maanantai 6. huhtikuuta 2015

How to feel awesome every day

Hello again!

Time flies and the finals are almost upon us. Stress-levels are high as assignment deadlines, exams and all the other unpleasant stuff start to pile up. I've never been good at stressing, and I have developed a mindset and a handful of techniques to handle stress and to get through the difficult times in life. Here are my five steps for feeling awesome every day!

1. Sleep

Get enough sleep. I can't stress enough (no pun intended) how important rest and proper sleep is. Some people like to go to bed and wake up late, some, like me, are morning persons (I quote Benjamin Franklin; "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise") but whichever style suits you better, make sure you get enough of uninterrupted sleep. Keep in mind that sleeping too much is bad for you, and leaves you tired and dizzy. The rule of thumb I use is to sleep at least 6 and no more than 9 hours in one go. If you have trouble sleeping, try doing something relaxing before going to bed such as reading or listening to some soothing music. Performing hard physical activity before going to bed and using electronic devices tend to make falling asleep harder.

2. Proper diet

You are what you eat. A proper diet will keep your energy-levels high throughout the day and keep both your body and your mind fueled. Foods to avoid are those with high sugar content and highly processed foods, whereas whole grains, lean meat (such as chicken breasts or beef) and vegetables are always a good choice. Just try replacing that high-sugar cereal in the morning with a slice of whole-grain bread and a couple of eggs, and you will notice the difference. Just remember that you are allowed to "cheat" every now and then, and a pizza or a bar of chocolate once every week or two weeks will keep you happy and can actually boost your metabolism in a positive way.

Two pizzas and a pizzaburger. A good example of a bad meal x)

3. Doing sports

Finding a sport that you enjoy doing and that makes you sweat really improves your well-being and quality of life. There is so much to do even if you don't want to put any money into it; running, cycling, skiing and various team sports are all relatively cheap choices, and even a gym membership won't cost you much. You will quickly notice how you are pushing your limits and going beyond them, over and over again, and I promise; it's one of the best feelings in the world.

These guys are just running around all day long.
4. Getting your work done in time

I am a person who prefers to finish my work well ahead the assigned deadlines. It helps me relax as I don't constantly have the stress of unfinished work on my mind and also leaves room for improvising; anything can happen, and by having that extra time on your hands you can be the difference between missing the deadline and getting an A+ on that important assignment. Time management is an important skill to have in the working life as well and I recommend improving on it while you're studying.

5. Having fun

No matter how busy you are, always make sure to have time off as well. Stay in touch with your friends and family, go out, treat yourself with a fancy dinner, read a book, watch a movie, play a video game; anything you enjoy doing. It is understandable that sometimes you are simply too busy to do anything fun, but think about it like this; if you spend, say, one hour a day reading a book, it is only 4% of your 24 hour-day!

Our lovely Easter dinner :)

I hope you guys were able to pick up some tips! They certainly keep me on track! There's certainly other stuff as well to keep both your mind and body fit, but these are in my opinion the most important.

My time in Canada is running short and the trip to Toronto is happening in a week. That means the next post will probably be up after the trip. Until then, have a good spring everybody!

-Teemu


The new Nightwish album is pretty damn sweet. Check it out.


maanantai 30. maaliskuuta 2015

Alive

Well, hello there, Internet!

I am so sorry for not updating my blog. I meant to write a blog with a different topic about how to feel awesome every day, but then I got this brutal fever and throat infection that pretty much made me stay in bed for a week and I kinda didn't feel like writing about being awesome because really I felt like I was about to die. Now it's getting easier, but last week was shit. On Wednesday I barely even made it out of bed because the fever was so high. I don't usually get very bad fevers, so this must be some kind of a Canadian supervirus going on. Well, I'm glad that's over with!

The winter term is almost done with one out of three final exams down already and just a couple of assignments to be finished. The spring is also finally upon us and the weather has been perfect lately for just exploring the town and going out for walks. Most of the snow actually melted away, even though some random snowfall still occurs.

On March 17th we celebrated St. Patrick's Day! This is pretty much the first St. Patrick's celebration I had, since it's not such a big thing in Finland. The Irish pubs are obviously full, but that's it. Canada, on the other hand, has a large population of Irish people and you could see "St. Paddy's day" themed decorations at dollar stores weeks before the actual celebration. We went to the campus pub and it was actually so full that they could only let people in when someone left. It was a Tuesday, which meant that beer was cheap and green. Yes, green beer. Really it's just regular beer with a green dye, but it's quite fancy anyway!

Some other stuff that's been happening was the Chinese New Year dinner at Confederation College, with some authentic Chinese live music and networking between College and University students. We also celebrated Laura's birthday, which was a lot of fun! Afterwards we headed out to go clubbing, but the line to Rock House was so long that we decided to go to the Foundry instead. I didn't mind, since its my favorite pub in TB so far!

Please enjoy the random pictures below. I will finish the next post of feeling awesome when I feel awesome again. Now its time to rest up some more, since the end of the term is almost here and so is the trip to Toronto!

Thank you for reading,

-Teemu


Chinese music

Om nom nom

Persian, a sweet bun with red icing. Only in Thunder Bay!

A burger from Arby's with shittons of meat. Honestly it looks like shit but the taste is really great!

The Foundry, definitely my favorite pub in Thunder Bay.

Orgasm-coffee hue hue hue

Weird animal sculptures

A sunny day

Grumpy cat says no

Some guys were carving these with a chainsaw. I shit you not.

Another statue.

The ATAC building of LU, taken during a random late-night stroll

CARE-PACKAGE HAS ARRIVED

This tree is so symmetric

Shoe polishing.

Wildlife
Green beer!

Normal beer. Still good.

Jos käy niin että tänään kuolen
Esi-isien luo ajan tuolle puolen
Edessäin seisovat Valhallan portit
Kädessäin hyvin pelatut elämän kortit


tiistai 24. helmikuuta 2015

Highway 61 Revisited

Greetings!

The trip to USA is over, and so is our week-long break from classes. As some of you already know, last Wednesday we gathered a fellowship of seven Nordic warriors and took upon the fabled Highway 61 and visited the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Here's some pictures along the way!


City by night

Beer sampler

Unbelievably tasty burger
David's pizza!
Mexican food!

Lousy selfie

Skyscrapers

The most American picture ever 
Government Plaza

Behind a frozen waterfall

Another lousy selfie at the Mall of America, a big-ass mall in Minneapolis

Big-ass robot

Big-ass dinner at Hard Rock Cafe

Big-ass sword

Big-ass beer

Me and a big-ass tank

On top of a big-ass skyscraper

Peanuts statue at St. Paul

Fancy building in downtown St. Paul

Lunch

This burger had mushrooms in it! Delicious.
Cathedral of St. Paul

Modern art. I am confused.

Peace Tea! This was pretty good.

Thanks for the read! 

Over and out,

Teemu




Can we start again?
 What we had just can't be wasted!




lauantai 14. helmikuuta 2015

Goddamn midterms


Hello readers!

Last week has been quite a heavy one. I managed to almost get the flu that's going around (I say almost because I was lucky enough to get rid of it in less than three days as well while most people seem to have it for two weeks!) and we also had our midterm exams which of course meant a lot of studying. Luckily I think I did pretty good on all of them, and now we have a one week vacation!

We spent the last weekend at the Fort William National Park doing various kinds of activities and learning more about the indigenous people of Canada. We went snowshoeing, crafted our very own medicine pouch made of bear and deer leather, learned some traditional dances and had wonderful native food such as wild rice and corn bread. As a history geek I really enjoyed all the information and how the staff of the park presented it.

Me in awesome native clothing :D




Sheep :3



On Thursday the midterms were finally over and I was also feeling better already, and we decided to celebrate it by heading to the campus bar, The Outpost. It was a great time, and it was nice to be stress-free once again! Next Wednesday we are heading to Minneapolis and the next post will be about the trip! I also booked tickets to visit Toronto for a week at the beginning of April, but more about that later!

Honey Brew <3
Today we will have supper at a sushi-bar and celebrating Valentine's Day by going out in the evening, and it's going to be super awesome.

Squatting around the world!

Thanks for reading, and happy Valentine's Day! <3


I've been listening to a lot of music from the 60's lately,
here's one favorite!