Aino blabbering

Hobbies. Almost every kid has or has had them, and they are considered a good way to spend free time. I think they can be, but they can be quite harmful, too. I used to practice gymnastics as a kid. A lot. When I was at my top levels, during the last years of comprehensive school, we had 5 to 6 practices a week and competitions. A practice lasted 3 hours, or if it was the second training of the day, 2 hours. I wasn't that good, though. I didn't love what I did. I did it because I knew no other ways to live. I didn't know what people did when they didn't have a practice. I used every second of my day to manage to do everything I have to. I still hung out with friends, too. I remember that if got out of school at 2 pm and had a practice at 5 I could tell a friend that I can see them after school. Still have no idea how I did it. I still did my homework every time. Just don't know when. My trainer were all a little weird. I think they had no idea how a kid's min...

So far I have done ALMS for 96h 25min.

I finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I have read the book before, but I noticed that it was way easier this time. Amount of hours: 5h

I like to use colorful and descriptive language when I write something. It's naturally way easier in Finnish, because I know a lot more descriptive words. So let's change that! Or, well, not change, but let's make the difference smaller! Narrower? Tigher? First I am going to think about words I usually use to describe something in English. Then I am going to look for synonymes or other similar words to use instead of them, that I either didn't know beforehand or I seldom use. NICE  cordial, ducky, swell STUPID dull, foolish, futile, ill-advised, ludicrous BORING humdrum (omg what a word!), stodgy, tedious ANNOYING aggravating, bothersome ANXIOUS distressed, jittery Next, I am going to read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in order to find descriptive words that seem fun (pleasant, enjoyable, lively...) but I yet don't use and write them down. insolent - röyhkeä apoplectic - raivostunut reckless - uhkarohkea, huimapäinen frantic - epätoi...

I asked my boyfriend what should I do to practice English and he asked for stories about himself. Narcissist... So here we go. We met about a year ago at a schooling in Linnanmäki. I was studying in Maisemajuna and he came in and introduced himself. We chatted for a bit and I thought he seemed nice. Next time we met on May Day weekend at Kirnu. I think neither one of us really wanted to be there but partying, but we actually had so much fun. Maybe too much, I think the customers were afraid to come in since we were laughing about 8 hours a day hysterically... We then went on a date, though I wasn't really sure what I wanted with him. Nothing really happened yet, but we started to hang out more and we became really close and talked about everything. The summer with him was really fun, we went on his parents' cottage, cooked food (a little), went out to eat (a lot) and wandered around Kerava and Viikki. At the beginning of August we decided that we are "officially"...

I practiced country names with a map in English again. This time a got 100 percent right! Wippii! Amount of hours: 30min

Day in the summer It's 11 o'clock in the morning. We arrived to Split a couple of hours ago with the overnight train. We went to a small coffee house to get breakfast with two girls we met on the train, Alice and Chelsea. I got hot chocolate, orange juice and a croissant filled with cheese and jam. They cost 3,45 euros in total, God, I love the prices here. If I hadn't paid 350 euros on the train ticket's and they didn't charge me extra for every goddamn train I took, I'd say this has been a cheap trip. We are going to be here for a couple of days, so after breakfast we went to our hostel. It was a small place near the sea. We booked a four person room with Al and Chel. They don't like those nicknames but, oh, well. Al and Chel they are. They are from Ireland and they are really fun! Al is 20 years old and Chel is 19. Chel is quite competitive and lively, Al is softer and more of an organizer. That is quite good, since none of the other 3 of us really is. M...

Today I have been studying English in various ways. I watched Interrail videos online and read some Interrail blogs. Then I watched a tutorial in English on how to solve the Rubik's cube's third layer and practiced it while watching Modern Family with English subtitles. Fun! Amount of hours: 3h

I'm watched YouTube and tried to concentrate on the ways they say things, but it was really hard. Maybe I will do it again sometime. Amount of hours: 30min

So far I have done ALMS for 83h 40min.

Today I watched Friends without subtitles and tried to collect sayings and things that are said in a way that directly is translated into something else. Here is what I collected: I can't help it Wasn't working for me Give me an E (huutakaa E) Don't get me started They hit it off Pull off Amount of hours: 2h 20min

Today we had our conversation group meeting. W e talked about religion, worldviews and politics. We also discussed different kinds of sport fan cultures, spectator sports and tattoos. It was fun and interesting.  Amount of hours: 2h

So I decided that I want to listen to music again, but this time not to collect the words but to collect the meaning. So I am going to listen to a song, then try to explain it with a few words and then look at the lyrics and decide whether my explanation was good enough. First song: Radioactive  by Imagine Dragons Yeah, I don't really understand what they sing about. Something about apocalypse and and new age, but I don't even know what the radioactive-part has to do with. I checked the lyrics and I don't know what the song tells about. I technically understand the lyrics, but I can't interpret them. I am going to talk about them with my sister, because I got a bit interested. I will continue this later. All this English hurts my head. Amount of hours: 20min

I watched YouTube videos and tried to concentrate on the vocabulary. I didn't actively collect unfamiliar words but when I came across a word I knew I don't know, I took it down. I found two, "laugh tracks" (naurutus, you know, pre laughed films etc.) and something I thought was slautching, but the word doesn't exist, so I don't really know. Amount of hours: 1h 15min

So far I have done ALMS for 77h 50min. Still missing 20h 20min.

I watched Modern Family and nigahiga's YouTube videos without subtitles and tried to collect all the unfamiliar words. I got one. Tuba-strap rash . (And I cheated a bit with that too, when I came across it I put the subtitles on to see how it is written.) It is easy to find unfamiliar words when you can see the words all the time, but like this it becomes much more challenging. I think my brain filled the spots with unfamiliar words so that I didn't even realize that there was an unfamiliar word. And some words were just so weird that I couldn't even try to write it down. Even though my exercise was not that successful, it helped me to concentrate on the language. Amount of hours: 1h 30min