Where to start? I'm sitting in the forth floor of the undergraduate library right now because I still don't have internet but I just discovered they have a wireless connection here which is very exciting. I'm not quite sure why my building no longer has internet, but needless to say, it is very irritating.
On a better note, I was visited a few weeks ago by a Ms. Alison Flint who is currently residing in Oslo, Norway. Alison flew in a thursday night and stayed untill sunday afternoon. Great fun was had. She and I went and did all the touristy things I never did when I got here, and we saw alot of interesting things. We wandered around and saw historic buildings, ate at a tiny little Nepalese restaurant, cooked fresh salmon (lohi) which we bought at the harbor, and watched alot of episodes of Sex and the City on my computer. Friday night I took her to an econ party at Kuppala, aka, the basement of the econ department. There she got to observe Finns in their natural habitat, which if course is any place with booze. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit upset when Alison went home, but little did I know I wouldn't have to wait till next summer to see her again... (a bit of dramatic forshadowing for you...)
The following sunday I left for Krakow, Poland with the Econ department. We met "early" on sunday morning (9am) at the docks and took a 10:00 ferry across the Baltic Sea to Tallin, Estonia. We ended up spending most of the afternoon in Tallin due to some passport mix-up with one of the other students. Tallin is a very beautifull city, and I plan to visit again very soon. One nice perk (of the whole trip in fact) was the currency exchange rate. Prices were so low in Tallin that everything was basically free, especially compared to high Finnish prices. While eating at a (basically free) restaurant in Tallin I heard someone calling my name, which was odd because no one here knows my last name. Turns out Alison was touring Tallin with her program that same weekend they happened to be eating at the same restaurant as us... what are the odds of running into a friends from Minneasota in Estonia...?
In the late afternoon we got on our bus (a standard charter bus) and started driving to Poland. I think there were 38 people all together in the trip but I never bothered to count (aren't you proud of me...). The whole bus ride is one big blur to me as we were trapped in the bus for almost 24 hours straight. On the way, we passed throught Latvia, Lithuania and most of Poland. This of course meant alot of border stops and customs officials, but now I have alot of stamps in my passport!
We arrived in Krakow in the evening and went straight to our hotel, "hotel start." I'm sure whoever translated their signs for them did not have a good grasp of English because the ad in the lobby proclaimed it "your cheap house in Krakow!" Not the best phrasing, but an accurate description of this hotel which was clearly built during the socialist era. As a rule, you could never expect to get hot water and it always seemed like the windows were open... The hotel was no problem, however, as it was very cheap and we didn't spend much time there.
Prices were extremely low in Poland as well so we took cabs to the city center, and any where else we wanted to go, all the time. The next day we toured the city and the University of Krakow with a university student, and met with a professor who told us some history of Krakow and the university. The following day I was supposed to visit a salt mine with the group but I slept in and went to the city center alone. It was nice to just walk around and see the things I wanted to see without having to stay with a group. I was very excited to visit the National Art Museum, but upon arrival I discovered that the modern Polish art exhibits were all closed. After a long, confusing and frustrating "chat" with the woman at the ticket counter (who clearly didn't know any english except the words "no" and "closed"), I ended up visiting their exibits of victorian/edwardian clothes, armor, and decorative art. It was interesting, but I was still very dissapointed that I didn't get to see any of the modern art.
On thursday, aka- my 21st birthday, we visited Auschwitz. Yep, you heard correctly, I spent most of my 21st birthday upset beyond belief. Actually, I am very glad that we visited Auschwitz, and I still had a good time later in the day. I expected that visiting the camp would be upsetting, but it turned out to be much, much worse than I anticipated. I guess there's not really much that I can say about it on a website, if you want to know more about it, ask me in person sometime.
On the bus ride back to Krakow, our student leader announced over the bus PA system that it was my birthday and everyone sang happy birthday to me... in ENGLISH!! I did, however, learn alot of Finnish on the trip. Actually I really didn't learn that much, but I usually had a general idea of what people were discussing... which isn't that great of a feat considering everyone only talked about the same 3 or 4 things all of the time. If you guessed these topics were Polish history, architecture and culture...you would be wrong.
Friday we had nothing planned so we went to the city center and wandered around for most of the afternoon. I did a bit of hit-and-run shopping, which means in and out with your purchases before anyone else even realizes what is going on. I got a nice winter coat and some black shoes at prices that make all of Finland seem like Neiman Marcus in comparison.
Saturday we said goodbye to Krakow and got on the bus again to begin the delightfull trip back to Estonia. Once again, I really don't remember many specifics about the bus ride except that the bus was pretty dirty when we finally reached Tallin. The ferry ride back was pretty uneventfull but I had to wait in line at Finnish customs FOREVER. At customs,they have two lines in European Union countries, one for EU citizens, and one for everyone else. All the Finns got through their line in a matter of minutes while the only other foreign student and I waited in line for an eternity. To make matters worse, directly behind me in line were the kind of tourists that fall into the catagory of "stupid Americans." The kind that give the Europeans the impression that we are all as naive and irritating as them.
Now I'm back in Finland and not much has been going on. I bought a key to the library since it closes at 8 everynight and I'm used to going to the library long after 8. I saw the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" with my flat mate Kirstin, man I love pirates!
I am also helping to organize the econ department christmas party (sort of). It's traditional that the freshmen plan the party and since everyone here seems to think I am a freshmen, I decided it might be fun to help. Actually, I just wanted to go on the free trip to Tallin that we get for organizing the event! There has only been one meeting so far and it was pretty much (and by that I mean...totally) in Finnish, so I spent most of the time day dreaming. Eventually I noticed that someone was saying my name and everyone was looking at me. I guess I was volunteered to make the poster for the party, but I'm excited to do it. I am told that most of the meeting was a discussion about porridge... yes, the kind of porridge that you eat. Apparently it is a Finnish tradition to eat porridge at christmas, I'll report back when I know more about this issue. Here's a fun fact: did you know that Finland is the home of Santa Clause? I had no idea!!! But I guess the plethora of raindear they have should have been a tip off.
The other day I went to Kuppala to be fitted for a red uni-suit. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but at the University each department has their own color and its students were cover-all in that color. When I first got here I was confused by the weirdos dressed like garbage men, but now I have gotten used to it. I didn't actually order a suit, I just went because I thought it would be funny to see a fitting for them, and it was!
That's about all for now I guess, but now that I know where I can get internet I should be able to write more (even thought it is a big pain in the butt to carry my computer across the whole city!) Now for the fun part... pictures...