Knock, knock! Who's there? Your exams

It's that time of the year again, the exams are knocking on my door. Tomorrow starts my three week period full of books, pens, notes and paper balls on the floor... It's a headache to most of the people around me because I can't go do anything fun with them or because I wake up early (I start always at 9 AM). But the bright side of it is that these will be my final exams since next year I only have my internship and my final paper to do. :-)

I follow the bachelor courses in business management and majoring in accountancy and tax law. Yaaaaaaaaawnnnnnn... Yeah yeah I know I am boring ;-) But my plan A was always to study to be perhaps a translator from English to Finnish to English or just majoring in English but as I didn't get accepted to the university in Finland I went for my plan B. To those of you outside of Finland, we have to do exams to get in and the education I wanted to follow had a limit of 20 people being accepted a year while we applied with 1.000 ... You do the math! So I didn't get in cuz I panicked at the exam... I didn't study enough.. It was perhaps too difficult ?? I love excuses. But I didn't sit around and ponder but decided to go the other way and apply to an university college instead.

So then in Finland you need to choose 4 schools (I think..) and if you get invited to do the entrance exam, you need to attend. If you get good scores from the one you put first, you will most likely get in to the first one and so and so on. So I applied for international business, office management, IT (HM???) and I think also international business in another school. Those were all in Helsinki. So I got invited to do all the exams, WHAT? Ufff.. International business was my first choice anyway and it went well. The exams even went so well that I got invited to start the IT as well (yeah I am a true nerd). Unfortunately I never did start that school, though I kept it on hold for some years... 

Always funner if you aren't alone :-)

 So, then I moved to Belgium. I had to basically start all over again cuz my dream was still to get my degree. So I studied Dutch for 1,5 years and then I started at this school to study accountancy. It was a choice I made out of three majors at that time; accountancy, marketing or IT. 

After all these years I still think it was the best choice I made and I am still happy about my choice. I've finished that and already graduated with great honors (just after 4 years in Belgium!) and now I am following my last year of Bachelor. By next year I will have my diploma in my hands and then the doors are open for me. I could continue, masters in economics anyone? :-) Or perhaps I will just go and work full time and let Angelo do the studying :-) 

So now tomorrow starts my exams with corporate tax 2. I am positive I know my stuff, but let's see how positive I will be tomorrow around 15h. ;-P

Good luck to everyone who is doing their exams !!  Keep your fingers crossed for me that I will pass cuz I don't feel like doing them again in September... :-)

It's summer!

People are happy and smiling, what's going on ??? Ahhh it's thanks to that big, glowing, yellow, warm thing called the sun :-) It finally broke out and gave our little Belgium the weather it deserves this time of the year. The records have officially been broken for this year and it has been amazingly warm weather. For those of you thinking, oh boy now Hanna looks like a lobster, no no you wouldn't be more wrong ! I went to the pharmacy and bought a very good sun cream (hey you gotta learn once hé ??). I have been sitting hours and hours in the sun and still look white (damn....). :-D

We've had a very very busy weekend. Thursday we had a BBQ (just us two) at home. 

Friday we were walking around the city, sitting outside, enjoying the sun just like everyone else in Belgium I believe.

Saturday we were invited to a BBQ at my best friend's Kaija's and her Denis' place. Ahhh, great company, great weather, great food and great drinks. We had a blast ! We could sit outside until midnight easily (tho I needed a blanket around 22h but those of you who know me, know that I am always cold). 
Kaija don't forget that you promised we will do that more often :-)

If that wasn't already enough buzz for one weekend we were also invited to Angelo's cousin's son's communion (rippijuhlat - communie). In Belgium the children have this two times in their lives, first at around 6 years old and the second time when they are about 12 years old. If we thought it was warm in Antwerpen, it was like double at where we went to! I looked at the thermometer and at some point it showed 38 degrees!  But honestly it was all so nice, well organized and yet again, good food! 

All I can say is that after this weekend I need to seriously consider starting a diet again.. ;-)

 

Mimi my little ball of fur

I've always wanted a cat. There were no doubts about what I wanted even when I was little, seeing my first word I ever spoke was "cat" (it was in Finnish so it was of course "kissa"). I went on and on about having a little ball of fur but unfortunately, my father and my brother are allergic.. :-( (Also my mother was afraid that she'd be the one left to take care of the little one if I'd choose to get bored after a week. A very good point at the time, if I think about it)

Well the moment I moved out from my mother's house, I immediately started to plan my big dream of having a cat. One nice day my sweet Kaija came to me with good news! She knew a family where two little cats were born, a boy and a girl and I could choose if I'd want one. I was doubting at first, it is a responsibility. But I went for it and then end of may 2007 Kaija came over with this... 

 I wondered for a while what I could call her but I decided to call her Mimi :-) I chose the girl cat after some advice from people who have experience (boys tend to pee everywhere to mark their territory and seeing my cat would be an inside cat I didn't want to risk it).

When she was small I couldn't have imagined what kind of devil she would grow up to be. (well people are saying that I made her like that, but how can that be :-D). 

Mimi is now big 5 years old. Yay. She loves to sleep on things, to crawl inside things, under things, fetch a ball (and bring it back!), purr, bark (she grew up with a dog...hm), destroy my carpet, be angry at birds, hunt spiders and other eww things, cuddle me (and only me!), meooww but most of all she loves the sun ! 

Mimi is a heat seeker, you can always find her near a heater or in the sun

What you learn young...

.. you master when you're old!

Restaurant day - K50

Yesterday we took part at this thing called "restaurant day". As I am too lazy to find a nice description for it myself (haha) I just quoted this from their website :

 

"Restaurant Day is a one-day carnival in favor of restaurant and food culture.

On Restaurant Day anyone can set up a restaurant, café or a bar for a day. It can be anywhere: at your home, at the office, on a street corner, in your garden or inner courtyard, at a park, or on the beach – only your imagination is the limit."

This funky thing is a recent (1 year old !) Finnish initiative and it has actually been listen by the CNN as one of the weirdest ways to eat in the world. (pff I know weirder ways). So I picked this thing up at a forum for Finnish people in Belgium and signed up right away ! It was held by a Finnish-Belgian couple at their house, at the inside yard. Gorgeous.

I had no idea what to expect or if to expect anything for that matter. We went in, we saw a long table with some people already tasting wine. We were warmly welcomed by the host Stephane and his girlfriend Stiina to eat their delicious cooking and enjoy (a lot of) good wine.

We had a blast. Honestly, the food was awesome, the company was great (we met this other young couple and we hit it off right away), the weather was amazing (we sat straight in the sun) and I got to speak Finnish again !

I would sign up immediately again ! And the good news is, it happens every 3 months and even YOU can do it ! (if you are interested I'm sure you can find more information on the website I already linked above)

Wow, the weatherman just said it will be all week warm and even 25 degrees by Friday !! Well didn't that just make my day even better :-)

Veal tongue

entrecôte mm

Cheese, not the stinky kind!

Small portion but heavenly

Weekend, weekend why do you fly by so fast

It's Sunday evening again. I can't believe how fast a weekend goes ! We had even the luxury of enjoying a 4-day weekend this time and it still went way too fast. :-(

I had a very successful weekend. I ate well, drank well, had good company, it was warm, it was sunny, found two shirts at the second hand market, studied (that's the least fun part), watched the rain and thunder take Belgium over last night, had ice cream (banana and pistachio flavour), played with Mimi and slept well. 

The only sad thing about this weekend was that Finland wasn't able to win bronze at the ice hockey world championship, but there's always next year. For the record it was held in Finland and Sweden this year, but also next year (crazy right). 
And for those of you who don't follow ice hockey (most of you ;-), Finland won the championships last year so we were under a lot of pressure to win not only cuz we were the title holders and cuz the games were held partly in Helsinki.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves 

We went to Wilrijk to a small fair

Mmmmm churros <3

I need a haircut...

It's so pretty at night when all the lights go on.

Bubbles, what else?

Mmm pasta carbonara :-)

They have energy drink also already??

