Reflections of the New Year :)

Hello again from the headquarters! ;D

This weekend was supposed to be spent in Tallinn - with my host mommy and some friends of mine. However, I managed to fall ill on Thursday evening. >.< After a nerve-racking, horrible fight with the enemy and 10 times throwing up, I was eternally happy that I could drink a bit of water withouth vomitting and sleep, so going on a cruise trip was kinda out of the question.
Anyways, this trip hasn't been cancelled now, it's just been delayed (one of my friends also couldn't make it, so in the end none of us went there today) and I'm still looking forward to it! Everyone keeps telling me how beautiful Estonia's capital is and I definitely want to see it myself. That decision was made before I even came to Scandinavia.

Due to my condition I've spent almost 2 days relaxing in my bed, sleeping, drinking water, reading and watching movies. It was good to come down, leave everything and just concentrate on regenerating. Thursday night, when all the mess started, more than ever I was happy and grateful to be with a host family. After repeatedly throwing up and lack of liquid, I broke down and felt like almost losing consciousness for a moment. That time it was really good to know that there are some other people aound in case anything worse might occure. In the end, there was nothing they or I could do, so I just had to endure the whole procedure. They say that you must feel really awful to be able to recognize the real strength of your body. It was a miserable state, but I could still cope with it.
I'm feeling all better again now, so enough of that ;) ...and it also had some good sides - I've been able take a proper look on a lot of things and clear my mind, so I'm feeling all refreshed and active again! ...though in some ways my increased emotionality during sicknesses was clouding my judgement over diverse other aspects too.

So, today I was outside for the first time since I started to feel sick. Actually, it was a very productive day! I cleaned up, went out and even did some work. After all this, I felt like I definitely deserved this :3

Sushiiiiiiii!!! >w<

I just love it <3 It's been way too long. This is definitely one of  the very few things that I miss in Finland --> Sushi, or generally rice (I like potatoes too, but I wouldn't mind having rice more often).


Furthermore I could finally enjoy my new CD :)
Awesomeness is when you go into a Finnish music shop, make a reservation on a CD and be immediately recognized by the sellers one week later when picking it up, so that you don't even have to say anything, but watch them come up to you and hand over your order :D


I'll soon have to prepare some sort of presentation about Austria, so I started reflecting and gathering material. In doing so, believe it or not, I guess I started to feel a little homesick for the very first time. I've come to recognize the value of my country, my surroundings, my home. I never thought I might someday say this, but I even missed the mountains a little! :O
It's the time now that I have to think about the near future - how I'm gonna continue and where... I get a lot of encouragement from my friends and family in Austria to come back and continue work or studies there and I get a lot of it from my friends and family in Finland to stay and go on here in the north...I'll be a little torn. xD


When I take a look at my personal notes, I can see clearly just how much I've already been able to gain from my EVS!!! :O They say that the actual realization comes waaaaaaay after the end of the project, when you can look at it from a distant point, but there's already a ton of achivements written here.
At the beginning of my stay my head teacher at work adviced me to keep a list of goals and accomplishments and write them down whenever I can think about them. There are some really good qualities recorded now and it makes me even more proud of my decision! Even only up to now, I've gained so much more of all this than I ever imagined and I'm eternally grateful for all the help and encouragement I got from all the people involved. I've been able to collect awesome experiences, mind-changing views, personal appreciations and precious international relationships. I've made a big step from where I started from.
Also, this seems to be a very good time to think about all of this, since the Mid-Term Trainings are just around the corner and after all, this will be the core topic. I also can't wait to see some old friends again and meet some new people there!!! :D

So, this is the plan for the next 2 weeks:

- Work and daily routines from Monday to Wednesday
- 1st Mid-Term Camp in Antaverkka (Tampere) from Thursday to Sunday
- Work and daily routines on Monday and Tuesday
- 2nd Mid-Term Camp in Sopukka (Helsinki) from Wednesday to Friday
- Going out and concert with Sárka (& maybe Ruben?) on Friday evening, staying at her friend's place


I'm also quite happy to hear that my two friends from Austria that now came to Jyväskylä to study for a term are doing fine and enjoying Finland! :D You can never tell how someone else's reaction to a place you love will be, but I was glad to hear that they think it's as awesome as I do. Now that they had some time to settle down and become familiar with the new surroundings I hope I'll soon be able to meet them again! :D

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oh, I just realized this post lacks some pictures xD so, here's a couple of views on Kangasala, where I work:

