ALMS English 2023

Last week and 15h to beat, let’s go!

I did fourth task for support group at very beginning of the week, started last week on Sunday but finished this Monday. We needed to learn vocabulary while using three different techniques. I used Quizlet, AWL underlining tool and collecting and separating words into groups thing. Then we needed to write a short text how it goes. it took me almost 3h, but it was worth it because words were academic, and it was useful to learn it for the future text reading.

Of course some news reading on my way to the campus. As usually, some news about the boarder situation, the government has opened two boarder station and now thinking closing it again. This week is a great strike coming on and a lot of news how will it affect. For now we know that public transport is about to be shut down for one day, meaning trains, underline and busses. Presidential poll is accelerating and all the candidates have been selected. A lot of old material is about to be sniff out, like their graduating values last week.

We did one “coffee group” meeting with Victoria. We decided to make pre-Christmas party for our friends, so we meet and planned it. We also discussed this ALMS journey and how we have done and what. We got conclusion that it could have been easier took basic course but now we did this. Maybe after 2h or a bit before it we did change into Finnish.

I did listen one more podcast episode. It became a bit boring to listen that much podcasts but it was the easiest thing to do while you needed to do something at the same time. This time speaking about; “How building up skyscrapers changed the World?”. Talking about how high building changed the city visions and city planning. More people into same building and at the same time more people space to live. Basically, it made the million cities possible. It really chanced world. They also talked the dark side about skyscrapers, its vulnerability. Such high building are more prone to earthquakes etc.

One word list about article; “Soul of the City: The Depth of How “Urban” Matters in the Sociology of Religion” (Emerson & Knight Johnson). Total 1h reading the first 10 paces, collecting the words, and translating them. I decided to do the separating thing I learned from vocabulary group so +15min.

I watched one document: “Holy dilemma”. It was story behind catholic priest who has wife and three kids. Normally in catholic tradition, priest need to be unmarried. I watched it without texts and did understand everyhtign, something religuous words I needed to google but I got the big picture.

I did the last support group task at the end of this week. It was summary text with graphs or pictures, how this support group was and what did you learn. It was easy to write and took me just over an hour. After that there was feedback section, and I did it too.

On weekend I watched my series Task master UK, three episodes so I got my hours full. It was the same season than few weeks ago, the Australian comedienne, Sarah Kendall, was there doing the tasks. Third episode I watched was the last and one and Sarah Kendall wan the show!

Here is my last timetable for this period:

And here is my timetable about the whole course:

 

This week real struggles with time.

I finished my book on Monday evening and it took about 40min to read it. Over all very interesting and good book. Harry Potter is so famous and still popular scene that this book was sell success. It was a peek behind the scenes and why not a fan want to do it.

I did news reading only three times a week, about the same 15min. I got to the Campus on two days because of Finland’s independents day and my sisters high school graduation party. This week news of course about Presidential reception/Castle party. How nice dresses and personal suits! News about the cool weather and more about the border situations.

I listened one more podcast episode, “What if New York City was a country?”. The podcaster were talking about such a large area like New York being its own ecosystem or independent economic center. They mentioned that New York has a lot of opportunities and structure that even smaller countries don’t have. Ner York is apparently pretty independent city or area in USA and that is why they were spinning the possibility of New York being a country. Obviously, it is not going to happened but interesting talk.

And hare was this week, a lot to do outside school so quite small effort.

Here is my timetable:

This week I tried to do a little bit more because next week will be full.

News reading of course. This week cold weather and more snow says forecasts. The conclusion for eastern border; closing. Finland’s government decided to close all but two borders between Finland and Russia. In Turku has built the largest cruise liner. The ship is 365 meters long and has room for 7600 passengers. Do we really need that big ship to pollute oceans more? Later this week news told that the last border on east been shut down, no more suspected and undocumented immigrants.

Tasks for the support group. I did third vocabulary task for the course, and it took about 2h this time too. We needed to think about vocabulary learning methods we have used and try other’s methods. I did try a for example freerice website, where you have to know meanings or synonyms for words. According to the website you will donate some rice as humanitarian aid for every correct answer. The other I tried was knoword, and it was very fun. It was like Alias, you needed to guess the word by given hints. There were a few difficulty levels but the easiest one was good for me.

I did watch one document: My Muslin Husband, from HBO. I watched with English texts because their were peaking Romanian over the half of the time. It lasted an hour and it was very interesting, related to my studies as well. It was about how two Romanian people fell in love when other is Muslim and other one not. Document filmed their life and struggles with parents’ acceptation. The man, Daniel was Muslim, and his upcoming wife Alexandra needed to turn into Islam so that they could get married. Document shows Alexandras feelings about hijabs and covering, but feeling about how to live with Muslim man when you are not that religious.

