This is the beginning.

My little minimalistic blog has a member! I'm so proud. Thank you for the comments. Luckily, I noticed both of them. It was great fun. Let's continue this, shall we?

I went to the computer today at uni and it hit me. My new laptop won't have ä and ö. Sure, I can change the keyboard. I mean, this laptop that I'm writing on now, is American, but the keyboard has been programmed (I hope that's the right term...) so now it has ä and ö. Hopefully I get my new one next week. That'd be lovely. 

Internet really is a must have. Already for school. Everything has to be done online. Any documents you might need, you have to request online. Going to the Faculty office will do no good. I guess they are good for something. And the professors answer e-mails suprisingly fast. I should know.. having harassed two because one course hadn't been approved yet... But it's cool now. I got an e-mail from the office in question and all is dandy. So we could say that I worried over nothing? 

Dress Weather.

My laptop broke a few days ago. It's the charger or the battery. In any case, I can't recharge it. So, I can't use it. I had been thinking about buying a new one and now I had to. And I did it. I just bought myself a new laptop. It's small, 13.3 inch Lenovo. I think I'll like it.

In other news, the weather is gorgeous here. It's sunny without clouds. And, it's warm! It's roundabout 25C. So I'm wearing a dress. It's September 28th and I'm wearing a dress. And I'm not on holiday. And no tights people. Love it.

First Day at School.

My academic career started yesterday at SOAS. I had a Welcome Talk, Afternoon Tea and went on a tour to the other campus. The place is a paradox in a way. They give out a lot of information, but still it feels like you don't know the basic stuff. And everything is online so go there. And you can ask help from almost anyone. So who do you turn to? I don't know! But apparently everyone will be given a personal adviser from the department with whom they can talk about things academic. And non-academic. Yes, about personal problems. With a member of the staff. Interesting.

The campus is nice and quite easy to understand. It is quite small after all. It's really loud now as well. But I suppose that's because it's Freshers' Week/Fortnight. And each day there's a Hare Krishna stall giving out food. Yes, that's right - GIVING out food. It's karma (their words), so they give out free food every day. Donations can be given. I haven't has a chance to taste it, but I'll get to it soon. That's for sure.

And I did find a Waterstone's a 100 meters from the campus... I died and went to Heaven. It's wonderful! I love it. The one on Piccadilly is the biggest in Europe, sure, but it doesn't have that wonderful bookstore feel. This one has and so much! And the books...Oh, the books. Because it's so close to SOAS and UCL, there are a lot of study materials and other books in specific subjects. I love it. Love it.

Books, chicken and Hitchcock.

On Thursday we went to town. We wanted to see some sights (ended up seeing St. Pauls from the outside, not the inside. I love going to churches, but not if I have to pay £14 to get in..), but mainly to get books. And to do something else than watch Hitchcock movies. I had none before that. Sure, yes, I had Pride and Prejudice, but I have that always. And as much as I love that book, and I do, I wanted new books. New material. Lines I didn't know by heart.

So we went to Waterstone's. A great shop. They really have such a great selection in books here (not just Waterstone's) and what's even better, there are always great offers. The bookshops are really selling the books, getting people to buy them and read. I love it. I came away with 3 books. And so did V. (They have this 3 for 2 offer basically all the time. I like to take advantage of it.) 3 wonderful books. I got one by David Nicholls, one by Stephen Fry and one on Mao and the great famine. It can't all be fun and games now, can it?  V's books are this Game of Thrones series. Something or other. Weird language, that's all I can say.

This post was supposed to be about three things, but I can't seem to get the two others in. The books are taking so much space. But speaking of books and book offers, I really have to try my best not to buy cooking books. Yesterday I saw one that looked really great and it was dirt cheap! But I resisted. I mean, we are fully capable of making a great (it is) roasted chicken with our own spice combo and a little help from Jamie Oliver. I can smell the wonderful smell. And chicken here is so cheap. You can get two whole chickens for only £4. Like we did.

And watch more Hitchcock. Like we did and will do. Tonight is North by Northwest. And then there's Vertigo. We've seen Birds, Psycho, Dial M for Murder and Rear Window. It's a really different type of storytelling than in other movies. I like it. Though I do not understand what the fuss is about Birds. What's so great about that? Or would it have been better with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant? I mean, who can beat Cary Grant? Hmm.. Rock Hudson maybe. Or not. Well, that's a whole different story.

Hey, I got all three things in. Yay.

Tottenham.

Tottenham is where I live. It's where the infamous riots started. Just there, on the High Road. But it's calm now. Quite quiet. Except on matchdays. Then there are a lot of people walking towards to stadium. Well, before the match starts at least. After kick-off the streets are basically empty. I mean, Tottenham Hotspurs is a big team and we are in Tottenham here. So if you're not at the stadium watching it you're either at home or at a pub, right? Well... Most people.

Some roast a chicken and feast on it for four days. They might also bake a delicious lemon drizzle cake and just walk around Tottenham. 

Originally this picture was the right way around.

Sorry, no pictures of the chicken nor of the cake. At least not a good picture of the cake so you won't be seeing any. Instead, I leave you with a picture of our friendly neighborhood fox.

Isn't he just adorable? 

First Monday.

It was quite uneventful. Lot of things were supposed to get done, but not that much did. To get a contract for the phone, they require you to have a debit card. Visa Electron is no good. Right. Bank requires a letter from the university to home address stating student status. Well, that’s not going to happen ‘till next week. The earliest. The university needs to mail me stuff. And my school is a bit on the slow side in this mailing thing.

However, I do have the papers to register for NHS (lääkäri) and I was able to fill my online enrolment. Now I just need to upload a picture for my student ID card. The picture is going to be on it for 3 years. 3. So this is a big decision. There’s one that might be ok. Or then I just use the one I’ve used for the past 3 or 4 years. Any thoughts?

Fantastic Mr. Fox.

It's not raining. At least not yet. It's nice, sunny and warm. Well, sort of sunny. There are a lot of clouds.

Yesterday went quite smoothly actually. No problems with the flights, we got our luggage (3 times flown with SAS, 1st time I didn't need to wait a few days before getting my luggage!) and the tube ride was easy. And we only had to pay for one ticket. And even that we got 2 pounds cheaper because someone forgot to take their change. Ha. But it was a long ride. Our stop was the 32nd. In rush hour London on Friday. Safe to day the day was long so the bed was calling quite early to come to sleep.

But it wasn't that easy. Headache kept me awake at first. Then the coldness. The windows in my room are not double-glazed. There's wind coming in the room and the radiator isn't working. Yet. And all I had was my sheets. No fluffy, warm and fuzzy cover. It's good we're going to Ikea today.

I'm sure you're wondering what's up with that "Fantastic Mr. Fox" thing up there (if you even paid attention to it). Well, as it happens, there's this fox that likes to come and hang around in our backyard. Just lying there, relaxing. How is it that there's a fox living in residential London but it's impossible to see one in Finland where there are woods all around?