Hullo friends!
I really don't know which language should I use now that I'm here. On the other hand since I will have to use English here all the time (I'm the only Finn), I should probably just use it here as well. On the other hand I would like to stay in touch with Finnish as well. I guess that's a bigger reason and I'll switch languages from now on.
Elikkas. Jipii. Pari paivaa takana ja paljon kaikenlaista uutta, tietoa, ihmisia, paikkoja. Nyt istun paikallisessa kirjastossa ja valitettavasti mulla on aikaa kaksikymmenta minuuttia, sitten joudun pois koneelta. Huomenna yritan jarjestaa itseni ihan yliopiston kirjastolle asti, siella pitaisi olla unlimited internet access. Sitten kuulette lisaa. Voisin itse asiassa tehda ekskursion jo aamupaivasta, niin saatte infon jo teidan tiistai-iltananne.
Mutta, niin. Aloitetaan alusta. Olitte kaikki tosi sopoja vieraskirjateksteissanne, itkin melkein koko matkan Tukholmaan ja myos osan valtameren ylityksesta. Sen jalkeen paatin, ettei ikavoiminen auta mitaan ja aloin nauttia matkalla olemisesta. En ole pitkaan aikaan lentanyt koneella, jossa todella on elokuva ja ruokaa ja kaikkea. Olihan se puuuduttavaa, yli 9 tuntia koneessa, mutta selvisin. Raskainta oli alituinen paivanvalo, koska en oikeastaan osaa nukkua kun on valoisaa. Siispa valvoin melkein koko matkan.
Chicagon lennolta melkein myohastyin (aiempi lento oli myohassa + tullissa meni tietenkin aikaa...), mutta ystavallinen lentokenttavirkailija auttoi minua selviytymaan ajoissa koneeseen. Jostain syysta aloin jutella vieressani istuvan ehka kolmevitosen miehen kanssa ja se nelja tuntia menikin sitten nopeasti keskustellen matkailusta, vaimoista, musiikista, alkoholista, politiikasta ja aseista noin muun muassa. Han jatkoi kuitenkin Phoenixista Salt Lake Cityyn, joten en nahnyt hanta enaa lentokoneesta nousemisen jalkeen.
Phoenixin lentokentalta aivan matkatavarapisteen vieresta bongasinkin sitten lajallisen noin itseni ikaisia ihmisia rinkkojen kanssa. Suuri oli helpotus, kaikki vaikuttivat (ja vaikuttavat edelleen) mukavilta, ystavallisilta ja innokkailta. Hengasimme porukassa kuuteen asti, jolloin pari suloista nuorta miesta, leirin vetajia, tulivat vaneilla hakemaan meita. Phoenixissa oli lammin, ja kun pysahdyimme matkan varrella hengasimme huoltoaseman pihalla t-paidoissa. Ja taalla on palmuja! Ja kaktuksia! Suurimman osan tasta matkasta nukuin, oli ihanan pimeaa.
Kamppamme on sympaattinen puutalo. Meidat oli jaettu huoneisiin ja kahteen taloon: yli 21-vuotiaat toiseen ja ns. alaikaiset toiseen. On hassua olla taalla taas lapsi. Meilla on kiva huoneporukka, yksi tosin puuttuu viela.Pikku-L on Minnesotasta, siis melkein paikallisia, Maud on hollannista. Yhteensa meita on naissa kahdessa talossa parisenkymmenta. Belgiasta on paljon ihmisia, Hollannista jokunen, pari poikaa Ruotsista, Britteja on aika paljon ja sitten on tosiaan porukkaa eri puolilta Yhdysvaltoja. Poikia on enemman kuin tyttoja, mika on minulle vierasta.
Aika alkaa olla lopussa, joten selitan nopeasti. Nama kaksi paivaa meilla on ollut orientaatiota. Olemme saaneet lisaa infoa varusteista, turvallisuudesta, projekteista, saannoista yms. Osa porukasta lahtee huomenna ensimmaiselle ohjelmalleen. Ma lahden vasta keskiviikkona, mutta se onkin sitten kahdeksan paivaa metsassa. Tehdaan aitoja. Olemme ilmeisesti lahella Nevadan rajaa, siella pitaisi olla lammin. Lake Mead, googlettakaa jos haluatte.
Tallaista talla kertaa. Huomenna varmaan lisaa, tai ehka jo tanaan. Alkaa olko musta huolissanne, taalla olen hyvissa kasissa. Jau. Moikka!
Rakkaudella,
Siri
maanantai 31. tammikuuta 2011
perjantai 28. tammikuuta 2011
Off we go!
Couple of hours left. Should sleep, but I don't want to waste my last hours with RC by sleeping. Leaving is hard. Within 24 hours I'll be in the states, and within 36 I'll probably know a little bit more about everything. I hope.
