Last year I wrote a short blog post about my dance history and how starting lindy hop has ignited an ever-burning dance frenzy. At the start of my second summer as a swing dancer, I thought appropriate to write down some of my thoughts on dancing and the philosophy it entails. LESSON #1: Sometimes you […]
“I cannot understand Finnish women!”, exclaimed my long-time Iranian friend, Negin. “All the women here are trying to be like men. They walk so fast with long bulky strides, wear mostly dark colors, don’t have much makeup and talk with much lower voices. I cannot understand this! I feel that women should be able to […]
I recently read the intriguing book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better by Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate E. Pickett. The book gave me new insights about quality of life, consumerism, trust and equality – or the lack of it. Why some countries differ in their levels of trust, mental […]
Onko oikeutta käyttää eläimiä tavoilla, joilla ihmisten kohdalla pidetään sopimattomana? Mietin tässä yksi päivä arvojani mussuttaessani Kismet-patukkaa, jonka olin ostanut hirveässä pikkunälässä kaupan viime-hetken-viettelys-hyllyltä. Kolmisen vuotta sitten ajauduin veganismin syrjäiselle, mutta alati kasvavalle, saarelle pitkälti läheisten ystävieni vanavedessä. Vegaaninen identiteettini vahvistui jokaisen luetun kirjan, artikkelin ja tutkimuksen myötä. Kun isäni joutui äkkinäiseen avosydänleikkaukseen tukkiutuneen verisuonen […]
I have danced all through my childhood and far into my teens. I danced ballet as a toddler, step dance as a preteen and ballroom dance as a teenager. I stopped dancing when I grew tired of the endless competitions that were tightly interwoven with ballroom dancing. So I quit and was forced to succumb […]
Now I know there has been some time since I last wrote anything here, but that doesn’t mean I quit. A lot has changed during these past months. Some changes have been new and exciting, like getting started in a new university and moving to a new apartment, and some just horrifyingly sad (two of […]
How I learned that making mistakes is the way to success. Creating just the right kind of froth for a coffee is a strenuous thing. It takes hours upon hours and numerous painstaking trials to learn how to make a cappuccino froth with just the right thickness, gloss and warmth. Then you’ve got to learn […]