Snow In The Forecast

Ladies and Gentlemen, MOVE THOSE CHAINS!

Now introduciiiiiiing, the SHUGGA suit:

...I am beginning to believe that this is actually a feasible idea…

Honesty... the best policy?

September 26, 2009

            Today, Carmen invited me to go to her Spanish friend’s birthday party and then go to the lake tonight and see if we can see Northern Lights, but I’m just feeling a bit like being alone. I’ve had a nice, quiet day and have worked on a few things that I’ve been meaning to do. I also had a lot of good thinking and writing time and I hope to continue that. I guess I will have to see God’s wonderful Northern Lights another night.

            Lately I’ve just been thinking a lot about why God has placed me here. After Beach Project and all I learned this past summer, I feel like there is such a potential here for me to make a difference and I don’t feel like I’ve really known how to approach that. Because I do not make friends easily, I can be a bit more distant than the other kids may be with one another. I want to form closer relationships but I am not usually the one who has to pursue those. I usually wait for others to pursue deep relationships with me; so being out of my element is throwing me for a loop. I would love to leave this country in December feeling like I’ve made new best friends all over the world.

            I found my pastor’s sermons online today and I was very excited. I haven’t been to church here yet and I just don’t really know how to even figure out when it is and how I can get to an English preacher. I know this may be due to a lack of initiative on my part, but I hope that I will find the courage to find out and start going and maybe meet some people. I brought a couple of books with me, C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity and Don Miller’s Through Painted Deserts. I’ve already read Mere Christianity, but it is such a good book, I wanted to bring it. It’s kind of a tough read and I really love his intelligence and he is just a brilliant man. I opened it today and flipped through all of the parts I had underlined. It’s fun for me to do that and read what I underlined and remember the first time I read it. I hope to read Don Miller while I travel. My friend Jessica told me it’s a great traveling book. It is a sequel to Blue Like Jazz and I absolutely loved that book. I think I will take it with me on the trip to Rovaniemi on Tuesday.

            From what I’ve heard about this place, the people are not too concerned with God. The Finns that I have talked to were very open and honest and not afraid to talk about God. They didn’t try to convince me that they love God and are good people the way many Americans do. They didn’t argue that their actions don’t necessarily mean that they do not care about their Creator, they simply know whether or not God is a part of their life or not. In some ways, I find it more refreshing. I am not afraid to talk to people about God because they are not afraid to talk about it either. They don’t become awkward and anxious or reluctant to go down that road, because they have MADE a decision. Unfortunately, many Americans have MADE their decision as well. They are just unaware of it or in denial about it. If you haven’t made the decision to accept Christ and follow Him, then you’ve made the decision to reject Him. Every time.

            When I talked to Timo about church, he told me that most Finns do not go to church and that the ones who do don’t act like it. He offered to go with me and Rebekah to a church one day that was in Finnish… he obviously thought we just enjoy sitting inside a chapel on a pew or something, because listening to someone preach in Finnish wasn’t exactly the Sunday-morning I had pictured in my mind. I did appreciate the offer though. I guess the good thing is that they do not have ill feelings towards you if you are a Christian. They are in touch with themselves enough to admit their own positions on the subject and without shame. It reminds me of my favorite verse:

Revelation 3:15-16

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Of course, I would love for them to be on fire for Christ instead of on the other side. But there are few things more frustrating than arguing with someone who thinks they are on fire for Christ when their lives paint a completely different picture.

Matthew 7:16-18

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

And since I don’t think my own words can sum up this post better…

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

A Look Through My Sketchbook...

Some sloppy sketch I did from this picture from Summer Beach project where I was dressed up as an artist. Looking about as foreign as I feel here… 

Birthdays and Un-Familiar Faces

September 26, 2009

            Today has been very easy-going. Yesterday was Kerstin’s birthday and we had a little surprise party for her in the upstairs of the Kasino where the Monarch students have their studio. We had food and music and it was a fun time to sit with some of my friends and acquaintances.

My professor Leena joined us and was telling us about our trip to Rovaniemi and about our ski trip and talked to us about Northern Lights and things of this nature that I think we all sort of have questions about. The professors here are so great! They genuinely love to be around us and I feel like they think we are just so much fun and they always are in such good moods and very helpful. It will be strange to return to UNCG and notice that none of my professors ask you to join them for coffee after a lecture.

