Greetings from June06!

Dear friends,

Hope you are very well! Enjoying your summer in Europe (or North America) or enjoying your winter if you are Australia!

I have had quite a laid-back month. Officially I am a student the whole summer, but I don't have as many courses going on as I have when the autumn or spring-semester is on. I finished approbatur(basic-courses) for psychology. That is cool. For me, the courses were more challenging in that subject than the ones I've done in philosophy so far. This summer I am still doing courses in philosophy and politics.

The weather has been mostly warm during this month. Warm and sunny. And the past few days it has been hot. I enjoy it! It is hard to get focused on the university-work if it is a wonderful weather outside! For the past two weeks I have given myself permission to just relax and be on a holiday.

I've been playing and watching football actively. I play football with an informal group once or twice a week. Most of the people there know each other. The rhytm and quality of the game can sometimes be quite high. It is a good workout to play couple of hours football in summertime.
The championships in Germany are almost finished. Few great games left- in fact, I am leaving this computer soon to watch one, the semifinal match between Germany and Italy.

I spent my Juhannus - the mid-summer celebration- 'the nightless night'( as it is called...because it doesn't get dark at all during this time in Finland )- with my parents and grandmother at our summerhouse in Hankasalmi. We heated up the smoke-sauna and had a big bonfire. It was a beautiful evening. I loved going swimming and I loved the beautiful nature. It was good to spend time with family too.

I attended to few big parties this month. My friend's mum had her 50th birthday during Juhannus-time, they live just a block away from my parent's house. That was a very nice party. And then two friends of mine, Aino and Antti got married. I attended the after-party. That was a great party too. There was a great band playing there. They managed to get us shy finns dancing. Many attendants were musicians themselves. So, later in the evening there was a wild jam-session!

I watched few good movies this month. Documentary about the rapper Tupac Shakur -'Tupac- the resurrection'- I recommend it- and Spieldberg's 'Munchen'.
'Munchen' is about the vengeance that Israel government initiated after the palestinian terrorists had murdered 11 israeli athletes at 1972 Olympic games in Munchen. Munchen deals with a dark topic and it is quite a dark movie. The movie seems pretty realistic to me. When following the events that are now taking place in Gaza & the whole-hostage situation, it seems to me that not much has changed since the seventies. One action is leading to another. It appears that it is almost like a chain-reaction but there has to be a better way than this! This can not be the best we are capable of, not in near-East and not in any other place either where there are conflicts like this. But we also have to realize that when there is a long story of hurt and pain in the history ( on both sides ), the change will probably will not happen easily, many steps need to be taken.

I wish you a great month! Enjoy the sun, enjoy the nature! Keep in touch with me.
Much love to you,
Anssi