Finland pt. 2

FINLAND BY THE NUMBERS

12 degrees Celsius, or 53 degrees Fahrenheit = average temperature during the day during my stay
7 degrees Celsius, or 45 degrees Fahrenheit = average temperature during the night, without windchill/drizzle-chill subtracted
1 = Full days of sun (two half days, the rest were cloudy/lightrain/cloudy)
3 = Times I wished I had packed a better jacket (...because then I bought one....)
5 = Celebs spotted (1 rock star in Tampere, 1 90s rockstar at the table next to us in a restaurant in Helsinki, 1 90s rockstar we walked by on the street in Helsinki, 1 fashion designer that Leevi knew that we walked by on the street in Helsinki, 1 politician on the street in Helsinki)
48 = Hours we saw the celebs in, total
20 = Wild mushrooms Leevi and I picked at his mom's summer cabin before having mushroom soup for dinner
184,329 = Times Leevi and I quoted Mean Girls to one another
900 = Jews in Finland
0 = Jews I met
1 = Rosh Hashanah dinner I had
3 = Rosh Hashanah dinner attendees

More pho-toez later, lovers

For now, L'Shana Tova!  Happy New Year!

Gros bisous
xoxo
Samantha

FINLAND!

So I've been here in Finland for about three days, and the town of Tampere already feels very familiar.  I was nervous to get here although normally the prospect of taking an airplane to a foreign city and making my way via public transport to wherever I try to go seems totally easy, in Finland the language barrier was really intimidating.  The realization that the only Finnish words I knew were "moi" (hello), "kiitos" (thank you) and "Juolupukki" (Santa Claus) hit me as I boarded my plane... "This will be an adventure!" I thought to myself.  And an adventure it has been.  


Leevi reminded me that basically everyone in Finland speaks English, but after all the time I've spent in France (where my teachers discouraged us from speaking English to locals, as doing was was like an invitation to be treated rudely or ripped off), I was hesitant and embarassed to open my mouth.  Thus, I hit up the Tourist Info Desk (because it’s their JOB to help foreigners! So they can’t laugh at me!) to figure out where to board my bus.  As Leevi promised, it was easy enough, but as everyone around me chattered in a language that I felt I had no hope of deciphering, I still felt isolated. 
  Luckily, staying with Leevi has made me feel much less isolated.  He has been a wonderful host, and we have explored the city of Tampere, which is quite industrial - lots of dark red brick and towers at the factories, as well as met his friends who have been quite welcoming.  

Orthodox church

your FACE !  ... ahahahaha

Standing on a locomotive near some industrial buildings

TOURIST

View from Pyynikki Hill

At the top of Pyynikin näkötorni - Leaning Tower of Pynnikki

with Leevi !!

Keep it real til the next time

xoxo

More Photos of Toulon and Marseille

By popular request, here are some more photos of Toulon and Marseille!

The port in Toulon 

Water taxi in Toulon

Toulon opera, designed by Charles Garnier (who also designed the Paris Opéra, my favorite building in all of Paris), and where Dad and I saw a free concert over the weekend.

Dad and I on the balcony of the Toulon opera, overlooking a plaza.  Notice him reppin the Tufts shirt!

Chateau d'If - in the port of Marseille

Tomorrow I'm off to Finland !! 

xoxo

Samantha

I HAVE AN APT!

HELLO!

LOTS of exciting things have happened over the past few days!!   I'll make a list of them.

1) I GOT AN APARTMENT.  Steph and I now have a place to live!  It is adorable, with two bedrooms, plus a futon sofa, a bathroom, a kitchen, etc.  Plus we have internet and electricity, no worries about waiting to set that up.  CANNOT wait to move in!  Here are some pictures:

dining room/main area

kitchen

2) Contrary to popular belief, I am not in Nice, or Paris.  I am in the region of Nice, but I am in Toulon!  

3) Dad and I discovered the French holiday of "Journées du Patrimoine'' - the Days of Patrimony, or communal history.  This meant that almost everything was free, that the trains were really cheap (5 Euros to Marseille and back!), and that many public offices were open.  We took the cheap train to Marseille and upon arrival, maps in hand, we set out to discover the city on foot.  Since it was free, we took a free tour of the Hotel de Ville and even got to go into the Mayor of Marseille's office !!!  Here we are on the balcony of his office, you can see the port of Marseille behind us:

4) We furthermore discovered EXACTLY HOW HILLY Marseille is ... very!  Dad and I figured that we walked about 5 or 6 miles by the end of the day.  My favorite part was our pre-dinner hike to see Notre Dame de la Garde, a church at the top of a hill that looks over the port of Marseille.  We didn't fully realize how high up the church was, and that our trek would include seemingly endless city sidewalks and flights of stairs.  As we trudged up the hill, Dad asked "Are you doing this in honor of Armance?" (Armance is my French host sister from my stay in Paris, one of my best friends, and a devout Catholic.)  "What??" I asked.  "A long hike on foot to see a Christian icon..." he elaborated.  This was a great way to think of our trek and of Armance and we finally made it up in time to catch the sunset from Notre Dame de la Garde.

