NYC - Concrete jungle wet dream tomato

There's nothing you can't do
Now you're in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it from New York, New York, New York!

 First of all I gotta say that leaving London and Canada was way easier done bit by bit. 

So after my quick visit to Barrie, Ontario I set off towards New York, where my dear old(est) friend was going to meet me.

We arrived at different airports so we had decided to meet at the hostel in Brooklyn. The hostel.... ohhh what an interesting place. As opposed to the one in Toronto this was definitely not top rank. But let's not get into further detail. I'll tell more to anyone who dares ask. Ha. Let's just say that it was fine in the end but I wouldn't go there again.

Day 1:

We met at the hostel, settled in, and took off right away. Ended up having dinner in Chinatown, where else. Afterwards we headed towards Times Square. It was quite late already so after we'd taken some pictures and looked around as best as we could (waaaay too many people, I got anxious) we went back to the hostel for a good night's sleep.

OH! And I bought one of these! I'd dreamed about it ever since I saw one of the videos. 

Day 2:

Manhattan. Central Park. American Museum of Natural History (DINOS!). 

Not a dino. Super cute though.

Day 3:

Brooklyn Bridge. Staten Island Ferry. Giggles at the size of the Statue of Liberty (tiny fella, that one). Wall Street. Tiffany & CO. 9/11 Memorial. Century 21. Macy's. Shopping. More Manhattan.

Day 4:

Grand Central Terminal. Rockefeller Center - Top of the Rock. Central Park Zoo. Shopping. More Manhattan.

Day 5:

Way too many selfies at Carrie's steps. ("Noni lopeta jo mua hävettää"). Bethesda Terrace. The Friends building. More Manhattan.

Day 6:

Waldorf Astoria (kuka teki mitäkin...). Diamond district. NYU. Washington Square Park. Hairdresser. Shopping. More Manhattan.

Day 7:

A ride from the Hostel's owner's neighbours (or relatives, dunno) to get somewhere where we could get a cab to the airport. Trying not to throw up in the cab. Different flights. 10 hours at JFK waiting for mine. 

To sum up:

The city is huge. Huger than I could imagine. There are SO many people, but luckily they're concentrated mostly on the Times Square area so as long as you avoid that area once you've seen it, it's fine. No better place for people watching, my favourite hobby, though (meaning NYC, not TS). Have to say my expectations were a bit too high, and I certainly didn't fall in love at first sight but it grew on me. I know this is cheesy as hell but you really feel like you can do everything. The different neighbourhoods were really different. Like Upper East Side and Chinatown for example. Soho was lovely and so was West Village (could see myself living there!). The metro system is awesome, although kind of outdated. The stations were sometimes a bit hard to find and the instructions inside could've been clearer. It's really easy to navigate the streets since each lateral street is numbered. The Central Park is awesome. And huge, too. And Brooklyn was really nice too!

They don't make songs about the city for nothing.

Loved it.

<3

Fancy a scoop?

******************************************************

"Seasons change. So do cities. People come into your life and people go. But it's comforting to know, the ones you love are always in your heart. And if you're very lucky, a plane ride away."

It's been three months now. I miss our Canada Crew. I miss Jack's. I miss it all. A lot.

Sadly, not everyone's in this pic but it's still my favourite.

*******

So I guess this is the end of this story, and this blog.

Peace out.

Yo.

crisis /ˈkrʌɪsɪs/

crisis /ˈkrʌɪsɪs/, noun (plural: crises /ˈkrʌɪsiːz/)

- A time when a difficult or important decision must be made

In addition to the identity crisis that every twenty-something is going through, I'm also going through a major decision making crisis at the moment.

As many of you know I tend to procrastinate and be very indecisive about every decision I have to make. If choosing a shampoo brand or an ice-cream flavour causes me immense anxiety and frustration, imagine what it's like trying to decide what to do with my life.

So as everyone knows, my original plan was to do an internship in Toronto after this semester ends. Well, I've got two weeks of school left and three weeks until I have to move out of here, and I still haven't made any decisions.

