Today I don't have things to say.

All I have to say is this. I have finished my school assignment. And I have watched the two following videos which have made my day, here you you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzw

and

http://www.riemurasia.net/jylppy/media.php?id=95329#amedia

Enjoy.

Finito.

-Mikko

(Whats the Story?) Morning Glory

Things are finally becoming reality. 4 Days to Dublin. In 14 days I am in Amsterdam. In around 32 days I am in Finland. I actually managed to skip half of the Finnish winter. Feels good man! I managed to do some of my schoolwork as well. We have this ridiculous assignment from Uni of Glamorgan that we weren't aware of when we applied to the exchange. 2500 word report on what ever. Here is some of the text I've written so far:

"The lesion in the back of the infant should be closed within the first 72 hours after birth as this reduces the risk of a CNS infection (central nervous system infection). Prior to the closure, the infant should be put on broad spectrum antibiotics in order to avoid a CNS infection. CNS infections are rare if antibiotics and prescribed and proper wound care is applied. The closure of the lesion can cause a CSF leak (cerebrospinal fluid leak), infection and dermoid inclusion tumors. After fixing the spina bifida, 80-90% of the infants develop some level of hydrocephalus."

I have about 1200 words to go and it shouldn't be too hard. I just don't have a whole lot of interest in completing the assignment because it gives us credits in the UK, which don't really do anything for us in Finland.  Most we could get is some note from the person who gave us this assignment saying that "they did this" whooptiefreakindoo. In addition to that I have some schoolwork from Finland I'm gonna be doing this week. But its not all bad even work wise, I am absolutely loving my placement in community. I have only been working in hospitals and care homes before. But this is completely different. In community you actually go to peoples homes and you get to see how they live and a more "natural" living environment if ya'll know what I mean. So far almost everyone has been really nice and there have been some visits that I will probably never forget. I have also gotten to do a lot of wound care, which is an area of healthcare that I am quite interested in. I would say that the Finnish standard of hygiene is quite a bit higher than the one here in Wales. But its not that bad though, the girls from my class who are currently in Vietnam on exchange told me that there's cockroaches in the hospitals and due to overcrowding people are actually sleeping on the hospital floors.. not cool man, not cool at all. 

I am starting to miss Finland a bit though. I miss the people, I miss my friends, I miss my family. I miss the country even a bit. But hey, I'll have plenty of time to enjoy Finland when I get back. At the moment I am a bit frustrated that I will have to come back to Wales to pick up my stuff, then go to London again to stay with Simo for a couple days. Rather unnecessary back and forth traveling. I am also a bit cranky about moving in with my mom for a couple months again.. I do get free food, free accommodation.. and I guess its nice to see my brother and mother a lot more for a while. But since I am used to living alone it seems that 1-2 weeks is about as much as I can take. 2½ months might be preeeeetty interesting. On top of that my mental health placement in Winland called and said that my MRSA tests aren't going to be ok for them as I have been abroad afterwards and they won't swab me here so I need to get it done in Finland, which means that I my placement will be moved forward by a week.. which means that I will either have to work like hell for about two weeks 24/7 or then move my summer job forward. I don't know. No use stressing that anyway! Anyhoo, despite this angsting everything is pretty good around here. Just looking forward to my trip and meeting my friends in Europe.. the trip is going to be LEGEN...wait for it....DARY! Yes, I have been watching How I met your Mother lately. 

Good night everyone.

The good, the Bad and the Simo Loikkanen

I'm sure that everyone has those days when it feels like the whole world is just flat out shitting on your parade. Well, yesterday started off as just one of those days. I had just finished my three day work streak of 12 hrs each(1 day 2 nights). I woke up excited to have the rest of the week off and looking forward to the gig I was going to, Nero over at Cardiff Uni Student Union. Then my friends canceled on me cause they weren't feeling well. So looked like I was going to have to go to the big city all alone. Great. Then our train tickets ended up costing a total 16 quid more than they were supposed to. Then we lost the hotel reservation we were supposed to have in Dublin. Next thing I know, my friend tells me on Facebook that he will not able to accommodate in Germany during my inter railing, not at least during the time that I was intending on being in Germany. Which means that I have to re-plan my travels.. sigh.