Notre Dame de la Garde - from behind

View of the port with the sunset from ND

Notre Dame

6) The next excitement of the weekend was unplanned: Dad and I left our hotel Sunday morning in search of some fruit from the market for breakfast, and decided to continue to walk around Toulon a bit.  As we walked past the port, we noticed that there was a big sign for the “Journees de Patrimoine,” so we approached the gate to find out what Toulon was doing to celebrate.  We were greeted by three military sailors in dress uniform who informed us we could tour the frigate St. Jean.  The line was about twenty minutes to board the ship, but it soon proved to be well worth-it.  Dad had many questions and I served as a translator.  We learned that 250 sailors man the ship, of which only 4 are women (and all the women are officers).  I got to sit in the captains navigational seat in one of the many control rooms.  Dad may or may not have taken my picture, which you may or may not be able to see (depending on its existence), but if such a picture exists, it will absolutely not be on Facebook as we were informed that photos of the interior of the ship are not allowed on the social networks. ;)

Mucho amore til the next time,

Xoxo

Samantha

Hello again, my beloved devoted readers.  

If you have marked your calendar (as I am quite sure you have), you know that I arrived in Paris yesterday and my father arrived to meet me today.  

I spent my first day being so happy that I was back in Paris and wishing that I lived there forever and ever.  I walked my usual route on the Rue de Passy, where I used to walk "home" from school, and did my usual practice of "leche vitrine", aka staring in all the windows and wishing I could buy something, but keeping my wallet in my pocket and refraining.  (Self control!)  Shoutout to the Descamps who I love for so graciously hosting me!

Dad and I met up at the Gare de Lyon (after we both walked around several times in circles, that's the fun of not having cell phones!) and took the TGV (Train de Grande Vitesse) to Toulon.  The train was an amazing experience.  We traversed France, with the Alpes on one side for part of the way, and the Mediterranean on the other once we made it down south.  By the time we were approaching Toulon, I had butterflies in my stomach!  

The train ride was exciting for more than just that reason, however.  I became friends with the kid sitting next to me.  Before we became friends, I tried not to stare obviously at him as I eavesdropped on his conversation in French.  I did this a lot on the T in Boston, try not to stare at people speaking French while silencing my iPod and listening.  Usually I am unsuccessful and end up staring.  ANYWAY, continuing my "francophile"/"stalker-like" behavior (I prefer "Francophile"), I also read over his shoulder (again, while trying to avoid being noticed) because he had the French gossip magazines.... which consist of many, many articles about American actors and actresses.  I don't think he noticed!  Whew!  

Anyway, after I continued to "play it cool", we finally became friends and I learned that he wants to be in fashion, that he's moving to Nice to live with a friend, that he has a genuine Gucci bag (that I observed, he did not mention), and that he was already wearing his bathing suit so that upon arrival in Nice he could go directly to the beach (that I did not observe, he mentioned).  His name is Medy Gaga, no whoops, Gagah with an h at the end, not like Lady Gaga, but he tells me he prefers Medy Minaj, as in Nicki Minaj.... lahhv it.  

Tomorrow starts the official apartment search, and today Dad and I spent our time exploring Toulon.  It's not Paris (obviously), but it is WONDERFUL.  There are PALM TREES here, PALM TREES !  I understand why this is called the "Cote d'Azur" - blue water like I've never seen in my life.  Jody, the beaches are rockier than in Delaware, but not what I'd call rocky.  I'm in paradise.... and hopefully by tomorrow I'll be in paradise AND have an apartment!  

More updates (and pictures of Toulon!) demain!  Gros bisous!  

Samantha

Hello friends, family, and lovers !!

Thank you for checking out my blog.  I hope to be posting here weekly or bi-weekly over the next few months.  As you may know, I'm travelling to France to be an English Teaching Assistant - a position I got through the Fulbright program and the French Ministry of Education.

I'll be in a high school in a town called La Seyne Sur Mer, and I'll be living in the next town over, which is called Toulon.  Here's a map- Toulon is featured on it!  Paris is in the top/center, and Toulon is in the southeast, on the coast, between Nice and Marseille.   I'll get to school on their public transport - which includes buses and WATER TAXIS !  I'm SO PUMPED to be living somewhere with WATER TAXIS !!  Tooooo cool for school.  (Speaking of too cool for school, I just learned that "playing hooky" in french is "secher les cours".... as a prof, I obviously won't be doing that.  Not that I ever did it as a student either.)  ANYHOO!

The French government is paying me about 800 euros/month (that's with taxes taken out) so I'm gonna be mega-rich, aka probably gonna go on housing assistance and potentially French food stamps.  ALL PART OF THE ADVENTURE !  I'm going to be living with another girl doing the same program, and Steph seems SUPER AWESOME.  She's in MD for the summer so we got to meet up for coffee, which was lovely.

I'm heading over NEXT TUESDAY where I'll spend a day in Paris and see my host family, then the day after Dad will arrive and we'll head down to Toulon to look at apartments together.  We'll go back to Paris for a few days after that and spend some time with some extended family.

THEN I'm going to FINLAND to see my wonderful friend Leevi (we used to be neighbors in Paris, if you want to see how cool it was, then click here - he took this picture from his window, of me at my window.  I'll be all over Finland for the week - Helsinki to his town of Tampere and his mom's summer house as well.

I'll be back in Toulon (hopefully in an APARTMENT!) the first week of October, so definitely expect more updates then!

Stay tuned!

Mucho amore,
xoxo
Samantha