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| It works! |
| 08.30.04 (9:38 am) [edit] |
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I am back in Finland, as of today 14.20:) The leaving from Beijing was sad, as many friends were left behind, as well as my girlfriend, Aloyna.
I feel happy to be back in Finland, but I have to sort out my thoughts before writing more. I will activate my mobile tomorrow!
-Miikka
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| Where did the past week go? |
| 06.24.04 (11:45 pm) [edit] |
Aiya wo de maya! Where did the week go? I haven't
done anything useful, except get my clothes washed.
Which isn't a lot in any standards... Oh, I have studied
some chinese, explored the city, drank Vodka with
Russian girls, gone to tattoo shop (NO, I did not get a
tattoo!) discussed F-1 with chinese taxi driver...
Yeah, that's one wonderful tale to tell! I went to this
American fast food restaurant (Macd... no I'm not going
to say which one), because I missed the western-style
food. I bought my hambauba, went out, crossed street,
took a taxi(no busses to our school after 19.30)..
And guess what?
I had the same taxi driver who had taken me to bar last
week! "Ni shi na ge Fen Lan ren?" "Dui!" We talked
about formula cars (He knew that Mika Hakkinen is Finn)
and environmental protection. It's very hard subject,
because my knowledge of words is limited. Basicly it
went like this: I study environmental protection in Finland
shit, I have to go. I finish this later!
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| Bees and honeys |
| 06.21.04 (7:25 am) [edit] |
Children today I have a tale to tell. It is very important
so listen carefully. During the story I will tell some
difficult words, but don't be afraid, there's not too many
of them. This story takes place in China, but it affects
the whole world.
Everybody knows honey bees. They are the little buggers
that collect honey and then we humans along with bears
and some other animals eat it. Now in China before the
20th century there were 2 species of honey bees. Other
was the Giant honey bee ([i]Apis dorsata[/i]) and the another was the Eastern hive bee, or [i]Apis cerana[/i].
After the turning of the century scientists found out that
these species actually consisted of several similar-
looking bee species, so [i]Apis dorsata[/i] was divided
into [i]Apis dorsata[/i]and [i]Apis laboriosa[/i]. The
Eastern Hive bee species was divided into [i]Apis cerana
[/i], [i]Apis nigrocincta[/i], [i]Apis koschevnikovi [/i]and
[i]Apis nuluensis[/i]. The last three species don't live in
China, so I don't speak about them later. I just thought
you might want to know about them.
The Chinese bees are very -well- Chinese:) They have
lived in China for tens of thousands of years and are
well adapted to the tropical conditions. Actually, they can't live outside China, India, Filippenes, Japan,
Thailand and Maleysia (and a few other countries). The
Chinese bees have their rituals, their own
diseases, their own predators - and their own parasites.
They lived alone, until recently. "Recently" in here means
about 40 years, I don't know the exact date. Oh, did you
children know that bees have been around for about 30
million years? It's a long and although a single bee
doesn't live very long, only a 25-40 days, 40 years for a
species is not long. Anyway 40 years ago a group of men
decided to bring some European honey bee([i]Apis
mellifera[/i]) colonies to China.
I have to tell you that these men were not bad men, but
they definitely were pretty ignorant men. They didn't
think very throroughly what they were doing - they were
motivated by money and the welfare of chinese people.
They wanted to bring in the European honey bees
because those bees produced more honey and were
better domesticated.
The European honey bees hadn't migrated to China for
one reason - the climate of China was so very much
different from the one in Europe! The bees just couldn't
survive in the tropical environment. However, when the
greedy beekeepers brought the bees, they had special
beehives built, ones that could keep the European bees
alive. They also crossbreeded the bees with Chinese
bees to produce a trait that could survive in China.
Eventually they succeeded, and the European honey
bees adapted to the environment of China. The seeds of
a disaster were sown.
Can you guess why? It happened in Brazil before - 1957
when the African killer bee was created.
The European honey bees went feral, and started to
destroy Chinese bees' hives. They eventually displaced the Chinese bees in many regions, because the Chinese
species lacked the vitality of the new introduced specie.