Last night we went to Kerstin’s apartment and had sushi and some drinks and played games and talked for a few hours before heading to the city. 

It was very fun to go out with these people and feel like I am forming friendships and learning how to communicate better with people who mostly do not use English as their first language. It seems like a silly thing, but often this is what makes jokes and humor kind of impossible and can create a sort of uncomfortable environment. I am trying to get past all of that so that I can learn to socialize with all types of people. It rained all last night so I looked like a wet poodle by the time I arrived home. Bike rides have been great for meeting new Finnish friends lately, as one came up and talked to Brittany and myself on our ride home again last night.

            I finally met Teemu the other day. Teemu is a Finnish boy who knew Melanie when she studied abroad here last year. She told him that I was coming this semester and she told me about him before I left. There’s a really ironic story here. A few weeks back, I went salsa dancing with some of my architecture girls. Teemu saw me and asked me if I had gone salsa dancing the week before. I recognized him and I said, “Yes. You were there, weren’t you?” Apparently he is always there and he was telling me that we should all come again. Then followed the usual international conversation… where are you from, what are you studying, how long… etc. When I said Greensboro, he said he had some friends from there. I asked about Melanie and he said he knew her and began telling me stories about last year. I had an epiphany. I said, “What was your name again?” and he said Teemu again. Then I realized this was the guy that Melanie had told me about before I left. He seemed like a very nice person and was very friendly and I could see him being helpful if I ever needed it. We talked about Melanie and Finns for a bit longer before I left. It’s good to meet nice Finns around here. I feel if I’m ever in a jam, it would be nice to have a good Finnish friend to help me out haha.

Just Some Shots

Dodged A Puck...

September 19, 2009

I went to my first Finnish hockey game today! It was Oulu vs. Helsinki and it was a whole lot of fun. We ended up beating Helsinki in a shootout. Yay Kärpät!!! I arrived to the game a little late because I locked myself out of my room. I spent a while on the phone with the 24-hour service guy… Communicating via phone is pretty hard when there’s bad English everywhere. We finally got it figured out and then had a little trouble understanding the maintenance guy when he called. But I eventually got everything worked out and 30 Euros later, I was back in my room. Luckily, I have good friends like Brittany who are willing to wait on me.

After the game, we went to McDonalds in the Centre and I had some good ole nugs. They weren’t exactly the same and the sauces were really strange, but they were still good. It’s starting to get cold out on these bikes and my extremities are beginning to freeze. I can’t bundle up too much though, because I get overheated when I ride for a long time. You know… burning all those calories, haha.

I think I’m going to the Irish Festival tomorrow because my Irish friend, Maria really wants to go. I am still a bit confused about what all I should be doing for my classes right now though… I’ll have to take a look at all of that tomorrow. Still getting settled 

Lance Armstrong Ain't Got Nothin' On Me!!!

September 16, 2009

Moi! Mita kuuluu? (Hey! How are you?)

