What the Helsinki!

I couldn't write for a long time. I was so amazed by the life here in Finland that I didn't really use my phone or social media. So I think it's not so bad. I can live a life here that I have always wanted. No stress, no worries, just you, your friends, a lot of sport and healthy food. There is just one thing that I can mention as a disadvantage: my loved ones aren't with me and I can't share my moments with then just through the internet. But let's go to the interesting part of my text. I signed up for ESN Lapland trip and I think this decision was one of my best in my life. It's not cheap, not at all, but can you imagine a week in a fairytale? Because it is, it's a fairytale that is real, I see it, I feel it, I live it. We had a whole day on bus with some stops in Kemi, where we visited the snow castle and in Rovaniemi. Rovaniemi is the "capital" of Lapland where the Santa Claus lives. You can visit him and take a picture with him. He said that "see you at Christmas" so I hope he will bring me some present. Of course I've already got my present with having the chance to come here. I'm so glad. You van send postcard to your relatives or friends. I felt like I'm in a movie, incredible! We arrived to Saariselkä, to our destination, at night and next day was day of husky safari. One of my favorite film from my childhood is Snowdog. When I watched it, I had never thought that I would ever do anything like this, but a dream came true, I drove a husky sledge trough a beautiful landscape. After the ride we could be with "our" dogs, I got new friends, they were licking my face and gave me a lot of love. Afternoon we went for a walk to discover the town and nature. We saw the sunset and had fun in the snow. We tried to go through the snow where there was no pathway with more or less success. I' m really happy that every time when there is a meal included activity they pay attention for my food allergies (gluten, egg and dairy product). It surprised me. I haven't got used to this kind of kindness and attention.

I love being here! There are so many beautiful day!!! I got a parcel from home in which my mom sent me a lot of useful things. I was so so happy. But if it’s not enough I bought my first meat here in Finland. Well, yeah, it doesn’t seem to be a BIG thing but for me it was. I prepared some chili con carne from that. And the day didn’t end, I found also cheap yoga mat to do my daily yoga in a more comfortable way aaaaand some christmas lights to my room! It’s awesome! It had half prize and my room looks cozy now. I was so happy that I can’t express it in words. Next day we went on a little lazy Helsinki tour. I use the lazy word because we decided that we won’t hurry if we see something good place we will look around/go in without any plan. Of course we had some plans. We were in the catherdral, by the sea and in the market hall, my favourite part. I couldn’t decide what to taste and buy and eat and deink and I don’t know what else but it was the place where I can spend a whole day. I bought reindeer sausage as well. I wasso curious about the flavour and I didn’t regret it. It was damn good! We were in a n orthodox temple as well, it was like in a fairy tail. I liked it so much. If you don’t know I tell you that I’m addicted to coffee, I’m addicted to GOOD coffee (just to make clear it). It means that I had planned my coffee tour in Helsinki before I came here. Our first cafe was Johan & Nyström. It was such good idea to try it. We drank perfect non-diary coffee and ate raw vegan cake as I have allergie to dairy produckts, egg white and gluten. I think I don’t have to explain it how glad I was that I could eat something sweet. The enteriour and atmosphere were friendly I felt like being in a house of my friend.

Snow, snow, snow everywhere! I think I start to fed up with snow. I love it but not for months! The path is slippery whereever you go and I look like a pinguin who has just started to walk for the first time. At least it's not cold. The temperature is around 0 celsius, in Hungary it's -14. My friends and parents can't believe it that I'm here at the northern part of Europe and there is such a big difference between the two countries. My last week was full of sports and studying for a pre-test. Of course we missed it... We were in big studying with Evelin when we wanted to check where the test will take place. We logged in the webmail sysytem of UH (University of Helsinki) and we got to know that it was on monday and it's thuesday night. I was sure that it's a sign that we should delete this lecture from our schedule and find something easier than the insects that go to grain and cause spoilage. Yes, the material was like this...full of things that I've never heard about in my life! And it was 100 pages...no way! We don't need this. So we will sign up for a book exam. There is a book that you just have to study and take the exam without going to lecture, PERFECT! I was sooo happy! We celebrate it with a big shopping. Here on the shopping trolley there are tablets!! So modern! In Alko where you can buy stronger alcohol we found hungarian wine as well. It was the cheapest one...well maybe I was not so proud but at least I found something hungarian here!

Freetime!!! Yes! The most interesting! Last weekend we looked around in Helsinki with ESN Helsinki Uni. It was 2 hours and for me it was not enough from the city. I love Helsinki! Maybe there's mot so many sights here, but more programme that you can do. On Sunday we go to Cafe Regatta. All the exchange student said that it's the best in Helsinki especially because of the atmosphere. I understood it when we got there. Everybody drank coffee/tea (it's 2€ and you van refill it, fantastic!!!) around the fire with blankets. It was really cosy. At the middle of the week I was in a brewery, Stadin Panimo. My friend, Evelin doesn't like beer so I went alone, but I didn't regret it at all!! It was soo fun. Everybody was so-so friendly that a stranger would have thought that we've been friends for several years! Anyway the beer was perfect. We drank a pale ale and a stout (5.6 and 6.5% of alcohoo content). Aaand the last programme of week was of course party! We didn't want to go to the city centere because we had to study for the test but the others persuaded us to go and it was awesome! We were in the Capital, they said that it's the best. We had to pay 8€ to go in and the cloakroom was 3€... I just took a big breatg and gave my credit card. I haven't got used to the prices yet. The music was not so good but we danced all night until the palce stopped the music.

Well, first week in the school. It's totally different from my home university in Hungary. The teachers are really precise and handle us in almost the same way as they do it with finnish students. Yes, that's mean that we have a lot of homework and there was a big suprise for me, we have to write a pre-test from Cereal Processing from 100 pages next week. It was like a cold shower, but I'm sure that if I'm be able to prepare for the test I will learn a lots of new things. The finnish language course is harder than I thought. Not because of the teacher, we have a really enthusiastic teacher, but the language....finnish language isn't similar to any other language. Everybody said thats hungarian is similary but I haven't recognised it yet. The Unicafe is really good, it's cheap (2,60€ with student card) and you can choose from at least 4 types of food. You can put so many food on your plate what you are not ashamed. So it really worths! The buildings are modern and I feel like I'm a big university student here. But I don't want to speak just about the school, let's see what else happened to me!

We are here by now in the collage room at vuoluventie, it’s the name of the street where we live. Nobody can imagine how many times do I had to check it on the internet to memorize and spell it in the right way. A lot of time…a lot of time that I will never get back, but do you know what took more time? Shopping. After we got here we went to shopping to buy common things to our room. I couldn’t find a thing written in english so my biggest dilemma was the last picture. I wanted to buy a simple pepper and I tried to figure it out which of these two it is. Of course there was no internet connection to search online. After 15 minutes of hard thinking I got help and none of them was simple pepper. I still don’t know the difference between these two things and what they are but it would be too much power in my hands at the moment. Now I just enjoy to be here.

And what happened after that? Still in progress...