I'm Back!

Okay. So after a long, long, loooong break from Oulu, I am back. I know, I haven't written a blog for over a month now. But now that I am back in the swing of things here in Oulu, I can start posting again. I traveled back to the States for the holidays and boy was it a roller coaster of a trip! The trip there was amazing. I mean, Delta Airlines really knows how to treat their guests, and I am thrilled with my experience flying with them through their partners, KLM and CanadAir. On my last connecting flight, from Boston to Raleigh, I had the most amazing stewardess. She was extremely jolly and made our hour flight the most enjoyable I have ever had. For the first half of the flight, she wore the following apron:

 And for the second half, this one:

Not to mention, she gave me a bag of cookies because some really nice ladies I had the pleasure of conversing with mentioned to her I had been traveling for 30 hours. Yes, my total trip was over 30 hours.







 Oh my gosh!! When I finally arrived at RDU, my family was there and greeted me at the arrivals platform. The look on my little sister's, C's, face when she saw me was priceless! Let me give you some background before I continue. So my older sister, M, really wanted me home for the holidays and between her, our mom, and myself, we hatched a plan to surprise my little sister. All of this, by the way, was planned and executed within a week. Anyways, C thought the three of them were going up to the capital to do a little bit of shopping. However, my mom was like let's go people watching at the airport instead. M played along and was all like, "It's mom. (rolling eyes)." While people watching, my mom looks at me and says, "He kind of looks like Anthony." C replied, "Yeah, he..." She then proceeded to run to me, lock her arms around my neck, and dangle there while I am carrying my book bag and am covered in my winter gear. She was so happy tears began coming out. XD Best Christmas surprise ever!


Most of my time spent back home was pretty boring but SUNNY! I missed the sun. Haha. I got to see my best friend in the whole wide world, H, and her son. I was sooooooooooo happy to get to spend time with her. Congratulations to her, by the way, because she is getting married, and I get to be her "David Tutera." Her wedding is going to be FABULOUS!!! And her son is getting so big and mean! I walk up to the door expecting him to be like, "Anthonyyyyyyy!!" like he usually does but no. Instead, he looks at H and says, "Anthony's here." Later on, on another night, he called his mom and myself old!! I almost beat that kid. I am not old...yet.









 I finally got a haircut!! It was so nice to go to a salon and get the American treatment. :) Plus, I realllllly like getting my hair cut! It was also nice to spend time with my mom. One of the last things we did together was going thrift shopping, and we saw Hunger Games 2. OMG! I got a Claiborn pea coat for $35 instead of $200!! Score!









Unfortunately, my last week back home was bittersweet. I met the most amazing man, J, who is funny, charming, sweet, handsome, caring, open-minded, and we see eye-to-eye on just about everything. But at the same time, the world lost two other amazing guys, N and M. These two guys were the perfect couple. I mean, I have never seen two people so in love and so happy. There were nice to everyone. And they passed away over the holidays side-by-side. The last thing I did in the States was visit my eldest sister, D, and her family who in a way are also my family. Hell, (sung) WE ARE FAAA-MILY! Hahaha. 





Remember how I mention my flight back home was amazing? Well, my flight back to Finland sucked! First, do to a tornado in the area, my first flight was cancelled, causing me to redirect my flights because I wouldn't catch my second one. I was rerouted to Paris then Helsinki. I became ill after eating food from AirFrance, the airport was confusing as all get out, and they lost my luggage along with 10 other passengers to Helsinki. I refuse to fly with them again or through CDG airport. I did have a great time in Helsinki with my friend who shall not be named. I arrived in Oulu the following evening and started prepping to go back to the US - looking for an apartment, finding a flight, etc. Then classes began. I currently have two courses - Inorganic Chemistry I and Beginners' Finnish II. Later on, I will have NMR Spectroscopy, Physical Chemistry, and Inorganic Chemistry II. I buy all of my own groceries now, and I really like the new people I have met. There are four more people here this semester from NC, and one is from my university. And I knew her previously! I am soooooooo thrilled to have her here. Oh! And one of the ladies from NC also has a blog. Her blog address can be found below. You should check her out, she has had a lot of interesting stuff happen to her while being here so far. That is pretty much it for now. Look forward to having a post to read every Monday from here on out. :)

At OUL when I arrived. I left RDU at 70F(20C) and arrived at 5F(-15C). 

By the way, my first morning of classes was brought in at a nipply -3F (-19C). Winter has just begun...

Nähdään,

Anthony

http://www.mysuomiadventures.blogspot.fi/

Disclaimer: All of the instances mentioned in the above post are of my own experiences and cannot be taken as a definite example of any general business practice. Everybody's experiences vary. All rights to the name and brand of David Tutera - the fabulous designer - belong to him and the business associated with him. Thank you for reading my blog! ;)