One week in

I'm having a really lazy Sunday morning. Thought I'd sleep in today but oh no, I was wide awake at nine. Oh well.


There's been a lot going on since my last post. The games night I mentioned earlier was pretty much a open bar night in disguise, but that's the easiest way to make people bond with each other I guess. We also went on this guided tour around the city on Tuesday, and our guide looked like she ran off from a Harry Potter book. They told me it was a traditional night watch's uniform but I'm pretty convinced she was in fact professor McGonagall.

The door behind the nice lady lead to a staircase. In a church tower. An old church tower. I was scared to death cause it didn't really feel all that stable, and I was sweating pretty hard as well. Maybe I should start excersising while I'm here in Steyr. Anyway, the view was quite nice once we made it to the top, but as it was night and I have a cheap camera I'm sadly unable to provide you with a picture of it. And I'm not walking up there again in daytime.

Other than that I've been running chores around the town; applying for my discount card at the train station, finding shops that sell essentials, trying out a kebab place (pretty nice), and of course getting to know the others. Not all of them yet since we haven't had too many classes yet so you don't really get to meet the people who live further away that much. Some courses are starting next week, though, so that might be about to change.

I'll end with a few remarks about the flat. First of all, the bathroom is retarded. I'm not quite sure what the person who designed it was thinking, but you have to go across the shower section every time you need something from there. Now, that alone would be fine but the floor drain is not too good at sucking water, so you take a shower in the morning and the floor is wet for the rest of the day. Secondly, the walls are like paper. Your neighbor speaks and you wake up. Just imagine the parties.

Anyway, have this nice picture from next to my school. More later.

Alive in Austria

What a trip. In the end it took me more than 24 hours to make it from Joensuu to Steyr; I felt like a disfigured shadow of a human being.

But now I'm good, I've actually slept decent hours in the past couple of nights and I'm slowly starting to settle in to Steyr. My tutors have been amazing, really making sure I get what I need and more. They even took us to a bar in the very first evening an hour after we had arrived in Steyr and following a night when I had no more than two hours of sleep. It did turn out to be a fun trip, nevertheless, and I got a kickstart with meeting people here.

The city looks really nice, the ancient (from a Finnish point of view anyway) centre where I live is really tight built, so you have small alleys and beautiful old houses all over the place.

The house I live in is also nice, but I'm pretty sure the floor in my flat is a little tilted. Somebody has attached little name signs to each door with the person's name and a little flag so you know where they come from - pretty cute I think. The house is pretty much of a maze, too, and I and Stan the Dutchman have spent two days looking for the laundry room that is supposedly located somewhere in the first floor, but one does not simply find it. I'm starting to suspect it might be hidden behind the really creepy real-size Jesus on a crucifix that stares at you every time you get up the stairs.

Today was the first day at school as well. Not that we would've done much yet, it was more of a briefing event where they explained how things work around here plus signing a couple of documents. In German. I hope I didn't just sign up for a lifetime of slavery.

Anyway, there's going to be a Games night today at the university. Looking forward to what might happen, I guess it's a breaking the ice kind of thing.

So it begins

I am pretty excited right now.

This is the day. This morning was the last time I woke up in my bed in Joensuu for a long time. Not that I got much sleep, though; I spent most of the night trying to fall asleep while my brain was busy going through every single imaginable worst-case scenario regarding today.

Yes, I'm going on exchange. To Steyr, Austria. I will be posting (more or less) frequent updates on my life there, learning experiences and other interesting stuff so you might want to tune in. It's a school project, since the English (and the 'learning experiences' part in that previous sentence), but I'm going to follow a casual style policy in this blog for everyone's convenience.

But yeah, now that we got that official part over with, I have to confess I'm freaking out a little bit in here. Last night was the first time it really occured to me that I'm going away for real. I then proceeded to "ohmygodohmygodohmygod", roll around in my bed and repeatedly check my luggage. Which was a good thing, since I would have otherwise forgotten to pack my camera. Pffft.

Considering the above, I wonder if I'm even going to make it to Steyr alive :D

Wish me luck.

One more thing: the actual flights take around four hours. But all strings attached, I'll leave Joensuu train station today evening and arrive at Austria tomorrow somewhere around 2pm. Awwww yeah.