Today was my first day of real classes, I suppose. At least, courses I’ll actually be taking. It was an introduction day where they told us all about the course. Naturally, I had the same overwhelmed/panic-stricken reaction when I started thinking about the projects and what I was going to do and use and good ideas that will take me a lifetime to create, but that’s nothing I haven’t been doing for the past three years. The more important thing was that I woke up this morning feeling like, and intending to, take over the world. I rode my bike 30 minutes to school and didn’t get lost. It helped that I passed… Ellen, I think her name is… on the way when I went through the park which is where I got lost yesterday. I made some good judgments on paths to take; “this road is a little wider”… “this road has a few less rocks in it” and I wound up downtown easily. Once I was there, I turned down one street and saw “Aleksanterinkuta” written on a building. Street names here are just written on the corners of buildings. I knew that meant I was on the road that the Architecture department was off of. I looked one way and thought, NOPE, been there yesterday, and the other way was a sure bet. I was in the gates in no time. After class, I quickly rode my bike 30 minutes back to Linnanmaa (Campus area) so that I could make it to the Cashier’s Office to get my allowance. I miraculously navigated my way around campus and found a particular place to park my bike that I had taken a mental picture of days before when Timo showed me the way. I locked up the little pink speed demon and went inside. All my mental images were coming in so handy. I saw the elevator and smiled!!! Once I rode the elevator and got into the Cashier’s Office, the lady looked at my passport and handed me all these glorious Euros. I’m no longer broke! Smiling from ear to ear, I left the office and remembered which way to exit the elevator (you can go from both sides). I got outside and realized I had about 40 minutes before I had to be back downtown for the Materials class. [Interjection: By the way, I don’t think I’m taking the Materials class, it’s a long story and I don’t think I need it. I want to learn more about Materials so I am going to ask the professors if I can come and sit and listen to the lectures and presentations, but not participate. I guess sort of over-achieving, but I just want to become more knowledgeable in that area] I went home and made a turkey (I think it’s turkey but I don’t know cause I can’t read Finnish) and cheese sandwich and jetted off for another 30 minute bike ride. After Materials class, Brittany and I went to PSOAS and I told them my mailbox key wasn’t working. They traded me for the spare… that one doesn’t work either. I found out that I can’t pay my rent until I get a bill and I can’t get a bill if I can’t get into the mailbox to get it. Also, I have to get my registration sheet from International Relations but they’re open from such annoying hours that I have to go tomorrow morning and be late to my first day of… Design Competitions, I think. Then I can open my bank account, transfer money, hopefully get a working key, get my bill, pay my rent, and have my allowance automatically drafted to my account. Geez, if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. Tonight, I also made a fake Passport photo on my camera so I can turn it in and get my student card. I probably won’t end up getting it ‘til it’s time for me to leave. Haha. I was going to fix up a project from last year, but when I got home from this day, I was pooped. I took a nap and went grocery shopping and now I am working on a few other things for tomorrow. I will get to over-achieving on my project later, I suppose.

I finally learned how to ride a bike. Well… I’m learning. I never realized that I didn’t really know how to until I saw how you ride when it’s your primary means of transportation. It's kind of sad when little old ladies are flying by me on the bike roads. First of all, I didn’t realize there was a specific height for your seat that will give you the best pedal power with the least amount of strain. I also am now very conscious of my gears. They say Oulu is flat and in comparison to many places, it is. But there are definitely some hills I struggle on. And when it is raining… it is slightly miserable. I have learned not to stand on the pedals to get my power like I always did when I was a child… this is actually quite tiring. I only do it if I need a sudden burst of energy to get up a hill. I also have mastered the art of picking up my weight ever so slightly when I go over bumps: A. so that there is not so much pressure on my tires and B. so that I do not permanently damage my bum. So you see, you go to a foreign country and you learn things you never intended to learn. Things maybe you didn’t know you needed to learn. And now I’m convinced parking passes are extremely over-priced and unnecessary (we’ll see how I feel when I get back to the States on that one). And if you already knew how to ride a bike effectively, there’s always cross-country roller-blading with ski sticks. That’s one I always see the locals taking part in!

GPS anyone?

September 15, 2009

I have this thing about me where I just can’t seem to ever get where I’m trying to go. Some call it a bad sense of direction; some say I’m just to prideful to get directions. I’d say it’s a terrible combination of the two. Today I was riding my bike to class by myself for the first time. I was following the signs to Keskusta or whatever it’s called to try and make my way to the city. Everything went fine for about 20 minutes, and then I found myself in a park with no directions. There were little dirt roads going in every direction. I just took one and found my way to a street. It was a street that I had never been on before but I was hoping I would soon see something familiar. I spent the next hour doing circles and figure 8’s around Oulu… I was less than amused with my inability to find my way around. I have a hard enough time in America and the fact that I don’t speak the language and can’t read the signs was only making things worse. I did find the bank… which was good cause I actually need to go there and set up an account sometime. Sad thing is, I don’t remember how to get to the bank because I was lost when I found it. Luckily for me, the sun was shining bright all afternoon and it was rather warm to where I took my jacket off. I wasn’t trying to sweat. So I rode around Oulu staring at street names, trying desperately to take mental pictures of the places I had been and the names of the streets. Unfortunately, when everything looks a lot like Ylidiosäkkupanömiirten, it becomes difficult to remember what I’ve seen and what the name was. In an exhausted and frustrated state, I remember almost crossing a road and looking down another direction. I saw a fence that looked a lot like the gate entrance to the Architecture block and turned my bike to go in that direction. To my relief, I had amazingly found it. Now class had started at 3.15 and it was already about 4.15. I began texting Carmen and she told me to go ahead and come in but that the class was for the Urban Design course, which I’m not even taking. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or more annoyed.

