Being "home" again - alias Finland, HERE I COME!!!

Oh yes, I was there. I mean I was in Finland AGAIN! After one year (and a few days) I finally came back. You know, I needed to check if Finland is still at the same place and still as beautiful as it used to be. And guess what - it IS!! And I still enjoy it as much as I did before, even though my trip was accomplished with quite a few problems and unpleasant moments. But after all, that’s life, right?

Anyway, I decided to visit Finland during this summer already a year ago, though many of the other ex-exchange students have already been there in autumn or winter, but I was a little bit too busy with managing my life and studies here in Prague to leave. Even though I wanted to go back so badly! But Finland was on my mind for whole the time and soon I was quite sure that I would go there in July for 3 weeks (one of them was a work-camp in Lapland). By June I was already done with my school - I graduated (yippee!!) and passed entrance exams to universities (in the end I chose the veterinary one) and started finishing my preparations for trip to Finland. Here came the first complications - flight tickets and place-to-stay problems.

I would never believe it can be sooooo damn difficult to get the flight tickets! I saw cheap suitable flights disappearing right in front of my eyes just because the credit card refused to communicate with the server. The prices got so unbelievably high that I thought I would have to walk to Finland! But in the end I solved the problem - business class flights over Amsterdam to Helsinki. Ridiculous, but why not?

My second problem was accommodation. I thought I would stay at my host family, but some misunderstandings appeared and in the end I couldn’t stay there. So just a few weeks before my plane took off, I got this “amazing” news and I started searching like a crazy for places to stay -  I’m not a millionaire to stay in hotel (or even hostel) in Finland and therefore it was clear I had to find accommodation somewhere else otherwise I would have to cancel the whole trip. I would never believe how such a situation can make a pretty thick line between your friends and "friends" - some of my good "friends" ( before I thought they were in the friends group) didn’t even bother to help which quite disappointed me, but at least I know with who I shouldn’t waste my time anymore. Luckily there are still some very very nice people in Finland who immediately offered to help me and hosted me which, in the end, was surely much much better and more interesting than staying at one place for almost 2 weeks. In the end I stayed at 5 different places and I really enjoyed it! I saw new places and met new people, I got to talk to my old-time friend face-to-face again, so what more to wish for??

I can fly!

No, I can’t, not even with the airplane. This was the first time I actually flew ALONE, first time I had to change the planes and first time I went with the business class. And unfortunately also first time when my plane was late - yes, the first plane couldn’t take off due to dense fog and I almost didn’t make it to the other one from Amsterdam. In the end I literally ran into the second plane, but my luggage was left behind. Hmm, what a luck, right? So I ended up in Helsinki, horribly tired, stressed out and without luggage and with that "this is gonna be a catastrophe" feeling.  Luckily there was already my friend waiting for me and I cannot even describe how happy I was to see her! I also got to meet her amazing boyfriend and I spent a few days with those lovely people. We talked the last year of our lives all over, we shared the happy and not very happy moments, we gossiped, we swore, we made fun of the ones who deserve it… Just like anybody else who would be with their friend after very long, busy and indeed ennobling year. I also saw Kerava, a small town close to Helsinki and I visited the capital as well. One thing I need to say about my trip to Helsinki – the city is still the same! I would swear I was even meeting the same people! But that’s what makes you feel like being at home…

After a few pleasant days I had to leave and continue my trip, this time to Tampere, the city I love, the city of my heart. I spent a day with my ex-support person and I really enjoyed it. I spoke Finnish again (I mean I made some strange noises which could be considered Finnish language in some moments :) ) and I did the typical Finnish activities again – rowing on a lake, running away from rain, sauna, eating fresh strawberries and very typical activity for my year  – talking to that amazing person who used to “support me” during my exchange year. I enjoyed it so much and I really felt like being welcomed. 

Rock, strawberries and a lemon pie

The next day I spent in Tampere walking around known but also unknown (yes, I found some places I hadn’t seen before!) places, I also stopped by in the city library (yay, my card is still valid) and in shops I used to go to very often. It was no surprise Tampere didn’t really change. Of course there was a few new shops and restaurants on the main street, but nothing super new or surprising. Sometimes I felt like walking home from school, like I should go to the bus stop and take the bus to Nokia, like I should take out my biology book and read… It was all the same, but sometimes I saw some things in a different way. Maybe because now I could compare with Czech with still fresh memories (for example now I agree that Finns have salty butter which I never noticed before), maybe because I wasn’t exchange student with all the rules and limits anymore, maybe because I was one year older – who knows; just the feeling was sometimes different.

Before leaving to my host-family I saw a few concerts in Tammerfest festival and it was kinda cool – seeing those young Finnish musicians I would otherwise never ever heard about, while sitting outside, enjoying the few minutes of sun before the rain started again (the weather was indeed Finnish unlike during my exchange year). And then my ex-host-dad picked me up and I went to the place I called home for almost 10 months. And again, it felt just like if I only came back from school, just like normal day. Even the dog and cat welcomed me (I was quite surprised by cat’s super friendly reaction) and I enjoyed really nice evening with my host family. The next day I happened to do another typical Finnish summer activity – my host-sister took me to picking of strawberries. That means eating tons of strawberries (until you also feel like a big red strawberry) while running away every time it starts to rain. 

It was fun, but soon I had to continue my way – back to Tampere to my 2-weeks-host-family which hosted me while my real one was away. I really love this family and luckily I stayed in touch with the host-mum and could visit them. There, finally, I felt like really at home, like in family. Beside their little boy, there was also summer exchange student from the USA and so I fitted in so naturally, I just felt like one of the family’s kids, yay! And my “strawberries day” was wittily finished with pancakes with strawberries and strawberry juice. Honestly, I thought I would never eat this fruit again!!

The next days I spent mostly hanging out with that exchange student, playing cards with him and the host-brother and also translating – “tell him that …” (in Finnish) or “tell him that…”(in English). Translating from one non-native language to another is really not my cup of tea, but what wouldn’t I do for those sweethearts?? I felt like an exchange student again – we even went to Rax pizza-buffet and we tried to make a truly American food – lemon pie. And of course it took ages and wasn’t too successful, but that’s how it should be when you are an exchange student, right?? :) I was also introduced to another exchange student and I must say we did have blast!

The Lapland calling

But even the nice time in this wonderful family came to its end, after talking a lot (also talking quite a lot in Finnish - it surprised me how nicely and naturaly it sometimes went!) and enjoying the nice warm feeling, I continued to my ex-boyfriend’s place. Again, another place where I used to spend a lot of time and where I met many new people, again nothing really changed there. Of course, what changed was the kind of relationship between me and my ex, although I must say not in the “normal” way (= from dating to me trying to kill the idiot I used to date) and therefore the time I spent there felt quite natural and nice. :)
During that time I also did a little bit of shopping - I bought 8 Finnish books, one of them I was searching for for ages! It's one of my most favorite books called The Maid Silja (Nuorena nukkunut)  by Frans Eemil Sillanpää and I can tell you that when I finally found the book in second-hand book store, when I saw the  title and when I placed my hands on this very old looking book and when I checked the year of publication and it was 1933… I was the happiest person in Finland.

Bun soon I had to leave from Tampere because my way up north was about to begin. But let’s talk about that week some other time….