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.