At 6 o'clock we shall leave for the airport. My plane leaves at 8.35. It's in Stockholm at 8.35 (hahaha, isn't that just hilarious?), i.e. 9.35 homely time, and 1h 45min later I'll be leaving for Chicago. I'll arrive there 12.30 local time, which is 8.30pm in Finland. Then one and a half hours of hanging around at Chicago airport and to Phoenix, where I will arrive 16.46 local time, 01.46 Finnish time. Then I will try to find my luggage and my way to the information booth with orange letters. Then three hours of bus driving to Flagstaff and then (hopefully) to sleep. And by the time of your Sunday evening, my Sunday morning, I will try to contact you again via the blog and facebook. Until then, adios friends, take care!
At 6 o'clock we shall leave for the airport. My plane leaves at 8.35. It's in Stockholm at 8.35 (hahaha, isn't that just hilarious?), i.e. 9.35 homely time, and 1h 45min later I'll be leaving for Chicago. I'll arrive there 12.30 local time, which is 8.30pm in Finland. Then one and a half hours of hanging around at Chicago airport and to Phoenix, where I will arrive 16.46 local time, 01.46 Finnish time. Then I will try to find my luggage and my way to the information booth with orange letters. Then three hours of bus driving to Flagstaff and then (hopefully) to sleep. And by the time of your Sunday evening, my Sunday morning, I will try to contact you again via the blog and facebook. Until then, adios friends, take care!
maanantai 24. tammikuuta 2011
It's getting closer
Five days. Whoo. Scary. Today is the day for packing and going through my things to find out whether I own everything I need to take with me. And some laundry. It's good to have a "day off", i.e. no-one to meet, nowhere to go, so that I can purely concentrate on leaving and also playing. Typically I still have a flute exam on Wednesday and music video shootings on Thursday, so no full concentration on anything.
Yesterday was the day of my farewell party. It was incredible, how many of my dearest friends really managed to get there. And great, of course. I had a wonderful day, chatting with everyone about whatsoever, dreams, future, travelling, memories... Although many of them I will still meet (I still have three Connor's CDs borrowed, Johnny and Ville are still going to act in the music video and RC comes to see me off to the airport) it made goodbyes somehow easier when there was not too much time for them.Although of course it was still hard. I made everyone write something for me to a guestbook and I promised them not to read them until in the plane. It's curious, but I will hold on to that promise. Even though it is going to be horrible to read the texts there. Leaving is always hard. But as my friend Pianist said, "Be scared and stress, but leave anyway". I'm not going to turn back. And after all, it's just three months.
There is one important question when thinking about packing and leaving. It's "What am I going to wear on the way?" It's seventeen hours, so it should be comfortable. I meet the members of my group for the first time, so it should give a good first impression. I should be prepared for cold and for warm. It's not that easy, even though it feels shallow. I shall tell you with what I finally ended up (and how good idea that was).
Now, since I have a lot to do today, I'd probably better get going. First to clean up at the place where the farewell party was, then packing, then playing flute and cooking and everything. I thought of making tortillas.
Now playing: Joan Osborne. What a wonderful voice.
Yesterday was the day of my farewell party. It was incredible, how many of my dearest friends really managed to get there. And great, of course. I had a wonderful day, chatting with everyone about whatsoever, dreams, future, travelling, memories... Although many of them I will still meet (I still have three Connor's CDs borrowed, Johnny and Ville are still going to act in the music video and RC comes to see me off to the airport) it made goodbyes somehow easier when there was not too much time for them.Although of course it was still hard. I made everyone write something for me to a guestbook and I promised them not to read them until in the plane. It's curious, but I will hold on to that promise. Even though it is going to be horrible to read the texts there. Leaving is always hard. But as my friend Pianist said, "Be scared and stress, but leave anyway". I'm not going to turn back. And after all, it's just three months.
There is one important question when thinking about packing and leaving. It's "What am I going to wear on the way?" It's seventeen hours, so it should be comfortable. I meet the members of my group for the first time, so it should give a good first impression. I should be prepared for cold and for warm. It's not that easy, even though it feels shallow. I shall tell you with what I finally ended up (and how good idea that was).
Now, since I have a lot to do today, I'd probably better get going. First to clean up at the place where the farewell party was, then packing, then playing flute and cooking and everything. I thought of making tortillas.
Now playing: Joan Osborne. What a wonderful voice.
maanantai 10. tammikuuta 2011
Not a terrorist
Less than three weeks left. I'm starting to feel a little nervous. The basic stuff: What if I won't fit in, everyone hates me, I hate everybody, I get lost in the way, a coyote or a bat eats me or I fall from the mountains. My sensibility tells me that everything goes fine and I will enjoy the trip and get a lot from it, but I guess this has to be a part of leaving, this wee panic.
