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!