I then ran into my next small adventure: getting inside the building. I tried what any normal person would do and pulled the handle. It felt like it was cemented shut. It didn’t move at all. I looked around and saw a little keypad with numbers. Ah, yes! My student code to enter the building! I pressed my code and happily tugged on the door again. It didn’t move. In my experience here, I find it difficult to know whether a door opens in or out. I guess I take for granted the little “PUSH” and “PULL” signs on just about every door in the U.S. I then tried pushing the door. No success. I sat for a moment and remembered some weird key sensor that had been given to us. I didn’t see anything that looked like it would scan, so I just held my whole set of keys up to the keypad. I heard a little beep and a green light came on! Yay! How dumb could I be? I pulled on the door again… it didn’t budge. I look back at the keypad and the green light turns red again. Feeling a little incompetent I just tried it all at once. I scanned my key, punched in my code while the light was green and heard the door make a noise. Thank goodness I’m not a complete moron. I went inside and sat in a display room until they got out of class. Then I was happy to chat and go with Brittany to put more prepaid minutes on her phone. At least today was gorgeous!

While we were riding our bikes around downtown, there were these people taking off their clothes and laying them down in a long line. Boys and girls in undies, pulling off belts and shirts and leggings and tank tops. It was attracting quite a crowd and there was a woman yelling in Finnish and holding a little sign.

I had no idea what was going on, but it was worth viewing for a few minutes. Hopefully they were getting some kind of money for stripping down and then actually laying in the middle of the road. On the rest of our trip home we kept seeing groups of people walking and on bikes all dressed in certain outfits. We saw some pirates, a group of Supermen, a group dressed as pigs, and another group with red t-shirts and their phone numbers on the front. There were about 8 people in each group and I’m not sure what was going on, but they all had an open alcoholic beverage with them. Some had whiskey bottles, wine bottles, vodka, some had beers and ciders. All of it actually sparked my interest. It’s not every Tuesday you see a bunch of kids dressed like Superman and sipping on vodka while they ride their bikes downtown. Seemed a little dangerous… haha.

Great Accomplishments

September 7, 2009

Today was so good! I cannot wait to write about it. I woke up to see the sun shining on the building behind mine. SUNSHINE! For the first time in Oulu! At orientation, we were served tea and coffee. They called out a bunch of countries and we were supposed to stand and say “hello” in our native tongue when our country was called. We thought about saying “HOWDY!” or something ridiculous like that but when our turn came, we were so busy looking to see if there were other Americans besides us four from UNCG that we forgot to say hello at all. Turns out there were about three other Americans. One of which is in Nordic Design with me (Brittany). There were a lot from Spain and Germany and Japan… things like that.

I haven’t eaten yet today because during lunch, I was so stressed about the things I need to do and buy that I couldn’t waste time and money eating and I chose to get on my computer instead. After they finished telling us about our shy Finnish professors who think that “an Italian conversation looks like a Finnish argument”, we went downtown to the Centre.

This was the first time that many of the other architecture students had seen me since I had been hanging out mostly with Finns until today. I met Carmen and Gorka from Spain, some French girls, Maria from Ireland and some German guys as well. They were a whole lot of fun. The only problem is that I am getting better and better at other languages (Finnish and Spanish mostly) and worse and worse at English. I find myself speaking sometimes with an accent. Especially when I say the word “good”. I say it like a German would… that’s the way Finns say it too. And it’s all I hear. Plus, most of the people I talk to do not know English as a first language so I speak in ways that they can easily understand. Not grammatically correct and I do use a lot of accents when I am saying peoples’ names. It’s kind of funny. I am forgetting my American accent and it’s a little scary. I have to step aside and talk to Brittany every so often so we can regain our American-ness. Haha

After taking a bus to the Centre, we walked around and found a secondhand shop, but no bikes. Alli (my kummi) took me to the bank where I exchanged the rest of my dollars for Euros so that I have enough money to buy a bike. We then went to the PSOAS center to see if we could get my internet set up and all of the rent details and things like that for my residence. Unfortunately, we were number 89 or so and they were only on customer 68 when we went back 30 minutes before they closed, so we decided they would not have time to see us today. We then decided to go tour the architecture department. It was very cool! Nordic Design students (Me, Brittany and Maria) were down in the basement” basically on the street. The buildings were adorable and there was lots of light down there. The Monarch Architecture students were up on the top floor. I liked our studio space better.

