Take Me Away

It feels like it's time to pack my bag and leave once again.



..But I guess i'll have to stick to paying rent and listen to my mate's advice to not always run from my problems.

But escapism...oh so fun, and so easy...

Marketing Trainee, Flow Festival

The thing I so secretly talked about a couple weeks back - the internship I applied for.

At first I had no incentive to apply to any internships since I had other plans in mind - first to Rock Werchter (Belgium), 3 weeks of sailing from St. Malo, France to Lisbon, Portugal and then back to Belgium for Tomorrowland festival.

But... Then I got a message from my ex-classmate Laura claiming I HAD TO apply for this position that was screaming my name - the Marketing trainee at Flow Festival.
The pace my heart was racing at and the speed my breath had accelerated to told me I was going to have to make a hard decision - apply to my dream job I have been striving towards to or follow my passion of traveling and take part in the tall ship races I had been thinking about for a couple of years already.

I was laying wade awake that night. Weighting the options. I was sad to admit that I already had different plans - as I already had purchased the Rock Werchter ticket some three weeks ago (probs forgot to mention) and I would just have to let this perfect opportunity slip. I was just on the verge of falling asleep when I sprung up as enlightenment hit me.

The past three years I have been doing things such as organizing parties, travels and even resulted in starting my own event management company. I have been all around the world just for festivals sake - from good ol' Seinäjoki to Gdynia, and Werchter to Lorne. I have experienced and learnt a lot of things about festivals and marketing and my head is full of ideas how things could be developed. Since becoming aware after reading an article that such a profession as an "event manager" exists, creating my OWN festival has been my sole dream.

So why the fuck shouldn't I apply to my dream job?

It's not like I didn't email the exact same company last year asking whether they had some work (the internships had been given out already at that time - on a more miniscule applicant search scale though).

So I decided to do it. To give it a try. What could I lose? Plus. I was their perfect candidate.

The least that could happen was that I wouldn't get in and I could pursue my travel plans. At least I would know that I had TRIED - which I think is all that matters.

Well, I sent them the best application I've ever written but unfortunately I wasn't picked. I don't know what kind of superwoman they are looking for cause my cv and resumée was pretty damn good ( ;) ), but I hope the person they choose really fits the job and appreciates the opportunity :) And, I'm not bitter at all. I'm super happy I tried and content with the result. I mean, I guess in one point they were relatively interested in my application since they emailed me asking for my age (oops.. Can't remember why i've deleted it in the past?) ? So yeah. Better luck next time (:

PLUS.

Now I can go traveling ;)
-Optimisti ei koskaan pety-

*=thank you Kimmo _so_ much for all the proofreading and tips you gave me, means a lot, really :)
Photo property of Kimsu Love 

Set Me Free

Every once in a while I get this feeling:



Kinda getting anxious here... I should be surfing, sleeping in a beach shack and walking barefoot... Living life the way I want it. Not the way I should live it.

I'm slightly freaked out that although I have quite the freedom here (since I do get to backpack twice a year; during chrissie I have a month off of school and I have a nice 3 month summer vacation) - I'll be completely unchained only after three years...  and I'll be turning 25 that year. fuuuuuuu. I should be living my life NOW.

But. yeah. I'm gonna finish school - or at least keep on going as long as this motivation remains. I guess I just need to distract myself until then - music, parties and mini-traveling until I set myself completely freeee.

And hey, it's not like i'll be in Finland for that long anymore... :) 2013 Fall I'm off to Madrid to do my exchange and on my fourth year (2014-2015) I have my five month working holiday abroad.



Life's pretty good. Just gotta remember it.

Graduate, pack your bag & GO !

Guess what I did yesterday...

..Opened up a new savings account !

The though of having a separate account for my current (aka next) travels and future (aka after graduation escape) had been fluttering in my mind for quite some time now and today I finally logged in to my account (nice balance of 0,00€ on current and savings account btw) to see whether they provided some info on it online. And wála, after 5 min I had created a new account ;) The best part is that I could name my account appropriately ;)

So from now on, each month 200€ will be deposited to my [future] BACKPACKING -account. I'll have 8500€ by the end of September 2015 (Figured it would be the right time to leave to AUS, just like last time) + way more, when i've finished writing my thesis in Spring and started working full-time. So I should be aight ;)

I have sick plans and I'm gonna be traveling for 2 years after I graduate + who knows where the wind will carry me & whether i'll ever come back to Finland !

P*RN

Okey, hey, so wtf.

