The last weeks

12 -28 june

And more

On the 12th I just slept pretty long and I spent a lot of time reading, made a little walk in the evening.

The 13th was pretty much the same, and so was the 14th. On the 15th I slept pretty bad, so I was pretty tired. In the evening I went to seurakuntatalo, that was nice again. After another bad night another tired day on the 16th, the weather was still pretty warm, but I made a little walk anyway.

On the 17th my host mom and I made the food for that day, macaroni with ham and eggs, like we eat it in the Netherlands with my family. It turned out pretty good and it was so much fun to make :)

On the 18th the weather changed to rain and all, so I spent most of the day inside. I did take a walk, though, it's just a good way to get outside for a bit and have some time for yourself.

The 19th the weather was so bad that I actually stayed inside all day, so I read for quite a while and spent some time behind my laptop.

The 20th was exactly 10 months since my arrival in Finland. Wow.. During the day I packed one post package, 10kg. Apart from that I didn't do much, took a little walk, etc.

21st: Exactly one week left. Talked a lot with my host mom, played some piano. In the evening my contact person had invited me to their summer cottage, it was very nice :)

On the 22nd there was the AFS picnic on Suomenlinna. So after I bought some souvenirs I went to the ferry and waited for the others. It was very nice and I had a good day. After Helsinki I went straight to seurakuntatalo. Last time.. It was very nice again.

On the 23rd Milla had her birthday party, so during the day I went to buy her something and in the evening we were at Anna's house for the party. It was great once more.

The 24th was the day I had my goodbye party. Quite some people who came for a little while, and it was great. We played some Ultimate Frisbee, Joona was dumped in the little pond, we had food, etc.. In the evening there was a midsummer fair or so, it was so much fun and I bought a great cowboy hat ^^

The 25th I slept quite long, I was so tired. In the evening I packed another package for the post, and after that Juho and Elisa stopped by for a little :)

On the 26th I started packing my stuff. Quite a task but it all ended fine. Later we went to drop the packages off at the post office, both were exactly 10 kgs!

The 27th, the last day.. Cleaned up and packed some last things, wrote a 2 page essay in English and half a paper in Finnish to leave for my host family the next day. Then on to the store for 7 blocks of Fazer chocolate and 2 bags of salmiakki. The neighbors came over in the evening, that was nice.

And on the 28th it was time to leave. Got up in time, and my host dad drove us to the airport (He came back from his work for that!) and said goodbye at the parking lot because he was very busy at his work. At the airport we had to find the AFS group that was waiting at the same gates, so I could get the last information and all. There I said goodbye to my host mom and sister. So weird, to know that you're not gonna see them for a loooooong time.. Many people cried a lot at the airport but I didn't, somehow right now it finally starts to hit me that the year is over so yeah..

The first flight I had to be on, from Helsinki to Munich, was delayed with 40 minutes. It sucked, because that made me miss my connecting flight from Munich to Amsterdam.. I was transfered to a later flight when I arrived in Munich and the plane was gone already, so I had 2 hours on Munich to do nothing.. Ended up buying a book :) The flying itself was quite nice, on the 2nd flight we had some turbulence, but all together it was nice.

When I finally arrived at Schiphol in Amsterdam, my bag came by quicly at luggage claim and I could go find my parents. They had been waiting for quite a while as well already and were happy to see me. It was nice to understand everything around me again and see all the familiar faces and things. After a sandwich from V&D boulangerie we went to the train to get home, and before we drove home from the train station we went to MacDonalds for icecream/chicken nuggets. When we got home it started thundering quite hard and there was a very nice storm.

Upon walking into my room I saw this:

in my whole room that was the scene. A very warm welcome from my friends :) I was so tired that I slept like a baby.

Then the weekend after there was the summerfest in my village, it was great fun and a good way to see everyone again and get back into the group. A weekend of partying, and this weekend again with my parents celebrating that they've been married 25 years now. I'm still tired, and still working to settle here again, find out what my place in the friend group is now, all that stuff. It's weird to be back home, but also it's good, it's fine.

Some songs for now

Switchfoot with This is Home

Lange Frans & Baas B with Het Land Van.. (The land of..)

Sonata Arctica with Everything Fades to Gray

This was my year in Finland :)

Thanks for reading about it.

'Anouk