Tallinn, Estonia!

Last week I was fortunate enough to go on two amazing trips! The perks of going to school in Finland are many, but at the top of the list for me is the opportunity to travel within Europe rather affordably! I mean half the battle of traveling to Europe is the airfare, but once you're already in Europe the flights between countries are relatively inexpensive! I'm looking forward to checking more countries off my list over the next 2 years. 

I took my first journey out of Finland, since moving here, last Tuesday; four of my classmates and myself travelled to Estonia. Magdalena, Joe, Steve, Rene, and I took a cruise from Helsinki to Tallinn (the capital of Estonia). At 9pm our ship left Helsinki, and after 3 short hours the boat docked in Estonia. The boat company, Viking Line, offers really cheap "day" trips to Estonia at 20 euros per person. While the boat technically leaves on Tuesday night and arrives around midnight, they don't let you off the ship until 7am the next morning (Wednesday). At 7am you are forced to get off the ship, where you're then not allowed back on until 6pm that same evening, meaning you spend a 'day' of nearly 12 hours in Estonia. The boat sets sail again at 7pm, and you arrive back in Helsinki around 10pm - at which point that concludes the most inexpensive trip I've ever taken to another country! So on the journey to Estonia everyone just parties on the boat, and wakes up all groggy for their day in Tallinn; we followed suit. 

Much dancing ensued. 

This guy was the entertainment, in many senses of the word.

After the enjoyable evening partying with Finns, we retreated to our cabin, where we slept for a mere 3.5 hours before being forced off the ship. Thankfully we were forced off the ship, otherwise I probably would have slept away my whole trip. When we initially got off the ship it was freshly dawn, so it was rather dark outside. We decided to hide out and have a proper breakfast in a cafe until the sun came out. After breakfast we spent the day exploring the old part of Tallinn - there is the old town and the new town - and we were focused on checking out the historical part. We were also lucky enough to have our own personal tour guide in the afternoon, because one of Magdalena's old classmates lives in Tallinn. Her friend took us around the whole afternoon showing us some of the spots that are less often ventured to by tourists.

The entrance to the old town. 

I found a piece of home in Tallinn!

The architecture was beautiful.

I really liked these door knockers, I might steal this idea if I ever own a home.

Steve and myself. The walls were all brick and beautiful, and so many doors were in this old, wooden style.

Looking at the old town from the top of the city.

Looking at the new town from the top of the city.

I'm an Asian tourist in Tallinn.

Here is the sun shining in the square in the center of town. They were setting up the Christmas market while we were there.

Although it was a long day of walking around, nearly 12 hours, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Tallinn. The city was beautiful and quaint, the food was cheap, the weather was pleasant, and the company was great! Plus I got to ride on a boat! :-) I highly recommend taking a day trip to Tallinn if the opportunity ever presents itself.

Bloom where you are planted.

Have I ever mentioned that I have the coolest sister-in-law ever?! It's true, she's the greatest, and I wouldn't trade her for the world! :) Lauren has sent me multiple pieces of love in the mail, and one of them was an epic package that contained so many great things! The point is to tell you that she mailed me a packet of forget-me-not seeds, and I planted them about two weeks ago now. I already have baby flowers and it's been so fun to watch my them bloom in my kitchen while everything outside is shedding its summer skin. 

I love, love, love them! :)

Meanwhile, as I probably don't need to tell any of you, because I'm fairly confident that anyone that actually reads my blog is in the United States, but just in case: OBAMA WON!!!!!!!!!!! 2 terms and another 4 years to make revolutionary change, I hope! Maybe I'm being too idealistic, optimistic, or both, but I don't care! This election was funny for me because literally everyone I encountered before election time, upon learning that I am an American, would ask me what I thought was going to happen. My response to people's inquiries was always that I had my fingers crossed, and they always knew what I meant. It was eye opening being abroad for a presidential election, because I realized how much the American elections affect the whole world. Whether people like the United States or not, they recognize that it is an extremely powerful nation, and therefore everyone has a vested interest in who is the next president of the United States. Needless, to say, it was a very enlightening experience. Everyone that did speak with me about the election would also always give me a look of desperation, hoping that I would be the reason that Obama got re-elected, but spoiler alert, my vote never counts, at least now while I'm registered in Arizona.  It was fun having the election results rolling in on my Wednesday morning (time differences are so bizzarre) so I was kind of a bad student and sat in the back of class and watched the election results from my computer! I mean, hey, it's the most important thing that happens ever 4 years, so I was justified in being a bad student! 

#2terms #4moreyears #obama

A couple of Sundays ago now, Valeria and I went on a stroll to the city center and back. You truly have to soak up the rays of sunshine when you get them here, or you'll regret it on those grey days where you never really know if it's day time or night time. Actually, as I write this the sun is on my back and it's instantly therapeutic when you see those rays coming through your window! :) But anyways, on Valeria's and my excursion we stumbled upon the only cool piece of street art in Lahti. I love beautiful street art, and it calms me down to know that Lahti at least has this cool piece because otherwise how could they honestly say they're a European city?! 

Of course it has to do with cross-country skiing, everything in this country really is kind of focused around the snow!

School is still going well, I just can't believe that I'll be home in 30 days from today! Insane! Meanwhile, I've gotten myself involved in a bigger green roof experiment  and I'm really excited about it! I will be burying pyramid-shaped Lipton green tea bags in green roofs in Helsinki to see how effective the green roofs are at decomposing litter. I'm really thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of this study because this is exactly the kind of stuff that I am very passionate about. Next Tuesday I will be going to Helsinki to bury the tea bags on the numerous green roofs around the city with some of the professors from the main campus. Yesterday, however, Valeria and I did the grunt work of numbering, weighing, and soaking the tea bags in preparation for burying them. We had to soak them in order to get all the leachate out so that this variable doesn't affect the weight difference of how much 'litter' is truly decomposed. These are the reasons that it would be ideal to become a professor some day, so that I can make other minions do the grunt work, but we just turned up the music and had fun with it! :)

We tied the tea bags to this rack so that they could soak in the sink.

Letting the leachate soak out in hot water.

Freshly rinsed tea bags ready to dry for two days!

The other things I can tell you, hmm, well I've been watching a lot of movies to fill my downtime! I am so proud of myself for not spending money on frivolousness these days, but rather movie nights with friends have become a regular occurrence.  I recently have discovered how many Roald Dahl books there are that I'm not familiar with, and that has become the newest obsession, and therefore we have been watching the Roald Dahl movies! The Witches, Matilda, and James and the Giant Peach have all been watched in the past 2 weeks alone! We typically watch the movies at Magda's place because she actually has a couch, but there is the added benefit of getting to visit with the bunnies! 

She never calls them by their names, so I'm not sure what they are, they are rather known as bunny boy and bunny girl!

Oh and last bit of SUPER exciting news! I am going to COPENHAGEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be spending Thanksgiving in Copenhagen with a good, old friend from high school. Jenna and her boyfriend will be in Copenhagen for Jason's work, and she asked if I'd care to join them on their adventure. Obviously this was an easy decision, and I'm sooo excited to go explore this town that I have heard so many amazing things about! It's perfect timing for them to be in Europe as well because it'll help me to feel a little closer to home this Thanksgiving by spending it with a friend from home! Eeeee I can't wait!!! 

7 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!

The snow has begun

Even though as I write this now, the snow has already melted, and it's back to rain, it is still noteworthy that it has already snowed. To be exact, the snow started last Friday, as in it was still October! I couldn't believe it! Here is proof. 

It was beautiful.

What I'm fearful of, however, is how long winter will drag on if it's already begun snowing in October. Then again, what did I expect? I moved to Scandinavia after all :) And more than the fear of the winter dragging on, I just can't believe how early the sun is setting. The sun is already setting at 4pm, and obviously it'll only get worse for the next month and a half :-/ Thankfully I have been running virtually every day and it's keeping my spirits up! Releasing all of those endorphins really works like magic. Last week I was getting ready for a run and it wasn't until after I got dressed and was about to walk out the door that I realized I was wearing multiple items from Hendricks County (where I grew up in Indiana). I laughed and thought it was worthy of a photo.

I laughed because these shorts are from middle school, yet they still fit. The perks of never really growing.

Even though winter feels like it is already here because of the snow, that doesn't mean that I am letting go of fall time. I technically still have another month and a half before I have to admit to myself that it's winter. In other words, I have been drinking copious amounts of pumpkin coffee that Katherine graciously mailed to me! :) I have received so many amazing fall time packages, and I can't thank everyone enough! It feels good to know how loved I am! My favorite care package item received to date is an amazing corn cob mug that Katherine sent me in the same package as the pumpkin coffee! My best friend really gets it :)

Best mug ever!

Let it be known, however, that I haven't let the snow slow me down! I'm impressed with myself because if you know me well you'll know how much I hate hate hate being cold. But I figure I can't afford to pout about the cold, because otherwise I'll be pouting for a very long time. Yay for having a better positive mental attitude about winter then I've ever had.

I love snow!

The photo above was taken last weekend when Steve, Joe and I went out to the local bar. The reason these details are worth sharing are because when we were leaving we saw this amazing hair style.. 

Apparently this is an option...

Sometimes I don't understand what people define as attractive, but then again I guess that's the irony of how beautiful humans are for not all being the same. Speaking of beautiful, I dressed up as a ridiculous looking gypsy for Halloween this past week! This was a very impromptu costume, because a: I didn't really have the resources to spend on a costume this year and b: we didn't have big plans so I didn't give it much thought. All in all, I'm pleased with being able to have put together this gypsy get-up with the resources I had in my closet. And as far as my Halloween celebration, it wasn't the most exciting, but they all can't be as exciting, but it was a nice low-key night. What mattered most was that Joe and Magdalena celebrated their first Halloween; I couldn't be more proud to help them celebrate for the first time! I love forcing Halloween on anyone that's never celebrated before, since it's not only my favorite holiday, but also a civic duty! :) I bought them candy since that is how a proper Halloween is obviously celebrated.

Unicorn, gypsy, lumberjack, and Frida Kahlo

A better photo of the ridiculous gypsy costume I came up with.

Oh and here's an amazing throwback from a Halloween past, where Alex and I were obviously killing it as a conehead and a power ranger!

We also went to Valeria's and my friend Ulla's house last night for a belated Halloween celebration, it was fun! Valeria met Ulla through couch surfing, and last night was the first time that I got to finally meet her. It was refreshing being in a home, rather then being in these dorm style apartments that we live in. Ulla has been very helpful to us since we have been here, she is actually who we borrowed sleeping bags and sleeping pads from for our camping trip. It's been nice finding welcoming Finns to hang out with.

I love any and all Halloween decorations, so fun!

Ulla has two cuddly cats, it was nice being around pets!

Other exciting things to report.. well I got to go to Helsinki again this past Thursday to attend an award celebration for those of us who received the International Student Grant. So Steve and I went to Helsinki for the celebration and then stayed in the city afterwards and hung out with his friends that he met during a summer school course he took in Helsinki last year. We had a lot of fun running around Helsinki with his friends, I can't wait to hopefully move there next semester. It felt good to be in the city where it is lively and full of energy. Oh and you can go creep this article that I was interviewed for about being a grant recipient, don't mind how awkward I look in the photo, the photographer was kind of an idiot. http://www.helsinki.fi/news/archive/11-2012/2-12-22-31.html

It was rather cloudy out, but I can't get enough of the ocean no matter when I see it.

Before the grant celebration we had time to walk around a market. As you can see they were serving a reindeer plate, so gross. 

The celebration was mildly fancy, with free champagne and a pianist to entertain us!

 The last exciting thing to report this time is that I have had some fun interactions with the beautiful birds that live around my building. I cleaned my flat last week and put the rugs outside on the balcony to air them out, and the next time that I went into the kitchen I realized that a bird was on the rug picking out the crumbs! What a great symbiotic relationship the birds and I have, they do my cleaning for me! :)

This little guy was going to town! 

 But then a couple of days later we realized that the birds had really been getting into our apple collection, which we keep on the balcony. Look how perfectly the birds had eaten this apple! Thankfully there are plenty to go around.

Job well done! 

Nothing else exciting this time around, school is going well, and it feels good to be investing in my future. But I can't wait to have a month off coming up so soon! It'll be great to see everyone, and to soak up some warm sunshine!