Deadmau-five

I realized how fucking pissed off I would be, if I would miss the opportunity to see all my fav acts (I'll make a post later about them) in Rock Werchter. I was thinking "ohh maan.. I wish artist1 and artist2 and artist 3 and artist4 would go to some festival so I could see them...". Well, come on, they are in Rock Werchter - what are the chances you'll see all of those 4 acts TOGETHER at the same festival? I mean, last summer Deadmau5 only performed three times in Europe (and I got to see him !!!) and so far, there's really no other festivals (I could make it to) that he is attending.

(ok this is not deadmau5 but prodigy stilllll :9)

So I did a bit of calculations (European Markets -lesson nearly put me to sleep... 2-5pm lessons should be forbidden!!) - as usual - and realized that I can make it happen, goddamn. 3 000€ is nada. It's only 14 friday+saturday -evening shifts, excluding taxes. (But still on that note I haven't "been able" [ei pystyyy] booked any shifts although school is canceled for tomo and thursday!!!)

Oh well, I've sent out some CV's and résumés (hate hate hate drafting them!!!)) this evening AND I have actually been to an job interview just today!!! :) We were supposed to do some school work at my mates place last Sunday, and the idea was to meet up at 12. Well, my phone's battery had ran out so I hadn't received the notice of post-poning it with an hour. Gleb had just arrived from Russia so he wanted to sleep. While he was consulting the pillow I sent out _two_ CV's and tadaaaa, got an job interview a day later ;)



I was SO relieved when I arrived to the interview and found out that it would be in ENGLISH!!! :) R-E-L-I-E-F. I had just been thinking on the tram how I wished I could be interviewed in English because I have a hard time coming up with the proper words in Finnish...  (And has anyone EVER had a successful small talk with someone in Finnish?? I just feel so much smoother with English!) I don't sound that professional (especially if I can't think of the word/phrase and just blurt it out in English). Pretty sad for my mothertongue, but hey, nothing new! Eri juttu, jos saan kirjottaa :)

Anyhoo, I don't think i'll be getting that job since the working hours contradict with school ;/ Oh well. Gotta find something else.

PS. Man... The level of the jobs you'll apply to when you really hate your job... man, if I get the job, I think i'll just forget to inform my dad that his daughter works at a porn shop. Yep Yep.

5 MILLION - YES PLEASE

Today, at nine o'clock, i'll be praying to the money gods to grant me the lottery win of lovely 5 million little euros!



Gods, please be good!

The fact is, that I made an estimate of the money I would need if I were to do ALL the things I would like to do this summer. And excel just made me cry:



SOOO... If there's anyone out there who would like to SPONSOR me, or just loves my blog and would like to contribute by a DONATION or just is a kind soul looking for good karma, contact me heyletsgogetlost@gmail.com

PS. I'm not even gonna go into all the artists I would LOOVE to see at Rock Werchter 8(

Kassahuora

I’ve been a bit troubled lately because I’ve been having a dilemma: I’ve got bills to pay, i’m using my mastercard and I have no money. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I hate my job?

Yeah so I haven’t really been ABLE to take up work shifts (I don’t have to book any shifts if I don’t want to) because the thought of going to sit in Alepa for 8 hours makes me wanna throw myself under the oh-so-efficient VR trains... Being a cashier is not easy !!!

I’ve managed to do my job solely with the thought of the euros increasing in my account for ONE AND HALF YEARS (minus traveling every now and then for a total of six months) but I feel like I’ve just had enough. I seriously can’t be Alepa’s bitch no more.

And I’m stressed cause I have bills and I want to participate in the Tall Ship Races and I need 800€ only to sign up for that among other travels and things.

Anyway, I’m doing a Facebook Free February, so today I’ve been super efficient: I’ve started reading economics and marketing, held a mini-meeting with Demi and Janika to sort out our association matters, read all the papers from the first week of school I missed and arranged all the papers in my folder. Not to mention about opening a very very very nice letter – OUR SPONSOR MONEY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED – I’m finally getting paid the money I put in organizing our association’s party...

Due to this pleasant information I did our association’s accounting (finally) and I’M RELIEVED – I didn’t even realize how much money I had used for our party. With the money I lent and the money i’m getting from my insurance company (thank you Trygg for being so fast! :) ), I’m pretty sure I have no bills left to pay! AH, life is wonderful!

With this note I actually started to ponder whether I just could work my little ass off as the check-out girl still for a little while... If I’ll just grit my teeth... and think about the money... and continue to do my packing/to do –lists...

We’ll see.. I don’t have school next Thursday so maybe, just maybe, I’ll take up a morning shift... with the pictures of euros and rigg sails in my eyes........

Ps. Wrote this yesterday and now that i'm hanging out with Mikko, also an ex-Alepa Bitch, I realized, there's little chance of me going back to work...

Kuinka budjetoida?

Multa on nyt pariin otteeseen kysytty rahan keräämisen ja budjetin suhteen, niin pistetäänpä vastaus nyt samalla postaukseen :)

Oon rahottanu matkani tekemällä niska limassa duunia mm. kassalla (tätä ennen muilla paskaduuneilla kuten siivoomiselle, subwaylla ja PUHELINMYYNNILLÄ) ja säästämällä lähes kaiken. Oon tehny valintani, että en muuta vielä himasta pois ja se on suuri etu. Se että asun vielä vanhemmillani mahdollistaa sen, että voin säästää lähes kaiken kun ei ruokaa tai vuokraa tartte maksaa. Olen siitä hyvin kiitollinen vanhemmilleni :)

Rahaa tarttee sen verran kuin tarvitsee lentolippuihin + budjettiin. Eli kandee laskee niin, että lennot + vakuutus + mahd. rokotukset + mahd. hankinnat (esim. rinkka ja muut asiat, joita joudut ostamaan) + mahd. viisumit + mahd. kulut, joita joudut matkan aikana maksamaan (esim. puhelinliittymä, jos oot pistäny sen sellaselle “on hold” -liittymälle, josta maksat esim. vain euron kuussa) + päivä budjetti x pvt + kandee aina varata EXTRA rahaa, koska aina tulee jotain paskoja eteen, joihin meneekin enemmän rahaa, kun on laskenut. + jos tiedät, että haluat esim. hypätä laskuvarjohypyn, niin kannattaa ottaa selvää, paljonko se maksaa, ja varaa sen verran ylimääräistä myös.



Esim. itse varasin Balille pelkkää budjettia varten 20e/pv x 30pv = 600e + 200e extraa. Sit päälle tietty lääkkeet (esim. japanin aivokuume, josta pulitin 240e, malarialääke) + vakuutus + jotkut pikkusälät, joita jouduin ostamaan (rinkat sun muut mulla on onneks jo edellisiltä reissuilta) ja lennot tietty.

Pakko nyt jälkiviisaana sanoa, että meni VÄHÄN enemmän rahaa tuolla Balilla, kun mitä olin odottanut :D Toisaalta, en kuitenkaan noudattanut mitään niin suuria Backpacker-periaatteitani rahan käytön suhteen, koska kyseessä oli joululoma, jolla halusin oikeasti rentoutua ja pitää hauskaa (koska olin raatanut viimeiset 5 kuukautta niska limassa koulutöitä ja duunia tehden), joten baarissa tuli käytyä välillä, vaikkei päiväbudjetti sitä olisikaan sallinut.

Kannattaa myös ottaa huomioon, että välillä sattuu haavereita, jonka vuoksi on hyvä olla mukana luottokortti. Maksaessasi lääke- ja sairaalakuluja kerää kaikki kuitit talteen ja pyydä vaadittavat todistukset, jotta saat kerättyä rahasi vakuutukseltasi helposti.



Myös yksin matkustamisen hyvistä ja huonoista puolista on kyselty, ja niistä voi olenkin jo kirjoittanut tänne.

Kirjotin tuon tekstin puolisen vuotta sitten, joten voisin lisätä jotain tuosta yksin matkustamisesta Interrailiin ja Baliin verraten: Mun mielestä oli IHANAA istua junissa yksin, kun pysty vaan keskittyä siihen olemiseen, maisemien ohi vilahteluun ja omissa ajatuksissa seikkailuun. Vietin myös Portugalissa ollessani yhden onnellisimmista päivistä, kun matkakumppaninani oli pelkästään kamera ja iPodi lähtiessäni lautalla Costa da Caparican -niemelle. Tuntui vaan niiiin hyvältä olla yksin ja nauttia olemisesta ja ympäristöstä.

Jos en olisi ollut yksin reilillä, niin tuskin myöskään olisin hengaillut paikallisten lifeguardejen kanssa portugalissa, tutustunut belgialaisiin poikiin junassa Berliiniin  tai voinut noin vain lentää Tomin pyytämänä hänen setänsä luo Lontooseen (hyläten kaikki alkuperäset suunitelmat "en helvetis tuhlaa aikani johonki Englantiin!").

Balilla taas kun selvisi, että hostelleja saarella ei ole (paria lukuun ottamatta, jotka itse asiassa maksavat saman verran tai enemmän kuin hotellit!), ei yksin reissaaminen ollut oikein vaihtoehto. Onneksi Jassu oli samaisella saarella niin pystyttiin jakamaan asumiskustannukset. Mutta kun tiemme erosivat, oli kuitenkin niin paljon jännempää tallustaa rinkka selässä sitä tietä yksinään, vaikka kuinka hauskaa (ja sekavaa) meillä oli ollutkin Kutalla sun muualla ;) Kun ei ollut reissussa sen kotoa tutun tytön kanssa, tutustui paljon useampaan ihmiseen ja päivätkään eivät olleet niin arvattavia.

Olen tullut siihen tulokseen, että kyllä se yksin matkustaminen vain on kivempaa. Vaikka vietettiinkin Jassun kanssa tehtiin koettiinkin yhdessä vaikka mitä liftaamisesta bikini waxeihin, niin I can't help to think, että mitäköhän kaikkea muuta olisi tapahtunut, jos olisi backpackanut tän kuukauden ihan omillaan? Toisaalta - everything happens for a reason - en usko, että olisin tavannut kaikkia niitä ihania ihmisiä (mm. Milka <3), jos olisin tehnyt jotain toisin.

Stoked on the Future!

11.1.2012 Ubud



Although I love Bali, I’m super stoked on going back home. I have so much cool stuff waiting for me back home!!!

Only after three days when returning home, I will be attending Matkamessut (a travel expo), which Rantapallo is kind enough to grant us bloggers tickets to :) I’m super keen on seeing what the conference has to offer and I will be sure for keeping my eyes open for ticket discounts for my next travels ;) It will also be a great opportunity for looking for sponsors for my Tall Ship Races –trip !

I also need to start planning something I like to refer as to the W.E.P – what it is, you will find out when the time is right. ;)

Also i’m pretty stoked on going back to school... :D Maths and accounting..!.wow I am a nerd. Nah but really, I had a really good semester studying wise, and the only three grades I’ve gotten so far where 5’s !!! (From subjects I DID NOT expect myself to be getting tp marks from!) I’m constantly checking our school’s netportal to see whether the teachers would be bored enough on their vacation to fill in our grades ;) I have a strong feeling this will the best report card I’ve ever got... I know I did pretty fuckign well on my exams and I’m excited on getting the results back (and seeing how many more 5’s I got :D) :) AND this semester I will make damn sure that i’ll concentrate 150% on Spanish porque quiero hablar español perfectamente un día..! ALSO pretty keen on taking the digital photography course and learning more about photography (:

I’m also excited because two days ago when we were driving to Ubud on the scooter with Milka and I was just sitting back, listening to my iPod hungover, I had these realizations:

1)      I  Started thinking about whether I should do marketing as my major. During the fall semester when I was thinking of what to study as my major I knew that I didn’t want it to be

a) Economics – because although it is useful and usually pretty logical, the graphs are a total mind fuck most of the time and usually just requires for you to learn them by heart. AND four years with Michale Keaney would just be too painful with his bad bad bad jokes : D
b) Marketing – because Kotler (the author) is a fuckign lunatic who writes books that are ACTUALLY over 1000 pages long and the size of big laptops... Tooooo much man..

...BUT
when I came to Bali I started rethinking the issue. Marketing started to sound appealing as I started realizing the opportunities that marketing would provide. I could basically work anywhere.

For example:
Paolo, the 46-year-old Brazilian guy from Balangan Beach owns his own ”surf village” in an island somewhere in Indonesia and I asked jokingly whether I could come work for him ”yeah. You could do the marketing”. Ding ding ding, jackpot!

I also got inspired by Jean, Jonas’ French friend (who’s friend’s villa we stayed at) who has been now living in Bali for a year. He’s a fucking lucky guy because at ony 25 he got hired as the director of Ticket to the Moon in Bali and is doing e.g. the marketing for the company. So basically he is living in Bali and has a cool job of selling freakin’ hammocks :D

So yeah.. with marketing comes a lot of options and different livestyles to choose from.

