Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Finland Deceber 9
Well, its been about a million years since i posted on my blog. I go home in 2 days. I am excited, but sad at the same time. I've met alot of really cool people and I'm really going to miss them. I'm happy that the school aspect is finally over, I actually didn't do too bad grade wise. I still need to pack, and finish a paper for my literature class, but I can do that later. I can't believe I'm leaving soon. This semester has flown by. Our last study trip up to Lapland was so much fun! Definitely the best trip. So much snow, and it was so cool learning about the Sami people. I'm gonna miss Finland, but I'm not going to miss the 4 hours of sunlight per day. It gets kind of depressing when there is no sun. It'll be weird being home when the sun is still up at like 7 pm. Here it goes down at 2 pm. Well, it doesn't exactly go down, because it doesn't exactly ever come up. It just gets light outside, but you never really actually see the sun. I feel like I have learned alot here. I've practiced my spanish a little, learned alot about australia, learned how to cook, learned that money is just money and nothing important. I've really just learned alot about so many different cultures and stuff.. It has really been a rewarding trip and an amazing experience. I'm sad to be leaving all my Oulu friends behind :(
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Finland November 3rd
Well, I'm sitting in my politics class. It's kinda boring and my back hurts really bad for some reason. I maybe slept weird, idk. So Halloween here was super lame. I went with jack to this really lame party. We thought it would be good because it was all hyped up on facebook but it was super lame. And it was really icy outside when we went home and I fell on my bike twice :(. It hurt. But oh well. I changed my flight for when I come home so I'm pretty excited now. I'm kinda over this, I'm just ready to be home.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Finland Triptober 26
Well, Triptober has come to an end, and let me just say that it was exhausting! I just got back from Berlin last night. Before I get into that though, I need to talk about my roadtrip to Nordkapp, Norway.
I went on a road trip from the 16th until the 19th. It was alot of fun. I went with Gordon, Kristo, Daniel, and Charles. Charles and I were the only Americans, the others are all from different parts of Germany. We rented a car and started heading north. Westopped in Rovaniemi and saw the santa claus village and where the arctic circle is. Along the way we stopped at the most northern point of the European union, inari and ivalo, parts of the Norwegian fjords, and then finally Nordkapp. When we got there is was very rainy and windy. It was nice though. The mist everywhere was awesome and you could look over the cliffs into the arctic sea. There was a big monument that marks it as the most northern point of Europe. After Nordkapp, we drove down through hammerfest and some northern parts of Sweden. It was really pretty up there and we saw alot of reindeer and some moose. It was a really fun trip :)
My trip to Berlin was alot of fun, but definitely too short. The city is so huge! I saw all the major stuff like the Berlin wall, holocaust memorial, Brandenburg gate, humbolt university, the cathedral, 3 museums, checkpoint charlie and some smaller statues and monuments. The first day Charles and I were there we met a guy from Belfast, ireland who gives free tours of berlin and then you can give him a tip if you want. He was awesome and full of energy. He showed us where hitlers bunker was, all the major sites, recommended a good microbrewery, and even showed us the hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby out the window. It was awesome. He knew alot about thecity and it's history so it was really nice to have a guide. The other days we just went to museums and then the last day we were shown around by a local. We saw some cool parts of town that the average tourist probably wouldn't see. It wad really awesome, I had a great trip :)
Well, I guess that's all for now. I have my first exam this week and I am not looking forward to it at all!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Finland Triptober 18th
Well I haven't posted in a while, I kind of forget that I have a blog sometimes. Unfortunately, I'm in a car right now so I won't be able to put this up for a few days or a week when I'm back in oulu and have wifi. I have renamed October to be Triptober because I am going so many places this month. From the 9th to the 14th I was on a study trip for my architecture class.
We left Oulu by train at 11:50 pm. The train was really cool because I had never been on one before. We got to sleep in these cool cabins that had bunk beds in them. We were all on the same hall so we were all loud and stuff, It was like being on a high school trip. We got to Helsinki at like 9 am or something like that. We stayed in a hotel called Omena Hotelli (Apple Hotel). It was pretty weird there because there was no front desk. You just go in the building and book a room on this computer that's in there. And there is a phone in there that if you pick it up it calls the front desk somewhere else in town. It was weird. I don't know where you'd go if you needed more towels or something. The bathroom had a towel warmer. I guess it's a Scandinavian thing because they had it in sweden too. The hotel was weird too because sarah and i got stuck in the elevator. We were screaming and stuff, it was scary, but there was a sign about what to do if it gets stuck so it must happen all the time which i thought was kind of scary. While in Helsinki we walked around and looked at these old buildings and talked about the architecture and stuff. It was interesting. We saw the old university building, the library, the cathedral, the art museum which had a really cool Picasso exhibit, the house of estates, an old fire station, Eliel Saarinen's house,and an artists museum (see facebook for pictures).
