First, this is what it looks like right now in Southern Finland. It's yellower north from here, though.
At the time I'm starting to write this it's about half past ten in the morning there, and I can't remember what time your plane leaves, so I'm not entirely sure if you'll see this before you're back in Finland or not. Just thought you might want to know what it's like here.
Plane is a really difficult word, by the way. Every time I write it somewhere, I'm sure I've misspelled it. I mean, I know that plane in the context of mathematics is spelled plane, but spelling it plain also means a bunch of different things, and even though I always spell the thing that flies in the sky with people in it as plane, I also always have a hint of doubt in my mind about whether it's actually spelled that way, or if it's plain after all. And I hate checking the spelling every time. English spelling is stupid.
Also right now I'm a slight bit annoyed of the fact that I have a really great blog topic, but right now isn't really the time for that particular post, since we're continuing to write. At least for now. So I'm saving it for later.
Human memory is a weird thing. It remembers really weird stuff.
For example, one of my earliest memories is from a time when I was maybe three. It was someone's birthday, that we were celebrating back where we lived when we were very little. Our cousins had come to visit.
Someone, mom, I think, had made some cookies for the party and left them on the kitchen table. But I was a kid, and I wanted a cookie before people got the cake, so I took the high kitchen stool, with the two steps on the front and the third "step" being on the top of it, because I was too short to reach the cookies on the table on my own. For some reason I put the stair-side towards the table instead of the side I could've gotten right next to the table, and I climbed on the stool. Now, because I had put it a stupid way round and was still pretty far away from the cookies even on top of it, I had to reach out to the cookies on the table. Just as when I was doing that, our older cousin (=oldest, but the two younger ones wouldn't be born for like another ten years or something, so I'm not counting them in here) rushed into the kitchen for a reason I don't know, which caused me to lose my balance and almost fall off the stool. Which, mind you, is a high thing to fall off if you're three.
It has been seventeen, eighteen years since this happened, and I still remember this very well. And I think that's kinda weird.
Another weird thing is that I once told this story when we were visiting out grandparents, with I think all us cousins in the room. After I told I remembered that, it turned out that also our cousin, who was the one rushing into the kitchen, remembered me almost dropping off the stool. And he's only a couple of years older than me, so he wasn't old either.
So yeah, memory is weird.
On a completely different note, mom said you didn't know there's some courses at the university starting in October-ish too. So yeah. Here's how universities generally work:
The first period starts in the beginning of September. The courses start on the first week of the period, or maybe the second. Some rare ones (like one of mine this year), can start on the third. However, there are (at least in our university), four periods, of which the first ends and second starts in the end of October. The classes in the second perios usually end by mid-December. The third one starts after New Year's, and lasts until mid-March, which is when the fourth period begins. It end by mid-May, though it might be that there are only a lecture or two and a few exams in May.
The point with the courses is this: they can last one period, or two, and sometimes three, though that's not all that usual. Normally it's one or two periods. The two meaning either whole autumn term or whole spring term.
I have eight courses this term. (Well, actually probably seven, since it already seems like I should drop of one). Of those eight, five last for two periods, one is in just the first period, and two are in just the second one.
The point is this: yes, you can catch some courses that start mid-term, and take them. But you won't be able to take the ones that already start now. Though, well, actually, there is a chance you can still catch a course or two that haven't started already for the first period. On Thursday or Friday. If you want. It's also perfectly possible (since you're studying math) that if you just go to the professors and say "hey, I just got home from US having been there for a year and I missed a couple of the first lectures, can I still join the course?", they'll probably let you take the classes that have already started too. Because it's math. That autumn a few years ago that I actually studied math I just went into one of the exams without having been on a single lecture, and that was perfectly fine. Because people in math just simply don't care if you're ever present.
Though I admit that it might be different in Helsinki university than it's here. So you should go ask someone. People will help. I actually know a couple of people who are second year math students there right now. They're doing some newbie-thing on Thursday evening. I know this because I spotted one of them attending the event on facebook.
So yeah, even being a couple of weeks late, you still might be able to catch a bunch of courses for this autumn. You just gotta to ask.
A little bit about this same thing: go get the paper that says you're a student before using the train. It will probably take a couple of weeks for you to get the student card, but the paper will do just fine on the train. I'm saying this because the train ride Helsinki-Tampere costs 20-something euros from a student, and twice that from an adult. So unless you want to pay 80 euros to get here and back over the weekend, you should go get that paper that says you're a student.
Oh! And I noticed we have reached 4000 page views. That's kinda cool. Thought I'm guessing a lot of them are our own.
~matu
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