Spring in pictures

Hello, haven't again been very active but now that I'm back in Finland I feel as I should share some of my favorite moments from our travels during this spring! I obviously also did some studying, but I only had lectures on 2 days of the week so plenty of time to travel! And for those curious to know, I did pass all my modules with flying colours even though I had to write 2 exams and let me tell you, boy are the exams different from the ones at Laurea. But now to my spring!

After spending Christmas back home in Finland I started a 3 week long travel through England and Wales with Lucy, so we had decided to meet up in London. I flew in a bit early to see my US friend Lauren after two years living in different countries, now we were both living in the UK!
 

On 9.1 I met up with Lucy so we could start our awesome trip, starting with London and Oxford.

Next we moved on to Wales where we visited Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth (where we did an awesome hike along the coast) and Lampeter.

Next we traveled to Liverpool and Manchester.

Second last stop for us was York, an old and bautiful city that totally won our hearts (as well as Wales).

We returned to Hamilton 31.1 via Newcastle, such an amazing experience where we met many great and welcoming people while couchsurfing and got to experience England and Wales in a great way.

In February we visited Isle of Mull.

In March I got to experience a real British weekend through HostUK where I visited a family up north in Carrbridge.


In April I visited Lauren in London again before she left back to the States.
Late April we did a rather spontaneous trip to Isle of Skye with Lucy complete with sleeping in the car, making a fire and dancing at a local Ceilidh.






In May my parents came to visit for a week during which we drove through the Highlands from east to west, visiting great castles, distilliries and the breathtaking Isle of Skye.





Now back in Finland looking back at these pictures makes me wish I was still in Scotland, but instead I'll be starting my third year at Laurea in Espoo.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

Life in Scotland

I was going to post more often during my stay in Scotland but, not very surprisingly, the life here has taken me in and I've completely lost track of time! It still feels like I just moved here a few weeks ago, and at the same time like I've known these people for a long time. In short, I'm very happy with my life here in Hamilton, Scotland.

As an exchange student I could've been a bit more active, but in general I'm very much enjoying my modules and the style how courses are run here in Scotland. I have very little contact hours with my professors my weeks consisting of 1-2 hour lectures on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and every other week a 1 hour long seminar either before or after the lecture. A lecture is about 100 students listening to the professor about the days topic while in a seminar there are only about 10-15 people having a discussion about a lecture topic relating to the assignments for the class.

I've made great friends and had fun adventures here in Scotland but there is still so much more to see! Some of my trips include Edinburgh, Pitlochry Enchanted Forest and a horse trekk in Largs. And of course our own great Glasgow which is only a 20 minute trainride (return ticket only £4.30) so visits there are no problem to go shopping or just enjoying the big city (night) life or a concert.

I'll be back when I remember, but for anyone hesitant to study abroad, I can definitely recommend it!

First days in Hamilton

Got my wifi working, yay!

I've now been here in Hamilton for a few days and little by little get my bearings around here. The city is located on a hill, so I have a pretty great view from my window! Apartment is okay, roommates great! We are still waiting for one more roomie, but so far there are 5 of us; me, two French, a German and an Austrian girl.

My flight was on Friday; I started at 4am and was in Glasgow at 3.30pm. There was a UWS representative to welcome me at the airport after which a UWS driver took me and some other international students to Hamilton where I got my flat key. Friday I was too tired to do anything productive other than go to the store and get some breakfast supplies. Now I've mostly been getting to know my roomies and shopping for essentials for two days. Yesterday we went for a local pub round with other internationals, quite a different experience than in Finland!

My induction starts on Tuesday, more info about my studies then!:)

Last day before my adventure begins

Well hello there my dear readers!

Last two weeks have been super busy (the last month or so tbh) as I expected and the time has totally flown by, I hope it slows down a bit so I can enjoy every second of my stay in Scotland!

UWS has been in contact with me a lot so I'm very confident practicalities with the school will go smoothly, from enrolment to accommodation. I've heard not all study abroad schools are so active and forthcoming, so it was definitely a relief that UWS has been so helpful and made me feel welcome.

I got placed in the 3rd year, so the modules should be very interesting and support my studies back in Finland.  Can't wait to start studying and see how they do it in a Scottish university! I will study 3 modules per semester, so a total of 6 during my year in UWS, so if everything goes well a total of 60 credits which should calm KELA down and keep me on track with my degree studies in Finland.

