Epilogue

As I have a week left in Leeds I have mostly been thinking about my life and where I want to be. England and Finland both have its weaknesses and strengths. Obviously I am going back to Finland and I'm going to work and study there, my friends and family live there. It's home. Simple as that. To be honest I couldn't be happier to go back home, however the semester has been really short, it has still given me enough time to start seriously missing home. I've always had a bit of mixed feelings about the country where I was born but I still love that place.

But England.... Everyone seems to hate it, at least everybody keeps telling me how they hate English weather, people, food, culture and everything. I see their point, meaning it rains a lot, it's gray all the time, houses are cold and falling apart, some people are hopeless (this is the part I don't really agree with at all though, hence "some"), food is awful, chips and chips and chips with beans and chips with peas, and chips with bacon, but that is why you can cook for yourself, and why would people eat in a pubs if they don't like pub food? Oh and the culture, I see what they mean. Living in a student city that is known for the night life and partying, one street full of horrible places where the young naked girls go, too drunk to walk on their high heels, feeling like they have to go crazy or they will actully go crazy, it is a bit sad, but who am I to judge them anyway. What I think as English culture is something totally different, it's bands, music, art and all that stuff. Someone once told me that there's nothing to do here, and I am just wondering how would this person survive in Helsinki. And there's a lot to do there too!

I don't know if most kids here are depressed or what's going on. They seem to get too drunk, take too many drugs, do stupid things. Everyone is taking drugs! They do in Finland too but not to the amount when watching it closely would make you get used to it. But I think that's only cause it's easy, why wouldn't they... (living in a street where there's more than one dealer neighbour). Again, who am I to judge.

I still think that the English people have grown into being really pessimistic. They have their own kind of humour to survive, and sarcasm is highly developed. I like it, but sometimes it is a bit too much, still i've gotten really fond of it. Also people don't really mind anything but their own business here, the famous politeness is a habit and something that comes quite naturally. Northeners do it better though, or at least that's what they say. In London it's a totally different thing since it's packed with tourists that creates certain kind of tension between locals and them. In Leeds people are more likely to behave more openly and as they really feel, in both good and bad ways. I appreciate that a lot. I would love to live in London, but from what I've been told and what I've figured out myself I think I would be happier in the north.

I did have kind of lot to say before I started, I mean it's just a bit overwhelming when the end is near. But I think the most important thing is that all the "bad" things I have to say about England are exactly the things why I like it here. It's honest in its brutality. I guess the major difference between them and us Finns is honesty, and being open about how you feel and who you are, and less of that shutting off of everything and suffering alone like we Finns tend to do.
And also, I do not regret for a second that I chose this place for my exchange, it suits my mentality perfectly and I would not be any happier in Bali or Spain.

I don't want this to get too depressing now so I think it's a picture time! This week I mean to go into a tourist mode again, take a lot of pictures and go to places I've wanted to go but always thought there's still time to go there next week or the week after that. Probably going to stay in the West Yorkshire however I would love to have a last look at London...

Oh forgot to mention that last Friday it was our first and last exam, held in Gandhi Hall in Headingley Campus, Uni is over and it's been interesting journey. The exam was about who has the best notes (4 A4 pages allowed to bring to the exam) and who had best quotes. Name dropping seemed to be the most important part of doing the test. Well, I managed to drop a few. 

Food, or something that resembles it. I love cheestrings.

 Another brilliant example of how healthy my diet has been in Leeds :D Cheap and tasty. Or at least cheap.

 Best Fish'n'chips in Leeds, Nation of Shopkeepers. That I would recommend to people who are not friends of English cuisine. Look how happy I am!

A trip to London, that was the first time. Still I think this place is gonna be my future home, Camden Town!

Random picture from my neighbourhood. Was it really that dark? No, it wasn't.

A bad picture of my tattoo(s) that I also took in Camden Town, at the same place where I got the previous one. The tattooist guy had learned almost fluent English in 2 years! This time he was only part of desinging the tattoo though.
  

I had a visitor, a picture of at the Carnaby Street. We saw The Used in Manchester and Placebo in London, The Pouring Rain in York and Leeds.

 Piccadilly Circus.

 Big Ben.

 Look right!

The Millennium arena, at the same time there was playing Backstreet Boys and New Kids On the Block, and at the smaller Indigo2 it was something really special, Placebo. High expectations and all of them met! I will never forget that night!

Anyway, the next time I'm gonna post here is probably in Finland. Now it's time to go to the cinema and have a nice dinner at some nice restuarant. Cheers!

This is probably my last post from England because I am going back home to Finland at the 29th of May, which is in a little bit more than a week. I have promised to show pictures from our house, and that I will do. Right now I am sitting in my room listening to the sounds of a drill coming from the other side of the wall and eating some cookie grumble Galaxy and cheesestrings. Two Northerners are fixing our bathrooms. About 4 months ago the Sunday night when I arrived here my roomies told me that the following monday these maintenance guys would be coming, and now for months later they actually did! Impressive!

Talking about the house, it is falling apart, toilet has (or had) a massive hole on the floor, bath is leaking, livingroom has two wet walls, moldings coming off from the ceiling to name a few. I really love all the noises the house is making, taps and some unidentified objects. The house is covered in mold! Black spots everywhere, but I still can't help it, I really feel like home here! As we all think, the house has character of its own! And of course Judita, Louise, Ula, Sebastian and Oliver! I'm going to miss all of them! Even Sebastard!

 This is our kitchen and a back door to our lovely garden. Mostly we just hang out here and sit on the table, sometimes even drinking wine as can be seen in the picture. Here the magic happens when my room mates is cooking, best English home made food you can think of!

 

We like peace, love is alright and harmony only a little bit over estimated!

 Our living room. The Christmas tree is unfortunately gone, but our little piece of art is developing into a masterpiece! We encourage everyone to have a go and make art! The comfiest sofa ever! And also have to mention the little heater that has kept us alive during the cold winter and rainy spring.

 

Sofa and the corner my roomies keep their bikes, also Oliver's cage is there.

 And there the little beast is having one of his many naps. For one I was able to get a picture of him. The beast moves quicker than Jagger, or something...

 And finally, my room! It isn't as close as comfy as my roomies, but I really like it! Always warm and always messy! 

Another entry coming up soon, I'll make this in 2 parts! Tonight is all about relaxing at home and I was thinking about telling more about England, what I love here and what I don't, and why is it that I wanna come back as soon as possible. Mark my words! One day I will be living in this gray, rainy and windy country! Cheers!

"Will you escape?"

 The York Dungeon! Scariest place ever! I swear I almost shit my pants there! It lasted for an hour (60 mins yes!) and there were actresses (all of them women) who were really convincing and I'm sure they really wanted us tortured and executed! I'm lucky I wasn't picked as the witch who was burned to death in front of us, it was my friend though, and she was really good at acting it out! I was honestly terrified! Now I really want to go to see the London Dungeon, but I don't know if I will survive there and make it out alive! Anyway I recommend it to everyone who has can handle their nerves! :) 

 The Cliffords Tower in York. There is so much to see in that small city of 200 000 inhabitants. We arrived there too late and missed a lot. Fortunately it isn' far from Leeds so we will be back soon! It's just hard to get used to the fact that everything closes so early in England. It doesn't suit me since I am everything but a morning person. What can you do after 5-6 pm? Go to pub? Watch TV? Well since I don't watch TV i guess it's the first one...

 The city is full of these, ghost tours and ghost walks everywhere! One of the reasons I love being in England, they know what is entertaining and they take it seriously!  Disturbing people since 1973!

 King of the world!

 Disney shop and great memories of the magnificent 90's! I even bought a mug with Grumpy.

 The Wheel of York! There's one in Manchester and then there is London Eye, and I'm sure lots more that I haven't see yet. We took a risk of dying in an astonishingly rare ferris wheel accident and had a little spin! Awesome!

 I wasn't scared at all! Not after the Dungeon anyway...

 It was beautiful! Much bigger than the one we have in Linnanmäki, Helsinki. Can't be bothered to google but trust me it was bigger... :P

It looks like I've been photoshopped there but I'm not. City of York by night! Or 6 pm....

We bought some tickets. This time it is The Used, happening in April 25th in the glorious Manchester. And yes it is the same week as Placebo in O2 London, so I believe it might turn out to be one of the best weeks in my life. My dear, dear friend from Finland is coming to visit and we will have the best time ever! Can't wait! Music, friends, England, good times!

We would have liked to hire a car too, because there are so much to see especially in the countryside, that you can not reach by public transport. Unfortunately in the UK it is not possible for a person who is under 21 to hire a car. Some companies set the limit even higher but 21 is the absolute minimum. First time I really regret not having a drivers licence... My friend who does have it turn 21 in the summer. Damn you England!! Let us drive!!!

Anyway, I haven't shared any music lately... I think this is appropriate. Next update is going to be a little sightseeing tour in our lovely little house! I love this house and I love this song! <3

Cheers!

 

Waiting for the day to end

Cheers everyone! And also hyvää ystävänpäivää kaikille! :) There's no point saying Happy Valentine's cause it has a different meaning in Finland and I don't really care for the that kinda message right now cause i miss my friends...
Althought gotta admit that I totally enjoyed seeing how huge Valentine's is in England. Since we came here almost a month ago, it was everywhere, card shops for only Valentine's day cards, all restaurants had so many special offers, especially if the man would propose. The ladies get their chance to propose and get free cake and a glass of champagne on the 29th of February. Ladies can be happy it's their turn again after 4 years....

I have been ill for the last 5 days now and today when I woke up I believe I felt slightly better although not much of an improvement. Last night I tried to skype with a friend and it was really painful since my throat was hurting so much. Thanks to my lovely roommates special magic tea it went away so I could get some sleep. That's probably a habit, not unexpected one though, that I will take home with me. I do enjoy tea in England, but I also think it has a lot to do with the climate and the houses. You just don't survive here if you don't drink a lot of tea, every day, morning and evening. I've always been a coffee person, but for the past 3 weeks I've been drinking more tea than coffee.
We were just talking about the climate yesterday, and how people who are not here do not understand how the English weather can be so cruel. Alright, it's not snowing, it's not -39,2 C. However it is in it's own way the most horrible weather you could think of. I do feel it. It's like if the whole winter in Finland was just one everlasting October.

Wish I could get better soon, cause we have so many plans. But I guess this was bound to happen. Moving in a new country and stuff, you will eventually get ill. 
Anyway, the last days I have been mostly watching movies and sleeping, which has been really boring. Yesterday I managed to get out of here and went to have lunch with my fellow Finn who is actually also ill at the moment. Today I have been heöping my roommate with cleaning since her parents are coming to visit this weekend. I finally got rid of the spider webs on the ceiling. Now I am terrified cause I know they have a thing for me and there will be a revenge for distroying the webs. And they looked kinda cool on the brick wall....

I'm gonna look at some pics I could share in this entry. I haven't taken any for the past 5 days.

 

 Not a very good picture of the Town Hall of Leeds

 Some more Leeds, on a sunny day couple of weeks ago. I really think it's a beautiful city.

 This is Oliver the Ferret! And his favourite activity, attacking your feet and when you try to get his teeth out of your toes he just gets more excited. Love him!

 A beautiful bridge at the canal. And some twat trying to ruin the view.

 There it is again. Looking a lot nicer. Beautiful Leeds <3

Culture shock

What is a culture shock? Does it happen to all of us? I know I am in England and it's not really that different compared to our culture in Finland, but there are lots of small things and some with bigger importance, that separate us from each other. I have been here for almost 3 weeks now, which isn't much, but it feels like months. Of course it might be that I am still in this honeymoon phase when everything new seems so exciting and interesting. Anyway, in my mind I feel like I have settled in about million times better and faster than I could have thought. I have always known I could be living in the UK, and when I applied to the exchange program, I didn't even think about any other choices than the UK. And here I am now, and it's just like I had imagined.  Only in a positive way.

I do not miss Finnish culture at all. I've wanted to get out of there for a long time, and I wonder if something is going to change about that in these next 4 months. I really wish I could learn to love Finland and appreciate all it has to offer. I don't hate it either, not seriously, and I know my relationship with my home country is like a rebel teenagers relatioship to her parents. You are a little embarrassed with them, sometimes hate them, but you are still part of them and can't escape that reality. However, there are more and better gigs here with cheaper tickets, nicer people, polite strangers, better sense of humour, more interesting culture, more interesting history....
Today I almost bought another tickets to Placebo concert to Edinburgh. It is so much harder to miss the gigs when you are there where everythings happening! Anyway, to make myself forget about that I will just go to the museum of Royal Armouries and be a tourist with my camera all afternoon :D 

Anyway, some pictures....

 There's lots of shopping possibilities, what ever is is that you may want. This is from Leeds. Corn Exchange.

 This pic is from the way to Manchester almost 2 weeks ago, but it actually snowed in Leeds and the whole country last Saturday. There was about 5 centimeters of snow, and the buses were not running, nor were the taxies. As proper Finns we walked to the bar....

