Living in Helsinki, Finland

I had a long weekend lasting from Thursday night till Sunday night in Amsterdam celebrating my roommate Pravan's 21st birthday. But this was by far the best weekend I've had since coming on exchange. I have never experienced something as wild and fun as I did this past weekend. I've been to Amsterdam for a day before with my brother Henry, but spending three full days in Amsterdam was completely different.

We flew in on Thursday night, so that day wasn't too crazy. We just checked into our hostel and dropped our bags off. The hostel, the Flying Pig Uptown, was in a great location in Uptown, Amsterdam. It was right near the Iamsterdam sign and the Van Gogh museum, a huge outdoor park, and lots of nightlife.

On Friday, we rented bikes, both tandem and individual, and we rode around the whole park and parts of the city. It was great weather outside and it was just a cool way to explore the city. Then we went to the Heineken Experience beer tour and met up with Pravan for his 21st birthday. Afterwards, we went out to dinner.

That night, Pravan and Alán bought us all bottle service at an awesome club called Escape in Amsterdam and it was one of the best nights of my life. I've never experienced anything like that before, and you feel like an actually celebrity balling out at a club having fancy bottles of alcohol being served to you.

The next day we met up for brunch, and then went to the Van Gogh Museum. The wait for the museum was about an hour long, and by the time we got into the museum, it was already 4:00pm, and the museum would close in an hour at 5:00. Nonetheless, the museum was really special and it was interesting to learn about Vincent Van Gogh's artwork and his life leading up to his death. That night, we walked through the red light district and saw some disturbing things.

Finally on Sunday, we went over the Anne Frank museum. The museum is located right next to a canal, so outside of the museum there are huge gusts of wind blowing in your face. It was warm and sunny outside, but we had to wait about an hour to get inside, and waiting outside was quite unpleasant. The museum itself was really important to see, and I'm really glad I went. The museum has rooms that are replicas of the apartment that Anne Frank and her family stayed and hid in during the Holocaust period. It is crazy to think that she wasn't allowed to leave her family's apartment to even go outside for two full years!

Anyway, I am glad to be back in Helsinki again. My body needs a break from traveling before I head off to St. Petersburg, Russia, in two weeks from now.

Febo (Hot Food Vending Machine)

Hostel Cat

Me and the birthday man himself

Pravan's birthday dinner.

This past weekend my friends and I took a weekend trip to Oslo, Norway. We didn't know what to expect, and I honestly thought that the city would be kind of boring and dead since its not a huge city. But I must say that Oslo was a blast and its a really awesome and cool destination with really cool architecture and beautiful and nice Norwegian people. It was unexpectedly my favorite travel destination so far on my exchange, and the weather was also really great and sunny, hovering around 40º the whole time.

Our flight was delayed an hour on Friday so we didn't get in until around 6:00pm, and by the time we checked in at the hostel and ate dinner, it was already around 10:00pm. We then went out to try to go to some bars, but apparently in Norway a lot of the clubs have an older age restriction at 23, 25, and even 27 at some places. So the girls we were with were able to get into this club while the rest of the guys just walked around the city.

On Saturday we had a really busy day. We went to a viking museum, a museum that had the first ship to ever sail to the South Pole (I forgot the name), and the Nobel Peace Center. We also hung outside on the pier for about two hours because it was beautiful out and quiet and peaceful. Oslo is a smaller city and you really feel like you are one with nature there. The Nobel Peace Center was a must, and it was really interesting to learn about Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistan teenager who was shot three times in the head by the Taliban, but survived and now preaches for human rights advocacy. 

Later that night we went to the alt-J concert, and it was really really good. The band is my favorite alternative/ rock band and they killed it.

On Sunday we walked around the city a lot, and we went to the Oslo Opera house, which has crazy cool architecture. We were planning on going to the Munch museum to see the Scream museum, but when we went to the train, we saw that the museum was closing in fifteen minutes at 4:00pm. We made it back to our apartments in Helsinki around midnight that night.

The only annoying part about this trip was constantly calling Citibank because my debit card was not working anywhere, but besides that, Oslo was a blast and its definitely a city that is off of the radar that is worth checking out.

