perjantai 30. tammikuuta 2015

My laptop is my best friend

Heyy!

Haha, the title of this post is pretty sad, pretty 21st century :D (another sad reminder of us living in the some-reality is that one day I was talking to my flatmate, who lives in the neighboring, room via Facebook. Well, I didn't know he was home and he didn't know I was home either so it's not that we'd prefer interacting in some instead of talking face to face, so it was pretty funny when we found out that both of us is home and that we could actually have a real conversation.... :)). Well, to be honest it's true that I have spent more time with my laptop than with my friends; At the moment I don't have that many lectures and everyone is just studying to the exams. So am I. Unfortunately the power point slides are in the internet and the literature is online too/on an USB stick aka I am sitting by the laptop 24/7.Another reason for me spending more time with the laptop than my friends is the project called applying for a summer job... Everyone aged 16--> is trying to get a summer job and without a Bachelor's degree and/or previous working experiences on your own field it is really hard to find a job. Sometimes I get frustrated because how can I ever get a summer job from my own field when they require previous experiences that I don't have so I can never get the first one either... Well, I just have to send tens or thousands (like it feels like) of applications and cross my fingers. I just have to think of each and every task as a new opportunity and stay positive! It will be a lot easier when I have an actual degree and at least I have a lot better German skills after this exchange :)
And yes, for some nationalities it might sound odd to spend hours by the laptop trying to find a summer job but I'll tell you why I have to find one:
a) I need money since I am financially independent (except for the 500e I get a month from the government)
b) Everyone will have a summer job/they will be travelling around the world so I would get very bored all by myself at home
c) it looks very bad in your CV if you haven't worked in the summer (looks like you have been lazy)
d) I'd probably have to be a maid at home by my parents if I had nothing clever to do :D

Well, luckily I am not only spending time with my laptop, I have also visited the theater often recently. I am so grateful for the opportunity to go there for free! (Ok fine, I paid 200 and something in the beginning of this semester and some of the money was for the culture ticket, but I mean I paid for it already so I don't think of that money anymore, I'm trying to concentrate on the positive things instead, like a free entrance to the theater :)). So now I've seen three performances and I would say that they've all been pretty good! The last one, Homo Emhpaticus had a good idea and it had funny dialogue but it started to turn a bit odd towards the end and it had a couple of weird scenes which I didn't get and which didn't bring anything to the story itself.

What else...? Ohh, it's so sad, people are starting to have their fare well parties already! The time here has passed wayyy to fast! :( I mean yes, it is nice to go back to Finland but I am going to miss my international friends, living with other people and the lovely German price level!! I will probably be in chock every time I buy food or alcohol in Finland so haha if I lose weight it's probably because I am too terrified for paying so much for food :D (just kidding, don't worry!)

Oh, and I went to the doctors to show the MRI pics and unfortunately she could only see that there's a lot of liquids in the knee but she couldn't see the reason for the liquid... As she told me that I really have to go to the arthroscopic operation my face must have lost all of it's colour and my heart just stopped. I mean it's not a big deal, but I don't know if I'll have the time to do it here in Germany and if not I will have wait until I'm in Finland which is not until the middle of March, aka no running/swimming/leg trainings for all together 4 MONTHS! (haha so I'll only do arm exercises and get Y-shaped, watch out! ;)). Well, at least I can walk now all day without a lot of pain and the knee is not as huge as it used to be so I'll tell myself once again: keep your head up, it will be fine! Worrying about it or being negative doesn't help anything.
Oh, out of the context, but I noticed one day that my hair has grown so I am able to braid it - it's the small things in life one has to enjoy :)

It's not long but it's a braid anyway :)
Short and layered hair is a little challenging combination :D


Doctor's office, they let me in
before the doctor had arrived
From the theater, this time we fortunately
got a little better seats than the last time!





sunnuntai 25. tammikuuta 2015

MRI and the rest of the week

Hello!

