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6:18 p.m. - 2007-07-04
The hills are alive with the sound of music
I'm back and alive. Valjevo wasn't that bad after all, and Divcibar (a mountain, we went there today) was pretty awesome, with all the amazing landscapes and everything. Serbian landscape is so different from Finland, there are so many hills and small mountains. I felt like I was in 'The Sound of Music' and that Julie Andrews could pop out of nowhere, singing "I go to the hills when my heart is lonely", or something like that. Last night was pretty scary though, I had to sleep alone in my second cousin's old room (now a man in his thirties) and it was filled with creepy toys from the 70s and there was a spider on the wall. I dreamed about the trip to Finland and some dark-haired guy who I haven't seen before, but the dream was a bit.. I dunno, it made me feel a bit nervous. I think it was just the strange place that made me feel like that.

Now I'm thinking whether I should go blonde or brunette when I go to Finland. Marina says brunette might look better and I kinda agree with her, but I have to consider it for a while before making any hasty decision. I've never been good at decision-making anyway.

Sigh, I wish it was already Friday.

10:58 p.m. - 2007-07-02
Blah blah blah
I'm hardly home nowadays, I just hang out with my sisters at my grandmum's old place, trying to get a nice tan and so on. Yesterday I passed the oral part of the English exam and got full points again. It means my final grade will be 10, which is really nice since I'm the only one this year who managed to get that. Man, that sounds smug! But on the other hand, I'm not good at much else, so.. If you excuse me for being happy because of this rare moment.

Today we were at some relatives' (my dad's cousin) who I haven't seen in 13 years. My dad's cousin's husband died about a week ago and even if the occasion was a bit sad, it was nice to meet them. I had never (okay, 13 years ago, but it's not like I remember anything of it) seen their son who's 28. He stared at me through the smoke of his cigarette all the time for some reason. He also looked like a drug dealer. But I guess he's nice.

Tomorrow we're going to Valjevo and we'll maybe stay there 'til Wednesday, which is something that I don't like. Reasons for this are:

1) The place isn't far from Belgrade (I suppose) but my dad wants to visit some relatives, of which I've never even heard of, let alone SEEN them, and then he wants to visit this old monastery which is kinda nice, but takes a lot of time, and all this together takes more than one day. At least this is what I've been told.

2) It is pure countryside! There is nothing! At least I suppose so. What on EARTH will we be doing for 1,5 days there? Except sit in some relatives' livingroom, sipping soda/juice and gaining weight because of all the stuff they want to stuff down our throats.

3) When we come back, supposing that we come back on Wednesday, we won't have time to go to Ada and then my tan will be ruined and the world will be destroyed, because we're leaving on Friday morning and argH!

Do you feel my pain? I hope you do.

I've also been a bit cranky lately (no kidding), maybe it's because of this weird disease called "Fat Days". It usually hits me.. well, it hits me sometimes, even I don't know when. I just feel like an elephant when compared with all the Serbian hotties. I really don't want to talk about it here because it both pisses me off and saddens me, meaning that if I really really start talking about it, I'll probably want to cry at some point. I'm also getting on Marina's nerves with all my talking about calories and fosforic acids and carbs and EVERYTHING, I get on my own nerves too. It just freakin' pisses me off that I've gained 2 kilos while my family's been here. Two kilos!

Hmm, I think I told you I'm not going to talk about this, at least not like this. It's just really important to me, weight stuff and, umm.. looks, you know, because.. I don't know, it's important to other people so it has to be important to me too because people on the street don't know about my (sometimes bubbly) personality and my dumb jokes and how smart I sometimes can be, all they see is my face and my body and they judge me by it. Everybody does so, even I make that mistake sometimes. And I know that with enough will power I could be fit, I could look good, I could.. be anything. That's why the lack of that will power frustrates me so much and makes me feel so bad.