 

This is from the beautiful city of York. Last thursday we visited the original York and it was totally worth it! Such a gorgeous small city, with a stunning old town city centre. I can recommend it to anyone who loves small weird shops, narrow streets and cute houses. It is so English in a good way, and if you go there, don't leave before the sun has gone down. The streets are so beautiful when it's dark. 

 From the River Ouse

York at night, you can see the York Minster at the back.

Happened at the Headingley Campus...

It is starting to feel like home in Leeds. Definitely don't feel like I'm on a week long vacation anymore. The uni started yesterday and it surely was interesting. Everything's so different here.
An hour long lectures, no breaks, wandering around the Headingley Campus trying to find the next class room. Everything seems so basic and simple so far. Some of the modules seem really interesting, but at least one of them, although level 5, seemed like i've taken it before - when I started studying tourism... I have a feeling it is going to be quite easy semester, however, it was only the first day and this place is full of surprises. It was interesting to see how the lecturers were so worried about us and wanted to make sure we are following everything. We had this feeling they are really treating us like we are a little stupid and don't speak any English. But that is understandable I guess, and expected. There are only three of us exchange students anyway: me, Kata and a girl from Switzerland. Rest of them are really young English people, mostly girls.

We had this little depate going on about tourism in Haiti yesterday. It was really short but sure interesting to see how English people talk at the lectures. In Finland we are so matter of fact and polite, we don't interupt or say "that is horrible thing to say" or anything like that. The culture is so different when it comes to that. First the lecturer asks if anyone wants to share their opinions about the subject. No one says anything, and it was exactly like us Finns. However, 10 seconds later, someone opened her mouth and the arguing started. Much easier job for a lecturer to get people talking than in Finland. We don't wanna say anything if we aren't 100 % sure of the correctness of the answer. It is really funny to see the differences like that.

Besides that I don't really know yet what the studying is going to be like. All I know is that I'm loving the creative industries course, and in the Valentine's day we are taking a field trip to Sheffield and see the creative industries business in action. I am so looking forward to that!

 This is Headingley Campus. The massive and typical English buiding is James Graham Hall.

Manchester! We went there on saturday, just to vote for the presidental elections in Finland. No way I am gonna miss voting, especially now when my candidate is on the second round. Also seeing Manchester sounded pretty awesome, it is actually smaller city than Leeds, but there were TRAMS! I thought I wouldn't see a tram here but I did! And I know where I am going now when I need to go to do some serious shopping! We didn't stay for long this time, but definitely gonna visit there more often in the near future. Most importantly my vote went for Pekka Haavisto! ;)  

 

First days in Leeds

I am in Leeds. It is wonderful, weird, funny and so so absurd to be in this house and in this city. It's my third day here in the north and it has been so much fun so far. The school only starts tomorrow morning (or the welcome week at least) and we have been exploring the city without any expectations or prejudices. There's only been positive surprises and things have gone so smoothly. Even the first day, when I woke up at 4.30 am in Kirkkonummi, Finland, travelled to Helsinki-Vantaa airport and we flew to London Heathrow, taking a tube to Victoria station, getting in the bus to Leeds and finally after 5 hours on the weird noise making bus journeying through the English Midlands a taxi to Kelsall Terrace, went beautifully without any stress or frowns. No kidding! Even the lack of elevators in the tube stations or the 5 changes of a tube couldn't bring us down. At the end of the day we were so proud of ourselves with my fellow exchange student Kata!

So far it's been all about the city centre, Starbucks, getting to know our flatmates, Fish 'n Chips and some shopping in the sweetest and cutest little shops. This week's plans are going to be interesting. On Thursday we were thinking about going to the first gig, skip the welcome party and see Panic at the Disco. On Saturday we will travel to Manchester, to vote for the first (openly) gay president in Finland. And on Sunday it will be York, and I've been told it is really going to be beautiful. Besides doing all these fun things, I have to get myself a student MetroCard, English phone number and probably an English bank account as well. I will be informed about that tomorrow I guess.

Me having some Fish 'n Chips in the Nash's.

This was just a quick comment about the beginning, I will be wiser about everything sooner or later. Now I don't really have much else to say, but I am loving every single moment of it. Absolutely brilliant and the people are so polite, calling us "darling", "babes" or "love" all the time. I miss my friends and family, but not Finland. I will be interested to see how my feelings towards the cold northern home will change during this exchange. The chocolate in Finland is better for sure though.

Cheers