My 1st sauna party!

Martin & I have just arrived that we are " forced "to go to the sauna!

Nice to meet you JESSUUUSSSSS-CHHHHRRRRRIIIISSSTTT ( Pasi ) !

Martin and Ali (Turkish guy)

The changing-room of the sauna

I'm much more tanned than the others!

After the sauna, the guys drunk beers...come on beer is just disgusted!

Thanks a lot JEEESSSSSUUUUSSSSS-CHHHHRRRIIIIISSSSST for that "sauna experience"!

Hi everybody!

well I could not go to Finland without trying what is called here "sauna party"! The principle is very easy : boys and girls meet themselves as mother nature made them, which means naked, in a sauna. Drinks are allowed to be brought in the sauna... so some people drink beer, vodka or any other alcoholic drinks!

How could I describe the atmosphere in tha sauna? well I'd say it is pretty hot in here ( of course it is hot in here 'cause the temperature is about 60°C ) but hot in the way that people sing, laugh and drink. Actually that's not at all like in France where nobody speaks in a sauna! In Finland there is lots of noise and it's much more friendly!

If you are too hot in the sauna, you can go out and have a shower so that you feel better. And after that you go back into the sauna! That's what I did quite many times actually 'cause it was too hard for me to stay there more than 10 minutes ! You can also go outside completely naked or with a towel around your waist. The temperature difference makes your heart pump very very fast! But trust me when I say that after that you feel very well, actually much better than if you had not done it!

As I told you , the temperature in the sauna was about 60°C. Actually it's quite a low temperature for a Finnish sauna. Pasi ( the one who looks like JEEEEEESSSSSSSUUUUUUUSSSSSS- CHHHHRRRRRIIIIIISSSSSSSTTTTTTT ) told me the average temperature for a sauna is about 80°C. Pasi already went to a sauna where the temperature was 120°C but it was really too hot for him...I do not even wanna think of what it would have been for me... I would have died for sure!

Above are some photos of this sauna party! Take a look at them!

Bonnie all these JEEEEESSSSSSUUUUSSSSS-CHHHRRRIIISSSSSTTTT were for u !! Take care of you girl...

The 1st GYM session of my entire life!

The temperature when I woke up...

The weather when I woke up...

Here we are! In the Tamppi Areena!

That's the place where I was tortured!

I look as if that stuff was easy for me!

Very impressive, isn't it?

Smile guy, you are on my blog!

You should really take a look at that video!

So here we are, I had told many of you that when I am abroad, I will go to GYM sessions... I have decided to start today and I will try to go there as often as I can.

The only thing I can tell you is that I just hate all the exercises you have to do to bodybuild... but I guess I will have to do them if I wanna see changes in my body shape!

My second school day at TUT

The room we had the Signal Compression course

The signal Compression lecturer is in the corner of the room!

Nicolas is waiting for the lecturer!

The room we had Digital Video Processing

Back from the university...wet and frozen...

We are working but also laughing!

First bad piece of news of my stay in Tampere... I have not been allowed to follow the course intitled : " Finnish for Beginners I". That sucks 'cause I wanted to follow it for meeting other Erasmus students.... Well I'll have to find other ways to achieve that purpose.

For my second school days, I've had 2 courses : Signal Compression and Digital Video Processing. And on the contrary of the course we had the previous day ( Digital Image Processing I ), these 2 courses lasted the time they had been scheduled...so about 2h00! And guess what... I've already had homeworks.

If you want to have more information about these 2 courses you can go to the course homepage which provides you information about the course.

Signal compression : http://www.tut.fi/public/oppaat/opas2007-2008/kv/laitokset/InstituteofSignalProcessing/SGN-2306.html
Digital Video Compression : http://www.tut.fi/public/oppaat/opas2007-2008/kv/laitokset/InstituteofSignalProcessing/SGN-3106.html

I am pretty glad because all these courses seem to be very interesting, especially Digital Video Compression. The lecturer is very competent ( even if he is an Italian guy but nobody's perfect ! ) and manages to give a real interest for his course.

Above are some photos of the rooms where the lectures take place. There is no comparison possible between the study facilities of the ENAC and the ones of TUT. I would say that all the study facilities at TUT are much better than the ones at the ENAC ( without any hesitation! ).

The MIK's Back to School party!

The Huuma bar!