I did watch four episodes my series Task Master UK. Every episode was 45min. I started new season and in this season there is one actor/comedienne who is from Australia. Her accent is a bit tricky sometimes and other competitors are laughing to her words sometimes. Even it could be hard to understand I did not put texts on.

I did one word list from one of my courses articles, it took me 45min to read the text again and collect some words down, then translate it. I tried one method learned from support group and separate the words in to three groups; verbs, nouns and adjectives. I saw that I got more adjectives than others, so maybe adjectives are the hardest group for me and I need to lean it more.

I read my book after the long time. I took some me time one evening with tea and chocolate and read a few chapters more. It was chilly and I have missed reading something not so academic. I got in to it and read over an hour. The actor was talking about how he got friends and how they spent time out of scenes. He also remembered they needed to do schoolwork in “school bus”. Sounds funny, but the teacher was tough and made sure they did learn something.

And that was the week, here is my time table:

This week some time planning, where can I buy more time for the week?

I read news from Yle. All together an hour in this week too while my to the campus. A lot of news about the situation on eastern Finland borders. The government is about to close some borders because Russia is pushing undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers over the border. Some problems with Olkiluoto 3 again, its been shut down for few days because of bug. One study about how Finland´s dark season on winter effects on how babies sleep. It sounded logical and I think that it affects how everyone sleeps. I have noticed by myself that I sleep more on wintertime, and it is still harder to wake up feeling refreshed.

I listened one podcast episode. It was separated on two sections as usually, one hour and 20min per one. This time it was about housing problem in the USA: What if housing in the United States wasn’t so expensive? Really interesting topic and I enjoyed listening to it on a walk. In the USA there is a lot of homeless and segregation and income differences which can be huge. The podcasters were talking about New Yorks situation as one example and it was interesting, because if you think about New York, first thing you might have in your mind is skyscrapers, rush, traffic, fame and big as descriptive adjective. But it is larger area than you thought and larger value of difference… Almost like slums outside the central, people sleeping on streets, crime, dark alleys and dark areas where even the locals won’t go. Housing is very expensive and in USA there is not welfare sosiety benefits as we have in Finland, how can you by a house without anything? Even rents are pretty high. Housing problem and homeless is a real problem in America and they are trying to do something about it because it has started to show up to tourists and news. Not so likely imagine, how will they want their cities to look like? How can they make it different?

And that was it about this week …

Here is my timetable:

This week some struggling with time but I made it.

I did read some news on my way to the campus. I was able to go lessons this week, so I did the basic 15min reading on my bus trip four days in a week. Reading new got me on a map but it is not nice to read news these days when it is all about war, crimes, crises, expensive values, and Finnish government. A whole straight in this week too, even Rainbow mark is going down! I would hope for more positive English news from Yle.

I did do tasks for my support group in this week too. We got another writing task which includes learning what kind of studier you are and new studying techniques. It was helpful and interesting. It took me more than 2 hours to complete, I did it over the course of two days so I’m not that sure how long it took, I market it as 2h.

I did listen two podcast episodes. I didn’t have that much time this week so it was easy thing to do while walking a dog or cleaning etc. First one was talking about the scenario where Honeybees and other pollinators would die out. Very specific but true problem. In Finland for example, on spring we have news about bees and pollinators getting less and how it will affect to fruits and berries. The other episode was about Cascadia, a large area on western North America. It includes parts of Canada and the United States. It was a bit hard and weird to listen because topic was not known. However, I understood that Cascadia area is special as culture and bioregion. Apparently, the area is about to get independency, I did google about it and still not got why? I mean yes, there is different system of environment, ecosystem, culture and industry but still sounds weird.

And here goes my timetable:

This week I did a bit more job because I got sick and had time to expend.

I did watch one document called “Addiction” on HBO. It was about alcohol and drug addictions. It was a bit sad to watch that young people 16-31 to got in that point they need drugs to live. And how their parents even did not got it before it was too late. But there were demonstrations of new treatments how to get rid of it. Of course, the earlier you can start treatments the bigger chance you have to success.

I read some news while eating breakfast this week. I did it daily (tue-sat) about 15min per day, so it took 1h and 15min. Because I am slow reader I got 4-5 news per day as usually, but it Is a good take off for the weeks/day’s news. This week the god food saga continued, Musti ja Mirri had sold bad food and have caused severe symptoms in pets. Luckily my dog does no eat that food. This week was “the expected” week when Finnish tax and income data of people earning more than 100 000€ was revealed. I personally don’t care about it and so doesn’t most according the new. Weird that it will still be revealed, not in any other country. At the end of the week sad news; Finland’s former president Martti Ahtisaari had state funerals, rest in peace!

