Be careful what you ask for... ;)

Started replying to a post comment I got from Renee on a previous post and when I was done I realised that a LONG "comment" like mine might be easier to read as a regular post instead and since it's my blog that's what I decided to do! :)
I was asked (about the history subject in school) What about you guys? What do you study? And what about America do you learn?

For you Nee,
you'll be sooo sorry you asked!! ;)

What we're taught!? :O :D Well it's starts of somewhere in the river civilisations of Mesopotamia and goes through Egypt and Minoan (?) culture and then Ancient Greece, city-states, "democracy", Alexander the Great etc. and the Roman Empire (rise and fall), Middle Ages (feudalism, crusades what else!? *lol*) Ehm...? The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, European explorers (finding America and the others) Hmmmm...! :)

There's the Enlightenment (is that right in English?) the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars...and then the WW's and Cold War... Feels like important stuff is "lost" but I feel a lenghty reply approaching...! ;)

A lot of focus on Sweden's involvement in these things (of course) but since we weren't perhaps the quickest to grasp things :) it's a general overview on the Big Players of the time/era.

If you want a glimpse of Swedish history I really "like" Christina of Sweden (interesting Queen, raised to be King - she "killed" Descartes in her quest for knowledge! ;) Kinda cool I think! :)).

Lost my train of thought...sorry...Anton woke up. I think I was done with what we're taught right? *lol* You know I LOVE this stuff and I'm trying to keep it short and sweet and obviously failing! ;) ;)

About America...?? :/ Have to have a think...! :/ :) Where to start...? :P

We're _of course_ :) taught that it was that the first Europeans in America were the Vikings! :D (we like to think of them as all-Swedish! ;)) There's a little about the conquistadors and the consequences the "discovery" of the New World had on the indigenous people. Then there's not much really until the time/ideas/events (both in Europe and North America) leading up to the American Revolution though not in detail... Central and South America is sort of completely "forgotten" about... :/

Trying to think what else I can remember...there's the slavery and the other stuff leading up to the American Civil war but it's a very busy era over here too so not in much depth. :)
There's of course a good deal of talk too about the all the people emigrating to USA but (clearly) not from an American point of view. Focus is on the reason/causes for them leaving Sweden (Europe).

Hmm...then there's the Wall street Crash, Great Depression (both over there and here), the New Deal and then it's back to us again for WW2 (and a little bit about the US - like Hiroshima and such). The Cold War had a fair bit to do with the US so Kennedy/Cuba, Vietnam etc. and that's about that...? I guess after that it's too modern "history" to be taught in history class. :) It's more suited for civics (?) class. :)

Wow! :D Long comment post...! :D I think I'll make a post of it instead! It'll be easier for you to read. Forgive me if I've forgotten or messed anything important up! :/ :)

Hope you're still with me at the end! :D

♥ E.

Polyvore! ;)

Doing a 30 set challenge on polyvore and no.1 one is about ones heritage and it's one I started with, not just because it's no.1! ;) I really like how it turned out so I decided to post it here too... :)
There's the sauna, lakes and the Northern Lights, Marimekko and Santa Claus (you do know he lives in Finland don't you!? ;)). The Moomin's, Nokia (perhaps not so much my heritage as modern history, but Finnish none the less), The Kalevala, the Moon Goddess jewelry from Kalevala Jewelry and the beautiful Finnish harp (youtube link), the kantele.

My Heritage by MsLynx

♥ E.

Remembering things...!

Oh my goodness! I've completely forgot to tell you about my new obsession! :) I admit, hand on my heart, that I am addicted to "the twilight saga"! :D

A friend told me (it must have been in the autumn just before the movie release of new moon) about this vampire-series that was just amazingly good and I thought...yeah alright...OK, OK... ;) I wasn't really too impressed and perhaps less so when I found out that they'd made it into a movie, not always a good thing, and the fact that it was apparently a bit of a teenybopper type of book. Hmmm... :/

She kept on me about reading these books and I "cheated" and watched the first movie before starting to read to be sure if I should... I really liked the movie, a completely new "twist" to the same-old-same-old vampire story, and I thought "oh what the heck...! I'll read the books!" :) Then time did it's usual going-to-fast-thing and winter came, x-mas flew past and we were already a good bit into the new year before I finally got around ordering the first book (twilight). I finished reading it in about 3 days! :D The second one (new moon) I couldn't wait for so I got it from the book store last Monday, rather than getting it cheaper online...! :D Just couldn't put it down and finished reading it after another 3 days... Last reading session lasted for over 4 hours and kept me up 'til 2 am!

I'm now dying to read eclipse and breaking dawn too but I'm slightly (seriously! *lol*) worried about my school work not getting done so I've actually not ordered them yet (or gone past the book store! ;)) to give myself a bit of a pause.

They're perhaps not The Best books I've ever read but the way Stephenie Meyer writes...! I'm suddenly there, in Forks, and I'm too feeling all can't-catch-my-breath-in-love with this gorgeous Adonis of a vampire! Saaaaaaad!?! Still true though! ;) *lol!* Love, love, love, loooove!

OK, I'm sad but I don't care! :D It's been too long since a book caught me the way these books have done and I love it!

Writing about it made me forget (for a short sweet moment) about the two exams I have coming up this week and it took my mind of the history essay I have to get a start at by Friday! How does one decide on a specific historical event to write about?? :/ There's just too much interesting things and ways to approach a subject to be able to pick something out of the blue...!? Hmm...

