Back to School

Tomorrow it will be 5 weeks that I have been in Finland. I really hate the cheesiness of saying time flies, but damn.

So far, what I can say for myself is that school has really taken the energy out of me. I know it has only been 3 years since I was in school, but that is 3 years of developing different habits than those needed of a student. Needless to say, I haven't been exploring that much because I just haven't found the time yet. I am working on prioritizing my life better so that I have time for things other than studying, but it's proving to be a slow process. The self-discipline that is needed of you as a student is hard to implement into your life, I've been reminded. This all being said, I love my courses so far! The following are some pictures of my school, but the photo credit is due to my roommate Valeria. 

Walking to school on the first day. This is Steve and me.

This is our campus, but really it is a science and business park that has a couple of classrooms and offices for our university.

We are surrounded by a bunch of science geeks.

More exciting than my school are the couple of adventures that I have gotten to go on. When we first got here our school organized a boat trip for us on the lake that my apartment is beside. They took us on a 3 hour boat cruise, this lake is huge! The trip was beautiful and thankfully we had sunshine for it. Photo credit is still due to Valeria. 

This is the boat we took!

Fishermen!

Magdalena, me, Steve, and Joe

That awkwardly tall thing in the distance is the ski jump where the ski jumpers go practice!

This is Lahti.

I can actually take credit for this photo, this is the view from the cruise!

I can also take photo credit for this one! This is the photo I took of the harbor :)

Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes, and they're not kidding! There is water everywhere here, it's amazing! Finns are also obsessed with trampolines, it's weird. Apparently it is common practice when showing someone your backyard and garden area to also show them your trampoline, and possibly even invite you for a jump. I think I might be in love with this custom, needless to say we have been jumping on the trampoline they have outside of our building by the lake! Photo credit goes to Valeria! 

It would appear that I've learned how to levitate.

I'm the one on the left!

This photo I can take credit for! :) This is the view of the lake from behind our building; I was standing right next to the trampoline.

I will write about a few more adventures, and then I'll save the rest for another time! On my second weekend in town Steve and I stumbled upon a bonfire that some Finns were having in the campgrounds behind our building and they invited us to join them! We made friends with them and one of them even lives in Lahti, his name is Teemu, and we have hung out with Teemu a couple other times now. It is nice to have a Finnish friend already. 

Bonfire with new friends.

Our school took us on a trip to Helsinki to see the main campus of our university, but Valeria and I decided to stay in Helsinki after the tour and explore the city! It was amazing to see the Baltic Sea for the first time! It was also refreshing to see some beautiful architecture, because admittedly Lahti is pretty ugly when it comes to architecture. I am hopeful to move to Helsinki in January and at the latest in May. 

This is the capital building.

Beautiful church.

There is a lot of Russian influenced architecture in Helsinki.

I wouldn't mind living in one of these colorful houses.

The Baltic Sea!

The last thing that I will leave you with is a photo of my first time ever rolling my own sushi! It was Magdalena's birthday on September 20th and she wanted sushi for dinner. First we all went to sauna for 2 hours, which was grand, and then we rolled the sushi. I was intimidated by the idea of rolling my own sushi, but it's also something I've always wanted to try. Now I am really excited at the thought of doing it again because it was a success!

I roll my own sushi, no big deal.

The birthday girl displaying our beautiful, handcrafted rolls.