City postcards from Canada, Iceland, Italy & Portugal!

Movies: The Avengers

The highly acclaimed movie The Avengers wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I did like the movie but there was something about the movie that bothered me - it wasn't quite complete. In addition, for a person like me who doesn't know much about superheroes, it was somewhat hard to relate to the characters. Altough I couldn't relate to the characters, I did enjoy finding out about their strengths and weaknesses and how they were all so personal. Who ever created them, has done a great job.


But, as I mentioned above, the story wasn't quite complete and I believe that was partially caused by my lack of knowledge about the characters. The story itself is to blame, too; it didn't bring everything to a closure at the end. For example, the relationship between Black Widow and Hawkeye, what was that about? Not telling everything usually implies that there is a sequel coming so it can be expected that the Avengers will work together in the future, too.


Although the movie did leave me little confused and dissatisfied, it did have its good sides. I'm talking about the entertainment. Not for once did I check the time from my watch. The Avengers is a typical action movie where the story continues constantly and you don't get bored. You also get to laugh (at least the girls behind laughed quite a lot) so it was two hours well spent. 


If you're a fan of superheroes, do see this movie, it's probably the best superhero movie there is at the moment. Otherwise, I wouldd advise you to skip this one because it doesn't have that much to offer to people who don't already know about the background of the characters.

          

PS. Why doesn't this movie have Superman, Spiderman, Batman and Wonder Woman, were they busy filming other movies or what?

Postcards from Russia, UK & USA!

Postcards #1, #3 and #6 were bought by me during my trip and postcards #2 (Russia), #4 (UK) and #5 (Russia) are three of my newest cards received from postcrossers.

Multiview postcards from France!

Landscape postcards from USA!

2. is from Hawaii and 1. and 3. might be from Yellowstone National Park. I don't remember where 4. is from. 

Beach postcards from Brazil, Greece, Lithuania & Turkey!

1. Greece, 2. Lithuania, 3. Turkey, 4. Brazil

Animal postcards from Australia, France, Turkey, UK & USA!

Ad cards from Iceland, Portugal, Singapore & Spain!

Here are the cards that almost everyone hate. My Postcrossing profile says "please, no ad cards" but still I've received some. But I'm not bitter or anything like that, some of these cards actually look quite neat! 



1. Portugal, 2. Spain, 3. Iceland, 4. Singapore

Road to Eurovision Song Contest

Today it begins, the 57th Eurovision Song Contest that will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan this year! The first semifinal is held today, the second on Thursday and the final on Saturday. In both semifinals altogether 18 countries try to charm the others to pick them to the finals. However, only 10 contestants from each semifinal will be picked to the final. 


Without further ado, my purpose was to introduce some of the contestants and also give my review on them.


Rambo Amadeus - Euro Neuro (Montenegro)
Montenegro is the first country to perform on today's semifinal, which really is a proper start for this contest! Every Eurovision Song Contest has a song like this: a crazy song that gets stuck on our heads but probably won't make it to the final. Needless to say that this is one horrible song... But hey, songs like this have made it to the final before, too. Who remembers Verka Serduchka's Dancing Lasha Tumbai?


Sabina Babyeva - When The Music Dies (Azerbaijan)
Azerbaijan's Sabina Babyeva is a good example of the most typical contestant type in Eurovision Song Contest. A beautiful young woman singing a song that none of us really remembers after the contest anymore. But I do like this song and I believe she would have made it to the final from semifinal if she had needed to. Looks like Azerbaijan's success in last year's contest wasn't just a coincidence.


Anggun - Echo (You And I) (France)
It is always interesting to see what kind of contestants the big countries (= the countries that usually fail in ESC) have chosen. Usually they make bad choices but sometimes they actually succeed. France will definitely not succeed this year - listen yourself! The song is horrible and the singer is horrible (the video is also horrible!). If she had to attend the semifinal first, she would not make it, I'm sure of it. 


