Large and In Charge Update!

I realized it's been a couple weeks, so maybe I should let the world know what I'm up to.  Because my life is so interesting.  In reality, life here is shockingly similar to that in America.  I roll out of bed, go to class, and come home.  Being here is honestly more relaxing than anything I've done for the past couple years; I don't have to get up at 6:45am to nanny, and I can listen to whatever music I want to while I get ready in the morning (I'm still not over having my own room)!  My classes are definitely challenging but there's not a whole lot of outside work to do- a couple essays, but no regular exams.  Here's what I've been up to in the land of Academia:


Finnish class is really great; I have it 3 times a week, so it's my most regular class, but that's probably good because I would forget everything otherwise.  Finnish is definitely a hard language, but not as impossible as I was afraid of.  I'm also taking a Finnish music class and a Finnish history class, which are really interesting.  Between those 3 classes I feel like I'm getting a pretty complete view of the culture.


Chinese has been a trip; the teacher is definitely a grad student or something, and his English is not fantastic.  The first lesson had me seriously considering dropping the class, but it's gotten better and I'm loving it!


I started my Finnish special education class this week, and it's set up a little differently than most classes I've taken- there is a lecture once a week, and it's pretty much just a research presentation on something relevant to Special Education.  Then we have a textbook that we have to go through on our own and take an exam on at the end of the term.  After 2 weeks of classes about Finland and China, it was so nice to listen to a research presentation about 2nd language learners this week- I understood all the wonderful psychology terms and really felt back in my element. 


Other than school stuff, I've met some fantastic people and I'm loving how organized the university is with both the exchange students and the departments.  Last week there was an exchange student party where we were supposed to dress up as a cultural stereotype.  So naturally I went as corporate America- lots of McDonalds' and Coke labels everywhere.

We've also had some Psychology department things going on; I went to a brunch last weekend and met some of the Finnish Psych students.  Then on Monday Erin and I showed the Finns how to play Ultimate Frisbee.  It was a brilliant success, mostly because my frisbee skills automatically get about 90% more impressive when I step off of North Park's campus.


Oh, and in the highlight of my life to this date, my roommate Tiia got a kitten last weekend! Her name is Pikku Myy, which is a Swedish cartoon character, and she is about the cutest thing I have ever seen. She's 3 months old and I love her when she's not dragging my things from my room into Tiia's room, hiding under my bed, and stomping all over my computer keyboard.  It's really nice to have a pet though, and it makes being in the apartment that much better (almost makes up for the broken oven, although I think that was my fault, and the construction at 7am).

Welcome to my new world!

So people have mentioned that they'd like to see pictures of Jyväskylä, and I've finally 
gotten around to posting them!  First of all, here are some of my apartment

 We have a great balcony, which thankfully just faces the construction site, so that when we dance like idiots on it nobody can see.

The balcony goes right into the kitchen.  They're really into double doors here, so there's an inside and an outside door for everything. 

The largest kitchen in the world, compared to last year anyways.  There's actually room for a table (complete with a package of toilet paper, because my photography is gritty and realistic)!

This is the cabinet over the sink; it's a drying rack! I'm adding this to the growing list of ideas I'm taking back to America.

Our entrance hallyway; the front door is out of shot to the left.  The first door on the left is Erin's room, and then the 2 doors straight ahead are the bathrooms.  There's also 2 more bedrooms somewhere in there.

Bathroom #1: shower and washing machine included!

Bathroom #2: toilet (they have those over here!)

My room: giant and empty. 

As interesting as I know that was, I also took some pictures of the town and campus (stay with me, these are really pretty)

Campus:

I respectfully asked Erin to get out of the shot. So she pouted.

Town (not downtown, but the way home from campus):

Finnish graffiti: pretty offensive.

After a 30 minute walk, you know you're getting close to home when you see the beautiful crane in the distance.

Kortepohja Student Village- home sweet home!

Oh, I'm also going to school here

Somewhere between all the sauna-ing, walking 45 minutes to campus, and eating yogurt out of a cardboard carton I realized that I should probably sign up for some classes.  So naturally I registered for 8.  That's pretty normal around here, but it should be interesting to see how I handle it all; I should probably drop one of them but they all sound so interesting, and coming from a university with very limited course offerings made it even more exciting to see all the choices. So here's what I'm taking:

• Biopsychology of the Normal and the Abnormal Development
• Current Issues in Research on Development and Adjustment
• Special Education in Finland
• Introduction to Finnish History
• Perspectives on Finnish Music
• Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Finnish 1

Aaand... Kiina 1
(that means Chinese 1)


Fun Finnish fact: Chinese is everywhere, it's almost like a national language so obviously I need to learn it!  That's a lie, Chinese was a totally random choice; Erin and I are taking it together because attempting to learn Finnish just didn't seem like enough of a challenge.