Okay, let's cut the crap and save you from reading this shit, I have to go to sleep. Have to wake up early tomorrow, at 6 a.m. because of that dumb trip to Valjevo. Until I return, my few but faithful readers!

9:45 a.m. - 2007-06-28
Money burns a hole in my pocket
Did I tell you that I finally went to get my driver's license? The paper version? I still think I look a bit murderous in the photo but it's still one of the best official photos ever taken of me, so.. I can't complain. Besides, I'm wearing a pink striped shirt so it goes well together with the pink license.

My dad's trying to find me an old (and cheap) car that I could drive here in Belgrade, and so far he's found a little bright red Fiat from 1991 that is so small that if I lied down next to it, I'd probably be taller than the car. And it goes max. 80 km/h which is kinda slow, I mean, I can't drive 80 km/h on the highway, can I? This one is cheap, only 650 euros. The second car is a Beetle cabriolet from 1971, which sounds really good except that it's so old. Dad found it from an ad so we haven't even seen it yet, but if it looks good and goes more than 80 km/h and looks like it's going to last more than 5 km without breaking down (because I'm so not going to change tyres and/or touch the engine), I think I might want this one. It's not even that expensive, 1200 euros.

I think I should start saving money again if I want to survive through August and September without any study grants from Finland. During the past couple of weeks I've bought EIGHT chick lit books*, four in Serbian and four in English. I've got too many English books, and I know I should read more in Serbian, but books are sometimes better in English. But, I've decided to read the Serbian books while being in Finland, you know, to "study" Serbian because I won't be talking any Serbian there.

The weather has gotten a bit colder, though msn.fi says that today it's going to be +24� and sunny. Now it's just cloudy, but I guess it doesn't matter since I won't have time to lay in the sun. :/ I'm desperate to get a tan as dark as my sister's.

*Jennifer Weiner - In her shoes
Marian Keyes - Under the duvet
Marian Keyes - Rachel's holiday
Marian Keyes - Lucy Sullivan is getting married
Karen Joy Fowler - The Jane Austen Book Club (maybe the least chick-lity of these)
Tracy Quan - Diary of a Manhattan call girl
Janet Evanovich - Metro Girl
Jane Moore - Dot.Homme

8:57 a.m. - 2007-06-26
Stuff
Okay, what's been going on lately..

The other day we went to see old cars but found nothing, except an old Fiat that goes max. 80 km/h and is so small that if I had lied down next to it, I would've probably been taller. It was cheap though.

After that we went to the old fruit garden/dangerous jungle to pick some apricots and cherries, and while my dad climbed in one of the big cherry trees, my brothers were hardly able to pick the cherries that were on the lowest branches. They were just like me, complaining about the mosquitos and bugs and everything that was in that jungle. Somebody should really take a motorsaw and destroy everything else but the fruit trees so that one could WALK there normally.

Yesterday I had the English oral exam which, if you ask me, didn't go so well because even if I talked a lot, kinda fluently I guess, I didn't remember the parts of a flower in English (except petals) and so on. So the professor gave me a 9 which amazed me, but she said that I can do better than this and asked if I want to do it again on next Monday. Of course I said yes because whatever happens, my grade won't be lower than 9.

Then I waited for a couple of hours one of the professors to sign my student book and headed downtown to meet Iiris and Vilja. I spent practically the whole day with them, I was home at 10 p.m., very tired. I also found out that my resistance to alcohol is minimal, because one cosmopolitan made me feel like 5 drinks used to make me feel. It was just a really strong cosmopolitan, the tequila sunrise we had at Coffeedream was a bit better.

No other news, except that it's really really hot.

11:10 p.m. - 2007-06-23
Ben Akiba
Have you ever read The Game by Neil Strauss? If you have, you know the part where he visits his Serbian friend Marko who lives in Belgrade, and they go to this place called Ben Akiba, remember? I've been to Ben Akiba, and that's where I got the best cocktails of my life. Not that I would've been to many places outside Helsinki but still, the drinks were fantastic. I celebrated the New Year there with Oona and my brother's friends. Not only did I get the best cocktails of my life but also the second worst hangover, but doesn't matter. I feel almost famous because of Neil Strauss mentioning the place in his bestseller.