This in itself was a bad thing. The balance of the nature
had been distrupted and even though the European bees
were indeed bringing in income, the outcome didn't look
good for the Chinese bees. Still, there was more to come.
Remember how I mentioned those parasites before? Well
it just happens that the Chinese bees had parasites that
didn't exist in Europe. The [i]Apis cerana[/i] species is the
original host of a family of mites called [i]Varroa[/i]. This
family has three species, Varroa destructor, Varroa
jacobsoni and "lesser [i]Varroa[/i]".
[i]Apis dorsata[/i], in the other hand, is the original host of
[i]Tropilaeleps clarae[/i] mite. The Chinese bees had
existed with these parasites for long time and of course
they had ways of making this threat lesser. [i]Apis cerana[/i]
for example performed so-called cleaning dance very
often - far more often than their European counterparts.
This dance is, as the name implies, meant to clean dirt
and parasites alike from the body of the bee. Thus the
amount of mites was kept in check and they couldn't
seriously affect the hive.
The European honey bees were severely affected by the
mites which switched hosts when European bees mixed
with Chinese bees. The mites started demolishing the
colonies of European bees and soon had clear impact on
the business. My children, it didn't end here.
At some point the mite-infested European honey bees
migrated or were accidently transported outside China.
Now every continent is infested with the Varroa species,
and only the North American continent is free of the
[i]Tropilaeleps clarae[/i] mite. All species of bees are
more or less severely affected by the mite species -
which have even become resistant to some pesticides.
Guess what? Only the Chinese bees are really tolerant
of the mites - some scientists think that only real way
of getting rid of the mites is to introduce Chinese bees
to severely affected areas.
There is a lesson to be learned in here, children.
Okay, I hope you enjoyed this tale (not fiction though,
every word is more or less true, with added flavour)
which was inspired by my visit to Shenyang Botanical
Garden, where I spotted both the Giant honey bee and
European honey bee, along with other interesting things.
Hop to [url=http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/s...]my picture gallery[/url] and take a look!
Links and references:
[url=http://sunsite.tus.ac.jp/pub/... ]Interesting discussion about mites[/url]
[url=http://photo.bees.net/gallery...]Pictures of bees[/url]
[url=http://cyberbee.msu.edu/biolo...]Basic info about bees[/url]
And of course the "[i]Green world tour[/i]"
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| Pictures -- at last? |
| 06.14.04 (8:13 pm) [edit] |
I have stable internet access in the hotel!! There is a
good internet room now, with fast computers and usb
and everrrrything! I will blast your mind with all the pics
I have taken here:)
[url=http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/s...]This is a link to my new photoalbum! Go there and check out the pictures![/url]
When you go to the album page, there is also a couple
of sub-albums of different kinds of pictures, like
flora&fauna, environmental problems et cetera.
It might be that I can't post pictures here until the damn
photobucket.com us up again, but the new album is very
good!
So check out the butterflies, swans, goats, sheeps and
worms I have captured on 'film' in the flora&fauna section!
-Miikka
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| When hot means HOT! |
| 06.14.04 (12:44 am) [edit] |
Yes, today, yesterday, the day before, last week,
tomorrow, the day after tomorrow... this place is like
hell!! Every day from 4 o'clock in the morning to 8
o'clock in the evening the temperature is around 30-35
degrees Celsius. Only the sporadic (but strong) wind
keeps this city inhabitable - without the wind it would be
around 40 degrees (I presume).
Now think about Finland. IF it gets hot, we have our lakes
we can dip into... lots of lakes! Here, meiyou lakes..
witch means that there are NO lakes! Only a couple of
swimming halls I would not step into.
Yesterday me and Elovna walked around the city, doing
some windowshopping. (Or I did, because it is extremely
hard for me to find anything here. The men's style here
is not to my liking, as it is mostly jeans. Nothing to wear for those who like raverstyled clothing.)
She found a couple of things, however. There are so
many places to explore for clothes that you are bound to
find something.