2)      What I also realized, was that I’m not going to give up on Out of Control Productions, mine and a couple friends’ company/organization we created, registered and threw a succesful Halloween Party with. We had some internal problems that made me seriously doubt whether I wanted to continue to work in OOCP and when leaving to Bali I just answered ”I don’t know” when I was being asked whether I was still in after a month of avoiding everything that had to do with OOCP. I told I’d figure things out in Bali. But after staying in Bali for three weeks I still hadn’t gotten an epiphany about what to do with the issue. I just wished I wouldn’t have to choose between working-with-wonderful,-passionate-people-who-are-amazing-at-what-they-do-but-with-whom-you’d-probably-clash-big-time-with-at-times to giving up on something I was part of creating and loved doing.

I was sitting at the back of the scooter with my headphones when I realized there was no way I was going to quit doing something I am good at. Never ever have I been as passionate as in those two manic weeks when we pulled off the sickest Halloween Party with Demi and Janika. Never ever have I been so driven and focused. 12 hour days have not seemed like work with such a good and FUN team. Although we might have our  differences its not worth giving up on something that could fourish from a tiny seed into a beautiful flower. Not forgetting about friendship.

I’m super excited in going back as when I asked the girls and Jin (when combining the StartUp Challenge with OOCP Jin, the graphic and computer wizard joined forces with us) to fill me in on what was happening nowaday in OOCP (as I had been succesfully avoiding our FB-Admin page for two months) Demi told we are doing collab with Trombi Ry, the student organization, and throwing parties for them...! Not to mention all the other school parties and what not :) I also have a couple ideas on parties and I can’t wait to see my girls again and meet Jin finally, so that we can start working on our company’s future :)

So yeah, Pretty fucking stoked on going back home. Not to mention that Sean who has left Australia behind to make his RTW-trip is heading to Helsinki on the 26th aka AUSSIE DAY!!!!

Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal 26.7






Today was such a big hassle day.



So I wake up in Lissabon just when the cute Swedish guy sitting next to me was getting up. It was around 10ish and our train had just arrived in Portugal. I said bye Erik who hurried to the sunny outdoors. I started packing my stuff up and then I noticed that Erik had forgotten the cap, that he had been wearing, on his seat. I grabbed the cap with me so that I could give it to him in case i would still bump into him but unfortunately he was nowhere to be seen.



I had no clue how to get to my hostel or were it was (I was doing this in my bulletproof adventure way yet again: just write down the address of the place and you'll end up there somehow) so I kept just asking ppl in Spannish how to get to the part of town where my hostel was. This guy told me to get on the bus so I did so and kept my eyes open for my stop. I arrived at my hostel around 12ish and they told me that if I waited around an hour I would be able to check in. Well my room wasn’t ready after an hours wait so I left to the train station to sort my ticket out. I was kinda bummed I hadn’t realized to do it as I already had been at the train staion when arriving via train that morning.



So I hoped on the bus and asked if the drived could tell me to get off at the right stop. As I was watching the scenery pass and the bus stop names change, I got this feeling that this one stop was my stop but because the bus driver didn’t tell me anything, I didn’t get off. It was not until we drive on to a ramp that I went up to the driver to ask about my stop. I found out hat I HAD been right about my stop, and I had missed it... The driver told me that there would be another train station stop in 20 minutes so I just went back into sitting and watching the landscape.



When I finally arrived at the train station, I had to kill another 30 minutes in order for the international departure office to open up.. When the thing eventually opened up and it as my turn, it took me like 40 minutes to sort my train  out :D  Usually it takes you a minute... Anyhoo, it had been super easy booking my way out of Lisbon: the Lisbon – Madrid train for Friday BUT the way Madrid – Paris = everything booked. I’ve never been to Paris but I must say I’m not that excited anyways about it, I just wanted to get to Paris because I have to get to Brussels so I can fly back home... So it’s on the way home and the place where I need to go in order to make international connections out of France.



I had been standing in like with two Swedish girls who told me they were going from Hembaye, border of France, to Paris, so I decided to give it a try. The booking person could only book me from Madrid to Irún but he told me that the next station was really close –  only a five minute walk away from Hembaye station. I would arrive in the middle of the night so I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to get a train to Paris, or where I’ll be sleeping that night... but I decided to book the train anyways as there were no other options for me.



So I returned to my hostel and was fianlly able to check in. Took that well needed shower <3 I was in the bathroom were the showers are and I met this girl Lien from Belgium. I asked her whether she knew where to find a super market. Se was really nice and traveling by herself too. So I walked to the super market (I don’t get it how people say it was ”far away”, come on, a 10 minute walk? And who wouldn’t like to walk in a foreign country and see more stuff...!) and I was so amaized how cheap everything was !!!! I even took a picture of the groceries I did for 12 euros 8D Bought a bottle of red for myself and cooked up some salad for dinner. I made so much of it and had like 3 portions which after I was super bloated of :D



I was sitting ouside with Lien, eating, and we decided to go walking. Because she needed something out of the store we walked there again and I bought some readymade Sangría. Gotta love San Juan. ;) We walked up to this castle and because the sun was setting I was a bit camera happy ! We randomly bumped into Lien’s uncle ?!? Small world much? Anyway, we were just sitting and drinking Sangría and enjoying life :) She told me about this time she got high with her mate and then they found some bubble wrap from the trash can which they then took and got this brillian idea of selling it... ”Selling fun” they called it :D I mean who wouldn’t love bubble wrap?! Anyhoo, people were really getting into the bubble wrap thing as they were trying to make everyone they passed on the street to purchase it. Eventually they got bored and just started throwing the bubble wrap all over the street and then the police got a bit interested in who was trashing the streets and –being high- they got super freaked out and ran away and then paranoia hit in and they were hiding inside with the curtains closed 8D Alrighty. But yeah cool, love people who can just make fun out of nothing...such as bubble wrap!



We also went to walk on the promenade or what ever you call it. I took pictures of the beautiful ”25 de Abril” -bridge that lead up to the peninsula. The bridge looked exactly like the Golden Gate and it actually WAS designed by the same company that constructed the Oackland Bay bridge in San Fran but not the Golden Gate (as someone told me) Wikipedia says.

Sleep Deprivation

4.8 At Barcelona Airport 8:30 AM



I was almost left outside of the terminal at 00:30 because I lacked any papers of my flight what so ever.

Security guard infront of the gates of terminal 2:
"Su tarjeta de embarque por favor."
"...............No tengo."
"No tarjeta, no pasar."
"Pero.. no tengo."
"No puede pasar. Abiertan en las seis."

At this point I thought that I was in deep shit. I was trying to recall whether it had been ever necessary print out any forms (disregarding Ryanair's flights) or was a passport just fine to be able to check in. I began to panic that I would not get home. Or that I would have to wait outside the terminal for 5,5 hours..........

"Estás sola?"
"Sí.."
"Ok, pasa"
"MUCHOS GRACIAS."

I think the security guard realized I wouldn't be well off on my own with all my luggage and no where to go to (except terminal 1), waiting outside in the dark for the clock to struck six.

There was no way I was going to risk missing my flight (again) so sleeping was not an option. So I purchased 24 h wifi with 10 euros and pretty much made a camp in one corner. I sat in that very same place for 7 hours... Holy fuck. Thank god my friends have insomnia and Hector was on facebook to keep me company. Later on I saw Jared online and we skyped for half an hour!!! Man do I miss him so incredibly much. He is one of my all time favourite people I met in Australia and I still keep in contact with him. It was so good to see his face and hear his voice and I wished I could've just jumped through the screen to Darwin and hang out with him and hug him ! Jared's the best. We reminisced about good times... That very first night Melanie introduced me and Laura to Ian and Jared and we met crazy Wolf man. On that same night me and Jared got peed on by Melanie (!!! EPIC!!!)... We also thought about Magnetic Island and Airlie along other stuff. Damn. If only Jared would be going to Indonesia in December instead of September.

After skyping with Jared and reading one message on fb that wasn't reall the most pleasant one, I started feeling a bit anxious about going back. I am pretty sure it's the sleep deprivation that's talking, but I just really started doubting my purpose in my life back home. It felt a bit like in January, when I was returning home from my four month trip - returning to nothing (no school, no job etc). I tried to remind myself that it was just an illusion because I have everything going on for me back home - I'll be working non stop in August, i'll be volunteer working at this festival and getting free tickets to it, i'm gonna start going to the gym again and school is about to start in late August. But somehow just knowing, that I would go back to Finland with the mentality of saving up again so I could  get away go traveling again felt a bit depressing.  It feels crazy to have this strong urge of wanting to get away...
Don't I really have anything in Finland that would make a difference to keep me from wanting to leave home again ?

That's the issue I've been resteling with on this trip. Am I really happy in Finland? Do I really wanna live there? Meeting Finnish people abroad is always such a dull reminder of how things are back home - everyone is just so "jäinen". No one can keep up a conversation (unless they are drunk) and although I would be the one that is trying to spark up the convo, the other participate just lacks the skills to maintain it. And talk about Finnish men.  Oh God. Don't even get me started. When I came home from Morocco I had decided to stay back in Finland to study, because I had a lot of shit going on and I knew I wouldn't have been able to cope on my own in a foreing country without my safety net. But now that I feel like i'm over those dark times, I feel like there's really no reason why I should stay home, in Finland.

The only reason why I would consider living and studying in Finland is that uni is free and I can make a lot more money  -so I can go traveling again- in my country compared to most of the countries. Unless we are talking about Australia with a minimum wage of $18.5 per hour. Jared actually just told me that he gets $20 an hour but with tips $30.. He said he worked yesterday for 5,5 hours and made  _150_ dollars. But yeah. The uni isn't free in Australia... It's pretty much the opposite, at least the ones I looked at some two years ago.

Yeah. I don't really know... I've been planning I should at least do an exchange year after this one. That would give me one year in Finland, second one in exchange and the third one in one of the partner universities abroad (in Madrid I hope!). The final year, the fourth one, has a work practice term of five months, and it is recommended to do abroad - which I would totally do of course. So I would only be in Finalnd for some 1,5 years or so. Unless they wouldn't recognise my studies on my exchange year. I think I wanna go visit CIMO - the place where they took us in high school. Maybe they would be able to sort my life out a bit for myself.

But I must say. When I was surfing in Portugal, I just felt so happy. "This is what I wanna do in my spare time", I thought to myself for the tenth time. And surfing is not something you can do in Finland (unless you are totally passionate, crazy and ridiculous).

We'll see.

Ps. I've just been so happy during these past five weeks that I don't want it to go away.

Koepakkaus

Transportation of Luggage... Backpacker Style!

Tein eilen koepakkauksen.
Suoritin sen n. 15 minuutissa ! Man, how fast am I ?
Asiaa selvästi helpotti se, että olin aiemmin (töissä) listannut haluamani reissuvaatteet ja muut kamat alas, joten "mitä mun pitäiskään pakkaa" -miettimiseen ei mennyt ollenkaan aikaa. Panin merkille, kuinka  luonnolliselta ja arkipäiväiseltä pakkaaminen tuntui: se sujui vaan niin sukkelasti ja päämärätietosesti ! Oli jotenki sellanen "osaan tän unissanikin" -fiilis ja siitä tuli entistä enemmän sellaset OON NIIN VALMIS REISSUUN -vibat :) Huomaa, että on tultu purettua ja pakattua sitä rinkkaa pariin otteeseen aiemmilla reissuilla ;)

Kuitenkin kuten olinkin ajatellut, päädyin siihen, että ostan uuden rinkan. Tässä tapauksessa rinkka olisi myös ihan iki-omani (oon tähän asti käyttäny faijan rinkkoja) ! Tohon koepakkausrinkkaan ei nimittäin mahdu oikein mitään. Tiedän, että voisin jättää ehkä pari vaatetta himaan, mutta naah. Pitää muutenkin ostaa oma rinkka jossain vaiheessa niin why not now. The sales are on too. Kaiken lisäks, discoverasin uuden vian tossa rinkassa. Se alavetskariosion ja keskivartalo-osion rajottava pohja (jonka saa avattua vetskarilla), on myös revennyt... Eli joo. Uus rinkka vaan tänne. Huomenna siis Mastercardia vinguttamaan urheilukauppojen alennusmyynteihin...

ROAD TRIP: Day 13 - Leaving Adelaide

Sunset @ Port Augusta

Just got off of the phone with Tom. And I feel so much better.
(Talked about how to smuggle booze to Falls Festival: buy dozzens of water bottles and place the vodka ones in the middle, hide a bottle in a loaf of bread, and pour the liquor in mini grip bags and insert them in shampoo & conditioner bottles)

The reason why I would need to be cheered up is because we just dropped Dom's stuff at the place he'll be living at and said our good byes. I fucking HATE farewells.
Naturally I was the one that started to cry first.

It was when we got in the car with Melanie and Laura and took off, when them two got teary-eyed.
"Are you guys crying?" (tears streaming down)
Both: "No" (In the most sobbiest and breaking voice one can have)

We just start laughing: we are driving a van with ALL of us three CRYING. Hilarious.

But yeah. Fucking hate good byes. But that's a chapter on its own that i'll probably write about some day soon. (The farewell for us three is approaching way too fast and its not going to be pretty.)
Oh
And I think I lost my iPod.

This stupid van already managed to gulp Dom's so I wouldn't be amaized if yesterday was the last time I did encounter my iPod. I just can't believe I lost it. It was in the front ! We listened to it just yesterday after taking a shower at the camping ground. It must've fallen out. I knew this day would come - I'd catch myself on occassions wishing I had a bigger iPod. (I knew I wouldn't buy one before I'd broke/lost my old one) The 30Gb just isn't enough (had to delete stuff to add more). Then I'd realize what I was doing and pray that Karma wouldn't be lurking around the corner ready to snagg my precious little thing.

