Tuesday, January 30

 

 

After some breakfast jokery I left in plenty of time to catch the 97V. As usual the 97V going the other way, away from Helsinki, comes past a few minutes before mine arrives to take my to Itis. As usual it carries two passengers. I realised that one of the passengers had moved from the back seat to a seat in the middle, and wondered why. I also wondered how this bus could possibly make a profit and then realised that, passengers or not, it had to travel to wherever in order to come back into Helsinki.

On the metro I began to reread the MA thesis that I will examine at 10:00. The subject interests me and the research seems thorough but the English language needs a lot of work. I pointed this out many times and indeed it got better. It has now reached the stage where each paragraph makes sense although taken sentence by sentence it can seem baffling. The trick, I assume, involves remembering not to zoom in too closely.

The thesis forum proved very interesting. She brought her boss along and he joined in the later discussions. We talked at length about the rapid changes in marketing and the relationship between brands and customers. By the end I had changed my view because I decided that the research project had become very large; that the student had carried out research diligently and with great focus; and that the results had influenced the policies of the company she researched (and where she subsequently got a job).

Tomas and I talked afterwards and decided that we should award a grade on the whole project and not merely on the thesis that tried, not altogether successfully, to distill all the research and results into one coherent document.

At 12:45 I had to pose for photographs with Mikke for an article in Arcada’s blog. Then we both attended a Nobanet planning meeting where I explained about my plans for the conference paper and a subsequent volume of Arcada Working Papers. Eija explained about the next project once Nobanet finishes in June, and Mikke suggested that we move the Helsinki meeting in May to Långvik or Haikko. Eija agreed in principle, which left me hoping we can afford it.

Next I need to walk and think, before I finalise some abstracts for Ed-Media. I stroll around aimlessly looking at whatever catches my eye while my mind puts Nobanet to one side. I walk into the open space that used to be A310 until the front wall got taken away. It now serves as an open space for students to hang out or meet. I look at the posters and graffiti and then look through the window towards B block. I stand staring at nothing at all for a few minutes until I feel like writing.

I will go back to my desk and rewrite and upload three abstracts for the Ed-Media conference in June. I will make one for my learning-through-teaching observations and one for the cross-border assignments paper that Christa, Hafdis, Vera and I will co-author. Finally I will notice that I could propose a pecha kucha and so I will enter my consciousness in 6 minutes pecha kucha.

Irma will work late so I will arrive home first to let Sunshine out. Fresh snow will cover the ground but I will decide not to sweep it up because, based on a conversation at work, I will fear that I will simply unveil the buried ice so that the overnight cold can render it deadly.

Later Irma will arrive home and sweep all the snow away from the paths. I will wait fearfully for morning.