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Laugh all you want. It wasn't funny. My grandmother is scary! Seriously! *laughs* She moved to States when she married grandpa, somewhere years pine cone and cow, back in the Iron Age, but she still insisted that first dad, and then eventually me, learn Finnish, her language. So, I always had a Finnish nanny. No matter where we lived. Because of Grandmother. *laughs* So her having an opinion about my choice of university was small.

You lived in England? That explains your English, then. It's very good.

Autch, I'm so not the backpacking type. But I'm planning on going to Argentina with BF as soon as he finds the time for it.

Ach, it's a bore. But it's a course I have to complete. What kind of report is it? ... You'll just have to learn how to multitask. Keep one eye in the book, the other on the Net. *grin* Then again, you probably shouldn't take advice on effective study methods from me, I've always believed flying to Paris to go shoe shopping is a perfectly good reason to skip class.

*laughs* I'm writing my thesis on game theory. I adore it!

I did! and I'm familiar with the policy, indeed. I guess what helped me was the fact that I didn't do all my school years in France, but in three different countries (and that's before high school!), my dad's American and I've spent a lot of time outside of France. After high school I just didn't know what I wanted to do next, so taking a year off just to get my head in gear was a good idea. I'd been through some big changes in the years before that and I needed some time to think. DD was pressuring me to go to his old school, I knew maman would have prefered France, Old Dragon (read: grandma) had a strong opinion and she voiced it rather loudly... I needed that gap year! *laughs* Also, gap years are fairly common in Finland, as you have to apply to universities, and only a very small percentage gets accepted into most programs.

Mexico sounds fashinating! It's one of those countries I've planned to visit but never got to it so far.

I know what I'd love to do, but it's very unlikely that it'll work out. So I'm just going to see what happens. I still have a lot of work to do to make that graduation happen.

I've been trying to study for a cost accounting exam I've been postponing for years. Gosh, it's boring! *goes back to her book*

Well, I take any excuse I get to buy more shoes. *grin*

*laughs* Economics is not for everyone, I give you that. I love it though, especially game theory. No, I'm actually living here. My grandmother from my dads side is Finnish, and when she moved back to Finland I came over too, did my high school here, spend a gap year all over, a year in France and then decided to return to Finland for university.

Do you have any plans for after graduation? What would you love to do? Besides travel?

Finland's not bad. Small. I think the problem with me is that I have homes in several places. I have my own place in Finland, there's the family place where I grew up in Paris, DD's place in NY, the Estate in new England... Throw in my BF's place in the States and you get a lot of homes! I've sometimes laughed that I have shoes in six different addresses! But I cannot complain, I love it.

No way!! You're doing Master's Degree? 'Cause I should graduate with mine in Economics (from a business school) by Christmas.

That is true. You'll end up getting a huge list of books you'll want but never have time to read, trust me.

I think there's someone else, val_on_the_road, or something like that. And I just noticed my location is incorrect at the moment. (I've travelled around a lot lately and forget to update it.) I grew up mainly in France, maman was French and so on. I'm currently living in Finland, though.

I saw you mentioning you're a student somewhere. What are you studying, if you don't mind me asking?

Well, the game theory bits are actually a ton of fun, it's the accounting that kills me.

I think it's important to keep things balanced, and include something lighter in there as well, in the form of "the preference game" and such... *grin*

Glad to previde entertainment. Yes, it's still the BCF, but as the books I'm currently reading are, let's see, "Behavioral Game Theory", "An Introduction to Linear Programming and Game Theory", "Group Formation in Economics", "Meetings in a work environment" (rought translation) and "Management and Cost Accounting", I think "the preference game" and "what are you wearing?" are much more fun options. Wouldn't you agree?

And hi right back at you. *grin*

Hi!

I just wanted to stop by and say welcome to the forum, when I saw you're from France. I hope you enjoy it here.

ii

Back to every-day life, I suppose? I just wonder, where did the summer go?? Wasn't it just June??

Is K excited about school picking up again?

In a way I envy your routine, I miss that. I'm in a free fall myself, wih things i need to do, but pretty much on my own to do them. And I've found I'm really not familiar with the concept of self-dicipline. *grin* Resulting in "oh, but of course I can work on my thesis at BF's!" and "shopping in the morning will wake me up and make me more effective in the afternoon, right?"

Did you go somewhere for holiday?

Hi!

Thank you! It's nice to know I was missed. And it's really nice to be back.

How are you?

Thank you. *laughs* More like lots to do in lots of places. And people to see. I wasn't quite ready to say bye to BF yet after the summer, so... (and of course the fact that coming over meant free hockey tickets had absolutely nothing to do with my decision to come over *looks angelic*) ... the thesis? Oh, it's doing good. Well, I deleted 15 pages of hard-core theory the other day (on purpose) and now I need to rewrite it in a different way, I'm stuck on one group of theory and I'd much rather just go of on one of the several fashinating tangents, but it's going great. I still love my topic.

I saw Kell's brilliant news, of course, but I did have to just skip a lot of posts, there's no way I could have read the 2000+ I had waiting for me...

Thank you again, I have to fly home later this week, but after that I should be online again more.

Hi!

Thank you, yes, I'm great! I just spent some time in Paris and then flew over to see BF. Plus there's the thesis still... I'm working on it, I swear!!

How are you? What have I missed while I was away?

I think I've humiliated him enough now for quite some time.

I know! I love that pic, it's so ... him. *grin* And that isn't even the worst I have of him. There's one of him in Cupid's outfit, wings and underwear and very little else, for example. I think it has been established time and time again that my friends are crazy.

A friend of mine. *grin* I love that pic!