I want to tell you something about the diffent subcultures
here. This city is so different from anything in Finland or
Europe that I feel I have to express my thoughts.
In Finland (Heck, in all western countries!) one can find
strong subcultures. We have punks, goths, rockers,
ravers, metallists(can I say so?), rappers, hippies and all
kinds of flowerpower fellas:) (don't feel bad if you got
left out). What I mean by strong is that despite Finlands
small population you can see plenty of described people
in the streets. They are a real part, a contributing part, of
Finland.
This city, inhabited by 7 million different persons, has no
such variety of subcultures. I have tried to roam the city
and question people, I have befriended wild and weird
persons, but no signs of the kind of people I would find
anywhere in the Europe. I spend a lot of time with one
Dada, he is a chinese heavy metallist who owns two
shops dedicated to all things metal. He says that chinese
people don't understand (or don't value) subcultures to this extend, at least not in Shenyang. He says that those
people who try to be different than the rest of the society
are shunned out (maybe a little bit too strong word) and
treated badly in terms of law and justice. For example
getting a visa would be very difficult to Dada, as he has
about 15 piercing in his face:)
I have seen here in Shenyang 2 girls I would describe as
hippies, a couple of metallists (mainly because I stay in
Dadas shop), one punk girl and one punk boy and that's it.
Why am I interested in this?
Because I want to find a place to buy clothes! This city
has fewer places to buy good clothes than Lahti in Finland
and thats pretty sucky, right? I have even sunk so low
that I bought jeans, because my only pants were starting
to wear down. I would like to buy some clothes to wear
in raves back in Finland, but I tell you folks, don't come
Shenyang to buy clothes! Come here to do some serious
studying.
Oh, one more thing to tell about. Do you have any notion
how big this city is? I don't. I can say that I have to this
day seen only one edge of it, and I have walked about 10 kilometers from that edge to the center of the city.
( you have to understand that that 10 kilometers is the
the center of the city,maybe more:)
Tampere is going to be so small after this city...
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| What is happening in China? |
| 06.02.04 (3:26 am) [edit] |
Last week I made an interview with a chinese boy. I
asked several questions from him, namely about
environmental problems here in Shenyang, about
his knowledge of nature and such stuff. We spoke
animatedly for about 2 and half hours - the subjects
ranging from history to politics.
I did the interview for two reasons. I want to understand
the motivating force of the young people I meet here. I
want to glimpse behind the masks and see what kind of
people this strange society is growing - I feel that these
youngsters are a byproduct of melting pot that tries to
mix(dunno if it is a good word) several different
cultures into one.
I constantly come across situations where I see the old China, the country that is far from democratic or free. In the other hand, I encounter things that are not possible in Finland, which is by far very free. Is this freedom in China just an illusion, is it freedom because there are no laws yet governing some things?
The second reason is that I want to get credit units from
my school:)
The boy told me that environmental knowledge in large
is very scarce among the young people. He admitted that
he knows nothing about nature, only the things he reads
about and sees in television. He told me that nature is
not easily accessible here... and also that the
government has a file about every student, with pictures
included. Behave wrongly and you get a mark in your
file.
Life here has been very interesting. Parties and studying,
I speak chinese every day a lot and try to write english
into my notebook, because I feel my skill in english
is diminishing as my ability to speak chinese grows. I
have met a nice russian girl Elovna and we spend a lot
of time together. She speaks very good chinese, and it is
our primary way of communicating. We spent the
monday night cycling around the city and talking, I
borrowed a bike from my friend Hasan and she had her
own bike (flat tires, and it kept terrible squeaking noise).
I like the city in the night, not so many people and the air
is fresher. It is 7km from my school to the city, and as I
tried to find my way around I had to ask for direction 2
times! And I could, I know just enough chinese to ask
for help, directions and I learned how to say "please speak more slowly" in the weekend:)
Next week will be 'Fenlan cai xing qi' because I will be making finnish food in our small community here!
Thanks for your comments, I feel that you are here with
me when I read your messages to me! It gives warm
and fuzzy feeling inside, you know:) I hope my stories
interest you.
-M-
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| Friends and Nan Hu |
| 05.24.04 (5:31 am) [edit] |
This blog is for friends. Now that I have the opportunity,
meet some of my friends here in ShenYang!
Yesterday I spoke with my meimei, little sister, and it
was great to hear her voice! I also made a promise to
A korean man, Bobby, that I would study hard.
Wo nu li xue xi Hanyu.
Thousand mountains...
![]() =http://img63.photobucket.com/...%20mountains/thousand_31.jpg width=350 height=250
and my friends. Erika, Emma, Berthold, Hasan, Bobby, Jackson, Vika, Jenny et cetera:) Not in any order.
![]() =http://img63.photobucket.com/... width=350 height=250
Yesterday at Nan Hu (Southern Lake) Park. It was my
first time in the traffic with bike... terrible! Vika and Kim
collided with a car, but luckily only the bike was damaged.
![]() =http://img63.photobucket.com/... width=350 height=250
The Nan Hu Park wasn't too bad, but it was a little dirty
and very dry. It hasn't rained that much here and lots
of people contribute to the erosion of ground. The lake
itself was very dirty, and the chinese youngsters we were
with were very sad about it. Many young people feel that
there are problems with the environment, but also feel
powerless when it comes to take action. Still, children
enjoyed the small fun park located within.
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| Pictures at last!!!! |
| 05.23.04 (6:50 am) [edit] |
Look at this picture! It is from Thousand Mountains park,
but I was able to load only one picture in the net:)
I will be able to put more later, as the Photobucket
gallery works at last!
![]() =http://img63.photobucket.com/... width=250 height=250
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| What is time? |
| 05.20.04 (7:23 am) [edit] |
Wuah, I have opportunity to get logged on! Folks, I can
only say that life here has been interesting:) I hope our common friend in Portugal will be reading this! Lotta, weather here is excellent, although the air is polluted, wind is too strong and it's mostly cloudy:) Still, it's so warm that one could be without clothes if need be.. luckily I still have some clean ones.
Oh, what I have been doing here? Many things. Drinking, thinking and speaking. Communicating with chinese girls, and foreign boys on top of that. Trying to establish connection to the outer world which has been exceedingly difficult. I wasn't able to go to Dalian on wednesday because we weren't able to raise money with Visa card... too bad, because it was my opportunity to visit the leader of Dalian Environmental Information Center!
So those from the school who follow my trip, know that I have not forgotten my duties for environment. I don't buy plastic bags and try to avoid plastic in any form. Oh, I will also visit the ShenYang Environmental Information Centre in few weeks.
The visit was arranged by my friend Sun Ting, all glory to her. She knows the folks there. I will make a list of things that are of interest to me, like reforestation, sandclouds from Gobi desert et cetera.
Hey, I also made my first money today! I visited a school that taught english. I was the 'jewel of the show', I talked to children, posed in photographs and gave out prizes. They gave me 100 yuan (10 euros) for it, and a promise that in the coming weeks I can work for them. Beat that, folks! 15 days in foreign country and I am already earning my pay...
At the moment I am little bit drunk, as we were celebrating Korean month here. Have fun in Finland and other countries!
Kaisa, big hug for you. Kisses to my family. Anna, enjoy your last weeks in Finland. Maija, ala tapa ketaan:) Kirsti, pida huolta koirista, taalla niista ei turhaan valiteta:(
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| What is time? |
| 05.20.04 (7:16 am) [edit] |
Wuah, I have opportunity to get logged on! Folks, I can
only say that life here has been interesting:) I hope our common friend in Portugal will be reading this! Lotta, weather here is excellent, although the air is polluted, wind is too strong and it's mostly cloudy:) Still, it's so warm that one could be without clothes if need be.. luckily I still have some clean ones.
Oh, what I have been doing here? Many things. Drinking, thinking and speaking. Communicating with chinese girls, and foreign boys on top of that. Trying to establish connection to the outer world which has been exceedingly difficult. I wasn't able to go to Dalian on wednesday because we weren't able to raise money with Visa card... too bad, because it was my opportunity to visit the leader of Dalian Environmental Information Center!
So those from the school who follow my trip, know that I have not forgotten my duties for environment. I don't buy plastic bags and try to avoid plastic in any form. Oh, I will also visit the ShenYang Environmental Information Centre in few weeks.
The visit was arranged by my friend Sun Ting, all glory to her. She knows the folks there. I will make a list of things that are of interest to me, like reforestation, sandclouds from Gobi desert et cetera.
Hey, I also made my first money today! I visited a school that taught english. I was the 'jewel of the show', I talked to children, posed in photographs and gave out prizes. They gave me 100 yuan (10 euros) for it, and a promise that in the coming weeks I can work for them. Beat that, folks! 15 days in foreign country and I am already earning my pay...
At the moment I am little bit drunk, as we were celebrating Korean month here. Have fun in Finland and other countries!
Kaisa, big hug for you. Kisses to my family. Anna, enjoy your last weeks in Finland. Maija, ala tapa ketaan:) Kirsti, pida huolta koirista, taalla niista ei turhaan valiteta:(
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| Nature pictures From Daishan |
| 05.10.04 (7:28 am) [edit] |
Hyvaa Aitienpaivaa Suomeen!
Huh, so many things to write about and so little time. Yesterday we were backpacking in Daishan city nature reserve (that´s not the real name, but close enough), south of Shenyang. I will post pictures. Beautiful mountain range and nice forests... See the pictures!
Tomorrow I will write the whole story of these few days.
Tsai Tsien!
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| Ni Hao -> Sina hyva! And other things... |
| 05.08.04 (2:00 am) [edit] |
I had really mindnumbing experiences yesterday. I took some pictures of the campus area and wrote down my feelings about the nature of China. This country is really a mess in many ways.
If I was living here for real, I would start recycling business. If I was a politician here, I would recommend a policy for recycling. Plastics are a big problem. There are plastic bags, bottles et cetera everywhere. Changing plastic bags into paper bags might be a big step towards solving the problem - China having such a good reforestation program. It would be an interesting problem to study about.
We were drinking again last night. We went to Sophie's and after that to a place called I Love You. Drinking, drinking and some eating. After the bar round Hassan from Jordan took us to a restaurant - and we had an argument there. I can't stand the attitude of the foreign people here.
I feel it's very humiliating for me how the foreign people talk about this country. They consider themselves kings, but they don't behave like kings - at least not like good, benevolent kings. Maybe they are partly joking, but still... I feel bad. It might be that I am overreacting, I don't know.
Anyway, I left the restaurant at 6 o'clock in the morning or something. I was angry and drunk and ripped my pants, and didn't remember how to say the name of the Institute.
( Wo yao qu Shenyang gong ye xue Yuan - I want to go to Shenyang institute of technology)
I called Beilou. She said her home address to the taxi driver and I went to sleep at her place.
There are many, many problems here in China. At the same time one can find many sophisticated and beautiful ideals, manner and customs here. I am confused.
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| Weird experiences... |
| 05.06.04 (2:49 am) [edit] |
Damn, I wrote like a short essay here and I just erased it!!#@%@#&$&
Anyway, we were drinkin' last night and I met this nice girl called BeiLou, we went to some weird club called Down Under... before that we were in a bar called Sophia's, pretty place. Drank a lot too:) The prices were cheap.. We went to Beilou's place for the night, but she had lost her keys so we had to wait for locksmith for about half'n'hour. Weird experience... at her place I saw the chinese version of American Pie and we talked about many things, cultural differences et cetera.
I lost the top ball of my piercing last night, but got a new ball today. I met a chinese guy called DaDa who is a singer in Death metal band and is full of piercings. We talked about finnish heavy metal:)
BeiLou is nice, she went shopping with me but unfortunately we didn't find anything... except two shirts. ate some very good food today btw.
I took some more pictures, but can't upload them, I am in a net cafe with BeiLou and it's not possible here.
