So Sunday, the next day, I met my wonderful tutor Johanna, who took me into town to buy more groceries and dropped me off at the hotel where my American friend Aly was staying... I decided to stay with her the next two days so I could experience what it was like to not have to walk three miles into civilization.  Me and Aly were shown around the town and the campus the following day by my tutor with her other tutees Phillip (from Germany) kate and peter (from Czech Republic) Dominika (Czechoslovakia) Mattis (Latvia), and Anna (Spain).  the following day, Jan 7th, we experienced the first of three days of exchange student orientation which, I will skip over because all it was was a bunch of redundant information about things that I had already discovered for myself by simply living in the town for four days.  Actually I take that back, the finial day of orientation, thursday, I heard the lecture given by the head of the law department and since this is my area of study I found it to be intriguing.  But the most joyous part of Thursday the 9th, was that evening when all of the exchange students met at a karaoke bar in town to drink beer and sing karaoke.  It was fun to witness the Spanish kids sing "The Macarena" and the French kids sing "Lady Marmalade".  However I don't know how fun it was to witness me and my friends sing "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey but the video of us doing it was pretty fun-ny.  that weekend I was looking forward to seeing a Finish rock band called Santa Cruz with my flat mate Tuula and my friend Aly.  I enjoyed watching their long Finnish hair fly around in a very retro way.... I enjoyed it so much in fact, that I apparently felt the need to sneak backstage and asked to hang out with them for a bit (they were surprisingly cool with it).  after about 15 mins of conversation, Tuula came to tell me that it was last call and time to head home.  Oh and here is the band :o)

So day three all I did was walk around and made a much needed trip to the grocery store and made the very comforting discovery that my Netflix account works here!! day 4 I had the pleasure of meeting my awesome flat mate Tuula, who is from Finland and who invited me to go with her and her friends to the bar.  It was then that i discovered that it was not only a 50min trek to school but also to any other location that I should desire to go but hey exercise is good! when we got to town she took me to two finnish bars ( the bars have student discounts hells yeah!)  so here i got to meet a lot of the local color including one drunken Fin who intercepted mine and Tuula's conversation to inform me that he was very disappointed with his trip to America where he was repulsed by seeing large people in the supermarkets getting around by way of scooters... I shook my head politely and agreed with him to avoid potential confrontation (after all he made a valid point).  But aside from that dude, most everyone else seemed to be both intrigued and excited by the fact that I was American and they were eager to know why I chose Finland as my study away location.  The second bar we went to was a rock bar named Marxx which was my favorite bar I have been to yet! its in the basement of a building and is covered in music posters and graffiti it reminded me a lot of places I have seen in NYC.  The DJ would only play rock music and in attempts to be in the spirit I requested some Nirvana (smells like teen spirt) which was well received.  by the end of the night (4am) I was starving and was introduced to a very cheap very good food stand where I scarfed down the best jalapeno burger I have ever had! by the time i trekked back to my flat it was 6am and i anticipated the next days events which included meeting my tutor and her other tutees.

So it has been 16 days since my arrival in Joensuu, Finland and I have postponed my blogging until now and for that I apologize.  So I shall do my best to get you up to speed on my experiences in Finland thus far and will try to include all major plot points! Also to maintain consistency, I am thinking that a post every two weeks should suffice since it has been this span of time that has actually motivated me to finally sit down and do this so here goes.....  upon arriving in Helsikini the appearance of nearly every Finnish person i encountered lived up to my expectation, very tall very blonde, very Aryan. However once i arrived in Joensuu, i found there to be a great deal more variety as far as appearance goes.  This is largely due to the fact that Joensuu is a town mostly occupied by students from Finland as well as many other European, African, and Asian nations.  In fact the nation i have found to be the least represented amongst the student body is the United States, from where i have met only 3 others (two from Ohio 1 from Montana).  But let me back up to day one the most crucial day of all where i met nearly no-one except for the bus driver (who spoke no english and left me on the side of the road with 2, 50lb suitcases), 2 very kind American Mormon boys ( helped me with bags and navigation, and the very bland lady at the housing office (bland).  I got off the plane in Joensuu and was told by my study abroad tutor to take a bus into town as opposed to a cab which I did gladly.  however i did not anticipate being left at the bus stop on the side of the road with my two big-ass suite cases by a bus driver whose english could not even point me in the direction of the taxi office. so with no phone at this point except my American phone (which my mom would kill me if i were to use it) it was up to me and my two fun-sized hands to find the housing office.... during my pathetic shlep-age towards the housing office whose address was unknown to me... i flag down two nice looking boys for directions who happened to be Mormon and American ( I could hardly contain my excitement).  they each took a bag and walked me to the office.  once they got me there we said our goodbyes and i received an invite to their church (which i considered for a very brief moment given their generosity).  at this point all had left to do was get my key from the lady at housing and catch a cab to my flat (50 min walk from town).  once i got there i found that the last tenant who was an Austrian student left me nearly everything that i needed to make my flat a home including pots pans, internet modem, blankets pillows, and even so decor.  set everything up made some tea and looked out my cute little window in amazement that i had finally gotten here! after my pensive window moment i crashed hard in attempts to readjust to Finnish time.... and that concludes day one.... ps day two is a snooze (literally i slept the entire sec

ond day) so the next entry will feature roughly the 3rd and 4th day where actual events did occur so stay tuned! oh and here are so pics of my flat!