Conan O'Brien: Going to Finland

Here's an entertaining Conan O'Brien clip for those of you with nothing better to do. The part about Turku in the middle is priceless.

Who does this?

As if it isn't difficult enough to walk on ice, people have to leave their banana peels on the ground!?

More Photos (mainly Turku)

Sorry in advance to any one out there with a slow internet connection. I tried for over an hour to make expandable posts, but blogger just wasn't having it...and if any one is interested, if you click on the photos, they open to their flickr pages where you can look at larger versions, which have more detail.

Yliopisto

These are just a couple snapshots from the area surrounding the university. It's not the most scenic part of Turku, but it's where I spend a fair amount of my time.

Carbs of the World pt. 1

While the student meals are a good value (2,35 euros), and sometimes they even taste good too, I'm starting to suffer a little bit from the complete carb-overload that is Finland. Check out the fabulous watermelon and salad though. Watermelon in the winter time? In Finland?





Speaking of carbs, food, and carb-heavy food, check out the stuff that is marketed as "American style."







I definitely miss the plethora of vegetables that are available in California. Finnish bread and potatoes are delicious though...

Cottage Weekend and Traveling

This past weekend I went with the university club for exchange students (ESN) to a campground ~50km from Turku. It was alright. The rooming arrangements were poorly organized. There were four ten person cottages, one twenty person cottage, and one thirty person cottage. I wanted to go in the twenty person cottage since it had an indoor bathroom. Unfortunately, everyone else wanted to go in the twenty person cottage too, so there wasn't enough room and I had to go to the thirty person cottage- at this point it was raining and the road was pure mud. When I got to the thirty person cottage it was full as well, so there were 5 of us without a place to sleep. Eventually we found a space in one of the ten person cottages, but walking all over a campsite in 34 degree weather in the rain with all of my luggage was not a very pleasant experience. The meals at this weekend were better organized luckily. And then they made us play games which were a little too organized. I would have preferred to have more free time to walk in the woods and by the water. Even in bad weather, nature is better than "get to know you" games.

After dinner things picked up when I went in my first Finnish sauna, which was amazing! It was a lot hotter than any sauna that I have been in before. Maybe because it was wood-fired? The best part was when a bunch of us ran from the sauna to the Baltic Sea. I only went up to my knees in the water, but a couple of the other girls actually jumped in. The sauna was a little far from the water, otherwise I would have jumped in too.

On Sunday morning I had a little free time to wander around, and I got some nice photos, but I'll have to wait until I can use a PC or get my card reader to put them up.

Today was pretty quiet. I thought I had a class this evening but it's canceled, again. In half an hour I'm going to go the Turun Yliopisto (University of Turku) brass band with a couple of other exchange students. Apparently they have instruments to loan out, and I might even be able to play baritone/euphonium/tuba with them. At the moment I'm also planning a trip to Lativa with a couple of friends here. Ryanair is offering flights from Tampere (about 2 hrs north of here) to Riga, Lativa for 1 cent. Of course, you still have to pay taxes so the flight really costs 40 euros. Not bad. I'm still trying to go to Sweden and Estonia too. I'll keep you updated.

Hockey Mania

We're still having horrible rainy weather. It's like Humboldt County, but colder, and in Finnish. I've had a little bit of a cold all week, but my professors have been sick too, so luckily some of my classes have been canceled. This gave me some extra time to go to the city center where I finally bought some stamps. Now I need to finish writing letters, and a couple of you still need to send me your addresses --Mary, Karol, Hannah!!! Yesterday evening I also went to a hockey match, which was amazing. We took a bus from the student village to the kauppatori, and then we caught another bus to the local stadium. It wasn't very expensive since the school got all of us exchange students half-price tickets (4 euros) - not bad for a professional hockey game. Turku's team, TPS, has been quite good in the past, but I guess they're having a bad season. The team they played last night was even worse though, so Turku won!

Still, the whole event was a little strange because it reminded me a lot of the US. There were distinctly Finnish things too. The cheerleaders (for ice hockey?) and constant advertisements were very American, but the constant metal music and enthusiasm for ice hockey were very Finnish.

I had my second Finnish language class today, but it's kind of slow so far. Right now we're just learning how to say "hello" and "thank you," which most of us already know since we've been here for two weeks. We also learned how to ask "how are you doing?," which I wouldn't really try on a Finn. In my experience, at Finnish shops you say "hei" or "moi" to the cashier, they ring up your items, tell you the price, you say "kiitos," and then you leave. No one has ever asked me how I'm doing. Finland is not big on small talk. And I love it.

School is cool

By popular demand (and lack of other things to write about) here's some info about the courses I am taking at the moment.

I had originally planned to take most of my classes in the Baltic Sea Region Studies program, but after I attended an informational meeting by the English Philology department, I realized that there are more English courses open to exchange students than I had expected. I'm kind of happy that I'm taking more English courses though, because it allows me to meet Finnish students (who are not in BSRS courses) and I'm more interested in English than geography anyway, hence the whole majoring in English thing. Still, it's kind of surreal being in English classes with students who are doing the same work as I am, but in their second or third language. It definitely makes me want to learn another language fluently, however, I don't think Finnish will be that language. It seems like everyone here knows English, and almost all of the signs around campus are in English too. The only problem that I have had so far is at the grocery store, where most of the items are in Finnish and Swedish. Lets just say that I have been learning more Swedish than Finnish during the past week. This should change starting this week when my Finnish survival course begins. I wanted to take the Finnish Beginners course, which introduces more grammar, but it conflicts with one of my English Philology courses.

And back to my English courses...

I'm taking Approaches to Language and Discourse II, Contemporary Literatures in English, The Making of the Anglophone World, Proscribed Language, and Tragicall Histories on Stage.
At the moment I'm looking forward to Proscribed Language the most. The prescriptive vs. descriptive debate is pretty exciting.

Each course has fewer units than English courses at HSU. Even though it looks like I'm taking a lot of classes, I'm barely taking 12 American units. I might try to get more units for a couple of my classes by writing an extra paper. I'll figure it out. Still, I am enjoying taking fewer than 19-17 units, not working, and not commuting... for once. Unfortunately, with my spare time I have been learning how to call my credit card company collect, acquire coughs, and fight with my camera. Since Friday, all of the snow has melted, so we're back to grit and ice (and slightly warmer temperatures).

So, this is my exciting life at the moment. My plans for today include homework, cleaning, and a trip to Euromarket. I hope I'll be able to talk to my family on Skype too. I'll try to write more later...

Snow!!!

Everyone makes fun of me for this, but I'm completely in love with the snow here. I think it's a California thing, and luckily the cold doesn't really bother me, so I went for a walk and took a bunch of photos.

This is the building I live in. It's a little institutional on the outside, but pretty nice on the inside.



And across the street we have a little grocery store and pub.












I attended my third class today, and I think I'll like it a lot, but it might be a little easy. I only have to read six short books (one of which I read last year), attend the lectures, and take an exam. Today I also bought a ticket for a cottage weekend, which is put on by an organization for exchange students. I guess they're taking us to some cottages by the sea where we will do winter sports, sauna, and barbecue. The trip is 25 Euros and includes transportation, lodging, and meals, which seems reasonable. This organization is also putting together a trip to Lapland, but I think I will pass on that because it is 170 Euros and only includes transportation and lodging, but not meals, ski rentals, or anything else. Hmm...I don't have too much else to write about. I'm going to a flamenco class tonight, because all of the sports classes are free for the first week. The sports fee isn't too expensive if I want to continue. I was worried that I would have to pay for internet, but the wireless works fine. So far I've only spent 15 Euros on my text books because the English department sells very inexpensive photo copies. I'm still looking for an inexpensive copy of Hamlet though, but otherwise, I'm coping with the Finnish cost of living as best as I can.

My First Weekend in Turku

More photos!
These are from my first weekend in Turku. The first days that I was here, all I did was sleep and go to an orientation meeting. On Friday night, I finally met people and we went out into the city.

This thing is close to the student village. It's part pig, part duck. I guess the students put a Santa hat on it every winter.



This is my neighbor Natalia from Poland. She's very funny, and we talk about California together since she worked at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk this past summer.



The Aura River, which cuts through town, is starting to freeze. When I went to the city center I found this rusted bike next to it.



Here are more of my friends from Poland.



This is my least favorite grocery store here in Finland. I've never been there, but its name is trying to trick me! They aren't really having a sale. Sale doesn't even mean that in Finnish.



El Gringo Cafe Latino. Finnish Mexican food, eh?



The Turku Cathedral





The River Aura

Helsinki Photos

I thought I had a class this afternoon, but it turns out that it doesn't start until Thursday, so I have a little extra time this afternoon to update. Here are a couple photos I took while I was in Helsinki. I put my stuff in a luggage locker and walked around the city for a couple hours.

This is the Finnish parliament building, which some of you may remember from a certain Youtube video.

And when I saw this, I instantly thought of Mary, my favorite McDonald's scholar. You might be shocked to learn that McDonald's isn't very popular in Finland because of a local chain called Hesburger. I haven't been there yet, but they are all over Turku.

This is the National Museum of Finland, which still has bullet holes in one of its windows and doors from the Russians. I spent about an hour here. It's a pretty nice museum, but I should have gone to the Helsinki City Museum, which was free. Unfortunately, I didn't see it until I had already gone to the National Museum.

Live from Yo-Kylä

I have my UTU user name and password, so now I can use the wireless here in the student village. It's very nice to feel connected to the world again. Technology is so big here that one feels completely out-of-touch with the world without the internet or a cell phone. People use cell phones here to do everything too. You can even buy a bus ticket with your cell phone.

Well, I have lots to put on here, but I'll start with my room, which is pretty fabulous for a dorm.

Here you can see my fabulous closet (which is pretty empty, poor me) and mini-fridge (can you see the bottle of Tapatio on it?).



This is before I got my starter package from the school, so I have curtains and a blanket now too. Fun fact: my window overlooks a cemetery, which is kind of pretty, but kind of creepy at the same time. Especially at night because they have candles next to the graves that someone lights every night.



And this is the bathroom. I can't believe that I get my own room and bathroom, for less than it would cost to live in the dorms at HSU! As you might be able to see, the toilet, shower, and sink are all in the same room. There is also a curtain that comes down, and a drying rack for clothes. It's a pretty nice, if compact, set up. So far, sharing a kitchen with 11 other people has been a lot of fun, and a good way to meet people.

Little update

Hi there. I don't have the internet at the moment, so I am in the Turku City Library, fighting with the Finnish keyboard. The past couple days were a little rough, but now I have my bank account set up, most of my bills paid, and a bunch of new friends from Poland. I also have food, and some cooking accessories. My main concern at the moment is figuring out what classes I will take, and how to prove to HSU that I am really taking classes. Oh well, I can't do anything about that now, so I will worry about it on Monday. I need to look up a couple courses online, and I don't want to stay on the computer here too long, so I will write later.
Hei hei.

ps, I have lots of photos...don't worry...

Finland, day 1

Hyvää Huomenta! I have some free time (and free internet) this morning, so I'm going to tryto make a real update.This morning I woke up before dawn (9 A.M.) and had breakfast here at the hostel.My body didn't really think that breakfast was a good idea, but I'm trying to trick myselfinto believing that it's really Thursday morning instead of Wednesday night (I'm 10 hoursahead for California). I have to check out of the hostel at noon, so until then I'm using thefree internet since I don't know when I'll get another chance (at least for a couple days).Originally, I was going to take a city bus to the train station, but I'm a little too tired this morningand I think I have too much stuff to do that, so I'm going to splurge and take a cab since I saveda little money taking the Finnair bus instead of a cab last night.The British Airways flight from San Francisco to London was not the best experience inthe world. My little screen that shows movies and such didn't work, and my seat wouldn'tgo back either. The couple next to me decided to move since their screens didn't work either,so at least I ended up getting the row to myself. I tried to sleep, but it didn't really work. Onceit was about 9 A.M. London time I decided to stay awake. Once I got to London, I had to spenda couple hours in the airport. It was strange because they don't tell you your gate number untilhalf an hour before your flight, so I had to wait in this shopping mall/food court area until then.It was really tempting to go look in a shop, or get something to eat, but I decided against it sincethe pound coupled with airport prices is definitely out of my budget. The Finnair flight to Helsinkiwas nice because it was shorter, and the seats seemed a little roomier. I ordered the Veganmeal for all my flights too, which was also an interesting experience. For dinner on the BritishAirways flight they served a pasta with vegetables, salad, and other little items. Other than thepasta and the salad, though, nothing else was vegan. Luckily, I'm not really vegan. I wasvegetarian when I ordered the meals, but I'm still happy that I got the vegan meal becauseI didn't want to get anything that might upset my stomach. The vegan breakfast was prettyinteresting. It consisted of a fruit bowl and a vegan/gluten free cinnamon donut with soy yogurtfrosting. Pretty gross. The Finnair vegan/gluten free dinner was pretty weird too. It was a pieceof tempeh with broccoli, potatoes, and a weird clear gravy-gel sauce that tasted like the smell ofa generic Asian grocery store.Once the Finnair flight arrived in Helsinki, we got off the plane and had to stand on a bus in thecold. It was pretty awesome, though, since it was the first time I had been in the fresh air for aday. The Helsinki airport wasn't very stressful. I just showed them my visa, picked up my bags(which arrived safely), and left. It was definitely a better experience than when I flew into Naritain Tokyo, which is huge, and has a bunch of customs/visa stuff that you have to go through.Well, I'm sorry is this is kind of "stream of consciousness," or whatever you want to call it.I'm still a little tired, but I want to write everything thing down before I forget. It's almost timefor me to call the cab, so wish me luck, and I'll try to write soon.

(i will format this later, but now it is not cut off. sorry)

I'm here

I've finally finished flying around the world, and I'm now in Finland. I'm at the hostel and exhausted. I tried to sleep on the plane, but unfortunately that never works. It's pretty cold outside, but not any worse that I expected. No snow, but some ice. The hostel has free wireless, but it doesn't have a pay phone. Right now, I have to go set up my bed and SLEEP!!!! I smell so bad that it is embarrassing, but I think I would fall asleep in the shower if I tried to take one, so I'll leave that to tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to arriving in Turku and having a place of my own. I am a little travel-ed out at the moment. I'll write more later...