After our second day in Helsinki we got on the ferry to go to Stockholm. I was expecting a small boat, but the Gabriella was a huge cruise ship. It was awesome. We ate Swedish meatballs on the ship and everything. We also bought a bottle of wine each (bad idea in hindsight) and had a little party. At some point, I got separated from everyone and I ended up meeting a bunch of really crazy characters while I was trying to find my friends. I finally just went back to my room though and they came back shortly after. We got to Stockholm around 830 am I think.
Once in Stockholm we took our luggage to the hotel (which was really nice and amazing) and took off to explore the city. Stockholm was really cool because they have alot of streets and buildings left over from medieval times. Stockholm is also a really pretty city because it is right on the water (like Helsinki). The first thing we did in stockholm was buy metro tickets and go to Drottningholm palace, which is where the Swedish royal family lives. It was pretty cool. We also saw a theatre that one of the queens had gotten built. After walking around on the cobblestone medieval streets, we went to the cathedral. That was pretty cool too, although the churches did get old after a while because they all just looked sort of the same. We saw stockholm's city hall after that. That was interesting too, especially the room where the town council meets because the ceiling is modled after the benches Ina Viking ship because Vikings used to turn their ships over and hold council under them. I thought it was pretty interesting.
We took a ferry again from Stockholm to Turku, this time it was the Amorella. This ferry ride wasn't as nice because we were on the 2nd floor and could hear the engines and stuff all night. We were also right by the water because I could hear the waves and feel the boat rocking and I was feeling kind of seasick. It was ok though.
Once we got to Turku we ate breakfast at a hotel across the street and then we took a bus tour of the city. I would have rather done a walking tour, but oh well. We did get to get out of the bus though and tour the important things like the cathedral, Turku castle and a handicrafts museum. I took alot of cool pictures during the trip, Scandinavia is really beautiful :). I think Norway is the most beautiful place I have seen so far, but I'll save that for another post!
We left Oulu by train at 11:50 pm. The train was really cool because I had never been on one before. We got to sleep in these cool cabins that had bunk beds in them. We were all on the same hall so we were all loud and stuff, It was like being on a high school trip. We got to Helsinki at like 9 am or something like that. We stayed in a hotel called Omena Hotelli (Apple Hotel). It was pretty weird there because there was no front desk. You just go in the building and book a room on this computer that's in there. And there is a phone in there that if you pick it up it calls the front desk somewhere else in town. It was weird. I don't know where you'd go if you needed more towels or something. The bathroom had a towel warmer. I guess it's a Scandinavian thing because they had it in sweden too. The hotel was weird too because sarah and i got stuck in the elevator. We were screaming and stuff, it was scary, but there was a sign about what to do if it gets stuck so it must happen all the time which i thought was kind of scary. While in Helsinki we walked around and looked at these old buildings and talked about the architecture and stuff. It was interesting. We saw the old university building, the library, the cathedral, the art museum which had a really cool Picasso exhibit, the house of estates, an old fire station, Eliel Saarinen's house,and an artists museum (see facebook for pictures).
After our second day in Helsinki we got on the ferry to go to Stockholm. I was expecting a small boat, but the Gabriella was a huge cruise ship. It was awesome. We ate Swedish meatballs on the ship and everything. We also bought a bottle of wine each (bad idea in hindsight) and had a little party. At some point, I got separated from everyone and I ended up meeting a bunch of really crazy characters while I was trying to find my friends. I finally just went back to my room though and they came back shortly after. We got to Stockholm around 830 am I think.
Once in Stockholm we took our luggage to the hotel (which was really nice and amazing) and took off to explore the city. Stockholm was really cool because they have alot of streets and buildings left over from medieval times. Stockholm is also a really pretty city because it is right on the water (like Helsinki). The first thing we did in stockholm was buy metro tickets and go to Drottningholm palace, which is where the Swedish royal family lives. It was pretty cool. We also saw a theatre that one of the queens had gotten built. After walking around on the cobblestone medieval streets, we went to the cathedral. That was pretty cool too, although the churches did get old after a while because they all just looked sort of the same. We saw stockholm's city hall after that. That was interesting too, especially the room where the town council meets because the ceiling is modled after the benches Ina Viking ship because Vikings used to turn their ships over and hold council under them. I thought it was pretty interesting.
We took a ferry again from Stockholm to Turku, this time it was the Amorella. This ferry ride wasn't as nice because we were on the 2nd floor and could hear the engines and stuff all night. We were also right by the water because I could hear the waves and feel the boat rocking and I was feeling kind of seasick. It was ok though.
Once we got to Turku we ate breakfast at a hotel across the street and then we took a bus tour of the city. I would have rather done a walking tour, but oh well. We did get to get out of the bus though and tour the important things like the cathedral, Turku castle and a handicrafts museum. I took alot of cool pictures during the trip, Scandinavia is really beautiful :). I think Norway is the most beautiful place I have seen so far, but I'll save that for another post!
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