Taijin Tian Tian qi zen hao - very nice weather today
Juu, kaikkea taalla sattuu, tapasin mukavan tyton joka on nayttanyt kaupunkia ja kertoillut kaikenlaista Kiinan kulttuurista, eilen oltiin baarissa juomassa vodkaa ja ulkona syomassa, nain kiinalaisen opiskelijan kodin ja huomasin etta klubit taalla on omituisia.
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| Shenyang meets Miikka! |
| 05.05.04 (2:33 am) [edit] |
I am safe in Shenyang, it's nice here and I have chinese telephone account, new memory card and a few new friends, Hassan, John and Helen:) Country of controversies, I have to say... No pictures yet, I will add them in the Evening. I have so many things to write about, this is just a short pro for the coming text...Using John's computer and broadband connection. Hassan is studying chinese, John is teaching english and Helen is local girl studying in university. And Samuel, he is Petris friend who helped us yesterday night to get to the institute. Aloha from Shenyang!
Terrible sandstorms, by the way, and the sky is gray from dust and pollution...
Taalla on mahtavaa, Johnin laptopissa ei ole aata eika oota joten taa on tata:) Huh huh, ei sanat riita kuvailemaan kaikkia kokemuksia, eilisesta seikkailusta tahan paivaan.. Terkkui suomeen espanjaan portugaliin ja kaikkialle!
-Miikka
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| I'm unpacking |
| 05.02.04 (4:13 am) [edit] |
It is sunday and I don't have hangover, what a miracle! I was out last night, meeting my old friends - lots of people and some nice memories to share. Didn't drink anything except one beer (which is customary).
Here are some pictures from my parents place near Lahti.
![]() =http://img63.photobucket.com/... width=320 HEight=240
![]() =http://img63.photobucket.com/... WIDTH=320 HEIGHT=240
This Canary(?) bird is my mother's
![]() =http://img63.photobucket.com/... WIDTH=320 HEIGHT=240
As is this Bichon Frise...
![]() =http://img63.photobucket.com/...
Molli is my cat, but he lives with my parents at the countryside. That's because he is used to open woods.
Anyway, I am unpacking my things, as I have too much useless stuff in my backpack. Fancy that, never thought doing so...
Heh, oli joo rinkassa täysin turhaa tavaraa kilokaupalla:) Nyt on varmaan 4 kiloa matkaravaraa enää, rinkka itessään painaa varmaan enemmän.
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| Tampere says Terse! |
| 04.30.04 (6:58 am) [edit] |
Ya folks, this is it! My stuff's packed and in storage and everything else is more or less taken care of - - except the fact that I don't have travel money :/
Yes, someone didn't do her job and my tavel money aplication didn't go to the President of our school. You can bet I am f****d up by the fact, but what could I do? I called the office this morning and the kind lady there said she would look in to the matter, but it will take at least a week until I get the money. And it's not such a problem for me, but a friend of mine is also out of her money, and she has already left. I bet she's mad...
[b]A short message in Finnish for my friends and parents:[/b]
Tää on siis matkapäiväkirjani, tulkee tänne katselemaan kuvia ja lukemaan juttuja. Koitan päivittää tätä 'päivittäin' - saas nähdä kuinka usein todellisuudessa niin teen. Hauskaa kesää kaikille!
[b]The trip begins now. Travel with me.[/b]
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| I am starting... |
| 04.29.04 (9:41 am) [edit] |
Hi folks. This is my first Blog ever, just a quick brush to get myself used to this kind of social sharin'.
I am going to China next monday, 3rd of May - the flight being from Helsinki (Finland) to Beijing. I will publish pictures and notes about the trip for friends and family alike - you strangers feel free to follow my adventures if you want!
I don't know how actively I can and will update this blog as I have no notion how easily comps will be available at Shenyang, the place I am going. I will try to update this once a day, but be warned anyway.
Some background information for you who don't know me. I am a first-year student from Finland. I study Environmental Engineering, which has everything to do with saving the world:) I go to China to study language and cultures for three months, and if possible I will participate the Green Camp in Hainan Province. Oh, my name is Miikka. Nice to meet you.
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