Btw, don't you think it's funny how it's so much easier to run with high heels when you're drunk?

9:46 p.m. - 2007-06-22
The sharpest tool in the shed, hehe
Ooh, I'm so smart. Or maybe not, but let me think so for this one day. I had the English exam today, written part, and I got full points. I knew it went well, but full points! I had to translate a Serbian text, it was about annual and biannual plants, not as boring as the other students' subjects. Besides, there were only 7 of us, three of which passed (me, Lidija and Olga). I've never been really good at anything else than English, really, but this still feels really good, even I kinda expected it to go better than maths, for example. You know. I hope Monday's oral exam goes well too.

I also checked the marks I got from the nature preservation exam: 7. Better than I thought.

7:29 p.m. - 2007-06-21
2 weeks left
I bought two Air CDs today, Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie. I've been waiting for this day for about two years! 10,000 Hz Legend isn't that good, just like Premiers Symptoms, so I think I won't buy them. Though Pocket Symphony is most definitely on my shopping list.

I also bought a pair of Rocket Dog flats, they're army green with small golden skulls, really pretty. My feet will probably commit suicide after a few hours of wearing them because they don't look/feel like the softest and comfiest shoes ever made, but at least my feet will look cool while dying. That's what it's all about, right? Besides, they were only 1990 din (about 25 euros) so it's no big deal.

Btw, today I went to get the photos for my driver's license. Yeah I know, I passed the test already in March but I just haven't had time to do something about the photos and actually GETTING the license.. And everytime I went to the hairdresser's to get my hair done, I ended up thinking "I could look better" and then I forgot about the license. But like my sister said, if I had had to wait 'til the day I feel good about my looks to get the license thing sorted out, I would've never gotten the license because I'm never satisfied with my looks. True. Besides, I don't look that bad in the pic! My hair is straight, I'm wearing make-up (not much) and.. I look okay. I haven't worn any make-up in a couple of days and even if I like this new "hey I can be natural if I have to" thing, I still like my face more with make-up. A whole lot more. And I don't want to look like shit in my driver's license photo because I'm very likely going to have to show it to people (like officers and so on, after I've crashed with another car or a street light), and I'd rather not look like an idiot who has lived in a cave with no social contacts and sun light for all her life. I personally think that I look a bit murderous in the pic (my sisters and mum denied it but maybe they were just being polite) but maybe it's just a part of my nature? I've never liked cameras anyway.

You know, this was supposed to be a short entry.

Something to listen to:
J-Kwon - Tipsy (blame my sister)

6:00 p.m. - 2007-06-20
+34�C
I've been twice to the beach since the last entry, so I guess things aren't that bad after all. Now I'm on a bad mood though and can't seem to figure out why. After all, I'm not as white as I was two days ago, I've got some ice coffee and cappuccino in the cupboard, two new pans and one kettle, a new laundry basket and a magazine rack (both made of some ecological material like dried water hyacinth leaves or something) and a new spaghetti scoop. I should be happy but instead I just feel sweaty and tired. I hope my brother has bothered to install the new shower hose so that I can take a nice cool shower and then maybe read Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix.

10:41 a.m. - 2007-06-18
Sigh
The only exciting thing that has happened lately is Iiris and Vilja's short visit yesterday. I can't really express how great it was to see them, it was like I hadn't been away for 9 months, like we would've just met for a small shopping tour and dinner! Like back in the old days. It was amazing. I worried about the train tickets for no reason, everything went well, at least after my dad helped us a bit. We found the right train compartment, and when I saw the gorgeous guys sitting there in the same compartment, I almost felt jealous that my lucky friends were going to travel with THEM, if you know what I mean, but then it came out that they had been sitting on Iiris and Vilja's places, so they had to change the compartment. Sigh. Such a shame.

