paradise

If this, my friends, is not paradise on earth.....then I don't know what is. :)

I may be a witch

Remember few entries ago I bragged about having nice weather over here all the time. Well, I think I have cursed it because it has been raining with heavy wind for 3 days now :( .And it's not the first time that it has happened to me. Whenever something is really good and i brag with it, it turns for worse.
once i said to my friend that I'm really lucky with my teeth, that i never had to go to a dentist. After a week my teeth started breaking and aching.
When looking for a job, I always get too excited when I'm on the edge of getting a really good job. And I have this bad habbit of telling about it to my friends and parents with excitment. It has happened to me twice that I have lost a good opportunity of a great job when i bragged about it.
It has also happened with relationships. I tell my friends how good everything is with him and before I know it we have broken up.
And i could go on and on and on...happens all the time. It's quite scary sometimes. I'm afraid to get excited about things. That's also why i have become sceptical. Everything seems too good to be true. And my friends always ask why I'm so negative. This is why!!!

Christmas in Paphos, alias " book vs. coffee"

Paphos is dead in winter...except the Christmas period, for 2 weeks, when all the students come home from Greece, England, Italy.

Now...
This is how you have to spend your day at christmas time if you are one of those students, or one of those who has been waiting for that hullabaloo of christmas in Paphos.

1. when you wake up, call your friends straight away to arrange the get-together in one of the popular coffeeshops
2. go for a coffee. PS! don't forget to dress up nicely,otherwise you won't mesure up to the crowd in the coffeeshop
3.go home for lunch, at the same time arrange the next coffee time.
4. It's a COFFEE TIME!!!
5.If you don't have much to talk about with your mates, play cards, gamble on a gamemachine or play some table games. That should take few hours.
if you get bored, change the coffee-shop, there are another bunch people to look at.
6. Go home for dinner, your mom is expecting you.
7. Now you can start drinking, go to a bar. PS! don't forget to change your clothes as there sure is someone who has already seen you earlier.
8. change bars
9. go to clubs, all of them.
10. and remember not to get too pissed or stay up too late cuz you have to go for a coffee in the morning!!!

One example: I was reading a book and i got a call from a cypriot: "what are you up to? lets go for a coffee" "naah..cant be bothered..I'm reading a book" "Doing what? a book? " anyway..to my amazement...Cypriots don't read books, it's considered wierd.
So if you don't want to be a wierdo, GO FOR A COFFEE!!!

by the way, I think Cypriots (and Greeks in this case) have coffee running in their veins instead of blood.. that's why they are considered hotblooded

it's a lovely day!

And it really is...every day! (though i hate the word "lovely" ). I haven't written anything for a while because i couldn't find anything positive to write about. It's so wierd actually...there are so so sooo many critical aspects here. And yet I'm still loving it here. The sun is one of the reasons that keep me here. I wake up, I look out of the window... and I smile :)

Talking about how developed Estonia actually is.... i got a great joke about it today..

********************

After having dug to a depth of 100 metres last year,
American scientists found traces of copper wire dating back
400 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors
already had a telephone network more than 400 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the Americans, in the weeks that followed,

English scientists dug to a depth of 200 metres and shortly after headlines in the newspapers read;
English archaeologists have found traces of 800 year old fibre-optic cable and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech digital communications network 800 years earlier than the Americans.

One week later, Estonian newspapers reported the following: After digging as deep as 500 Metres in Narva, Estonian scientists have found absolutely nothing. They, therefore, have concluded that 2000 years ago, Estonia's inhabitants were already using wireless technology.

12.30 .. You must be joking!

At first when i came here i was negatively surprised about so many things... some examples...

1. Banks and postoffices are open monday-friday only till 12.30 ...but i like to sleep long...
Shops up in a town (paphos is devided in 2, kato-paphos and pano-paphos, up and down) are closed on wednesday and saturday afternoons (after 12.30) and closed all sundays ofcourse. So...me stupid...not local... went walking up to the town ( which is like 30 min) to do some shopping on wednesday........ oh i was so angry! what's up with those wednesdays?

2. they don't make money transfers here! you can't pay your bills through transfers. i dont know if they even have internet bank here, as i never needed an account here. normally when you get paid they give you a check and you have to go to a bank with that....and banks are open till 12.30 ONLY, as i already mentioned.... it's like an evil ring against me. and if you wanna pay your electricity bill you have to go up to the town...to a place which a person like me is not likely to find...so you have to get someone local to come with you. anyway....to pay the bill...you have to go to 'where the hell i know' ...and that place is ofcourse open only till 12.30. and as a rule of humanity everybody leave paying their bills to the last minute, right?! so can you imagine...there is only one place to pay that damn bill and there's always too many people who wanna pay it at the same time as me. so can you imagine those cues???!!!! my god!! everytime i'm there i say to myself...'when r u people gonna come out of stone age'?

