My roommate has been very nice to me all this time. She’s had problems with her back. She hasn’t been able to work and do anything physical. She’s been going to different doctors about it and nothing has worked so far. They didn’t want to operate because she’s still very young. But because nothing has worked so far, she’s really been suffering, doctors decided that the best solution is to operate. She she had a operation yesterday. It wasn’t very complicated and there were low risks. So, thank god, she’s just fine. But she has to be at bed rest for a few weeks and now I have to apartment for myself. It is kinda nice, but not really. We were just starting to speak more and more spanish and also getting to know each other more. Well, I’ll try to go visit her.

I have a problem and it’s kinda embarrassing. I’m an engineer, but I can’t be able to operate a simple water heater. We have a water heater that works with gas. Okay, I get everything how it works and so on, but the problem is to put it on. You have to press a switch, the system ignites and a small flame heats the system. After a while it should be warm enough, turn the switch and the gas flow should burn by itself. It seems very simple, but I just can’t get it to work. Today even, my roommate’s father came to help me with the heater, he advised me differently than my roommate and I was optimistic that now I got it. I tried again after few hours, but no, it just won’t like me. The mornings I’m alone in the house and I can’t get it work, I have to boil the water myself to go to the shower. Which makes me feel like I’m back in Finland, in a old cabin middle of nowhere, not in a european metropolitan city. Well, I hope I figure it out soon…

What else, oh yeah. My studies here are a lot different than in Finland. I really don’t have to do much else than go to classes and to do the tests at January. I have classes like 2-6 hours a day. The system is very different than in my school in Finland. In TKK I usually have the same amount of lectures, but you don’t have to go to classes so much. The lecture slides are provided in the internet and they are usually good. The thing that is different, is that in Finland you have to make all kinds of exercises, reports, projects and so on… And at my university those aren’t usually so easy. Many courses have like a project deadline every 2 weeks and project report is ultimately around 10-15 pages and it takes many many nights to complete. Here, I have 4 courses this fall, I get 24 ECTS if I pass those. In Finland I have usually 5 or 6 courses per semester and I get the same amount of points, but the work I have to do is from a totally different planet. Of course, I’m still halfway and let’s wait what I’ll say at January when it’s exam time.

So, I haven’t been so busy because of the school, what have I been doing. I’m also taking spanish classes and been learning the culture and city. But I still want to learn something that helps my education and professional status. That’s why I started to create this web site. I know a lot about semantic web, markup and programming languages, but I don’t have so much concrete experience about web developing. I tell more about this in the Tech section, but I’ve been learning all the time while I’ve been creating and upgrading this web site. I just finished this version of the web site, but yesterday I already started to study about the next version. Which is like sixth or seventh version, because I haven’t published all my versions, only two. Back to the point, so I’m trying to learn things at my free time in here. I have a few ideas what I’d like to make, but the thing is, when I get some concrete results I can ask from my professor back in Finland if I could make some project work or even a course while I’m in here.

What else. We went visit a local newspaper called Avui, which is written in catalan and from a catalan point of view. Me and my friend were the only engineers. The person who was our guide was a vice president of the company, so they really took us seriously. The tour was okay, but not from a technical point of view, because he talked only mostly about the history about Catalonia and the newspaper, which was nice, but I’ve have liked to learn more about the systems and techniques how their newspaper was build. The thing I was especially interested was if they had any Macs even at the graphics department, but no, only black Dell workstations. Well, it’s common in this country, Apple isn’t so common, only few iPods I see here and there. We’re still in Europe and when you compare things to Finland, it’s like a totally different world. In TKK you can see more students with Apple notebooks than PCs or perhaps I just notice Macs more easily…

Today I’ve been cooking and watching football. You can see my products at Recipes. Some red wine with the meal, coffee and brandy afterwards. Perfect start for a football night. Hurray, Barça won 3-0…!

Bona nit (Catalán) / Buenas noches (Castellano) / Good Night
MikkoTags: