Radio silence/first month

roadtrip going somewhere

Pastime at school. Football and a beer.

Super fun laundry day.

My Albanian/greek friend Renaldo celebrating us finding some beers

This is the American edition of a medium sized Coke from Wendy's

Amazing folks I

Amazing folks II

I haven't been updating this blog for a while now because of a stolen phone and various other things. But anyway, here is a bunch of pictures.

First five days in America behind and my thoughts on various things

I've been in America for five days now and things are finally beginning to normalize. Classes start tomorrow and I finally feel like I've settled in and got everything settled in, more or less. In this blog post I am going to adress various stereotypes that seem to exist about America, living here and Americans in general. These do not however reflect any sort of objective truth because there isn't one. It is very much up to one's own expectations and views on things. The following is how I percieve things thus far, this might change as time goes on and I spend more time here.


1. Americans are uneducated / dumb / ignorant

This simply just isn't true. Firstly you can't judge an entire country of over 300 million people based upon movies and things you see on the TV. Americans might not always know much about Europe or European culture, but I have personally only been met by questions and curiosity when I tell Americans where I'm from.  Before passing an American off as ignorant or uneducated you have to realize just how insanely big America really is. The continental United States is around 3500 km coast to coast as the crow flies and stretches across four time zones. To put that into an European perspective, that is like going from Helsinki in Finland to Athens in Greece as the crow flies, and you'd still be about 1000 km short of 3500 km. With these facts in hand, do europeans know everything about Europe and can we place countries accurately on a map? I know I can't.

2. Americans are loud and too friendly

This is something I percieve as highly subjective. How you percieve Americans and their way of socializing depends on your own country of origin. As a Finn it was a bit strange to come to a country where strangers actually acknowledge each others existance. People in America will say hi and smile at strangers which is something that doesn't really happen in Finland for instance. However as with every country, not everyone is the same and not everyone says hi to strangers.

3. Americans are fat

America does have overweight people but so does every other country. I haven't noticed an increased ratio of overweight people to regular sized folks. But then again I haven't traveled around much yet.


4. The food is unhealthy

There are far more choices of fast food in America compared to Finland. But then again there are other choices to choose from. The food at Utica College is in my opinion far healther and far more diverse than the school food back in Finland. You have the possibility to eat pizza and burgers and ice cream and what not all day every day if you feel like doing so BUT regular home style cooking is also available. As is fresh vegetables and fruits. (That having been said I do like me my cheeseburgers) 


5. Culture shock is a thing

Coming here I thought culture shock was something that wasn't going to affect me. After all, America and Finland are both western countries with the same basic values, right? NOPE. Even though America is a western english speaking country it is still very different from Finland. Everyone going on exchange from anywhere to anywhere should expect some kind of culture shock. It is just something that needs time and you'll adjust to your new surroundings just fine. Personally I got a cold as soon as I arrived but that is something quite common apparently.



That is it for now.
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First few days picture dump.

Well, here I am now in upstate New York. Utica has been absolutely amazing so far and a lot of stuff has happened in the last few days. I've been super tired and super busy and am only now able to update this here blog. Let us start in a chronological fashion:


The flight from Helsinki to JFK went smoothly and without any problems. The flight was on time and we arrived in New York as planned.  Then it was on to the St. Giles The Court hotel on manhattan. Originally I had planned to explore Manhattan as soon as I got there (I'm a badass so I don't do jetlag) but the time difference got the best of me so I went to a burger place called the Black Shack which was around the corner from my hotel (It was DELICIOUS). After that I went up to my hotel room and pretty much fell asleep immediately and woke up early to catch my 7:15 a.m train to Utica from Penn Station. That trip went really well, too, as I sat next to a Korean family here on vacation.

As soon as I arrived in Utica I got a ride to the Utica College campus where I got to go drop off my stuff in my room and got my keys. After that it was off to lunch where I got to meet some of the other exchange students here. They are all AWESOME and super friendly. I felt really welcome immediately by everyone there. We're a really diverse group from all around the world. We have people from Palestine, Vietnam, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Japan, Nigeria, Ghana, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Scotland, Egypt, Sweden and Bangladesh (sorry guys if I forgot someone).

Me and two other Finns (Sebastian and Linn, awesome people too.) went to the New York State fair in Syracuse, NY with Dan who is the director of the international programs here at Utica College. It was really great to see local stuff as well. The band Barenaked Ladies were playing and they were really great. That is pretty much it for now, I'll be attending a party at a frat house later tonight and I'm really looking forward to that. I'm gonna let the pictures speak for themselves.

Taking off from Helsinki-Vantaa 

Chrysler Building around the corner from my hotel

The view from my hotel window on the 9th floor

Exploring American consumerism in Walmart with Sebastian

These things exist here

On the road to the fair

A sculpture made out of butter. Why? Because 'Merica! 

Cheeseburgers!!!

One happy traveler! Albeit a bit tired (you can totally tell)

BEER!

The pool in the fitness center on the UC campus

14 days

Takeoff is imminent and everything that needs to be taken care of before takeoff is taken care of. So in other word I'll play the waiting game for about two weeks while trying not to flip out too much.

Applying for a visa and American bureaucracy.

It has been a while since I've posted anything on this blog. This is because nothing of importance has actually happened until now. I've paid my SEVIS and Visa fees and gone through all the paperwork and now all that remains is to wait for the visa interview.

I expected the paperwork to be extremely difficult and, well, bureaucratic. However I found the whole experience to be quite streamlined and straightforward. Partly because my host university had attached some excellent instructions. D-day is less than 50 days away and it still seems so surreal and distant. I guess the excitement and panicking sets in when I have the visa in my hands.

Oh my god this is actually happening

Plane tickets booked!

So yesterday I booked my tickets to America. I decided to book them as quickly as possible to get the cheapest available tickets. I'll be flying to NYC on my birthday, which is on august the 20th. First I thought it would be smart to just buy a ticket on some cheap airline and maybe have a layover somewhere in Europe.

However as I was ordering my tickets I began to notice that these cheaper airlines have a lot of delightful hidden costs everywhere. I'm not going to mention the airline in question Norwegian but it turned out that I'd have to pay for things like proper food and luggage separately. Like who in their right mind would travel to New York City with no luggage? Good luck explaining that one to the authorities. Anyway I decided to not be bothered with any of that and booked non-stop flight both ways with Finnair. I prefer non-stop flights because it is just so much easier. I also tend to be a lil' lazy which is another reason I chose to fly non-stop. One thing which would have been better on the other airline is that I would have flown with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner which would have been awesome. But I guess an Airbus A330 will have to suffice. Hey, at least I'll be in New York City relatively early, albeit jet lagged.

Preface

I realize that chronicle is probably not the best of words to use to try to describe what this blog will be about since a chronicle implies a factual documentation of a historical event of some sort. This blog however will contain examples of hyperbole, artistic fiction and sarcastic remarks about various things I encounter in daily life.


So what can one expect of this blog? This blog will document my experience as an exchange student at Utica College during the fall of 2014, and the road and work leading up to it. I will try my best to actively document the process of my exchange in pictures and words for you to enjoy. I am scheduled to leave for Utica in mid-august of 2014, however a lot of things will happen and a lot of things need to be done before that happens. In short, this blog can be viewed as a guide for exchange students, albeit not a very good one.


I am looking forward to this adventure.