I wish something out of the ordinary would happen. It feels pointless to cram for the two exams that I've got left because I know I won't pass them, and this has got nothing to do with me demeaning myself and my intelligence, I'm actually just being realistic. There's an effing big pile of stuff to learn, like 200 plant names in LATIN, everything about how plants work, reproduce and live and blah blah blah. And then there's pedology, meaning I'd have to learn everything about soil study, which I remember describing as "more effective than a handful of sleeping pills". There's no way I'm going to pass those exams in June, and it really bugs me that I still have to try, no matter how difficult is. Why can't I go to the beach instead, get more tanned, maybe look at guys that are totally out of my league but still nice to look at, enjoy the sun and just relax?

I haven't probably listened this little to music in two years. Last week I listened to only four tracks! Ruudolf, Ludacris and Twista. Now I really don't feel like listening to anything else than nostalgic 90s love songs and Enya. 'Kiss Me' by Sixpence None the Richer makes me feel so funny and optimistic.

9:31 a.m. - 2007-06-17
Randomness
Stuff in random order:

1. I bought an epilator (Braun Silk-�pil) yesterday when I was at Lilly with my little sister. When I tried it, I thought I had bought some sort of a medieval torture device. Luckily it didn't hurt that much! And my legs don't look that bad.

2. The on-going war between me and my brother might be almost over. He talked to my dad who talked to me, which was a bit weird because HE got away with everything, I was the one being accused. But I don't hold anything against him, I've been stupid/childish too. I can see that he tries to be nicer to me but it isn't always working. Oh well, at least he tries.. And it's not like he'd be super mean or anything, it's just all these.. little things. It's like everything most of the things I do are wrong and if something goes wrong, I'm the first one to be accused. I guess I'm an easy target? But anyway, I think it's the best if I stop complaining about him here and sort out my issues directly with him.

3. Iiris and Vilja are coming from Prague at 12:25 and I'm going to pick them up. It's weird that I haven't seen them in 9 months! In the evening they'll continue their trip to Montenegro and then return here on the 24th for 5 days, which is good because I have much less exams then. I thought I had some problems with buying their train tickets but my dad explained it to me, and it looks like everything is okay. I really really hope it is like that.

4. My mum comes here tonight around 7 p.m., so my middle brother will be in Helsinki all alone with the dogs. I think Roki's in Rekola with some relatives and Mini's with Tinkku's friend whose mum knows how to handle dogs. Vili and Nalle are at home because they're so old (10 yrs on the 23rd!) that going to a strange place like a dog kennel would probably be too much for them. My middle brother works all day long so he won't have much time to be with them, but luckily our neighbour (the same who takes care of Mini) has agreed to keep them company every now and then.
My oldest brother is coming here from Moscow on next Thursday, he'll be staying for 6 days. And the company pays the tickets.

This summer is so weird. It rains almost every day, and the rains are spiced with some nice lightnings and stuff. Last summer it rained only about three times! Yesterday we had some laundry drying on the balcony and both me and my brother were away, and when I came home I noticed that all the laundry was on the dirty balcony floor and that the glass on the balcony door was broken. Apparently the wind had slammed it shut, causing the glass to brake. Nice. I hope they (meaning my dad) will buy a new door because my brother said that the glass can't be changed or something. Besides, the door we have now is so crappy that it doesn't even shut properly. Imagine what fun it is to sleep with the door and my window slightly open in the winter! But not once was I sick. Quite an achievement, eh?

8:22 p.m. - 2007-06-15
My boy
I've got nothing else new than some pics of Mini. I think he's just adorable, can't wait to see him! Just a little over three weeks left until I go to Finland for a month, to relax and study for the renewal exams. And I finally get to see him "live"!

Mini-Frank

At first the blue eye seems a bit weird, maybe a bit scary, but after a while I think it's cute and gives him even more personality - like he wouldn't have it enough already.

 

 

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