January 25th to February 11th - RECAP

So, today I realized I actually have a blog to keep up and running. Time just flies and one week seems like one day. Instead of writing a long text about everything that's happened and what have gone through my mind these past couple of weeks, I'll just summarize them in heart points for you. Here it goes:

❤ Fun to see everyone after the winter break - both old and new people.
❤ Dana is my suite mate now, opposite from my room. Love how we have our doors open and talk to each other from our rooms, or if the doors are shut we just text each other. We live by "Mi casa, es su casa". Friendship!
❤ I feel like I'm making a greater effort in actually learning to know some Americans too (not only internationals).
❤ My music taste have improved even more - at this moment it's in that state of awesomeness that I listen to music nearly everywhere and sing along (out loud too, whoops!).
❤ I discovered once again that I start speaking British English and I master dirty talk in French when very intoxicated by vodka - weird as f*ck.
❤ I love partying again! Finally! And realized how much I actually prefer drinking vodka and cranberry juice over anything else.
❤ We went to Rome, no not the one in Italy, but the fake Rome in central New York, and watched Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic "The Birds" in an old theatre. Hipster much?
❤ We broke a photo company's record on most people in a photo booth. Their previous record was 18 and we were bout 20 in the booth for the biggest group photo.
❤ Classes got cancelled one day because of the weather. This is called a "snow day" in America. In Finland it's called "everyday". Haha, bad joke, I know.

1. Super Bowl. 2. Roomie quality time. 3. Birds at the Capitol Theatre in Rome. 4. Fun memories.

Snow day snowy madness

This one fun night.

❤ I've become addicted to Twitter. And enjoy reading UC Confessions & UC Crushes. The college's own Gossip Girl. Sometimes funny, sometimes less funny. Find me on twitter here.
❤ This twitter page is the funniest (and possibly most disgusting) though: Collegefession.
❤ I'm actually excited by my classes, but still like to do as little effort as possible and still get an A. Possible? Definitely yes, according to my student record from last semester.
❤ My homework mostly consists of reading articles, tweeting about them, blogging and pretending to read chapters in advance. Piece of cake.
❤ Watched "The Awkward Moment" with Anna and Dana in the cinema and realized that Zac Efron is pretty hot. The movie was not the best though.
❤ I still start crying if I think too much about my baby dog Bebe that died in December. It's almost hard to talk about it for more than 2 minutes. I think I haven't processed it really yet since I haven't been home and actually seen her gone :'(
❤ Mom is getting another dog, a husky puppy, that I named Milo (cute name right?). I was jumping around of happiness when my mom said "We're going to get Milo home the 20th". I was like "Whaaaaat? She's actually agreed on my name choice? It took just two other dogs before that happened".

The Awkward Moment movie night with Anna and Dana.

Photo of Sissi and Bebe in 2010. Miss Bebe so much ❤

Baby Milo

❤ I have a lot of free time to kill, but somehow I manage to have no time.
❤ I'm almost caught up on every TV show I follow (embarrassingly many! Like how do I even have a social life?).
❤ I finished watching Dexter in just about 3 weeks and I finally started watching Breaking Bad, but don't like it quite yet.
❤ I've been doing way too much internet shopping in the past week.
❤ I've been going to the gym regularly since coming back (except when I was sick for like 4 days) and enjoy our fun volleyball classes.
❤ We've watched two UC men's hockey games since we came back. Awesome!
❤ I cut off about 10-15 cm of my hair. Was about time!
❤ Watched the whole Super Bowl for the first time ever and it wasn't half bad. I cheered for the winning team Seattle Seahawks only because Macklemore is a fan. Shallow I know.
❤ Spring Break is only about a month away. PANIC!!
❤ Last but not least; this list has way too many heart points.

Me and Anna at last Saturday's hockey game. Excited!

Selfiest selfie ever. Went like this to a sorority party and some people said they could tell I was European (the cap on) and some thought I looked so hipster. Hahhaa, lol.

Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Pics Studying

New Orleans

Jazz. Blues. Hurricane drinks. Swamp tour. Party people. Fun times. The Beach. Bourbon Street. Aussie boys. French Quarter. "Fake" beignets at Café du Monde. Howlin' Wolf - The Den. Jambalaya. Po'Boy. Crawfish. Frenchman Street. Spotted Cat Music Club. Awesome drummer. Saxophone tunes. Too many streetcar rides.

