Back in the land of expensive and bad beer

I’m pretty sure that everyone who returns from exchange hears the question “how does it feel to be back?” thousand times. I was afraid of that question, because I thought I don’t want to say that I hate being here again… I’m quite surprised that I’ve heard the question less than 10 times. Apparently I have nice friends who have read my blog (and FB wall) and can guess something about my feelings…. :) well, I haven’t managed to avoid all the questions most of which have actually been nice! It has been great to gossip and chat with the Finns again! And for those who I haven’t talked to yet, here are some random feelings and things from the first week back in Finland.

Coming back was indeed harder than leaving. I couldn’t avoid crying when sitting in the train on the way to airport. Hearing Finnish at the airport and especially in the bus on the way to Helsinki city center was awful. I would have wanted to scream, scream really loud, but I was too tired. And worse was still coming… From Helsinki city center I traveled directly to our campus to write a rental agreement and pick up a new sticker to my student card. When stepping out of the bus at the campus, I saw several freshman groups wandering around the campus and got the feeling that I don’t belong here anymore. I would have wanted to go back and run fast, but I couldn’t. The suitcase and all the 3 hand luggage were too heavy. Then I almost cried for the second time that day. To my surprise, the first day changed to a nice day when I got out of Otaniemi (the campus), when the sun started to shine and when I saw my best friend. So, when summing up all the things happened on the first day, it was confusing to come back.

On Wednesday, I traveled to Iisalmi, my old home town to pick up all my stuff and of course also to see my parents. In Iisalmi, things weren’t that bad. I really enjoyed seeing my parents, being “the only child” at home for the first time ever, since my little sister had recently moved out. However, in Iisalmi, I couldn’t realize that I had arrived in Finland for good, because I had visited Iisalmi a couple of times during the exchange year and I don’t live there anymore, so it didn’t feel the same as in Helsinki or Espoo. On Friday, I traveled back to Espoo with my dad and with all my stuff. (and btw, I drove a car with a trailer for the first time in my life! :P) When we finally got to my flat, after visiting a couple of Ikeas and getting lost a couple of times, I was extremely happy but also tired. An own flat (looking exactly the same as the flat I had before my exchange) and a few new furniture somehow made me happy and relieved. It’s hard to say why. I became even happier when meeting a lot of friends and random nice people on Friday evening in a spontan party evening at our campus… it was cool to see people who were happy because I was back… :D

During the weekend and the first days of this week, I’ve also been seeing a lot of friends and doing mostly nice things. That is a maalaisromantiikka weekend on a summer cottage with lovely old fellow students, a birthday party, jogging along the see, Lintsi, and sleeping late. So, I can’t actually say that my normal life in Finland has started yet. This week has been so extraordinary as I can imagine, but that’s what makes my return great! Next week the cruel everyday life begins. Well, it’s also gonna be rather different from my life before Erasmus.

And because I love to write lists, my last blog post has to have a list as well. The last list tells about the things which have surprised me during the first week here.

• My university has new user accounts for its IT systems (it already caused me problems, ugh).
• All my exchange courses were approved and I don’t have to study this semester at all!
• I got a master’s thesis place! Yay!
• Aleksanterinkatu had some new shops which I hadn’t heard of. However, I didn’t have enough energy or concentration to go in to any shop.
• It’s much warmer and more beautiful than I had thought.
• Bus 103T exists!
• Finnish skimmed milk which has 0% fat really tastes totally different from a milk which has 1,5% fat. And it really has 0% fat, I had thought it has 0,1% :P it’s good <3
• I’ve spoken German by accident only 4 times by far. “kahvi, bitte, ässh, ‘tschuldigung”
• I’ve been really tired, 10 hours per night feel too little.
• I’ve already managed to plan some funny activities for the autumn (thanks to Anna!), for example bought gig tickets for Pariisin Kevät and Marina and the Diamonds. And a flight ticket to Germany as well…
• I’ve forgotten how to behave in a bus in a Finnish way :/ that is, when traveling by a bus, you have to stop the bus by waving a hand (I missed already one bus), and when going in, you can use only the front door, and when choosing a place, you have to choose a chair that is next to a window and carry your bag on your lap not on the chair next to you, and if there’re no free window places, then you can sit next to a stranger…
• I’ve forgotten that I also used to use a helmet when driving a bike.

