The Helsinki Diaries .3

I've been in Helsinki for a little over a month now, and honestly I am having the best time of my life.

The workload is heavy, there is no denying that, but I feel like I'm working more productively, I am studying more efficiently and most importantly, I am enjoying the content I'm studying a lot more than back at home which keeps me more motivated than I would usually be. I do think I tanked an exam last week, but I have the chance to resit so we will have to wait and see what happens with that one. I passed my first ever exam here as well which is great because I didn't think I would, the format was so different from what I was used to back in England.

Socially, this year abroad is literally a whole new world compared to being at home. A lot of the Erasmus students live in the same building so there is ALWAYS someone around if you need anything or want to do something. The scope of plans we have is also really different but super exciting, next week four of us are going to Stockholm for three days, then in December sixteen of us are driving to Lapland for a week to celebrate before most people go home and finish their exchange.

I celebrated my birthday here, and while we didn't partake in any Finnish birthday traditions, we had a party and my parents came out to visit a few days later, I showed them around which proved how little I actually know about this city so over the next few weeks I am going to try and get to know the city better!

I have also found a place where I can continue ballroom and Latin dancing as I did when I was at home, I am starting again on Saturday and can't wait to get back into it!

Sorry for the short post, there isn't a lot going on at the moment other than studying and being cold, hopefully I'll have a longer post next time when I am back from Stockholm!

We have an exciting announcement! We are no longer operating on a two week posting schedule, with one week for Helsinki Updates and one week for Lyon Updates, we are now running three week cycles and are including updates from James during his time in Hamburg, then from January onward, Belgium!

Kiitos!