Heippa everyone!
We are again at the end of the week, and everything is about to finnish in Lepaa. Today Rob Coleby has left, and at night Robin will do the same...so step by step this will be empty of exchange students. But....we have to enjoy as much as we can. That's why it's time for pikkujoulut; literally translated would be tiny-christmases, but actually it means pre-christmas parties. We have had one on wednesday, at Noona's place, and we also celebrated Jutta's birthday. Everything was really nice, as all the students knew that maybe that party was going to be the last party in Lepaa with all the students there. Apart from that, we also had snow yesterday. We only are lacking some cold temperatures, but I think (and hope as well) that tomorrow, or perhaps on sunday, we are having snow here again! Aaaand, about today... it's been a non-productive day for me.
Friday, 5 December 2008
Monday, 1 December 2008
After a long weekend
Yep, I'm back home to Lepaa. This weekend I had to go to Gran Canaria for swimming. Me and my team had an important competition where all teams around the Canary Island take part. My trip was intense but gratifying in some way. On thursday night Jordi, Óscarm Irene and Adrián came with me to Hämeenlinna to wait for the bus. At 2:05 A.M. (yes...really early... or late... it depends) the bus was leaving to Helsinki-Vantaa lentoasema (airport in finnish obviously :D). The flight should have left at 5:46 but was delayed ONE hour! How can it be possible!! It was the very first in the morning and it was delayed... I can't imagine how could it be in the following flights.. After being around 6 hours in the airplane (my bottom and my knee were hurting me so bad...)I arrived to Las Palmas, and my trip continued with the rest of my team. Three days and 4 competition sesions: lots of gold medals (one made by me :)), silver ones and bronze also. Eventually we couldn't get the 3rd position in the team clasification, but we were 4th. The coming back trip was longer than the other. At 4:30 A.M. the recepcionist of the hotel call me by phone: it was the time of waking up. From Las Palmas my flight was leaving at 6:30 and I was in Madrid in the morning. From Madrid to Copenhagen and from Copenhagen to Helsinki. It was around 7 P.M. and I was reeeeeally lucky beause I could take the bus at 18:50 to Hämee. When I got home the first thing I did was turning on the computer!
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Tuesday with snow!
Yesterday was a normal day in my life, I could say that the beginning was not so good, but it was getting better and better. The snow is still around us, and the Christmas time is so close that you can nearly feel it... mmmm. In the afternoon, Jordi, Irene, Óscar and me went to Hämeenlinna to help Heidi with her Spanish lessons. She is an amazing finnish girl who teaches Spanish in a cultural centre in the downtown. After that, swimming sesion and when we finished... Sledges rules!! :D We went to a natural park near the city to play with the snow, slide in the slopes and sit near the fire. It was fantastic! When we felt satisfied with the snow Heidi invited us to drink some glögi (finnish traditional drink based on blackcurrant juice with some cinnamon, almonds, raisins, cardamom seeds and a little bit of whiskey) and eat some pulla (finnish pastries). It was the perfect ending for our day!
Monday, 24 November 2008
Trip to Joensuu
Finally I´m back to Lepaa after big emotions and snow all around. Some slips with fall included, bicycles, snowballs, blizzard, parties, dinner, trains, new people and lots of things I´ll tell you now.
Our trip to Joensuu has been amazing and as many of our trips, it has its own story wich is worthy to tell. Our adventure started on thursday morning, when we took the bus in Lepaa, at 8 o´clock. Everything was white!! We knew that it had snowed, cause just the night before we were playing with it and walking around, but... in the morning it was like 5 cm. of thickness. Everything was alright during the journey. We travelled by train, and VR (the train company in Finland) was really in time despite the snow. There, we had Erasmus parties everyday, and our friends were too nice, as they offered us a place where to sleep and took care of us in every moment. That night, we had our first dinner in a girl´s place: roast chicken with onion and potatoes...mmm, delicious. After that, coming back home to Blai´s (our host), who was living in Noljakka district. From the downtown to Blai´s is 4,5 km. Always by walk. In friday morning (we had already bought our sledges in KCitymarket :D) we decided to go for a walk around the city (again 4,5 km.). The first hill we found was our playground for a couple of hours, and we downhill without stop! Even the kids in the school next to us were looking not undestanding how 5 people more than 20 were playing like children...but it was incredibly funny. Around 4 pm. we went to RAX Pizza Buffet, where for only 8€ you can eat as much as you can (that´s the meaning of buffet, of course) and end your absolutely unhealthy lunch with an icecream. At night... erasmus party in Lisankatu (the name of the street) and of course, meeting new people all over the place.