Luckily my day did get a bit better from there. Camilla decided to come to the gig with me and take one of the tickets from my friends who decided not to go. So we went to Cardiff by train and found the venue quite easily.  Nero had some random DJ warming him up, pretty decent dubstep but every song sounded pretty much the same and there wasn't much in the way of visuals, so the warm up was mediocre at best. Then Nero goes on.. and the whole venue just explodes. I had previously thought that Nero is just one dude, but its actually two. They did an amazing job and had a nice visual show as well in the background. The bass blastin' was sending shockwaves through my body. People kept throwing plastic cups filled with what ever all over the crowd. The whole gig did seem a bit like a Daft Punk copy. But it was good though, I did really enjoy myself.  Me and Camilla were amongst the oldest people at the venue though, people were quite young. Bridgend is known for its violence: the nights round here can be pretty bad if you're not careful. So it was quite funny when I was talking with some dudes and I just said that Bridgend is crap compared to cardiff and then some dude comes along saying like "Hey, I'm from Bridgend".. and it was pretty obvious since he was bleeding from the corner of his left eye. I have some pictures of the gig on my phone but I cant get them out of the phone since I don't have the proper cables for it. The pictures aren't very good as the camera on my temporary phone is only like two megapixels or something.

The highlight of the night happened in the mens room. I was just minding my own business when all of the sudden two guys come along, one on each side of me. They start speaking Swedish or something. So of course me being me, I start talking Svenska to them for the hell of it. Something like "Javisst mycket sverige bögaren" and both of the dudes just look at me like.. wtf? Turns out that they're actually Norwegian and both of them are really nice.. But their names. My face melted. One of them is called THOR. As the viking god who swings the hammer around. And the other is called MAGNERS... like the cider. I laughed my ass off, I hope they weren't offended! So anyway after the gig we went and had some food and talked, they were really nice guys. It was really late so they actually let me stay on their couch for the night and in the morning I made my way back to Bridgend. Good trip overall!

Midnight in Bridgend

Some of you may recognize that the headline of this post is a ripoff from the name of the movie starring Owen Wilson, "Midnight in Paris". Kind of a girly movie, but not too bad. It was alright, not anything to write home about necessarily though.

I just got home from my night shift, they let me go early as there was nothing to do anymore. I did all the Obs(Vitals basically; oxygen levels, pulse, temp and resps) for the whole ward on all the rounds, took up quite a bit of time considering its not just one or two patients. A students role in Wales is quite limited in comparison to what it is back in Finland. We aren't even allowed to measure blood sugar here. In that way its similar to the rules students have in America. In Wales, nurses have to undergo extra training after graduation to get rights to do I.V:s, cannulas etc. So far my experience from my placements in Finland is that the relationship between a mentor and the student is a bit more close and the mentor observes a bit more than here. Maybe that is why we get to do things in Finland that nursing students don't get to do in Wales. I'm workin tomorrow night as well, but after that I have the rest of the week off. On Thursday I'm going to go see Nero in Cardiff with a couple of mates, should be a nice trip! We are also going to Dublin on the 6th for a weekend trip since its a longer vacation then. Can't wait! I will come back looking (and sounding) like Colin Farrell. 

As far as exercising goes, I'm feeling awesome about moving more now and eating healthier. I feel like I'm playing hide&seek with my 6-pack. Unfortunately my nemesis is winning at the moment, but I'm gonna kick his ass some day now!

" Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness "

Dear Diary

So I finished my placement. So I thought I was going to have a nice relaxing week of vacation. Turns out I was wrong. I had an insanely sore throat on Sunday, thinking it might just blow over I didn't think much of it. It was sore enough on Monday for me to seek medical attention. Luckily I know the guy who manages the local GP so he did me a solid getting me to see a doctor. Turns out I had a throat infection and since it was "2 for 1 Special"- at the Bridgend GP, I got an ear infection as well. Quite a nice parting gift! All this fun didn't cost me a penny though. NHS I love you. Back in Finland I would have paid at least 50 euro's for the same thing. So I got some antibiotics and I am Faaaaaabuuuuloooous! *waves pinkies in the air*.

My trip into Europe is finally shapin' up a bit. I bought tickets to Amsterdam for the 16 of April. After a couple nights there, I'm gonna take the train(I got an inter rail pass as well) down to Germany to hopefully spend some time with my Sub-Sergeant(or Corporal) back from my army days as he is on exchange in Germany at the moment. From there on out my plans are yet a bit cloudy as I have many choices on where to go. I might go to Prague to see my brothers girlfriend and spend a couple days there. I was supposed to go to Poland and see Auschwitz originally but as I only have around two weeks to travel, I might not have the time to make the trip there. Another thing I also want to do is go to the beaches of Croatia for a little trip with my mate from Lahti. We already have matching G-Strings for our hand-in-hand strolls on the beach. And baby oil of course.... I'm kidding. Or am I? I don't want to make too many plans for my trip though. Kind of ruins the whole adventure aspect of it all. I bought myself a new backpack for my travels, its made of rain resisting material, durable, lightweight, padding etc.. Had to get something decent since I'm going to be carrying my earthly belongings in it for two weeks.. I'm a dude who likes comfort. I just really, really do hope that I don't get robbed or stabbed in the face during my trip. Firstly, a stab in the face would ruin the picturesque, roman god-like face of mine. Secondly, getting stabbed in the face isn't exactly on my bucket list anyway. And getting robbed just sucks. I'll have to hide my money in places where people won't look. Like bills in my shoes and coins in my mouth or something. Coins don't taste good though. I guess I'll just have to figure that one out for myself as I go along.

