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.

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BACK TO REALITY

So the last days in DR went by way too fast. I soaked in all the sun I possibly could and took nice swims in the sea. Can you believe I was taking a morning swim and lay on the beach on Wednesday and now I'm back in Utica and battling approximately -17 degrees. Big jump in degrees there compared to about +30… Not mad at all. I started to actually get pretty okay with going back because traveling that much is no vacation if you thought that. Well, the last 12 days was as close to vaycay as I could come, but before that it was all traveller mode on and that ain't easy every time. I'm probs going to do a post on stuff I realized during my travels, because there was lots of shit going through my head. I don't know if that's part of finding yourself or soul searching or whatever, but it was relieving and even rewarding some times.

Classes started on Thursday and I'm actually pretty excited about most of them. I'm taking Publication Design, which is mostly graphic design and learning InDesign, then Digital Photography/Advanced News Photography, where we learn about Photoshop and taking pictures that tell stories. Also I have Public Relation Cases, where we go through various cases in PR, Social Media, in which I haven't had a class yet and then PR Writing, which seems a bit boring, but it's probably very rewarding in the end in terms of learning to be a better writer. Plus gym classes in volleyball, yoga and aquatics maybe and later on tennis and golf. It's going to be a packed semester and it will go by so fast, but hopefully it will be awesome!

Tonight we're going to cheer for our hockey guys and then out later on :)

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Great Ideas & Cunning Plans

One final exam down, one more to go, then Christmas break! Testet vi hade var löjligt enkelt och jag tackade mig själv för att jag inte onödade tid på att läsa på det. Jag kanske missa på någon fråga men det gör nog inte något alls, borde få A i alla fall. Ja, här kör vi ju på A-F system, lite att vänja sig från vårt 1-5, men i princip samma, förutom att man kan få minus (-) eller plus (+) också. Jag har ännu en exam om två timmar och borde kanske ens kolla igenom anteckningarna sådär snabbt, för det här testet kommer nog vara mera att skriva (tar laptopen med så går det snabbare). Borde nog gå helt bra ändå, men man vet aldrig. Istället sitter jag här och bloggar…

Ikväll tänker jag göra exakt ingenting vettigt. Bara slöa, titta på en film eller så, njuta av att ligga under filten och kolla på snöstormen och främst av allt: försöka bli frisk. Och fortsätta kolla in grejer att göra på mina destinationer under lovet. Jag köpte en söt gul anteckningsbok inne på Urban Outfitters för några dollar som får fungera som min (rese)dagbok, notebook, memory board osv. Så dit ska jag skriva ställen jag vill besöka under resan och allt möjligt annat nödvändigt att veta, t.ex. spanska fraser inför Dominikanska Republiken. Ha en så underbar fredag alla!

Kom ihåg att kolla in min BUCKET LIST för kommer göra vissa av grejerna under resan!

Exchange year in the US Studieliv Studying 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!

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I'M BACK ON TRACK!

Just a quick hello here to let you know I survived Boston. That city is so far the best one I've visited here. It was even better than hyped NYC, let me tell you that. I'll write more about Boston and the trip in another post. Still haven't written about Montréal either… Such a lazy blogger. No, really I just have lots of stuff to do and blogging is the last of my concerns. And one more thing about the trip, the best thing really was that I saw my BFF Aoife again. Soooooooo superduperamazing :) Thanks for visiting girl, bisous <3 Can't really believe on how many trips we've been on together already and we have only known each other for 3,5 years :D

Me and Eef

Finals week is just around the corner and we're really just going through the last things in every class now. Today we had the most important presentation I've ever had to do so far for a real client. I told you earlier that we were working in groups this semester to create a PR campaign for our client, not-for-profit organization Thea Bowman House. Oh, yeah, our campaign was a Thanksgiving food drive for the TBH food pantry. So today we presented our campaign and I was really impressed by all of the groups campaigns. Everything was so professionally done and thought-out. See, this is why I enjoy studying here. Everything is on a whole different level than back home, everything is more real and tangible. I've learned more than I ever thought I would during this semester and I'm so happy I'm staying for another. Finally a good life choice! :D

Food bin for the Thea Bowman House campaign we created.

This week is going to be interesting since it's the last real week of classes before the Christmas break, were having a fundraising campaign with PRSSA this week and there's a charity UC Pioneers men's hockey game on Saturday (Teddy Bear Toss), if we get tickets that is.

Now I really need to do more homework and meet some deadlines. Have a nice week!

