Another place to keep my thoughts

[Taeryyn]

Yours looks very whimsical, Esiris. ^^



I was going through my Gaia journal, and holy ******** s**t: I was a whiny, attention-whoring brat as a teenager. Good god. Eugh.

As a lesson to myself, I saved all the posts elsewhere, but I've since deleted them from my journal (along with a bunch of pointless posts I made when I was bored at work). I did leave quite a few less-than-flattering ones up, though. There were 6 pages of archived posts to go through, each with 30 entries. @_@ 180 stupid journal entries.

I'm mortified to think that they've been there for as long as they have, because the impression they give of me is awful. Accurate at the time, but awful. I feel like I've grown up a lot since then, and I don't really want those kinds of things to represent me. I don't want to forget them, though, since they're an excellent reminder of how I shouldn't act.

My first post was when I was 17, and the subsequent ones were all full of "wahh wahh, life's unfair, I'm soooo depressed, I hate my brother". emotion_facepalm

Thankfully, almost no one actually reads journals.  

[Esiris]

Taeryyn

Yours looks very whimsical, Esiris. ^^

I'm going for a "It's time for your medicine! Mwahahahaha!" feel. cat_whee

Quote:

Thankfully, almost no one actually reads journals.

That's what I was thinking- and I think most people who would read them would have interacted with you in the forums first anyway- which would show who you are more than who you were anyway. cat_3nodding  

[Taeryyn]

A week and a half left until I leave. Josh will be on his own for three weeks, right when school is starting. xp Not entirely alone, by any means, since he will be staying with a friend, but I still worry a bit. I just spent the last little while meeting his friend's parents and going over the arrangement. They seem like nice, chill people, so hopefully everything stays stable. It's less than a month, after all.

Aside from one last call to the airline to make sure they have all my info, I'm ready to leave. I booked all my accommodations in advance, although I left some wiggle room in case. I'm staying in a convent in Turku.

Yeah. A convent. razz It was cheap, and will hopefully be quiet.

In Jyväskylä, I splurged and booked one night in a fancy-schmancy room in a nice hotel. King-size bed, private sauna, the whole bit. Definitely not something I could afford to do more often, but I think it'll be fun.

The rest of the time, I'll be staying in a mix of hostels and Omenahotelli. The latter is something interesting, a hotel chain with next to no staff. You book online, and are given a room code. This only activates after 2pm on your day of check in, and you need it to get into the building and into your room. It's all no-frills (no room-service or daily cleaners, no porters, no breakfast, etc.) but your room has a TV, mini-fridge, kettle, and microwave. So I get a private room for a lot less than what I'd pay at other hotels, although it's still more expensive than most of the hostels.

I'll be in Helsinki from the 6th-11th, spend the 12th in Porvoo, stay in Turku 'til the 16th, then Tampere 'til the 20th. I'm then in Jyväskylä 'til the 23rd, spending the 24th in Hämeenlinna, and will be back in Helsinki the 25th. I start the journey home on the 26th, and will be staying overnight in Montreal.

So excited. @_@  

[PeachPunk]

I'm kind of creeping here, but you're visiting Finland? Sounds like fun! Any plans what you'll be doing?  

[Taeryyn]

Yeah, Finland. 3nodding I'm mostly just sight-seeing and relaxing, checking out a lot of museums.  

[Taeryyn]

Wow.

I use the Dumpster Dive game fairly often, and I make sure to donate to it more often than I get items. It's usually just junk, but sometimes I'll go on a bit of a shopping spree and buy up some nicer store items. It's fun!

Every so often, someone will send me a "thank you" PM, which is sweet of them, but really unnecessary. (I mean, it's not like I donated to them personally, so I don't expect a personal expression of gratitude, either.)

But this one user...wow.

Quote:

Ty for the orange torque shades.Can you send me in a trade any trash/ink items u don't want , and gold works too! If you can I'd really appreciate it... I got hacked 5 days ago

Really? Really? How about...no?

I didn't say any of that, of course. I just sent them a link to the Charity/Quests forum, and said nothing else.  

[Taeryyn]

I'm enjoying Finland so far. Getting here was brutal, though. Was in transit for more than 24 hours, the way my flights worked out.
Frankfurt Airport is now my least favourite airport, evar, although aside from one surly security person, all the staff were nice and very helpful. That's handy, since the airport is pretty big, and getting around was a pain.
Helsinki is very clean and easy to get around. I spent most of the day just getting my bearings (wandering around til I could check into my hotel), and there's evidently lots to do. The train station is right in the middle of the city, and you can rent a locker for the day if you don't wanna lug your stuff around.
Tomorrow, I plan to hit up some museums.  

