Am I Really Half-Way Done?

Well, it's the middle of December and I can't believe I'm halfway done! Such a strange feeling. It feels like the semester was such a blur of emotions and events. Ian and I are leaving for Vienna on Tuesday! YEEEEE! But, this evening a big group of us went to get pizza and everyone wants to meet to say good-bye and spend time with you. The goodbye's just don't seem real! We're all pretty adjusted to Finland but so many people are leaving soon. Jyvaskyla gets about four hundred exchange students in the fall semester so you can imagine how strange it will be when most of the students leave! There's a good group of students staying the entire year, most of them being French. :) And this means I will be speaking French. So, that's the most recent thing right now! Everyone  leaving...

My culture shock is becoming easier to deal with! I feel accustomed to missing people, Montana, MSU, America, my 'real' life. The gratitude list is amazing! Ian was funny today. I bought the Frank Sinatra Christmas album today and listened to it three times. I told Ian how happy the christmas music made me, because I never had time to enjoy the holiday season since I was working. And he replied "everything makes you happy." Of course, he said this sarcastically. But I couldn't help but be happy by his comment (obviously), why shouldn't I be happy with simple things? Silly Ian... :) Life is exponentially better in Finland.

I went to my first "pikkujoulu" (Christmas party) a few weekends ago with Anu. It is so refreshing to hang out with Finns, people who have normal lives and aren't living in shit apartments that are only for exchange students. We drank a drink called glogi, which is essentially heated red wine, juice with some almonds and raisins. And we continued to eat our body weights in baked goods and chips. :)

I had my FOUR Finnish exams the last two weeks. Holy crap do Finnish schools take their tests seriously. Firstly, I had a dialogue. I was partnered with RoseAnna, a Dutch, and Samantha, an Italian. And basically, we totally winged it. After learning Finnish for a mere three months we had to prepare a five minute dialogue! We survived... Then there was the listening exam, that was a disaster for me! Listening is SO hard, especially because it seems they are speaking so fast! Again, I passed and survived. Written exam! My forte! I rocked that exam, me and my verb conjugating skills. Lastly, we had another speaking exam! The teacher was highly critical. I figured we just had to say something. No, not the case. I had to precise! We were given pictures with every day activities and had to describe them. Two of my pictures involved the character watching TV, what verb did I forget? To watch. My answer: "Han ei luke" = He is not reading. Good, Mariah.

There's the update! Hopefully, I can update during my travels. Firstly, I will fly to Vienna then go to Germany to see Christoph. Back to Vienna, spend Christmas there. :) Afterwards, we'll probably go to Prague. We haven't completely decided. :)

Gratitude.

I have no idea why some of this has a white background, I haven't figured it out quite yet.

grat·i·tude

noun the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful

As Thanksgiving rolls around I’ve been thinking quite a bit about gratitude and what I’m thankful for. The usual: great family and friends, school, a healthy body, etc. But I’ve learned a new form of gratitude: accepting Finland and being away from the wonderful U.S. before I go nuts.

A few days ago I had a huge ‘culture shock.’ It includes:

·         Extreme homesickness

·         Desire to avoid social settings which seems threatening or unpleasant

·         Physical complaints

·         Sleep disturbances

·         Difficulty with coursework and concentration

·         Loss of your sense of humor

·         Boredom or fatigue

·         Hostility toward the host culture

Basically, I was hysterically crying and seriously considered booking a flight home at the end of the semester. I got so fed up with not being able to see my family, friends that I don’t have to tone down my English for, and school that I cared about. I would have done anything to go home that weekend, and I almost did. Thankfully I didn’t! It was such a pain in the ass to get over here in the first place. Anyways, I very much experienced all of these things and learned a lot about myself and studying abroad. Firstly, I’ve been missing Montana like crazy and been feeling so hostile towards Finland. It’s not Finland’s fault I chose to move here. J I haven’t gone out in literally weeks, I had to buy an eye cream because of dark circles, I sleep way too much (does this count as a sleep disturbance?), my moods have been out of control, I failed that damn Finance exam, and I’ve been ‘bored’ with my experience. I had no idea this was what culture shock was. I imagined this feeling when I first arrived of adjusting to extremely strange things. In reality, the language was the strangest thing to me when I first got here but then I realized nearly everybody speaks English. I wasn’t prepared for my emotion center to be totally out of whack or that culture shock essentially equals my adjustment to being away. Obviously the advisors covered this during the orientation but how can I pay attention to things like that when I just want to figure out how to get all my stuff overseas?

I think studying abroad for a whole year is so different than one semester; probably the main reason for this is year-long exchange students don’t have something to look forward to at the end of the semester. We don’t have Christmas Eve followed by a great Christmas day with family. We don’t get to tell all of our experiences and say how great and amazing it was, because we’re still not home. This is probably the hardest thing. I think why I had my momentary freak out was due to going to Amsterdam and expecting to come back to a place that feels like home, whereas I came to a place I haven’t fully adjusted to yet. The things I do get to look forward to are so neat though! First, Ian and I are visiting Christoph in his hometown near Munich. I also get to see his girlfriend, Simone, who is such an awesome girl and I’m bummed she doesn’t live in Finland too. Then, we’re going to Vienna because Ian’s aunt lives there and that’s where we’ll spend Christmas. After that I may go to Berlin or London to visit Amy and David (Meg’s niece and boyfriend). So I have some pretty awesome things coming up! It’s very easy to forget about these awesome things when all you can think about is beautiful Montana snow and mountains.

To cure my boredom and hostility toward Finland I write down one thing every day that I’m grateful for in Finland or my study abroad experience. It’s literally a list in a little notebook. And, for the last four days it has helped! So, here is my ‘Gratitude List’ thus far:

11.19- Not being in Montana because the Bobcats got killed by the Griz. I’m glad I won’t be  hounded by obnoxious Grizzlies this year. FTG!

11.20- Jyväskylä Christmas Market.

11.21- SNOW! Finally.

11.22-   1. Being good at conjugating Finnish verbs.

2. RoseAnna, my Dutch friend, who also will not see her family over Christmas because she is staying until January.

3. Finland having the perfect amount of snow now, I can still ride my bike.

4. The option to retake tests! I never want to revisit that Finance book again…

I’m grateful for my gratitude list! It truly is helpful when I’m feeling down and now everybody knows the downs of studying abroad. J Hopefully happy blogs from here on out!

P.S. FTG. Go Cats Go!

Amsterdam!

Finally! My blog about Amsterdam, it is almost three pages long so hopefully you understand why it took me a few days.

Most people think of Amsterdam as the city of legalized marijuana and prostitution. Thankfully, I got to find so much more!

Day 1, November 5: Ian and I meet Stephen and Erin at 6:30 to catch our bus to get to Helsinki. Getting out of Finland is the biggest pain, traveling inside Finland was worse than the actual two and a half hour plane ride to Amsterdam. We’re all still a little confused with the public transportation system, probably because all they speak is Finnish and we have to change buses a few times to go straight to the airport. We asked the driver where we need to transfer and he told us only once, in Tampere. So, we change buses and are feeling pretty accomplished! There were a few more stops along the way to pick up more people. There was one stop where the new driver said something but we wrote it off because we knew we only had one stop. That was wrong. Apparently, the airport in Helsinki is about twenty minutes away from the city center; where did we end up? The center of Helsinki. So, after our 40€ taxi to take us back in the direction we came, we got to the airport! We did the normal airport thing and got on our flight. If anybody is in the EU and is flying to Amsterdam on the KLM airline…you get free Heineken. J We drank a lot of Heineken in those four days. David (Meg’s niece’s boyfriend whom I’ve met a few times prior to Amsterdam) lives about fifteen minutes outside of Amsterdam and he picked us up from the airport then took us to our hostel. We got our own bathroom! This is a really impressive thing for hostels. Then we decide we were famished (and needed more Heineken). We walked around, and by then it was dark, and the entire city was lit up and looked amazing. We found an Italian restaurant (among the many) with real Italians! Woo! They told us we got free bread, so they won us over. Our first dinner was a lot of pizza and beer with Italians swearing at each other.

Fun Fact: There are literally three or four ‘coffeeshops’ on every street. ‘Coffeeshop’ in Amsterdam equals place that sells weed.

Day2, November 6: We got to sleep in! We needed it after our bus fiasco. And the beds in the hostel were more comfortable than our actual beds in Finland, isn’t that sad? We took full advantage of our beds and pillows. We walked around and looked for breakfast. After a lot of debating over which place to go we found an awesome bakery. It had great cinnamon rolls, bagels, muffins, good and easy breakfast food. I got a bagel with goat cheese, walnuts and honey…it was delectable! I’ve never liked goat cheese before visiting Holland. We find our way to Dam Square to meet up with David. There were many street performers. Dam Square is the area in my facebook pictures with the tall monument and the royal palace. There is a lot of room for people to perform; this is the picture of Darth Vader and King Neptune. There was also Freddy Krueger and some other weird costumes, I was really only interested with Darth Vader. We met David and found some bikes to rent! Stephen and Erin decided not to rent bikes and walk around the city for the day. Ian, David and I rode about an hour to Zaandam, his home town. I loved, loved, loved this part of The Netherlands. It’s so green and beautiful! It’s actually a big tourist hot spot because of the windmills. There were so many of them! They’re massive and very historic looking. We got to visit a clog making museum where you can also buy real clogs to take home with you; I really wanted a pair by the way but I settled with a small knick-knack sized one. They used the clogs for a lot of different things; since Holland is so wet they had to use them to keep their feet dry while working outside. Another example: there were clogs for weddings with intricate carvings or clogs for walking across ice with little spikes on the bottom. After that we went to a cheese museum. I’ve never tasted such fantastic cheese! I will never eat cheddar again. Why? It’s not real cheese. Cheese does not turn yellow, it is an added dye. And cheese is formed in a circle shape, not blocks. I could have eaten cheese all day. I decided to buy the pesto cheese, it’s the bright green cheese in my pictures. J Let me tell you, it makes the very best grilled cheese.

After getting to see great landscape we went to David’s home where his mom cooked us a traditional Dutch meal. Sadly, I can’t remember the name but it was mashed potatoes mixed with sausage and a spinach-like green. She also made some really great soup. It felt so good to have Mom’s homemade cooking again.

We got back to the city centre and are dying to go out and explore some more. We’re strolling around where we see some random red lights but think nothing of it. And then we see a girl dancing in a window with only a bra and underwear on. I’ll give you three chances to guess where we were. 

I loved The Red Light District. It sounds strange, I know, but it’s so fascinating! Literally, there are girls in windows all down a street. If there is a red light lit above the window it signals that there is a girl ‘working.’ Another fun fact: the blue light district is for transvestites. Don’t worry, we only saw one. We sat in a bar for two hours just watching ‘business transactions’ with the prostitutes. Erin and I were very intrigued with The Red Light District.

Day 3, November 7: We had to switch hostels. We loved our first hostel because we didn’t have to share a room with fifteen other people. But, we could not afford the nicer one all four nights. Our new hostel had twenty beds in one room and one giant bathroom for two of these giant rooms to share. I’m so happy we went at an off time of the year because we were the only ones in the room and bathroom. The new hostel was very clean and convenient so it worked out. Erin and I decided to go wander by ourselves on Monday, the boys wanted to go find a certain coffeeshop. We went to the Erotic Museum! It was a good thing to do with another girl. We just thought it hilarious and weren’t freaked out by all the intense artwork. It really is a porn museum but we still had fun! And it gave us another excuse to visit The Red Light District again. Afterwards we went to the giant Heineken store, which of course we loved. There are bottles painted as the Sistine Chapel, Christmas Heineken, almost anything you can imagine. I bought a little souvenir package for 5€ that comes with a painted bottle and two small Heineken glasses and some new headphones (I needed new ones anyways and Heineken presented the perfect opportunity to buy new ones). We finally met back up with the boys and we decided to see the Torture Museum. We had so much fun at the Torture Museum. There were medieval torture devices, like a chair with spikes on it and people would have to sit on it while somebody tightens the straps to make them go deeper onto the spikes. Or a real life chastity belt! Those looked scary… or an iron maiden. Unfortunately, there is no record of an iron maiden ever actually being used. I’m bummed I didn’t take any pictures! I thought it was against museum etiquette to take pictures.

That night, we ate a ‘shoarma’ which is thinly sliced lamb with vegetables and some kind of a delicious sauce in a tortilla shell. Amsterdam has a crazy amount of international food: Argentina, Brazil, Indian, Spanish, Italian, Greek, so much! The best late night food: frosted waffles. 

Day 4, November 8: Another great day of walking around and gazing at the great architecture. Today was the day we got to see the Anne Frank house! Erin and I were looking forward to this for weeks. It’s truly an amazing experience. They’ve turned it into a great museum. We got a tour through the entire building from the office space through the annex. Everything they owned was confiscated when they were arrested so they left the rooms empty and wrote exerts from the diary on the walls and posted some artifacts that were found. At the end there’s another really nice museum that talked about what happened to Anne Frank and her family after they were arrested. We saw the actual diary she wrote in, she also revised it because she wanted it to be published so we got to see those pages as well. It was in German so we didn’t understand it but it was still very moving. We also saw a video of the concentration camps, which is still so horrifying to see. The Dutch actually are still not very fond of the Germans because of the invasion in World War 2. When they invaded Holland they decided it was necessary to bomb it when Holland’s army was nearly nonexistent anyways.

After we made ourselves happy again and got some lunch, the boys wanted to go to the Sex Museum (there is a difference between the Erotic Museum and the Sex Museum). They were not prepared with what they were about to see. They were freaked out by the ‘intense’ pictures and wanted to get out quickly. Erin and I had no sympathy since we saw it twice. J

Our last meal was at a great Spanish restaurant. We ordered delicious sangria and wonderful tasting food. The last thing we did in Amsterdam was find the Dampkring coffeeshop because a scene from Oceans 12 was filmed there.

We were not looking forward to traveling back to Finland the next day.

Day 5, November 9: We come back to Finlandia! And it welcomed us back by being colder than when we left.  But, now I get to look forward to Lapland.

Moral of the story: put Amsterdam down on your bucket list because it’s an incredible city that I would gladly visit again.

My First Exam Across The Pond

As I've said earlier, the schooling is easier compared to what I'm used to in the U.S. Normally at this time of year I would be barried in homework, living in the library, working too much, not sleeping enough and already wishing it was Thanksgiving break. Not here. The students are expected to be more independent in their learning. For me, homework does not exist. Yes, you read that correctly. If there is a slight chance of homework, it takes maybe ten minutes to finish. When I first started school I thought "Score. I'm so promoting Finland for study abroad futurees. This year is a piece of cake." (Not like I'm going to do the opposite now.)

My life is now comprised of sufficient Facebook stalking (sorry everyone), looking at plane tickets where I feel like going, running (a lot), actually cooking three meals a day, making my bed, and for about a month I was reading 'Introduction to Corporate Finance'. Many exchange students take book exam classes; you read a book and take a test on it. Simple enough, right? Wrong!

So I'm trying to teach myself seven hundred (SEVEN HUNDRED) pages of finance. Praise baby Jesus I know a little accounting and statistics. After finally finishing the absurd amount of information, I took my test on Friday. My first thought looking at the exam: "Fuuuuuuccck." There were only three questions all in which were supposed to be roughly a page long of written responses. Did the professor give me example questions or any sort of aid? Nope. (It would be unfair to the other tortured students.) What has MSU tought me up to this point? That I impressingly excel at bullshitting. I managed to write a page and a half for all three questions with at first glance thinking I'm another dumb American.

University of Jyvaskyla: 1
Mariah: -700 pages

Finnish Language

For anyone who is curious what Finnish looks like, here is a small homework assignment I had to do. It's just talking about myself, what I like to do, my family, etc. It's pretty interesting!

Moi!

Mun sukunimi on Mariah ja mun etunimi on White. Mä olen kotoisin Yhdyhsvaloista, siis mä oon Amerikalainen ja mun aidinkieli on englantia. Mä puhun englantia, ranskaa, ja vähän suomea. Mä oon vaihto- opiskelijana Jyväskylässä, mä asun Kortepohjassa. Mä opiskelen liiketalonstiedetta.

Mulla on kolme pikkusisko: Alyssa on seittemäntoista vuotta vanha, Julia on viistoista vuotta vanha, ja Carly on kakstoista vuotta vanha. Mulla on aïtï nimi on Erin. Sulla on mies, Patrick. Hän puhuu kreikana, arabia, ja latina. Mulla on isä nimi on Bob, sulla on vaimo, Meg. Meg sulla on poika, Tevin. Mulla on kaksi serkut: Bryan, kakskyt vuotta vanha; ja Kristin, kaheksantoista vuotta vanha. Mä oon kakskyt vuotta vanha. Mulla on koira, Buddy, hän oon “miniature-schnauzer.”

Mulla on poikaystävän, hän nimi on Ian. Sulla on kakskyt vuotta vanha. Hän syö pizza, käy saunassa, ja pelaa jalkapalloa amerikalainen. Hän ei puhu suomea. Hän tykkään historiaa mutta opiskelee liiketalonstiedetta.

Vapaa-aikana ma tykkään käydä lenkillasta. Mä tykkään bailata Jyvaskylassa. Mä tykkään vari sininen, viinista, ja suklaasta. Mä tykkään Jyväskylästä ja Suomesta.

Kiitos!

Lapland!

Thankfully, the website where I needed to book my Lapland trip created an option to use major credit cards. I am officially visiting November 21st through the 27th. Yay!

For those of you who are questioning what Lapland is, I'll explain it! It's the Arctic Circle of Finland! On my trip to Lapland I'll be staying in a log cabin with a sauna, of coarse. You can't go anywhere in Finland without a sauna being nearby. :) I signed up for a bus trip to the Arctic Ocean. There is a small strip of land which is Norway, but it is just above Finland on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. How tropical, right? But I'll be taking a bus to the Arctic Ocean! How many people have done that? So stoked. I also chose to do a husky sled ride, another thing I am excited for! Things included in the trip are: a tour to Santa Clause village (he technically lives in Finland), reindeer farm (!!), reindeer sleigh ride, and possibly seeing the northern lights. It's going to be a very traditional Finland adventure. Thank goodness my wonderful mother is mailing me snowpants. How could I come to Finland and forget snowpants?

It's getting cold in Finland, winter is on its way! I went on a run today, I wore running tights, a long sleeve, a jacket and a scarf! The scarf might have been much, but I wasn't sure! The leaves have all fallen off the trees; no more colorful Finland. Time for snow!

Winter is coming!

Recap of the Day 10.10

So today could have definitely been better, here is a recap of the day I wished I was in Bozeman.

1. While taking a shower, I was shaving my legs and bent down to pick up the shaving cream. I hit my head on the sink. Not only do I have a lovely lump on my forehead, but it's bruised and bruised so badly that it even has the purple spots in it. Great way to start the day!

2. It's pouring rain today. It's about a ten minute bike ride to campus and I showed up with my lovely bumped forehead with mascara running down my face.

3. I had to pick up my box from my parents at the customs post office; I have no idea where it is. I talk to a Finnish girl about where to find it, we figure it out for the most part. When I actually got to the bus stop, I realized I had no cash on me. Thank God for Pauline also walking with me and she lent me 3e10. So, I'm feeling nervous because apparently the English speakers weren't on this bus. It was up to me to figure out the stop to get off at. I failed. I got a round trip bus tour for half an hour. I went home without my box of peanut butter, winter clothes, and spices.

4. My bike was still on campus which is right by the city centre. I ride back home, I'm almost back when I notice my front tire is flat. Apparently I ran over the ONE tac on the sidewalk on the way home. It was stuck in my tire.

Finally when I made it back to the apartment, Ian was kind enough to let me vent. And vent a lot. I did buy more groceries, does that give me a right of passage? I thought so. I sat down to a cup of tea, trailmix, and the ending of Memoirs of a Geisha. Feeling more content than a few hours earlier.

5. Just to end the day. The Mormons show up. I guess they make house calls even in Finland, they were relieved when I spoke English. They're from, none other, Utah. Great. Now I have to defend my opinions when I'm about to finish my lovely book. They're 'scheduled' to come back next Thursday at 5:30; no I will not be in my apartment.

I'm going to get back to Memoirs of a Geisha, go to the sauna, and not dream about Bozeman, MT.

Most Awkward Conversation. Ever.

I was feeling a little down towards the end of this week missing Montana. But Saturday night changed my mood completely, thanks to the fabulous exchange students. We went to a pre-party, I yelled at Ian for telling Christoph he wants a highschool girl which led to everyone getting involved (of coarse, this was all in good fun),  and me and my classy self walked around with my bottle of Cotes du Rhone. We went to a club called Senssi, which I was pleasantly surprised by it! Probably because the huge group of people were the only ones dancing, but who cares. And Senssi actually has cheap drinks. Ian and I met a Finnish guy who studied int he U.S., he bought us a shot of some minty crap but we smiled when it went down to not only destroy our livers but our tastebuds for the rest of the night. It was practically a shot of Listerine; YUM. Regardless of the highschool girl fight and mint-shit shot the night was definitely a success.

Sunday comes. I decide I should do a little homework for my classes I don't care about. Erin (Note: Erin is also American) and I find a cute coffee shop, get situated and do more chatting than homework. Going to coffeeshops with a friend to do homework never actually works. We then go to one of the big stores, Sokos, to look around a bit. Don't forget this part: we were in the womens' hair styling section. Two men walk up to us. They're both dressed completely in black, one in a long trench coat. One has longer hair than me and round glasses. He. Was. So. Creepy. The other guy has black hair slicked back, also so creepy. Although his red Converse shoes made me like him more. This is how the conversation goes:

Creepy Guys: Hi, are you ladies exchange students?
Us: Uhh, yeah.
Creepy Guys: Oh, wow! From North America? (They could tell by our 'accents')
Us: Yes.
Creepy Guys: Where are you from?
Me: Montana.
Erin: Massachussetts
Creepy Guy With Red Converses (CGWRC): You know, the capital of Montana is a Finnish name.
Me: Yeah, Helena.
CGWRC smiles back. Awesome.
Creepy Guys: What do you study?
Me: Marketing.
Erin: Psychology.
Creepy Guy Who Needs a Haircut (CGWNAH): So, do you think we market ourselves good?
Us: What? (???????????? who says this?!)
Us: We don't understand your question.
CGWNAH: You know, like, first impressions kind of. Like what you think of a product when you first use it.
Us: Uhhhhhhhh.....
Erin: I don't know anything about marketing.
Creepy guys are still standing there awaiting our longed responses. And all we can think to say is 'Uhhhhhh.'
Erin: Well, we can't find what we came into the city centre for. We should probably get going.
CGWNAH: I can't help you find it!
Sidebar: Of coarse you can help us find, why am I not surprised?
Me: No, it definitely isn't here.
CGWNAH: So how can we continue this conversation?
Sidebar: What conversation?
Us: Uhhhhhhhh..... (of coarse)
CGWNAH: Can I get your phone numbers?
Sidebar: Giiiiiirrrrl can I get yo' numba?!
Erin: We don't have phones, it's too difficult.
Sidebar: I got a phone the very first day I got here.
CGWNAH: Can I have your e-mails?
Sidebar: We can't say we don't have e-mails! Dammit!
Me: I'm not comfortable giving you my information.
Sidebar: Great, now I'm a bitch.

They walk away. Erin and I decided we didn't need anything else and found an exit as quickly as we could.

Finland represent!

October 7 Round 2: Feelings After a Month

I feel that after a month, the honeymoon stage definitely wears off. You become emotional and annoyed with your host country. Obviously, not all things are bad.

Things I dislike about Finland:
1. Service is so slow. From a server's standpoint (or any customer service job) it is a business to be efficient and quick. Finns do not think like that. For example, an event is planned where 4,000 students are planning to attend. Bars do not staff more than two bartenders. The City Centre (downtown area, in Europe they always say city centre) was booming with people but it took at least a half hour to get a drink.

2. The coffee is gross. For how much coffee they drink, it tastes really bad. And it makes me miss CoffeeMate creamer, I know it's fake but it tastes so good! However, I am growing fonder of tea.

3. This is more of something I miss: peanut butter and Kraft macaroni. I know this is 150% American of me. One night I tried to make homemade macaroni and I failed miserably.

4. Schooling. I wish there were some middle ground between American and Finnish schooling! School here is not taken as seriously. Probably because its completely free. But American schools are way too expensive and a student cannot wait to graduage and be done. Here they take their time and study what they enjoy, which is something I do like. People should be free to study what they enjoy, not study for what makes the most money (which is what many Americans do, understandably so). I don't feel any motivation to try or do well in school, which is why I don't like it as much.

5. I miss the 406 so bad! Sometimes SO bad.

What I love about Finland:
1. The recycling! It's amazing here. Keep all the bottles and cans and you get $.15 to $.40 per can! That adds up to a lot! Also, you have to pay $.20 per grocery bag so there aren't any bags being wasted and polluted into the Earth. I bought a reusable one; I'm so green! ;)

2. How laid back the Finns are. It's very much like Montana, it is nice to be reminded of home on a regular basis.

3. You would be surprised how many exchange students they get here! I've met someone from probably every country in Europe, people from Australia, South America, North America, China, Japan, Africa, you name it! And everyone's here to have fun and get to know one another. And go to the sauna of coarse.

4. I bike everywhere! My legs are going to look so good when I come back to the U.S.

5. Traveling to Lapland (Arctic Circle Finland), Santa Claus, and reindeer.

I haven't decided about the rain yet.

October 7. Blog 2: The Battle of Nudity

It was requested I recap the awkwadness and dilema of going to the sauna naked.

The first weekend in Jyvaskyla there was the 'Ultimate Sauna Experience' and we baked in the sauna, swan in the lake, and ate sausages that were grilled over a fire. It's very Finnish! It was a blast! Of coarse, we can't have that kind of experience every weekend, somebody has to pay for the heat and sausages!

I decided I wanted to go to the sauna again, it's very relaxing and cleansing. Ian had been going to the sauna for a few weeks and I asked him if it was custom to go naked or wear a swimsuit like we did for the Ultimate Sauna Experience. He said it would be more awkward for me to wear a swimsuit. I think 'Okay, easy enough!' I go the sauna and sure enough, it definitely would have been weird if I wore a swimsuit. The girls were all Finnish and flaunting their Finnish bodies! The sauna was on the top of the roof, so there was a balcony we could go stand on in between sitting in the sauna. So my second sauna experience was actually more Finnish than the first.

Going to the sauna became a regular thing for me to do. However, if the girls are not Finnish they do not go naked. Therefore, I am this American girl running around naked. On top of that, the sauna that you can regularly go to is much smaller than this nice one the Finns normally go to. Six girls, five in swimsuits. Thanks guys!

I still go to the sauna naked. That is how it is meant to be done!

After a month, I have FINALLY started blogging.

After being in Finland for almost a month now, I have finally found the motivation to start writing about it. Until I head back to Montana, this will be quite an adventure.

Twenty seven hours was a brutal amount of time to travel. We left Missoula at 6:30 a.m. and until we got to Jyvaskyla, it was sit-and-stress about moving forward-and sit again. The train ride from Helsinki to Jyvaskyla was definitely not amusing, poor Ian was throwing up and we hadn’t learned “WC” means “Wash Closet” which is the bathroom. Little plastic bags did the trick.

Finally, we get to our destination! It’s raining, which now after living here, is no surprise. It is more surprising to have sunshine. That’s an adjustment from beautiful Montana. Aside from the rain, I fell in love with Finland instantly. It is clean, the people are open, and everyone is down to party.

Meeting people has been amazing. It is so easy to meet anyone from any given country; mostly Spain, France, and particularly Germany. The Germans and Finns strongly like each other. There are only six Americans, including Ian and myself. Stephen and Jason, from Oregon, have been awesome guys to talk with. A girl from Belgium practiced her slang with us, her practicing consisted of “white nigger.” From my American standpoint, this is hysterical. Absolutely hilarious. She loved making everyone laugh, probably because she is quite good at it.

Now, the sauna (sa-oon-a). Oh how I love the sauna! Such a Finn at heart. Sitting and cleansing the body. Many exchange students go in their swimsuits, that doesn’t quite capture the ‘curing’ part of the sauna. All Finns go naked, and I love it. Everybody is so open with their bodies, why wouldn’t they be? We’re all given the same parts aren’t we?

Lastly, I will encourage anybody who wants to take a year off or do something so rad to come to Finland. Everyone is laid-back, school is easy, and life is good here. Definitely the best place I could have chosen.