Day 29 Art exhibition opening & free flow of alcohol

Today I survived yet another Finnish class. Although I still do not understand why our instructor can go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on for a very long time about a very minor topic, I was delighted to hear some of the major traditions, customs and major festivals here in Finland.

Apparently, tomorrow, the entire Finland will celebrate the birthday of a Finnish poet called Johan Ludvig Runeberg. One of his works include the lyrics of the Finnish national anthem. From what our instructor said, tomorrow we will see a lot of Finnish flags on the streets. Our instructor also brought us a kind of pastry called the "Runeberg's tart" that is often eaten by Johan Ludvig Runeberg.

(Photo: Rumor has it that he ate this cake every morning and drink vodka with it. Maybe tomorrow I will try doing this, just to celebrate his birthday!)

After the Finnish class, we met up with some friends from an art school here in Helsinki and we went to an art exhibition opening. There were only 3 works in total in that exhibition, but I have to say, those works are pretty impressive. The first work is called "blue ripples", second is called "Ice jungle" and the third called "blinks". The extensive usage and manipulation of light made this entire collection make sense and I could feel a stark contrast but a slight connection of the works in the exhibition.

(Photo: In the ice jungle, admiring the ingenious manipulation of light.)

(Photo: One really good thing about art exhibition opening is the free flow of alcohol and snacks there. Seriously, we kept on talking while consuming their red/white wine and snacks! I have this notion that if you know Helsinki well, you don't really need to spend that much money, well, unless you do all the things tourists do. Everyone left the exhibition feeling extremely content and tipsy.)

Afterwards, we visited the school of these art students. There are about 300 students in their school and almost everyone has a work station at school. Their school is really cool. At their lobby, there was an art exhibition.

(Photo: I mean, this lobby exhibition was not difficult to understand, it was quite straight-forward and to the point, but I don't know if I like it or not.)

(Photo: Another interesting thing about their school is that it is opened 24/7 and there is a ping-pong table there. Yes, and we played a bit ping-pong there.)

(Photo: the school is one or two metro station(s) away from the city centre Kamppi, and so the gang tried to find the way back after visiting the school.)