Saturday, January 21, 2012

"youth, liberation, and the joy of losing yourself in the moment"



I was recently introduced to young photographer Ryan McGinely, whose work features "youth, liberation and the joy of losing yourself in the moment." More of his photographs and about him can be found here: http://ryanmcginley.com



Last night I went out with two Spanish friends to the first exchange party of the semester. What a surreal experience. The setting was a club full of foreign and Finnish students. Bars on every floor, the ever present blackjack table, a dance floor frequented mostly by the intoxicated, couches where the bored, unimpressed or tired people ended up... Loud music making it impossible to have a conversation. Girls screaming when they saw their friends or heard a song they liked. Guys looking around as if on the prowl. "Pseudoromantic sexual crap," as Zhenia said. A pogo pit. Long drinks. Celine Dion. Strange dance moves. A Finnish student asking "Where's your boyfriend?" This line is still used? Loving every minute with my Spanish friends, Diego and Pablo! We walked back (again at 3:30) tired and with a class at 9.

Transnational journalism. We discussed the organization of the class, the definition of transnational (especially compared with international), and some of the common themes and trends in the arena. Our professor is the dean of the journalism school here. After class, we broke up into groups and read the article: "Finnish foreign minister raps euro pact plan," focusing on what made it transnational journalism. We had lunch, went to Posti and then arrived at home for a nice nap.

Diego and I went to the sauna in the evening. We spent about 30 minutes total in the dry heat (leaving for cold showers three times) and then an hour and 15 minutes talking with our French friend Florian on the benches.

I have a lot of reading, studying and writing to do this term. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage everything flawlessly, but it does mean I can't go out as much. At least I had some exciting, wild, funny, spontaneous experiences this week.

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