Monday, May 28, 2007

We had an amazing trip to Dublin.

The coach that was supposed to take us from London to Dublin missed our ferry to Dublin. Apparently the drivers (yes, there was two of them, other one giving advises about the route and other one driving) knew for couple of hours that we were going to be late, but they didn't bother to tell that to forty people all going to Dublin. They didn't even tell us anything after we had arrived to the terminal and the gates were closed and the time was, well, too much. After some time they told some passengers that there was going to be a ferry 3 o'clock next morning (we were meant to be in Dublin at 6pm).
Luckily there was another ferry leaving after few hours which took all of us there, but without the coach. When we were going onboard we met an Immigration Department Hero, haven't seen that kind of man ever before, he was like from a film. Anyway, he wanted to see our passports and tickets again, just after they had been checked. Didn't see him checking anyone else's.
The ferrytrip was okay, until we came to Dublin. The staff obviously didn't really know what they were doing. We had to wait for a long time to get out after the ferry had arrived to the harbour, and when they already had let me out I had to go back and they lost the driver of the bus that was to take us to the terminal etc. It was about hundred meters from the ferry to the terminal.
Today's return started promisingly, we were at the airport at 4.30 and through the check-in and security at 4.40. Boarding was supposed to finish by 5.55, but it didn't even start by that. The flight finally left 35 minutes late, and landed late as well. In Stansted we got through the passport check quikly enough (persons travelling from Dublin had to show their boarding cards, but not passports...), but then we queued to buy our train tickets for a very long time with lots of people, until some guy who got to talk with the only officer kindly told everybody that there wasn't any trains to London. We then found the coach station and queued there some more, but this time in the rain and wind.
Those things happen, but you really hope they wouldn't when you're only going somewhere for a very short period of time.

Otherwise our Dublin trip was nice, allthough it was pretty cold and windy and rainy in there. But, I guess we expected that. Janne lives in the centre, near to everything basically. We went to Irish Museum of Modern Art and Gallery of Photography, and to lots of pubs. I bought four books (I guess I could be spending my money to worse things, or that's what I tell myself at least). And of course we bumped into Finns as well. And in the book shop of Gallery of Photography the young woman behind the encounter said to me that "You're Finns, aren't you?", and somehow I wasn't surprised at all, I've been asked the question quite many times now. I bet there's lots of photography students in Dublin as well. But I still don't understand that how can Finns be everywhere, there isn't that many of us after all.

Anyway, about Dublin still. I liked it, and I think Tuomo liked it too. We want to go there again. For me it seemed nicer than London, of course it can be that we saw the right places, and didn't stay too long. But still.
I think the trip was a good mini-holiday for us, we've been both working hard. I still have a week and a couple of days left (can't believe it!). Last crit'll be tomorrow, and after that I'll be in the darkroom doing my exhibiton work. And I guess I have to start looking for a new house as well. We just found out that the house where we were going to move is now suddenly 50 pounds more expensive for person in a month. Haven't heard any reasons yet. That really sucks, because we were going to move our stuff there this week. We'll see what happens now.

This is all for now. I have too many things to do, like always. But see you soon all (and bye guys), Tuomo will be there on wednesday. We've been together for three years tomorrow, imagine that!


(Btw Janne, here's a parody of that film I talked about. You get a pretty good picture of the actual thing as well.)

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Tiivistettynä: tuun Suomeen kesäkuun alkupuolella ja palaan takaisin tänne ensi syksynä uuteen (ikävä kyllä puutarhattomaan) kotiin Chathamiin. Tuomolla on varma yliopistopaikka länsi-Lontoossa Brunel Universityssä Sonic Arts linjalla, mutta ei tietoa siitä tuleeko se menemään sinne.
Mun ryhmän Setbuild käynnistyy ens maanantaina, odotukset ei oo kovin korkealla koska meidän ryhmässä on ollut aika paljon ongelmia.
Kesän mielenkiintoisin (ainakin mun näkökulmasta) näyttely NÄKYMÄ taas käynnistyy elokuun alussa ja on koko kuun nähtävissä ja koettavissa Kaapelitehtaan Valssaamossa. Esillä on mun ja 14:sta muun täällä valokuvausta opiskelevan töitä, kaikilta vuosikursseilta. Levottomuuksia luvassa myös Taiteiden yönä.
Tässäpä kai ne olennaisimmat.