3.the transportation. there is an inside town busline, the last bus is 8 in the evening...luckily. But to get outside of the town...you have to take travel express. it's like 'marsa' or 'marsruut takso' in tallinn. anyway they are small bus taxis... but you have to call them and book a seat first!!! nice huh?! and they don't go everywhere...only to some closer, bigger towns. for example you can't go to Ayia Napa. And yet it's not so far,only 2 hours of car drive. The only way is to go to some travel agency which organises bus tours.
Basically...if you live in Cyprus , and you don't have a car...you are fucked! (sorry for the choice of words).

so many things that make me wonder how the hell did Cyprus get in EU?!

But when you are here for 7 months..like me...you get used to it...
There's more pros than cons

and so, here i am..

I finally got out of my lazyness and decided to continue writing...about my views of life...right here, right now...(that is in Cyprus at the moment). And also adding those spectacular views of my camera. And i have to apologise for my language mistakes in future as my English has gone from 'great' to 'not so great'. That's a result of communicating in Cypriot English. Yes that's right..they have their own English here. Especially the written one, they write like they hear. instead of cooking it may be cuking. instead of surprise it's saprise. Come=cam. no is always confused with know. knew can be new. they make the shower..not take. I could go on and on.
Anyway, to make the long intro short ... It's just great here, guys!!!! actually...it's amazing!!!!!! The beauty, oh the beauty. it's limitless. The place on the photo was my first oh-my-god-place. And ofcourse there's much more to come. So...till the next entry!

they call it EU (EU my a**)

So we are part of European Union huh?! and we are living in the new age, the digital age, where you can organize everything through the network?! Well, I wanna argue with that. I couldn`t simply even book a plane ticket. You find this great deal 2 for the price of 1, then you click on "click here" and start booking. What a surprise, the price is still 2 for 2. I tried to do it in several different ways, and nothing. Finally I just called them, and a surprise again, they didn`t answer. I call an hour later, the nr is busy. I call again in 15 min, still busy. Then every 5 min, busy busy busy. Until the clock hits 5pm and the answermachine says, sorry we`re closed, call again tomorrow. And so I call again the next day, what a surprise, no one answers. and believe me, I didn`t call just once. I felt like hiting something!! fury!!! I don`t know whether it`s a problem of the airline or the Estonian office of that airline.
Anyway, guys, when you want to get a ticket on czech airlines, then simply call estravel agency.
And actually I wanted to make a point here. The point is that I`m leaving from Estonia!! yeehaaa!! I´m getting out of this grey area!!! I got a job in cyprus, and I`m not getting back before October, and then.....then we`ll see what happens next. So I probably won`t be posting anything about Sad Estonia anymore. I will do it in Happy- Cyprus- way ;) . Will create a new blog. and post the new link here later ;)

All the best to you all!!!

course project

Offtopic! need help! I need to find a theme for my research. The subject must be taken from EStonian media sphere. If anyone has any good ideas, please let me know. I think my brains have frozen in this freekin cold here.

The madness of tv is the madness of human life

Estonian media culture is really "developing" I`d say! If anyone has seen a programm called "Pimp TV" on the CITV channel then you must know what I`m talking about here. And those of you who haven`t seen it, don`t watch it!
Anyway.. It`s a so called "talkshow" where the leaders of the show attend some party, drink, get pissed, and go public about yellow topics [for example, one of the guests was an ex-boyfriend of Miss Estonia (Laura) telling once again that Laura is a slut, just like her mom...etc]. They offered a real carnival by making fools out of the guests and themselves. Seeing those drunk spitting faces trying to make it interesting was SO disgusting. They crossed all moral limits. I had no idea that Estonians can be so low and yet proud enough to share it with everybody..
Luckily they also play music in between of shows, which is way better than the rest of the content of the channel. But most of the time you can see a logo "Pimp TV" on the upper right corner of your tv. I guess they are trying to make a kind of Estonian MTV here. Believe me guys, it aint working!!! Flush it down the toilet!

lost

Can`t find enthusiasm, has anyone seen?

Christmas is just the disneyfication of christianity.

Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce some special day. It is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.

I can see fireworks way too often through my window, even in summertimes. why? I have lost all the excitement about new years eve now. There`s nothing special about it anymore. It used to be the fireworks at midnight that everyone were waiting on new years eve. And even then they start firing too early, you can hear bangs several hours earlier. drives me mad!
And the christmas!!! I`m glad it`s only few days away, so now everone could calm down with this madness. They started it in the end of october!!! christmas songs, christmas shopping, christmas decoration, christmas christmas christmas.....
I´m not really against all that. I just think that the holiest of all days are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart; the secret anniversaries of the heart.

But to all of you who happen to read this - I wish you can spend christmas with the close ones you love, and celebrate the new year`s eve in the greatest way among greatest people!!

(it MIGHT be my last post, as this blog was actually one of the assignments for my "computer assisted journalism" course. It`s over now, and I`m not sure whether I should continue with it or not.)

