Moments I remember

This blog has been silent for a long time.. It's because I have been really busy with my studies. It has been very interesting and rewarding but also really tiresome and stressful, so I haven't had time to think about other stuff.. Even singing and writing and painting and all that has been left for very little if not no time...

Today, I went to the sauna with my friend, and we talked about our exchange experinces (she was in Italy earlier than me). And just now, I got a message from a choir mate from Jiao Da Choir on facebook.. and in moments like these I remember the times in Taiwan and I feel happy about them but also very sad. Sadness is because I miss those moments, those people, those things in Taiwan very much, and also because it all seems so very far away and it seems hopelessly distant that I would ever be able to go back. But I really want to go there again, I miss so many things so much. I really did fall in love with the place..

I can go for long periods just living, not remembering I was ever away.. Sometimes it feels like just a short dream, like I never was away from here. But then some small things remind me of something in Taiwan, and it makes me feel like I want to cry. But it's not so strong or horrible, it's just.. like some part of me is missing. Even if it's sad, those memories are lovely and I love to think about them.

I have put a lot of memories from Taiwan on my walls, so I would not forget. I have a "Wish to see you in Taiwan"-poster (with 飛輪海 :D), a plastic kind-of-like-airballoon-drum-thing from the Meichu sports competition (those were given to the audience when we were cheering up for JiaoDa baseball team), some photos, a tradtional chinese painting that I bought in Taipei Longshan night market and the card I got from my choir mates when the semester ended.. All of those things mean a lot to me.. because they are the only part of that life I could bring with me here.

Now when I think of my year in Taiwan, the things I remember the best, and miss the most, are my classes and classmates, all my friends (both foreign and taiwanese), the wonderful sceneries on the mountains, daily life with might markets and seven elevens and canteen foods, the beautiful campus (I loved it) and the nature with all the trees..even the hotness of the summer. And I miss the choir very very much.. Making music together with people is such a wonderful, strong, big thing. All of the people in the choir became very important and I regret it that I had to say goodbye so soon. I would have wanted to spend more time with you guys, learn to know you better. Because the choir was the strongest link I had to the normal taiwanese life and people. You made me really feel Taiwan and how beutiful the culture is and how friendly and nice the people are. :)

One thing is.. I cannot watch the photos I took in Taiwan.. If I open the folders on my computer and look at the pictures.. the feeling is so strong that I don't like to feel it. It's one kind of pain, watching them, because it returns me to those places but at the same time I cannot be sure if I'll ever see those places and people again. It's the home that I had to leave. And I want to go back, so much.. I think I will go back after graduation, to work or something.. I just can't think that part of my life is over forever. It can't be.

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P.S. If you are one of those people in Finland or in Taiwan, who knows the song Pääskölintu, päivölintu, this next story is for you. Just today, I realised what the song is all about. :D After singing it in different places and groups for over two years.. :D And it's not like I did not know the story before, I just now made the commection.

I was skimming through an finnish language book for eighth grade and found a kind of comic strip that looked very familiar.. there was a bird, who went around different places, then found a lady in the sea and made his nest there on her knee. Then she laid some golden eggs and one copper egg.. but then the lady twisted her knee and the eggs fell into the water. That comic strip really looked like it was picturing the Pääskölintu, päivölintu -song exactly.. it seemed very odd, as the song is not popular and should not be in the book.

Then I read what that page and strip is about, and noticed it tells about the myths from the great finnish epic, Kalevala. (For the foreign friends: Kalevala was written in 19th century and it tells about the old beliefs, myths and stories of the finnish people.) That comic was about the story of how the world was greated according to the old religion of the finns. The big bird flew around, searching for a place to nest, and the lady of air was sitting in the water. The bird saw her knee and made his nest there and laid some golden eggs and one brass one. But the lady felt the heat of the nesting bird and shaked her knee, so all the eggs fell into the water.. and when the eggs broke, pieces of those eggs became the parts of the world as we know it and so everything was started. I have heard this story many times before,so it's actually really amusing that I made the connection with the song only now.. :D And I always wondered why the song said something about copper eggs (vaskimunat), like "that's so weird..why are the eggs copper...". Stupid me.. :D