Coming home!

As someone might have noticed I changed the name of this blog since I got feedback for the old name being politically incorrect and I don´t want to insult anyone so I decided to change it.

Otherwise it will be the same as previously: random stories of my life while I am in exchange in Germany.
Today I am going to write about my journey from Göttingen to Espoo. Since I bought the cheapest flights to Finland the connections were not the best ones, but it was an interesting experience for sure! I wrote about the happenings to a notebook almost minute by minute so here we go! Had to cut the long story short(er) since I got inspired and wrote four A4 pages of text…. :D At least I didn´t have the time to get bored ;)

Keeping busy...

21.35: My journey back home to Finland starts as I close the door behind me in Studentendorf and step into the dark and rainy winter weather in Göttingen. I have to drag my old suitcase behind me all the way to the train station and I cross my fingers that it will last all the way without braking down. It looks really beaten up and I can be heard coming way before I can be seen since some parts of it touch the ground. I really blame myself for being so stupid when I didn’t buy a new suitcase earlier today, since I spent almost an hour in tk-maxx measuring two suitcases with my eyes just to tell myself hundreds of times that the other one is too small and the other one too big. But now while hurrying to the train station (again without a reason since I know i´ll be there at least 10 min or maybe even 15 min in advance) being almost as wet (from sweat) as my suitcase (from the rain) I decide that the first thing i´ll do when I´m back is to buy a suitcase – if this poor one will last all the way back to Göttingen of course.

I don´t know if it´s the noise that my suitcase makes or the fact that I look like an eskimo (yes, I am going to Finland, have to be prepared!!) but people give me weird looks. But it´s obviously too hot to wear my warmest winter jacket and the fur shoes in this rainy +12 c weather so I put my jacket in the backpack. Now I look like it´s +18 degrees outside and for some reason people still give me weird looks.

A pick nick in the train :) 

23.53: Finally at the airport! So, this is where I am going to spend the night and it´s actually pretty cozy! The warm air embraces me and the Christmas trees in front of the windows look welcoming. Even the homeless woman in the “Christmas red” jacket and her two bags (probably her whole property) look nice, reminds me distantly of Santa Claus. I find benches where I see other people sleeping too. Actually I don´t only see them, I can also hear them: that approximately 4-year-old Russian girl is crying. Seriously?!

00.03: since I can´t sleep because of that girl screaming I decide to stay busy:  I bought a screen guide to my phone earlier today since the screen is in pieces now and the guard is too big so I have to cut it, because I just randomly chose one. It is for another model because there is nothing for my old (but absolutely good!) Nokia (just kidding, I didn´t choose it randomly, I bought the cheapest one and hoped for it to fit). Well, I did not bring scissors with me so nail clippers will do for now, I mean what else could I do here at 00.03 at Hannover airport where I’ll spend the night with a screaming Russian girl, this homeless woman and a couple of other budget travelers?

00.14: Noo! My favourite nail clipper decides to break down in 3 pieces! Hey, when did that homeless woman sneak pass me to those massaging chairs? Oh all of a sudden my stomach reminds of its existence by making loud noises. Seriously?! I really can´t afford my effective metabolism here at the airport, not that anything would be open at this time either. So I try to fool my stomach by filling it with water.

The red spot on the right hand side is the homeless woman

The nail clipper :(

00.31: fixed the nail clipper – it looks ok even though it is a bit loose... Well, I guess it´s enough for this night; I’ll fix the screen guard at home when I have access to decent tools (scissors :D). Hmm why are those two young men walking around here without any suitcases not to mention bags? They are clearly not traveling anywhere.... I don´t trust anyone anymore after hearing about so many incidents here in Germany where everything from a camera to a whole suitcase have been stolen…

00.56: I notice that the first hour has passed! Wow, so fast! I guess it´s not only the planes that flies here, also the time seems to fly! Hoho, bad joke, jeez I can´t think clearly anymore so should I try to sleep a little? I don´t know if I’ll feel safe enough to sleep so I’ll try to hang on a little bit more.

01.04: Oh no! I sneeze and at the same time a fart! Soo embarrassing even if it was only a small harmless one… There might be a chance that the guy sitting two rows away from me didn´t hear it since he is talking on the phone… I don´t know and I don´t want to know it either so I make sure to avoid his look and try to act cool like nothing happened. Not cool!!!

01.21: I am really tired and everyone is sleeping. I decide to do that too, but I set my alarm to wake me up 30 min later not to really fall asleep.