This week started support groups again. For this period, I did take Moodle group; vocabulary. I did choose it because I have so many other courses and got not much tie for meetings, in this course I can do everything when I have time. This week I did the first task for the group and it took me over an hour and reading other peoples writings ~15min. It was very good task at first, write about you and try to find two new words for each part, so basically synonyms. It was fun and teaching but a bit hard too.

I watched one movie while lying on the bed. It was called “Elizabeth -A Portrait in Part(s)”. It was about British former queen Elizabeth second. I am not sure was this more of movie or document but I marked it as a movie.

I did watch my series “Task master UK” for one whole season because bored. It was the fifth season, in which eight episodes, lasted 45min. I did mark it for 3h only. It has come more easier to follow the program without subtitles, I have learned to listen British accent! Yejj! However, in this season there were one comedian, Mark Watson, who was born in Bristol for Welsh mother (I googled). His accent was so weird, and it took a time to get sometimes what was he saying.

I did listen one podcast episode form “Geography Is Everything” podcast. It took 1h 40min and was about the situation in the oceans, more proper seafood. The podcasters were talking about overfishing humankind is doing right now. The seas are not only for the humans but for the other animals that rely on them. We have thought; what happens to the global fishers after no fish, but what happens to the ocean live without it? It is one whole ecosystem down there! It was, again, sad to hear but it is the truth we knew.

And my timetable:

New period has started and I have 54h to do in this period.

I read some news on my way to the campus. I did save this task because it felt good and I got a routine out of it. In this period I have lections on four days a week. I did read YLE English news about the same 10-15min per day. This week the news was about Israel and more specific Gaza’s situation. The armed conflict between Israel and terrorist organization Hamas has been running for a month now and there is still some Finns and a lot of civils who has been caught up in the war. Some other news talked about Finnish families and low incomes who are struggling even more for survival. And again Petteri Orpo’s government is going to do some cuts from them too. News about increasing coronavirus situation and Finland’s organic food producers’ bad positions.

I did a word list about my other course article. The article itself was easy to read but there were themed words be repeated often and I had no idea what they meant. I did a list for paper and translated it. After that it was much easier to read the text.

I did listen podcast again. I did listen one episode which was separated in two parts. It was an interesting topic; how does the football word cup affect the world. They were talking about the FIFA world cup and how it unites humankind. Football or soccer how they were calling it in USA and many other countries too, is very widespread game and played in every country I would guess. That big event has fans everywhere in the world who follow, buy fan products, even travels for the cup. It is very worthwhile for the housing country and participating countries locally at the time. it has raised women’s sports too and it has came more popular and followed.

Here is my timetable:

A little summary how was my first period with ALMS gone. So I had planed to do about 55h of work in this period. Well I did not managed to do that much. I did over plan my reading and at the end I did not even have time to finish my book, so I will continue reading it. It took most my planed hours off. I did also plan an hour too much for the support group. Moodle tasks I was planned to do I did forget. So 3h down to the well. Same with news reading, an hour too less.

How ever I did do more movies/series than planned. I did also add podcast listening because it fit better my day-to-day life, just listening it while walking my dog or cleaning the house. I will continue doing it. Writing these blog posts take a lot of time, more than I expected (even more I did mark I think) so I need to add more hour there for the next period.

Overall nice start, 46h of total 98h. I’m almost in the halfway, but I think this is going to be easier now when I have got the idea and journey started.

Here is my preliminary plan for second period.

Break week between periods 1 and 2.

I listened the podcast episode part 2.  This episode continued the same theme than first part did. At the beginning they told that you need to hear part 1. before continuing this part. So it was more arguing about the drying Southwest, how it will affect to the farming, natural conditions, cities and humans. As a geographer it makes all sense and it was, well not interesting, but still interesting to hear. It was a reminder how important water and water systems are for the states (in this context) and community.

I wrote the last writing task for our support group on Monday because this week our meeting was on Wednesday. I did choose the academic version and after I got the idea what to do I start writing. I needed some fact sources, so it took me an hour to finish my text.

Of course we did have the support group meeting and it was the last one. There were not so many participants, so we had enough time to talk about everyone’s texts. I got some good feedback and able to chat with another geographer about our studies and very different texts about the same task. Over all I did like this support group. First I thought it would contain a bit more feedback and tips from the teacher, but it was still fruitful. Thanks for that!

We did meet another time with “coffee group”. This week was gap week between first and second period so we did managed to plan meeting with Victoria, Eevi and Sanni this time. Unfortunately, me and Victoria had missed the starting time, so we were an hour too early in Tripla. We decided to do shopping while waiting. It was surprisingly hard speaking English in that context. I mean what is villakangastakki in English? After spending some time, we did meet in café with our friends. Both have done ALMS before, so they were happy to help and spend about two hours with us while speaking English.