Oh and I also decided that something had to be done about the 45 minute walk to campus (an hour to the psych building- and there are so many hills!) so I joined the ranks of almost every other student here and bought this!

I bought it from a very shady garage behind one of the buildings in my student village, which seemed to be run by some sort of bicycle pimp.  He rolled up in an audi with a sweet body kit, which I was already chuckling about, so it was impossible to keep a straight face when he stepped out in his sweatshirt tucked into white, extreme bell bottoms.  He didn't seem as amused as we were.  Pretty much I risked my life for this bike and I'm hoping it serves me well for the next couple months.  I'm attempting not to get too attached to it, because if I give it a name and love it, it will be so much harder to leave it behind.


I also went out last night for the first time, and learned that clubs here are pretty much the same as they are in America.  Lots of Rihanna, Beyonce, a little Ke$ha, and of course some sweet Finnish club music.  But we decided to leave when they started pumping Papa Roach- apparently Finland is big into their heavy metal.  I'm still recovering from the headache.

They really do love the sauna here!

I'm finally feeling more like a human here; I got my luggage yesterday so I actually got moved in.  I also realized how huge my room is.  Let me say that this is the first time in my entire life that I've had my own room, and it's really odd. The first couple nights I kept waking up and expecting someone to come in, because there's no possible way that I traveled 4500 miles to finally have my own room!  But it's true, and it's big and empty because somehow I just couldn't find space in my suitcase for my NKOTBSB poster or my plethora of camp nametags that were all over my room last year.  speaking of my room, it locks automatically and so initially I didn't close it all the way so I thought it didn't lock at all.  Then Erin got locked in her room and I figured out that the more you pull on the door the more it is definitely locked.  But we're both becoming pros at not getting locked in, and it's all good.


Anyways, last night I went to the sauna for the first time! I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera, because it is more beautiful here than you can even imagine!  The sauna was about a half hour walk from my apartment, and it's on a little lake (or a pond, as one of the Finnish guys said- it looked like a lake to me).  We walked up to it and the first thing I noticed was the giant ski jumps that went right out over the water.  And then I heard a whooshing sound and a guy on skis comes racing down the slide and right into the water! I guess they were practicing; I almost snuck up there to try it.  So we go into the sauna and find out that one of the rooms is broken, so guys and girls are sauna-ing (if that's the proper word) together.  Awesome.  We change and go into the sauna area, and there's a long line and people keep entering and exiting the sauna.  Therefore the sauna itself was "cold" because of the door always being open.  And by "cold" we mean only 60 degrees Celsius, which is about 150 Fahrenheit. So no big deal, right?  But it got better! After sitting in the sauna for about 15 minutes we went down to the lake and jumped in! Well, some of us did (Erin may have chickened out... someone's never done a polar bear swim at Deep Freeze!) and it was cold!  It really could have been much worse, but I think I came up saying some very American and very un-ladylike words.


So that was fantastic, and tomorrow I continue orientation and hopefully get registered for classes!  Oh, and a couple people said they wanted more pictures, and I don't have a whole lot but here's one of the bridge across the lake on the way to the Psych building. Pretty, eh?

Comin' atcha all the way from Jyväskylä

Whew! I made it! This is the scenic view from my bedroom window; I know you all want to experience the beauty of Finland too right? But in the background you can see just a few of the billions of trees in Finland.  They're all over, and it really is gorgeous!  It is already Fall here, so it's been chilly (about 55 degrees) here the last 2 days.  To get to the Psych building on campus you go across a beautiful lake that is surrounded by trees and I just want to move here forever! I can't wait to go walking or running on the lake path that surrounds it.  my apartment is really cute inside, I may post pictures eventually.  It's much bigger than I thought, and instead of 1 roommate I think I have 3, one of them being my friend Erin (that was a surprise!) and the other 2 being not moved in yet.  Although there is definitely someone here because there's food, dish soap, and toilet paper around but no person.  We think it might be a Finnish student who hasn't moved out from the summer.


 So far everything has gone really smoothly; well they didn't really want to let me on the plane at the beginning- some business about me not having proof that I was ever leaving Finland-, and the airline lost my luggage, but with my luck I can't be too surprised.  For being 8 hours ahead, I'm not too jet lagged, thank goodness.  Finnish people are about the most helpful and nice people I have ever met, and I successfully bought groceries, a cell phone, and an ethernet cord with absolutely no problems.  Everyone here speaks at least a bit of English, so as long as I say "English?" right when I approach someone it's all fine.  My hopes for learning Finnish are dimminishing though, because all the Finnish people want to speak English, and apparently it's easier to do that than for them to slow their language down enough for us to understand.  But everything is in Finnish, and it's a little strange to not understand even the simplest things.  Pictures and symbols have become my new best friends.


There is so much more, but I promised I wouldn't ramble so those are the basics; hopefully I'll register for classes in the next couple days and then I'll update with that.  Heard it's super hot in Chicago today, have fun with that!