Rainy days

Before we came to Finland we already heard that the weather here in Turku, in autumn and winter wouldn't be nice. It would be cold, rainy, windy and dark. Well we have had a lot of luck, we had beautiful weather till november. But they said october would be the worst month, cause it would rain everyday. Since we have been here it rained maybe 5 or 6 days. We still had a lot of sun, ofcourse it got colder, but there was still a lot of sun so I was happy.
But now the weather is changed clompletely. It is dark everyday and it rains everyday. And eventhough it isn't that cold, the wind is really cold. So going outside now isn't really a pleasure, but hopefully it will get a bit better. And I hope we will see some snow here.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Only 6 weeks left

I'm already 2,5 month here in Turku, Finland. Time went by so fast. Ofcourse sometimes days are a bit hard and you miss home. But we do so many fun things and see so many things I would never have missed. And I'm looking forward to the trips we are going to make. There is one trip we are really looking forward to, our trip to Lapland! We will go to Lapland in 5 weeks, one of the last weeks we will be here. So a good final trip to end this exchange with. But that is in 5 weeks, so till then we have the time to do so many other fun things.

But how is it to live in Finland. Well Finland is a beautifull country, before I came here I wouldn't choose to come here for a holiday or whatever, but I have changed my mind about that. It is a really peacefull country and  Finland's nature is beautiful. The people here are really sweeet, yes, they are shy and also a bit quiet, but always willing to help you. And some just start talking to you, and even though you say you don't speak Finnish, they just continue. That's especially with the older people, but I think that is just sweet. In cultural way, Finland is quite the same as The Netherlands. The only thing is the language that is really hard. I have to say I can understand some words they say now and I can introduce myself to people, but it is still hard.

I've seen a little bit of Finland in these two months and I really want to explore more of this beautiful country. There are only 6 (and a few days) more weeks left till we are going home again and it feels like we have to do and see so many things.
I will keep you updated about all the things we do here :)

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Stockholm part 2

We only had one day left in Stockholm. We both woke up quite early, had our breakfast, checked out by the hotel and went to some underground stations. Cause in Stockholm you have some very special stations. All the stations have a lot of special wallpaintings and each station is different. So if you want to see all of them, we started at Sickla centre, you should take the underground and go out at each station. We found that out later but we saw 2 special ones. So the one at Sickla centre and T-centralen. So if I go back, I will go to the other ones.

As I told in my previous post about Stockholm, we wanted to see the change of the guards at the royal palace, It started at 13.15, so we stood there around 12.45 and it was really crowded already. But we quite a good place on the first row, so we could see a lot of the ceremonie. First someone tells something about the palace and a bit history and exactly 13.15 the real ceremonie starts. Someone plays something on the trumpet, and then all the 'old' guards come stand in line. Then the 'new' guards come marching to the square. Then

They kind of change there positions and the 'old' guards march away.

Then the trumpet player and the drummer play some music and that was the ceremony. If you are in Stockholm, I recommend to go here, and I heard that if you go on wednesday the royal orchestra plays a lot of music.

So after the changing of the guards we did again some sightseeing and just walked through the city. We came across beautiful buildings and other nice places of the city. Ofcourse we also had to do some shopping again. Stockholm is also a very nice place for shopping.

We had to eat a bit early to be on time for the boat. We came across a cute little restaurant, so we ate something there. After dinner we went back to the hotel to pick up our suitcase and we went to the harbour. On the way back we had a cabin included, so we had a bed and a own small bathroom. We had to spent the whole night on the boat, so I tried to get some sleep. Well I think I had 2 hours of sleep that night. The bed was really small and not comfortable at all was really small and a lot of noises. But we survived and after 12 hours on the boat we were back in Turku.

I can look back at an amazing weekend. We have seen a lot and we had a lot of fun!

If you are looking for a city for a citytrip, Stockholm is perfect for that. 

Puhua myöhemmin

Emma

Stockholm part 1

I don't know if I'm gonna make one post about this amazing city or maybe two, but let just start with this one.

Aniek and I went to Stockholm for a weekend. We heard from a lot of people that it's a beautiful city, so I had high expectation of it. But did the city meet my expectations? Well just read and I think you will find out :)

We left home quite early on friday morning, it was around 8 o'clock. We had to get to the harbour, cause we were going with the boat to Stockholm. The boattrip from Turku to Stockholm takes 12 hours. I was a bit scared I would get seasick (that happend before...) and 12 hours is a really long time. We didn't have a cabin, so we couldn't really sleep and after a few hours I was already bored. I donwloaded some movies and music, I read some books, ate a lot and tried to sleep a little bit. But that gets boring to after 8 hours. So the 4 hours we had left were pretty long. 

