Unexpected meetings, Part dos!

Ok guys, you have to get used to the fact that my posts are a little bit late. There is in fact quite a lot to do here. So I don’t have so much time to write all these things after all. Quite controversial really: When nothing happens, there’s time to write, but nothing to write about. When there’s a lot happening, there’s no time to write about it! :D But yeah, let’s cut to the point, shall we..

 Couple of different ways to travel around the city centre ;)

My second week here in Sevilla was still pretty cool! I got a better hang of my work assignments and started to realize what it is all about. Besides that, I finally started to know the city a bit better. Yes it’s already my second week, but you see: I work every day with 9 to 5 basis. In addition, travelling to work takes about an hour one-way so when I get back home, there’s not much time or energy to go touring.

                

The week went by pretty fast but then on Friday I was just walking in this Plaza del Duque trying to find myself some roller skates and suddenly somebody shouts my name! I turn around and see this girl from Austria who I met the week before at Malaga (and who I told you about)! I mean, what the f*ck? What are the odds? :D Anyway, I had promised her to show around the city and so I did! We went together on this city tour that my work mate was arranging the same evening and we got to see the most famous places here in city centre!

Sevilla at nighttime, pretty nice-looking place!

The next day, on Saturday, we decided to go out to party a little bit! Some other people I got to know earlier had the same idea so we had a little party at our appartment. In the end there were a bunch of Finnish, couple of Dutch, couple of Slovenians and an Austrian so pretty international again! During the first two weeks I’ve met so many new people that I’m not even sure if I can remember them all! :D Well, at least these two Slovenian girls are worth of mentioning, they were so great! I even invited them to Finland :D And did you know that Finland leads the suicide rates in Europe, Hungary is the second and the third in this questionable race is Slovenia. Well, neither did I!

Oh, sometimes
I get a good feeling, yeah
Get a feeling that I never, never, never, never had before, no no
I get a good feeling, yeah
Avicii - Levels

Unexpected meetings… Part uno.

Allright people! I'm sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while, but I’ve been busy (yeah right!) doing things… :D Anyways, two weeks have passed here in Spain and I guess it’s time to take a little peak what's exactly been going on here, aye? Lot of this is all actually quite unbelievable, but read it yourself!

Let’s start with last weeks weekend which I already mentioned you. Just why did I end up some 200 km away from Sevilla in Malaga for just one day visit only? Well here’s what happened: a good old childhood-friend of mine from Joensuu called me during the week. I was just at work at the moment and couldn’t answer it right then. I thought: “Okay, he’s in Finland so I’ll have to get back to him when or IF I remember.” But here’s the scary part: Just the night before I had had a dream where this same friend of mine appeared! And in the dream I was supposed to meet him, but I didn’t, and he was angry for me because of that – in the dream I mean.

      The first impression of Malaga, Andalucia.           Estacion de Malaga María Zambrano

Well… after that I totally forgot about the whole episode (naturally :D). I didn’t remember it until on Friday night when I was enjoying this marvelous cerveza grande on this nice little street bar in Sevilla. I thought I could give my friend a call and ask what was he calling about. So I called him:
-“Hi, what’s up? You called me earlier this week. You know, I’m here in Spain now so...”
- “Yeah I know. I’m in Malaga.”
- “WHAT? Whatta hell? What are you there for?”
- “Well, I’ve been traveling around Spain for 3 weeks now. Right now I’m in here and it’s my last weekend.”
- “I’m so there!”
And the next morning I was sitting on a train to Malaga! It’s about 200km to the southeast. Takes about 2 hours 45 minutes and 19,85€ to get there by train. So not so bad really!

Some dudes sk8boardin'...

...at the flood water canal! :)

Already on the way there I realized the difference in this country as the level and country-like views of Sevilla changed to these "kinda-like-mountain" hills as I was watching the view on my way to the coast. When I got to Malaga, it felt great! Why? Well because of the coastal climate: Warm but not hot, moisture but not pressuring, just great. As I walked out of the station, I immediately rated Malaga not as close as classy as Sevilla. Malaga is more like a tourist city and obviously a harbour city. But all in all, it felt great!

My friend was living at this nice, clean and laid-back hostel almost in the city centre. One night cost 10 Euros so it wasn’t too expensive either! At the hostel we met this nice girl from Austria who's going to appear in the story later! Basically, what we did the rest of the night, was partying our reunion in Spain by visiting all kinds of bars and clubs in the city. I felt a bit tired somewhere around 4 am so I left back to the hostel. My friend, he still stayed, although he had a flight back to Finland 11.30 am the next day…

They sure got some big churches in Spain!

The city at night time.