[Taeryyn]

It's my last night in Helsinki until the 25th. I went to Estonia yesterday, and it was great.
Anxiety has been a constant for the past few days, and I can't figure out why. I haven't had many problems getting around until yesterday.

I got very lost trying to get to the ferry terminal. It should have only taken me 20 minutes to walk there, but took an hour, and I barely made it in time.

I've admittedly relied on my phone (GPS and the internet) to help me find out where to go a lot of the time. There's been free wifi in my hotel, but the next week will be different. So no more planning things at night.

I think being in another country is kind of contributing to the worry. If I lose my phone, lose my passport or wallet...I'm really ********. sweatdrop
I left a copy of my itinerary with my brother and one of my friends, but I'm not sure what good it would do if something happened.

I need to stop dwelling on this. It's not like I'm in a mean country, where no one speaks English. English is everywhere, and the Finns have all been very helpful and pleasant.

I just really need to breathe and chill out.  

[Taeryyn]

Three cities later...
I'm in Tampere, Finland, staying in DreamHostel. It's nice, and I really like the atmosphere in the city.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Porvoo and Turku, too (although I feel like I came to Porvoo in the wrong season and in the worst weather), but Tampere just feels...different. smile The tourism motto for the city is "All Bright". There are a ton of young people (I am staying near the university), and there seems to be more to do here.
I'm getting good at killing time. It seems like any place where I have to check out really early, the next place I'm going has a late check in time. So even spending an hour or two in transit, I have a fair bit of time to just wander. Thank goodness for the storage lockers you can rent in the train stations.
I feel like a dolt, since everybody here speaks English, and I have the Finnish vocabulary of a chimpanzee.
I was warned repeatedly before I came here that Finns were not friendly, and not to take it personally if people weren't as cheery as in Canada. To be honest, I haven't found this to be the case at all. People are very frank and down to earth here, but everyone has been kind and friendly any time I've talked to anyone. In general, people leave you alone unless you ask them a question, which is fine with me.  

[Esiris]

I'm glad the trip is going well! I want to hear about what the convent was like.  

[cvbkfgbkjmgbcj]

Wait, you live in Canada, right? (i think?)
So, are people in Canada legitimately more friendly than in the US, or is that just a myth?  

[Taeryyn]

It was quiet and incredibly clean. The sisters were friendly, but we had very little interaction. It was very bright and cheery. I have no complaints. I could have participated, religiously, if I had wanted to, but I didn't. There was no preaching or anything.
I spent most of my time out in the city.

Yes, I'm Canadian. 3nodding
I don't think Canadians are any more or less friendly than Americans. I think our society is generally much more secular, though. Each province has its own culture, too. Some places are friendlier than others. Cape Breton and Newfoundland are so friendly that it can be a bit scary. X3
The politics in the US make me physically ill. I think a lot of us have a certain amount of resentment toward the US. Not the individuals, really, but certainly a lot of the government.

I haven't travelled much in the US, but I dealt with American clients for several years in my current job, as well as American tourists in another job. Plus, I have lots of American friends.
There are loud, vocal bigots in both countries. However, here, we do not have free speech. Our laws against hate speech mean that people like the Phelps' would be prosecuted for the kinds of things they say. That said, we aren't censored when criticizing the government, like in places such as Russia.  

[Taeryyn]

So, I was sitting on a park bench next to a lake, just enjoying a coffee, when these two older guys pulled up on bikes and sat down next to me. They immediately started cheerfully chattering to me in Finnish, and one of them whipped out a big bottle of vodka. I had sort of been nodding and smiling up 'til then, unsure of when to mention, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Finnish." when the guy offers me some liquor.
I stammer "uhh, en puhun...suomessa...errrr" (completely forgetting how to say it properly), which makes them stare and blink for a second, and then burst out laughing. Once again, he shoves the bottle at me, and since no one is around, I think, "What the hell..." and take a swig. They both cheer, and toss some back, too. We spent the next hour talking, and I had a few more shots. They would ask me a question in rapid-fire Finnish, and I would shrug or say "Sure!", which would make them laugh some more.
The only thing I managed to communicate to them was that I was Canadian, which made them insist I have another drink. :p All in all, good times.  

[Taeryyn]

My first friend in this city died today. She has been suffering from brain cancer. I can't even imagine what her husband and family are going through. ********.

She was a better person than I could ever hope to be, and she didn't deserve this.