We will probably be up there a lot to visit though. Previous exchange students had left them many bags of gifts… pillows, towels, blankets, cords, speakers, flashlights… all kinds of fun things! We, unfortunately, didn’t enter to presents. But oh well! Then Carmen, Gorka and I got on another bus and were trying to make it to Alppis secondhand store before 6pm when they closed. We got there around 5:20 and looked at a lot of bikes. Some had problems like no brakes, gears don’t work, etc. and the cheapest ones were about 60-75 Euros. I walked around for a while and looked up to see one of the workers waving at me to come over. He said, “You want to try!? I Just got it!” And I was like, “Oh, ok.” And I hopped on the bright pink bike. It rode so smooth. The gears worked. And brakes worked pretty well too. I asked him how much and he said, “65 Euros, the man just brought it”. I looked over and saw a man watching me ride the bike around. I realized that this was his bike (hopefully a daughter’s). He was smiling from ear to ear (something Finns don’t normally do haha). I told them I would take the bike and the man was so happy he went to his car and pulled out a lock and gave it to me with a set of two keys. I think he was excited that a foreigner was buying his bike… I guess I stand out that much. That took care of the next purchase I was going to make towards a bike lock. The other girls were, jealous of my bike because it was in very good condition, bright paint and worked well, and I got it for very cheap with a free lock. They all ended up getting good bikes too though, so it all worked out well. The German guys decided to introduce themselves when I was riding my little hot pink speed demon around. They thought my name was funny like Batman and rambled on and on about some famous guy with a last name of Bateman. I had no idea what they were talking about. But once they saw that, they offered to take a picture of me and my new bike (I guess my excitement showed) and I gladly agreed to.

The ride back was gorgeous. Oulu is amazing. I had never been down the bike roads before and they were simply breath-taking. It’s nothing like riding your bike in America. It feels like you are in the most gorgeous mountains (minus the hills) and there’s a light breeze blowing around the skinny green and yellow trees. I kept wanting to take pictures, but I limited myself so that I wouldn’t crash.

We rode our bikes to Prisma, which is like Wal-Mart. There, I got a few things I needed and sat outside and observed people while I waited on the others. They have these strange cages in the front next to where you park your bikes. You are supposed to put your dog in there while you shop, lock it, then come out and get your dog when you’re leaving. I guess some people carry their dogs in baskets on their bikes. It was interesting. I also just watched families. I wondered where they came from. If their dad had just gotten off of work. What it must be like to grow up as a Finn. It really has been hard for me to understand that people live here and this is the life they’ve always known. When I look at them, I think of them the way I think of Americans and I forget that they are Finns. They very well may know nothing about American life. It’s something that I found easy to understand when I was home. When all I saw of foreigners was what was on tv or in movies. But now, I’m seeing everything. And it truly is a strange feeling to feel like you are the outsider, the one who doesn’t belong in this world, in this setting. Not in a bad way. I’m just not used to being… foreign.

Trial and Error

September 6, 2009

Today was a very good day. I woke up and went to Rebekah’s room. She told me that she and Sarah found out that there is internet in this museum on campus that was open. We went there for a little while before we met Timo at 3:00pm for a campus tour. It brightened my day to be able to connect to people for just that little while. After our tour, we met Edgar (from Namibia in Africa) and Ville. We all went to Sale (the grocery store) and the Finnish guys were telling us how to buy things and what certain things were. They mentioned some things I was skeptical about, but also showed us where common things were. I bought some stuff to make ham and cheese sandwiches, some chips, some little soft raspberry cake cookies, CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM, and some of this strange potato bread stuff they said was good. I may try more exotic foods after I get my stipend from the school.

