B
Basketball. I had huge issues trying to fit in to the Sri Jayawardenepura university basketball team, still have. Everyone is speaking Sinhalese and I'm completely lost of what to do. They are getting more and more adapted to the idea that there's a foreigner in the team, and I try to take the lack of communication (in English) less and less personally. I've also realized that I perform really poorly on the field because I'm being a bit too polite: I don't go into defense that aggressively as usually and I tend to hesitate making my own decisions (shooting) near the opponent's basket. We'll see what happens.Balance. You know what, I managed to quit smoking! Now, what worked for me is that I "started with the end in mind" like Stephen Covey would say. I was thinking about the physical, spiritual and mental balance that is one of my goals for the internship and I realized smoking is not that big a deal I have thought it is. It's only a hindrance along the way to a greater goal of balance. Then I linked that thinking to the coaching model I got to know last year in Norway. In that model you should ask from yourself (or someone else you're coaching) three questions: 1) What does it take?, 2) What will I gain? and 3) What obstructs? (or what's holding me back). So I just started answering these questions: 1) Nothing. I need to do nothing. Now don't get me wrong. I don't mean that I could just rest on my laurels. I understood that I need to actively do nothing. Confused? For me it was clear: buying a pack of cigarettes, opening the pack, finding a lighter, litting up the cigarette, sucking it in and disposing the butt where all things that I had to do in order to perform this act of addiction. Now I didn't STOP doing them, but instead STARTED doing NOTHING. 2) I will gain a lot of things: Free trip to Maldives with my girlfriend, Ability to concentrate on breathing while meditation, Inhaling more oxygene and hence gaining more energy, Thinking more important and happier thoughts than "where do I get my next fix?", Independence and freedom etc. Previously I had treated this list in a negative light (e.g. wasting money, having a cough etc), now I turned all of them in positive statements so there was more catch to succeed. 3) I listed down all the possible pitfalls (ciggy with morning coffee, ciggy after eating, ciggy while waiting etc) and excuses ("I can smoke one" or "Non-smoking is not part of my image"). This way I was more prepared to face the challenges as they would appear. I switched the morning coffee to morning tea, I started having a dessert after lunch etc. This quite pragmatic approach enabled me to take my mind out of smoking. If in 21 days I haven't smoked I know I have got rid of it for good. Ok, yesterday I smoked one cigar but for different reasons than getting nicotine. I could not finish it though.
Buddhism. I don't know if it's Buddhism as a philosophy or just the meditation part of it, but there's something profoundly wise and kind about it. I have now gone for meditation for three consecutive Mondays and it has helped me to calm down and concentrate on what's important in life. One could say I started liking myself a bit more as I allowed myself to stop for a moment and just let things pass. In October there is a weekend meditation resort in Kithulgala. I'm quite sure I go there, hoping there's no work that weekend. It costs about 2000 rupees and covers all meals and accommodation. I'm looking forward to that. Go and check Ananda's site to see what kind of guy is holding the sessions. He's my monk!
Books. I've been reading a lot. Aside from Good to Great that is dealing with building and developing great organizations and thus linked with my entrepreneurial ambitions, I've been mainly reading inspirational literature. A Monk Who Sold His Ferrari didn't offer that much new insight, but it still made me think about my own life and offered a good framework for enjoyable living. The same themes and pieces of advice were, surprisingly, repeating in Lance Armstrong's book It's Not About The Bike. It was uplifting to read Lance's story of how he was brought up by his mother, how he didn't really fit in (sounds familiar) among the activities and interests of his peers, how he found his passion from bike racing, how he developed himself better and better until he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, how heartbroken he was when he heard the tumour had spread to his lungs and brain, how he eventually survived (after 1,5 years of treatment) and went on to start the cancer foundation to help others who are fighting the diceace and how he finally won Tour de France against all odds. Now I'm finally reading Coelho's Alchemist, a piece that so many people have praised to be one of the best books of our time. I just started so I cannot give any well-informed judgement at this point. However, I must say that so far I've got an impression that it's almost like a simplified version of Sinuhe Egyptian by Mika Waltari (the most famous Finnish novel).
Bravery. It's funny how different approach one takes to certain experiences before, during and after they happen. Five years ago I had this urge to go abroad. During my years in AIESEC the dream still felt distant, although I knew it's going to happen one day. Then when I actually made the decision to go (and especially to go to a so different country for "such a long time"), people were like "oooh, that's such a brave decision!" or "F@#king idiot!". :) Even I thought that "shit, this is a big thing to do". Now, it's just everyday life, nothing special. Still, I think afterwards I will look back at this time and see it as a remarkable step in the continuum of my life.
Bodom. Children of Bodom, Sentenced and other heavy metal bands seem to be quite popular here. The local bands are stating them as their idols and they are dreaming of opening for them. :) Cool. In the picture is one, pretty crappy, local band called Fallen Grace and one of the guys has Children of Bodom shirt.
Bananas. One thing I really love about this country is that there's all the time fresh fruit available in the roadside stalls, pretty much anywhere you go. The papayas, mangos and pineapple are my favorite. They actually have not one but at least four different kind of mangos! Also the local bananas are excellent. They are tiny compared to the ones we get in Europe (imported from South America) but the taste is so much better! I've come to notice that the best part of pineapples is the middle "ring", or the core. That's silly because it's exactly the part they take out when packaging pineapple in those aluminium cans that we can buy back in Finland. Why take the best part out?