...oh, and there's something else I haven't shown you yet! --> the Love Bridge of Tampere <3 (finally found it!! >w< ) It is a very special place in many ways... when I was standing there,  it was as if I could feel the emotions of the couples that decided to join this tradition, I felt so happy. This is a place that I'd like to be kissed - so romatic >w<

This is where Tampere's lovers leave their own locks as a lucky charm :3 

like these: 

Lilly told me that there was recently also a scandal due to a group of artists. Under the cloud of night they sneaked onto the bridge, removed a mass of the love locks and took them with them to melt them together and form a statue as a symbol of love. Of course, the victims of the "robbery" were all mad about it, but since they "left them there and therefore didn't belong to their property anymore", the police couldn't do anything about it - it was legal. Still, I think it's a rather cruel act. Whoever chose to leave their lock there, they surely had some serious feelings about it and taking them away is sort of thievery after all.

Coming and Going - A double-edged Sword

2 weeks of holidays at home in Austria are over now and it was actually rather strange. I've been in Finland for almost 4 months and this time has given me a lot of experiences, as well as clearer understanding about myself, so in one way or another I probably have changed.

When I left the airport at Munich to take the train to Austria, the craziest feelings arose, I was sitting in the city railway thinking "wtf everyone's talking german here" xDD (it also took me some hours to get accustomed to talking in my own mother tongue again!).

However, after several more hours I finally arrived in Bludenz, half an hour away from my family's house. Up to that point, I had imagined to be overly happy to be with everyone I know again, but actually the first thought that came to my mind was "I'm glad I'll go back to Finland again soon...that the volunteering time is not over yet". In the beginning I was very ashamed and also a little afraid of these words crossing my mind. I cherish my parents, my siblings, my other relatives and my Austrian friends a lot, so it didn't feel right to be sad about spending time with them. I guess this was what they call a cutural shock. Giving it another thought I came to realize that it's not about the people I'm holding dear, but about the surroundings, which didn't really make it better, because after all it's my homeland and even though I've always been feeling that I'm living on the edge of civilization, it still has it's own charm and it would be a lie to claim that I didn't like my life in Austria. (there were just some things missing that I found in Finland).

Anyways, my mood soon became better and I was really joyous. I know there are a lot of people that really missed me a lot and whose biggest fear still is that I might choose to stay in Scandinavia for the rest of my life. In the midst of everything I just tried my best to seize every moment of these 2 weeks until it was time to leave again. I met a lot of people and had a lot of fun. Later I also found out that the other 2 Austrians that also had their project in Finland cancelled their stay, so it seems I'm the only one left here ;). One of the best moments was when I went to a bar. There were many friends of mine, but only one knew that I'd be coming to join them too. So when I was unexpectedly standing in front of them, I met quite a number of giant eyes staring at me in disbelief until comprehension slowly sank in and I was welcomed by a mass of hugs and questions xDD Two of them also told me that they're going to spend their easter holidays in Helsinki and I can't wait to see them here again.

Time rushed by and suddenly I needed to say farewell for a second time.
This time I was travelling with 2 other Austrian friends that are going to study in Jyväskylä for some months. We were spending one night in Munich with their parents and on the following day we entered the plane.
It's so great to know that there are some friends of mine also in Finland now and I'm already looking forward to seeing them again :D

When I arrived at my host family's house in Tampere, I think I had another little cultural shock, or maybe it was just the moment before reorganizing myself to the different surroundings once more.
Anyhow, there's no time to waste too much time on thinking about useless thoughts. I've got a lot of plans for the upcoming year.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next years words await another voice." 

- T.S. Eliot


- I've received invitations to go to Tallinn (Estonia) by both my host mommy and some volunteer friends. At the moment, all of them are focusing on the same dates in January, so I hope we might be able to go all together :D

- For christmas I also got some tickets for the cruise to Stockholm (Sweden) by a finnish friend. :D

- Moreover I was offered to join a skiing trip to Lapland with the volunteers around Jyväskylä, but now I need to check if these dates are crossing those of the Stockholm-cruise.

- My Austrian student friends are also looking forward to organizing a trip to Norway that I can be part of :D

- And then of course there's a lot of concerts coming up, as well as countless festivals starting around June!

...and much more to come.

Oh, and I was hoping to see "Black Veil Brides" in April in Helsinki, but the online ticket shop already said that there are only a few tickets left and whenever I tried to buy one, it didn't work. So when I came back to Finland and we had a short stop in the capital, I went to the official ticket store and was able to actually catch the last ticket available!!! *o*