Next morning was spent in sleeping and preparing ourselves for the barbecue we had: we had to buy everything and take the bus to Outra (another district), which was 10 km. away. In that district there was an island where we had the fireplaces. It was the first time I was eating outside at -7 degrees!!! When we finish it was around 7 pm and we walked almost 3 km to go to another student place. We played "What do I have in my head?" game and we had dinner there. That night we had to go to the "reagge party" in the city center. The only way of going there without walking was sharing the bikes with the other students...so there we went 2 per bike with the streets full of snow, ice and countless traps made by the traffic and people walking in the snow. The ground was VERY slippery...and I could confirm it twice! Yes, I DID fall. That night we got home at 5 am. We took lots of photos and laugh a lot. It was the end of our trip, more or less, because the next morning the train was leaving at 3 pm. When we got up on sunday, the first thing we saw through the window was the snow falling and the strong wind shaking the trees in the street. It was a snow-storm. We left Blai´s at 2 pm, and we almost miss the train because it was too late. The wind and the snow were all around, you could feel how the snow was gettin into your nose and eyes, the wind was sticking little needles into your skin and the cold was trying to go through the 4 layers you were wearing. All of this almost running, sweaty inside, frozen outside... Eventually we arrive 5 minutes before the departure and we could take the train... we thought everything was over, but we were wrong. We had to take 3 trains; the first one was Joensuu-Lahti (4 hours), the second one was Lahti-Riihimäki (40 min.) and the last one Riihimäki-Hämeenlinna (15 min.) . After that, it was assumed that we´d arrive at 8 pm. and we only would have to wait half an hour for the bus to Lepaa, the only bus on sunday to Lepaa. Ok, it wasn´t like we expected. The train to Lahti was 40 min.delayed, but we could take the second one. The second one stopped twice in the middle of nowhere, tried to come back and restart again. But it was too late. In Riihimäaki we hadn´t got any train to Häameenlinna. Soooooo we waited for 45 min. At the end we arrived around 10:30 pm. We had to call some friends there to stay the night. That friends live also really far from the city centre. Normally, it´d have taken around 30 min. walking, but with the snow and the wind it took us 1 hour and 5 minutes! When we reached their place we only tought in having dinner and go to bed. Today in the morning we took the bus at 7:50 in the morning and we finally arrived home at 9!As I said it was a "non-boring" trip!
Our trip to Joensuu has been amazing and as many of our trips, it has its own story wich is worthy to tell. Our adventure started on thursday morning, when we took the bus in Lepaa, at 8 o´clock. Everything was white!! We knew that it had snowed, cause just the night before we were playing with it and walking around, but... in the morning it was like 5 cm. of thickness. Everything was alright during the journey. We travelled by train, and VR (the train company in Finland) was really in time despite the snow. There, we had Erasmus parties everyday, and our friends were too nice, as they offered us a place where to sleep and took care of us in every moment. That night, we had our first dinner in a girl´s place: roast chicken with onion and potatoes...mmm, delicious. After that, coming back home to Blai´s (our host), who was living in Noljakka district. From the downtown to Blai´s is 4,5 km. Always by walk. In friday morning (we had already bought our sledges in KCitymarket :D) we decided to go for a walk around the city (again 4,5 km.). The first hill we found was our playground for a couple of hours, and we downhill without stop! Even the kids in the school next to us were looking not undestanding how 5 people more than 20 were playing like children...but it was incredibly funny. Around 4 pm. we went to RAX Pizza Buffet, where for only 8€ you can eat as much as you can (that´s the meaning of buffet, of course) and end your absolutely unhealthy lunch with an icecream. At night... erasmus party in Lisankatu (the name of the street) and of course, meeting new people all over the place.
