The death of Bordeaux, the rise of J-town (Oh, how you're gonna miss me!!!)

Hi, everyone and thanks for reading!

It's time for the last post (I know, sad, right?). I can't sleep or do anything useful so I can do this.

I'm currently in Finland. Okay, I've been here since the end of May. Before I left France, I had the busiest six weeks of my life! I went to my landlady's house from the Middle Ages (which is in a vineyard!!!), Saint-Émilion (a town from the Middle Ages as well), Toulouse, Nantes, Madrid, Ciudad Real and other places, spent time with Sami (my awesome friend from Finland who was kind enough to come visit me), met a lot of people and partied WAY too much (I was sick for like 4 weeks).

You can find pictures of those events on my Facebook (if you're my friends, that is :P).

It was heart-breaking to say goodbye to all my amazing friends that I managed to make while in Bordeaux. I still feel like meeting some of them and then I realize they're hundreds of miles away. Not fare, people, not fare!!!

I must say, the last week in Bordeaux was horrible. I had left everything undone so I basically had to clean up our 100 square meter apartment with the help of Heidi and her boyfriend in just 2 days. Believe me, it wasn't exactly clean when we started. I also had to pack all my stuff!!! Guess what! The last day before we left, I broke my suitcase so I had to go for an unplanned shopping trip.

Also, we forgot that the banks were closed on the Ascension Day, so we had to close our bank accounts from Finland. Go, us!

As usual, our second plane, the one from Paris to Helsinki, was late so I had to run to my Jyväskylä plane. Needless to say, I was the last one on that plane. And my suitcase decided to stay in Helsinki. Great.

It was raining when I arrived to J-town slightly after midnight. It was just then when I realized my life in France was over. It was the weirdest feeling ever. Just imagine building a life for nine months, getting an apartment, making friends, going to school, starting hobbies. Then, in one day, everything's gone.

Sad, isn't it?

I was there, my friends were there. I could breathe. No, honestly, this isn't some cheesy metaphor; the Finnish air is like the best kind of air there is. The type that doesn't kill your lungs.

So I went to ABC and finally - home. Where I got to sleep on the sofa for the whole summer. Jealous much?

Believe me, it was difficult to adjust. I'd dreamed of being back to my home town for almost a year and then I realized it was almost the same. Life had went on, without me, though. There was almost nothing for me. I was super hyper, I couldn't sleep for weeks. Maybe it was the excessive amount of sunlight (the Midnight Sun is a real thing, guys!!!).

Anyway, it took me almost the whole summer to get used to doing nothing.

Here are some pictures of Finland:

We have forests and lakes everywhere!!! I'm not even exaggerating! 

Seriously. Whichever way you look, you see one of them or both :D.

;)

The Church Park in the middle of the J-town center. Milla and my friend Riina :D.

This old thing. Also in the center.

The lake in the middle of the center. 

After all, this IS called "The city of light". And no, it's not a joke.

Me trying to climb this thing. Also in the center :DD.

The harbor, J-town center.

Look how crowded the main street is!!!

By the way, I'm now living in the center with my crazy friend Terhi!!! We were told it was "irresponsible" to move in together XD. They were right, though. Feel free to come visit us!!!!

No, seriously, you have to!

You can see more Jyväskylä pictures in my new blog once I start one!!! I think it will be under the name of Metromies, too :DD.

And remember to read my other blog http://falloutspam.tumblr.com/ (although I rarely update it anyway....)!!!!

I miss you guys!!! Hope to hear from you soon!

Yours irresponsibly 

Roosa

PS: I'm starting my 12th language this year. And it's gonna be.................. Hungarian!!!! Surprise!!!!

You can never party too much (or can you?)

Hello, friends and enemies and whoever reads this blog!

There was a lot of text in the last one so now I'm trying to tell as much as I can with pictures (woohoo)! This post is about what I did before the vacation.

So after the amazing trip to Cologne we went to the dune du Pilat with our university friends. By the way, it's the biggest dune in Europe! Climbing it was awf... delightful, especially when there were no stairs! We finally made it to the top:

The beach!

Katie and I <3

The dinosaur rain forest. 

It was super steep...

...and coming down was super scary... and awesome :D

If it doesn't look big, I can assure you it was!!!

Janina and Katie!

Ah, yeah, this is the real dune.

