woke up with a cold and an all red, burning face, but all in all it was a great midsummer. Plus, I got a few (or more) beers and a kiss:
So here I am. I found this site once while trying to locate my professor. The man is hideously hard to find and even harder to catch. It usually takes a lot of investigation and i stumbled into Vox in an attempt to find the guy (he was in Sweden at the time). He's a really nice professor though, so usually it doesn't matter that he can't be found. The best lectures I've been on have been held by this man, and that's a lot to say because I'm usually hard to impress because of the fact that I spend most lectures napping...
I thought about starting to write a blog because as you all should know by now, I suck at writing letters. And this way I can write about all the things that amaze me and that very few have the energy to discuss with me. And if you don't like it or have interest in the matter, don't read it! Fantastic.
Today seems as good a time as any to start sharing my incoherent thoughts with the world, as I'm pondering quite a few things. Moving to Helsinki really scares me, mostly because I'm not particularly fond of the city, but at the same time, the thought of pulling my roots and heading for something new seems kinda exciting. I hate tha fact that I finally found the apartment of my dreams and didn't get to live in that wonderland even for a year, and that I'm now moving to a place that is furnished by someones grandmother. Samis' grandma owns the place, and she's been living in Spain for the last decade, but still entertains the thought of moving back home when she's older, so nothing has been changed in the apartment for the last 10 years. Flowery couches, pictures of indians, mexican hats and windchymes fill the apartment, but on the other hand: due to these circumstances, the rent is cheap. Very, very cheap. And for now, it seems like that place would be more a home in between real homes. I sure hope so.
Apart from the apartment (no pun intended) a lot of things are going on. Just trying to relocate all my shoes and clothes is a project in itself. Learning to scubadive, and it feels more fun and natural than walking. All those years swimming must've left me partially fishy (teehee). At times it feels too natural since I've forgotten a few times to put the regulator in my mouth before going under and taking a huge breath. You learn fast not to forget that way, though.
I've also sunk my head below the surface to take a peek a few times, before noticing that my goggles are still on the back of my head instead of my eyes...
I'm also thinking about doing a tandem-skydive. Two problems here: 1) I'm scared of hights. Shit-scared of hights. 2) I doubt there's a guy huge enough to do the tandem-jump with me to push me out of the plane if I suddenly decide "I don't think I wanna".
Lots of change, lots of fun.