The rest of the week was pretty interesting: I went to the MRI, I was spontaneously making pancakes in the middle of the night, had a dinner with my roommates and was dancing while having breakfast. Oh, and it's snowing!! :) So, now more into the details:

On Friday I had the appointment to the MRI in Goslar in the evening, so luckily I didn't miss any of the Marketing Performance Management maths exercises (from 10am to 4 pm). Oh I have to tell you, it was such a cool feeling to sit there on a lecture that was fully in German and to understand what we had to do! Well, it was basically maths and numbers are the same in Finnish and German but you know, I understood why we had to do this and that :). Well, that was the first half of the lecture, the other half was then again the opposite :D I'll just have to look through the exercises myself at home, it's not that difficult. Well, my point is, that for a couple of hours I was so happy and proud of myself, for one moment I thought I could actually pass the course :)

Calculating which of the car models is most effective
After the exercises I went to the railway station where I had the amazing noodle-veggie mix with peanut butter sauce! Mm soo good and still so cheap (3e!!) even if inflation had reached that place too (last week it was 2,90e). Then it was time to head towards Goslar (approximately an hour journey). Everything was just fine until I reached the hospital... So, earlier as I called the place they asked me for the note from the doctor, which I didn't have, since the doctor never gave it to me. She just gave a list from the MRI places and told to call them as soon as possible. I was wondering if I'd get any note or piece of paper as evidence for visiting a doctor but no, I wouldn't get any. So on the phone the girl from the MRI told me it was ok so I obviously trusted her. But as I went there to the front desk to tell them I had arrived the old lady told me they couldn't take the MRI without a letter from the doctor. I was really furious, obviously, since on the phone I was told it wouldn't be a problem. So I tried to stay calm, told them what I was told it's ok and that I've came all the way from Göttingen for the MRI. As the lady noticed I was demanding the MRI and wouldn't let go she told me to wait, she'd talk to someone. After 5 min she came back and was super super kind and told me it was all good but I'll have to pay for it myself (it's ok because I'll just contact my insurance that will cover it). So I finally got the MRI done and even if it took only 15 min I was struggling staying awake :D The last time I had a MRI (because of my back) it took a little longer and I actually fell asleep there IN the machine :D Well, then I got the cd with me and I was ready for going home, where I then had a look at the pics. My flatmate, who is an ex-vet, had a look at them too and I mean he is a vet but even I can see from the pics that there is a lot of liquid that shouldn't be there. Well, I could tell that just by having a look at the knee from the outside without a MRI, but obviously I can't tell why it's infected. Haha, btw it is a very freaky feeling when the other knee is cold-ish and hard like knees normally and the other one is very hot and big & soft because of the liquid. Well, my flatmate told me to use some cold gel for it and not to wear heels, but naturally he couldn't tell me much more. So I'll go to the doctors on Monday to get an appointment to get some more information of this fatty knee.

My knee. The whole white part there all around the bone
is supposedly liquid that shouldn't be there
When I got back home from the MRI (at around 22.30) I met my roommate who asked me if I wanted to make pancakes with him :D I thought it was such an odd question at that time of a day that I just couldn't say no! So we started baking (well he did, I was mostly watching :)) and nam they were really good! :) So we were eating homemade pancakes, drinking some really good Hungarian red wine and talking and all of a sudden it was 3 am! :D Haha, it was such a funny night, I just love these spontaneous chill outs :)
Unfortunately I had a baaad headache the next morning (how many times do I have to find it out that I can't drink more than one glass of red wine without having a bad headache the next day?? Had it been white wine I wouldn't have had any problems...!) and obviously I couldn't wake up as early as I had planned (at around 7 o'clock). Well, it was fun and worth it! The day turned out to be good anyway, I had a coffee with another Finn in the city center and we were struggling with the fact that you have to carry cash wherever you go here in Germany...! I never have cash on me (the homeless person/a person who had fallen outside of the society had a hard time believing me though....) and haha, neither did the other Finn so I stayed in the cafe while she went to the ATM to withdraw some money... Argh! I had already forgotten about this. Well, we got the coffee and cake paid so we were able to leave the place without having to run out and never show our faces there again.
In the evening I had a dinner with my flatmates. We made some curry and rise, oh so good! My flatmate has grown up in Asia so she knew how to make it and it was really delicious!! A bit spicy, but I mixed some natural yoghurt with the curry so it was a lot milder and I really liked the creamy texture. I'd definitively do it again! (I hope my flatmates read this :DDD). After the dinner I got several texts from my friends wh tried to persuade me to take part in a party that was organized here in the student village (100m from my house) but I was really tired (obviously from staying up way too late the previous night) and I have to study effectively today before we go the theater (which by the way is completely free ). So I passed and I was so proud of being strong and being able to say no, because today I'm fit for some maths :) Besides I woke up early and was lucky to meet flatmates on breakfast and ohh it was so funny! Some interesting discussions and in the end some dancing! Haha, my Colombian flatmate just loves the Latino music and loves to dance and to make us other to dance as well :) (well, I don't know whether he enjoys more to make us familiar with his culture or watching us trying to move our stiff bodies like the smooth Latinos but terribly fail doing it! :D). Anyways it was a hilarious beginning for the day! Now some maths and then to the theater, yay! :)


The curry :)
Oh, here are some pics from the theater, it's such a beautiful old building! :)

And from the inside
Deutsches Theater from the outside


The stage.
Obviously the free seats aren't the best ones but I don't mind :)

Have a nice coming week,

L
The snow, that I was trying to take a picture of when
it was on my jacket, melt before I got it captured on a pic :(
Maybe it will stay on the ground instead, fingers crossed! :)

keskiviikko 21. tammikuuta 2015

The good and the bad (news)

As I started to write this post in the morning I was desperate, furious and  had anxiety at the same time. But I'm happy I didn't have the time to write the whole post because it would have been written in a negative tone. I'll tell you why: So far my stay here has been pretty unproblematic. Until now. As I've already told you before, I was running 4 weeks ago and I hurt my knee. I do not like seeing doctor's since they always have some bad news. And getting an appointment in another country, insurances.... very confusing. But I finally went to see a doctor and I was lucky (horrible to say this), because my roommate had to see an orthopedist too so I just tagged along. Well, I showed my all swollen knee to the doctor and her reaction was: "Oh, it is very swollen, there's something kaputt for sure". Great. She would have wanted to send me directly to an arthroscopic operation, even better.... But since I was a little skeptic and not living here permanently she said that another option is to take an MRI to see what's wrong and if it needs to be operated I'd probably have to do it in Finland because I might not have enough time here in Germany for that. If I understood it correctly (talking about anatomy and deseaces in German isn't my strongest side :D) her hypothesize was that the cruciate ligament could be injured.

Well, that wasn't the reason for being so mad even if she told me to try to avoid burdening it, aka no sports for me... Well, I mean I can go for a walk in the forest if it doesn't hurt (because some days it's better and I can barely feel any pain while walking on a soft ground).
But the reason why I was so mad was that I called a place where they do MRI's and first of all the lady couldn't hear what I was saying even if I could hear her (I've had problems with my phone, but as long as it's working somehow I won't buy a new one) and I would have gotten an appointment to the 30th of February, which is obviously too late and the third reason is that I wanted to speak German, of course, and I was pronouncing the word "Knie" with a silent k like in the English word "knee" so she couldn't understand me :D So I thought I'd never get an appointment and never get my knee fixed until my roommate came home so I could borrow his phone so I checked from google maps all the places where I could take the MRI (I had gotten a list from the doctor) and booked an appointment to many places to then take the first one. Well, I was lucky, because I was offered an appointment on Friday the 23rd in Goslar, a small city nearby where I can go for free with the train. It's in the evening so I won't even miss much from a lecture that is from 10 to 17. I was so happy, that I ran up the stairs (probably not very smart from me) to the second floor where my flatmate lives and I just attacked him with a big hug :D Haha poor guy looked a little stunned, but I just couldn't help it, all of a sudden I got my hope back - I would get my knee fixed!
The dick & the black
(had disagreements with the stairs so now the right knee is black, but that's gonna be just fine in a couple of days. It's the left one that I'm concerned about...)
 So life is good again! :) Oh, I have to tell you about our dinner we had yesterday with a bunch of ERASMUS students: My Bulgarian friend had invited us over for a Bulgarian dinner and I have to tell you, it was soo delicious(I rolled back home again :D) and even if our discussions became a little bit too hmm intense and there would have been no end if we hadn't told ourselves just to stop and change the topic ;) Well, that's the best pat of this experience: so many different people from different backgrounds and views of life! We can learn so much or at least practice our argumentation skills ;D

Very typical Bulgarian starters
Mmm homemade Bulgarian food!
 Btw I'm finally taking advantage of the free access to the theater here in Göttingen! (I mean, there's gonna be naked men in the play, how could I resist? ;)) I hope I can understand something of it (it's Ein Sommernachtstraum from Shakespeare), but at least I won't lose any money if I don't like it. Oh and today we are going to buy tickets to an opera in Hannover, Wahn oder Sinn? - Der historische Kaiser Caligula or Die Hochzeit des Figaro. We are also planning on sightseeing in Hanover before the opera since it's in the evening, looking forward to some cultural activities :)
Going to the dinner, at this point I had no idea of how well I'd eat there! :)

sunnuntai 18. tammikuuta 2015

Shopping, shopping, shopping & shopping!

Just got back home from the railway station once again! I had a lovely weekend with my sister, but the time just flied and tomorrow, on Monday, I really have t get back to work (studying). Anyway, back to this weekend: before my sister arrived her, I asked if she wanted to make a trip to Hamburg, Hanover or Bremen etc and her answer was: "I want to go shopping!" :D Ok, fine by me. And I can't blame her - Germany is so much cheaper than Finland! I mean, of course clothes in chains like H&M are the same price but we have a good outlet here in Göttingen where some brands are sold very cheap and there are some random shops that we don't have at all in Finland where for example leather boots are a lot cheaper. So shopping here is simply a smart thing to do! ;)
Woman-With-Shopping-Bags

My sister arrived pretty late on Thursday so she just grabbed a taxi from the railway station and we went to bed pretty early (well, a little gossiping too of course ;)) to be fresh for shopping the next day :). As we walked to the city center I showed her around at the campus, which by the way is not very beautiful, and then it was time for some shopping! I barely found anything even if there where really good sales (a cool bright yellow skiing/snow boarding jacket from Fischer for only 80e when the original price was 400e! I was crying inside; I didn't need it so I had to let it stay there in the outlet but it was so cool and such a good jacket...!) but my sister did :D She also bought a suitcase to be able to get everything with her back home... She also found a pair of the leather boots I had dreamed of. Well, I guess I just have to hit the gym or start walking with high heels (;)) because it's very depressing when the boots that are advertised as "extra tight" are way too lose from the calves, argh!
We spent the whole day in the city center and then it was time for some dinner at Bullerjahn's, a really nice and beautifully decorated & furnished restaurant under the old city hall. Then some cheese, crackers & wine in the evening :) We were hanging out with my roommates in the living room and went to bed a little too late; we had an early morning because we wanted to catch a train to Hanover the next day.
Oh so smelly but oh so delicious cheese!
This is actually from the previous weekend when my friend visited me, but I thought it fitted in here too :)


 We took the early-ish train to Hanover and after a good sleep in the train we headed towards the city center. All of a sudden all the sleepiness was long gone! We spent the whole day in the shops again and well, I have to say the sales were insanely good! Of course the clothes aren't always from good materials and I would never buy clothes from certain materials because I can't stand tuft in the clothes! I never buy anything from Zara for example because the affordable clothes have very bad quality and the more expensive ones aren't just worth the price, because the quality isn't outstandingly good (too bad, because I really like their design - just like the thousands of other Finnish girls :D). Haha, actually me and my friend have always been laughing at textile twins, you know, like a group of friends, mostly girls, who all wear the same white converse, skinny black jeans and the jacket from Zara that everyone has :D Well once again, I am not any better: me and my sister were wearing almost exactly the same kind of clothes: black short jackets (ok, she was also borrowing one of my jackets), skinny jeans, a scarf and black leather boots :D to be honest we were seriously a bit embarrassed of ourselves for being such textile twins and some people even claim that we look so similar from the face (not true btw :D). Well, at least our bodies are almost the opposites of each others' so we bought clothes for different body types. Then again, I always grab the same clothes in a store as my mom does and I always go through her wardrobe while I visiting my parents - just to find at least 2 shirts there that actually belong to me :D Yes, we are even the same size and we used to be exactly equally tall (yes, my dad had to measure us with a bubble level to be sure of the result :D) but then I grew or she shrank (a little bit too late though, since my mom and my godfather had a bet of which one of us that would be taller and at that time I wasn't taller that her yet so my godfather lost a wine bottle :D). Well, I guess I got sidetracked again, so back to the actual theme! Hmm where was I...?
Anyway the day passed very fast in Hanover and all of a sudden it was time for the shops to get closed and for us to go home. Oh, something that I was (negatively) surprised about was how many families that were out there shopping! I do understand that some cultures are more family-oriented than we Finns but seriously it's not pleasant for anyone that you bring either the grandparents, that are sitting in wheelchairs blocking all the small and crowded shops and since you have to show them a little respect everyone can't just ask them to keep moving away all the time, or the whole flock, which consists of tens of kids and their cousins and friends, that is way too inpatient to wait for their mothers to argue with their teenaged siblings of some shirts so the kids aged 2-8 just run around playing hide and seek or fight with each other. Anyway it was a long and successful day, even if our feet were so dead after all the walking and standing. Who says shopping isn't a sport? ;)
I like Hanover city center because it's so white and light :)


The main railway station is seen at the end of this street
 

Smth I bought. I seem to have an obsession in colours, maybe it's because of this horrible grey Central-European winter that makes me miss colours!
 The next day we had only a couple of hours before my sister had to take the train to the airport so since it was a nice and sunny day (yeyy, SUN! Oh, how I've missed you! I am really sick and tired of this super windy, rainy weather) we decided to go out for a nice little Sunday walk :) Well, we walked approximately 10 km and half of it was uphill and I was wearing running shoes and sports clothes so it was a little more than a "little Sunday walk", but it was pleasant anyway! We were not the only once out there in the woods and oh, even the deers were back (a tame herd surrounded by fences). For some reason they were on a break or smth for a couple of months and the area surrounded by fences was all empty. Maybe the deers needed to get away from all the curious people like us trying to persuade them to come closer the fence by trying to feed them. Anyway, now they were back bigger and braver (the fawn had grown and they had a thick and dark fur, not the albinos though :D).
Way too soon we had to turn back, pack my sister's suitcases and head to the railway station, where we had amazingly delicious and cheap Asian food (only 2,90e for a big plate of noodles and veggies in a peanut sauce, namm!!!) at mai mai. Thanks for visiting me, sister's time is always welcome! 

Ps. Now it's time to start applying for a summer job, argh every spring the same stressful process, a real pain in the ass that every Finnish student has to face from the age 15/16 til the end of the studies.
Oh, so traditional German landscape! :)

Dark, albinos and one "traditional Bambi" :)

"Do you have any food for me?"



tiistai 13. tammikuuta 2015

Lucky me ;)

Hello dear friends and family!

My best friend, who visited me last weekend, left a couple of days ago and I had to go back to school. Unfortunately we both had some deadlines during her stay so we made some school stuff, took it easy (well, to be honest we went a little crazy in the shops ;)), had some good (read: cheap) wine, and celebrated a friend's bday - all in all a very lovely weekend!
 Haha and to make sure I wouldn't get too into school and studying my sister (not the one who visited me with my mom in December but the other one ;)) is coming to visit me this Thursday, yay! Haha, it's probably 10 years ago since I visited her as she was doing her exchange in Munic, gosh the time flies! Anyway, now that I'm back home I can write about travelling ;). Seriously, I should start a travel blog since something always seems to happen as I'm on the go. Well, otherwise a great idea, but one kind of an important thing is missing: money :D Hahha I guess I'll just write about my life here in Göttingen, that I can afford :) Well, anyways now I'll write about my journey to and from Finland.

Actually I'd like to thank a flight company, even if I don't want the company to know my thankfulness; you see, it made a mistake, treated me really well "by accident" and now I'd like to tell you why:
As I wrote in my earlier post, my suitcase didn't make it to Helsinki in time, but to be honest it didn't matter because I was on my way to my other home, which is actually (too) full of clothes anyway so I could manage a couple of hours without the clothes I had in that suitcase. But the thing is, that as they called me to tell they were going to bring the suitcase home to me they also told me it was really broken and that they are really sorry - the company would buy me a new one! Well, I already knew that they hadn't broken it; if you remember I also wrote in an earlier post how I was dragging my suitcase behind me and I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't break into peaces because it was really old and in a bad condition. So, as the suitcase arrived I didn't see any "new" damage meaning, that I'd get a whole new suitcase for free! Haha thanks company x for the Christmas present! :)And to be honest that wasn't even all. That was actually only the beginning, it's getting better :)

On my way back to Göttingen I was supposed to wait for 13 hours at the airport in Copenhagen (yes, I chose the cheapest flights and I had such good/not negative experiences from staying the night at the airport in Hanover that I had decided to save money and not to stay in a hotel. So as I checked in my brand new suitcase in Helsinki I was told I wasn't able to get the boarding pass to the connecting flight since it wasn't until the next morning and that I would have to find the stand of this company in Copenhagen to get it. No problem, I would have 13 hours time to do it :)
We landed in Copenhagen approximately 40 min later than intended so a lot of people missed their connecting flights and some had 10 min time to run to the next gate. Well, I had time so I started killing it wandering around at the airport. It is actually a very cozy one, def a nice and not too crowded to spend a night at. After a while I decided to get the boarding pass so I wouldn't forget it later. As I told the lady I needed a boarding pass to Hannover the lady said: "I am so sorry for the inconvenience! I am very sorry to tell you that there aren't any flights to Hannover today anymore so we'll have to book you on the flight next morning. But this company will of course pay for the hotel for you for tonight!" I was really confused, probably just stand there looking like a huge questionmark and the only thing I could reply from my amazement was "mmmm..." which is probably good so I didn't reveal myself. I mean, I was anyway going to fly with the first flight next morning so I hadn't missed any flights, but instead of sleeping at the airport I got a free hotel night! Well, there had been other people in the same flight with me who had planned to take a flight to Hannover the same night (maybe it was full booked as I bought the tickets, because I never had the opportunity to fly to Hannover from Copenhagen the same night) and these people had missed the flight, so I guess the staff thought I had bought the tickets to that flight as well :D Anyway, happy as hell I took the voucher and the metro ticket (the hotel was 3 stops away from the airport, literally right by the metro station!) and told myself not to start dancing of joy in front of everyone there, I'd save it for later. As I arrived at the hotel I also got a voucher for a free dinner, wine/beer and a breakfast (at that point I cursed the overpriced yoghurt and juice I had bought at the airport because now I got free food but I wasn't even hungry anymore). Well, I forced the delicious pork in me and then it was time for some dessert (as everyone knows, dessert goes to a different stomach and that's why there is always space for some ;)). Now I was satisfied, time to go to the big bed I had only for myself!
Early waking up and a huge breakfast and to be honest it was probably the best breakfast I've ever had; I don't need tens of different breads and croissants, it's not that I have an endless stomach (even if it feels like it way to often) and I could try all of those breads, so it was better to have only a couple of different breads, a huge cheese selection and many rather exotic (well, not maybe exotic for people from tropical countries but I mean when the temperature sinks to -40 like in Finland the other day there's not that big variation of fruits ;D) dried fruits to go with (or without) yoghurt. Namm, namm! I literally rolled back to the airport. So haha, that's why I'm very thankful - until I get a bill ;) Haha I hope the staff don't find out (soo read this post like it was a secret ;)) and if they do find out, that they can't make me pay for the hotel :). Here below I'll add some pics ;)

L
ps I'd do it again ;)

Otherwise perfect, but it felt weird to eat alone
Mm this was soooo good!



Time for some dessert ;)

Berries, dark chocolate and ice cream

And a good night sleep in an actual bed - a hundred times better than the hard benches at the airport ;)



I'm happy, time for some studying until my sister's visit :)
Oh btw I now have an appointment to an orthopedist because of my knee, which is still swollen and hurts ( for 3 weeks it has looked like it belonged to someone who is at least 50 kg heavier than me due to the liquid it has in it), time to get it fixed!

keskiviikko 7. tammikuuta 2015

Back in business

Hello!