Our victorious trip back to Bordeaux ;)

The next Monday I celebrated my first St. Patrick's Day. It was pretty cool, we even had Irish people with us. The pubs were so full. By the way, I couldn't wake up for school the following morning but I wouldn't probably have learnt anything anyway.

Honestly, this was the best picture from that night...

That weekend we celebrated Mira's birthday. Mira, Nina, Kaisu and Sohvi came to our place and we had such awesome time that I didn't remember to take any pictures (pretty well-thought excuse, huh?). This is a picture of an elk I drew the next day in Musée d'Aquitaine. I know, I've got talent!!!

We also went for kebab. As you can see, I was satisfied and Heidi... well, she didn't want to go there at first. But she liked it anyway. But I gotta say, you still get the best Döner from Germany!!!

That weekend we finally got our freedom since Sam moved away. This freedom lasted for almost a day, when I decided to invite Katie to live with us. She moved the next day. I knew she was awesome because she liked FOB :D.

The next week we had the Soirée finlandaise, the Finnish party!! It was super awesome, there were a lot of people and the neighbors threatened to call the cops! A real house party that is! Plus I got to talk about Finland which has become my favorite subject :D. After Fall Out Boy, of course.

The next day (Saturday) we went to see a play where some of our friends from university played. The importance of being Earnest. It was pretty funny :D. 

On Sunday, we had a movie night, watching one of the best movies ever: 21 Jump Street!!! Because Jonah Hill. Did I mention that Katie has the best taste in movies as well? :D

The next day, after judo, we discovered that we didn't have any more water. Or it came drop by drop from ONE of our taps. SO I COULDN'T TAKE A SHOWER AFTER JUDO! I swear to you, the next day was the most horrible day here in Bordeaux. I just kept thinking about shower. AND! It was the 1st of April, so Heidi sent me a text that we wouldn't be having water for another week. Luckily, it wasn't true! And she put paper fish everywhere in our apartment. I mean EVERYWHERE! Even in all our groceries (except hers) XD.

On that Friday we had an awesome sleepover (girls only!) and we got to try our bathtub! Apparently, five girls fit it there at the same time. The pictures are on Facebook :D. The next day we were exhausted but went still on this French guy's party. I met a lot of cool people in there, from such places as Norway and, get this, Cologne! Also a sweet Italian girl, Gemma.

Needless to say, I was really sick after all that. And I mean like fever and stuff.

On Thursday we went to Ikea to eat meatballs with the students of the Swedish language. I'm serious. And it was a long trip! 

By the way, I was still sick. On Friday we went to Gemma's birthday, it was really fun.

On Saturday, I was really sick! Probably because I hadn't rested the whole time. Still, I had my exams during the following week so I had to study... which I didn't do because I had to update my http://falloutspam.tumblr.com/ blog. After all, it was my blog's anniversary and Brendon Urie's ans Save Rock And Roll's birthday. How could anyone study on a day like that?!

So, I still had fever on Monday, but I had to do my Chinese exam... after which I went to a judo belt exam. I got the belt, now I'm a 5th kyu (so, basically nothing special).

Our vacation started on that Friday and I was still sick. Plus I had this dissertation to write about 3 books that I hadn't read. I didn't even start it. I ended up doing it on Monday, just before I left for Toulouse.

But we're not there yet! That Saturday we had a bagel picnic in front of our house with Gail and Katie. It was epic, of course. Heidi joined us later, but she didn't get to see an alpha computer geek who was showing us his macho skills by falling down from the balcony. He was trying to take a picture for us :D.

We made truffles (or Heidi made them) and watched a movie. It was a good day :).

Okay, now I see that this update was super long but at least it had pictures :DD. I still have a few updates to post since I've been lucky enough to experience some amazing stuff. I really hope someone still reads this thing XD.

Good night, people!

See you very soon (Finland!)!

-Batman Metromies 

The truth about Germany

Hi!

It's been too long and the exchange is almost over! I'll be leaving in four days, still can't believe it! I hope someone still reads this blog because I have some amazing adventures about which I want to tell you. So I'm trying to make it short (hopeless, I know!!).

This story is from March. So, after three days of exams (like 6 or 7 of them), I slept good two hours and jumped in the train that went to Cologne. Okay, actually it was two trains and it took like 9 hours. I was pretty nervous since I was exhausted, I didn't really know Alex or Céline (I'd only met them once, in Paris) and my neck hurt a lot for some reason. 

Anyway, when I arrived in Cologne, my awesome friends were there, smiling, with their friend Roxy. I told them I was tired so they took me to a coffee place. That's right, you don't need sleep in Cologne!

The coffee was really good and I fell in love with Cologne which is a beautiful and lively city. 

The next morning we went to the concert. We had to wake up super early so that we could be there by 7 AM. So I slept 5 hours. We had a problem since Alex and Céline had an exam that morning so basically I should have waited there alone. BUT!! Here comes the amazing part: Roxy, whom I'd just met, volunteered to come wait with me. ON HER DAY OFF! AND IT WAS FREEZING! Seriously, we couldn't take a lot of clothes since they slow you down when you're trying to get in the front row.

So this sweet girl stayed there with me, I was number 15 in the line. Eventually, Alex and Céline came there too, they were 37 and 38. Then we got Currywurst which is amazing like all German food!

Then some douches broke the line and we ended up being like the 50th in line. Which kinda sucked because we'd been waiting for ages. But, then again, Germany blew my mind. The people in the front started calling people there by numbers. So I was the 15th again! Such sweet people!

I was still worried because it was only my second concert and I didn't know how to get in the front row. Also, I didn't know if Céline and Alex had the chance since they were so far behind. And it wouldn't be as fun without them!

Finally, THE moment was there. We had to get in. I chose the right door and got in pretty quickly. Then I ignored the "don't run" commands and ran as fast as I could! I GOT IN THE FRONT ROW!!!!!!!!! 

Then I heard Céline yelling my name and she got there too!!!! She made sure there was room for Alex who, finally, got there too! We were too happy!!! 400 people in the audience and WE WERE IN THE FRONT ROW!

It was amazing! Pretty Reckless was cool but Fall Out Boy was epic!! We were just right in front of Pete who dropped the microphone at one point. It was cool XD. And Patrick was a god as usual! Just! A god!

After the concert we bought cool stuff and I went back to Céline's place which was more than comfortable. It was like a 5 star hotel. And, get this: she gave me her Fall Out Boy T-shirt!!! I love these people <3<3<3!!!

The next day I slept until 12 :DD. And woke up when Céline was knocking my door, apparently for the millionth time!

We went to see their town Neuss which was cool and got the best Döner ever!! Then we went to see Cologne which was super cool and beautiful. At the Kölner Dom (which was epic) some guy asked us if we were emos. That's hilarious!! :DD

We went to have coffee while we waited for Roxy. Then we went to this huge gay party. If you didn't know, Köln is the gay city of Germany! Rainbow flags everywhere! So cool!

The party was great. We didn't want to wake up early so we stayed there the whole night dancing! They even played Fall Out Boy when they heard I'd come all the way from Finland (which I hadn't done, by the way XD). I was super hyper after it!

Finally, on Sunday morning, we had to say goodbye! It was really sad because the girls were simply awesome!!! Then I went to the train and fell asleep like a million times. It was cool to come back to Bordeaux, because for like the first time in ages the weather was actually good! It was like summer, over 20 degrees and sunny! In march!

Oh, and the reason there are no pictures is because I was more than stupid and didn't charge my camera battery before I left. But this all happened and it was epic!!! Go to Cologne, it really is a wonderful place!

More updates coming soon! Let me know if you still read this blog :D.

XXXX

Love you all!!

-Roosa the adventurer 

When Nina and Kaisu decided to visit Bordeaux...

Hey!!!

I know that I promised a new update for Monday, but we must keep in mind that it's me and (I set my clocks early 'cause I know) I'm always late.

So this is a short update because it's about three days. A day after my sister left, my Finnish friends from Nantes, Nina and Kaisu came over. I went to pick them p from the train station really late, so I had to listen to French guys yelling stupid things to me, probably because I was wearing my awesome cap. This is a generalization, but I feel that French people don't really respect women. There are some jerks yelling inappropriate things to girls, calling them "whores" and the others just let it happen. Thinking about that, I'm kinda happy that I'm going back to Finland soon. Otherwise, France is pretty OK.

The next day, we went to Bordeaux center to see the sights (and the carnival). We didn't have time to do almost anything and it was dark for some reason... maybe I slept too long again. Even though it was cold and windy, it was fun, and after the trip we went home to have tea and PIZZA!!! We also listened to (good?) music and talked. It was nice to chat with them after a long time.

On Saturday we went to see the bridge in the daylight, and discovered it was some kind of holiday, so the streets were full of people. For once something was happening and I enjoyed the lively Bordeaux. Nina and Kaisu didn't like the crowds as much for some reason, I blame their home towns which are (slightly) smaller than mine XD.

Okay, I admit it was annoying to take the tram. But just a little.

Kaisu and Nina :D

We went to Fnac to figure out whether or not to buy "50 shades of Grey" :DDDD. I assure you the conclusion was "no"!!

Rue St. Catherine looked pretty crowded too:

But it actually wasn't. It's only an illusion.

Then we went shopping, we had like half an hour before the stores closed. I found (OK, Nina and Kaisu found it) new jeans that actually look way better on me than the old broken ones :D. It was perfect for my trip to Germany!

After the quick shopping tour we went to Grace's and Emily's place to play board games with them and.... Claire!!! The games were in French but we played them in English (and I remind you that 3 of us didn't speak either of those as a native language!!!). But we nailed it anyway! :D

That night we stayed up late (or early) playing cards, talking, listening to music and going crazy (at least I did when I hit the stage where I wasn't tired anymore but hyper energetic, which was fun for probably just me).

I woke up early to walk the girls to the buss stop (which is, like, a 4 minute walk...) and went to sleep. I know, I'm amazing :P.

I probably should have studied for my 5 exams that were on the following 3 days but I simply had no time for that. Erasmus, you know? :D On Thursday I left for Cologne and that shall be the topic for the next entry!!! It's really worth reading!! And writing (myself, remember that)!!!!  

Leave a comment here or on FB, if you want to complain/tell that you've founded a religion around this blog! I hope to hear about you guys too!

And by the way, Sami's going to be here tomorrow/later today!!! Yay! 

New stuff coming soon (I... umm... promise)!

-Dis gal XD

The airport clowns (Milla's French adventure)

Hello, people!

I'm lucky to have this blog, otherwise I'd do nothing, since I no longer have to study (of course I would study if I was any smarter). So the catching up continues...

So only 3 days after Sohvi and Asta had left, my dear sister Milla came to visit me. I want to pick her up from the Mérignac airport, which is way too far away!!! It was almost 11 PM when I finally arrived there, so we didn't do much that day. The next day I had class.

Later the same day - which was Friday, by the way - we went to have kebab with Gail and Emily (really French, I know). Then we all went to Emily's and Grace's place and ended up going to a pub to see the Wales-France rugby game.

Now, there's a thing I need to tell about rugby: it is not a thing in Finland. It made no sense to us, just a bunch of guys in a pile. And people were screaming as if they knew whether they were losing or not. Of course we cheered for Wales, as Grace and Gwilym were from there. I can assure you we were the only people there rooting for that team. But we won, so think about that, French people!!

Grace and Gail, not so into the game.

Alex, Gail and MILLA!!

My lovely sister, probably rooting for a team.

The Welsh boy. We only knew if we were losing or not by looking at his reactions. 

So, after this very French experience we went back home with Gail who decided to have a sleepover in our place. YAY!

We had Finnish rye bread and Fazer chocolate! And, of course, salmiakki! But Gail wasn't so into the last one :DD. We also listened to Robin and Aste! XD

On Saturday, I woke up late (as always...). We went to the center to buy macarons (finally, something French!) since Milla hadn't tasted them. Then we went to the national restaurant of France: KFC. OK, I know, I'm always there, but in my defense, there's no KFC in Finland!! I know!! Horrible!! And they say Finland's a good place to live in....

Anyway, we also went inside the cathedral because it was raining. I don't have any pictures of that day!! Finally, we went back home because the weather was pretty bad. 

On Sunday the shops were closed, so we decided to go discover Talence. We went to Forum and saw all the numerous sights in there. Like the boulangerie where we ate our "breakfast". We also went inside the church there, but once we were inside, they locked the front door, so we had to use the back door. We were almost sure it was a plan to get us beaten up since we don't believe in God. You know, like there would be an ambush in the back door. Luckily, there wasn't any.

Then, we wanted to go to Parc Peixotto, since I'd never been there and we took the tram to Peixotto and walked to the wrong direction for like 3-4 tram stops. It was OK, though, since we got to see awesome ghetto landscapes!

  

Yep, Talence and Pessac are pretty cool places XD

Honestly, the places look so much cooler by foot that front the tram!

Well, eventually we found the park:

Guys, I remind you that it was February!!!

February (or FOBruary)!!!! And there were flowers!! Look at this flower photobombing Milla's picture! XD

This is my house.

And this is the médiatheque (a Media Library thing) that we pass every morning by buss. It, too, looks way better from this side.

Fake artistic pictures :DD

Jail.

Yeah, going to a park is a lot of fun.

On the way home we found this smallest green area ever. We also stopped to sit on a bench and play children's games. Milla regretted suggesting sitting on a bench :DD.

"It's okay, I live here." :D

At home we made crêpes and played the super difficult Fall Out Boy Believers Never Die tour game. It was too hard for us!! I don't think we did anything else.

The next day we met my awesome friend Claire. It was weird because the sun was shining. The first time I met Claire and it wasn't raining!!! We went to a coffee place and sat outside. And it was February!!!

Then we went to look for a pâtisserie (because in France you can never eat too much!!) but it was closed and we realized we were actually hungry. So, like always, we spent ages looking for a quality restaurant with reasonable prices. Spoiler alert: such thing does not exist in Bordeaux. So we went to a nice place and ATE OUTSIDE! And it was FOBruary!!

The waiter in the restaurant didn't appreciate us not drinking wine, so he decided to let everyone know that we were drinking "coca zero". He kept laughing at us and, as always, I was asked why did I come to Bordeaux if I don't like wine. Yeah, I don't really know anymore...

That night we went to the carnival thing and bought super expensive tickets to ride the Ferris Wheel. The was a guy who was trying to hit on Milla. He even took a picture with her....

At home, we studied professionally the Larias music videos on YouTube and decided to let everyone else enjoy our expertise by creating a blog: http://persuofficial.blogspot.fr/ . Enjoy! It's brilliant!

The next day was Milla's last day in Bordeaux. So we decided to spend it the best way possible: by having a brunch. Okay, we woke up late, so it was really like a mixture of brunch and dinner: a brunchinner. Basically we ate French cheeses, baguette, croissants, CHOCOLATE and bakery. It was too good! And, of course, we watched Larias and listened to Sillanpää's Liekeissä XD.

Dear friends, if you're ever thinking about leaving Bordeaux by plane, don't do it at 6 AM. The last buss to leave for the airport goes at 1 AM or something. In Milla's case, we had to spend the night at the airport. It was okay, though, because we were prepared: we got all the leftover food (it was a lot!!) and Milla's iPhone, so we could watch all the Larias videos we wanted to see (and Salkkarit XD).

HOWEVER! It didn't go according to the plan. After the delightful journey to the airport, during which a guy next to me threw up in the tram, we found out that the airport was closed for the night!!! 

There we were, Milla, I and a French guy, out in the cold (it was February!!), without any decent clothing (I didn't know we were going to spend the night outside) and! without wifi!!!!!

But we were happy anyway, since we got to "experience Lari's life" (he was homeless for a while in the TV show :DD) and we remembered how Finnish kids keep themselves warm when they're made go outside for 15 minutes every hour in elementary school!! It's cold out there in Finland!! So, our French friend watched us (probably jealous because he was freezing) as we played children's games - which wasn't quite glamorous since we didn't have the right number of players or proper walls for "Nurkkajussi". 

Here's where we stayed for hours. We only had two gloves, one for each.

Finally, the doors opened, and we couldn't believe it was true! It was simply magical!!! Honestly, we have never smiled as much as at that moment. We also danced!

And we had wifi!! So we could watch Salkkarit and eat chocolate!!! Best. Day. Ever!

No more cold.

Milla analysing Larias videos. 

There was also a photo booth!! Just like in Larias! Of course, we only needed it for to look cool, we had our own cameras :D.

So that was the story of my sister's trip to Bordeaux. I know, there are too many things to do here :D. Anyway, it was nice to see my goofy little sister. Soon I'm going back to Finland and we can continue our blog! XD

There will be new updates really soon! Don't give up hope on me!

I can't wait going back to JKL!! Love you all!

-"JKL doesn't mean 'just kidding, lads'"