My Erasmus and this blog have now come to their end. I guess it would be nice to thank all the readers, but I want to thank all the people who laughed, cried, smiled and giggled with or at me during my Erasmus year, either reading about the happenings or experienced them live. It was so greaaaaaaat!

And because I hate long posts that don’t have pictures, I try to make this post at least a little bit funny by adding a stupid picture of me.

5 days left – crying and laughing

I wanted to write still once in Finnish. However, I translated the Finnish text with Google Translator (and corrected some translation mistakes), so non-Finnish speakers can also see what is in my mind only 5 days before my Erasmus time is over. The English version is at the bottom. I’m sorry about the bad “Google” English.

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Tenttien jälkeinen aika on vierähtänyt hurjan nopeasti, ihan liian nopeasti. Voisin elää tällaisia matkustelu- tai laiskuripäiviä vielä vaikka kuinka pitkään. En ole ehtinyt kunnolla tajuta, että olen jo viiden päivän päästä matkalla takaisin Suomeen ja Erasmus-aika on ohi. Toisaalta tajuamista helpottaa hieman se, että melkein jokainen tuttu sekä täällä että Suomessa kyselee päivittäin, että miltäs nyt tuntuu, joko surettaa lähteä vai olenko iloinen kotiinpaluusta, ovatko kaikki muut jo lähteneet, aionko mennä sinne takaisin jne… Olen jo tottunut vastaamaan useimmille samalla tavalla: en osaa tarkkaan kuvailla, miltä minusta tuntuu, koska en tiedä sitä itsekään. En tiedä, olenko enemmän surullinen vai iloinen. En tiedä, itkenkö, nauranko vai hihitänkö hysteerisesti, kun heilutan ensi tiistaina junan ikkunasta Aachenille. Yritin jonkin aikaa tunnustella tunteitani ja löytää tähän vastausta, mutten onnistunut. Päätinkin siksi lopettaa alituisen kotiinpaluun ja Erasmus-ajan loppumisen miettimisen ja sen sijaan nauttia viimeisistä päivistä Aachenissa ilman suuria pohdintoja. Se ei muuten ole ihan helppoa.

Kun nyt ajattelen viimeisiä viikkoja sekä koko vaihtovuotta, väsyneet kasvoni vääntyvät väkisin leveään irvistykseen ja hymyyn. Olen älyttömän iloinen, että lähdin vaihtoon ja tulin Aacheniin! Olisi ollut todella tyhmää olla lähtemättä ja menettää todellakin elämäni parhain vuosi. Ihan totta, vaikka kuinka se aika kliseiseltä kuulostaa. Olisi ollut hurjan tyhmää, jos en olisi tutustunut moneen valtavan ihanaan ihmiseen, ihastellut ja välillä ärsytellyt Saksaa, saksalaisia ja Aachenia, oppinut vihdoin juttelemaan sujuvasti saksaksi, selittämään asioita Heini-nopeudella englanniksi ja saksaksi, kiinnostunut opiskelujutuista vielä enemmän, ja matkustellut paljon kivojen ihmisten kanssa. Olen varmasti vaihtovuoden aikana elänyt, tuntenut, kokenut, nähnyt ja fiilistellyt eri asioita paljon aiempaa enemmän. Toki olen välillä ollut väsynyt, miettinyt liikaa ja surrutkin, mutta suurimmaksi osaksi naamallani on ollut iso (ja ruma) virne. Sitä kuvaa hyvin Tuukan ihana lausahdus kuukausi sitten, kun yritin sanoa, että olen myös välillä väsynyt: “Heini, sä oot koko ajan hullun pirteä. Elä yritä. En tajua sinua.”.