I've had a great winter holiday (despite that fact that it didn't start that well with my knee getting all swollen and it still looks like Honey Boo-boos mom's double neck, and I was really sick during Christmas, slept the most of it) and now I'm back from the winter wonderland! Well, Finland wasn't really a winter wonderland all my stay, the weather was everything between the nasty, rainy darkness to -25 degrees stereotypical Finnish winter weather. And haha up there in Northern Finland it was -30 degrees for days :D. Ok, that's even too cold for me, I hate the feeling when your nostrils freeze.

The view from my room
Perfect ice for ice skating (not thick enough though)

On top of the world!
The sun sets at around 3.30 pm


Anyway, I got what I wanted, at least for a couple of days so I could go cross country skiing (on the field though because there weren't enough of snow on the actual tracks) and ice skating (on natural ice on a lake for the same reason as in the previous activity: there wasn't that much snow on the lake so it was good for skating). So now I could sum up the year 2014 since it seems to be a trend around people in the social media :D
Industries in 2014 - Economist Intelligence Unit

Winter/Spring:I spent a week around the new year in Sweden with a bunch of friends. I flew home was it the 2nd of January just to catch a plane to the Caribbeans (from Finland) the next day. My mom was super stressed out, she was afraid I'd miss the flight to the Caribbeans but I didn't so I spent the next two weeks in a tropical true paradise in the Caribbeans (where I met my sister whom I hadn't seen for months!) and in the freezing cold Miami. I do prefer cold weather but not when it's supposed to be hot and I've only packed a bunch of bikinis and shorts with me...
At least it was hot in St. Lucia :)

 Spring: I applied for the exchange. If I could go back to that time I'd apply for a whole year, so as a hint to people who are planning on an exchange: stay there the whole year! Half a year is wayy to short! (Especially if you want to learn a new language)
 Exchange Student Program Can Affect Students Positively

Summer: Working in the US part 2. Me and my friend had decided to go back to Wisconsin for the second time and to make this summer even better than the last one. Surprisingly we managed, it was an unbelievably amazing summer! New friends, old friends and what is more, I could share the experience once more with my best friend :)
"I owned every second that this world could give -- I swear I lived!" (at least our jeans look like they've been through a lot ;))



























Summer/Autumn: A short visit in Finland between the trips to the US and Germany. I was all excited to move to Germany and even if I had absolutely no German in my head after the summer, my language skills in German got (and still get) better and better. At first I was horrified to live in a housing with 10 others, but it turned out to be a lot of fun (most of the time, not when someone "forgets" to clean after themselves or when the toilet paper has ran out)!


Deutschland



Learn German Language
This is what I kept telling myself :D
        
  Autumn: The time passed super fast! I made a couple of trips in Germany and outside of Germany: Bulgaria, Holland, Finland, Estonia... :) My friend also visited me here in Germany. Happy times!

Holland!
Bulgaria :)

 Winter: Can you even call it a winter when there's no snow? And when it's above 0 degrees? Other than that, had a blast: my mom and sister visited me, I drank Gluhwein in the Christmas markets, spent time with my new friends and went back home to Finland for the winter holidays. All in all a very good year!!! :)
This is what they call snow :D
Christmas feeling at the uni :)
I've also lived in 3 different countries,  had 4 different addresses and visited 9 countries (not to mention all those countries that were my pitstops on my way to the final destination) year 2014. It was a busy year with tens of new people and I got thousands of memories :) Ok, I guess it's time to end this text now before it gets too cheesy - I'm exactly as bad as all the other people to whom I have laughed at because of their cheesy statuses in facebook :D So happy new year and let's start living our lives, exercise more, get a great beach body for the summer, travel more and what not.... good luck with the endless processes (also known as the New Year's resolutions or mission impossibles ;)). Stay strong my friends! ;)

 - L
 
 ps. two months and I'll move back to Finland :)
http://www.lily.fi/sites/lily/files/trendi_files/user/2/2011/02/muutto1.jpg