tiia's log (FIN, SPA, SWE, EUS)

[tiia]

Well, I signed up for a next Spanish course, but I might sign out again. First I'm still not completely sure whether to take any course at all, and second there might be an interesting sports course colliding with the course and the fact that I still need some time (on the same day) for my thesis. I'm already not doing enough for it right now. (I guess one can never do enough for it?) I hope the meeting with my advisors this week will push me again.
For a short moment I even considered starting with a beginners' Swedish course (there were still places left and it had a nice time), but no, no new languages for me until I finish my degree.

I think I overwatched TBBT and it would be nice to have another series in (dubbed or original) I can watch in Spanish that has only 20-30min long episodes. I find a lot of ideas here for series with 60min episodes, but that's too long for my usual watching habits.
(Perfect would be if it's possible to get really cheap used DVDs, if I like the series, so that I don't have to rely on my internet connection.)
Any recommendations?


Next week there's a film in Finnish (with subtitles) in one of our local cinemas.


Btw. I realised, that I created my account now more than a year ago. Doesn't really feel like it.

[DaveBee]

I think I overwatched TBBT and it would be nice to have another series in (dubbed or original) I can watch in Spanish that has only 20-30min long episodes. I find a lot of ideas here for series with 60min episodes, but that's too long for my usual watching habits.
(Perfect would be if it's possible to get really cheap used DVDs, if I like the series, so that I don't have to rely on my internet connection.)
Any recommendations?

Sex in the City seems to have lots of 2nd hand DVDs available. I bought a french packaged DVD (intégrale saison 2), and it has audio for German, English, Spanish, French and Italian. Sub-titles for english, danish, french, greek, dutch, norwegian, portuguese, swedish, and czech. (The french audio doesn't match the french sub-titles)

EDIT
I think Scrubs would be a better choice though, if the DVDs are cheap.

[tiia]

Thanks DaveBee for the hints. Sex and the City was not really my thing in German. Funnily I assumed those series both to have 60min episodes, because they were running at prime time when I was younger. (I don't know about now, because I don't own a TV.)

--------

The Spanish course started and I attended 2 of 3 lessons. Though I'm still a bit undecided to leave the course or not, I'm most likely to do so sooner or later, because of my thesis. But I picked up my corrected certificate of the course I had done in summer. In November they told me, they'd send an email when it's done, but they never did.

I'm probably going to put both languages more or less on hold until the end of my thesis. For Finnish this won't actually change a lot, as I will still have the skype meetings every now and then and of course I still read Finnish facebook posts or alike. Reading Lumilapsi is still not done. I also started listening to the sixth Harry Potter one or two weeks ago, but only made it to chapter three.
I missed the Finnish film I mentioned in my last post. When I went home that day I still had it in mind, but then I came home and forgot it until it was already over.
Maintaining Spanish for the next 2-3 months might be done by watching series during breakfast or other meals. I might even think about the Vitamina-book, just to read shorter texts every now and then, when I don't continue with the course. Most important is that I keep on doing something, so that I don't forget everything again.

So in case anyone was wondering, why I haven't written anything for the last month: there just wasn't really anything new language-wise. Working on my thesis also doesn't motivate me to sit in front of a computer, but instead to do something more physical (not necessarily sports). And then there's also the rest of my personal life... But I still follow some threads here, although I don't write.


PS. Somehow this sounds like it's all just due to writing my thesis. Well, it's not (only) my thesis' fault. It's a great topic and I have really good advisors. In fact it's more a combination of everything.

[DaveBee]

Thanks DaveBee for the hints. Sex and the City was not really my thing in German. Funnily I assumed those series both to have 60min episodes, because they were running at prime time when I was younger. (I don't know about now, because I don't own a TV.)

Brun Ugle gave a very positive review for La fea más bella, you might want to check that one too.

[tiia]

I'm still alive and still not done with my thesis. There's just a bit more than a week left.

Sometimes I wished I knew some Dutch. The Dutch researchers do have some interesting material on the subject. At least their newer publications are mostly in English, which is great. Honestly, I never thought I might be interested in Dutch some day. (Though I've met nice people from there with a good sense of humor.)

Spanish is now completely on hold, the Finnish skype group is on hold as well. The only thing I have been doing recently is listening to the audiobook of Harry Potter 6. I finished it yesterday and I'm waiting that I can actually log it with the twitter bot. So I should now have 45 "films" and 52 books. Only 5 more films and I've reached the goal, I signed up for.

As my thesis demands me to stare a lot at monitors, I've really enjoyed the audiobook recently. Not having to use my eyes is such a relief after reading on a screen all day. That's why I'm probably now continuing with listending to HP7. Though I have rather mixed feelings about it. I mean, I actually never finished reading it*. If it weren't the easiest option for finding nice and understandable listening material I would buy the book and read it first - in Finnish. But reading it is definitely ruled out for the next 2 weeks. Same goes for searching for material.


*I'm not sure how much I wrote about that before. I read the books 1-6 in German, then we got the 7th in English. I had to wait quite a while until I could start with it (my siblings read it before, and the second one didn't finish it, and therefore kind of blocked it..) I was just in the final year in school and unfortunately my English was not really sufficient back then to really enjoy reading it. I stopped after about 2/3 of the book, if I remember correctly. Since then I tried to avoid any content that goes beyond the point I read and was probably really successful.

[Elenia]

Good luck!

[tiia]

My thesis is more or less done! From tomorrow on it's (mainly) up to my supervisors to decide, whether the work I did is acceptable or not.

(I don't think they will let my fail, but I'm not confident as I had to finish it in a hurry.)

[tiia]

Yesterday I handed my thesis to my advisor. And I finished the half Super Challenge on the same day!

My advisor told me to relax! The other students an uni told me to recover and relax as well. That's so weird. The first time after years there's nothing I can do for my studies (I'll have to prepare the defense, when it's official that I passed the written part). No changes, nor improvements I can do anymore for my thesis. (Though I'd like to, as I found some stupid mistake in the references. Nothing severe, just missing brackets and commas.) Really, people tell me to relax! Feels like I don't really know, how to do that actually. (Travelling is usually the most obvious choice for me - escaping all the everyday trouble.)

My expectations for the next weeks were more like "Oh now I can do all the stuff I could do the last weeks." Like repairing my bike or other necessary stuff... (Honestly I really miss cycling after the bike broke a few weeks ago and I had no time nor help to repair it. It's unfortunately a bit tricky to repair alone.)
But also more fun stuff. I can do fun stuff. And that's something I wasn't really thinking of the last weeks. Concerts, yes, but there is more. I actually have the freedom to do whatever I want without feeling guilty of wasting my time!

[Peluche]

Yesterday I handed my thesis to my advisor. And I finished the half Super Challenge on the same day!

My advisor told me to relax! The other students an uni told me to recover and relax as well. That's so weird. The first time after years there's nothing I can do for my studies (I'll have to prepare the defense, when it's official that I passed the written part). No changes, nor improvements I can do anymore for my thesis. (Though I'd like to, as I found some stupid mistake in the references. Nothing severe, just missing brackets and commas.) Really, people tell me to relax! Feels like I don't really know, how to do that actually. (Travelling is usually the most obvious choice for me - escaping all the everyday trouble.)

My expectations for the next weeks were more like "Oh now I can do all the stuff I could do the last weeks." Like repairing my bike or other necessary stuff... (Honestly I really miss cycling after the bike broke a few weeks ago and I had no time nor help to repair it. It's unfortunately a bit tricky to repair alone.)
But also more fun stuff. I can do fun stuff. And that's something I wasn't really thinking of the last weeks. Concerts, yes, but there is more. I actually have the freedom to do whatever I want without feeling guilty of wasting my time!

Congrats on handing in your thesis.
Is this for a doctorate?

[tiia]

Congrats on handing in your thesis.
Is this for a doctorate?

Thanks.
No, I'm not that fast with my studies. It's equivalent to a master.