The goodbyes were awful and horrible and got me regretting this whole thing, but once I got into that bus inJyväskylä I was ok. Then at the Helsinki-Vantaa I was fine and finally at Gatwick I was doing great! I had booked a bus ticket from Gatwick to Chichester and just the bus ride confirmed my opinion that I did the right thing coming here. The scenery was beautiful and just the greenness of it all made me into a better mood since back at home it was plain gray. Here the weather was warm and lovely and apparently very unusual for this time of year.

At the Chichester bus station a lovely lady name Kim was picking me up, and I would be staying with her for the next 8 weeks. She is very nice, and I love her home. It’s a little white cottage and I love my room and my comfy bed, and it feels good to be here. Pretty much right away Kim took me to Tesco to get some food and my tired brain couldn’t really think straight so I just got something and decided to come back later. Back at the cottage I unpacked and took a little nap. After the nap I did a little stroll around the neighborhood and it was so lovely and beautiful. When I got back Kim suggested to go for a walk to this nearby pub and I was happy to go, and the walk was amazing, just so beautiful everywhere. The little walk turned out to be over 2 km long and finally when we got to this pub and ordered our drinks it started to rain! The rain didn’t stop and we had to walk back. We walked through the fields which at this point were all muddy! So, we got completely soaked. When we finally got back to the cottage Merve was there with her parents.

I forgot to mention that Kim had another student living with her, a girl called Merve and she is from Turkey and her parents were visiting her. So, we get back at the cottage soakin wet, and I must have made a good first impression! After we had gotten ourselves dried up we enjoyed a nice evening with Merve and her lovely parents who didn’t speak English at all, so Merve had to do some translating and she did a good job. We tried some Finnish candy and they all seemed to enjoy the Fazer chocolate. I didn’t bring any too strong licorice, just Hopea toffee and Sirkus Aakkoset and they liked those too.

Next day was Sunday and I wanted to walk to the school where I would be working so I turmed on Google Maps and was on my way. I did make a couple of wrong turns ( I blame Google) but I managed to find it, from the school I walked to the city center and got my bearings. I didn’t really stop to go and see anything specific but just walked around so that I would know where to go.

This evening was a last one with Merve’s parents and we had a nice time. Merves mother gave me a souvenir from Turkey and I gave them Fazer chocolate. They were so thrilled to have met me and I was happy too. I didn’t think that I would get to know another culture besides England, so I consider myself very fortunate to have met them. I even got an invite to go and see them there and knowing myself I might just take up on that.

I went to bed early because next day I had to wake and go to work! I can’t wait to tell you all about it, but that will have to wait until later, see you!