A piece of my heart was left there, and I definitely have to go back there to retrieve it on a later occasion.

Memories for life, for sure!

Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Traveling

Las Vegas recap

Hi you there!

I'm on my fourth day of traveling and what four days it has been! I've really done it all; seen male strippers, met amazing people, partied, walked down the strip a couple of times, used x amounts of money on cabs, changed hotels and told someone a fake name and fake story so he wouldn't be able to stalk me (he was a creepy 50ish year old man who asked way to precise questions).

So on Monday my flight got delayed further and I ended up being 6 hours later in LV than planned. Well, I got checked in and because the hotel really wasn't ideal for me I decided to check out the next morning and booked a night at The Flamingo instead on the strip. I thought my first one was close enough to the strip but it really wasn't, so that's why I changed. I got my room overlooking the strip and it was really beautiful in the night.

During the day I just walked around and went to see a Titanic artifact museum at the Luxor hotel. It was quite amazing actually, history nerd as I am. Later that night I went to watch the Chippendale show and met three nice girls from Iowa there. Oh, my was the show amazing! What more can a girl ask for than sexy men in almost no clothes or hot costumes (firemen anyone)? I did get a kiss from one of them, got to slap another on the ass and paid $20 to get a picture with them. Haha. So we girls went to the next hotel, Palms, for a night out. We were first in a bar called Ghostbar that was on the rooftop of the hotel and the view over the city was just amazing. We then went down to another club and suddenly we were a group because two guys needed more people to get a table and vodka. Well, fun was what the night was!

My last day in Vegas I went to the MGM Grand to go on an interactive C.S.I. murder case experience. Again, the nerd in me came forward. I don't know if I thought the activity was that mind blowing or anything, but it was fun and I got some time killed. After that I was just wandering around and decided to go to the Jubilee show in Bally's, which was amazing too. It's a cabaret show with amazing costumes, good music, nice plays and yeah, topless women. But it all was so artsy that you really don't think about that they're practically naked. After the show I walked over to Bellagio and checked out their conservatory (garden). Then it was time for me to go to the bus station and head for San Diego. More about San Diego in another post!

Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Pics Traveling

NOTHING BUT FINALS

Hello!

Finals are keeping me busy this week. We don't really have that bad finals, as many others do, but still we gotta work some. I still do not see the point of having a final test where you know there will be 40 multiple choice questions and 3 short answers that we already know which they are… Easy breezy! I do like my final project in another class though. Me and my group are creating a webpage for the 27 Club, you know the artists who died at age 27? Well, you can check out what we got so far here. We will be adding content until Thursday so be sure to check it out :)

This weekend we had a little wine night on Friday, on Saturday we went to see the Teddy Bear Toss hockey game. I have to say that our college hockey players are so good! When we scored the first goal everyone threw their teddy bear on the ice for charity and it was just amazing because there were so many! Our guys won the game 5-2 so that was awesome! After that we had a night out, even though it wasn't the best one, it was okay.

Now back to studying (before midnight breakfast tonight. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like!)! Ciao ciao!

Said goodbye to Icey, that I had known for about 2 days. Bye champion, make some kid happy!

Just one part of the ice, so you can image how many there were!

Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Pics Studieliv Studying

Thanksgiving in Boston

Jag publicerade detta samma inlägg på ÅAs Studentblogg var jag också bloggar detta år. Eftersom jag är lat orkade jag inte skriva ett nytt. Fast jag har satt in lite mera detaljer i detta inlägg ;)

Thanksgiving som är en amerikansk tradition, då man äter kalkon och är tacksamma, firades förra helgen. Egentligen firade jag den inte sådär speciellt då jag åkte till Boston över den längre ledigheten med några kompisar. Vi fick dock en kalkonmiddag på vårt hostell så det är närmast firande vi kom. Visste ni att om man inte åker hem till sin familj, sina släktingar eller vänner för att fira Thanksgiving kallas det Orphan (föräldralös) Thanksgiving?