Funky music :-)

It was yesterday warrrrrm

Exhausted

This week I started a new job. Yay. :-)

Little bit of background.. I came to Belgium and since there wasn't a lot I could do considering I didn't speak a word of Dutch, I started as a cleaning lady. I cleaned people's houses and did the ironing. The point was to stop doing that after a while and find something else that would earn more but... After 5 years I was still doing it ! Okay that sounds crazy to you, why would I do that when I could speak almost fluent Dutch after 1,5 years already? Well firstly because I liked my job a lot. I also met nice people (mostly), I was free to do my job, I was good at it, I got presents and I was appreciated. All those reasons were valid but the biggest reason was of course because I was still studying and with that job I was totally free to choose my hours. 

But anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to look for another job for the summer since I'd have to stop anyway before the fall cuz of my internship. Well I had a few calls where they offered me a full time job but since I still follow lessons at school I could only do part-time. Now two weeks ago they called me that I could be a temporary replacement of the assistant accountant for the summer while they look for someone full time for that job. BUT... I'd have to start right away. Actually during that whole week they kept calling me back to arrange for a meeting with the boss of the company, my head was going around and around. I was honestly really scared, what if they would choose me ? Then I'd have to quit my safety net, my safe zone, my job that I actually like ?? Well I can't be a cleaning lady forever, I understand that, but that I'd have to do it so quickly.... I had my doubts but decided to do it one day at a time and panic about it IF they would choose me.

They did. 

Panic.

I quit my job the same day but my term of notice is 2 weeks so I obviously had to do it first before I could start the new job. It was so sad at times when I realised it was the last time I'd see the children that I saw grow up for the past 5 years. But of course I was realistic, it had to happen one day that I would stop and take the next step in my life. 

This week I took that step. Exhausting. I thought working in an office is like sitting around all day, drinking coffee, browsing the Internet, doing some paperwork and then going home. That's my idea of that. Well it's all that but add a huge amount of stress and yapping and annoying colleagues and you've got it ! Okay I am exaggerating it a little bit. It's not that bad. At my work there's about 13 people working in that office. Some salesmen, engineers, managers, the finance (us !) and marketing. It's very relaxed there, it's just a small office.

It was a crazy week, as I already told above I am just a temp so I didn't even think anything else about that. But this week I already had a meeting with the senior accountant, the office manager and the general manager about the possibility of staying there and becoming the full time assistant accountant !!! Okay one step at a time again and we will see what happens later on, it was after all just my first week.

Boy am I glad that I have 4 days free now to clear out my head, focus on fun stuff and celebrate that I survived my first week !!!!! :-)

Here's some pictures of the few presents I received. (the other one is a design fruit bowl)

Mmm brunch

Brunch? What is that? Well that's according to wikipedia a meal that is eaten in the middle of the morning between breakfast and lunch. Well I'm a strong believer that any reason is a good reason to eat and since they made up a whole name for that extra eating hour, then why not take advantage of it? :-)

I was invited by a good friend of mine to come have brunch at Diamonds & Pearls in Antwerpen for a spot price of 9 euros ! She had a coupon from a girly magazine and wished to use it with someone special (I like to believe I was the first choice ;-). The actual price was 21 euros, so of course that is a bargain one just can't miss. 

I was so hungry already!

The place was in a little deserted street but it didn't take us long to find it. It was so small but so gorgeous. See the old Belgian style fire place behind me, lovely flowers and for our little tête-à-tête with Maite they had put all the candles on (it was 12:30 in the afternoon!).  

It was a buffet style brunch with little breads, croissants, pastries, yogurt (totally missed it), potato salad, Italian salad (the Finns will know what I mean by that), pasta salad with tuna, cucumber slices with brie (cheese) on it (DELICIOUS), tomatoes, scrambled eggs, cheese, salami, ham, jams, boiled eggs and french cheeses. Getting hungry anyone? 

Getting hungry?

 
But of course it all started with a glass of bubbly! (look who is happy :-D ). Afterwards we got served some tea and orange juice. Mm.

For dessert they had promised fresh fruit (yep) and a choice between a cherry pie and an apple pie... hmm.. I only saw apple pie, but since I looove apple pie (with some ice cream and whipped cream of course more but ok ;-).

Obviously I hadn't taken my piece(s) yet ;)

Afterwards we were two fullllll girls who might as well have been rolled outside cuz we so enjoyed that open buffet and ate like 1,5h in there. Yep, we love food. ^___^