Some people were standing outside, but it was freezing...Crazy Finnish guys!

The dancefloor!

The bar!

Martin and Pasi!

Nice photo!

To celebrate the 1st day of this new school year, every student at TUT was expected at HUUMA, a sort of bar/discotheque in Hervanta, located in the main street of that district (Hervanta).
I went there with Martin ( the German guy ). I met there Pasi , one of the international tutors. I also talked with other Finnish guys. That's was very pleasant. Pasi told me how to do to deal with Finnish girls... It won't be easy! He told me that Finnish girls have more interest for exchange students than for Finnish ones because "we are more "exotic"! " .He also told me he will keep in touch with me for all the events organised by The University of Tampere ( UTA ) where there are much more girls than at TUT ! So...

Above are some photos of that student party!

My 1st school day!

Pascal, Nicolas and I are on the way for TUT!

That's the room where we're gonna have our first lecture!

That's the course!

The course has begun for 35 min and I'm already fed up with it!

The teacher!

Nicolas and Pascal at the bookstore.

The textbook we need for that course...68€ : really expensive !

Hi everybody!

Today has been my first school day at TUT. Like for all my previous starts of the new school year, I was pretty anxious. But as usually , things went well.

Actually today I've had only one course intitled "Digital Image Processing I". The course was given by a Finnish I presume, even if I'm not sure at all. What stroke me the most was that he was very strong.The kind of guy who spends his week bodybuilding! And his accent was just awful!
That course was expected to last 2 hours but actually it lasted only 45 minutes! That's the kind of things I really appreciate!

Above are some photos of this 1st day at school.

What's the weather like in Tampere?

The weather for that 1st week spent in Tampere was quite nice! We had sun and not too many clouds. It was about 15°C in the morning and about 25°C in the afternoon! But since yesterday ( saturday, the 25th of August ), weather has become worse and worse. I mean very cloudy and windy. The temperatures have fallen and now today, it was about 15°C in the afternoon, whereas in Marseille, France, it was about 35°C/40°C ... Arrrgggghhhhhh!!!

We have been told that the autumn weather was very humid : lots of rains and strong winds...

By the end of November comes the winter weather that you can easily imagine...snow snow and snow.

I'll keep you in touch about it !

Above is a photo took at about midnight on Thursday.

My best friends

Above is the list of my very best friends!

I think of all of you guys. Take care of U and see you soon in France...or even in Tampere !

Sorry Romain but I do not have any photos of U so you are not in the list. But you are one of these guys I really appreciate! Never forget that!

Only a thought...

Is life worth living?
That's just a thought I've had at that time... We should all think about it...

My 1st weekend in Tampere

Hi everybody!

Well it makes exactly one week I've been living in Finland and I've gone throught my 1st weekend in Finland.
Pascal's accomodation is downtown and Nicolas and Nadia were in Turku so I had to find something to do on my own...Not very easy when you do not know too many people yet !

On saturday, I woke up at about 11h00 a.m and I met Pascal at about 2 p.m at Mc Donald's, in the central square.I had my lunch at Hesburger, which is the local fast-food! We visited a little bit Tampere and walked to the forest where we found a pub to rest. That's was nice and I saw nice places in Tampere. Then I went to the stadium without Pascal to see a game of Tampere united, the local soccer team. I met there Martin, a German guy very cool. At the end of the game, we went to a mall ( it was about 18h30 ). All the different stores were already closed... What a shame ! Then we went back to Mikantalo and Aurelie ( a French girl ) invited me to eat at her house because I had nothing to cook at home! Afterwards Martin, Aurelie, 2 italian girls, my roommate,a friend of his, and I went downtown to a sort of bar/disco. We arrived there at about 10 p.m and we left at about 01 a.m. We had a good time there, thank you all of you guys to have come.

Today ( Sunday ) ...I've just done nothing ! I woke up at 01.40 p.m. I went to LIDL to buy some food to eat! I bought a shaving gel bomb so that I could shave... I had not done it for one week and it was just horrible ! I've also prepared all the stuff I'll have to do tomorrow...because tomorrow is my 1st school day...damn! At about 6 p.m Nicolas and Nadia went back from their trip to Turku with lots of images of beautiful landscapes in their mind! Hope you spent good time guys but I don't care about that.

Tomorrow I'll go back school... I really do not want but that's life I guess. I will show you my timetable as soon as it is completed!