Birthday party. Last weekend I got an SMS from a German guy I've been playing football with: "Party tonight. Street Address 123. Cornelius.". So, it wasn't even his party but I thought it doesn't hurt to check it out. So, me and Ralph (a Dutch trainee) decided to unveil the mystery behind this peculiar message. Ralph asked "can we go in shorts and a t-shirt". I nodded. We had some Kotthu (EXCELLENT FOOD!) before going, not to starve there and filled a back-bag with our own beer. Off we go just to realize that the place is on the 7th floor of an eight-storey building (that high structures are pretty much a rarity here), so our expectations went up a notch. We go in the back of the building and there's a guard who takes us to the elevator. When we step off the elevator and go into the apartment we're struck by what we see: The apartment is huge! It has eight balconies!!! It's actually the whole 7th floor. The people are dressed up nicely, tables filled with seven or eight different kinds of snacks (spring rolls, pastries, mini-pizzas etc) and free booze as much as one can drink (beer, red wine, white wine, gin, rum, arrack...). There we are, in the middle of a group of seemingly wealthy German and some international people, wearing our shorts and asking where to find a fridge to chill our beer. :) Nah, it could have been a bit embarassing but we just started mingling. People were asking how do we know Andreas (who's house-warming party it was) or Cornelius (who's birthday party it was), and we just had to answer "we don't". People seemed to respect our honesty and let us crash there. David and the other football acquaintances arrived two hours later just to find us blabbering with the other guests and making ourselves at home. :)
Bottles. Although the country is pretty much covered in waste, you can see cows eating the trash at streets, people are burning their trashes on their yards and thus creating thick black smoke for others to breathe and the diesel fumes created by the traffic sometimes just knock you out, there is still one good environmental deed in this country. Refund system of empty bottles is working! Yet again, it's not exactly the similar kind of system that we have back home where you just take the bottles to a machine that refunds you the fixed sum of money per bottle. No, here you basically pay 20 rupees refund when you are buying a bottle of beer from a liquor store. However, you can get your new bottle 20 rupees cheaper if you return an empty one. Then again, if you are not planning to get more beer but just want to get rid of the empties that have gathered into the corner, you can still take the bottles back but then they refund only 10 rupees a bottle. Once in Negombo we had to pay 50 rupees refund when we had some take-away beers from a pub. Still, as mentioned before, the system works. Even if you are buying a soda from kiosk (they call it "hotel" or "cool spot"), don't ya dare taking the bottle with you. You are expected to finish the soda there because they are just dying to get the empty bottle back. :)
Boss. I've come to find out that my boss is quite a fair fellow. Usually "sick leave" is an unknown concept in this country. I got quite a bad flu, so I tried to ignore it, fight it and cure it, but nothing seemed to work. Then I just sent him an SMS that I won't be coming to work tomorrow because I'm so sick. His response was "Ok... Drink a lot of Samahan!" (Samahan is a local herb and spice mix for flu and any other kind of ache). Another cool thing is that I don't have to worry what I wear at the office. Usually t-shirt and shorts combination is an absolute no-no in this quite conservative country, but that is my every-day work outfit. I was sure he would comment on that but he didn't. I was so relieved! Another prove that I do have an excellent job. Thirdly, the remuneration consists of base salary, sales commissions and incentives. The incentive system is directly linked on my job description, so good performance leads to good salary. This is the first time I see this results-based remuneration in action, and so far it seems to be a good practice!
Beer. Pike was complaining that Indian beer is really bad because they add oil in it (!). Sri Lankan beer, however, is not bad at all. The most common brand is Lion Lager that is a reasonably tasty lager when chilled. The only problem is that here it gets warm really quickly, and the bottle is 625 ml, so you'd better share it with your pal and enjoy it cool. Lion Stout is for people who are more into the dark English-type beers. It's really good actually, but you should be careful with that. It's eight percent and the bottle is so big that you don't need many to get a decent whirl.
Belihuloya. I miss that place. I told you before that we are organizing some trainings in a place called Belihuloya. It's a serene and naturally beautiful place filled with tranquility. It's actually a bit sad that I haven't been traveling that much after the first two weeks. I'd love to see more than Colombo because, let's face it, this city sucks! But still I have learned to like small things even in Colombo, and I have built my routine for living in here. It's ok to spend weeks here but I should go and see the rest of the country during weekends. Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, the national parks and a multitude of beaches still remain a mystery to me. Of course I could go any weekend but I've just been postponing and postponing, thinking that "Hey, I still have 17 months left". If I continue thinking like that I end up in a situation where "There's only one month left". So, what have I then done during the weekends? Nothing! :) And I've enjoyed it... Watching movies, talking with people, reading books. It's all good!
Bombing. Just wanted to ease your minds by saying that whatever the situation up north of the island is, it doesn't really show here. There hasn't been any bombs in Colombo lately, so don't worry for me. And if something should happen, remember it's meant to be like that.
posted by Tomi Astikainen @ Thursday, September 07, 2006
5 Comments:
By the way, in the September 2006 folder in Yahoo, there's already some pics.
What letter should be next?
E.
And where is the link to my blog? :)
BTW, that was me who posted the earlier message. Annika had this evil plot to confuse our personalities.
:) Erica
Wow!
I'm impressed. You did say say that you want to look into Buddhism and whatnot before you left, but I didn't expect you to throw yourself into it all the way! :-)
Anyway, congratulations on the decision to quit smoking. Looking forward to hearing your experiences from the meditation retreat and other adventures!
As for the letter, how about S? It looks nice and curvy.
Hey Tomi!
My letter B is for...Beautiful!
Very beautiful posting :)
I'm very happy for the Balance you seem to be finding in your life and even more so for your decision to quit smoking! That is a very Brave and Brilliant commitment :)
I very much look forward to hearing more about your experiences in Sri Lanka. Love reading your Blog! The next letter could be A. It is like the highest peak of a mountain. I'm sure it would give you a nice view.
P.S. Did you get the stuff from The Possibles?
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