Ireland, Slapland, Finland

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The night before I left for Ireland I made a huge mistake. It was a pretty classic Hannah move really but it was awful.

That night, me and my friends decided to go to the karaoke bar/restaurant next to where we live to sing and have a few beers. We had a good time there and we left pretty late. We hung out later into the night and the next thing I knew, I was headed back to my apartment and unexpectedly, it was already 6 am. As if I didn’t already feel panicked about the fact that I was a little tipsy, not completely packed, and needed to get on a train in about three hours, I suddenly realized I didn’t have my phone. I don’t really use my phone that much here because I can only do things on it when there is free wifi available. For that reason, I knew it was either at the bar, or in the snow. I decided to take my chances, charge my old Iphone for music and pictures in Ireland and grab about an hour and a half of sleep. Luckily, my friends went back to Sebastian’s and found my phone the next day. I can’t express my relief.



Ireland was so rainy. I thought Oregon had rain but at least the rain in Oregon generally has the decency to adhere to gravity and fall vertically. In Ireland, it feels like the rain is coming up off the ground while it is also coming from each side. But Ireland was basically everything I thought it would be. It reminded me so much of home and I had a really nice time there. It was also really great to see Chelsea and to know that she is still obsessed with glitter. While I was there she was fiending this sequin jacket at H&M. I hope you got it Chelsea. Also, I think I lost a few years waiting for her to finish eating, which is the majority of what we did in Ireland. Honestly my favorite part about Ireland was this adorable tea house we found and this place called The Little Arse Burrito Bar. I had the best burrito there. And then I had another one the next day.

Also, Ireland is so damn proud of James Joyce but it’s okay because he was kind of awesome. I went to the Joyce museum which was really cool and also an exhibit on Yeats at the National Library. It was actually really fun because I took Irish Literature with Strelow and we covered all of this stuff so none of it was lost on me. I was kind of in an English minor’s Irish heaven.

Chelsea and I also went to the best museum in Ireland, The National Leprechaun Museum! I am no more a believer now than when I showed up but it was pretty cool.

Shortly after returning from Ireland my Belgian journalist friends and I went on a cruise. We rode on a bus for 5 hours to party on a boat. Only after heading back towards Turku were we aware that apparently the boat went to Stockholm. We all missed it. Lukas is a champ and stayed up until breakfast so he is now claiming to have had breakfast in Stockholm but I don’t think it counts if you don’t know it’s happening at the time.

When asked how this cruise went, we all agree that it was mostly just so random but we all had a great time. We were the only international students among all the Finns so that was interesting. Also, we mostly played games in our cabin and we showed up for about the last 45 minutes of the party at the boat’s bar. We got there and the next thing we knew it was shutting down. That stopped us none and we continued to have a good time. We woke up around 2 pm the next day because there wasn’t a window in our cabin keeping us entirely unaware of the time. 2pm is really late in Finland because there is roughly an hour and half left of light. So we all put on our clothes and went outside before the sun went down. I just remember how we all looked trying to soak in some fresh air and not feeling our absolute best. In the end we left with a million inside jokes and not enough sleep. Success!

The next week slowed down quite a bit and I began to feel a little homesick. I was jealous of all of my friends returning home for Thanksgiving and enjoying the break. I didn’t care very much about missing Thanksgiving until I saw my friends who weren’t missing it at all. Luckily, another American girl, Audrey who I went to Helsinki with, threw an American thanksgiving for her friends. It was actually really awesome getting to share that tradition with people who have never celebrated Thanksgiving before and the food was sooooo good. Especially the Glow Wine. Mom, we have to figure out how to make Glow Wine. I can’t get over it, it was so good. Anyways, I am really grateful to Audrey for doing that, it was a wonderful alternative to missing Thanksgiving with my family.

I have also still been spending a lot of time with my Friendship Family, after returning from Ireland we played badminton together and I was happy to find out that I’m still pretty good. My family played a lot in our back yard when I was a kid but it had been forever so I wasn’t sure if I would keep up very well. But I would say Juha and I got a little competitive and it was really fun. I love a little friendly competition. 😉

My most recent adventure was in Lapland and we had sooooooo much fun. We began playing Uno with Booze, what we like to call Boozno, and it is the best drinking game I have ever played. Our little group (Lukas, Nathalie, Liza, Mirte, and Marleen) combined with the room next door (Catarina, Emilie, Andre, and Alex) and I think we are all so happy to have made such great new friends. It is too bad we didn’t all find each other sooner. Let’s make these next few weeks count!

The first day in Lapland was kind of rough, we left Jyvaskyla at 1 am and traveled all night with the expectation we would sleep on the bus. I slept pretty well but I think I was the only one and I was still exhausted. The first day we made a few stops which included Santa’s village in Rovaniemi which is at the Arctic Circle. I had so much fun there tubing with Lukas and Marleen. I think we all needed a good laugh and literally no matter how many times we slid, it was still so much fun.

The third day in Lapland we went to Norway and swam in the Arctic Ocean. None of us were aware we were going to Norway but it was really awesome. It was so horribly dark though! The only daylight we got felt like dawn and then it disappeared in about 2 hours. It threw me all off but I was happy when we got to this cute little town in Norway and ate salmon soup. We then crowded about 50 people into one sauna until we were all steaming and then ran into the Arctic Ocean. You can stay in for about a second, until you have to escape. It’s your feet mostly which freeze and force you to run back to shore. It was really fun though. We had a similar experience at the place we were staying which had a frozen lake next to the sauna. I didn’t like that quite as much.

The next day, we went to a reindeer farm and I fell so in love. Reindeer are so stinking cute. We couldn’t pet them because their coats are sensitive but we were allowed to feed them and their lips are really soft. They also carried us in sleds and I now officially have my reindeer license. Valid for 5 years.

The next day we also went husky sledding and we got to drive snow mobiles. I was in dog heaven at the husky place. We got to pet all the dogs and I even got to hold a puppy! The adorable dogs aside, I thought that just driving the sled was so much fun so that was a really awesome experience and while we were driving we saw a herd of reindeer! Nothing gets more Lapland than that.

Lapland is just so beautiful. When the sun is up it doesn’t rise very high so it is like sunset all day long. The sky looks like sherbet and the ground and trees look like frosting. It was amazing, I had no idea I would see something like that.

Each night after Boozno we went outside to play in the snow and mostly to attack one another. One night, Mirte and I also cooked sausages over a fire that was built for everyone there. It just all felt so Finnish. There is a reason that you end study abroad in Finland with a Lapland trip. I hope someday I can come back. Especially because it was too cloudy to see the Northern Lights! Something still to take off my bucket list.



It is now finals week here as it is at home and I have two essays to write until I am free. My emotions are so entirely mixed about only having two weeks left. But I can say that I think I am ready to return. I miss my family and I miss my friends. I can’t wait to reunite with all of you.



Miss me. I miss you.





Hannah

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