Anne and I asleep on the way to Turku.

Me and all the french girls (Claire, and the 3 Anne's)

Living in Tampere, Finland

I have decided to start a travel blog while I spend the next year here in far off Europe. It would be expecting too much of everyone back home if I emailed them everytime I had news or some sort of experience which I wanted to share with them. I will still send updates on my life and share some of the better pictures, but doing this will be much easier as I won't forget so much. And since I have already forgotten a hell of a lot I am going to write down a brief sketch of the last 3 weeks here. It is more for my own memory as I have already sent

I left home on July 31st and after a ridiculous, and failied, attempt to change planes in 90min at Frankfurt arrived in Tampere on August 2nd. Meaning, of course, that I missed my entire birthday. But I figure moving to Finland is a pretty nice gift... I had to stay in Omenahotteli the first night as my hostel was closed when I got there at midnight. Luckily the cab driver helped me find a cheapish hotel. I then had to cab to TOAS to get my keys then lug my bags to the International Office. I then had to do all the registration stuff when I was on about 3 hours sleep and jet lagged. That first day of orientation and class is just a blur and after taking the bus to my new flat in the woods I just crashed.

Everything since then is one big blur of meeting new people, going to class, going out on excursions, sauna parties, bar nights, more sauna parties, more excuresions. It was great. I managed to meet a bunch of cool people from all over the world. There are too many names to write and the chances are too great that I would forget someone important for me to list them all though.

But now more students are arriving and I have flat mates. September should be another great month of meeting new people and becoming even closer with the friends I have already made. And somewhere in that I will find time for school too...