I haven't been exercising as much as I should. That's going to change! Today after watching Powerthirst 3 like four times in a row, I went out for a pumped up run. I ran around into this park and I stopped at this overpass bridge. It had a really nice, modern look to it. There was no people anywhere so I just decided to do some sit ups and push ups. For some reason it was really nice on the bridge, watching the cars drive around in the round about and go on the freeway. After I came back I had one of those American Beauty moments. Anyone familiar with the movie will know what I'm talking about. The sun was going down, but it was still shedding light on the town in a sort of slanted angle. And it was raining. But the rain wasn't like any normal kind of rain. It was so light that it almost looked that it evaporated before it hits the ground, as if nothing was getting wet but it just looked like it was raining. And the drops were spread out, falling slowly. Truly a Kodak moment, I need a proper camera some day. Here's the quote to those of you unfamiliar with the movie. If you haven't seen it, you really should. I hope I have more American Beauty moments in my life, they're pretty spectacular.

"It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. Right? And this bag was just dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in." 

Still Alive!

Haven't been posting for a while. I guess I can't blame my schedule too much, I have just been lazy / now knowing what to say. I can't believe that its already been a bloody month on this island. We are surrounded but I am yet to see an ocean or a lake. Pretty weird isn't it! A pretty big difference between Finland and the UK is the fact that over here, like clockwork, a gnome breaks into my apartment and throws out my trash and gives me fresh sheets and towels. Or it might be the cleaning lady. I really can't know for sure!

I got my review for my placement today and I passed with flying colors. In the beginning of my placement I felt like it was just going to be four weeks of never ending observation and not getting to do much. But towards the end I have become increasingly independent in my actions, within my skill set of course. I still have to work tomorrow and Thursday, then I'll be done with this placement. I have enjoyed it though. Next week I have off so I should probably start making plans for what I will do with my week off. I was supposed to go to London with a mate of mine studying music there but he has a bunch of tests that week and needs to focus so he is unable to spend time with me. Alternatively we might be going to do some paintball or stuff like that. 

I actually got sidetracked while doing this entry, its actually Thursday today instead of Tuesday when I started this. My placement is done and I feel awesome! We are making some chicken salad at the moment with Levi's sticky BBQ chicken cookin' in the oven. Smells delish! I desperately want to get some photos up in this blog, although I have some on my Facebook page that aren't here. Tomorrow I'm gonna go buy myself a welsh rugby jersey for the game I'm gonna go watch on Saturday in Cardiff. Unfortunately I don't have tickets for the live game at the Millenium Stadium but I will be next to it at a pub watching the game from a widescreen. Should be fun.  

Gangstaboogie!

So yeah, my being sick continued again for a while. Apparently I got the stomach flu somewhere in the ward. Was absolutely horrible for a couple days with a fever. We were supposed to go out on Friday proper but that didn't amount to much. Wasn't feeling too hot so I just kind of sat around when people partied. But hey, that's okay. Today I am finally feeling good enough to write something on this blog of mine. Went out with for a jog with Pasi again today, feels good to be doing some sports again. Then we went out to Wyndham Arms for dinner, double cheeseburger was absolutely delish!

Tomorrow going to reconsider shaving my mustache and probably gonna go get a haircut in town, time to trim this badboy down. Not sure what kind of a cut I'm gonna get, something awesome I'm sure. We've been exploring the opportunities of going out for some bowling in Cardiff some day and doing paintball while we are out here. Never done paintball my self to it should be a freakin' blast. Gave my mum a phone call to Finland. My detoxing of Salmiakki was getting way too bad so I just had to ask her to send me a couple bags of it. For those of you who don't know what this awesome delicacy is, its like a Finnish salty licorice that pretty much nobody non-Finnish likes. But it is awesome in all ways possible. I'm kind of starting to miss proper coffee. The coffee here is okay but its always crystal coffee so its not the real thing. But it does the trick! I was also proud to hear that my brother is following my footsteps in becoming a Explosives&Ammunitions unit storage guy and getting out of the Finnish army in 6 months. So he is pretty happy with that I suppose. (Army is mandatory in Finland!). Was tired of not having a proper music supply so I put myself back on Spotify so I have music at my disposal 24/7 with a small data usage.

Kinda feeling homesick for the first time since I've been here. But nothing too serious. Just sent off an email to the student coordinator asking for the exact dates of when my last practice ends so I can start buying tickets for my epic trip around Europe in April. Cant wait. I also met this awesome dude over here in Wales and we are going to go check out the music scene a bit in Cardiff and possibly Wales. There's gonna be some good DJ's around, can't wait!