Study study

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MY FIRST VLOG: An insight into my time as a cast member in Disneyland Paris in 2010

I wanted to share my first vlog ever also on this blog! Yay! I did it as an assignment for a class in Web Writing and Design for my other blog, People of the World. I really enjoy editing movies, and I'd like to get better at it. It takes time and patience, but it's so much fun! I might actually start doing these once in a while, because it is actually pretty funny to talk to yourself and record it. Well, long story short, hope you enjoy it and be sure to check out my other blog out too! :)

LINK TO VLOG ON YOUTUBE

Exchange year in the US Paris/Disneyland People of the World Studying Video

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?

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WORK HARD, PLAY HARD(ER)

I'm still awake. In the middle of the night. I just finished studying (done that pretty much since like 2 PMish), and still it doesn't feel like I got enough done. Gaaah, I hate this feeling. I actually didn't finish anything today, just started on everything, which is not good. I'm not good at finishing projects that way. We've had a crazy week with Anna, and lots is still to come, since we have a midterm tomorrow, a quiz on Friday, and also I need to write a blogpost for my project blog and hand in a research paper outline on Friday. I still haven't figured out on what exactly I want to do research on, or more what I'm able to do on, since I can't find sources. I'm just bad at researching I guess. And I'm way late with writing this weeks column that I need to hand in tomorrow.

We've had some beautiful mornings and beautiful sunsets.

I've probably said it before, but the amount of homework we have here is way more than at home. We have much more to read for every class and a lot of written assignments, both smaller and bigger ones. Also we have quizzes almost every week, that we usually don't have back at home. There we have just one big test in the end of each course in the end of the semester and you crazy study just before the test. It doesn't feel like you're studying at all actually. But the pros are though, that I've learnt so much more here in just a little bit over a month than I probably have in one year back at home. I don't know if it is the mentality here, that you have to try to get good grades (or is this just the bored exchangies?), or if it's that we actually have the small quizzes in-between that work up toward the bigger test in the end. The "big" test doesn't seem as frightening when you've had the chance to test your knowledge a handful of times before the actual test I think. Well, I've done pretty good so far, so I'm actually not that worried about the test tomorrow. I just have to wake up earlyish and read the rest of my notes. Yeah, and that's also one thing, you can actually do very well if you only take notes during class and read them for a test. I haven't opened an actual course book for a test yet and that feels so nice somehow. There's just TOO much information in the books.

Well, now I guess I need to round this post up and go to sleep. I'm overly tired so it's hard to fall asleep,  and also because I'm all worked up and still trying to process all the info I've taken in today. Good nightie all (or actually good morning back in Finland)!

1. Beer pong (with water, whaaaat?) on Saturday. 2. Night out in BLU on Saturday. 3. Rainy night. 4. Chocolate. I miss Fazers Blå!

Still rocking shorts and skirts bare-legged. It's getting a tad to cold now though.

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FIRST MONTH IN AMERICA - check!

It's been nearly a month since I came here. So thoughts and feelings about this first month? Confusing, exciting, sometimes boring, amazing and probably also overwhelming. I wrote my first column for our college newspaper yesterday and to be honest it's quite exiting having something published in a real paper! I will try to write a weekly column about whatever I'm thinking about and experiencing here.

Should I use #1, #2 or #3 as my "mugshot" for my columns byline? ;D

I haven't actually done anything exciting this week (yet). It's been all about homework and school school school. We had a quiz yesterday and another today and I actually think both went pretty well. On Monday our PR Campaigns group visited Thea Bowman House and the food pantry that we're going to concentrate our project on. What an eye opener! I think it's just horrible that some people have to go on every day not knowing how to get food or clothes for their children, let alone for themselves. This not-for-profit organization really needs help and funding, because it is doing a good thing for it's society! I'm pretty happy we're trying to do something for them this semester and in this course, because it's actual work in a way, even though we will not implement our campaigns for real. It will help them along the way anyway!

Visit at the Thea Bowman House. The Peace Garden.

I really miss Finnish chocolate and rye bread. I'm starting to get tired of the food here, even though we had some awesome Indian food yesterday and in a couple of weeks I think we'll have some sushi. That's gonna be awesome!

Indian food. I can't remember the names of the things we ate, but I know naan bread. That's something right?

One of the last skirt days I'm a afraid.

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American College Life

Hello there! Has this week started off alright for you guys? Lets do this the American way: I don't expect an answer on that or any other "Hello! How's it going?"/"How are you?" either. I still have no idea what to answer the lady at the caf (cafeteria) when she asks if I had a good day, because she doesn't really want an answer. I feel awkward every time that question comes up, honestly. So in that way I'm still not totally americanized.

My week has actually started off really good. Monday started out with morning volleyball practice and then two classes. I have my own domain now and I'm about to start blogging there soon enough for this one course. You can find the blog here: jasminekukko.com. Follow and comment if you like! (Will make my teacher (and me) happy!). It's still a work in progress and not at all how I want it to look like, but eventually I will learn to use wordpress and get my interviews done.

Today we had volleyball practice again and it was so much fun! We actually had a game going on now! And next week we actually start playing tennis against each other, since we've now learned the basics. I feel so grateful right now. Just because I got the chance of coming here and also that I'm learning new things every day. In class we learn so much more somehow, because we repeat things a lot and we actually get to know what is coming to the quizzes in advance so we really learn the most important things. I think this system is still a little bit silly though. My first writing assignment went pretty well, A-, and then I got a 92/100 on my first quiz so I'm happy. Hopefully this flow will continue throughtout my year here.

Another interesting news is that I'm going to start writing a weekly column for The Tangerine, our college newspaper. I'm going to be the female "Lasse" as Louis said. Haha. Lasse was another Finnish guy from our school that was here last year. I can write about just anything so it will be nice and fun I think. I want to do that to improve my writing skills and also I have just about 400-450 words that I can use so maybe I will finally learn to be concise.

What else? In a couple of hours I'm off to kickboxing and I should read another chapter for mass communications after that. So adiós for now!

My messy schedule.

Selfie from yesterday :P

Today there was this organizations and clubs fair (much like Gulisakademin for you back home). 1. I joined PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America). / 2. A club I'd like to join, but I'm afraid I'm not nerdy enough to go through comicons and such.. / 3. International Student Organization's table was empty, but I'm in that one already. / 4. A 9/11 memorial.

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Frat party, soccer party, just collegelife man

I don't quite know how to descibe this Saturday night. Just so much happened tonight that I need one whole post to describe the houseparty we went to tonight. It's just over 2 AM here and I should really go to bed, but I want to blog first so I won't forget all the stuff that happened today.

Well lets start with telling that we started drinking at the dorms, just a couple of drinks while playing a drinking game (obviously). After a while we got a ride from Matty to a soccer house party. Yes, the sports clubs, fraternities and sororities have their own houses here that people just party in. Cray cray! This one was better than the fraternity party we went to yesterday, since it was less crowded and you could actually walk from spot A to spot B. Oh and yes, we were out partying yesterday too, such a fun night even though I was not that sober. Playing flip cup and all... With tequila. Not a good idea guys! I needed one of those crazy nights. So tonight we went to this party and after like 10 minutes people started shouting that we should go down to the basement since the cops where outside. So without knowing any better we went down to the basement and it was so dark and moist in there. There we were, crammed in a basement of some random house and I swear I saw a spider. The upside is that they actually had music there so it was fun. After a while we went up again and there were less people than before. Sometime before twelve we decided we should go somewhere else, I decided that home would be the best whilst some of the others wanted to go out.

You would think this was it, but really, the cops outside the house, like 4-5 cars, one of them came to us and started talking to us. The end result was that one of us got a ticket (court date?) for having a beer in the hand. Seriously now? It's so strict in here and I can't effin' believe it. So really we've been through this whole collegelife party thing tonight. Getting to an over crowded party, the cops busting the party and someone getting a ticket. Might as well have gotten arrested alright! Also one weird thing is that the people who arrange these parties sometimes call the cops themselves because they don't have any control over how much people there are at the party. 

Well, I'm at least at "home" now, safe and sound, soon off to bed and just writing about this weird experience. This is not a free country and it's not that liberal either. I get annoyed of the rules we have in Finland about everything imaginable, but it's almost worse here because they actually do something about the rules, it's not just a courtesy thing as in Finland. So that said, I just want to go to bed now. Good night folks!

Serbian shot glasses. Cheers!

Flip Cup.

Nacho explaining to Filip how to play. 

Saying goodbye to my blond hair!

 Anna-Marie, our hair dresser, dying my hair.

Anne and Damir.

At the soccer house.

Basement party?

This is how they roll. Shaving cream all over the shower!

Some people played beer pong.

Me, Maria Claudia and Anna-Marie.

Posing with the cop car :D

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