All the best to you all!!!

Zebra doesn`t help

From the early childhood a child is taught how to get about in traffic. You must always wait for the green light and follow the zebra! But no-one knows what is right anymore, there are more and more car accidents everyday. Cars are killing people when they try to cross the road following zebra,which is supposed to be the safe way. Even when the green light is on for the pedestrian. Number of accidents involving little children crossing roads has been highly increasing.
Drivers are still not careful enough, and ofcourse many of them don`t really care if a pedestrian wants to cross the road or not. Standing on side of the road, on zebra crossing, you can wait a long time before any car stops to let you through. I`ve had several situations where I was almost hit by a car. Roads with more than one line are especially dangerous, the first-line car notices and stops while the second-line car is questionable and so on. Every day can be the "judgment day". Scary! you have to take your chances by simply crossing roads.

"So many gods, so many creeds...so many paths that wind and wind.."

Ministry of education is seriously considering to add Religion as a subject to highschools` obligatory programm. Teachers and government approve, students strongly disapprove. Religion is such a fragile subject to discuss. And hence I think it can only be optional but perhaps not obligatory.
I studied in a highschool where it was compulsory to study religion. I have other things to believe in rather than God. So I was quite annoyed because of that. Luckily we had a very neutral teacher and the subject just covered the general beliefs of different religions. We weren`t pushed to believe in anything.
But I still think that a person will study the given subject independently if one is intereseted in it. And a student with a strong belief in some religion can feel very frustrated in class while discussing other ways of beliefs. And everything also depends on the teacher.

Ministry should be really careful with such a decision. (perhaps: "yes to teaching religion, no to religious propaganda")

something positive!

To be honest I think this blog has somehow influenced me. I´ve become more sad myself. So I will allow myself to add here something positive.

There`s a show on Estonian tv channel called " The glory of Estonia". It`s a show where they honor the people who have voluntarily helped Estonian society. For instance, there are so many of them who are trying to help homeless, who have saved lives, and so on. I`m glad that the channel is doing something like that.
I have a friend who does charity. He supports disabled children. On his birthday he told in advance to all his guests that instead of presents they should put the money (that was meant for presents) on the bank account of two boys in wheelchairs. They each got about 11 thousand krouns thanks to that birthday party. One of the boys could buy a new wheelchair now, which he badly needed.
I´m happy that there really are people, selfless people, who care a lot about others, help them, and don`t want anything in return.

(ignore this post)

it`s saturday, it`s 1 AM, no it`s not saturday anymore, it`s sunday now, it`s raining, I´m eating potato chips, thinking about the amount of studying I should do, exams, one guy stepped on my foot today and didn`t apologise, I`m stuck in Estonia, I don`t have a job, grrrrr...and the money, my day was pointless, I was wet when I got home, my camera is broken, I lost so many good photos that I wanted to add in my blog( I have to sart adding images from the net), I feel so blue :( , I`ve lost a day....

(huuh, I got it out of myself, I can go on now)

dialogue

There is one saying in Estonian "lapsesuu ei valeta", meaning that childs mouth doesn`t lie. It`s quite true.
I happend to over hear one interesting conversation. It was between two little russian children, a boy and a girl, both about 6 years old.
* * *
girl: "do you know what `sex´ means?"
boy: "yes"
girl: "it`s the same as fucking, hi-hi-hiii !" (sorry for swearing but that`s what she said)

girl: "have you ever had sex?"
boy: "yes, once in a kindergarten"
* * *

I guess it was just little kids exploring their sexuality and it`s not wrong. But I was just shocked about the words they used. They learn it from people they are surrounded with. And I´ve heard it myself (too many times) how carelessly parents can talk around their children. And that`s sad!

To whose profit???

Our country is dependant on every following generation. Most of the work has to be done by parents who bring their children up. A child needs parental support in every first step of one`s way. I suppose the saying "a child is a fire to be lit" sounds right, but it seems that our lawmakers took it word by word by giving 12-year-olds the right to train firing from a real gun. Is that wise? Maybe it depends on each specific individual if one is mature enough to take it in his hands, but I think it shouldn`t be generalised for everyone.

Few years ago a 10-year-old accidentaly killed himself from a sports gun.
Children are unstable, especially boys who like fooling around with everything.

If it`s not allowed for a 15-year-old to drive a car not even with assistance, then it`s not rational and not safer to give dangerous guns in the hands of a 12-year-old. They should be enjoying their childhood at that age and get ready for teenage, explore themselves. Are we preparing for somekind of a war? Do we need to enlarge Estonian army on account of children?
I wish they reconsidered..

mathematics isn`t always rational

I forgot to add to the previous post that apparently there`s been a calculation of an average salary in Estonia. And it`s 7000 krouns. The Government was so pleased to announce that salaries have been increasing this year. Well everyone knows now who`s salaries are increasing and thanks to what they get this higher average...but obviously this higher average salary does not refer to average people.