Arriving back home in exactly one week :(

It isn't possible for me to be more serious when I say, "Where has the time gone?!" Wow... just wow... I cannot believe that my stay here in Finland is already almost over. This has been the most wonderful experience of my life! I wish it never had to end...

The last few days have been (and the next week or so will be) filled with tears! Not only because I'm leaving this amazing country, but because I am leaving all the AMAZING people I have met in it! I have been truly blessed to become friends with so many wonderful people from all over the world. 

This is going to happen

Only a few friends have left as of right now, but it was so hard to say goodbye to them :'( More friends are leaving over the next few days and then I will be leaving Oulu on Wednesday. I don't know how I'm going to handle it! I better stock up on tissues because I will definitely need them. Besides my grandpa passing away, this is seriously the saddest time ever! I miss everyone so much already!

Luckily my last exam was yesterday so I can enjoy this last week without worrying about studying, but I still have a ton of stuff I need to do! It's really going to fly by...

Some of the best people I know!
I wish we didn't live so far away..

Back to how wonderful my friends are, we had a Christmas party this last Monday. Instead of gifts, Sara had a great idea that we all should write nice notes to each other, so that's what we did! It was so wonderful. I love these people so much it's ridiculous!

envelopes filled with amazingly
sweet messages from everyone <3

It dawned on me that I never mentioned how the 95th Finnish Independence day was celebrated (Dec. 6th) and seeing how much I love this country, I think that needs to change.

It was -22 degrees celcius (-8 farenheit) that night, but that didn't stop us from riding our bikes in the snow to the city center where they were having a torch light parade walk.

We each got a torch and walked in pairs in
a line through the city center. Leading
us were people carrying the flags.

Our first stop was at the City Hall.
We stood in a semi-circle (as seen above)
and listened to a choir sing Finnish songs
and the National Anthem.

We then continued to walk through the city
and ended at the cemetery where we sang
more songs. Every grave had a candle.
It was to honor all the deceased soldiers
in the war. So beautiful.

It was so beautiful and amazing to be part of it! It would have probably brought a tear to my eye, but it was so cold that my eyes would have frozen, so I held it back. I am so proud of Finland and what it has become after all it's been through. Mina rakastan Suomea! :D

<3 Hannah

Poets of the Fall in Helsinki!

Marko! The singer of Poets of the Fall <3 <3 <3

Hey-o! Let's just jump right in...

Me and two other friends took the night train to Helsinki (the capital) on Friday night, arrived Saturday at 7am, left at 7am on Sunday, and arrived back home in Oulu at 2pm. Even though we only spent the day there on Saturday, I had the most wonderful time! We saw so much! Many, many strange things haha! 

My favorite part was definitely the last thing we did though, which was see Poets of the Fall!!! but I'll get back to that later :P

Helsinki was all Christmasy everywhere! :D

LOTS of Christmas markets with LOTS of awesome things!

This pic does not do justice to how pretty Stockmann was.
The inside was amazing as well! and SO busy!

In Finland, doesn't matter if there's snow.
People still walk their dogs and
pull their children :)

At the Sibelius Monument!
He's a famous Finnish composer :)

If I added a lock, it would say,
"Hannah <3's Finland!"

Marko again. I think I'm in love

Rhythm guitarist, Jaska. More love

Olli, lead guitar
"Captain", keyboard
Jani, bass guitar
Jari, drums
love, love, love, love!

Ok, seriously. If you still haven't listened to Poets of the Fall, do it NOW! They are so amazing! I love literally every song of theirs. This concert was so amazing! They sounded so great and I was center, 2nd row! Also, I touched Marko's hand 3 times! and made eye contact! I thought I was going to die! His voice... mmm! All of them are really great! They put on a fantastic show! So much fun! I can not believe that it only cost 17 euro and they're not more famous!

Here are some of my favorite songs of theirs
for you to listen to (but seriously, they are all 
great so this is only the beginning.)

