Hello dear people!
I am in Finland! Weather is amazing and I love to be with my family, just came from swimming! Nature is blooming and lakes are so pure, it makes it much more easier to be back in Finland. Anyway, now few words about the time in the exchange.
Past half an year has been best ever. I have learned so much about myself, to relax and to live for myself. I met amazing people who I will never forget, from whom I learned a lot and who were the reason I will always keep exploring and meeting new people.
Learned about new cultures and differences. I learned how similar we are, even we would be from the different parts of the world. I learned what unity means and how important it is to fight for equality not only for yourself and your country, but for all those people all over the world. I learned to appreciate thing in my home country I never really appreciated and noticed few things for which I want to work to make them better in Finland. This eyeopening six months made me a international citizen and I realized how much there are things I still want to be part of and how much I want to explore.
To all you amazing people who made me even more adventurous and more enthusiastic about world: I can't even tell how much I changed and how important this exchange was to me. Everyone of you who handled me when I went hyper, who participated in our parties, who told me something about your culture or language. Everyone who studied with me, walked in a pouring rain with me or danced with me. Everyone of you who were part of my big experience becoming more open me, I thank you with the deepest of my heart.
I made life-long friends, I met amazing people, I did things I would have not normally done. I experienced youth and exchange in the way you are supposed to. This video is a little compilation of my exchange. It is just a scratch of everything I did, but there you go, hope you enjoy it.
Thank you Leeuwarden, ESN Leeuwarden and of course - exchangers Spring 2016! Proost!
- Uppa
Uppa
Näytetään tekstit, joissa on tunniste Leeuwarden. Näytä kaikki tekstit
Näytetään tekstit, joissa on tunniste Leeuwarden. Näytä kaikki tekstit
5/03/2016
All this is really happening!
Hallo!
Month has passed since I last time wrote anything. A MONTH. Time keeps passing so fast and I can't believe I've been here already wayyyy over three months! A little update what has happened!
Last time I was writing I told about homesickness and how I decided to really start living in a moment. And surely have! We had a project week in school, were we had to make exhibition about food with all the communication students. I finally had a change to meet more dutch people and do workshop-kind of-studies. I really enjoyed my week with them and met plenty of new people!
Because of a quite long night out after exhibition premiere we started our trip to Ameland, little island at northern part of the Netherlands. (I was suppose to edit you's a video of that trip, but unfortunately can't edit atm, so you'll get that one later!) Ameland was great! Shitloads of rain, plenty of fields and AMAZING people. I talked with so many exchange students I didn't have change to chat earlier. I hope everyone would experience how it is to be part of erasmus group! We are so unite and every person, no matter they are from, has something in common here!
It wasn't enough that Ameland was great; after trip new module with such interesting courses started AND it was the King´s Day -week. Two days partying with my favourite people in beautiful Leeuwarden full of people - could you hope more? King´s Day ended up being one of the best nights so far. Last weekend we celebrated May Day with Finns, hanged at Anaalstraat and Sunday me and the guys took a tiny day trip to Zwolle, Kampen and Meppel. Three minimal cities with so much potential for adventure. Really much fun and got even a little bit tanned!! WEEEEE :D
This week we're enjoying holiday and at Thursday bus leaves to Berlin for four days! Can't wait what Berlin gives us (at least victory against Germany at ice hockey at Sunday, remember to watch!! LEIJONAT!)
Because I'm so excited of everything here and outside weather is absolutely gorgeous and I wanna just go running there, I'll just add here a little bit cliche, but cute film about exchanging in Europe by BuzzFeed (yes Les, I stole it from your fb):
- Uppa
PS: 8,6 from dutch language BITCHEEES!!!! Basically I'm fluent.
Month has passed since I last time wrote anything. A MONTH. Time keeps passing so fast and I can't believe I've been here already wayyyy over three months! A little update what has happened!
Last time I was writing I told about homesickness and how I decided to really start living in a moment. And surely have! We had a project week in school, were we had to make exhibition about food with all the communication students. I finally had a change to meet more dutch people and do workshop-kind of-studies. I really enjoyed my week with them and met plenty of new people!
Because of a quite long night out after exhibition premiere we started our trip to Ameland, little island at northern part of the Netherlands. (I was suppose to edit you's a video of that trip, but unfortunately can't edit atm, so you'll get that one later!) Ameland was great! Shitloads of rain, plenty of fields and AMAZING people. I talked with so many exchange students I didn't have change to chat earlier. I hope everyone would experience how it is to be part of erasmus group! We are so unite and every person, no matter they are from, has something in common here!
It wasn't enough that Ameland was great; after trip new module with such interesting courses started AND it was the King´s Day -week. Two days partying with my favourite people in beautiful Leeuwarden full of people - could you hope more? King´s Day ended up being one of the best nights so far. Last weekend we celebrated May Day with Finns, hanged at Anaalstraat and Sunday me and the guys took a tiny day trip to Zwolle, Kampen and Meppel. Three minimal cities with so much potential for adventure. Really much fun and got even a little bit tanned!! WEEEEE :D
This week we're enjoying holiday and at Thursday bus leaves to Berlin for four days! Can't wait what Berlin gives us (at least victory against Germany at ice hockey at Sunday, remember to watch!! LEIJONAT!)
Because I'm so excited of everything here and outside weather is absolutely gorgeous and I wanna just go running there, I'll just add here a little bit cliche, but cute film about exchanging in Europe by BuzzFeed (yes Les, I stole it from your fb):
- Uppa
PS: 8,6 from dutch language BITCHEEES!!!! Basically I'm fluent.
4/10/2016
I am positive about being positive.
Hello everyone!
Like most of you know, I was in Finland a week ago. I had amazing time, met all my favourite people, went to places I love and obviously went a lot to the sauna. When I arrived Finland it was absolutely weird to be there and to be honest, I was even scared. But routines came back quite fast and in days it felt like home again.
But well. I came back to Leeuwarden and for me it is really hard to admit, but I felt homesick. A lot. Since I've been teenager I've been traveling and been quite much away from home. Actually before this I only felt homesick few times when I moved to Tampere. But I've never felt this abroad, so it was a bit of a shock. Sure I love my time here and people are amazing but for some reason the homesickness hit me this time. Hard.
As a rational person I forced myself to believe it is gonna go away, everything is fine and I really can't do anything to this. I called my family and boyfriend and told the situation to them but still I kept feeling really bad and actually got even a bit sick (might be also our house which is probably covered with diseases, mice, mold and ghosts). And somehow I wanted to stay in my bad feeling. Somehow feeling grumpy and whining about it to my family felt normal thing to do. I wanted to stay in my negative bubble so I didn't have to face the fact I am here and I'm wasting my time by being a grumpy fuck.
But today, I woke up and got urge to go for a walk. Weather was absolutely gorgeous and thought that maybe tiny walk would cheer my up. And boy it did!
I walked and suddenly I started smiling. I found new places in Leeuwarden I've never seen. Seemed like everyone was smiling and greeting me. A nice girl in the shop was helping me and doing amazing customer service. I went to the park and had a conversation with a lady who had a dog exactly we had when I was a kid. I kicked a ball for a tiny boy who was playing football and his ball got away to my direction. A old man with clogs walked by and greeted cheerfully. For the first time since I got back from Finland I felt like this was home again.
And what was the secret ingredient for me to heal my homesickness? Attitude.
In life you can't decide everything and write everything ready for yourself like in films. But what you can do, is to relax and think positive. I know that sounds cliché as fuck, but it just happens to be true. And especially for us Finns that is one thing that seems to be extremely hard to understand. It is up to yourself how you see things. If you keep thinking this is shit, for sure it becomes shit. If you keep thinking you fail, for sure you will fail. If you think it's gonna be okay and you concentrate on the good things, suddenly it is not that bad at the end.
I know I'm often horribly negative person and I will stop it now. Sure we all have bad times and sometimes things really are going bad. But when there is at least a little light, go for it! I dare everyone to join in my challenge of finding the positive in things and trying not to spread that negativeness around so much. Stay positive people and please, think about those unicorns.
- Uppa
PS: I also saw shitloads of GOATS today. That if something cheered me up. Go goats!
Like most of you know, I was in Finland a week ago. I had amazing time, met all my favourite people, went to places I love and obviously went a lot to the sauna. When I arrived Finland it was absolutely weird to be there and to be honest, I was even scared. But routines came back quite fast and in days it felt like home again.
But well. I came back to Leeuwarden and for me it is really hard to admit, but I felt homesick. A lot. Since I've been teenager I've been traveling and been quite much away from home. Actually before this I only felt homesick few times when I moved to Tampere. But I've never felt this abroad, so it was a bit of a shock. Sure I love my time here and people are amazing but for some reason the homesickness hit me this time. Hard.
As a rational person I forced myself to believe it is gonna go away, everything is fine and I really can't do anything to this. I called my family and boyfriend and told the situation to them but still I kept feeling really bad and actually got even a bit sick (might be also our house which is probably covered with diseases, mice, mold and ghosts). And somehow I wanted to stay in my bad feeling. Somehow feeling grumpy and whining about it to my family felt normal thing to do. I wanted to stay in my negative bubble so I didn't have to face the fact I am here and I'm wasting my time by being a grumpy fuck.
But today, I woke up and got urge to go for a walk. Weather was absolutely gorgeous and thought that maybe tiny walk would cheer my up. And boy it did!
I walked and suddenly I started smiling. I found new places in Leeuwarden I've never seen. Seemed like everyone was smiling and greeting me. A nice girl in the shop was helping me and doing amazing customer service. I went to the park and had a conversation with a lady who had a dog exactly we had when I was a kid. I kicked a ball for a tiny boy who was playing football and his ball got away to my direction. A old man with clogs walked by and greeted cheerfully. For the first time since I got back from Finland I felt like this was home again.
And what was the secret ingredient for me to heal my homesickness? Attitude.
In life you can't decide everything and write everything ready for yourself like in films. But what you can do, is to relax and think positive. I know that sounds cliché as fuck, but it just happens to be true. And especially for us Finns that is one thing that seems to be extremely hard to understand. It is up to yourself how you see things. If you keep thinking this is shit, for sure it becomes shit. If you keep thinking you fail, for sure you will fail. If you think it's gonna be okay and you concentrate on the good things, suddenly it is not that bad at the end.
I know I'm often horribly negative person and I will stop it now. Sure we all have bad times and sometimes things really are going bad. But when there is at least a little light, go for it! I dare everyone to join in my challenge of finding the positive in things and trying not to spread that negativeness around so much. Stay positive people and please, think about those unicorns.
- Uppa
PS: I also saw shitloads of GOATS today. That if something cheered me up. Go goats!
1/26/2016
The Long and Windy road to Leeuwarden
Hey ho there!
I survived to Leeuwarden and I've been here almost a week already! Been busy meeting all these great new people and trying to find my way in the city. Streets are really tiny and twisty so finding my way around is sometimes so hard. But I'm surviving. I will survive. YEAH YEAAAH.
Something even more twisty was the trip from Tampere to Leeuwarden. After saying goodbyes to all the important people in my life, traveling for over 8 hours taking three trains, two flights, bus ride and lots of steps wasn't too fun. Luckily I had my camera and filmed all the stupid and amazing things from the trip and the first few days.
I also wanna thank Nita for being a darling and helping me about the exchange things and being amazing host for the first few days here, you are one tough viking there, have fun in Finland!
Now for the video, hope you enjoy it!
- Uppa
1/07/2016
The beginning and the start of all the starts and beginnings
Hello there!
As most of you know, I'm leaving for student exchange to Leeuwarden, Netherlands at the end of the January. I decided to create this blog/vlog so you all (probably only mom and dad) can see whats going on, how is living in another country going and what I'm up to.
Because I'm lazy to write I'll be posting mostly videos and pictures. Posts will be both in english and in finnish, depending on my day and mood and how much unicorns there are in the same room. Because that DOES matter a lot.
Thats for the beginning, I'll be posting soon again so stay tuned!
- Uppa
As most of you know, I'm leaving for student exchange to Leeuwarden, Netherlands at the end of the January. I decided to create this blog/vlog so you all (probably only mom and dad) can see whats going on, how is living in another country going and what I'm up to.
Because I'm lazy to write I'll be posting mostly videos and pictures. Posts will be both in english and in finnish, depending on my day and mood and how much unicorns there are in the same room. Because that DOES matter a lot.
Thats for the beginning, I'll be posting soon again so stay tuned!
- Uppa
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