Some people would say, why take the boat? Well we are students and this is the cheapest way to get there ;)

Finally we arrived in Stockholm, but it was already dark so there was not much to see. We walked to the hotel, which luckily was close to the harbour, and fell asleep quite soon. The hotel we had was really nice. The bed was amazing, super soft (unlike my own bed here) nice bathroom, the breakfast was really good and there was a tramstation in front so within 15 minutes you were in the centre. 

So on saturday we just planned to do some sightseeing and we wanted to join a free citytour a friend of us recommended. This city amazed me right away, yes I almost say this with every city I've been to, but it is true, every place here amaze me. 

Aniek and I are always kind of unprepared when we do citytrips, also this time. we didn't look up some highlights beforehand or searched for things you need to do. We always just go and we will find out what the city brings us. The only thing we heard was about the citytour and that we had to see the change of the guards at the royal palace.




So I looked up when the change of the guards would be, so it said 12.15. We were standing there waiting and waiting and waiting and still at 12.15 nothing happend. So we were confused and a lot of other people too. Then we spotted someone from who worked there and asked if it was going to happen that day. Well apparantly 3 november is a special day so it would be at 13.15. We didn't want to wait another hour and we had to the citytour at 13.00. Luckily the change of the guard was also on sunday, so we had another chance.

Normally I'm not a person who does citytours, I don't really like walking with a big group of people, I just want to explore the city by myself. But as someone recommended this citytour we gave it a try and I have to say it was pretty fun to do. We did a tour through Stockholm old town. The guide we had was awesome. He interacted a lot with us and showed us the most important places of the city. For me it was nice to know the history of the beautifull buildings and from the city.

It was quite cold that day, so after 1,5 hours walking we were freezing. Cold weahter is a good excuse to go to a café and have a big hot chocolate and a piece of cake to warm up. That was most of what we did on saturday.

I almost forgot, we found an amazing candystore where the sell delicious Swedish candy and all kinds of chocolate. Ofcourse we couldn't resist to buy some of that. We bought some kind of swirled candy that they have in a lot of different flavours.
Oh and we ate a really good pizza for dinner and had some cocktails.

This is a already a pretty long post so I'm gonna write a part two of this amazing city soon for you

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Onneksi Olkoon

November 6th


Hyvää syntymäpäivää isä!!
Or as we would say in english: Happy birthday dad!

So today it's my dad's birthday. On days like this it is kind of weird not to be home to celebrate it with each other. And on those days I miss home a bit more.

But dad, I hope you have a great day, we will celebrate it when you are here in less than 2 weeks:)

Paljon rakkautta
Emma

Love my Friends 💓

As I wrote in my previous post, my friends came over. They told me on my birthday that they would come here to Turku. Since I knew it (16 september) I was counting down, especially the last 3 weeks before they came. 

They were here for a few days. On tuesday they came, so I picked them up from the airport. At the moment I saw them I was so happy, and I realised how much I missed them. On our way to the appartment we had already so much to talk about. It felt so good to speak to them in real-life, instead of whatsapp or skype. The first night we ate a pizza and we have been talking all night long.

Wednesday
We did some sightseeing in Turku and some shopping in Turku. I also showed them my appartment here. And took them to my favourite place here, the lake. We were really lucky, cause the weather, it were some sunny days.

Thursday
Turku is not that big, so I thought it would be nice to go to Helsinki and do some sightseeing there. So that is what we did, after a busride of 2 hours we arrived in Helsinki. In Helsinki I showed them the highlights of the city and ofcourse we did some shopping, cause Helsinki is a great city for a shoppingday.






Friday
This was already the last day they were here. The days went by so quickly, and I was a bit sad they had to leave already. But it is only 52 more days till I'm home again. I had some amazing days with my friends here, I'm really happy they came over! And I actually can't wait to see them again.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Back again

Hey all, It has been a while since I wrote something on this blog. So this is a small summary of what I have been doing this month.

I had to finish my last week of practice on my second practical place. This practice was on a arthroplasty surgery ward. On this ward they do knee, hip and shoulder replacement. I also got the opportunity to see a knee surgery, what was really nice.
After I finished my practice there, I had a week off. I haven't done much in that week. Just a working out a little bit, whatch some series and movies on Netflix and just relax.

7th october

On the 7th of october there was something amazing. We saw the aurora!
¨It is at our building!¨ I opened my curtains, and yes there it was, The Aurora! Right there in front of building. I just couldn't believe what I saw.

I think we stood on the balcony for almost half an our, watching this magical light phenomenon. 



After my week off, I had to go to a new place for my practical. This was at the children infection ward. It was only 1 week, so really short. But I think this was the best place to end. I was never really sure about where I want to work after I graduate. But after this week in the children hospital, I'm pretty sure I want to work on a children ward. Ofcourse it can change but It was so nice to work with the children. I'm really glad I got the chance to work on a children ward here in Finland.

So now I finished all my practices and I passed for all of them :) The rest of the time here I will go to school to follow some classes.

I had another week off and this week my friends from home came over, but I will write another post about that. 

Puhua myöhemmin

Emma