Vaikka sanoin, etten osaa täysin kuvailla, miltä kotiinpaluu mahtavan vuoden jälkeen tuntuu, osaan kuitenkin listata joitakin irrallisia tuntemuksia, jotka vellovat päässäni tällä hetkellä. Päällimmäisenä mielessä pyörii se, että Aachenia ja ihmisiä täällä sekä eri puolella Eurooppaa tulee varmasti hurja ikävä. Haluan tulla tänne vielä uudestaan, nähdä ihanat ystäväni, ja miettiä, mitä kaikkea viime vuonna tapahtui ja mitä meille tulee jatkossa tapahtumaan. Lisäksi nyt mietityttää se, miten vaihto ja Saksa muuttivat minua ja miten pystyn pysymään tällaisena avoimena höpörenä myös kylmässä Suomessa. Toivon kovasti, että helposti! Toivon myös, että Helsinki ja Suomi saavat minut edelleen hymyilemään (ok, olen näköjään myös iloinen takaisin tulemisesta…). Toivon myös, että vaeltelu Helsingin kaduilla ja puistoissa saa minut virnistämään leveästi. Uijui meri, sitä minulla on ikävä! Lisäksi nyt ihmetyttää mutta myös ilostuttaa se, että olen vielä viimeisten viikkojen aikana tutustunut uusiin kivoihin ihmisiin enkä siksi haluaisi lähteä pois. Niin, ja vähän pelkään sitä, että unohdan Suomessa, ettei suomi toimi enää salakielenä…

Edellisen tunneanalyysin lisäksi haluan vielä kertoa jotain konkreettista viimeisistä päivistäni. Olin viime viikonloppuna Oslossa tapaamassa saksalaista kaveriani, Fabiania. Oslo oli aivan ihana! Hieman kallis se toki myös oli. Oslo tuntui jollain tapaa Helsingin ja Tukholman sekoitukselta. Siellä oli kaunis meri ja satama, sekä vanhoja että uusia kauniita rakennuksia, paljon kivoja puistoja ja pohjoismaalainen tunnelma, joka oli (ehkä) jotenkin rennompi kuin Helsingissä. Aurinkoisen sään ja rennon fiiliksen lisäksi viikonlopussa parasta oli se, että tapasin jälleen kerran uusia, hauskoja ihmisiä, joiden kanssa me oltiin sekä perjantaina että lauantaina ulkona. Oslon yöelämä vaikutti muuten yhden viikonlopun kokemuksella todella kivalta! Niin, ja kävin myös meressä uimassa ja huomasin, että norjalaiset (valtavasti yleistäen) juo etkoilla minttuviinaa (niin sitä suomalaista) :o Oslon reissun lisäksi olen vielä yrittänyt nauttia Aachenin lenkkimaastoista, ilmaisista jumpista, halvasta oluesta, ruuasta ja suklaasta. Olen myös nähnyt vaihtarikavereita, sanonut monelle heipat ja toivonut, että me vielä joskus tavataan. Perjantaina on minun vuoro sanoa suurimmalla osaa heippa :/ noh, onpas ainakin bileet!

Nähdään ensi viikolla Suomessa! Kiinnostuneet kivet voi lukea lisää Aachenista ja loppufiiliksistä mun vaihtoraportista.

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The time after the exams has gone very quickly, far too quickly. I could have lived such travel or lazy days much longer. I haven’t had time to properly realize that in 5 days I am already on the way back to Finland and my Erasmus time is over. On the other hand, the realizing has been a bit easier since almost every one I know both here and in Finland is asking me daily how does it feel to go back, whether I am sad or happy to leave, whether all the others have already left, whether I am going to come back to Germany, etc… I’m already accustomed to answer most people the same way: I can’t exactly describe how I feel because I don’t know it myself. I don’t know if I’m more sad or happy. I don’t know whether I’ll cry, laugh or giggle hysterically next Tuesday when I’ll wave from a train window to Aachen. I tried for some time to explore my feelings and to find a answer to this, but I failed. I decided to quit thinking about going back all the time and instead enjoy the last days in Aachen, without much reflection. It is by the way not very easy.

Now, when thinking about the last weeks and also the whole exchange year, my tired face changes easily to a grin and smile. I’m incredibly glad that I left for exchange and came to Aachen! It would have been really stupid not to leave and miss the best year of my life. It’s true, even though it sounds like a cliché. It would have been terribly stupid, if I hadn’t got to know many terribly wonderful people, admired and sometimes become angry about Germany, the Germans and Aachen, learned to speak fluent German and to explain things in Heini-speed in English and German, and traveled a lot with nice people. I’m sure that during the exchange year I lived, felt, experienced and saw different things more than before. Sure, I was every now and then tired, thought too much and was a little sad, but mostly my face has had a big (and ugly) grin. A very wonderful utterance which Tuukka told me a month ago when I tried to say him that I am also sometimes tired describes well my feelings: “Heini, you’re always terribly chirpy. Don’t try. I do not get you.”.

Although I said I can’t fully describe how I feel about going back to Finland after an awesome year, I can list some separate sensations that are surging in my head at the moment. What uppermost is spinning in my mind is that I will definitely miss Aachen and the people here and overall in Europe. I want to come here again and to see all the wonderful friends and to think together about everything that happened last year and what we will continue to do together. Moreover, I also wonder how the exchange and Germany changed me and how I can remain to be such an open and stupid girl also in cold Finland. I hope easily! I also hope that Helsinki and Finland continue to make me smile (ok, I also seem to be happy about going back…) I also hope that wandering on the streets and in parks of Helsinki makes me grin cheesy. Wohoo sea, I’ve missed it a lot! In addition, I’m also happy because I’ve still during the past few weeks got to know new nice people and thus don’t want to leave. Oh, and I’m a bit afraid that in Finland I forget that the Finnish language no longer works as a secret language…

In addition to the feelings analysis, I want to tell something concrete of my days here. Last weekend I was in Oslo meeting a German friend of mine, Fabian. Oslo was really wonderful! And a little expensive… For me, Oslo seemed somehow a mixture of Helsinki and Stockholm. There was a beautiful sea and port, both old and new beautiful buildings, lots of nice parks and a Nordic atmosphere, which was (perhaps) somehow more relaxed than in Helsinki. In addition to the sunny weather and a relaxed mood, really nice at the weekend was that I met once again new nice and funny people with whom we went out both on Friday and on Saturday. With one weekend’s experience, Oslo’s nightlife seemed by the way really nice! Oh, and I was also swimming in the ocean and noticed that Norwegians (when greatly generalizing) drink mint vodka (the Finnish one) :o In addition to the trip to Oslo, I’ve been trying to enjoy Aachen’s jogging tracks, free fitness classes, cheap beer, food and chocolate. I’ve also seen my Erasmus friends, said goodbye to several people and hoped that we’ll still meet sometimes. On Friday is my turn to say goodbye to most of my friends here :/ well, at least it means also a party!

Berlin revisited

My passport got broken in June. I had two options to get a new one before flying back to Finland: either travel to Hamburg or travel to Berlin. I chose Berlin. Besides visiting Germany’s Finnish embassy, I spent three days in Berlin enjoying the exam free time, wonderful sights and districts, and just relaxing. Well, I could relax only mentally, my legs didn’t get any rest, since I spent the days mostly walking around Berlin. After the trip, I was happy about my city decision, I realized that I had fallen in love with Berlin, and I could see the pros and cons of traveling alone. Somehow, I could also forget the confused feelings about going back to Finland in two weeks, which was great. I was also 100% sure that I want to return to live in Germany at some day, and gladly to Berlin.

While traveling alone, which, by the way, I did now properly for the first time ever, I could see only the places I really wanted and didn’t have to spend time in arranging stuff and meetings with other people. Even though I’m a social monkey, I enjoyed being alone this time. I guess I could also see a bit more by that way. Every day already at around 4 pm I felt that I’ve been walking, seeing and wondering various things so much that a break would do good. So, I also spent some time in parks, relaxing, reading a book and drinking coffee. At some points, I still would have wanted to laugh loud and gossip with some other people…

One of the best things of my trip was that I’d been in Berlin before and, thus, didn’t have many “must see and do” things. So, I could decide what to see only by looking at the map and by finding flyers and brochures about interesting things. A good finding was a lifestyle- and shopping guide, 360° Berlin. It told about many “alternative” and cool places, streets, shops and restaurants. That’s why I spend quite a lot of time in Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg, of which Prenzlauer Berg was especially really lively and full of cute restaurants, cafes and design shops, which actually weren’t really expensive. But with more money, it would have been even nicer… I also found the cutest textile shop ever. I could have bought every textile there.

I was pretty lazy in taking photos with my partly broken camera, especially from the most interesting things, but here are anyway some:

Yorckstraße in Kreuzberg. In addition to these rather unsightly views, Kreuzberd had also nice sights and views, like Viktoriapark (next picture), which I liked a lot.

