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<pre id="tw-target-text" class="tw-data-text tw-ta tw-text-large" style="text-align: left; height: 72px;" data-placeholder="Translation" data-fulltext="">Hei, ystävät!</pre>
Hey, friends!
After a long 24+ hours of traveling, I finally arrived in Helsinki airport at 18:40 yesterday, May 12 kind of swept up in a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. My journey had gone so smoothly up until that point that I was certain that something would go wrong once I arrived in Finland, not because I'm doom and gloom, but because I kept imagining that there had to be a universal law that said something, anything, even the smallest of things would go wrong between Pittsburgh and street Uudenmaantaku, Helsinki, where my hostel was located. It didn't though; everything went as smooth as I could have imagined. It was almost like I had done it before; IT being buying the correct train ticket from HEL to City Center, moving in the right direction when I stepped off of correct train, and not making even one wrong turn on the way to my hostel, all the while managing to maneuver a 18kg backpack. I feel pretty good about this, considering that this is my first time navigating Europe solo. *SELF HIGH FIVE!* Though it is much less stressful in a country where everyone speaks the same language as you and, ok, ok, I DID have to ask for directions once! A spunky young Finnish barista puled open her Google maps app and explained the route to me 3 different ways to make sure I had it right. Kudos to her for creating a great first impression of the Suomi people. Same goes for the relentless woman working reception at my hostel; she had been there 16 hours when I arrived and back again when I woke up at 08:00 (however, this did taint my impression of Finnish working conditions).
Right now I am on the train to meet my first host family in Joensuu, in the North Karelia province in eastern Finland. I'll be staying with them until May 29 when I'll move onto beekeeping in the central parts. I want to take some time to read on the train and take in the countryside, as their regional train system is slow-moving and relaxing, making it great to soak up all of the sights, um, I mean trees outside the window. We've passed a few small villages but I'm seeing for myself that Finland wilderness lives up to its name!
This is clearly an introductory post; I still need to figure out the best way to photos uploaded on here and find my blogging voice. For now, hopefully yinz can deal with the rudimentary content and framing :-)
Hei hei!
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Edward
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Eeekkk
So excited for you Amber (and just a lil jealous)! I subscribed to your blog. You'll find your voice just keep up the great work!