The next day I awoke at 10 am… aand saw my friend still sleeping in his bunk! I woke him up and said: “If you catch the taxi right now, in 5 minutes, you just might make it!” :D He had been partying until 7 o’clock in the morning and then slept about 2-3 hours! Obviously “Johnny, la gente esta muy loca” is not very far from the truth! :D I went to have a long shower and my friend had gone by the time I got back. Did he make it? Well make a guess in the comment box I'll tell you guys... ;) Anyway, I took the next train to back to Sevilla and kissed Malaga goodbye… At least for a while!

Soundtrack: Sak Noel - Paso (Nini anthem)
I'm telling to you mama, there is no need for a drama,
but I don't wanna study, I just wanna party.
I'm a nini ma', you know what a nini is? 
Don't wait for me awake, I'lI come at home late. 
Maybe at five, maybe at six,
look at me mum, I'm dressing like a... bitch.

Getting to know the basics

Alright I guess it’s time for me to tell you guys a little bit about my first few days here. So as you know, I departed Spain on Monday the 9th at 10 pm in the evening (or the night). The first work day was already the next day. So I had a very brief introduction to the apartment I would live in and then get straight to bed. The next morning we left to work at 8 am with another intern working in there.

      Another day at the office? My fellow intern Miika.                      Here's Susanna, another owner of the company.

The first few days at work were mostly just about observing and trying to learn what was going on there. The office is actually very cozy, although it is quite cold inside in there as well. But altogether it’s a really nice place to work! The company owners are also very nice and friendly. It’s especially great that they are quite young so it’s easy to be on the "same level" with them (when it comes to humour for instance)!

             The view from my very own balcony!                            There are hundreds of alleys like this all around the city centre!


The second night, on Tuesday, we went out for a little clubbing on “Super Tuesday” –student party. It was ok, but not great (wonder if I’m starting to get old?) so I was a little bit disappointed… But it was still nice to go out with some new people and meet some more people! In the other hand, it wasn’t nice when I had to wake up for work at 8 am again the next morning. You can imagine it was quite difficult, as I was awake and had been drinking until 3:30 am in the morning! :D After a day at work with quite bad hangover I decided that I’d skip the Super Tuesdays in the future… And that's all I got to say about Wednesday!

    International dinner with some Dutch, Spanish and Finnish people.

On Thursday we went out to have dinner with a mixture of Dutch people, Finnish people and a Spaniard. We had a dinner together because one the Dutch interns was having a kind of like going-away –party. I would have the next day free so I thought it would be best to get a good sleep after a hard week. On Friday I slept until 12 am and after waking up, I decided to go for a walk around the city centre. The city of Sevilla, it is so magnificent… There’s nothing like that in Finland. It’s different, old and still clean and nice. It’s a romantic city!

Sevilla's got some style, baby ;)

Soundtrack: Manu Chao - Me gustas tu
Que voy a hacer,
je ne sais pas
Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais plus
Que voy a hacer
Je suis perdu
Que horas son, mi corazon

The ”Culture-shock”

First of all I’d like everyone to know that I hate the tourists whining about how “Everything is better back home and this and this is so different than in Finland...” Hey: if you’re going abroad, you should know that it is NOT Finland, that's why it's called ABROAD. But still I got a little “culture-shock” myself on the first night here in Sevilla. The shock was caused by my apartment - my home for the next 5 months. It’s pretty crappy actually :D I kind of  knew that this was coming before I got here, because the housing isn’t as high-quality in here than it is in Finland, but still I got surprised about crappiness.

It was shocking to realize that the temperature inside is 15 degrees, there’s no hot water, the toilet is not flushing and the electricity works from one plug only… I mean PLEASE, is that the description of “crappy living” or not? What is this, a third-world country? Geez… Luckily I’ll get used to it… eventually... right? I also got to learn that there is actually hot water (for about 10 minutes) if you put on the water boiler. But you must not use the microwave at the same time, ‘cause otherwise it’ll take all the electricity from the boiler… CRAPPY! :D

 

Well, at least I got a porny red lamp in my room ;)

In the next post I’m gonna tell you about my first day at work and possibly my first night out here in Sevilla! Stay tuned! 

Aaand here’s some crappy music for you…

Soundtrack: BritneySpears – Till the world ends

Keep On Dancing Till The World Ends
Keep On Dancing Till The World Ends
Keep On Dancing Till The World Ends

WOAH OH OH OH OH OH WOAH OH OH OH...

The Enlightenment

It’s the day when I’m flying to Sevilla. At the moment I’m sitting at a lunch bar in London Stanstedt airport and I’m thrilled! These last few days I’ve visited good friends all over southern Finland for the last time. First met this nice girl, Kalla, in Helsinki and we had some great time in Helsinki’s night life. The next day I left out to Turku where I met with another nice girl, Anna, who I went to Lapland together last winter. Unfortunately another friend, Marianne, who also was on that same Lapland journey, had recently broken her leg and couldn’t participate in our reunion :( But greetings to her as well!