After the grocery store, Ville invited us to his apartment for coffee and tea. We put away our groceries and went upstairs where they had been cooking sausages and eggs and all sorts of other foods. Charles was eating a boiled egg with raw Herring on top of a piece of flat brown bread commonly used over here. They began having us try an assortment of foods. I drank this thick, sour milk and it was not my favorite thing. I also ate some of the sausage and raw Herring. Those weren’t so bad. The worst thing was this candy they had me try. It was tiny, the size of a pill and tasted like straight sulfur. I had to use my coffee to help get it down. I also tried this sort of old yogurt that was a bit sour. Naturally, they called all of this food by the Finnish names for them, but I am not so good at remembering. This boy, Tero, came in a bit later and laughed at us saying they could get us to eat anything and we would never know. He said his name with a Finnish accent and said that nobody can ever say it. So I looked at him and said it with a Finnish accent. And he shrugged his shoulders and said, “so, you’re the first one.” I think I do accents pretty well and I’m trying to say my Finnish words correctly. Then Timo wanted to show me some Suomi Rap. Suomi means Finnish… in Finnish. He told me that the kids in Finland try to be “Hip-Hoppers” and he finds it funny. He says that Suomi Rappers try to be “gangster” talking about how they are from the eastside of Helsinki. He laughed and said, “It’s not nice, but it’s nothing like Compton.” The other Finns laughed when they heard the Suomi Rap. It was about Ice Hockey Championships. The rappers were I guess talking about how good their team was. Classic Finns. We then listened to some other Finnish music and watched some Finnish short movies and movie trailers. They would describe things as, “depressing… even for a Finnish movie” implying that most Finnish entertainment is quite depressing. Donald Duck is a sort of icon for Finland. They said that Donald Duck has a brother who is always lucky and Donald tends to fail at everything so people describe Finland as the “Donald Duck”. There’s something uplifting for you! Haha

Tero decided to leave for the grocery store and asked if Rebekah and Sarah and I would like to go to Uni later. Of course, we accepted because we want to use the internet. Tero has a key to Uni because I guess he helps out or something. He actually studied abroad in Charlotte last semester, so I guess he likes those of us from Greensboro. I am having trouble remembering everybody’s name because they are so different. This one guy, though, that has been with us all day was trying to teach us how to say numbers in Finnish. I already forgot 1 through 3 and I assure you each word was about 18 letters long as most Finnish words are. Apparently it is the SECOND hardest language to learn after some form of Chinese or something. That’s always encouraging. I just ate a ham sandwich and I am waiting on Sarah to get out of the shower (she JUST got her luggage) so that we can go to Uni with Tero. Ville and Timo and the other Finnish guy invited us to go to karaoke tonight, so I may do that later. Apparently it is very funny to watch Finnish karaoke because they usually have had a lot to drink and sing very depressing songs. I thought it would be funny to sing Finnish karaoke because I would literally be up there just saying jibberish. I guess we will see though.

I just got my phone working. Eric suggested that I try some standard codes and Tero told me to try 1234... it worked! I now can call and receive calls (within Finland) and that is a relief. I will probably have to buy more minutes for it soon, though. I am excited for tomorrow's orientation and the flea market. I hope to find a bike at it. Anyways, I am keeping Tero and Sarah and Rebekah so I suppose I will write more later. It was a good full day in Finland and I am really enjoying learning words. For instance:

1 is yksi

2 is kaksi

3 is kolme

4 is neljä

5 is viisi

6 is kuusi

7 is seitsemän

8 is kahdeksan

9 is yhdeksän

10 is kymmenen

And the coolest part about this is that I learned how to type those "a"s with the dots over them. hehe!

More to come. Hei Hei (bye)

First Day in Oulu

September 5, 2009

I am now almost all the way unpacked in my single room in Oulu. It only took about 20 minutes to do since I didn’t bring a ton. The room is nice. Though I have fluorescent lighting, the fixtures make it a little more homey and interesting. The walls look very clean with a sort of patterned plaster. Half of the room is painted a light minty green and the other half is white. The floor and dresser/desk were a little dirty, but I got some dish soap and towels to clean the dresser/desk (no sign of Lysol wipes yet). I heard a dog barking in one of the buildings earlier and I was pretty jealous when I found out you can have dogs. I miss Noah 

I just got back from Pizzeria Baabel with the 3 other kids from UNCG, Rebekah’s kummi, a guy from Africa and another couple of Finns. We got a whole huge pizza for about 6 euros! We split it three ways. Now THAT’s a good price. I’ve been meeting lots of people and I cannot remember ONE name. I met a boy named Mikko so that was easy and is like the most common name in Finland. I also met a boy named Joho (pronounced yo-ho) and I only remember that because he made fun of his name. Some of the Finns were making jokes about how if someone speaks proper English they must either be American or Irish. I’m not really sure where that came from, but yea. I met some guys from Mexico and they seemed really nice. I think there’s this sort of unspoken North American pride thing going on. Other exchange students get really excited when they find out you’re from America. They say things like, “You’re FROM there!?” like the streets are paved in gold or something. Oh man, I do miss America. And it’s only been ONE day. I think what frustrates me the most about this place is that I have no way to contact anyone. The only way I can meet up with someone is if I happen into them on my way somewhere or if I linger around enough for someone to see me. I just really want to get my internet working so that I can start using skype. I apparently have to go to the store and pay to get my internet set up… I wasn’t too thrilled to hear that. I’m trying to save money every way that I can.

I’m so exhausted. I’m making myself stay up, though, so that I will maybe sleep through the night and be more adjusted to the times when I wake up tomorrow. It’s only 9:11pm right now so that means it is 2:11pm at home. Well… technically they say 21:11 but I’m not quite used to all these new ways of doing things yet. I learned some words today. And I forgot most of them. The most important word I learned was “kiitos”. It means thank you. Oh and if you want to know what it’s like to go grocery shopping, just imagine shopping based on the pictures in the advertising only. I bought a jar of grape jelly today. Well, I assume it’s grape jelly because there were little round purple things on the front and it felt pretty solid.

They don’t, however, carry peanut butter. And if they did carry peanut butter I would only know that it was in fact peanut butter if I saw a picture of a peanut on the front. So, I plan on living off of jelly sandwiches.

The best feature of my room (the thing that sets it apart from any other room I’ve seen yet) is that I have a little electronic box above my door that has an illuminated green running man in it. It’s just like the man you would see in a crosswalk, except his legs are lifted a little higher… kind of like Ussain Bolt perhaps. I think I m going to name him. He stays lit even when I turn the lights out. I think of him as my protector.

There is also a button on the inside wall above my light switches (which are low and, well, different) and it says “PALAUTIUS” underneath it. I press it every time I come in my room and nothing happens. I’d tell you what it means, but I don’t have internet to look it up. So for now I’ll just keep pressing it.

They are having a thrift sale where they have secondhand items and some things that other exchange students left behind at the school Monday and Tuesday at lunchtime. I plan to go and see if I can get a good deal on a bike. Apparently a secondhand bike from a store would cost anywhere from 40 to 85 Euros. I’m trying to pay like 20. Haha. I have a booklet of things that Alli gave me to look over about orientation and stuff and I am just too pooped to read it. I may read it tomorrow though. I have to meet at the school with the other 500 exchange students on Monday at 9:00am. So, I plan on really taking the Lord’s day tomorrow and resting. Hopefully I will have some time to make some lists of things I need to get done, things I am going to have to buy, budget out what I need, and go over some of my orientation material.

The last thing I have to say is that when I got into Finland, I was excited to see if the toilets flushed in the opposite direction as they do in America. Well, those Finns have done it again because it does neither! It’s more like a cascade of waterfalls in every direction going straight down. No swirling necessary. It almost looks messy.

For tonight, I think I am done. I am going to organize a few things and lay down. I hope I can get to some internet soon. Being in this little box has me begging for an outside world. And it would be nice to hear some good ole American accents 

Traveling to Oulu

September 5, 2009

Today I arrived in Finland with Rebekah who is also going abroad in Oulu from UNCG. We are currently waiting in the Helsinki airport to catch our next and final plane to Oulu. My stomach is a little messed up and I’m not sure if it’s due to my eating or nerves… or a combination. The Finnair flight was dramatically different from the U.S. Airways. When we boarded the plane, there were little green pillows and blankets waiting for us. The plane seemed clean and drove/flew so smooth that I wasn’t really affected by the take-off or landing. They served us grilled chicken and mushrooms and broccoli with little potato hashes, a roll, and a side salad for dinner. There was a little pound cake with crisp apples and brown sugar/cinnamon on the top for desert. They offered us wine or beer, but I just drank water. I didn’t want to mess with the Dramamine I had taken just before the flight. 

There were touch screen monitors in the back of every seat and you could choose to play games, watch tv, watch a live video outside the plane, view the trip progress and much more! I watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past first until about 3:30am (Finnish time).

I then decided I needed to try to sleep even though it was only 8:30pm New York time. I had trouble sleeping. I was a little cold and bundled up in my blanket but it was hard to keep myself in a little ball. I did doze off though with my iPod in and woke up pretty regularly and watched the plane progress on the monitor. I woke up one final time as we were in Norway. We looked outside, but all you could see were clouds. We went through Norway and then Sweden and I could feel the plane begin to lower as we went over the Gulf of Bothnia. Soon, we saw land and knew we had finally reached Finland! The eight hour flight really wasn’t that bad. Considering there was amazing food and service and endless entertainment. I hope our next plane is still a good flight even if it is smaller.

I am quite frustrated right now because I have no way of getting in touch with anyone. I thought there would be WiFi in the airports, but I was wrong. You can pay 4 Euros to call someone from this machine in the airport, but I am going to save my money so that I can call my kummi, Alli, when I get to Oulu. Rebekah decided to pay the 4 Euros and call her boyfriend because I think she was feeling very sad. I plugged my Finnish cell phone into the wall to charge it and found that I need a PIN to get into the phone. This means I will have to e-mail Eric when I get internet connection so that he can tell me what the PIN is to log into the phone. I just hope that there is some free internet around places in Europe. Everything is so expensive. Granted, I haven’t left the airport yet. But I also just hate the fact that I’m losing money due to the exchange rate. The first thing I bought in Finland was a chocolate bar. Let me tell you, Finnish chocolate is LEGIT! I got a huge bar for about 1,10 Euros and ate the first two rows of bars. I can’t wait to munch on that for the next week.

I really hope that my luggage arrives in Oulu on time and in one piece. I’ve been a little stressed hoping that it got from U.S. Airways to Finnair to my next Finnair safely since I haven’t seen it since I checked in with my dad and Tayler.

When we were up in the air, the plane was telling us what temperature it was outside and it was like -50ºC! As we lowered though, I think it was about 12ºC on the ground. I still haven’t been outside to know what it feels like. It is strange to feel like a foreigner. All of the signs are in Finnish and then Swedish and then English (even my chocolate bar) and all of the intercom speakers ramble on in Finnish so I have no clue what they are saying. I just hope it is not too difficult to travel to the bus stop in Oulu. Luckily, I have Rebekah with me and we find strength in one another’s company. Everybody looks so… European. Some are dark Europeans but still very light skin and some are bleach blond Europeans with even brighter skin. They all have such a distinct look and I can’t quite tell what it is… maybe the nose? Bone structure? I’m not sure. I feel sort of dumb because I only know one language. I wish that they taught us more than one language in America… especially being as diverse as it is.

One of my favorite things about Finland is the doors. Everywhere you look, doors are being disguised. They look like walls or windows. Big sheets of glass. No knobs. They simply open when you are close enough. However, sometimes you feel like you’re in a maze and just walk up to random walls hoping they will move. Or you think that you’re trapped and even though the sign is pointing that way, surely it wouldn’t direct you straight to a corner. I’m not sure if you can even call them doors. I prefer moving walls. Oh, and there are lots of designer chairs here. Lots of furniture from Alvar Aalto, a great designer.

So I board the plane to Oulu in a little over and hour and then I pray that I can get in touch with my kummi so that she can meet me at the Linnanmaa bus stop and I can get my keys and be on my way to some internet (hopefully) and a home (finally). I look forward to meeting my roommates, but as for right now, I am just a little less than enthusiastic. With twenty hours of traveling under weigh and three more to go, I’m ready for a rest.