My last couple of weeks in Berlin have been quite relaxing, but at the same time full of things to take care of. Like I wrote in my last article, I'm leaving Berlin with mixed feelings. I've had a great time here and I've made some good friends, that I hope to keep in touch with after I leave. I'm throwing a goodbye party on Friday, where I hope to get say a proper goodbye to the people I've spent my summer with. It will be a goodbye for a while, hopefully not for forever.

Last week I acquired some things that I'll need on my coming InterRail trip. I found this great outdoors store, Globetrotter. It's a huge store with everything you might need for outdoors activities. I got myself a foldaway backpack and travel pillow, both from Meru, which is quite the good manufacturer of outdoors equipment. How the quality really is, well, I might be able to tell you that after the trip. The store also has its house label, which is funny because it has a finnish name: Kaikkialla. It is apparently developed together with some Nordic countries and it seems the name is made up by a Finnish associate. I am still looking for sandals for the trip, and I'm starting to lean towards Birkenstocks, of which I at least know that they are of good quality.

My colleague Ana had her last day at the office last Thursday, so she invited me to a barbeque at her place on Wednesday. Her American flatmate was flying back to the U.S. on the next day as well, so she had also invited some guest. We were all complaining about the crappy weather and had a nice evening with delicious bbq food.

A funny thing happened the next day when Ana and I went to the shopping center in Steglitz. We were walking through the mall when all of a sudden a handsome guy in his underwear came to us. He turned out to be promoting a new underwear shop and offered us a glass of sparkling wine and gave us both a beautiful rose. I wouldn't mind getting roses from a handsome guy more often...

The weekend I mostly spent reading for a essay about social media and actually following the social (and traditional) media on the terrible events in Oslo and Utøya. It is very shocking to hear that someone is capable to such horrible deeds. He performed a massacre on his own people and shows no remorse for what he did. It is scary to hear that everyone seemed to think he was a good and nice guy and nobody could've imagined him doing such a thing. I mean how do we know that the people around us aren't planning such an attack? I feel that there is a false sense of security up in the northern countries and the neutral grounds maybe aren't that neutral after all. I do agree with what the Norwegian Premier Minister Stoltenberg said about not letting such thing scare us away from our northern value and I can with comfort quote the surviving girl how stated in the BBC interview that if one person can show this much hate, think about how much love we can all show together. It is a very comforting thought in there uncertain times that instead of spreading violence and hate, we should concentrate on spreading caring and love. And this thought has to start in each and every one on a personal level in the daily life.

It has been interesting to read about social media and at the same time follow what actually happens in the social media. I mean the news on the attacks were on Twitter and Facebook way before the news hit the international media. There sure is some truth to the fact that news travel fast, but social media faster. I will be sure to include these notes in my essay, which I'm actually looking forward to write.

But back to Berlin. Or well actually we'll make a stop back in Tampere. I have got some interesting news upon my return to Finland. I have been offered a job at a translation office and if all goes well I might start working for them as s freelance translator in September. Which means that I might be able to cut down on working in the restaurants, which then again means that I might have more free weekends in the near future. I really hope it works out because it would be amazing to work in the area that I've studied for four years. I also have news on the studies: if my professors gives a positive answer, I might have a subject for my Masters Thesis. I'm so happy about this, because I've struggled really hard to try to find a subject.

One reason for not doing very much last week, is that the weather has been horrible. It's really cold and rainy, which makes me a bit jealous on Finland for the hot and sunny weather. On Sunday the weather got a bit better and since Matt came back from his parents, we decided to go to Mauerpark, where there's a huge flee market every Sunday. It was just as full as usual there and I enjoyed the atmosphere as usual. I even found myself a hat, which I've been trying to find for weeks!

I might post one more text this week but then I'm not sure when the next one will be. I'm hoping to be able to report about the InterRail adventure in eastern Europe, but I can't promise anything. Til then and see you later.

Oh and I might add some photos to this article later, so have another look in a few days!