October 20, 2004
What makes people Leijonakaupunkilaiset?
Once again, sorry to keep you waiting, the servers in Media Lab are still under construction, so you can't see or add any comments.. Maybe I'll start getting more emails because of that (this blog actually reduced quite a lot my email trafic.. hmm..)
I'm back to normal: job search, web browsing, shopping, sightseeing. Plus a course on Finnish Media and Communication System that I am teaching in Tampere University for 2 weeks already. Very funny situation - a Lithuanian living in Leijonakaupunki teaching in a Finnish university about Finnish media.. (I use a web-based learning environment if you wonder how I am capable to do that). When I called the Finnish tax office, they're very confused about everything. Their job definitely got more difficult with the development of communication technologies and (yes!) globalization - all these people having weird jobs and life situations... The course goes very nicely, the students and tutors are extremely active and intelligent, so we have very high level conversations.. It takes up quite a bit of my time and my work chair is quite uncomfortable. So I have a sore butt and a very clever brain. The completely networked homo futuro, I am..
It has been pleasantly raining last few days. The weather got chilly to the point where cold shower doesn't feel too pleasant. Yes yes, I forgot what hot water is, you don't need it here.. Rain is very welcome here, the picture of the sun covered in smoky clouds (caused by burning forest from Indonesia, they say) may give some idea of the quality of air in Leijonakaupunki sometimes. It "breathes" really different after the rain.
We went to East Coast Park last weekend and Kaj promised to take up his windsurfing hobby.. The water seems to be very dirty (look at all the tanker ships in the horizon), so I didn't make any promises...
We passed past Bayshore condominium, one of the places we saw when we were looking for a flat. Kaj was still very much into the idea of living in a place like that. Because of the "water features", "view to offer", "gym" and "full facilities". I personally think that these places are quite horrible, fenced expatriate ghettos, but, of course, it would be nice to have a sauna and a nice park downstairs (not a major construction site, like in our home)..
While most of the Leijonakaupunki live in places like that. There's blocks and blocks of HDB (Housing Development Board) houses window to window facing each other all around the island. Pretty depressing - some kind of soviet style idyll. However, seems that people are quite happy about that kind of living. They get support from the government for purchasing flats in HDB apartment houses and there's usually good transport connections, shopping, community centers and libraries around. However, there's a saying that the ultimate goal for all Leijonakaupunkilaiset is 6 Cs: credit card, condominium, cash, country club, car and career. I guess this is supposed to illustrate the materialism prevailing in this country. But in this website Leijonakaupunkilaiset say what they feel really makes them Leijonakaupunkilaiset, for example: Instant trees (?), The smell of chicken rice in the office, Shading our head with a newspaper (I learned that too), Searching for food's Holy Grail (oh yes, I'm deeply involved in this already), Talking with "foodie" friends about other great local places to eat while eating at an already great place, etc. Have a look!
Posted by gkligyte at October 20, 2004 04:59 PM