Next morning was spent in sleeping and preparing ourselves for the barbecue we had: we had to buy everything and take the bus to Outra (another district), which was 10 km. away. In that district there was an island where we had the fireplaces. It was the first time I was eating outside at -7 degrees!!! When we finish it was around 7 pm and we walked almost 3 km to go to another student place. We played "What do I have in my head?" game and we had dinner there. That night we had to go to the "reagge party" in the city center. The only way of going there without walking was sharing the bikes with the other students...so there we went 2 per bike with the streets full of snow, ice and countless traps made by the traffic and people walking in the snow. The ground was VERY slippery...and I could confirm it twice! Yes, I DID fall. That night we got home at 5 am. We took lots of photos and laugh a lot. It was the end of our trip, more or less, because the next morning the train was leaving at 3 pm. When we got up on sunday, the first thing we saw through the window was the snow falling and the strong wind shaking the trees in the street. It was a snow-storm. We left Blai´s at 2 pm, and we almost miss the train because it was too late. The wind and the snow were all around, you could feel how the snow was gettin into your nose and eyes, the wind was sticking little needles into your skin and the cold was trying to go through the 4 layers you were wearing. All of this almost running, sweaty inside, frozen outside... Eventually we arrive 5 minutes before the departure and we could take the train... we thought everything was over, but we were wrong. We had to take 3 trains; the first one was Joensuu-Lahti (4 hours), the second one was Lahti-Riihimäki (40 min.) and the last one Riihimäki-Hämeenlinna (15 min.) . After that, it was assumed that we´d arrive at 8 pm. and we only would have to wait half an hour for the bus to Lepaa, the only bus on sunday to Lepaa. Ok, it wasn´t like we expected. The train to Lahti was 40 min.delayed, but we could take the second one. The second one stopped twice in the middle of nowhere, tried to come back and restart again. But it was too late. In Riihimäaki we hadn´t got any train to Häameenlinna. Soooooo we waited for 45 min. At the end we arrived around 10:30 pm. We had to call some friends there to stay the night. That friends live also really far from the city centre. Normally, it´d have taken around 30 min. walking, but with the snow and the wind it took us 1 hour and 5 minutes! When we reached their place we only tought in having dinner and go to bed. Today in the morning we took the bus at 7:50 in the morning and we finally arrived home at 9!As I said it was a "non-boring" trip!
Some pics that might give you an idea of our experience...
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Hi again!
Several days has passed by and now everybody in Lepaa is happy and feels comfortable with the Erasmus life. For me is a new experience that I'll never forget. I've been here for 2 months, and something else, and I really like Finland and Lepaa. The worst thing of this is that it'll finish soon, that's why I'm planning some trips recently. I want to remember every moment here, and of course, I'd like to see all the parts of Finland I can. I think next week we're going to Joenssu, where some other Spanish students are spending their erasmus semester. After that, I have to train hard because I'm coming back home (for one weekend) for a competition...
Anyway, I'm thinking now of what I'm living here. Did you now? Today we saw something similar to snow!!! It wasn't real snow, but you could see how the water drops felt and stayed in ice form for some seconds. I'm looking forward to seeing snowing soon!!
Anyway, I'm thinking now of what I'm living here. Did you now? Today we saw something similar to snow!!! It wasn't real snow, but you could see how the water drops felt and stayed in ice form for some seconds. I'm looking forward to seeing snowing soon!!
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Hello!
It's my first visit here and I just wanted to say hello to everybody. I hope you'll enjoy my blog and I invite you to leave here all the comments you have.
big kisses!
big kisses!
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