Bags Almost Packed!

HA!

I did it! Well almost, it weights now 6kg 100g!!! I still should pack my laptop bag to see how my electronics fits there and how much extra space is left to pack some more with me.

Here's my stuff and...

...here's my red suitcase!

And yes, I'm bored. I still should edit few pics but I'm just not interested enough to do that. I thought that I'd send the few pics that Tuula asked me to mail her and then I'll just see if I could fin strength to edit the last pics too. Then I could give the dvd and one book to Reija and she could give them to Tuula as I won't go to the university anymore.

I've been founding more and more butterflies from my stomach. I've started to go through in my mind the coming flights. Sometimes I even get in to the point when it isn't so scary anymore. But mostly I'm nervous. I asked Tarmo if he already gets excited and nervous and he said yes. He worries that what will he do in here when I'm gone. Cute. I won't have to worry what I'll do but I do worry what he'll do. I don't wan him just to sit at home waiting for me. Or waiting to come to US to spend Christmas with me (that is what I'm already waiting for). Though I do know that after the first days and weeks he'll get used to it and he'll live just as normal life as before, maybe hanging out more with his friends.

By the way, Taru called me this morning. Mom and dad weren't invited to Laura's confirmation and party but I and Tarmo were. We couldn't go there unfortunately. But it was funny, she talked me with all the issues she usually talks with mom. It's just that now she couldn't call to mom because she talked mostly of the party where my parents weren't invited. I know that especially mom was offended by that and I think she has all the reasons to get offended. After all mom is close to them. And even though mom says she's not THAT offended, I know she is. I'm too for her... And I don't know why they weren't invited. Nor does she. Usually they go to all parties and they love Mira and Laura both very much. Just another thing that I don't understand. Not that I would understand many things in any case, muaha!

It's so hot. And beautiful weather. But I don't want to go outside because there it's even hotter and I only get burned. Even kitties are all sleepy. But nice weather for my vacation.

We still should clean the house and do some laundry. I think we'll do those on Wednesday and tomorrow we'll go to buy vacuum cleaner pouches. And I really should edit the pics by tomorrow... Maybe I'll do that this evening/night. Now I'm not in the mood.

Leaving Party and Butterflies

Omg! I just got a swarm of butterflies into my tummy. I added this counter application to my facebook site and it says 5 days! It can't be!

Yesterday was fun. We jumped again with jump-rope and barbecued and got drunk and went to Rentukka and then back to our place. I also called Jesse and got a good laugh when he asked (and we talked about my thesis) "can I have a testicle cancer in my brains?". I laughed so much!

J-P and Maria are so cute... at the background we're jumping.

Me, Kirsikka and Reija

Me and Kirsikka dancing, after this song Kirsikka bended me back too much and I spilled our drinks over my computer (luckily not over my laptop).

And it's funny, we went to sleep at 4 am which is only hour later than we usually go to sleep! And woke up at noon which is also normal in these days. And I'm not having hang over because I drunk water (about 2 liters) before I went to bed. And that's good.

5 days!!! I can imagine being abroad but I can't imagine traveling alone there... But I can still remember how it was so exciting to travel by train to Tampere and back for the first times. Muaha! Or to Savonlinna and I had to change to bus and I had never traveled there before. It's not that it's not exciting to travel with someone, but alone! I don't know why it's such a big deal. Maybe because I've used to be with Tarmo everywhere I go. Or that I'm not that experienced in traveling and I fear that I get lost (right...) or confused (could happen!) or I get so nervous that I can't speak English (right...) or I miss my flight (so what?) or or... I still know that this will develop me and I want to experience this. But it still scares me.
I know that traveling alone doesn't mean that I won't be social or get company on my way, I know that I will look so frightened that someone more experienced will come and chat with me, muaha! No, I mean that I'm so social that I'll chat with people anyway and that'll relieve my fears. I know that there will be other people who are just in the same situation that I'm in. And it's no point thinking (seriously) what if questions. If something happens then it happens.

I'm not so nervous about actually being at Iowa, not knowing anyone. Well, I almost know someones there. But whole new environment doesn't make me nervous. I know that there are so many other people who I'll meet who are just in the same situation, and I know how to get to the hotel, I'll get my breakfast there on Saturday morning and then my temporary roommate Paola will come and then, then we'll go to check out the city or something. But then I have someone who I can talk with. And it's not that I couldn't go and check out the city by myself but it's the company. And still the airports scare me. Not the flying itself but the airports. All the security checks make me nervous (as they're supposed to do I think) and as being control freak I fear that my tickets are wrong (aren't), my bags include something prohibited (don't), flights will be late (matters only if the flight from Helsinki to Dublin is hours late) or or or... And here I go again.

