Monday November 22 - Watching paint dry

Watching grass grow..
Waiting for Christmas morning...

All of these were equivalent to how i felt before 12.30 am (the departure time of my bus from Jyvaskyla to Lapland). It was torture. My computer was even feeling the second tick by because it crashed multiple times during this evening.

Since I was the last to arrive for SeaBattle, I didn't want to repeat this trend and decided to be early for the bus to Lapland. I arrived a whole 40 minutes to departure time. Sitting at home became unbearable so I just walked over to the Travel Center. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one there so I met a nice girl named Anna from Greece. We chatted until the rest of my groupies arrived and so did the 3 buses that would take us to Lapland.

Lenny and I found or bus in time to get the last 2 free seats that were together. I was getting pretty impatient when I saw 12.30 am come and go and we were the last bus to leave the station. It was also weird to see all 3 of the ESN reps on our bus. The other 2 buses had tour guides from Timetravels and we had 3 from ESN. Our bus was predicted to be the rowdy one I guess :P

We left only 40 minutes late yet arrived at our first rest- stop before the bus that left first. We had a pretty great driver :)

Sunday November 21 - What's warm and soft and sitting in a comfortable flat?

Answer : ME

Laundry was as much I could accomplish today besides the usual home/school activities. It has been a mere 4 days since i returned from SeaBattle yet tomorrow I'd be leaving for Lapland. Trips really make time fly even faster because our schedules are so packed.

I know a total of one person who will be on my Lapland bus for sure. Go go gadget making new friends :)

Im hoping to see something similar to this in the next days.

Saturday November 20 - The start of my only relaxing weekend so far

This truly was a relaxing weekend at a cellular level. I had a lovely pre-departure for Lapland chat with the  folks back home and set off for a well-deserved girls night at Annelies' place. Two hyphenated words in one sentence - doesn't happen often.

You know those days/nights when so many things happen and you can't make sense of them even though it really wasn't a complicated issue? that was last night and the beginning of today for me. So this girls night in was completely necessary. Funny part is, I wasn't the only girl feeling this way. Paivi, Annelies and I all hoped for easily resolvable situation just like in Love Actually that we watched. Why can't life be a movie? Everyone would be super happy.

Friday November 19 - last M-building sensation

Fridays have a certain flavor for me now. 

I always have my Finnish art class on fridays and there is usually a social event in the evening. The flavor of Fridays is FUN. 

As all good things must come to a close, so did the in famous m-building parties. They went out with a bang though in Club Bra. Our beloved DJ Pablo became an international DJ tonight which everyone was really proud of him for. His music selection was great. better than the other DJ's because he didn't have spice girls! what's wrong with DJs these days? Aia.

The night was filled with drama and the ice cube game - who could ask for more?

Notice my Seabattle shirt! and all my lovely friends!

Music is great

the lights were great too

wonderful girls that i will miss very soon

we found the camera man/woman

Dance with Paivi in one sweater!

perfect weather for a snowball fight

Snowy beautiful Jyvaskyla

My alcoholic souvenirs/presents from Tallinn

Thursday November 18 - Wind it down after a battle

Today was an appropriate day to just attend my lecture and take it easy with a cup of tea and Laura due to the craziness of the past 3 days.

The wine course that I am participating in had a meeting tonight but biking across the whole city was just not very appealing for me in my tired/sluggish state so I decided to make it an early night instead.

Guess what time tea with Laura ended? 2 in the AM. early night indeed.

Ill look like this someday. *shudders*

Wednesday November 17 - Hello my lovely Tallinn!!

The day that I return to the city I so loved the last time I came has come! You have no idea how excited I was to be back in Tallinn. Sure, it could have been warmer but it was still so much fun to come back and recognize lots of places yet discover so many new ones. I've always been proud of myself for not being bored even with Edmonton by constantly finding new places. With a city that I've only visited once before, this task of novelty was much easier. Me and Stefan were the 'expereinced' ones here because we had previously visited Tallinn in September. So naturally, we were elected tour guides. We decided not to join the guided tour here because the one in Stockholm was pretty terrible to put it nicely. The girls we had were wayyyy too quiet and wouldn't answer questions that they thought weren't important. everyone's interested in different things geniuses ... 

And so our self-guided tour of Tallinn began..

I wish i was always greeted in each city I go to with a pink limo

Getting in touch with our childhood

This was honestly the best playground ever, why don't we have stuff like this mushroom like constructions in canada?

monkeying around

the cutest child ever observing our two austrian boys clown around

This playground was one of our very first stops because we wanted to get warmed up for the rest of the walk. Plus it was THE coolest playground ever so how could we not stop there?