I don't mind the iPod, I just wish I had all the music on my computer. I have some random jewels and discoveries back from 6 years that I don't have anymore and there's no way I'll be able to recall all the 5000 songs. Ain't it a shame?

So. I wonder what the _fuck_ i'll be doing on my return flight of 39 hours or so......... Musicless? oh fuck no.
Don't even have enough money to buy a new one.

Yes, I AM BROKE.
Living with a $35 day budget.
I'm actually a bit curious how i'll manage and what will I come up with 25€ a day.
Our road trip just ended costing a bit more than expected (gas).
So don't be expecting any souveniers.

Lähtöön jäljellä 1kk 3vko

2009 Mexico, jossain Nayaritissa

YRITIN eilen käydä anomassa Visa-korttia.

Keskustelu pankiirin vai minkälie pankin tiski-ihmisen kanssa meni joksenkin näin:

"Ok, ja sun työnantajas oli?"
"No siis, mulla on monta eri.."
"No se päätoiminen työnantaja."
"Mm, ok eli Staffpoint sit varmaan."
"Ja onko vaikituinen?"
"..Ei"
"Jaa..."
"Siis mut mul on kuitenkin monta eri työpaikkaa, eli mulla ON koko ajan töitä."
"Siis onks toi sit määräaikanen?"
"Ei... siis ihan osa-aikasesti teen."
"Aa no joo kyl toi osa-aikanen on sit vakkari."
"Ainii, okei."
"Paljon sä tienaat sieltä keskimäärin kuukaudessa?"
"Ööää.. En osaa sanoa.. Siis ku teen sitä duunia kuitenki keikkaluontosesti.."
"No paljonko oot keskimäärin saanu sieltä palkkaa?"
"No siis, kun en vielä ole saanut sieltä palkkaa... :)))"
"Aijaa..?"
"Siis kun alotin siellä vasta äsken."
"Okei.... eli siis millon alotitkaan siellä?"
"No Subwayssa heinäkuussa ja Staffpointilla tän kuun alussa..... :D"
"Okei..."
"-Mut siis ennen sitä olin kuitenki pitkäaikasessa työsuhteessa, olin joulukuusta 2009 heinäkuhun 2010."
"Ok *kirjaa ylös tiedot*"
"Mut siis, en oikeesti osaa sanoo paljonko saan kuukaudessa---pitäsköhän mun vaan tulla myöhemmin takas tänne? :D"
"Joo.. Koska näillä tiedoilla sä tuskin saisit sitä luottokorttia."
"No joo-o, tuskin mäkään ittelleni mitään korttia näillä tiedoilla antaisin !"


Päätin tossa vaiheessa olla kyselemättä lainasta..... :D

2009 Mexico, jossain Nayaritissa

Jepjep :D Otetaan uusi yritys sitten myöhemmin :D Kiitos vain Antille hyvästä asiakaspalvelusta, oli oikeesti hauska heppu ja käviki ilmi, että tunnetaan yks kaveri mun ex-duunin ja meijän ex-koulun kautta (ollaan oltu eri aikaan samas koulussa) :D

Heräsin aamulla puhelinsoittoon ja ihan unisena kelasin, että noniin oonko nukkunu nyt vai pommiin... Mut Staffpointilta soitettiinkin ja varasinki ihan törkeesti vuoroja. Nyt oikeesti alkaa näyttää hyvältä.
Laskin, että mulla on ~4500€ näitten vuorojen tekemisen jälkeen ja kaveri varmaantoivottavastitodennäköisesti lainaa mulle 2000€ (koska en kerkee odottamaan palkkaturvasta 4 kuukauden päästä saataviani), joten mun tarttee enää varaa n. 10 iltavuoroja ja sit mulla on se 7500€ kasassa! :)

2009 somewhere near  Terneuzen, Holland @ Ruben's yard

Aijoo, otan tän päivän jälkeen subist loparit, koska Staffpointilta saan enemmän vuoroja ja parempaa palkkaa! Harmi, subis oli kiva olla töissä, tosi mukavia ihmisiä siellä :)

Ps. Ainiin, tuun nukkumaan sunnuntain Flow-talkoomisen ja maanantai-aamukassavuoron välillä ruhtinaalliset kolme tuntia... :)))) Love my life.