Nå, i alla fall så blev vi alla ytterst förtjusta i Boston då stilen i staden var ganska europeisk. Med stilen menar jag att staden i vissa delar kändes europeisk, t.ex. North End var helt som man skulle ha gått på vilken gata som helst i Italien och Cambridge hade ett fiilis av England. Kulturen var också ganska laidback och det var inte lika stressigt som i NYC. Det fanns en massa restauranger, pubar och nattlivshäng överallt kändes det som, eller så råkade vi bara bo i ett område (utkanten av Chinatown) där det hände mycket. Det bästa med staden var att man kunde gå pretty much överallt om man verkligen ville se staden. I NYC om du försöker gå från ett ställe till ett annat kan det ta dig timmar, beroende på vart du vill gå. Jag och Anna gick första gången vi besökte det stora äpplet från Times Square ner till SoHo och det tog oss ca. 4 timmar med en kort paus i Washington Square Park och lite slött turistfotas på vägen.

1. Fenway Park, hemmaplan för Boston Red Sox som vann world series championship i baseball nyligen. 2. Hoodie Allen konsert med Aoife första kvällen. 3. Boston Common Park. 4. Hus i Back Bay. 5. King of the Squirrels. 6. Boston common park pond.

Tillbaka till Boston. Shoppingen där var också bra, helt samma butiker som i NYC, bara att mindre folkmassor. Om du vill åka till Boston för att shoppa besök området runt Quincy Market för där fanns en hel del butiker och dessutom var saluhallen (Quincy Market) helt underbar, om än crowded. Kan jämföras med saluhallen i Åbo, bara att här fick du köpa supergoda lobster rolls för ca $15.  Newbury Street blev kronat nångång som världens dyraste shoppinggata, och inte helt utan orsak. På ena änden av den hittar du alla high-end lyxbutiker som Chanel, Burberry, Armani osv. medan på andra sidan hittar du mera mainstream butiker så som H&M, Zara, Urban Outfitters, Forever21 och liknande. Butikerna var också supersöta för att de var i hus som såg ut som lägenheter, jämfört med generiska fasader på normala shoppinggator. Butiken jag blev kär i under denna resa heter Anthropologie, som ägs av ovannämnda UO. Den hade en härlig fransk atmosfär över sig och man kunde hitta allt från koppar, tallrikar och handdukar till böcker om hur man klär sig som en äkta parisianare, till söta (och dyra) kläder. Helt klart värt ett besök!

1. T.o.m. Washington firade Red Sox vinst. 2. Jag och Aoife. 3. Newbury Street, Burberry i hörnet.

På tal om shopping var det ju Black Friday då också. Vi missade nog värsta BF huuman då vi inte orkade gå och shoppa mitt i natten mellan torsdag och fredag. Läs: vi satt i en lokal divebar istället och hade den roligaste utekvällen på länge. Kan verkligen rekommendera The Tam på 222 Tremont St. om du vill become a local på en kväll. För bartendern kommer komma ihåg dig nästa gång du går dit och dessutom var ca 85% av barens klientel män, vilket oftast inte är en helt dålig grej. Hehe :D Kom bara ihåg att om du vill gå ut i Boston ska du ha med dig passet för det finska körkortet kan inte tas emot som ID på många ställen. I och för sig gäller denna regel ganska långt i vilken storstad som helst i USA, men tydligen särskilt i Boston.

1. Downtown Boston var man också kan shoppa. 2. Delish cupcakes i Sweet. 3. Quincy Market. 4. Ett "slott". 5. Freedom Trail som vi gick, här i North End. 6 & 7. Julfiilis överallt.  8. Lobster roll matpaus i Quincy Market. 

Sista kvällen gick vi ut till en bar som hette Good Life, vars klientel bestod av ca 90% mörka. Det var intressant med ghetto music och lite twerking (men inte så mycket som jag trodde!). Roligaste var när vi stod och pratade och några (vita) killar kommer fram till oss och frågar: "Is this the white people corner?". Det var nog ganska racistiskt, men egentligen en ganska rolig kommentar med tanke på att vi var några av de få ljushyade där. Efter ett tag tog vi t.o.m. mod till oss började dansa och det gjorde vi ända tills baren stängde 2AM. Roligt var det i alla fall! 

Ett tips förresten, om du vill besöka University of Harvard, åk då inte över någon holiday för då är studerandena på semester och därför fick vi inte en guidad tur runt området då de för det mesta är studentledda. Dock finns det nog säkert turer som ordnas av turistbyråer också. Dessutom skulle det ha känts mer genuint om där hade funnits riktiga harvardianer och inte bara turister. Men området var fint och jag fick posera utanför Harvard Law, so mission accomplished. Överlag kan jag varmt rekommendera Boston för dem som vill se historiska sevärdheter, bra shopping, underbar mat och barkultur och besöka en storstad, men med en lite mer tillbakadragen och chill atmosfär.

EN: Boston was awesome. Go there!

1. Skyltar till minne av poliser som dött while on duty fanns lite här som var. 2. Freedom Trail. 3. USS Constitutional. 4. Benjamin Franklin quotes. 5. Gruppbild på båtskin. 5. Harvard Yard, probs a residence hall. 6. En av de tusen biblioteken vi såg på kampus området. 7. Me outside Harvard Law School. Jee jee!

I will update with more pictures in another post later on!

Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Pics Traveling

PRSA conference in Syracuse yesterday, and now on our way to Montréal

Hello hello! At the moment we're sitting in the Greyhound bus terminal in Albany waiting for our next bus which will take us to Montréal. Yesterday me and Anna went to a PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) conference in Syracuse, which is about an hour away from Utica. There we were all adult with name tags and all. We saw very interesting speakers and all of the workshops I attended were on different approaches to social media. Next semester I'm actually taking a class in social media, so that will be interesting I think.

We Finns are very excited about this trip and hopefully we'll see lots of interesting things on the short days we're there. And more importantly, hopefully we'll get back into the U.S. after our stay…

Now I will round this up and continue writing on a research paper. Have a fun weekend all!

1. Feed you passion was a slogan of the conference. 2. We got Chobani yogurt for breakfast, I'm in looove! 3. Workshop on realtime PR and social media. 4. Destiny USA's representative spoke about their rebranding.

And on Wednesday me and Anna were in Clinton, which is about a 10-15 minute drive from the college. We had an interview with the president of Romanelli Communications for an assignment. Clinton was so cute and cozy. It's a shame the college isn't closer. It was like a small idyllic place with cozy restaurants, cafes and shops.

Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Pics

HOCKEY GAME & HALLOWEEN THE SECOND TIME AROUND

I've been so busy this last week. Oh my. I thought about blogging, but I've been either too busy or too tired to do it. Last weekend we went to the UC Pioneers hockey game and it was so good! We won 5-2 so that was worth celebrating! Me, Anna, Gaby and Matty went to a bar on Varick Street (bar street practically). It was so cosy and they had an awesome band playing there too, Annie in the Water. They played some cover songs and some original ones. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that us four were  almost the only ones dressed up for Halloween during the game and also in the bar, before a couple 40+ lady witches/wizards showed up. We tricked people in to believing Finns always dress up in crazy costumes for hockey. I don't know if that was smart or not, haha. People will really believe anything, since they don't know shit about Finland. Usually the response you get when people ask where I am from is "Cool". Just because they have no idea where that is or what it is. Okay, so a little bit off topic here.

Before a game begins the National Anthem is sung and everyone faces the American flag. Okay, and now you only see the Canadian one, but I promise you there is an American one in the other corner. This is a very patriotic country!

During goals this awfully loud sound/noise came on while the screens flashed the word "GOAL".

After that bar we went to Blu, which has become our place to go to I guess. On the way the most amazing thing happened! After saying hello to "Rainbow", who I think is a homeless man who sings terribly and entertains drunken people on the street, I found money on the street. You know where this is going... Or not. I was way too excited to have found $50 dollars (instead of $5 that I thought at first) on the street to give it to him and bought my friends drinks instead. Next time, I promise to give him some dollars though. Must seem like I'm the worst person ever, but well I wouldn't have written that down if I wouldn't actually think about him. There were lots of people in the bar, and very many in just underwear, believe me, that's what Halloween is in America apparently. Mean Girls really didn't lie when Cady said that "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it". Well, I guess twerking and slutty Halloween costumes are the thing here… What matters more though, is that we had one of the funniest, if not THE funniest, night since coming here. Oh my, I can entertain people and that was just part of it. Thank you all! :)

Since Saturday night there hasn't been anything special going on. I've been trying to meet all the deadlines that I have to get done before Thursday, but it just seems impossible. I wills till try though and hope for the best. There's a stomach flu going around here btw and I'm not too keen on getting it before the weekend, so let's use lots of anti-bacterial hand cleanser. Ah, yeah. This is the weekend we go to Canada!! Whoop whoop!