I think I'm going to write about the Finnish War and what the affects of the separation of Finland from Sweden Proper (and becoming an autonomous part of Russia) were like in Sweden and Finland. Interesting stuff that is most often rushed thought in history class as a affect of the Napoleonic Wars... It'll no doubt be interesting to read up on...! :) I just have to figure out from what angle I am to approach it and what I should make the issue about and so on and so forth...hmmm...

But...! First bed, then stress and angst about the philosophy exam on Wednesday, then more angst about the "culture and ideas"-exam on Thursday...!!! :( :( :(

Good (?) night!

♥ E.

Changes to the blog...

My friend Renee inspired me to do more than my usual "change of background"-changes to my blog and I've gone from a 2 column to a 3 column blog and updated the family info and added photos and a new button or two and I'm pretty pleased with the result...! :)

I will possibly try and get in a more personalised font too if I (or more likely S!) can figure out how to do it. ;)

Thanks Nee for the inspiration! :)

The studying this week has been crazy! I've had SO much to do and I'm still not done...! Weekends are unfortunately not the best times for getting assignments done either so I (my teachers) might just have to deal with some stuff being sort-of-done... :/

I was so certain that I'd felt spring in the air earlier in the week despite the winter:y landscape. The air was lighter, the birds were chirping and the temperature was milder melting the snow into enormous icicles... Yesterday it began to snow again and the smell of spring is gone. I guess Persephone isn't ready to return from the underworld just yet...

Our little miss E has had a looong snooze now, better wake her and get ready to go to Vaari. S is doing some car fixing stuff at dad's! :)

♥ E.

Winter break!

...for the teachers at least! :/ ;) As an adult student we don't get anytime off, even for good behaviour, so instead we've got tons of home assignments to do this week whilst the teachers get a week off! *lol* Yup, it's true...!

I've been a terrible blogger lately...! Not much has happened but school stuff which isn't that much fun to write about...and last week I was really wanting to write about a girlfriends up-coming hen-night (day actually!) but couldn't really mention it in case she would pop in and read about it...

That was on Saturday and we had a blast! :D Kiddies were at Mommo's and the bride-to-be got to do lots of different things all day long, I joined the gals in the afternoon at a silversmith's where she got to make a jewellery of her choice (she chose to make a ring - beautiful!) whilst the rest of the girls got fiddle about with pearls and beads to make little "gems" of our own...I managed to get a set of earrings done that didn't turn out to bad actually! :)

Then back to the hotel and more games and wine and a little snack since dinner wasn't until lots later and a bit of "spa-action" too and then dash to get to Hard Rock Cafe in time, time sure does fly when you have fun! :D Really nice food, more drinking and good times...!

I was more than a little bit tipsy but surprised myself by deciding to walk home because I wanted to (where's lazy-butt E gone?!) and possibly to sober up a little bit on the way... ;) A brisk *lol* 45 minute walk later I was at mums! Impressed with myself! :D

I got to sleep for about 3 hours before Anton woke me up and I was grateful for the walk 'cause I would have been much worse of without it...and I wasn't feeling great...! ;P Tried getting him to go back to sleep for about an hour until I gave in and had some breakfast, then I think mum woke and I fell asleep again... :/ ;) At least mum and Erin were both up too when I woke up the next time... Been aaaaaaaaaages since I've been out on a proper girls night out and at least that long since I was even slightly hung over so I really didn't mind to much that Sunday was a bit...uneasy. :)

Train ride home was a bit of a bummer...it was packed and kiddies fell asleep sitting/lying on the floor. They really didn't seem to mind it but it would have been nice if someone had offered their (a) seat, not for me but for E&A. I was slightly worried about trying to get of the train with our over-night-bag and two sleeping children by myself but S thankfully waiting at the station and the little ones did managed to wake up quite well...

Sooo...almost time to go pick the up from dagis. Two more days to study and I'm nowhere near to being done will all that is supposed to be done! :/ So what am I sitting here for you might ask?! ;) Alright...I'm off! See you on the other side! :)

♥ E.

Bad, bad, BAD E.!!

Bad BAD cravings...! by MsLynx on Polyvore.com

I've done really well over the last few months and lost a good deal of excess weight. *proud of myself!* The last few days, feeling a bit off, bored and slightly pissed off (at just random stuff) I've had these mad cravings I thought I'd manage to put behind me... Craving brownies, ice cream and fried stuff just p:s me off even more because I'm NOT going to undo the things I've done right just because I'm bored...!?! :[

Now being totally hooked on polyvore (link to my page!) and realising that there's TONS of food item too I decided to make a set of all the things I've been craving...I think I only managed to fit fraction of it...! ;) It didn't take away my cravings but distracted me enough to not go raiding our cupboards for crumbs of badness...! *lol*

Feeling off...

I've been feeling a bit off for the last few days... Yesterday my patience level was at an all time low, felt totally drained. :( Not great when kiddies what me to see this or that and read that story and this... *sigh*

Our "tgif" we had at my big sisters and it was good catching up (mum and little sis was there too). Kiddies had missed their cousins and were thrilled when told we were going to Partille after dagis. :D

I'm feeling slightly better today, i've just had a shower and I'm planning to do a bit of my maths homework before dinner. I hope that get me going again... :)

Will try and catch you up with my school stuff and such at a later date!
Be good!