Rewind

The night before my flight left from the Oakland airport I had decided to pull an all-nighter because I was anxious to finally embark on a two month trip of a lifetime. Hardly to say, when everyone on AIM signed off and it was 3 am, I took a half hour nap which turned to panicking when my dad woke me up and I thought I was going to be late. Rushing to the airport with all of my things packed into a suitcase, dufflebag, and backpack, I made it in time. When the plane engine started, that was the first moment I got nervous about leaving home and everything else behind.

and flashingforward to the good stuff.........

After getting to DC, the group of seven YFU kids got into a bus and took a ride to where we would be staying for the next three days. Initially, it took me a while to feel comfortable with everyone because of the culture shock there was within the whole group. Like these other people live completely different lives from each other that I am willing to say was more of a shock to me than being in Finland.

and flashingforward again......

On the second day we visited our senators' offices and were greeted by their assistants. Austin, the other YFU student that was from California, and I had the longest break in between our visits so everyone else went to lunch while we weren't in the least interested to wait over an hour for what would be a five minute conversation. But the assistant met us a little earlier and we got to leave earlier too.

And later on in the day we visited the Finnish embassy and tried some finnish food while listening to a presentation to get us acquainted with the culture that we would be experiencing in a matter of days. After listening to some metal music (metal is popular in finland) uncomfortably and a tour of the amazing building, we took a private bus to the ambassador of finland's super nice house. There we ate Finnish food and covnersed with people from finland and met the ambassador and his wife.

*mrs. ambassador told me i had a very nice tan too.

Flashforward.

LONGEST PLANE RIDE OF MY LIFE!! Before i stepped onto the plane, i had to get one last taste of my life companion: starbucks. i knew there was not going to be the happy faced label in the country i was going to stay in for two months. and then i get assigned the middle aisle of the plane and the middle seat of that middle aisle, which is the worse case scenario i could imagine on an 8 hour flight. i tend to have to use the restroom frequently on planes, so it was a hassle and awkward for me to ask the two people on my right, or left, to get up while i use the can.