01.51: I hear my alarm. I feel a lot fresher now even if my stomach really hurts – I am so hungry again! I eat the two clementines I brought with me and go to the restroom. I drag my suitcase with me and I probably wake up everyone on my way there or at least on my way back since the noise really echoes in the big aula. Well, I didn´t want to leave it there all by itself in case someone would be so desperate and want to steal my suitcase that looks shabbier than the homeless woman in the corner. And I mean I have bottles of German beer in it! I even have to tell myself not to drink it so I’m sure someone else would also be more than happy to enjoy the German elixir.

I happen to see myself in the mirrors in the restroom. I decide to avoid them the rest of the journey.

Restroom slefie. The only representative part of me at this time of a day :D

02 something – 04 something: I sleep, but I set the alarm to ring every 30 min. It´s probably very healthy… Sometimes I hear the girl crying and I curse her family for bringing her here. If you have the money to take your whole family to a vacation you might also have the money to book at least a hotel for it too! It´s not very responsible of the parents to stay the night at the airport with poor young students and homeless people! Sometimes I also wake up because I’m so hot! I notice my jacket is embracing me, no wonder it´s hot! Every now and then the fur in the hood is also trying to sneak in my nostrils and it tickles. I try to change my position; maybe I’ll fit under the armrest? No, I definitely don´t. Damn it, the mirrors in H&M made one look thinner after all…

5.00 --> : the airport is opened for the day; Cafes open their doors, people wandering around and staff has appeared behind the check-in desks. Everyone else is awake apart from the homeless woman who desperately tries to squeeze her eyes wide shut. Time to wake up I guess.

I go through the security control and to the smallest gate I’ve probably ever seen not to mention the airplane where I with my 170 cm body can barely stand straight! The staff speaks Danish and suddenly it hits me and I can´t stop smiling - I’m definitively on my way home! The small plane takes us safely to Copenhagen where I have 35 min time to catch the connecting flight to Helsinki where my dad is waiting for me. As I finally arrive in Finland I mentally clap myself on the shoulder congratulating from a good choice of staying the night at the airport instead of taking myself through the city in the middle of the night only to stay in a crappy hostel for a couple of hours. It all went well and it wasn´t that bad at all, I made it even if my suitcase didn´t. Well, I’ll get it later I guess (I was told it will be brought to my home). I can´t get bothered now, I´m just sooo happy to be back!!! <3

Home sweet home!

I had a lot of space in the airplane

Ps I got a text message at 12:18 that said that my suitcase is now on its way and it´s 15:56 now (hmm it´s approximately a 40 min drive so I hope they got me right when I gave my two addresses, the one in Finland and the one in Germany…!) :D.

Mmm traditional Finnish Christmas delicacies, definitively worth the travel :)

Seven Wonders of the World

Hello!

Have been pretty occupied lately so I've kind of "forgotten" to write this blog (mom & sister visiting, studying to the first exam I'll have here, parties...) but here we go again!
What I am going to write about today is seven wonders of the world, and with this I don't mean the ancient ones like the pyramids in Giza nor Statue of Zeus at Olympia, but cultural differences! :) That's something I come across with daily - both in good and in bad to be honest and some of them just manage to surprise me over and over again! :D So here is a list of things I personally as a Finn find so weird/funny/interesting/cool and what not:

1. Greeting. Some nations kiss on the cheek when they see each other. Well, nothing new in that, but somewhere you do it once, somewhere twice and somewhere three times. And for example the Italians kiss the left cheek first for some reason. So, first of all I have to get used to kissing people every time I see them and yes, even those people I meet on a daily basis! And then I have to remember if I all of a sudden have to start kissing the left cheek first, and last but not least I have to remember when to stop: after one or three kisses.....! Oh help me! (Yup, help is really needed, I never know what to do and I always end up being the awkward Finn not to know what to do. Will I ever get used to this amount of kissing??)
Well one of my friends actually told me about a study, where the effects of physical touching brings us joy and happiness and that we Finns should do it more often. So maybe I'll be the happiest after my exchange! :) So let's keep kissing each other and yes, I am sorry for the already happened awkward moments and for the coming ones too...


2. Financial (un)independence. In most of the countries university studies actually cost something and somewhere they might be really expensive. So people who are in their twenties are almost fully dependent on their parents! There is some kind of a student loan, but that's mostly for living, parents pay for the rent and studies. And in Germany the amount of the loan you get depends on your parents wages, even when you are 25 years old!! I do understand the financial support from the parents, because most of the students are not as lucky as we Finns to get 500€/month from the government (it's not a loan since we never pay it back) and schools are free. But I prefer it the Finnish way: Everyone gets the same amount because the assumption is that it doesn't matter how much your parents earn after you've moved out (the latest when you start studying at a university in your early twenties). Actually it's seen to be a little looser like in Finland if you can't finance (most of) your life after you've moved out :D

On the contrary my Chinese flatmate happily told me that Chinese parents are more than happy to finance their offspring til PhD, even help them with their mortgage even when they are done with studies and have a permanent job!!!
 


3. Winter. Haha I've noticed that winter is a word with the most variable meaning. Some people have never seen snow, the others a Christmas without snow. Some people ask me how I can deal with the coooold Finnish winter, and the answer is: easy. First of all I live in the southern coast so it's not that cold there. Maybe a couple of days -20 but that's pretty much it. And we usually have snow. If there's a lot of snow it's a lot lighter outside (very pretty!!!), you ca do a lot of different winter sports and usually the air is pretty dry too (and you can always wear more clothes, but when it's hot and you are already wearing a bikini and you are still hot there's not that much you can take off to cool down...). To be hones I hate "warm" winters: the darkness is killing me, not to mention the eternal rain and freaking damp air that actually is a lot colder than dry subzero climate because it's nastily digging deep under your skin and bones! So what I'm wondering, is How do you Central-Europeans cope with the eternal  darkness and gray, rainy weather that last for months??

vs

This....

...this????

4. Cold houses. Ok, Finland is cold in the winter, but the temperature inside the houses is never below 20 anywhere!!! We even have double, sometimes triple window glasses and heating at least under the bathroom floors. Here I sit at the desk that's in front of the window and my hair is sometimes moving from the wind that sneaks through the single window glass when it's a windy day! Here in Central-Europe the houses are very cold inside (this is not only based on my stay here in this crappy student housing!)! Or then the rooms are very warm but the corridors are super cold and that's why the doors have to be closed - so the warm air doesn't escape from the room. Again a question to most of you guys: How can you live in a house that is very cold?



5. Wearing shoes inside. We never do that in Finland! It's just gross. All the dirt comes with you from the streets to your house, eww. (Yes, I reason why I wouldn't want to have a dog - they are not wearing shoes and usually you do not wash their feet every time they come in). Even here in Studentendorf I used to walk around in my socks in the house (It didn't even pop into my mind to enter the kitchen wearing shoes or sitting in the restroom wearing converse!). At some point I had a closer look at the dirty floor and started to wear shoes inside just like everyone else. Haha and all of a sudden my flatmates stopped giving me weird looks :D But it's not good for your feet to wear (bad) shoes 24/7 besides your feet aren't breathing that much either (haha I know persons who'd have serious issues with wearing shoes 24/7 ;)). Oh, in primary/elementary school we weren't even allowed to wear shoes in the classrooms... Haha but in the junior high we were then again allowed to do that and ohh we were so cool and old when we had reached that age! ;)

Eww....

6. Dinner. In some countries you eat it at around 5pm, somewhere at around 10 pm :D Haha it always amazes me how people can be the whole day without eating barely anything and then eat a lot just before going to bed. I wold probably starve to death if I had to wait til 9pm before having a proper meal! It's  not that I need the energy while I'm sleeping, I need it during the day as a fuel to be able to accomplish the duties. (Oh and for us dinner isn't anything that takes very long to prepare nor to eat - how can people really have dinner for hours??) Well, I'm already starving 2 hours after having a big breakfast so the problem is probably in me.... Haha I guess I inherited my effective metabolism from my mom who is always hungry.
 


7. Being on time. This seems to be one of the most difficult things in the world to some people (I'm not going to say any names but I might point a finger at a specific French and a Slovak ;D). I always think that when you agree on meeting at 4pm it's like latest at 4.00. And haha when my mom and my sister were here we agreed on a certain time and I was there 10 min earlier and they were 5 min earlier than the agreed time or the other way round, it doesn't matter, the point is, that we never actually met at that agreed time, we met the latest 5 min earlier :D. And yes I am the person who is there a bit too early and at 4.03 tells herself not to call angrily at the other person telling she/he is late. Yes I know, I could never be unstressed living in a society where the time is an abstract concept.



Well, I guess there's a lot of small differences that I also face daily, but these have been the most significant and current ones. Haha, maybe I'll learn the secrets behind the rituals of greeting people smoothly not having to give myself a clap on the shoulder every time I manage to be cool and give an internationally know kiss on the cheek(s) without being awkwardly stiff, or learn to wait until at least 8 pm before eating something and when I do, eat it sophisticated in "aller Ruhe". Until then I'll have to excuse myself for being an awkward Finn.