I talked to Fanshawe's career counselor and she said that I might easily get an internship in Toronto, but reminded me that it might be hard to find an affordable living arrangement, since apparently hotels in Toronto don't offer it to interns (not really a surprise but I'd still been hoping on it). She recommended Muskoka's resorts to me, which kind of sound appealing but kind of don't. I mean I'm sure I would enjoy it in any case but somehow I just don't feel like going there.

And while I loooove Canada, I'm yearning to explore and experience another country. Everyone I know here will be gone to their own adventures by then, so I would have to start anew, again, anyway. 

Right now the plan that's starting to sound the best is to go to Finland from here, maybe work for a couple of months to fill my travelling fund, and then do an internship in England instead. One thing I know for sure is that I do indeed want to do the internship now instead of going to school in August. And this would make a lot of thing a lot easier, like paperwork with the school and figuring out the insurance and work permits and stuff like that.

But since I seem to change my mind as often as a bat my eyelids, who knows where I'll end up. I also really want to go to Australia and New Zealand, but maybe it's better to stay at least a little bit closer to home for now.

One thing that adds up to this crisis is that I still have a lot of things to do and places to go before I leave. I haven't even visited Toronto yet, which is an absolute must. But I will not leave this continent (haha almost said condiment, oops) before I've visited New York City, that's for sure. I'll go there alone if I have to. I also really really really want to visit Los Angeles and Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa, too. But, the fact is, I'm still a student, not a millionaire. Of course I will (hopefully) have time time to come back here later in life and visit all those places, and seems like that's exactly what I have to settle for for now. AND I still need to go to an NHL game! Just to make my brothers green of jealousy!

So, any opinions? Any advice? Both are more than welcome!!!!!!! Pleeeease someone help me!

My goal in life is to get to a high enough position to be able to hire an assistant who makes every decision for me. My Gemini mind just can't handle it....

*****

In other news:

Four of my courses ended a couple of weeks ago so now I have a lot of free time, yay! Well actually I'm kinda bored a lot... haha. 

My new schedule above and my old schedule below

What else... school, parties, hanging out with friends. That's pretty much it.

At Easter I am going to Barrie! There are some old friends of my grandparents living there, and they want to meet me. I've met two of them once before some years ago, but their whole family lives here and they are all going to be there. So basically, there's going to be a bunch of people who are all strangers to me... But I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun! And I'll get to see a new place! Yay!

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Knights game. That was aaaaawesome! (<- a video clip they play after every Knights goal (3s-7s))

At the game our row won coupons for free cupcakes! It was good but a bit too sweet, a bit too big and waaaay too difficult to eat. I should've done this.

Victoria Park is my favorite place here because of these little critters! This one was hanging by it's hind legs while eating a peanut. Acrobatic!

Why do you have to call non-meat meat, eh?

Patio season officially opened.

I guess that's what they're called in English... Not quite as innocent as 'pajunkissat'

And then there's this. Oh, Canada!
(it does not really contain any marijuana though)

*****

The end is neigh. And I can feel it. The sadness of leaving and all this ending soon is already here.... 

Four months is a damn short period of time.

Packing!

I only started packing today, the day before leaving. But when I moved, I was clever enough to sort my clothes then, which made it a whole lot easier. I had three different categories: the ones that would be going back there with me, the ones that would not, and the ones that I would take with me to Canada. I'm only taking the clothes that I know I'll wear.

In total I'm allowed to take 56 kg of stuff with me (2 x 23kg + 10kg). Noooot planning on exceeding that. At the moment I've packed almost everything and my suitcase is only 17,6kg and backpack like 3kg so no worries!

This is the best ever travel related invention imo! (a bag scale)

Easy peasy pumpkin peasy! A bit blurred but note that I'm holding it up with one hand and taking a picture with the other

I went shopping on Monday and I was looking for a backpack and had a hard time deciding what I wanted so in the end I just bought one that was on sale. Accidentally it's a bit matchy-mathcy with my suitcase... Ooopsie!

