Retro-vision: Day Five

Day five... Saturday. Already. Actually, no; not quite 'already'. Though it feels like I just got here, it simultaneously feels as if the days have absolutely crawled by since so much has happened. An odd ambivalnce. Time isn't just relative; it's quantum. The cat is both dead and alive at the same...time. - Hmm. Need to think about that some more.


Yesterday another Nordjobber like me knocked on my door and asked me to come out and chat, and lo and behold almost everyone in the whole building had gathered in the kitchen for a sort of multicultural amalgam picnic. The thought of Muhammed and the mountain came to mind, except both I came to the culture and the culture came to me. More than I bargined for, for sure. And I have pictures to prove it.
I actually knew about the picnic thing, but it kind of slipped my mind inbetween the cracks of everything I had to do. It didn't seem to concern me at the time, but obviously I was mistaken. Not that I really know how I would have managed to come up with something worthy to offer in a timely manner...
Well, after having chatted with a lot of the new Nordjobbers I had the time to talk with a Brazilian girl named Uana. She'd gone to an university in Sao Paulo (Spelling?) and was on her way on a career in some unspecific multinational when she decided that wasn't her thing, and then she traveled to Europe; an unspecific city in England, then Kopenhagen and then Stockholm. To memory, she'd studied electrical engineering in Sao Paulo and then something regarding the environment here in the Old World. She knew what biodiversity meant, and I used that term to say that in general Sthml has more of it than Helsinki. Though I could have said Sthml has more variety... But I digress.

As I had nothing to offer I felt it was inappropriate for me to participate in their feast, though in my book I'd already gotten plenty out of it. It was amazing to see how closely knit these people from all over the world have become. They're certainly setting a very nice example for us who are moving in to follow. While the location and housing is below par for sure, the spirit of this place is out of this world. I'm going to do my best to ensure it stays with us, requested or not. It'll be a thing to make this all worth remembering for everybody.


Uana seems to have left today. This morning I did have a chance to talk with her, but she must have assumed I knew since she didn't mention a thing. She left a message behind on our whiteboard saying she's left, along with her email address. - I'm going to email her the pictures I took yesterday. I think she'll like that.


Oh. My first day of work has been once again postponed; to Monday, 6:30. The pay will be better than I assumed and I'll probably be putting in quite a few hours, so that's mundo cash for me. Here's to hoping they'll be easily earned too. Hehe.

And finally, alas, I could not make it to this Saturday's Le Parkour. I was going to check the time and location at the State Library, but they opened at 12:00 and I couldn't get a time on a computer with a net connection until half an hour later. Then at scheduled time I found out that they'd started at 11:00. Better luck next week, I guess...

All I can think of for now. Time to study Japanese. Out, I sign.