SLAM!

This is something I picked up from a friend's blog... I love these quiz-kinda things! I know I'm lame, but so what?! :) Feel free to copy and paste and add your own answers. 

How big is your bed? big enough for me :) queen maybe. 

What are you listening to right now? I'm watching Sleepless in Seattle. Can you believe that I've never seen the movie before?! Shame on me!

What was the last thing you ate? Chocolate :P

Last person you hugged? My mom :)

How is the weather right now? rainy and cool. I love the fall<3

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? one of my girls :) Emmy!

What is the first thing you notice in the opposite sex? eyes

Favourite type of food? maybe Chinese..

Do you want children? Yes :) I love kids!

Do you drink? Rarely

Ever get so drunk you don’t remember the entire night? Well, I do remember bits and pieces of that night. But trust me that ain't happening again! 

Hair colour? Blonde (at the moment)

Eye colour? Green w/ brown spots

Do you wear contacts/glasses? I have reading glasses that I never remember to wear

Favorite holiday? -

Favorite season? FALL! <33 It's not too cold, not too warm, the trees look beautiful (especially in Finland where we have a lot of forests!!) even the rain won't ruing the spirit. It gets dark sooner and I can light candles and curl up on the couch to read a book. Love it! 

Have you ever cried over a girl/boy? Oh boy.. Yes and no. This is a complicated thing that needs to be told and heard face to face :D 

Last movie you watched? Sleepless in Seattle! Just ended

What books are you reading? The Lovely Bones, One Summer

Piercings? Three on both ears

Favorite movie? What you have to know is that I love movies... so here: Sleepless in Seattle (ha! ;D), Notting Hill, Little Miss Sunshine, Forrest Gump, Love Actually, The Blind Side, Office Space, Inception, Atonement, Thelma & Louise, The Green Mile, The New World, The Holiday, White Oleander, Bridges of Madison County, It's Complicated, Sex and the City 1 & 2, Unbreakable, Signs, The Illusionist, Babel, In Her Shoes, The Secret Life of Bees, Match Point, The Day After Tomorrow, Wonder Boys... just to name a few :DD 

Favorite college football team? So American... I don't know any :(

What were you doing before filling this out? Watching movies! And I went shopping today omg.. shouldn't have done that :D

Any pets? I have a cat named Haywire and he lives with my mom.. I've also had four gerbils in the past and two mice. And another cat. 

Dogs or cats? cats

Favorite flower? Lily

Have you ever loved someone? Yes

Who would you like to see right now? A lot of people

Have you ever fired a gun? Yep.. on a range!!  

Do you like to travel by plane? I love the feeling of going somewhere and I do like flying :) 

Right-handed or Left-handed? Right. 

If you could go to any place right now where would you go? Virginia

Are you missing someone? Always

Do you have a tattoo? Not yet at least... probably I'll never get one but never say never lol.. 

Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday mornings? I don't have time for that! I'm such a busy lady. I'd love to though.. there's Pokemon, Sponge Bob etc.. 

Are you hiding something from someone? Well I'm not telling EVERYTHING about myself to EVERYONE :)

What do you do before you go to bed? Pray

Took me long enough...

So I'm sitting on my couch with my laptop and writing and I'm thinking that maybe one day I'll be a published writer. That's my firm goal. It doesn't have to happen today, because I believe that being a writer doesn't have anything to do with being published. And then I realize I'll never get published if I just sit around dreaming about it... I have to take actions to set things in motion. So I did. I signed up for a Professional Freelance Journalism Course arranged by British College of Journalism. Google it. I'll start November 21st and the course lasts from 12-24 weeks, then I get my diploma. This course has the best guarantees! They promise you'll get your name in print. Now please don't misunderstand me, I'm not all about getting published -I'm all about making my dream of twelve freaking years to come true and make writing my career! If you don't earn the course money back in a certain time, the College will pay you the difference. I actually found out about this course over a year ago, but being a chicken I didn't act on it until now. I won't lie to you -I'm a bit scared. But it's a challenge that I welcome.

How many people out there are actually doing something they really, truly want to be doing? I'm guessing not that many. The common consensus seems to be "as long as it pays the bills". Right now that's what I think of my job... luckily my current job can actually be fun :) Sometimes. But I hope that after the course I get to count myself into the group of people who do what they love and get paid for it.

Just go with it! <3

The Prime of Life

I've never been the one to think that work is everything. It's always just been something to support myself and a way to pay for all the traveling ;) I never want to be one of those whose life centers around work, but lately that's what I've become. Not volunteerly, I may add. After my vacation I've had two days off (four,if you count my two days being sick). I've been doing my internship and working 2-4 nights a week, and that makes about 60-70 hours of work per week all together... and I'm only getting paid for like 20-26 hours since the internship is unpaid. Thank goodness for the raise I just got...

So I think it goes without saying that my social life has been pretty non-existing... I've only seen a couple of my friends after the trip abroad and I've seen my co-workers way too much. This is all just way too much like 2010.

Any suggestions on how to maintain my life? No? Yeah, me either... Just have to suck it up and if I get to do even half the things I've planned for next year it has all been worth it.

Sorry for the complaining.. Don't forget you can always complain back <3

 

fab

Hellooooo!

I am back in Finland, back to work and back to school, back to my busy schedule that after a 2,5 week vacation feels like serving a death sentence. I won't be having a day off in at least another two weeks. Oh and my feet are killing me! I have an infection on my left foot and am currently on antibiotics. What a nice way to start this fall, in deed. 

But I DID enjoy my vacation so very much, it will carry me through all this ;) And I know I promised to give you a detailed description of my trip, but I think one picture says more than one thousand words. So here are several thousand words:

                                             Our welcoming cake!

                                           Niagara Falls

                                           Cape Cod Light

                                           NYC

                                           Ocean City, MD

                                           Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

                                           At least we came home with style... business class ;) and yes, that's champagne

Enjoy ;) 

need < want

Tuesday's approaching at a terrifying speed... That's the day I have to leave :( Flying from D.C to Frankfurt and from there back to Finland. Dammit. I do NOT want to go! I think that's something everyone already knew, but I can't emphasize it enough. And you wanna know what's stressing me the most right now? That I've done the wrong kind of shopping. Finland is experiencing cooler and cooler weather and that means one thing and one thing only: my favorite time of the year - fall. And I've gotten myself a couple of new tees, summer dresses, sandals, ballerinas... everything but the pair of jeans that I actually NEED. And no, I don't wanna do shopping in Finland. We don't have all the cool shops. Dammit again.

I've had a great vacation though. It's been two weeks now that I left home and it feels like a month. Still I'm not ready to go back to reality. I've had two similar dreams during this trip and they both were about me being back at work and oh the relief when I awoke and realized I'm still here!!

I'll be fine, though :) Somehow I always will be. Might not be the easiest thing to accomplish but I'm not a quitter (most of the time I'm not). And after I've settled in at home I'll post a more detailed description of our trip and add pics as well.

Tomorrow's Friday... I have four whole days before it's Tuesday and I have to figure out how to fit all my stuff into my luggage. I have four whole days to get those jeans. Welcome fall <3

Yours Truly Is So Happy

Hello ya'll :)

I am writing from Syracuse, New York! We started our road trip yesterday. Left from Manassas, Virginia, headed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and today we went to Niagara Falls. OMG! So wonderful! We went on a boat ride on the legendary Maid of the Mist and when we got really close to the falls the announcement was: "Ladies and gentleman, THIS is Niagara Falls." You know how Ryan Seacrest always says "THIS is American Idol!"? That's how it was said on the boat and it was just so magnificent! Words aren't enough. I'll post pics later ;)

So we're happily in America, but coming here wasn't so easy. We flew to Frankfurt last Friday, and we were supposed to fly out to D.C on Saturday.. to make a long story short, we couldn't get into the flight and we were told our best chance was Amsterdam. So we rented a car and drove it from Frankfurt, Germany, to Amsterdam, Holland. We got a flight out on Monday, yay!

Tomorrow our road trip continues toward Vermont and New Hampshire :) Can't wait for those mable cyrup candies and breath-taking sceneries!

I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to be here. When we were driving to Manassas, VA, from Washington Dulles Airport I thought to myself that I'll definitely move here some day. I noticed that coming here was no longer like coming on a vacay (though it really is), but it was more like coming home. Not in a bad oh-why-do-I-have-to-go-home-kinda way,but in a great way!! This is my home away from home and I come here every chance I get. I just hope some day it'll be the other way around -that I get to live here and go back to Finland once or twice a year ;)

More updates later! Love ya <3

Tears

The topic on everyone's mind now is Norway. Of course I am as shocked as the rest of the world and also -I gotta admit- a little scared. Norway is a neighboring country to Finland and having something that awful happen that close is just... terrifying. I went to a theme park yesterday and they had tightened the security there, too. They checked our bags and there were more security staff present than usually. Frankly I felt more unsafe than safe. I started thinking about how a theme park full of people would be a great target for some sick bastard...

The media's full of Norway but sadly, in a few weeks it's all forgotten. The news might pop up again at some point but in a month's time there are new stories to tell and what happened last Friday will be but a vague memory in everyone's mind except for the people who lost their loved ones. My heart and prayers go out to them. I cried today when I was reading about how everything happened and what made it more worse was that the amount of sorrow I felt was absolutely nothing compared to the one of devastated parents, sisters, brothers and friends of those who were killed.

When something like this happens I get the need to discuss it with everyone. It's a part of dealing with it even though it makes me anxious. But whatever makes you feel better in a time like this, make it happen. We never know what tomorrow might bring.

Thinking of you<3