Packing

The constant problem of packing. I've recently seen videos about the contents of other peoples luggage and am baffled by them. Do you really need a tennis bracket and your own plates when you go on a trip? I say that you really just need your passport, a method of getting money, as in a credit card, and the clothes you're wearing. After you realise this packing becomes really easy. I just went on a 3 week holiday to Finland and packed my stuff in 20 minutes. These minutes also contained washing the dishes and turning the flat upside down while searching for my finnish SIM-card. Okay I admin I had pre-packed my Christmas gifts beforehand while wrapping them.

There also had to be space for the stuff I still had to bring here from Finland that didn't fit at the time I moved here. Have I mentioned that everything I currently own fits in a car? And I mean really everything I own. It's very refreshing to get rid of stuff you kind of don't want to get rid of and when you have space to store them, don't get rid of. Now I'm free to move wherever I want without any constraints. Luckily for my current well being I'm happy to live here in Aberdeen, I'm not sure if I had the strength to move again in such a short time.

I don't know who would buy just one of these

Oh yeah, the packing. Do you really need five shoes, twelve dresses, a coffee maker, your Ming dynasty porcelain elephant and clean underwear while travelling? Well clean underwear I do get, but you don't really need extra shoes or dresses do you? It's a luxury that you can live without. You totally can survive with just the shoes you're wearing while travelling. Maybe one extra pair, be it shoes for night-life or hiking, but that's it. A few shirts or something else for the upper body, a few skirts/trousers/jeans for the bottom part and you're fine for outfits. On longer trips you can wash them and they'll last a lifetime. Underwear and socks too, they don't even take that much space.

Even if you forget everything, you won't die. I assure you you can buy everything you need from our destination as well. There are people living there too, and they've survived living there as you'll probably see when arriving there. So means of getting money, and a passport for getting into the country is everything you need. Don't stress about what to pack, just pack something and it's fine.

Random pictures continue. Here's my understanding of Europe.

Guess I'll have to travel more to get it right the next time :D Although I'm not sure that it'd help since I didn't really know where I live. I don't really know why Tiia and Tiia were laughing so hard when they watched me draw this out. Sadly it's also in Finnish since we were in Finland at the time I drew this.

Next time I'll be travelling with just hand luggage. I'm sick of hauling a suitcase around with me, and I won't be able to leave it behind locked doors while I'm supposed to be flying either. Cheaper too. The picture below is the travelling we did during the Christmas holidays. Tell me in the comments about your packing practises! A quick tip for flying that I learned this time: your luggage weight is rounded down, if you're allowed a 15kg bag, it can weigh 15.9kg and you don't have to pay any extra.

Where am I? How did I get here? Why am I here?

The first post, where to begin! :) Where am I? How did I get here? Why am I here?

I've lived all my life in Finland, up until this point. I have previously wanted to study/live abroad and applied to do an exchange year in Japan while studying. I went through the interviews and filled forms and all but in the end didn't get to go there. A bit sad, but I got over it. I finished my vocational school in Finland and got a job as a software developer for the Finnish Meteorological Institute that was situated at a University of Helsinkis campus. The work was fun and I got paid, but seeing all the students buzz around the workplace and being stuck in a glass cubicle myself left me wondering if I'm missing out on something by leaving the student life so early and never even really living it. 


Then I got to know a girl who lived in Scotland. I went and visited her a couple of times and started to like it here, the culture, the cities, the little things. I saw the double deckers and danced country dances. People talked in a different language and everything from new shops to street names was something to marvel at. Even the paving stones were exciting. It was refreshing to be in a new environment. So I did something crazy in my books, something I didn't think I'd dare to do. I quit my job and actually moved here. Having some friends here beforehand from the previous visits made the decision easier as I wouldn't be all alone in a new place. 

When I first started to think about moving here I also begun to dream about studying some more. It was late summer and the deadlines for applying to universities were long gone. There was the one hope of a clearing vacancy but it was a long shot. With my education history being only vocational computer stuff from abroad it was even longer. Regardless I tried. I could always look for a job to make a living if the student-plan wasn't successful.

After queuing in the phone for a few hours, calling universities for the vacancies I got through to the University of Aberdeen, the one I liked the most. They actually had a vacancy in computing science and told me they'd take a look at my application. After I didn't hear back from them for a couple of days I got worried. Turned out that they had no record of me applying there! What followed was a series of phone calls and email exchanges with the University with formal complaints and hearings. A month after I first called them I got it:

Unconditional offer to do Computing Science in the University of Aberdeen! Open the champagne bottles, I'm going back to school! A bit over a week until school starts and I'm in, I'm not even sure if I've really realised it myself yet. I'm eagerly waiting to study, make friends and just live my life.