Pernilla Karlsson - När jag blundar (Finland)
As a Finn, I should praise our contestant like she was the best singer on earth at the moment. But I can't do that because I don't really like this song that much. Her song really is a Eurovision type of song but it's not really the kind that you remember afterwards, just like Sabina Babyeva's song. It's nice that she (and France's contestant) sings in her native language though.


Loreen - Euphoria (Sweden)
I hate to admit this but she really is the winning material! When I first heard this song couple months ago, I didn't really see what was so great about and why everyone was talking about. But I do now. The reason why I hate to admit it, is because she's from Sweden (it's this rivalry between Finland and Sweden). But even though she is the favorite at the moment, who knows, somebody might surprise...


Buranovskiye Babushki - Party For Everybody (Russia)
... like these ladies! I know, their singing voice is terrible and not at all Eurovision-type but what they lack in voice, they make up in charisma, sweetness and funniness. They don't take themselves too seriously, which I appreciate very much. These Eurovision grandmas are my favorites :) Perhaps I'll even vote for them... 


There are 6 of the 42 contestants that will all be seen at some point during the contest. Of these four contestants, you can see Montenegro, Finland and Russia today, Sweden on Thursday, and at least Azerbaijan and France on Saturday. Enjoyable moments with ESC today!

Postcards from Austria, Italy, Spain & Thailand!

American Experience

I'm back! My 10-day trip to America ended yesterday when I came back home. As always, this trip went by quite fast but it included some nice memories. 

A bird lost in the terminal. I wonder how it got through the security check...

Mandatory airplane picture.

I went to Disneyworld for the first time in my life and there I met a long time friend who I had never met face-to-face before. Luckily everything went fine with her and we are still friends :D My family and her family had some great time in Epcot and the following day my family visited Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom wasn't exactly what I had expected it to be but it didn't disappoint me. It was so amazing to finally see the Disney castle!

There was a flower and garden festival in Epcot while we where there. The one showing Lady and the Tramp was my favourite.

I got my picture taken with Marie from the Aristocats. She's so cute!

On the last day in Florida we visited St. Augustine, a very lovely little town by the Atlantic. St. Augustine is also the nation's oldest town. Ponce de Leon, the first European to land in the land which is now part of the USA, landed in St. Augustine. In St. Augustine we took a cruise (on which we even saw dolphins), visited the beautiful downtown area and the beach. Visiting the beach was definitely one of the highlights of my trip because it's one of the few places that really make me calm and happy :)

After the Florida trip we went back to North Carolina where my sister and brother-in-law live nowadays. In North Carolina there wasn't that much to see so we mostly shopped and walked around the area. It was nice though and I was happy to see my sister again after a long time :)

Some hiking in the woods. 

Finally, I'd like to say a few words about my experience of America and Americans. I have visited the US twice before so it wasn't really that new to me but I was still surprised by couple things. At first was the friendliness and sociality of people. That both pleased me and annoyed me. On the way back home there were two nice American ladies whom I had a great conversation with, which was the good kind of sociality, but whenever I visited the shops the sales people would say "Hi, how are you? Can I help you? We have 20 per cent off....". That was so annoying! In Finland the sales people only say "hi", and sometimes they ask if they could help. Nobody asks "how are you". And it's not only the sales people who ask that, everybody do that. I never know if they expect me to answer or ask the same question or just be silent. It's just so awkward...

My first cheesecake ever. It was even more delicious than I imagined :)

There were many other things that amazed me, too, but I won't get to them right now. On the flight back home those ladies I mentioned asked me about the way I/Finns see Americans. I mentioned the sociality and that "how are you" matter. I hope they didn't get the idea that I thought Americans were annoying. That's not how I see Americans. I guess I could say that my view of Americans is not finished yet. There are so many different kind of Americans that it's sometimes hard to find one aspect that would fit the most. Therefore I hope that in the future I could get to know more about America and Americans so that I can finish my view :)