The first day, I’d already walked a lot, when I still decided to walk to my hostel, which was near Ostbahnhof, from Hackscher Markt. When I finally got to the hostel, I was totally finito, kaputt. On the way, I was amazed by the huge and ugly buildings. To my surprise, the following day, I came across to a brochure which explained that exactly those buildings on Karl Marx Allee are a great example of the building style that was used in Eastern Berlin from 1949 to 1960.

The building style near my hostel wasn’t very flattering either.

The nordic embassies. The Finnish officer was really nice and helpful :)

Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg.

Yeah, I had to see the Berlin wall still once again. This time in Bernauer Straße.

The queue to Rheistag. I guess it’s almost always at least this long.

Pros and cons of my exchange

Exams, the 3-week holiday after the exams and finally the day to leave are coming nearer and nearer. A couple of weeks ago I felt really sad and wouldn’t have wanted to go back to Finland at all. Now my feelings are a bit happier but I’m still somehow confused about everything. I don’t know whether I should be sad, happy, neutral or what? That’s why I made a list of all the positive and negative things about my exchange year that came to my mind. Here is publishable version of that list :-)

Positive:

• I spent the best month of my life so far last September. I was happy, excited about everything and smiling almost the whole time.
• I finally learned to speak and listen to German. I’m not anymore afraid of using it in any situation, and I enjoy it a lot. Yay!
• I realized I like living outside Finland and a foreign city can feel like a home city.
• I realized I value several things both in Germany and in Finland.
• I got really nice and good friends in Germany and all over Europe. I’ve got now a lot of countries and cities that I definitely want to visit.
• I realized I can still go to parties during the week without ruining the rest of week, even though I’m 25…!
• I realized I can still live in a commune.
• I also found out that I’ve chosen a major that really interests me. HCI <3
• I learned quite a lot about international business and think now that it’s actually surprisingly interesting.
• I listened to music and found new cool music and bands more than before. (mostly because I’ve had more free time to surf in Internet and in Spotify)
• I made very many interesting findings about German culture and other European cultures. I also realized some things about Finnish culture of which I hadn’t thought earlier.
• I changed, in my opinion, in a good way.
• I enjoy spending time alone more than before, but I can also get to know new people easily.
• I’m probably more open than before.
• I realized many strange but also nice things about friendship. And men as well.
• I met many extraordinary people. They still make me laugh quite often.
• I saw Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bonn, Maastricht, Liege, London, Gdansk, and a couple of small cities in Germany. (and I’m still gonna see a few!)
• I didn’t quit doing sports, but was quite sporty the whole year and even run a marathon and another running competition!
• I tried to start to eat meat again but realized my stomach still says no. I still “have” to be a vegetarian <3 but I tried!
• Eating and drinking both out and at home were much cheaper than in Finland. I ate things that I don’t normally eat that much.
• Cocktails to go <3

Negative:

• I broke 2 mobile phones and lost one. Or actually they got broken, I didn’t do anything.
• I was stressed because I didn’t and still don’t have really good plans for next autumn.
• My feelings and mood changed sometimes a lot during a single day, week or month. I had to get used to being moody every now and then. And some other people too :<
• During the whole year, I found only one interesting course that was in German, so mostly I had to study in English and hence I couldn’t learn German in the most effective way.
• In March I was homesick.
• Sometimes when being only with German people I was quieter than normally which made me to feel confused (not always though).
• I bought way too much clothes and shoes and don’t know how to get them back to Finland.
• I didn’t travel that much I could have traveled.
• I sat quite a lot at the computer instead of for example wandering in the city or reading German books.
• I started to eat Nutella and jam on bread, which I really have to quit in Finland because there they are way too expensive (and unhealthy….).

Now I know at least that I’m really pleased that I left for exchange and that I’m probably gonna miss my time in Aachen a lot. However, I think it’s always good that autumn brings something new. Now the new is Finland, maybe next year Germany again.

Tuukka-weekend

My “old” Finnish exchange friend Tuukka visited Aachen last weekend and stayed at my place for 4 days. Well, we didn’t spend that much time inside but anyway… The weekend was one of the best weekends in Aachen this summer! It was full of weird accidents, sun, ice cream, good beer and cocktails, birthday parties, Looping Louie and that’s why also crazy dancing, delicious picnic food, strange but funny new people, a lot “old” Erasmus and German friends, and extremely stupid jokes and discussions, which were actually the funnies part of the weekend. My stomach muscles are sore now thanks to continuous laughing :)

Here are some pictures that I was able to take with my partly broken camera.