But still I need to think about these things. I still wait when I'll start crying to Tarmo that I'll miss him, I don't want to leave him and our cats and home, I want him to come with me. The hardest part of this exchange thing is that we'll be separated for four-five months. We're so close to each other and we are used to cuddle, chat and just be with each other every day. We'll still talk to each other every day in the internet but it's not the same. I need comfort and Tarmo gives it to me. But we'll manage. I can only wait the Christmas when he comes there.
And the kitties. I will miss them too, I'm so used to someone soft and warm to curl around my leg or back when I take nap or some black tail to sweep me now and then. Sigh. I will miss my friends and family too. But then again, it's only half a year. It goes by so fast and then I'm suddenly back.

I did this choice to go overseas. I did this choice to miss everyone (not that I could make a choice not to miss anyone, muaha). This is one of my dream come true. Oh I get so excited!

Today is going to be a hang over day though I don't have hang over. This means that I don't need to dress up or go to anywhere. I can just relax. Nice.

Still Bad Flights

Still not right.

I can't book our flights because Tarmo doesn't still have his flights to USA. So we should book the first. But because I don't know which day my last exam is and when I'll go to Tennessee, we haven't booked flights for him. But now we should do so.

Now, that's not a big problem. I'll leave Iowa the last day when I can and that's 21st December. Tarmo will come to USA on the same day. No problem. I tried to look as simple flights for him as possible (and that is three flights max). And found flights from Dublin to New York and from there to Tennessee. But no flights from Finland to Dublin!!! I know Blue1 flies there but it doesn't show any flights yet. And there is no other direct and cheap flights to Dublin.

Not nice at all!

Since we don't know if Tarmo is able to go to Dublin on the same morning (staying night there is too expensive) we can't book the other flights either.

I still send an e-mail to Kilroy and asked if they could see some direct and cheap flights to Dublin and gave them the other flights too that I found for him. So I just wait an e-mail from them and hope that we could have the flights I already paid!!!

Annoying.

By the way, I did set up new blog for my exchange, I found this travelers blog where there is a map which shows all the palaces I visit. Quite handy and nice! I'll announce this new blog when it is time. Still two months to go.

And it's hot here and I played with my cells today, three hours on the lab! That must me my record. Usually it takes maximum two hours. And if Reija wouldn't have come it would have been four hours. But I did a lot today. Ampulled and stuff.

And now I have some weird phase. Usually I haven't been able to read efficiently at home but now I can't read at the university. Library is too short time open and the main library is boring (I don't like it) and at university there is too many people to chat with. I can't read there anymore! So I want to come home to read. And because of that we came home early (well, not so early, we still spent 6 hours at university) yesterday and today.

But now, the reading. I just had to write my aggressions about the flights so that I could concentrate on reading. Muaha!

Bad Flights

Luckily I noticed this!!! One of our flight wasn't booked!!! I wondered why there hadn't come a payment for it but it turned out that there is no flight!

This was all my fault because I thought Kilroys flexible flight would be such a kind that you could pay it later since I didn't get any bill. But it wasn't so and so we didn't have any flights to come home on January! But luckily I had already looked good flights and they changed only a bit. Still going through Copenhagen when we come home from USA (and Dublin). Only the change between the flights in Copenhagen is two hours longer. There was no earlier flight (which I had thought I had booked). But that's not a big deal.

But NOW I've payed them and they should be ok. And I also found out that I can't order ISIC card because it'd be only for this year and I need it next year! But that fixed with IYTC card. Complicated. It's 5 euros more expensive than ISIC but it'll be valid for a year. So those things should now be in order.

For the exchange I still should go to see a doctor to get my pills recipe and vaccination and other stuff in english. And visa. But for that I need some paper from ISEP which I still haven't got. And print out my official records. And reserve hotel for the first weekend since I can't go to Burge Hall's temporary accommodation until Monday (if there's space). And reserve a shuttle bus to Iowa too from the airport. And I should call!!! I hate calling! It's so expensive!
And mail my stuff to Iowa because I can't take it with me. And go to bank to get money and checks. And some documents from my insurance company.

And that should be it. At least I think so.

We should have played today but one of our friends didn't show up and we would have needed him. And I could've been in a bar talking about our fight with ecologists (not a real fight really). I was there an hour before I had to leave to play. But now I could reserve our flights and plan tomorrows cell things. And go sleep early. It's hot and I'm sleepy. I think I should start a new blog for my exchange period. I'll just find some nice one.

I've started to think the exchange again. And I'm excited.

I'm flying

5,3 kg.

My bag alone weights about 3,5 kg and 6 kg is the smallest restrict what I can carry with me. And laptop in its own bag plus because I'm a lady I can have "purse". Which in this case is my spacewonder bag where I can fit A LOT stuff. But no worries, I made a list where is all I need for few days and I could still pack 700 g stuff there but I won't.

I had to try and weight packed bag so that I'd know what I should leave unpacked etc. But I don't need to do that which is nice.

I ordered flights back to Finland. Though I still need to have flights to New York from Tennessee and from Iowa to Tennessee, but they're no problem. I can order them when I'm in US. I also calculated that I've spent almost 1100 € in flights so far!

Helsinki - Dublin - Chicago - Iowa

Nashville - New York - Nashville

New York - Dublin - Copenhagen - Helsinki

A lot to travel also. Can I already go please?

I also looked flights for Tarmo, they should only be reserved but we still don't know the exact day when he'll arrive. And some of the flights aren't flexible. And he doesn't have money to pay them now so it just needs to be done later.

I'm hungry. I'll go and moan to Tarmo so that he'd do some tortillas for us. Muaha!

Another Problem

So, again problems.

Finnair is fucker and it doesn't have alliances with other airlines (or something like that) and Aer Lingus is bigger fucker because it doesn't have alliances with ANY airlines. So I'd have to wait for my luggagges to arrive at Dublin and then go to check-in. No problem, but i have only TWO HOURS time! And I should be at check-in an hour before my next flight so only hour time to get my stuff. And if you think what time it takes to get to the place where the stuff comes and then drag it to another place... ONE HOUR?! Not enough!

I took me a while to figure this problem out. And here's the solution:

I will have ONLY my hand bag and one bag for my other stuff. And computer bag.

All the other stuff will be sent for me via mail to Iowa.

So no problem. I just have to wish that if I send my other stuff to US, they will be there few days after I arrive there.

But then I found another problem while I was checking for all kinds of restrictions for handbags. My baggage is 7 cm too big on one side for Aer Lingus! I haven't solved this yet but I asked from Kilroy what I should do. And it's Friday evening so I'll get my answer only on Monday.

But I already planned what to pack! Muaha!

And printed some maps for Dublin and Chicago airports. Maps always comfort me. (Not car maps you stupid, internal maps I mean.)

I finally finished my Housing Application (I finally got the answer for my questions from US). I still need to mail it. But I'll do it on Monday. I'll send it via university so that I don't have to pay anything.

I still need to find out where to buy adapters for my laptop and phone. And buy the camera and phone! I planned to buy them next month (one week to go, muaha). And go to nurse to get my vaccination records, get my pill prescription so that I can buy enough pills form here.
What else? I need to contact Miki and ask about the lab thing, get insurance for my things, go to bank to get Tarmo a piece of paper so that he can deal with my money issues. And get some dollars.

So that much things still to do before I get next hundred thousand papers to fill and things to do.

Another big thing for this day. I prepared about 150 letters with Sira. It took two hours but it's done now. It fas for the Cell Biologists in Finland association (or something like that).

But I think I still have some energy to do something for the exchange thing. Bad thing that the Iowa House haven't still replied for my e-mail. So still waiting... Though I do need to reserve a room from there. But I just don't know for how long. I remember reading somewhere that I might stay at some cheaper place after the weekend. But I just don't remember where I read that. I could find that out...

Flights in Order

So, I got my flights!
So excited!

Though it still worries me if two hours is enough. But it has to be.
I downloaded some maps for the airports in Dublin and Chicago. They should calm me down a bit.

I've also browsed some things for my new cell phone and camera. Yes camera. I've decided to buy a new camera also. I found a RED camera which is also waterproof and shockproof. All I need! It's not that cheap though but I still want that camera. It's not that expensive and cheapest of the shockproof cameras. And if you look my old camera, you'll understand why I need a camera with that feature. And I'm going to buy the cell phone too soon because I need to know that it will be good (as not breaking on the first instant) and I need to learn to use it well. I haven't used Nokia for a few years (6 years to be specific). And my phone hasn't delivered some messages for me.

And Americans are so slow! I wrote an email to the local ISEP coordinator and she still hasn't answered to it (two days ago). I also asked for the Iowa House about room reservation but they either haven't answered my mail. I hope they would answer me soon so that I could send my Housing Application there.

Still much to do though I've done a lot work. Got flights, insurance, ISEP registration etc. Long way to go still.