My friends being retarded

Lucan again being retarded, and Hannah

again

Jack chillen

I spent last weekend up the arctic circle of Finland, in Levi, Finland, which is considered a part of the Lapland.  The trip was one that I will never forget. I was able to go to dogsledding, ski-slope sledding, and I even saw the Northern Lights and Santa Claus' village in Rovaniemi, Finland. But the most fun I had on the trip was being able to enjoy it with my close group of friends I made here in Helsinki in our own 14 person cabin.

The 16 hour bus ride from Helsinki wasn't as bad as it seems to be, as there were three one-hour stops, and I slept half of the time at least. We left Wednesday night at 9:00pm, and arrived in Levi, Finland at around 2:30pm the next day. And on the way back, we left at 12:00pm Sunday, and came back at 5:00am the Monday morning, but we had a three hour stop at Santa Claus' village. 

Seeing the northern lights was something that I will never forget. I only saw them on the Saturday night when I was there because the first two nights was very cloudy. But the northern lights on Saturday came on very brightly and strong, although my iPhone couldn't take any photos of them. The lights come and go, but at one point, they were very bright green, and they lit up the sky. When I got back to Helsinki on Monday, I met with my group because I had a presentation that same day, and this one girl said she has taken three trips to the Lapland and still hasn't seen the Northern Lights, so I'm very happy and lucky that I was able to see them.

Here are the photos from the trip:

I spent the last three days traveling in Stockholm, Sweden with eleven other exchange students here in Finland. I left Friday morning and came back Sunday night, and it was a blast. Aside from the really crappy weather, which was the ambiguous rain/snow/ slush the whole time, I really enjoyed Stockholm.

When we arrived on Friday, we checked in the hostel, which was the first hostel I have ever stayed in, and it was actually decently nice. Including myself, there was six guys who shared a room, which had six bunk moderately comfy bunk beds. Then we ventured throughout the city and just walked around. We ate at a Thai buffet place for a late lunch, but afterwards, our friend Lucan got really bad back spasms from longboarding around on the longboard we borrowed from the hostel. So me and a few others went back to the hostel in a cab to help him out. It was actually convenient because I barely slept the night before, so I was able to go back and take a nap after helping Lucan out. He ended up just staying in the hostel that night, while the rest of us went out.

On Saturday, I walked around the city most of the day, walking along the river and then through the Old Town. A few of us then took a break at this really nice coffee shop by the water in Stockholm, and hung out while the snow came down.

Sunday was by far the most fun day I had in Stockholm as we went to Drottningholm Palace and then the Vasa Museum, which is a boat museum. I actually didn't go inside the Vasa Museum because we only had a half hour and I didn't feel like paying 10 euros, so I drank coffee with my friend Hamish outside of this museum on this terrace. Inside of the Drottningholm Palace was alright, it was a much smaller version of the Palace of Versailles. But the outside garden was beautiful, and fun to walk around, especially in the snowfall. Plus we ditched the girls except the Aussie Hannah so we had some hilarious moments.

Alright, here's a bunch of photos from the trip:

In the end, I decided that Finns are much nicer to the Swedes, but the Swedes are slightly better looking people. I feel very much at home here in Helsinki, which is a smaller city than Stockholm, but either way, it was definitely worth the trip!

Yesterday a bunch of exchange students an I went on a day trip to Tallin, Estonia. We had originally booked an 8:30am ferry, but the ferry had technical issues so they put us on a 10:30am ferry. We got to Tallin around 12:30pm and returned at about 10:30pm. It was an exhausting day.

We didn't have much time there so we just explored the Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And it was really cool. The town is basically Medieval-like, mixed with some old USSR looking architecture. There's cobblestone, narrow streets, and large cathedrals, and large open town squares. And since it was a Sunday, mass was going on at a lot of the churches. We also got some really good, inexpensive food, and on the way back to the ferry, we loaded up on some inexpensive alcohol that's about a quarter or a third of the price of alcohol in Finland. There was so many Finns that came onto the ferry with trolleys and carts full of alcohol. I kid you not. Oh, and it was a really beautiful, warmish day out, and the sun was actually out! And the Estonians are incredibly nice people. When we got lost and asked a few people for directions, they were super cool about it, along with the waiter at our restaurant.

