Maslenitsa!

IB

Maslenitsa is an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday. It is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent - that is, the eight week before Eastern Orthodox Pascha (Easter). Maslenitsa corresponds to the Western Christian Carnival, expect that Orthodox Lent begins on a Monday instead of a Wednesday, and the Orthodox date of Easter can differ greatly from the Western Christian date. 

-Wikipedia

So basically, friends of mine explained that Maslenitsa is an event celebrating the end of the winter and beginning of the spring. It lasts one week, and we celebrated it on last Wednesday at the dorm. The evening included time well spent with awesome people, lot of bliny (pancakes) eaten and burning a really creepy doll. (And I'm not still sure why we did that, but it was such fun though!) 
Besides eating, we had some nice discussions - it makes you really wonder things all around again, when you hear the opinion and point of view of Russian about the Ukraine situation. And as always, studying was a hot topic - for some reason IB students speak about school all the time...
And as the only one, who wasn't IB student was the Japanese exchange teacher, we had some weird Japanese stuff to eat as well. Green KitKat isn't really something that I'm used to. 
But as a conclusion - this is what I love the most in IB. Getting to know new traditions of new cultures (I had never heard about Maslenitsa before) and having friends from different places of the world. I really love the fact, that I'm heading towards the tolerant and open-minded me, who's gonna be a true world citizen at some point. I love it, that I can call these people my friends. Once more - HEEEEEY I love you guys!

After a few hours in the dorm I headed to my theory lessons - only five left, yay. I'm most probably getting my drivers license on time in the beginning of April! 

surf the clouds, race the dark

Yesterday, the long awaited day was here. The very first time to hear the new song from Nightwish, Élan. Floor doesn't sound bad at all, the song gets better every time I hear it and it is the real Nightwish. Élan somehow continues in the way of Imginaerum. It's not so heavy, it has some really recognizable elements and somehow reminds me of I Want My Tears Back.  But that's it, I recommend you to listen this piece of art, and I am left looking forward to the day when the whole album is released!
Shoes - ParkWest, Jacket - T.K. Maxx 
Scarf - Secondhand, Jeans - Seppälä
Shirt - Secondhand, Top - Primark
Necklace - from Canterbury, Ring - H&M
This week has been weird. On Tuesday, I had my very first driving lesson - and I didn't kill or harm anyone, yay! Yesterday there were Penkkarit in our school, I had only one lesson of chemistry and then I left as I was pretty tired of everything. And managed to kick a chair so, that my right instep is now purple and yesterday it was swollen as well... 
Today we had Vanhojen tanssit - I didn't take part, but I watched the whole thing and tried to take pics. You should never try to use a camera that you don't know, if you want to get some nice pics... But we had fun with my classmates and judging the dresses is always the best part of everything (yet we weren't too cruel)!  And because of the dances, we had only English lesson, so I've had quite laid back end of the week.
These pictures were taken today as well, credits to my sister. I like this combination of a shirt and Guns n' Roses top, what do you think? 
Now I'm gonna think everything through, and decide should or should I not go to after-party of Vanhat. Let's see. Have a great weekend you all!

1/15

It's been a long time since I last posted - school, the driving school, being social and trying to get some sleep seems to be a hard task. I've been so tired and so frustrated with everything lately, that the blog has been the last thing in my mind. But now I came to share my January through my phone with you!
The very first pic of the year - breakfast at my friend place. Walking from the stables, a suspicious dog.
Japanese lessons and practicing some calligraphy, biology and calculating is the difference significant. The most useless thing to do - measure the lengths of dozens of needles from the south and north sides of the tree...
 Walking from the piano lesson in -30 degrees weather, riding lesson and a sleepy little one.
 ...and more sleeping dog.

The quality of pictures is pretty awful - but there's gonna be a change in that, as I'm most probably taking a new phone in use. As soon as I've saved all the numbers from the old SIM-card as the new phone requires a micro SIM.

But anyway, my January was just as normal as I was expecting it to be. We bought our flights (even though the last one is still missing) and the layout of the blog changed totally. And now it's time to start the second month of the year and it seems like a spring already!