This is a pretty good idea for my future house

old town how i love thee

so scenic

Don't get fooled by the sun, it was still super cold. The great company helped warmed things up a bit :)

i love these red rooftops

Embassy of Finland

great busker- his voice had that same scratchy quality as leonard cohen's

yesterday-vikings ; today - knights > we're moving up in society!

Observe the previous two photos- do we look like we've known each other for awhile? Well i actually just met this German 10 minutes prior to the picture. He is an exchange student in Norway and is also on the Seabattle cruise. It really is super amazing how being an exchange student just makes you so open to new experiences and people; especially those that are experiencing similar things to you.

waiting 45 minutes for our pancakes

We found an amazing pancake place that served pancakes with literally everything but we weren't the only ones who found it. It was packed with people and we had to wait a really long time before getting our good. Oh well, it just made it that much more enjoyable.

they were definitely worth the wait

YUM

This wasn't my pancake, it was Kerstin's. Lucky for me, she couldn't finish it and I stepped in to help a friend :)

until next time Tallinn - you definitely made my top 5

Top 5 of my world wonders :)

Tuesday November 16 - Stockholm, Sweden

And so we arrive in the beautiful city of Stockholm. It was also ridiculously expensive. Phew on not doing my exchange here!

Even though I had not slept my usual 8-12 hours as I am used to (not joking, im still catching up from my crazy summer), I was super energized for this day of sightseeing in Stockholm, SWEDEN! I had learned about the connection between Sweden and Finland in my history class and now I was able to add personal experiences to that knowledge. The flags are really similar (same cross shape only different colors). 

My breakfast on the ship was the worst because instead of getting a sandwich at the cafe like a normal person, I got crackers and a block of cheese at the 'supermarket.' This purchase started my dislike of the supermarkets on the boat. I had to wait until we got into the city to get some yogurt that I was craving quite badly. 

Our MS Baltic Queen- looks majestic eh?

Mummi! - a Finnish cartoon that is too cute

Mummi is everywhere and I still haven't bought something with it. I have a pretty good idea though but I will not publicize it as it may be a christmas present for some peeps back home.

Waiting for the underground train to transport us to our meeting spot for the city tour

I hadn't taken the metro since my weekend trip to Tallinn when we used the Helsinki metro so this was a bit weird and we got flustered even when buying tickets. The system was pretty confusing i must say - you get this long strip of paper with multiple passes on it and you have to stamp each one in a different way. Anyway, i was glad Kerstin was with us to help sort it out:)

Breakfast part one

Breakfast part two

This was my better breakfast - donuts and yogurt. OM NOM NOM. I was actually really content after eating that.

At the tour meeting place

Haha I took an identical picture of just those rope constructions and the shopping mall that you see in the background but Stefan insisted that pictures are more interesting if there are people - let there be people!

This is not a real person, this is Swedish art

At first, I was a little surprised by this figure but hey, anything can be modern art.

More art

A marketplace

It was chilly but we survived

City square

Observe the yellow coat child pushing the blue coat child 

Our whole tour guided group stopped by this skating rink and I couldn't help but wonder if the parents of these children were getting a little nervous that so many people were taking pictures of their children. That's what you get for living in the capital of a country i guess.

One of the many churches

The swedish business walk

It's getting dark already

very cool modern construction

green=go

red=stop

flying through the streets of stockholm

One of the goals for the amazing race later on tonight (pictures are a bit out of order) : the goal was to take a picture with a  personnel 

In the evening of today, we participated in the amazing race and it was so much fun! We had some pretty crazy tasks but we did really well and finished 2nd. Im starting to discover more and more that so many things in life are about the process not the end result. At first I scoffed at this theory when I heard a professor say it but now I live by it. Oh the joys of growing up.

The most comfortable chair EVER - designed by a Finn :)

I first learned of these ball chairs in my Finnish art class and now we saw them in person! how exciting. But we almost fell asleep in them because they were so comfortable and we were sleep-deprived.

hello horse

these lion statues were quite popular and all over city center

broken telephone? 

basking in the sun

we arrrr fierce vikings!

Watching the guards change positions while freezing

More telephone booths! 

Time to head back to the boat for the amazing race and more nighttime dancing :)

Thanks Stockholm, it was nice to meet you. I'll add you on Facebook when i get back home :)