I'm a Finn (semi?)permanently living in the Netherlands, but currently staying in Astana, Kazakhstan, for 6 months for an internship at the Finnish embassy. I don't really know anyone from Kazakhstan yet, so I'm looking for people to hang out with – so if you're in Astana and want to do something, drop me a line.

I enjoy long conversations, culture and occasional parties. I'm can get quite passionate about things like politics and philosophy, I love cinema, and dream about making documentary films. I have degrees in Russian and East European studies and International relations, and anything related to any country of the former Soviet Union makes me pretty excited (hence my decision to do an internship in Kazakhstan).

Interests

• writing
• architecture
• documentaries
• politics
• music
• philosophy
• science
• travelling
• cinema
• science fiction
• consciousness
• eastern europe
• soviet architecture
• psychedelic studies

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Океан Ельзи, Leonard Cohen, Joy Division, The National, Florence + the Machine, The Smiths, Nina Simone. I listen to a lot of different stuff from swing jazz to rap and from ambient to Finnish heavy metal. I like music with some kind of "soul", and very often I prefer things with a bit darker atmosphere.

Movies: The Mirror (1975), Werckmeister Harmonies, Persona. I like mostly European art house stuff, documentaries and Soviet-era Russian films. My favourite directors are Andrei Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr, and from more contemporary stuff I like directors such as von Trier, Zvyagintsev and Haneke. I also love that "darker atmosphere" when it comes to films.

Book: Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich; The Master and Margarita by Mihail Bulgakov; My Struggle -series by Karl Ove Knausgård

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I spent a year living in Russia, and travelled alone quite extensively around Russia and some other countries around: I travelled for example across southern Russia from Kazan to Georgia and Armenia by trains and buses, took Trans-Siberian train, and ended up in Kyrgyzstan.

Countries I’ve Visited

Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Russian Federation, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Finland, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Russian Federation