Tuukka on my street. He saw something strange that I couldn’t see :P Wandering around Aachen was again nice as well as visiting various parks and eating Del Negro ice cream (the best ice cream in town). Yammy!

I wanted to climb into a tree but I couldn’t find any good ones :/

Hanna and Anniina

Laura

Weird Finnish Greek-style pancake which was actually rather delicious.

Ugh, it’s hot!

Talking about the weather….. that’s how it looks like in Aachen at the moment:

Current temperature in Aachen.

Forecasts for the next few days.

I’ve now kept a week-long pause from doing any sports, and actually only partly due to the heat, but also used that as an excuse. The sport-free days already start to feel rather odd and I’m feeling myself extremely lazy…. So, I would like to move my bottom again. The weather is not very tempting though!  A nearby lake would be really nice now!

London & Summerjam

“Hey, you’re an erasmus student, why are you studying that much?!” After having heard that question many many times, I decided to have a summer holiday this year, although lectures are still going on. That wasn’t a bad decision, because my holiday was great and I didn’t miss very many university things, I guess :P Here is a report of my London trip and Summerjam festival.

I traveled to London with Anna for 3,5 days, which was the first time for both of us in England. We flew to London with nice cheap flights from Ryanair, which, by the way, were this time on a good time and not 6 am. The trip was awesome in every sense. The weather was sunny and hot the whole time, occasionally actually a little too hot, our hostel and its location (near Hydepark) were great, sights and several parks were nice and our moods also happy. I really enjoyed meeting Anna after a long time and traveling with only a single person, not a 50-member Erasmus group. We spent most of our 3,5-day trip outside, seeing outdoor sights, various parks and markets and having picnics. If I made a list of all the things we saw, it would contain almost all the things you can find in a tourist guide. That tells pretty well that we spent a lot time wandering in the city and were very tired every evening after walking more than 10 km. That’s also a reason why I “had to” buy two pairs of shoes…. The best things of our trip were probably Portobello road with its various stalls, a market near Liverpool Street station (I’ve forgotten its name), cider and somersaults in Greenwich park, good weather and stupid jokes between us two.

Anna in Regent’s Park.

The hot weather causes weird things.

Big Ben and a couple of tourists with sun classes.

After coming back from London on Monday evening, I had to keep a group presentation on Tuesday morning at 8. That’s not what you definitely want to do after a holiday… However, the presentation went well and I could continue my holiday week with Anna in Aachen until Wednesday when she left back for Finland. On Thursday I self left for Summerjam, for a pretty big reggae festival in Cologne, Fühlinger See.

Summerjam was hot and nice. It was really cool that it was by a lake. Before going there, I didn’t have a doubtful feeling that I would enjoy being there, but I was still positively surprised. Even some of the German bands that sang in German were surprisingly funny (and good). And the atmosphere was really relaxed and summer-like. However, I am a little sad that my German skills proved to be slightly worse than I had imagined and hoped for. It was somehow strange to be more silent than normally. I’m also a bit angry to myself that I missed a gig I definitely wanted to see.

Lazier and lazier

I’m apparently becoming lazier and lazier with writing when approaching “the end”. Here is therefore a photo post from various things happened at the end of May and in June. My camera is now broken :/ so I haven’t been able to take that much pictures :/

Maje, Lucía and Cyprian at my birthday picnic.

Ready for football world cup!

Elena supported Germany as well!

Aachen marktplatz. Germany lost :(

Ausländer sind auch für Deutschland lol

Anna is coming to Aachen on Wednesday. Yey, the stupid shorty and the crazy tall one see each other again! We’re traveling to London on Thursday. And it’s going to be sunny, at least now it looks like it. I’m merry happy! However, at the same time I try to forget that I don’t have that much time left in Germany. I definitely wanna come back at some point, if not staying longer this year…

Cold and stressful weeks

I’m feeling really great this morning and the sun is shining, but I anyway start with complaining. That’s always easy.

It’s been stupidly cold in Aachen during the last two weeks. While Finland is enjoying its heats, Aachen suffers with it’s 7 degrees :( I don’t like it at all! It makes me a little sad :( Mittens and a cap wouldn’t have been a bad idea when cycling to university in the mornings. I had already thought that the summer has arrived in Aachen, but no… it’s probably the coldest May ever. I really hope that the summer comes next week and I can be stupidly cheery and crazy again. The weather forecasts seem promising!

Another stupid thing is that I’ve felt myself quite stressful during the last three weeks. The courses that I’m doing aren’t very difficult nor time-consuming, except one. The course is called advanced international trade. Well, the topics of the course aren’t actually really difficult, but because I haven’t done the basic course of international trade or different trade theories, the course causes me problems every now and then. My decisions to do and study “interesting” things apparently go a bit wrong sometimes. In addition, the project “find a master’s thesis place” isn’t the most effortless and simplest task either. Writing job applications takes a lot of time, as everyone knows. This time it’s however been surprisingly interesting and different from applying for summer jobs. The application writing also makes me to think what really I want to do in the following year and in the future in general. That’s at the same both fascinating and scary. After all, I have the feeling that although I now think and plan, my future will really probably be different from my plans. Things just happen. And that’s what makes life great :)

Regardless of the cold weather and some stressful things, I’ve been seeing rather much friends, going to great parties and doing again sports during the last weeks. Nice! And it’s been incredible to notice that after 8 months in a foreign country and city you can still find new nice and cool friends!

Miscellaneous stuff from May

I cannot decide which topic to write about, so I write about everything I have wandering in my head. So, this post is very likely to be disorganized, apologies.

Dutch Queen’s Day

The Dutch celebrated their Queen’s Day last Friday. The biggest celebration is probably in Amsterdam, but because it didn’t seem worth of traveling to Amsterdam only for a party, I traveled to Maastricht with some exchange students and their German friends to see what is the birthday party like. The celebration was actually slightly similar to Finnish Vappu. People gathered in a park, which also had live music, flea market and stalls in which you could be something to eat and drink. A big difference to Vappu was that people weren’t (very) drunk but rather celebrating with their family. So, there were also many children, most of which were really cute and funny. They wanted to play with us all the time even though we didn’t have a common language to communicate with. In addition to my good mood and sunny weather, stupidly funny was that we found a shopping trolley. I was happy to ride a shopping trolley for the first time in my life before I’m 25…. how can I have been that boring and sophisticated before?!

Xisela and me with our megalecker chocolate bread.

Wappu

Some other Finnish exchange students and I organized a Wappu (not Vappu :>) picnic in Aachen last Saturday, because we didn’t want to miss Wappu entirely this year. Our picnic was good: the weather was better than we had expected (it rained only for 1o minutes and we saw also the sun), quite many other, not Finnish, people joined us and seemed to have fun. One drawback was that we forgot that shops were closed last Saturday and, thus, couldn’t buy beer for our beer relay :( Good food and sparkling wine we had enough though. On Sunday it rained and I could stay home, which did actually extremely good for me, I guess :)

“Teekkarit”

Wappu picnic people

Life after Erasmus

I have also give some thought to my life after Erasmus, although I have still 4 months left in Aachen. My first thoughts are that I don’t want to go back to Finland for good. Cold winters, horrible prices and I guess the same life that I had there already for 24 years don’t sound very tempting. Of course I miss my Finnish friends and some other things, like milk, but I can quite easily imagine my life outside Finland now. However, finding a master’s thesis place in Germany (or in another country in Central Europe), in which I get paid, and doing one or two courses to my home university while being abroad don’t sound really simple, but not impossible either. I guess I should just start to organize things now that I still have time. Yeh, I have also a plan B, but I rather would not use it. I somehow feel myself boring when resorting to easier and safer plan B’s. They’re not for me, although I rather often have three of them…..

Other stuff

I finally bought Spotify premium. I <3 new Spotify and great music without annoying commercials. I also found some cool sounding gigs in Cologne. Electronic Beats on the 20th of May sounds really cool, as well as c/o Pop Festival in June, but I’m then in London… looking forward to it though. Kate Nash plays also in Cologne in May, but the concert is sold out :( Stupid that I realize most cool things too late.