This week I did read some news on four days. Because I wasn’t at the campus at all I read news while drinking my morning coffee, 15min per day. News was talking about Israels situation. It is not funny to read but I still think it is good to keep on aboard. The other news I read talked about how Finns don’t feel that safe anymore. Feeling unsafe were felt mostly in cities and it includes walking on the streets, especially dark time. I can underwrite this. I have studied city planning and urban area studies and the model Finland, or mostly big cities like Helsinki, Vantaa and Tampere are doing so wrong city building. We are building high towers close each other’s and narrow roads crisscross. It brings unsafe feeling while walking by at nighttime or even early mornings. The article I read was about ministry survey finds.  A lot more articles about Finnish president elections and candidates and articles talking about apartment price drop. And rest in peace for Aira Samulin!

I did watch my series, Task Master UK more, about 5 episodes but I marked as 2h because I would continue doing this after this course too. I did watch one movie from HBO and it’s called “The wizard of lies”. I watched it without subtitles but I needed to google some facts about the scenario. The movie talked about the biggest Ponzi-Scheme in the USA history. It was a pyramid scheme where Madoff led finance company for investments and market making. It was a bit tragic to watch because Madoffs sons were working in his dad’s company but did not know anything about this case, neither his wife. The movie was at the beginning very weird and hard to follow but after while it started make sense. Very sad and unbelievable movie! Bernie Madoff was sentenced to life imprisonment while his older son made suicide and youngers cancer recured because of stress. He died to the cancer. His wife became hated, poor and lonely after loosing her husband. Very good movie and terrific at the same time.

At the and of the week I did hear second podcast episode. It did last for two hours divided into two parts. The theme was very interesting by the title; What if there were no international borders?. What came into my mind as a geographer before listening was that it could offer freedom but a lot of problems touching culture, exile, trading and criminality. The podcasters were on the same field. Because the podcasters are Americans, they took examples from there: smoking week could be legal some state and in another you can be taken to jail. With out those borders everything would be free but mad. By the borders countries or states can affect what kind of people or markets or innovations are heading in and out. “It illustrates that there is different things happening there based on the laws or the regulations of these different countries”, like Hunter Shobe said. Once you can control those borders you can control the area, that is basically the message this podcast episode was telling.

Here is my timetable:

This week some bad news but happy findings!

I read some news on my way to the campus again. I think this is really fun tradition to do, and I think I’m going to continue it in period two also. This week started with sad news. The former president Martti Ahtisaari died. He was 86 years old. Rest in peace! Yle was writing also about bad tap water in Jakobstad. It was interesting new about how usually clean tap/drinking water is more often unsafe and nowadays an increasing common problem. A heavy rains and strong runoffs are one reason why. This week was also again one environmental protest by Elokapina. The police did remove it because it was blocking the motorway, Länsiväylä. This time the protest was about the clean forest area in eastern Helsinki.

We got WiG support group for the second last time. We discussed about the last task and it was fun to see that everyone had different vision how they did the task. Everyone had the same start line which to continue, and everyone had done it differently. As I told I had a trouble with this one and there were still some typos but when I read it the storyline was good on my mind.

This week I did not watch movies, but I did watch something. I found out that in MTV there is English or more specific British version of the Task Master TV program. I have watched the Finnish version and now I found out that there is British also! Yej! I did watch a whole season 1 in a few days when I was doing my daily basis. Every episode last 45min and I watched first one with Finnish texts but when I got used to British accent, I took it off and watched the rest five without. I don’t know if you know the idea but shortly there is five contesters (British actors and comedians) who are doing insane tasks their own ways and the task master (Greg Davies) is going to judge it by points 5 to 1. If you haven’t watched, you should, so funny!

I wrote my blog as every week and realized that I have done enough already, but I will keep going because I still must report somehow what have I done. So next week when it is the last week of period one we can see is the total over or under my plan.

I also realized that I have over planed my reading. I am over a halfway in my book but not even close to my time goal. I am much faster reader than I first thought. Let’s see if I start another book or just do something else instead. I did total one hour reading this week too.

Due the previous, I started listening podcast to catch my time plan. I found out that in Spotify there is podcast called; “Geography Is Everything” and I heard the first episode, 1h. The podcast hosts Geoff Gibson and Professor Hunter Shobe are talking about The United States water problem in Southwest. The first episode was split into two sections and next week part 2. Weird that between the episode there were some advertisements in Finnish but okay.

Here is my timetable again: