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.