Stay a while and listen!

Well hello there, reader! It seems that you have stumbled upon my blog. I suppose it would be appropriate to introduce myself and what this blog is about.

Please, stay a while and listen.

My name is Teemu and I am a twenty-two-year-old student from Oulu, northern Finland. My blog, titled The Great Escape: A Canadian Adventure will be a series of stories, tales and photographs describing my everyday life in Thunder Bay, Canada and my exchange period in Lakehead University. I will be staying in Canada from the end of 2014 to at least the end of April in 2015, when the final exams are held.

The application process for the exchange program began in early 2014. For some time I had been trying to decide between different options of universities and countries. My initial plan was to travel as far away as possible; sure, Europe has its fair share of interesting countries with high-level universities and numerous places of interest, but I have plans to travel through Europe at some point of my life anyway, and it could wait. So I began my search for countries and that are more remote and which I would not likely travel to otherwise; South Korea, Japan, USA and Canada, to mention a few. A couple of my classmates were already applying for the South Korean university, and as I didn't want to compete, I decided that Canada would be my first choice.

As every exchange student knows, the amount of bureaucracy and paperwork can be quite intimidating; just when you thought you'd filled out the last necessary form, you'd get ten more and most of the time you have to get your paperwork signed and scanned as well. While filling out the seemingly endless stream of paperwork and forms can get very annoying, I understand that it's necessary and I appreciate how helpful the staff of both my home university (Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management) and Lakehead University in Canada were in helping me with the preparations.

Traveling to Canada itself is quite easy. As a Finnish citizen no Visa is needed if your stay is less than 6 months and the only documents necessary are the original letter of acceptance from the university and of course a valid passport. The prices of flight tickets from Helsinki to Thunder Bay vary from around 350 € to over a thousand euros. I managed to purchase my tickets well in advance, and my ticket prices were quite cheap. The journey can take from 13 to 20-30 hours depending on the flight schedule, and while it can be tiresome, it's nothing nobody could handle. However, be wary of flights that touch down on U.S soil; if you don't have a ticket back home at the time you are boarding the plane, you will not be taken on the flight. Even if you have a connecting flight to Canada or any other country straight away, the U.S immigration laws dictate that you can't board the plane. Thanks Obama. Fortunately Iceland Air offers flights from Helsinki through Reykjavik to Toronto.

I have to apologize for the dullness of my first post. The future posts will include more interesting tales and of course photos. I actually bought the new Nokia Lumia 1020 phone, which is famous of it's "monster camera" to better document my adventure with hundreds of photographs! My initial plan is to write a new post at least once a week and keep them quite brief to make it easier for you to read.

As you can see, two full-grown men fit under the towel! Also, totally not gay. 

I managed to include at least a few pictures in this post! The first one is a photo of me and my friend Joni in our last Saturday's pre-christmas/housewarming/going-away party. My friends gave me an awesome, custom-made Tom of Finland towel, that is one of it's kind! So cool! I will surely miss my friends and family during my trip, but I am also certain that the next four months will probably be the best four months of my life! The photo below is pretty much my expectations about the trip. As you can see, I am quite skilled with Paint (Photoshop is for pussies!)

No comment.

I will arrive in Canada next Tuesday 30.12 at around midnight, and I will try to update my blog as soon as possible. You will probably hear more from me by new year's eve at the latest!

Thank you for reading and enjoy your holidays!

ps. You can also follow me on Instagram @teemuhaat, or check http://instagram.com/teemuhaat/!

Man the oars!

Out to the seas!

Bid farewell and say goodbye!

Because gentlemen, we are heading home!

Turisas - The Great Escape