And today is Australia Day, which a seriously celebrated holiday by my Aussie friends. The big part of Australia Day is the Triple-J Top 100 Countdown, which is the Top 100 countdown of the most listened-to music in Australia on the radio. I'm not sure what time it started in Australia, but in Helsinki, it started at 3:00am, so all of my Aussie friends were listening until the number 1 song played at around 11:30am. I got up to listen to it at 7:30am.

Here are a bunch of photos taken in Estonia:

This is the Estonian Parliament Building. It's pink. I don't know why it is pink.

Happy Australia Day!

I really feel fully settled into Finland now. I've made a close group of friends, been going to the gym a lot, and life is good. I really love it here and I'm having a great time. I apologize for not updating my blog often enough; I'll try do update it as often as I can!

This past Thursday, about half of the Aalto University Exchange students, which is about 50 of us, drove up an hour north of Helsinki by bus to a cottage by the lake. It was super fun and a really great experience to be away from the city. 

At the cottage, we were divided into eight teams for "Finnish Olympics," which were basically a bunch of games played both inside an outside. After all of the games were over, the tutors tallied up the scores, and my team actually won!

We then all contributed something from our home countries for dinner. So I just decided to make a bunch of sandwiches, since I'm lazy. At the dinner, they announced the results from the Finnish olympics, and then they gave my team a bottle of champagne for winning! For some reason, my team members thought that I was the honorary team captain, so everyone at dinner made me make a speech into the megaphone, but I can't even remember what I said. Regardless, everyone cheered.

After dinner, we made a bonfire in the freezing cold. It was 18 degrees at its coldest. At the bonfire, we cooked sausages. It was great. We also walked on the frozen lake, which we were advised not to do of course.

Then we all went into the sauna, both guys and girls. And no, we were not naked, except for Alán, who lost a bet an had to be naked in the sauna I guess. And then my Canadian friend Aaron also decided to be naked? I don't know why. Anyway, it was so much fun actually. We kept going in the sauna and then rushing outside in the snow and making ice angels, and then back into the sauna.

After the sauna, we all partied deep into the night. To my amazement, I only slept about one hour here and there. But when we got back home at 12:30pm the next day, I slept for six hours. So basically I'm nocturnal.

We're supposed to be going to Estonia tomorrow on a 8:30am ferry, but we just got an announcement that due to some strange technical difficulties, the ferry is canceled. But we're not so sure, and the hours of operation are closed for the day, so we'll have to call early in the morning.

Here are a bunch of photos from the past week:

It has almost been two full weeks since i've been here in Finland, and I have to say, it is quite awesome here. I could have done the typical Barcelona study abroad trip that many Americans do, but I must say, Finland is a ton fun of fun and it is surprisingly, an amazing place.

Last night, our crew went out to eat Moroccan food. It was quite dank.  I had some falafel/hummus/tahni mixture. It looks like poop, but tasted great. Check it out:

And then today I had my two classes, and in my New Product Development Class, I actually gave a presentation, which will surmount to the only coursework I will do for the remainder of the six-week semester. It went very well. My consumer culture class got out an hour early. Its only a 90 minute class to begin with.

Tonight we back to the Amarillo Bar for the 2.5 euro Wednesday drinks, and it was really fun. I could have stayed out longer (right now its almost 3:00am), but I didn't want to have to take a taxi back. The last train or bus leaves at 1:55am; otherwise, you have to way around until 5:00am for the next train or bus. 

Me and my Australian bud Lucan played this Fnnish arcade punching game. Not too sure how to upload the videos, but we were quite happy with the inexpensive drinks.

Then we decided to catch the last bus back, but by the station, there was a kebab stand, so naturally we ordered kebabs, 

Anyway, I booked a Stockholm trip for the end of the month, and will most likely be gong to Estonia this weekend.

So the Finns are very punctual, always on time, but today when I went to catch the 11:36am train, there was a half hour delay, and thus I was fifteen minutes late for class. The class has optional attendance, so I don't need to be there, but my professor made a big deal when my flatmate, Pravan, and I were late to class, which I found odd. It turned out not to be a big deal when someone walked in over an hour late for a class that only runs 90 minutes. i mean, why even show up at that point?

My other professor in consumer culture, the former member of the Mormon Church from Utah, talked a ton about plastic surgery today, and it was actually really interesting to hear.

I joined the gym today and finally worked out for the first time in about two weeks. I felt very weak, but I was actually lifting the heaviest weights in the gym, and that is atypical. The Finns working out are really tall and lean, and the workout/gym culture seems different than from America. The Finns don't seem to like to lift as much weight as possible like stupid American guys I typically see at the Lyon Center at USC or like guidos at Golds Gym on Long Island. They also seem to love kettle bells, which you can't even find at many gyms in the states. Take a look: 

Also I've never seen this before at a gym in the states:

Tonight the guys in our building played cards and had drinks. Pretty standard.

And that's it for today.

Wow, I can't believe I've already been in Finland for ten days. Yeah, I've done a lot in ten days, and haven't slept too much, but it still has gone by quickly. Anyway, I'll recap what I did last night and today.

So last night most of us exchange students were extremely tired and/or hungover from the night before, so a lot of people stayed in. I wasn't really feeling like going out myself, and I kind of lost my voice from the night before, but I didn't want to spend my first real Saturday night in Finland at my flat. So I went out to some Finnish beer bar name Wåinü, that only played Finnish music. It was fun, but I lost my voice even further after one beer, so I left early. Early is 1:30am. 

What I noticed at the bar that only played Finnish music is that really all music is pretty much the same across different cultures. All dance and pop music have similar styles, tones, and beats. The only difference is that Finnish music is in a different language that you have no idea what is being said. It is a beautiful language though.

Also on the train I met some random English speakers, so naturally I struck up conversation with them. it turns out that one of the girls lives right across the street from where I used to have gymnastics meets at World Cup Gymnastics, in Chappaqua, New York. Kind of a small weird.

Today was kind of boring. I just did homework and grocery shopping. I don't have any photos worth posting, but I'll just let you guys know it was damn cold today, and it snowed about 6 inches last night. On my walk back from the grocery store, my face was red an freezing, but my body was so warm from my parka. Interesting dynamic. Also today was the first time I met someone who doesn't speak English. She was the cashier at the Prisma supermarket, and she was old. So it wasn't a big deal.

Anyway, here are a few random notes from living abroad here in Finland:

1. The Finns are fairly quiet, but they love to drink, and they really open up when they drink.

2. There is not much income disparity in Finland compared to the United States, which I find to be great, and most Finns find this to be great. However, that gap has been slightly increasing over the past few years.

3. Students and people my age in Finland tell me that unlike America, where you can theoretically become successful by working incredibly hard, in Finland, you can become successful by not working that hard. I like that.

4. Finns like Americans, but they love Australians. However, my Aussie friend Hamish said some random Finnish girls were yelling at him at the club, Tiger, on Friday, complaining about Australian politics. I mean how many Finns pay attention to Australian politics?

Alright, I'm kind of just rambling. The next few weeks I'll be going to the arctic circle in the Lapland, and some cottage trip a few hours north I believe.

I forgot to post this last week, but this is a traditional Finnish candy. It is absolutely disgusting. Its supposed to taste like black licorice. It doesn't. It tastes like oil. And the worst part is that it is so sticky that it takes forever to swallow it, so you have this disgusting taste in your mouth that lingers long after you swallow it. I don't know why, but the Finns love it.

The last few days have been pretty hectic / eventful so I haven't have had the chance to write on this blog.

So here's a quick recap:

On Wednesday I had my two classes New Product Development and Consumer Culture. My consumer culture professor is a former member of the Mormon church from Utah. He was first an English Major with a masters degree in Latin American studies. When he learned that he cannot get a job doing either of these things, he decided to go into business. He is a huge hippy to say the least.

Okay then we went to this bar at night called Amarillo which served 2.5 euro drinks. Pretty solid.

On Thursday I had a lot of crap to do, like setting up a Finnish bank account, laundry, my phone situation, etc. It was a huge pain in the ass doing laundry because the drier was broken so I had to hand dry everything.

Okay and on Friday we had the second part of our orientation. Then we had this exchange party at the KY Student organization, where we received our student overalls, which are a symbol of the Finnish College Student. There we started drinking at 6:00pm and went all the way until 4:00am. We also went to this night club called Tiger. I didn't get back to the apartment until 4:30am.

An now today after I woke up at 12:30pm, I showered and went on the Aalto University city tour for the exchange students. Our group walked around the city and toured some new areas, then had a break at a cafe. Afterwards, some of us got together and had dinner at this Nepalese Restaurant, and the food was bomb. Now I'm trying to figure out my cell phone situation. I just bought a prepaid SIM card. We'll see how it goes. 

Here are some photos from the last few days:

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Lux Festival Lights

The last few photos were from Plague Park.

This is a reindeer my group made out of twigs. Quite beautiful.

Last night my exchange group, which consists of ten exchange students and two tutors, hung out with one other exchange group and we had a little party at one of the tutor's apartments in downtown Helsinki. We all hung out in this small cozy place on the top floor, next to the balcony and and sauna.

They tempted us to try out the sauna (pronounced sow-na, like cow, but with an s) at the party after a few drinks. The sauna is literally right next to where all the girls and guys were hanging out, so you had to just go in the room next door and strip yourself of clothes, do your thing at the sauna, and then return to the party.

After some reluctance and some peer pressure, I went into the sauna with two of the Finnish guides and tried it out. At first, I went in with a towel, but immediately realized you have to go in fully naked because the towel will get soaked in sweat, and then be useless when you get out and shower.

The sauna was incredibly hot, and you sweat profusely. Then you take a cold shower and either go back in or dry yourself off. Afterwards, you go outside in the zero degree Fahrenheit weather for a few minutes, and dry off. It actually feels incredible, and I was really happy to try it, and I was the only exchange student out of twenty who was brave enough to do so.

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After that, I left with some other students to head back to the metro central station to catch the last train, which we believed ended at 1:30am. We were in a hurry, and had to run for some of the journey, but got there by 1:25am. However, we found out that the last train left at 1:20am, so we were screwed. Also my phone was so cold that it just shut off and wouldn't turn back on. I actually thought it was dead, but only realized when I got back to my apartment that my phone would turn on to 75% battery. Anyway, we unfortunately had to take a cab, because I had no idea how the buses were working.

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Today, I got up early and explored my area, Kitarakuja, because I don't have class and it is a national holiday in Finland, the Epiphany, which is the last day of Christmas. It was a beautiful day out and the sun was out, although it was only 3 degrees at one point. I stumbled upon some parks right by my apartment and found lots of locals playing with their children, jogging, and even practicing cross-country skiing/walking. Here are some photos I took:

Later today I went out with a group of exchange students and took the ferry to Suomenlinna, a sea fortress 15 minutes from a port in Helsinki. Most of the water was covered in ice, so it was crazy to see the boats traveling through the sheets of ice. The ferry ride was so cold on top, with extremely cold gusts of wind hitting us in our faces, but outside was beautiful, so it was worth it.

We walked around all over the big island where the ferry dropped us off for about an hour and a half, but then headed back because it was so cold, and it was getting dark. We stumbled upon some really cool parts, like this fortress with bunkers in it, overlooking the sea towards Estonia. Here are some more photos:

I'll be going back here in the future when its sunnier out, and better planned out. Also the ferry is part of my 25 euro/month metro card, so I get unlimited rides.

That's pretty much my day. Overall I walked over 8 miles, and I've been averaging about 8 miles of walking each day. Kind of crazy to think.

Last night, Pravan, Alán and I met up with the three other USC girls in downtown Helsinki for dinner. Because it was a Sunday night around 9:00, every restaurant we walked by was either closed, or the kitchen was closed. However, we stumbled upon this one place in Esplanadi Park that allowed us to come inside to eat at 9:15pm. even though the kitchen closed at 9:00. It was nice to hang out with some USC people, but we were all exhausted from moving in. I had this really tasty club sandwich with fries.

This morning I had orientation, then met with my tutors and exchange group, and then had class.

Orientation was nice and they offered us free coffee and drinks. I'm really starting to get highly addicted to the coffee here. It's that good. I'm drinking some now as I write this.

Drinking coffee during orientation

Also, the sun came out for the first time since I've been here during orientation, and it was beautiful. Take a look:

The exchange tutors were really helpful and nice. We had lunch with our group in the cafeteria downstairs of the main Aalto University building, and it was surprisingly good, and only cost 2.6 euros! I'll probably be eating there a lot to save money, since food is quite expensive in Helsinki.

The exchange students came from all over the world, from Canada, France, Spain, Austria, Singapore, Thailand, China, Chile, and Australia. I met some really nice and interesting people today.

I then took off for my first class, New Product Development, located in the Arkadia building. The class is actually quite interesting, and our teacher is from Germany. The final project for this class is to create a new, fictional product for either Nike or Mercedez-Benz, and present it to the class. The class involves mostly group work, with a final exam. The first group assignment is due in a week from today. At the end of the class, we had to choose our groups, so I decided to work with only full time-students, all Finnish kids, even though there were three other USC students taking this class. I figured that these Finnish students actually need to do well, and not just pass their classes to receive credits, so they should definitely take the class more seriously. Plus its another way to meet new people and explore a new culture.

My second class, Consumer Culture, was cancelled today, probably because tomorrow is a national Finnish holiday, and the school is closed, so its probably just a weird day for professors and students to start classes.

After New Product Development, I met up with a bunch of other exchange students to get our student discounted metro cards, which only cost 25 euros a month for unlimited rides. Normally it costs 3 euros for one way, and I have to take the train round trip to my apartment to get to Helsinki and Aalto. However, I've actually only paid one out of the seven times I rode the train, because the metro train system is more like an honor system in Finland. It is expected that people pay for using the metro.

Tonight, the exchange groups and tutors are getting together for, get this, sauna, and then drinks. Should be interesting.

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Okay, now for a Finnish crash course on Alcohol:

-Wine and spirits (as well as strong beer and cider) are sold at Alko stores. There's one for example by the Kamppi mall, one on the Sokos (mall near railway station) bottom floor and one on the Stockmann (Bloomingdales of Finland) bottom floor. 

-Alko usually closes by 20 on week days and 18 on Saturdays. Closed on Sundays. 

-The age limit for anything with alcohol under 20% is 18. Over that the age limit is 20. Stores generally ask for your ID if you look like you're under 30. 

-Alcohol taxes are very high and thus alcohol is expensive, which is good for Finnish society but bad for student budgets.

I couldn't sleep well at all for some reason last night, so I woke up at 6:30am and just did some Finnish culture research while drinking three cups of coffee.

Alán, Pravan and I decided to first figure out how to get to Aalto University School of Business, so that we won't be late for tomorrow's 9:15am orientation. It took us about a half hour to find our way to the main campus building.

We then headed to find somewhere for brunch, so we went to this place called Kappelli in Esplanade Park. I didn't take pictures of the food, but it was really good; I had more coffee of course, and a pastrami egg bagel.

We then took a cab to iKEA about twenty minutes away to get a bunch of crap like cleaning supplies and sheets. Then we ate upstairs at IKEA's little restaurant and I got some weiner schnitzel; it was pretty good.

We then lugged all of our crap in the only über car we can locate on the app. über only opened in Helsinki about a month ago, so its still not very popular. The über driver Pekka was super cool, and the über ride costs less than half the price of the taxi.

After we got back to the apartment, we walked to the mall and went to the Wal-Mart-like place and bought more crap like a router for out apartment (we've been using ethernet cables), and some food and more cleaning supplies. We had to pay to use a shopping cart, so instead of returning it, we actually just walked the shopping cart back to our apartment, where it is still chilling. 

We're about to go eat dinner at some italian restaurant back in the city center of Helsinki with the other USC exchange students. It should be fun.

I woke up today at 11:30am. Alán, one of my apartment roommates from Los Angeles and USC, messaged me on Facebook saying that the HOAS Housing screwed up with his keys and thus he was locked out of our apartment. He was at the mall when he messaged me so I quickly ate breakfast and got ready and went over to the mall to help him out with his bags and go back to the apartment. Alán is actually a Mexican Jew, but not actually Mexican. He's a really nice kid. Anyway, when we got to the apartment, he wasn't able to get into his own room so we hung out for a little bit, and then decided to take the train into the city center of Helsinki. We had no idea how to buy tickets for the train, and we saw people using a train card. So I asked a local how it works.

The train is incredibly convenient because it is literally right next to our apartment, and we are on the first floor, so this will save me time when I commute to class at Aalto. Anyway, it was only four quick stops into Kamppi, Helsinki, the main train hub, and the ride is only about 12 minutes. The walk to Aalto University from there is supposed to be only five additional minutes. From the train, we decided to walk around a bit. The city is beautiful, and Alán was telling me that the architecture reminded him of Moscow, with city spaces spread out in giant squares. I didn't take too many picture but I'm sure I'll post some soon.

We ended up stopping at a cafe-ish type restaurant. I ordered this chicken falafel thing, and it was really good, but I should have ordered what Alán ordered, which was much bigger for the same price. I also ordered coffee, which was also really good.

We then walked to one of the harbor areas, and walked through some street vendors. A lot of the street vendors were selling fur-lined jackets. There were also some ducklings.

We then walked around a bunch more, and ended up stopping at this cafe called Café Esplanad at Esplandi Park. The place was fairly crowded and looked very good. I had this delicious pastry, but i have no idea what the name of it is called.

After this, we explored the city a little bit more, and then headed back to the apartment. When we got back to our apartment, our third roommate, Pravan, from Miami, arrived. He had his keys.

Alán really didn't know what he was going to do about sleeping arrangements, and was pretty set on getting a hotel for two nights. We then decided to just break down his door. We first tried using a credit card, but that was unsuccessful. I suggested that we just kick down the door. After Alán tried kicking it down about 15 times, I asked him if I could try. After my third kick, I knocked the door down, and I'm not going to lie, it was really exhilarating, and I'm surprised it actually worked. The door is in front of the counter, so there's really no space for you to get a good wind-up before kicking it down, but it eventually worked. I guess I can kick that off of my bucket list.

Now we're all about to go out and get dinner. Walking around the city all day in the cold is pretty tiring, so we'll see if we decide to go out later.

That's all for today, thanks for reading!

I never thought that I would decide to start a blog for my five month stay in Helsinki, but after finding out that a fat, hairy kid from the other USC (University of South Carolina), who is also studying abroad here at Aalto University, writes for SB Nation for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks football team, I decided I too should write a blog. We'll see how long I keep this up.

This is probably going to be a long post, but that's because I feel quite delusional and sleep-deprived right now.

Anyway, it is now 8:59pm Helsinki time, and I am very, very tired. I first had a layover at Reykjavik, Iceland, but all I did was get off the first plane and immediately board the second plane, without time to even use the bathroom. However, those 10 to 15 minutes that I was in the airport there, I noticed a few things: (1) There is snow everywhere, and I mean that country is filled with it. When I boarded the second plane to Helsinki, Finland, the wing was covered in snow, and it was snowing outside, of course. That delayed our take-off a bit. (2) It was a really nice airport, with beautiful wood floors. I think the Icelandic government decided to invest a lot of money into the airport because most travelers through Reykjavik are simply passing through since it is an ideal transfer location between North America and Europe. Maybe having a nice airport will make passing-through travelers incentives to book a future vacation there. (3) There were a lot of Inuit looking people there.

Alright, so I slept through my entire three hour flight and woke up in Helsinki. I didn't have to go through customs because I went through customs in Iceland on my layover. After I got my luggage, I met one of the exchange tutors, Aira, who was there holding a sign with my name on it, along with the other kid, Evan May. Aira is a typical, pretty Finnish girl, and while we were waiting for Evan to find us, some Asian tutor from Aalto University came to hit on her, and she didn't seem to be about it. We then packed all of our bags into Aira's tiny red car, and we headed to the city center of Helsinki to pick up our keys at the student housing place. While Evan and I were waiting for Aira to pick up our keys, we spoke to three other Aalto University tutors, who were actually hilarious. They told me that Finns love drinking coffee, and it is their "elixir of life." One of the tutors, Oscar, is flying on Malaysia Airlines to Singapore this Monday, January 5th, to study abroad. I wished him all the best not to die.

Aira first dropped Evan off at his housing complex. We helped him with his bags to his room. What was strange there was that the elevator door was just like a regular door that with a handle that you pry open, something I've never seen before. After we said good riddance to Evan, who was a typical, dumb American from the South, we drove about five minutes to my place. Aira told me here that HOAS and AYY Housing, which is responsible for all student housing in Helsinki, regardless of collegiate institution, places all of the exchange kids in the lesser popular areas of Helsinki, due to the fact that Finnish kids would never choose to live in these areas. This is fine because it places all of the exchange kids together, but it comes at the expense of the quality of housing provided.

As soon as you walk into the apartment and turn on the light, you will notice that the light flickers on and off like a typical movie scene (for some strange reason this reminds me of a scene from The Matrix). Regardless, the apartment isn't too shabby; I have my own room with a nice desk, lamp, chair, closet (with hangers already provided), and a small twin bed. As I sit here and write this, I still have a lot of unpacking to do, but that's because I have barely spent any time in the apartment thus far. At least I made my bed and put on the sheets.

The kitchen is mediocre at best; however, it came stocked with pots and pans, a water heater, a coffee maker, and a toaster, along with a fridge, a dining room table. and three chairs. There is also a balcony coming out of the dining room. The previous tenants left us some post it notes saying we are more than welcome to use the existing olive oil and other essential kitchen seasonings and what not that was left behind. There is also a closet with a few ethernet cables, to which I am connected to now, a bunch of cleaning supplies, and a few umbrellas that were left behind. 

The bathroom shower is not its own entity; there is a curtain, but no door, and the water just comes down onto the floor, and then you have to mop/sweep the water into the drain. I have experience with this when I was in Israel, but I hoped I would never have to shower like this again. Oh well. Still need to do that once I am done writing this.

My two roommates are coming tomorrow, and I have haven't seen many people move in yet, so I decided to just do my own thing today. I was only here about a half hour before I decided to wander around the apartment area. I was actually surprised by the amenities that were literally right outside my apartment building. The train station is directly next to my building, which is going to be incredibly convenient when I travel to class. There is also two smallish supermarkets, two bars, a pub, a pet store, a veterinarians office, and three pizza/kebab style restaurants (Apparently this a thing in Finland).

After walking around the area a bit, I decided to enter into one of these supermarkets. Inside was interesting, as i could only read American products, but it was easy to figure out what everything was (Finnish is a strange language). I just ended up buying a 20g of protein cup of greek yogurt, three bananas, and a carton of eggs. The eggs come in packs of ten or four, not twelve. When I went to check out, the cashier, a gorgeous Finnish woman named Anna, immediately thought that I was a Finn, and started talking to me in Finnish, so I had to drop the English card. She told me that I had to weigh the bananas on the scale outside the cashier and select the fruit number associated with it, and then stick the ensuing sticker on the bag for weight/pricing purposed. Then I had to go back in line. Everything only cost me 3,05 euros, which I was surprised.

I then went to "Pizza Taxi" and pondered at the menu a bit. The cashier only spoke fragmented English, but he was very helpful and nice. I ordered a kebab dinner plate with rice, but he ended up giving me a kebab plate with fries instead. At least I was able to get free coffee, which was incredibly strong. I sat down by myself to eat, and the cashier guy came to deliver me my food. It wasn't very good, but it was edible. On the plate was interestingly spiced kebab meat, with a side salad that had questionable dressing on it, with two jalapeño peppers, to go along with the fat stack of fries. The fries were good, at least.

I then walked about 3/4 of a mile to this three-story mall. I walked around the entire mall, and there were actually some cool shops, with some nice clothing inside. I wasn't actually going to buy anything, but I wanted to just look around. There was a two story H&M and a giant Wal-Mart like superstore, with a giant sized supermarket encompassing about half of the store. If I need to buy anything, I will probably be going there. Overall, the mall has some good architecture inside, and it is quite convenient to be located within walking distance to.

That's about it for today. I'm still figuring this whole Tumblr thing out, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

P.S. I was disappointed to not find a gym in my building, but they have this: