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.