I'm very excited to start this adventure, but here writing this and looking out the bus window I know I will also miss Finland. However that was never gonna stop me and I know I can appreciate the good things about Finland all the more when (if?) I come back!;) Now if I can just fall asleep tonight so I wont miss my morning flight tomorrow..

Less than a month left!

Mihin tää kesä oikeen meni? Oon ollu niin kiireinen että en ainakaan oon kerennyt tylsistyä enkä stressata lähtöä tai paljoa mitään muutakaan. Hyvä esimerkki: tajusin tänään että vajaa kuukausi lähtöön enkä toissapäivänä kun olis ollut tasan kuukausi, pitäis ehkä hankkia kännykkään joku lähtölaskenta app nii ei sitten pääsis yllättämään tuo lähtö.

Olen kyllä onneksi saanut viime postin To Do -listalta asioita tehtyä! Lento on varattu 11. syyskuuta British Airwaysiltä Lontoon kautta Glasgowiin. Sain myös kuulla kampusmajoitukselta takaisin ja sain huoneen solusta niin kuin olin toivonutkin, ja onneksi pääsen myös muuttamaan kämppään heti saavuttuani. Vähän alkoi kyllä jo kuumottamaan kun asunnosta ei ollut kuulunut mitään ennenkuin vasta nyt maanantaina, mutta onneksi sekin nyt järjestyi.

And then I realise I've been blogging in english now, oops. Well long story short, it's been a busy summer, I now have acommodation and my plane leaves on the 11th of September. :D

To Do -list now:

• Book flight - 11th of September
• Apply for acommodation - Campus housing
• Renew passport
• Arrange moving - 29th of August 
• Pack
• Apply for KELA support - Got it, very easy to do online
• Inform empolyer - Last day of work is the 23th
• Research insurance
• Dont stress

Scotland, - I'M COMING THERE!

I've wanted to do study abroad for as long as I can remember, and now it's actually happening! I actually got my Erasmus confirmation on 6th of June already, and now about a week ago my study counsillor at UWS contacted me to welcome me and to let me know she will answer any quesions I might have about my studies at UWS. I'm so excited about studying criminology/criminal justice for a year to support my security management degree, and also getting to use my rusty english skills.

I still havent booked my flights (should've done that already) as I have chickened out of it every time I go to book them. I think it will feel more real when there is a definitive day I'm going to leave. I'm gonna do it soon though, for sure. School starts on either 14th or 15th of September, so I still have more than a month to get my shit togther.

So far this has been such a great summer and I'm trying to save up so that I can travel in the UK as much as possible. Why do train tickets in Finland cost so much?? I'm trying to see as much of everyone as I can before I leave but with my busy work schedule and cost of traveling I could be doing a better job of it. But if you're reading this and would like to see me before I leave just send me a pm and we'll work out something.

To do -list:

• Book flight
• Apply for acommodation
• Renew passport
• Arrange moving
• Pack
• Apply for KELA support
• Inform empolyer
• Research insurance
• Dont stress

New start

I'm planning on bringing this blog back to the land of living since now I again have something to blog about, my upcoming exchange year to Scotland! Well it's not 100% sure yet, so don't call me a liar if it comes to nothing but I'm just so excited I can't wait till it's absolutely sure to start blogging again!

There has happened a lot between this and my last post, but maybe the biggest change you guys should be aware of is that I quit at Pietarsaari, moved to Espoo and study now Security Management at Laurea UAS.

But about my exchange! So the school I'm applying to is the University of West Scotland, or UWS for short. They are located near Glasgow, so that's where you will hopefully find me starting from September. At this point most people ask ''Why Scotland?'', so I'll answer that for you. As a security management student I didnt have all that many destinations to choose from if I wanted to study my own field, but luckily most of the schools that were suitable are located in Europe, which was where I wanted to go anyway.So UWS offers great courses but also c'mon, its the UK who wouldn't wanna go there? And the yummy accent? Yes please! (lets not get into how it doesn't even sound like English sometimes, okay?)

So this is the plan, I'll probably post thing along my process of applying and moving this summer, maybe it'll help someone else plan their study abroad in the future.