Sorry for being MIA last week, but I have an excuse! This year, I was lucky enough to head back to my home away from home, Finland, for Thanksgiving. I got to visit my host family from my year abroad and some of my closest friends.
But I’m back with far too many pictures. Big surprise I know.
No matter how many times I go to Finland, I always rediscover my love for the country every time. Even when it’s cold and rainy it’s such an amazingly beautiful country. The scenery is incredible. It’s called the land of a thousand lakes for a reason (although there are 187,888 lakes, a bit more than a thousand) – everywhere you look there are beautiful, seemingly never-ending, untouched forests and lakes that you can’t see the edges of.
I went abroad to Finland for a year in high school and wouldn’t trade my youth exchange program experience for anything. My family has hosted students from all over the world, and they’ve all become a part of the family. Lucky for me, one of them is abroad in the country I studied in.
I started the trip off in Senäjoki, where Kristina, from Slovakia, is studying. I decided to come over for a quick trip before she leaves. It was a perfect excuse to head back to my home away from home and be able to see some of my favorite people in the world.
We poked around Seinäjoki, where she is going to school, a bit. It’s a small city and I hadn’t been, so I was excited to explore a new place. This time of year there are only a few hours of daylight and it was raining and overcast, which made it pretty dark the entire day, but that’s part of the experience of Finland in the winter!
We took a long walk out to the lake in the town then wandered around her school and met her friends. Unfortunately my camera died so I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked of Senäjoki, but don’t worry I charged it up for Tampere and Helsinki and took loads more pictures there that I can’t wait to show you all!