Carnival of Rust
Lift
Locking Up the Sun
Cradled in Love
War
Sleep
Dreaming Wide Awake
Can You Hear Me
Diamonds for Tears
Illusion and Dream
No End No Beginning
Late Goodbye
Where Do We Draw the Line
Roses
Heal My Wounds
Temple of Thought

Ok, so that was a little more than a few, but now you have no excuse! :D

I don't know if I've said it enough for it to sink in yet or not, but I LOVE FINLAND! I can't believe I have less than 2 weeks... I'm really going to miss it here <3

Until next time,
-Hannah :)

Sami Love

The Sami flag

A few hours ago I returned home from a five day long trip to the lapland with my Sami Culture class. It was a ton of fun! The Sami are the indigenous people who live in the northern areas of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Northwest Russia. Before coming to Finland I had no idea who they were or that they even existed, but now after taking this course and going on this trip, I have a huge admiration for them! They are a pretty spectacular people!

Our route

Norway once more

We had quite a bit of distance to cover, but the bus ride wasn't that bad at all! 

Day 1: Monday was spent driving up the Finnish/Swedish border to Kautokeino (B) in Norway. There was so much snow and it was great!

Juhl's Silvergallery.
Rooms have been added on over many decades.
The building's design comes from the curve
shape snow makes between buildings.

Day 2: We spent the entire Tuesday in Kautokeino and I loved it! First  we went to Juhl's Silvergallery which had a ton of really neat Sami artifacts (both old and new). Then to the Sami University College. It's not very big, but it's really nice and really great that they have a place to study Sami subjects at in the Northern Sami language. Then we went to the National Sami Theatre which I would love to come back and see a play at some day! That night we went out for the most expensive pizza ever (but we didn't have to pay) and then back to the cabin to hang out :D

Members of the Sami Parliament

Day 3: Wednesday we made our way to Karasjok (C) and visited the NRK Sapmi radio station that does both radio and some tv programs in Sami language. Then we went to the Sami Parliament building. Everyone was wearing their Gakti and looked so legit! Then we got in the bus again to leave for Karigasniemi (D). Even though we were only in Norway for two days and Karigasniemi is right on the border, I was still so happy to be back in Finland. There's no place like home :)

Reindeer farm

Sacred Sami site.
So much water flows from
this that it never freezes!

Explaining all there is to know about reindeer

Day 4: Thursday was fantastic! First stop: a reindeer farm. There were only a couple of reindeer because the slaughtering had already happened, but that allowed our teacher to walk us through the corrals and pins. It felt like we were being herded to our deaths as well o.O Then we went on a short hike through a foot of snow to a fountain (river) that never freezes! Then back on the bus and headed to Inari (E) where we visited a reindeer farm! We got to feed reindeer, have tea in a koti while listening to yoiking, and practice roping. I had a blast!

The class, teacher, and assistant!
All very great people :D

Day 5: We made two more stops in Inari before heading back home. The first one was to the Siida Sami Museum and the other was to the Sami Cultural Centre Sajos. Both were very interesting and really informative! And even though it came all too soon, it was time to head back, so that's what we did. It's good to be back in Oulu, but I miss the snow, Sami, reindeer, and of course, people!

It was a very, very fun week! I learned so much about the Sami and really admire them! 

Traditional Sami symbols and meanings

My favorite Sami proverb!
BAHAHA!

Sami family. Aren't they cute???
Ok so maybe the boy looks a little scary... still!

This was a great trip!

Super fun, informative, entertaining, lots of experiences, snow, great people, and it was free! :D

So glad I was able to go! So sad it's already over!

Until next time,
-Hannah

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Fireworks!

Of course they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here (that would be silly) so the actual day of Thanksgiving wasn't that eventful aside from it being my LAST DAY OF CLASSES and skyping my family. I was really missing grandma's mashed potatoes that day!

The day after was pretty fantastic though for two reasons: 1) I didn't have to work/deal with Black Friday!!! 2) It was the Christmas Opening event here in Oulu!

They turned on the lights in the city center

They had a lot of
performances on
the main stage

Christmas decorations in every shop window

This time Santa came to me!
and I got to finally take my pic with him :)

Fireworks over the water :)

Beautiful Christmas trees

The next day (Saturday (yesterday)):
Us Americans got together and had Thanksgiving dinner. It was so great! So much food!

Food!

Shown: 7 Americans, 3 Belgians, 2 Australians,
1 French, & 1 Dane (1 Mexican came later)
It was so great explaining and celebrating this
wonderful holiday with other people!

After dinner, my Kummi family picked me up and we went ice skating! :D

Love these girls!

The rink is outside and it's free!

I haven't skated since last year so I was a little wobbly. Alina and Eerika had to hold my hand to help me stay balanced! haha!

Then we went to Micky D's for some ice cream!

After they dropped me off, I went to a friends house for a Christmas party. 

I love the holidays


Tomorrow I am leaving on my Sami Culture class trip! We will spend the entire time up north in the lapland and will be gone until late Friday night. Can you believe I still haven't packed yet?? HAHA! I better go do that now!

Busy, busy, busy!

1st off: This is my last week of classes! WOW! I have three classes and two exams this week, an essay due at some point in the near future, and my dreadful plant exam on the 12th of December, but then I'm done! 

With it being so close to the end of the semester and the on going "it's Christmas time!" feeling, my motivation is no where to be found! So of course I've been keeping busy with friends instead of studying ;)

At the lake watching the amazing
northern light display

More pizza!
For a b.day party

Pool on a snooker table
at the bar

Finnish Scrabble

ESN Sitsit party!

I need to explain this one. Sitsit's are student feasts. You sit boy-girl around the table and the proceedings are led by the master of ceremonies. The whole thing is basically singing crazy drinking songs and eating, but there are a lot of rules you have to follow, i.e., you can't talk/eat/drink while a song is being sung or someone is talking or you get a punishment. After each song, you have to toast people on both sides of you and the one in front before you can drink. The theme for this one was toga. After, we had a dance party. Such a fun night!

Pancakes!!!

Me with my Sami Culture teacher.
He's from Karigasniemi

Sami rock band, SomBy.
They are really good!

More explanations. The Sami are the indigenous people who live in the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the North-West of Russia. Their population isn't very big and there are currently 9 different groups, each with their own language and style of Gakti (traditional clothing). There was a Sami concert going on so me and some friends went to it after our teacher told us about it. The first group did more traditional Sami style songs called yoiking. The second group was the rock band pictured above. The third was a Sami rapper (who was my teacher's cousin). They all had very different sounds and styles of music, but they were all SO good! Best 5 euro I've ever spent!

Black light bowling!

Japanese food party!
These guys prepared traditional Japanese
food for 80+ people!
So fantastic! 

I'm loving it here way too much. I don't want to leave :( I only have a month left... *sigh* Oh well. That's still four more weeks of fun to look forward to I suppose! I should really get a bit of studying in at some point though ;)

Until next time,
<3 Hannah

In the capital with Nightwish!

As the title of this post tells you...

Marco, Tuomas, Floor, Troy, Jukka, & Emppu!

I SAW NIGHTWISH!!!!!!!!

They put on such an amazing show!! I thought I was going to die from starstruck-ness. Tuomas and Marco! <3 <3 In case you didn't know, they had to replace their singer during this tour. It was sad, but the temporary singer was really, really good! I hope that she is the new permanent singer! After the concert, they showed us the premiere of their new movie "Imaginaerum". I really enjoyed it! Such a good night! :D



So another thing the title of this post tells you, is that I was (finally) in the capital! Even though I was only there for a day, I determined quickly that I really like it! Helsinki might be the capital, but just like the rest of Finland, it doesn't have *that* many people. The city proper only has 600,000 people while the metropolitan area has around 1.3 million. I felt slightly overwhelmed after being in Oulu for so long (130,000 people) HAHA! I can't wait to visit again in December!

Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral

Lutheran Cathedral & statue of
Emperor Alexander II of Russia

The National Museum of Finland

Parliament House

Here is a link to one of my fav Nightwish songs. The music video is while they were filming their new movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8ykQLYnX0

And here is a link to a very funny Finnish song called "Bouncy Feelings" filmed in Helsinki by a guy known as "Eggman": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHReqKRvonE

Moral of this story: I love Finland and everything about it :)
<3 Hannah

P.S. Happy Veteran's Day! Happy Finnish Father's Day! and Happy Make a Wish Day! :D