My skeleton girl makeup

Meet Anna the lion and Jasmine the Stripy Skelly. Sorry for bad pictures. I forgot my camera at home :(

Referee Matty and me.

Gaby the Francois, referee Matty and me. A very stripy posse!

Beauty/Hair/Nails Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Pics

HALLOWEEN - The First Weekend

Hello! It's been quite quiet on the blog for a week now. Sorry for that, I've been just busy with school (as usually) and you know. Life. So what's happened since last Tuesday? Honestly, nothing interesting  during the week that I can remember. On Friday we went to a Lebanese restaurant practically just around the corner from the campus with Anna, Gaby and Luis. It was soooo nice and the food is so good. It was so nice that I actually forgot to take any pictures whatsoever. We sat there for a couple of hours, sharing food, talking about all kinds of things and just enjoying a nice Friday evening. We decided to continue the evening with drinking wine in my room and that was fun too.

On Saturday nothing really happened during the day, what I can remember of anyway, and I decided in last minute so to say, to join people for a night out. We went to the Bullet where one of the frats or sororities had a Halloween party. Well we didn't dress up, because I still don't have my makeup I need. Oh my. If you thought they depict Americans as slutty on Halloween in movies... They were totally right to do so. Even some of the guys dressed slutty, so get that picture in your head. We saw some very creative costumes though, slutty versions of them of course. After the initial shock of seeing people deep-twerk and going low low low and loweeeer, I actually had fun. The music was semi-good at times, there were lots of people and the company was nice, so that's all you need for a good night out right?

It's Monday night now and I actually finished all my homework for the next couple of days in time so I've had a pretty chill day today. Tomorrow will be another story of course. I will have my first real oral presentation since coming here, it will only last for 10 minutes, but I'm still a tiny bit nervous. It'll go fine I guess! Now some funny pictures from the weekend!

We laughed and smiled a lot. And we saw "Jesus" dancing.

1. Evgenii looking totally crazy (which he might be) and the others just had fun. / 2. Nacho, Damir & Filip. / 3. The Bullet. / 4. Anne

Again borrowing someone's hat, just to take a picture with it.

1. Nacho with a plastic pumpkin. / 2. Hossam with someones contractor hat. / 3.  Filip & Evgenii found someone's wig and borrowed it for a while for funny pictures.

Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Pics

Homecoming, Playboy and a 24 hour meltdown

So homecoming was fun and so on and so on. I'm just letting you know I survived and that the last 24 hours has probably been the worst since I came here. Again, time management is not my strongest attribute. Today I handed in a research paper I've been doing on Playboy and of course I started a bit late with it. Plus we had a group assignment due today which I started on AND finished today before deadline. Then we had night class for 3 hours, so I'm knackered right now. I will still try to read for a quiz we have tomorrow and just go to bed as early as possible. I'm going to treat myself with the latest episode of Hart of Dixie before that though (if I can keep awake that is...) and like do my nails or something. So cheers to me and Anna who made through this day!

Homecoming fair and fireworks later on. We even bought candy cotton! Later in the evening we went to a fraternity's (AXP) semi-formal party in the library (that's a first!). It was fun. Let's just leave it at that.

Reading, reading, reading... Very interesting though!

I've had way too much fun with The Simpsons: Tapped Out to distract myself from homework.

"Oh, my, what a nice change!". Got funny feedback from one of the profs for an assignment on music. He apparently thought it was a nice change that someone listens to, excuse me, REAL music instead of most of the crap that is played today. Not being judgmental or anything, because I myself listen to that crap sometimes. Haha.

Took the obligatory "tired girl-selfie" today. I don't look that tired (neither does actually anyone who takes these), even though in real life I felt like crap.

Peek-a-boo, the studying continues!

Dreaming about being back in NYC. I'm apparently having way too much fun with the art and sculptures in the city in the second one....

And I'm missing this little fella. She's grown soooo big already and I'm still mad at my sis (last picture) that she didn't get the dog when I'm back in Finland. The doggie is gonna be all big and boring when I get back. And of course I miss the dogs at moms, and my mom with whom I communicate with mostly by playing Wordfeud and my sisters. And all my cute friends. Buhuuu. Well the time flies here, it's soon November already, what happened?

Exchange year in the US Party/Happenings Pics Studieliv Studying Traveling