I leave Finland in two days. Time for a little venting and reflection.
My friends and I have all been really sad to go home and return to our regular lives. But Finland gave us the best parting gift: snow!
When I came back from Prague, the ground, the trees, the water, everything was covered in fluffy, white powder. The snow here is so cool! It’s the fluffiest snow I’ve ever seen. I think because it’s so cold here that there’s hardly any moisture in the snow. The temperature has been in the teens and tomorrow it’s supposed to go down to 3 degrees! Today I did something I’ve never been able to do before which was walk on a frozen lake. My friends and I actually walked to an island in the middle of the lake. It was awesome!
But enough about the snow; back to my reflection. I’ve been thinking about going back to Olympia, then back to Bellingham, and it’s making me really sad. For one thing I’m going to miss my friends here, but also I’m worried I’m going to be really bored back home. I loved all the trips and adventures I went on, and I loved getting to explore Europe. I’m going to come back and see western Europe, no matter what. And now I have people to visit!
I also had a much more active social life here than I did back home. My friends at home tend to be more nerdy and mostly play video games, but here I go out to parties and clubs: things I’ve never done before coming here. I learned to let loose and not be so self-conscious. I will definitely miss my social life here.
Even though I’m really going to miss all my friends, one thing I’m honestly not going to miss is Finland. Don’t get me wrong, Finland is really pretty and the people are super nice, and it’s one of the cleanest, safest countries I’ve ever been too. But the thing is, Finland is kind of boring. Finland is a very sparsely populated country that doesn’t have too much going on. And coming from America, Finland is extremely homogeneous. I always think of food as an example. One of the things I miss the most about home is all the different cuisines you can have. And the food actually has flavor and is reasonably priced. Which is another thing. Food here is so expensive. I would have saved so much if I chose to study somewhere cheaper than Finland. But as my friends reminded me, I wouldn’t have had the same quality of education and ease of adjustment thanks to Finland’s amazing organization.
But as I was saying earlier, I can’t live somewhere that’s too homogeneous. I’m too used to living in a diverse, immigrant country. As wonderful a country Finland is, I just couldn’t picture myself living here.
Since it was mostly the people that made me love this experience so much, I think I’m ready to go back and see my friends and family. Almost everyone else has left and I’m one of the last people here.
I do still have London to look forward to, but I’m also worried that going there on Christmas and Boxing Day wasn’t a great idea. So many things will probably be closed and there probably won’t be many people at the hostel. But it’s a big city, so who knows?