I also finally went to the bank today to get some dollars. Well actually I'd gone before but I didn't want spend all day queuing in there... But this time I just had to wait. The bank opened at 10 and I was there at about 10.20. And I left at 11.10. Yay! I guess all the grannies had been waiting outside for the door to be opened... I felt a bit queasy due to not having eaten anything and I couldn't even sit down because I had to let the elderly to rest their brittle bones (no one told me to but that's just how I roll... even though I don't always like it).

That was my line number. And it was number 8's turn when I went in.

It would've been just my luck that after all that waiting they wouldn't have had any CADs but luckily they did... Love the peeking 'hole'!

I still can't really comprehend that tomorrow I'll actually be in Canada... Well maybe I'll realise it on the plane. I don't think I'll have the energy to go to downtown Toronto tomorrow and I'll probably just hang out in the hotel, but we'll see. It takes an hour to get there on public transport and the flight lands at 17.55 so it'd get quite late... But I'll have time to go there later, it's not that far!

Last supper :b

All packed and ready to go!

Aaaaaaaaahahdocdicjöjcweoc we'll see if I get any sleep this night... At least I think I've got everything ready so I won't need to worry. But I'll probably worry anyways. Ohh well, at least I get to relax and take some time to gather my thoughts at the hotel before going to London and moving in on Saturday.

Moving

So, because of Christmas, I decided it'd be best to move to my mum's already on the 21st. Unfortunately I caught some kind of a flu a few days before, which made packing a whole lot harder. I was a bit feverish but I just had to do as much as I could. One night, even though hugely exhausted already, I found the energy to start packing and sort and pack all my clothes. About half of them won't be going back to Porvoo..... I also packed my bags and shoes and some kitchen stuff and thought the worst part was over when I was looking at this pile:

Ohh how wrong I was... This is how it looked like when we had carried some of the stuff to the lobby while waiting for the other movers to get their van out of the way. AND this wasn't all either. No no no...

In the end we had to make two trips with the van. My brother had borrowed it from work and it had tool shelves on the other side that took quite a lot of space. So on the second trip we just had my bed, a shelf/desk, and my bike in the van. But still... I had waaaaay too much stuff that I don't really even need... Felt like a hoarder looking at all the bags and a fully loaded van. And I felt like I would die after carrying all that stuff (well okay my brother ended up carrying most of it because I was so slow due to having to take a break after each bag)...

Leaving my lovely apartment wasn't as sad as I'd imagined. Maybe because I was too ill to think about that... But taking our lovely artwork off the doors wasn't nice, both because they were so awesome and because it was even harder than putting them on...

At the moment I'm abooout going crazy with anxiety and anticipation. I think my subconscious is trying to push away the thought of leaving so it wouldn't be so hard, but that only means that every now and then I get these sudden shocks of realization that it's only a few days away. Usually it happens at night when I'm trying to fall asleep and I end up tossing and turning unable to fall asleep because I have so many thoughts running through my head from packing to spring break.

Edit: also, my forehead is full of spots and pimples cause by stress (I don't usually have any, except for this autumn...)

Money, money, moan.

I don't have to pay any tuition fees, because we don't have them in Finland. But there are some additional fees that we don't have here either, like a bus pass etc.
Some people don't want to discuss money matters but I don't really care so here's everything I've had to pay so far or know I will have to pay soon:

(1 CAD = 0,71 EUR / 1 EUR = 1,41 CAD)

- First there was a 500$ (CAD) application deposit for the residence
- Well actually the flight was first: 454,71€
- I'll spend one night in a hotel in Toronto before I transport me and my heeeavy luggage to my final destination. (This is because the move-in day is the 4th and if I wanted to move in early I'd have to pay 30$) The shuttle bus from the airport is approx. 75$ and the hotel will probably be around 70$ unless I stay in a hostel
- The rent = 2538$. I decided to pay the whole rent in advance so I won't have to worry about it while I'm there. (well actually there were only two options... to pay it all by 15.11. or in two parts, the first by 15.11. and the second by 22.1.)
- 574,27$ for the miscellaneous fees
- I'll get the ESTA so I can cross the border of Canada's only neighbour. That's 14$ (USD)
- I also had to get a new passport and even though it's not just for the exchange I count it to the budget. That was 52€ plus the pictures, 19€
- I'll also have to get a travel insurance but I have no idea how much that will cost. I did a quick investigation on google and it seems it will cost at least 100€ and more if I stay longer

I think that's it. I certainly hope so... I'll of course (or probably, hehe) have to buy a return flight at some point but let's try and not to worry about that now.......

Summed up that's 3,771.27$ and 625,71€ -> 3,301.70€ or 4,653.27$

Oh crap now I'm frustrated cause the sum is a bit different depending on how I convert the amounts and count it... Blehhhh. I know it doesn't have to be exact but that small perfectionist in me is nagging and I'm tired and oh whateverrr who cares. The point is that it takes a hell of a lot of money even without any tuition fees. And since I'm not a millionaire I really have to search for the money. I've worked a little (would have worked more if I'd had the opportunity) and I've used my student loan for this semester. I'll get 900€ as a grant from my university but not until January.

Loonie, toonie & friends. (1$ coin = Loonie & 2$ coin = Toonie)

I don't want to complain and I know it's money perfectly spent and I won't regret it but it's just very stressful and sometimes frustrating thinking about money all the time. And it's not just the money that makes it stressful but also all the applications and deadlines and all the other arrangements. And that's one thing no one else understands cause for them it just seems stupid and annoying that I'm sometimes 'complaining' that this is so exhausting etc but it's constantly on my mind and that really is tiring sometimes. 
How will I get the money? Will I get enough money so I can pay everything by the deadline? Will the papers get lost in the mail? When are they going to answer me about the apartment? Will I get an internship? If I do, where will I live then? Have I chosen the right courses or will I have to change some of them?
These are just a small part of all the questions and thoughts that are running through my head all the time.

One other downside to this is that I'll miss the last semester our whole class is still together and I probably won't see them so much after I come back. I'll really miss them!

What, where, when and why?

So... I decided it's time to start this blog because I was annoying my friends with constant blabbing about Canada... Sorry for that guys!
I'm going to write all my posts in English so all my friends can read this blog if they're interested.

Here's a summary of what this blog is about:

What and where?
I'm moving to London, Ontario, Canada (somewhere under the M in SMOG^^) in the beginning of January for at least four months. I will do the spring semester in Fanshawe College (about which I'll tell you later) studying Hospitality Management. I've chosen y courses already, and mostly I'm doing optional courses like Mixology and Wines Discovery. Hmm... I am a Finn indeed.


When?
The semester begins on 6th of January and ends on 25th of April so it lasts four months. But if I manage to get an internship in Toronto (or London or somewhere close or maybe New York or wherever) I'd be more than happy to stay there for a longer period of time. Or who knows if I'll ever come back......


Why?
Why not? It's a once in a lifetime opportunity after all. Why Canada? Well, first of all, I wanted to go somewhere far away since Gran Canaria is the furthest I've been from home for now. Second, Canada is known for it's high quality education just like Finland. Third, I have a very positive image about Canada; every Canadian I've met has been confusingly nice and friendly and everything I've heard about the country has been positive. Except for Harper (PM), I've already learnt that he's a d*ckhead.
My first option was Ryerson University in Toronto but I'm sure I'm going to like London and Fanshawe as much.
Who am I kidding... the one and only reason is my husband Ben Kowalewicz. (Billy Talent)



+ Who? for those who don't know me
-I am a 22 yo missus from Porvoo, Finland.
-I've got two older brothers. Everyone at the same situation knows that it's worth mentioning for both good and 'bad' reasons. At least I know how to defend myself.
-I like rock, travelling, reading, movies and all that normal crap that everyone likes.  My weakness is American TV shows.
-In 2011 I lived in Barcelona for almost 8 months working as an au pair. That was the bestest everr time in my life so far. The experience opened my eyes and started a very much needed change in my personality and got me to come out of my shell.
-Sarcasm. I like sarcasm.

I guess that's enough about that.  Comments and questions are always more that welcome!
Let's see if I can keep posting a bit more frequently than in Barcelona. Also,  I'll try to make the posts a bit shorter and more interesting this time...

xoxo