I have done a lot since the last post: I applied for an ESTA. In the application I confirmed I had nothing to do with the nazi-Germany (I wasn't even born), I am not a terrorist (as if I would tell you), I am not mentally ill in a way that would harm others around me, etc. I also bought bamboo knitting needles, for I am sure I won't be able to bring aluminium ones in the plane. I checked my vaccinations. I printed the flight receipt. I donated 75 euros to WWF to save the climate. I started to think about packing and arranged, though not yet held, my farewell-party. Even though I feel scared at the moment, I bet that when I'll be in the plane with a glass of champagne in my hand, I feel like a winner and not at all scared. Or maybe just a little bit, but that's only healthy.
I decided to go with nicknames in this blog. I could present some of my friends here, just for fun. You know who you are. Johnny, my adventure-soulmate, a high school friend and a band member, has just provided me with an amount of good music. I shall probably suggest here a lot of her favorite songs, which she has shared with me. Connor is also responsible of many of my new favorite music, including Cemeteries of London, of which I talked on the last entry. I am proud of you, Connor. Steward is my let's-do-something-silly- friend, we have traveled together, spent nights talking about weird things together, made music videos together and we share many favorite books and bands. RC is my dearest.
I want to inform everyone, that even though I have complained about James Joyce's Ulysses being horribly boring book, actually it is not. It gets pretty interesting later, you just have to go slowly through the first two hundred pages to get to the interesting parts.
And some music also: Johnny shared me the song Shadowland from the Lion King musical, and it is amazingly beautiful. Try that. And also a band called She & Him and their song Don't look back. That's from Connor, and next summer I'm going to dance on the streets listening to that one.
I have done a lot since the last post: I applied for an ESTA. In the application I confirmed I had nothing to do with the nazi-Germany (I wasn't even born), I am not a terrorist (as if I would tell you), I am not mentally ill in a way that would harm others around me, etc. I also bought bamboo knitting needles, for I am sure I won't be able to bring aluminium ones in the plane. I checked my vaccinations. I printed the flight receipt. I donated 75 euros to WWF to save the climate. I started to think about packing and arranged, though not yet held, my farewell-party. Even though I feel scared at the moment, I bet that when I'll be in the plane with a glass of champagne in my hand, I feel like a winner and not at all scared. Or maybe just a little bit, but that's only healthy.
I decided to go with nicknames in this blog. I could present some of my friends here, just for fun. You know who you are. Johnny, my adventure-soulmate, a high school friend and a band member, has just provided me with an amount of good music. I shall probably suggest here a lot of her favorite songs, which she has shared with me. Connor is also responsible of many of my new favorite music, including Cemeteries of London, of which I talked on the last entry. I am proud of you, Connor. Steward is my let's-do-something-silly- friend, we have traveled together, spent nights talking about weird things together, made music videos together and we share many favorite books and bands. RC is my dearest.
I want to inform everyone, that even though I have complained about James Joyce's Ulysses being horribly boring book, actually it is not. It gets pretty interesting later, you just have to go slowly through the first two hundred pages to get to the interesting parts.
And some music also: Johnny shared me the song Shadowland from the Lion King musical, and it is amazingly beautiful. Try that. And also a band called She & Him and their song Don't look back. That's from Connor, and next summer I'm going to dance on the streets listening to that one.
lauantai 1. tammikuuta 2011
Paperwork and chocolate
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2011! It's the time of the year to sleep, eat chocolate and do nothing useful. I've spent my time knitting a woolly hat and gloves since my old ones aren't very elegant, watching TV, listening to some new music and thinking about things that need to be done before I leave. It's getting close, only 29 days left, huh.
Today I printed a contract about the ACE program that I have to send Allianssi . A lot of responsibilities, to-do's and not-to-do's. Some examples: they demand "ability to bend repeatedly" and "stay on my feet for 10 hours a day", I am not to "repeatedly use inappropriate language" or "steal or lie" etc. We'll see what that means in real life. How much work, how much supervision. I am prepared for anything.
Listen to Coldplay's Cemeteries of London. I like. I also bought Chocolat by Joanne Harris, and love it as much as ever. But if you read it, you must have something to eat, preferably - surprise, surprise - chocolate.
Today I printed a contract about the ACE program that I have to send Allianssi . A lot of responsibilities, to-do's and not-to-do's. Some examples: they demand "ability to bend repeatedly" and "stay on my feet for 10 hours a day", I am not to "repeatedly use inappropriate language" or "steal or lie" etc. We'll see what that means in real life. How much work, how much supervision. I am prepared for anything.
Listen to Coldplay's Cemeteries of London. I like. I also bought Chocolat by Joanne Harris, and love it as much as ever. But if you read it, you must have something to eat, preferably - surprise, surprise - chocolate.
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