The night in Turku was even better than the one in Helsinki and it was sad to leave to Tampere, my final destination in Finland. At Tampere I spent the night with my dear cousin Toni and her girlfriend Henna. The flight was the next day so I thought it would be wisest to get some rest. Toni and Henna live right next to the train station, where the bus to airport leaves, so it was really nice from them to accommodate me for the last night. Thanks!

 

     The last person I talked to in Finland!                             Moment of truth :)

You can take my word when I tell you that the last 12 hours before the flight I started to get a bit excited! Actually, when I stepped on the bus to the airport I could say I was terrified :D Yes, I had travelled by myself earlier never in this magnitude. That, combined with the fact that I don’t like flying, the airport terminal was actually the crappiest I’ve ever been to and the flight was the cheapest one I could’ve gotten no wonder I was terrified :D

Then, during the flight it really struck my consciousness: This is it. This is really it. There's no coming back! I was so thrilled. I was enlightened. The feeling was just incredible: anxious, relieved, happy, sad, scared and enthusiastic all at the same time! Plus, already in London it was so “hot” (+11 celcius compared to -14 in Tampere) that I was sweating like a pig :D So yes, if someone asks me should he/she go to an exchange to another country, I’d say definitely yes only based on this feeling you get even before you reach your destination! It’s crazy!

Soundtrack: ShinyToy Guns – Major Tom

Standing there alone, the ship is waiting.
All systems are go. Are you sure?
Control is not convinced, but the computer,
has the evidence:
No need to abort. The countdown starts.

All systems go!

Today it started, it finally started! The moment and the journey I’ve been waiting for and been thrilled about for 5 months. Today I stepped onto the train to Helsinki at Joensuu train station and kissed goodbye to my dear hometown for the next 5 to 6 months. My travel plan for the next few days ahead is to travel to Helsinki and Turku by train and meet some good friends of mine for the last time before my departure. After Helsinki and Turku I’ll travel to Tampere and fly off to Spain for the next 5 months!

Why I'm so anxious about this moment is because for the last five months I’ve done tons of preparations and arranged my life in every aspect so that this could be possible. And I’m now finally starting my journey to Spain. My name’s Aaron Ilmakari and I am 23-year-old BBA student from Joensuu, Eastern Finland. I study in North-Karelia University of applied sciences and am majoring in marketing and entrepreneurship. Now I’m off to complete my practical training as a marketing assistant in a small international office in Sevilla, Spain. Now, how cool is that? ;)

Feelings that are going through my head right now are most controversial. In the other hand I’m thrilled as hell because I get to see a whole new country, new culture and a whole bunch of new people. Also, I’ll surely get some very useful professional knowledge and experience. But in the other hand I’m also a little bit afraid or should I say reserved about the fact that I’m leaving virtually everything behind me and from now on I'm on my own and nearly everything will be new to me. But I think it's just healthy: people do tend to get stressed about lesser things, right?

As I started travelling, I started wondering what I will miss from Finland. The first thing that comes in mind is of course friends and relatives. But I can’t start whining about that, because it was me who chose to leave and they’ll be here when I get back – if I get back. Another thing I’ll most likely miss will be food. It’ll definitely take a while to get accustomed with only white bread and so on... But they’ll probably have kebab in Spain as well? ;D

“All systems go”

The thing is that this very moment I’m feeling that there aren’t so many things I will miss from Finland. I’m somehow so full of all the serious, dark-minded and arrogant people in there. It's no offense to anyone, but Finns tend to be a little bit like that. I’ve also had so many bitter disappointments in my human relationships past year or two so I’ll feel incredibly relieved to leave it all behind me and get a new start from “a clean table”. There’s nothing that holds me back or gives me second thoughts about leaving – nothing – de nada! Instead, there are rather things that are pushing me to leave. I’m at “all systems go” –mode at the moment!

Another thing is that I really can’t say what to expect from the time in Spain – besides the fact that it isn’t dark all the time and it isn't raining water filled snow all the time. The weather in general is a bit more humane :D But the big question is whether the grass is greener on the other side or not? You see, this journey, it isn’t just a “great experience” or a “possibility to improve my professional skills”. It’s more to me. It is an end to one section in my life and a beginning of another. It is a chance for me to rethink my life and the direction I will head.

Well, maybe I’m now getting a little too serious about all this. I really should consider my energy on how to adapt to Spain and my soon-to-come working assignment. I don’t really know much about it yet, but I’m pretty confident about it. I’m a fast learner and relatively good with people so I don’t believe there will be any objects that I will not eventually overcome. Although I maybe should feel a little skeptic about how do I go along with people and how do I manage my tasks, I am determined that I will not stress about it! This journey, it’s not about performing; it’s about having the time of my life! Period.

Soundtrack: Metallica – Turn The Page

Here I am, on the road again
There I am, up on the stage
Here I go, playin' star again
There I go, turn the page...