Ooh, I haven't heard much about that, so I'm interested to hear what you think of it!

We read 1984 (can't bother to type it out) and Animal Farm in school, too, but I didn't have my copy of the 1984 anymore. Animal Farm I have, in Finnish, but 1984 we read back in the States and it got misplaced somewhere.

And I appreciate this completely random information that you have decided to send me, totally out of the blue. *laughs too hard to type* Thank you. I needed this to distract me from my current "let's figure out the events of Tuesday night" email conversation I'm having with my friend The Law Boy. It's not exactly a pleasant conversation, so I need all the distractions I can get. Although I think I managed to turn the focus into George Clooney, which is always good, no?

Ooh, sounds really good! I recently got (finally!) a copy of Nineteen-EightyFour, which, for some reason, I didn't have. Which Orwell did you get?

No need to thank, I just didn't want you to think that your pain was forgotten. And I know what you mean, it's so easy to forget that someone is gone. And then, when you remember it, it hits you like new, plus you get that guilty feeling because you forgot and feel like a bad person for that. It's all natural, really. Of course you forget that bad things. That's how human mind works. It hangs on to the good things, and then you suddenly remember there's not going to be any more of those magical moments and it's like you're losing them all over again.

But, I know this for a fact, every time you remember the good things, they get stronger in your memory. And every time the bad things come back to you, you feel a teeny tiny amount less bad. I know it doesn't feel like it now, but you do. And you will. Of course, you might want to question who I am to talk, after I cried like baby the other day over my granddad and how he was happy to see me in the hospital when we went to visit him only two days before he died. (And he died when I was in junior high, so...)

There's going to be downs. Of course there will. But your mom wouldn't want you to think of the bad things. Or even that she's gone. I remember DD once said, right after maman died, that as long as I remembered her, as long as I thought of her, she wasn't really gone at all. There would be no more shopping trips, or days spent away in libraries and book stores, or days trying on clothes and giggling over our funny outfits, or going to the opera or ballet all dressed up and pretty (gosh, she was so pretty!), but as long as I remembered her, she would be right there with me, making a face at the mirror and laughing. I didn't believe DD at the time, but he was right.

Your mom is not gone, she's just... not here.

I'm okay, thank you.

*hugs*

Hey there!

How are you? And no, I did not just drop by to ask you to open the thread on Jane Austen's Persuasion which should have been opened at the beginning of the month (right??), of course not! How can you even think of that. Like I'd be that rude...

Sorry for dropping out without notice, I just had to take some time off and therefore pulled off one of my already-classic disappearing acts. I saw you started on the Decades-challenge, I'll get on to adding to the list as soon as I can. And hope something I'm reading in my book-hopping phase fits the criteria!

A bientôt,

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Hi,

how are you, Sweetie? *big hug* Are you holding on okay? I stopped by to see maman the other day and though of you, actually. And I lit a candle for you mom, too, every time I went to church, so don't you think I've forgotten about you. *smiles* I just needed a little break from my everyday life and did one of my famous disappearing acts.

ii

Hi!

I'm working on it! It's harder that one thinks, in all honesty. I'm kind of looking for books of general appeal, also what was mentioned about comparing ways of dealing with themes and such, so I was thinking like "making bad guys look good" with Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's and Puzo's The Godfather and what not and then there's a general theme of love, or women writers... I'm all over the place right now! I'll get something up tomorrow, I just had to change locations today.

I've heard of Elling movies, but not books. I didn't know they were based on books! I'll trade you, and offer Erlend Loe in return. Fakta om Finland (Tosiasioita Suomesta) and Naive.Super (Supernaiivi) are both hilarious! And only a Finn, or someone who knows Finnish culture, can really truly understand Fakta om Finland...

I guess that's one of the problems of small towns, it's sometimes hard to find your own social circle when there really is only one! But I think you'll be fine. First off, you know how you want to be when you're old, so you can affect that now. They say acknowledging the problem is the first step and all... Gosh my jokes are bad today!

Oh, she's brilliant! She still has weekly lunches with The Girls (youngest is about 100 years old) and goes to art galleries and opera and things. A true Grand Old Lady, you don't mess with her. She makes me go change if I show up for lunch (or dinner, heaven forbid!) in trousers. I love her to bits, and hope to be like that one day.

Yeah, it leads to expressions like "write up" or "epäonnellinen". My friends have gotten used to it, though.

I read mostly in English, but sometimes I do get books in Finnish, or French, too. And there's some Nordic authors that are easier to find in Finnish.

You call her insisting, we call her Old Dragon. Well, not to her face, of course. She'd cut us from her will. No, seriously though, I don't mind it. It was a bit confusing growing up though, as I already was torn between two cultures and languages because of my parents (my dad's American, maman was French).

I meant to ask, as I saw you posting your books by their English title, do you read in English too, or only in Finnish?

Oh, that's how I ended up in here too.

I usually shop at the Akateeminen Kirjakauppa when I'm in Finland (which is most of the time as I live here now.) And there's nothing wrong in asking! I've always believed that if you want to know something you ask. If they don't like the question, they won't answer! (Or they throw a book at you, like I did with my BF when I didn't like his question.) And as far as going off-topic, you're talking to the Queen of Off-Topics! *grin*

As I said, I live in Finland, for most of the time, at the moment. My grandmother is originally Finnish, and insisted that my dad, and eventually me, learn the language. That's why I always had a Finnish-speaking nanny, no matter where we lived. When grandmother returned to Finland after my granddad died, I opted to come along and even did my high school in here. And after a year in Sorbonne returned here for my Master's Degree.

I have been to Shakespeare and Company, although that's not my "main hunting ground". It is surely worth a visit, though!