Hei! I know it has been a loooong time since I wrote here, I was busy! As a result, I don't have the time to write on this site for a while. But, if you still want to know what I am up to, you can check out my blog here... http://littledragonsoyster.blogspot.com/ Vi ses! Kari [View Full Entry]

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My studying life is over! I decided to celebrate this by taking a tour of my favourite places in Finland. I had one week before I disappeared to Balestrand so I had to be quick! My original plan included Oulu, but this turned out to be unrealistic. So, on a fine Friday evening I flew to Helsinki, greeted the airport and spent a night at a nearby hotel there. Already it felt good to be back! The morning was bright and beautiful with a Finnish breakfast. I got to Helsinki centre just in time to catch a train to Turku. [View Full Entry]

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Dissertations are now over and what better way to celebrate then to go to Northern Ireland for the weekend? The saying of the weekend was; "It was enlightening!" The Jet2 flight landed in Belfast on a sunny Friday morning. I had to wait a while for Jill to collect me from the airport because of the evening's Surprise Party for her father! To keep out of the way we spent the day in Belfast, first for lunch, then a bit of sightseeing. Belfast is a good clean city, considering its history there is very little evidence of conflict in the [View Full Entry]

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Suomi Fever has hit me hard, so I needed some relief! I booked my ticket and away I went! Helsinki looks as good as it did before, I had a lovely stay at Anna's new place! Thanks again, it was great to see you and Elli again! Saturday was a beautiful, bright day with snow on the ground, the temperature was only -6! I was even lucky enough to travel on the new super fast Pendolino trains to Tampere. I arrived late and met up with Satu and Juha, dropped off my bags at the Youth Hostel and went for at [View Full Entry]

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Well, I know this is very late, but I have just been so busy since the last blog. Now I am back home and at University, I am spending most of my time studying. So, what happened in my last months in Norway? Well, Anna & Eirikur sailed into Balestrand one fine sunny day and it was just great so see them looking so well! They spent a couple of nights at the hotel, as guests! It was great to have buffet and not serve it! Shortly after they left, my mother arrived. Lucky I had a few days off to [View Full Entry]

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Well, I know I have not updated this for a while so here we go. I am back in Balestrand! Some new faces and a few of the Old Timers have come back. Some things have changed (no more gas station!), some things are exactly the same; Granlia! Sadly, there is not the community spirit that there once was here, maybe the Golden Age of Granlia has passed... Although I loved Finland and the life, I did miss the high ground, so it was a relief to return to these mountains! I am back into training and working. This is partly [View Full Entry]

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It is over! Now I have left Finland but I am happy to know that I will go back soon! After the Stockholm cruise, the only major event in the final weeks was the Survival Camp night! A group of us from Laurea spent a very cold night in the middle of Nuuksio National park in Espoo. Of course, we all learned how to survive Finland by getting drunk and celebrating Lordi's victory in the Eurovision song contest! In the morning we were rudely awoken at 7:00 in the morning to go on a long hike in the forest. I would [View Full Entry]

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Summer is here! I have been lazy with this blog for a few months, lots to do! So I will start with my mother's visit. Mum visited in April for just less then a week. Unfortunately, I was sick so we did not see everything I planned for us to see. We did mangage to get some sight seeing of Helsinki done, including Sibelius Park and the Olympic Tower, magnificant views all over Helsinki! Even better when the sun came out. We also visited Stockmann on Crazy Day! A crazy thing to do, the place was packed with too many people, [View Full Entry]

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Well, I knew I would be back soon and I am! We have just had the most spectacular school trip to a place called Pyhä. A very pretty ski resort north-east of Rovaniemi. The really began from our appartment. Because our bags were so full, and we needed to take a week's worth of food, we decided to take the sled! So I trekk to the centre of Helsinki, through the main Railway Station, dragging a beer laden sled behind me. I am glad that those thousand people will never see me again.... The bus journey was long and uneventful. So [View Full Entry]

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Well, after four years I finally made it to the Promised Land! The real North! I caught the train from Pasila in the evening and travelled overnight in a sleeper car. This was a first time for me so it was quite exciting, exept when people try and get into the wrong room. I arrived at Rovaniemi Station just before 8:00 in the morning, so it was pretty hard to find a coffee shop that was open at this time. The station is outside the town centre, so I had to find my way to the centre without a map. It [View Full Entry]

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