I'm like a mirror, I'm nothing till you look at me.

I've fallen in love with so many places in my life that I already lost count years ago. There was this small village in Southern Germany I spent one summer in, Eberhardzell, that in all its beauty took my breath away on a daily basis, and there was Brisbane that managed to make me feel like home even though I hardly spent one week there, and Brighton, whose foggy shores drift like photographs through my head whenever I think about the city, and of course Ljubljana, and so many more cities and villages and just plain buildings, streets and cafés. However, I'm more than happy to say my current place of residence is also a place I'm still, after years of feeling this way, head over granny kicking heels in love with. Tampere has, for some reason, always felt like home to me, even when I was a kid and my visits to my sister's place here only lasted for a few weeks or days. This was and is just the right size and kind of place for someone like me to build a life in, there's always something new to go and experience but at the same time the city has this familiar, homely vibe in the background that brings enough comfort to make one feel safe. I understand how people who've lived here for their entire lives might feel differently about this, but coming from a really small town, I haven't yet been forced to face the overall smallness of the city and its social circles.

I'm leaving for Düsseldorf the day after tomorrow. Well, I'm leaving for Düsseldorf airport the day after tomorrow. I have no idea where we're heading after that, we haven't booked any kind of hotels or hostels or anything and actually have no clue whether we're even staying in Germany or heading straight to Holland to visit some guy Terhi knows that I've never met. The whole trip is pretty much wide open, our only plan is to make it back to the airport on Thursday so we can get back home, aka so we can unwillingly drag our asses back to this country at least two of us three traveling companions mostly spend our time wanting out of. In every case, I'm excited to get away from my life here for a while. I hope I won't get too caught up in being abroad, I always do, and then I can't concentrate on anything else but planning how and when to get out of Finland the next time, and usually the next time can't be more than a few months away. Fact is I have to work through July and August and have no chance of getting anywhere from Tampere before school starts. I mean, I already know I'll probably be leaving for Germany to work before Christmas, but that's fucking six months away. (I know I sound ridiculous.)

I'm going out with my sister tonight to see Street Dance 3D. Dance movies are always the same, there's always some goodie-goodie girl who does ballet who falls in love with some badass hiphop guy, on comes the traditional Romeo&Juliet bullshit storyline, and then at the end the two combine their styles creating something ecstatically wonderful, after which life is good and love never dies. This doesn't really bother me, though, because the dance scenes are usually so bloody awesome. And tonight the film's in 3D! This should be something to remember when I'm old and wrinkled. At least when I break my hip and can't ever pretend to be a street dancer ever again.

My Tampere: