Paris, I'm going to miss you

 Oh my I just realized that I've lived in Paris for 10 months and I don't have a picture with the Eiffel-tower! It's something to add to my never ending "to do"-list :)

Last time I told you how I miss Finland. Well, this post is dedicaded to all the things I'm going to miss from France!

First of all I'm going to miss the language. Especially in the beginning I got better and better every day and I really liked that. Now when I start a new conversation with somone they don't even start talking in English like in the beginning. I guess that my French is understandable :) of course I don't have as much vocabularly as I would like to have but I just have to sturdy, study some more and use the language. For some reason I loved to have the lessons in French but if I could chose I'd have the exams in Finnish...

I'm going to miss my job! I've been a babysitter in a French family and it has been such a joy to see the children grow and see how the younger one learns new things all the time. I'm happy that I'm going to see them a couple of times before I leave France and I hope that they'd visit my family in Finland some day like my family and friend have visited them. I'm really grateful for them for doing stuff with me outside of babysitting. The picture of me playing piano is from their place.

I'm going to miss French food. All this pasta, snails, sea food, pain du chocola (that I hated in the beginning and now I love it), French onion soup, baguette and all these delicious desserts. I'm really French now since every time I eat I HAVE to get a dessert :) and oh my God all the cheese and creps that I'm going to miss in Finland. And macarons! All and all the bakery here is so different from the Finnish one that I can't tell in detail all the things that I'm going to miss.

Here I love the fact that I live near Paris but not exactly in the center. Orsay is really safe and I can hop in a train whenever I want and be in Paris in 30min. In Finland I live in the north and the closest big city is like 6 hours away. I can't describe the joy that I feel when living here because I can find everything I need from Paris.

Of course I'm going to miss all the friends I've made here but I miss my Finnish friends too! And now all my Erasmus friends have left for their homes so they aren't exactly here in Paris. But I really with to see them at some point :) I've made plans to go to Germany and Mardrid, I just have to see when I have money and time to do that. I hope that as many of them as possible will visit me in Finland.

I'm going to miss the train and metro system. In Finland we have metros and trams only in Helsinki, not where I live. Of course they have had many strikes here and the trains are late a lot but still. In Oulun we have only busses which go once in 30min or an hour. I've became so impatient here! All my friends laught at me when I go "Shoot!! We have to wait 2 minutes??" because in my hometown we go "Oh nice only 15 minutes to wait". I love living in a bigger city.

I'm also going to miss all the stuff we can do here. In Paris you can just take a metro and go to a new location and there is something to see. In Oulu you call your friends and you are like "yeah... well.. I don't know.. How about a coffee?". With my friends we even drive out of the city to get a coffee somewhere far so that we can pass the time that way. I'm going to miss this city so much...

Oh yeah and then a bit off-topic: They payd my CAF (it was about time..) and I didn't have to pay my rent this month :P Les Halles here I come! I'm going to buy all the books that I want.

Should I stay or should I go -

 Hello hello hello!

In these past 2 weeks I've had 3 of my Finnish friends over! I was so happy to see them! Last one of them left yesterday and now my teeny tiny room feels really big and empty.

Now I would like to list all the places and amount of times I've visited sights in Paris:
Moulin Rouge - 6 times
Notre Dame - 4 times
La Tour Eiffel - 3 times
La Tour Montparnasse - 4 times
Musée du Louvre - 3 times
L'arch de Triomphe - 4 times
Basilique du sacré-coeur - 4 times
Chateau de Versailles - 2 times
Disneyland Paris - 1 time
Musée d'Orsay - 1 time

Yeah.. I'm getting a bit bored about this being a guide :D of course I understand that my friends haven't seen there places but still.. I have to find new attractions!

I really liked musée d'Orsay! Especially because they had a Finnish exhibition when I went there. I saw an ad about it and I HAD to see it! It was exhibitio of Akseli Gallen-Kallela and especially about Kalevala. For those who don't know; Kalevala is the national epic of Finland. I've always liked the stories in Kalevala and I was really happy to see paintings about it. I was really sad that we weren't allowed to take pictures so the only memory of this great exhibition is the picture I took from the main sign before entering the hall with the paintings. I had my Tunisian friend Khaoula with me and I was happy to explain Finnish lifestyle and culture to her. Did you know that when J.R.R Tolkien was writing The lord of the Rings he took influence from Kalevala and based the language of Elves on old Finnish?

I've continued my classes normally and we had our partial exams this and last week (what a perfect timing for my friends to be here..) My English teacher asked me to keep a little presentation about Finnish and I'm going to do that this Friday. Finnish is a really interesting language now that I think about it! Maybe I should devote a post here for Finnish :)

Then to the most interesting part: my employer suggested me that I'd stay here for another year. I have to tell that I'm interested. Many people here that I've told have been really excited for me and are asking me to stay. My mom is almost blogging all the airports in Finland so that I couldn't go back :D She also started telling me how she can bring my guinea pigs to me next summer if I stay. I think I'm going to talk with some people in the near future and start asking how hard would it be for me to stay. Hardest parts would be finding an apartment and my pets.


I started searching how expensive would it be for me if I stayed. The prices are awful here! In my hometown with 460 e/month I've rented an two-room apartment that had 45m^2. Here with the same price I'd get a little tuna can of 10m^2. On the other hand if I needed to find a job (like I think I do) it would be rather easy because I talk English and French so well. On the plus I talk also Finnish, Swedish and a bit of German so I'm pretty sure I'd find a job. I found out that I'd pay taxes to France and there is a law so that I don't have to pay taxes to 2 countries.

In Finland you can take a year off of our studies and continue them in an year so this wouldn't be a problem. On the other hand I would like to go Finland to help exchange students and finish my studies ASAP. On the other hand I would like to change my field of studies and find a new path in my life. I think staying here for another year would help me to think about what I want to do.



Well I have a couple of months to think about this :) I'll let you know.


And to finish this little update:
The family where my guinea pigs are told me that one of my little babies died. Now I have only 4 guinea pigs left when I go back to Finland. RIP Taavetti Joukahainen

In the last two pictures you can see a bridge where lovers attach a lock with their names written on it to symbolize their eternal love :) this bridge is near Louvre.

Bisous! à bientôt!

Sushi evening

 Hello lovers!

This has been a really nice week. On Monday we had someone cutting the power from our building ALL THE TIME. Because of this I lost 1,5 hours revising time for my exams on Tuesday.. I'm sure it was someone who had his exams last week so he could just do whatever he wanted this week. It was really hard to read when the lights went out every 2 minutes for longer period of time.

On Tuesday we had a sushi evening with other exchange students! It was so much fun! In reality I hate cooking (I'd rather starve than cook). Cooking in a group made it really nice and I actually helped with rolling the sushi. I think I'm going to do this in Finland with my friends :) This time all the pictures are from the sushi evening.

After the exams in L3 of chemistry we had 5 days of vacation. I used two of these days to go to work.. On Wednesday I went to work around four and I slept there to start working around 7 in the morning. On Thursday I was alone with the younger child the whole day for the first time. It actually really enjoyed it! Of course changing diapers isn't my favorite thing but still. I tried to talk as much English with him as I could but I still have to wait a bit before he starts answering me.

On Thursday evening we played draw and guess with the parents of the family and their friends.  The cards were in French so they had to translate the cards for me but I think it was OK. I had fun and I guess that's the most important thing.

Friday was a free day here in France so one of my friends asked me to go see The Adventures of Tintin with her. She wanted to see the original version with French subtitles. We went to Le Forum des Halles too see the film. There are two movie theaters so of course in the beginning we were in the wrong one..

After the movie we went eating and then shopping. Actually we didn't have too much time for shopping in other stores after finding fnac. fnac in Le Forum is HUGE. It's in three floors and every floor is so big that I was completely lost in there. I was really happy about the books that I found: I bought three comics and grammar book of German and a conjugation book of French. Now I just have to get around to reading them...






Today I went shopping to Paris all on my own. In the beginning it was my meaning to see one of my friend there but in the end we ended up being in different places in different times and we didn't see each other. I was quite happy all the same! Now I really have confidence that I can find my way around Paris.

In the beginning I spent a couple of hours in Le Forum des Halles when I was trying to find shoes. In the end I bought only one waffle from there (which was really good). After that I decided to go to Rue de Rivoli - which is a really big shopping street - to find my favorite store here: Jennyfer. I ended up buying a lot of stuff and I'm really happy for finally finding clothes for winter. I also found shoes. We don't have Jennyfer in Finland so I guess I have to go there as much as possible.

Ready to eat!

This reminds me that I have to whine about the French sizing. In Finland I'm size S and in here I'm L!! If I'm lucky I can find something with M that fits me. Today I tried one skirt and the biggest size they had didn't fit me.

I think these were the most burning subjects at the moment. My mom, aunt and cousin are coming to visit me in three weeks! And I'm going to Finland in one month and 5 days. Time just flies past here.

I think today I finally fell in love with Paris :) At the moment I so don't want to go back to Finland.

Oh so French

Today I returned my CAF (local housing allowance) papers. I'll see the results in TEN TO TWELVE WEEKS. Jesus I was so surprised when they told me that it's going to take so long. No worries, I didn't need the money anyway.. In Finland it's illegal if it takes more than two weeks of the offices to handle your papers about allowances. I guess I won't be wining about those two weeks when I got back to Finland.

I'm really starting to get a handle of my French needed in lectures Now I can sometimes even understand what the professor is telling on the lectures without studying like crazy after the lesson. It's actually really funny that I can talk about wave functions and Gibbs free energy in French but I can't tell about my life or use different tenses well. I'm really gratefull to my friend K who has helped me a lot with my homeworks. She is always so patient and helps me with my French too. Yesterday we went to the libryary of Pompidou and calculated Quantum Chemistry for 3 hours. She would have been so much quicker without me but she explained all the stuff that I didn't get. Long live friendly people!

Talking about friendly people the family whose children I watch asked me, my mom and my aunt to join them for dinner when my mom and aunt come to France next month. My mom and aunt were so excited about it :) I'm also really happy to see my relatives. I hope mom brings me a lot of salty liqourice, I miss it so much! Last Friday I realized in a store that I didn't want to eat chocolate nor salty snacks but I wanted to eat somehing good: salmiakki! (which is the Finnish word for salty liqourice) I tried to buy black Mentos but these taste more like liqourice and these are actaully really bad..

I'm still wating for my ImagineR. I have a friend who has wated for more than a month now for hers. I'm going to send my papers again this week because that's what they asked my friend to do when she went asking about her card.  It really sucks not to have it because every weekend I could go for free to Paris but now I have to pay 7e/day for a weekend ticket.

I've bought a couple of shirt and vests here. I'm really good at buying useless shoes so I bought a pair yesterday. I just couldn't leave them to the store! Belleville is a good place to stop for shopping. I should find something for winter because I've left almost all my winter clothes to Finland. Also when I try to sleep I always wish I had pyjamas becuse a top isn't just enough. I'm sleeping with woolen socks. I think this is really interesting. In Finland it's not this cold indoors when it's -30C outdoors! Moreover I always feel like it's colder inside than it's outside. I really miss Finnish insulation materials.. AND I don't have a radiator in my room! It's now +15C outside and I'm freezing in here. I'm really looking forward to winter :D

While I'm at it I could talk about living here. This residence universitairé is just a huge building with 5 floors full of rooms where students live. We have shared toilets and a shared kitchen. I hate it when people run around the corridors after 12 in the evening when I'm trying to sleep. Also talking in the corridor instead of inside the rooms seems to be a nice sport for everyone. Also during weekends they have competiotions of who has the loudest party while their door is open. People also smoke cigarettes and weed in their rooms and the corridor smells really lovely after that. I feel like I'm the nagging neighbour if I go complain about everything all te time so most of the time I let it be. But oh my when I once wanted to sing in my room at 15H00 on Sunday there was immidiately someone telling me to shut up! It's actually sad that my singing voice bothers people more than weed :D

Last weekend was also really interesting because for some reason out kitchen was sealed off. I was really happy when I came home on Friday and realized that the kitchen is locked. I couldn't cook at all last weekend and I couldn't have tea this morning before going to lectures. Now the kitchen is open again. I think that the cleaner just forgot (or "forgot") to open it before going away for the weekend.

Anyhow I think that's all folks! Now I'm off to buy my tickets for DisneyLand Paris where we are going 16th of October! Wuhuu!

Autumun never comes

Defacto présente Le Petit Prince

Hello and welcome to enjoy the weather of +25C in the beginning of October! This is so not true! All my friends are enjoying the mild temperatures of +4 - +8 in Finland and I'm here.

Talking of mild temperatures there was HOT WATER in the shower! Party time! The most irritating thing I've grown to almost hate in here is taking a shower. This building is really old and I think there is something wrong with the pipes bacause there isn't enough hot water for the showers.

When you are in the shower when someone turns the tab on in any part of this building (with maybe 80 people living in it) hot water turns off and the water pressure goes down. I've experiances hell in here when taking a hot shower; in a couple of seconds hot water turns into a water from Antarctica. It's especially irritating when I've been jogging and feeling hot I take a shower. After sports it's nice to take a cold shower but I don't want to have a frostbite while at it.
 Ok I'm exaggarating a lot but it really pisses me off because I'm a friend of warm showers.

 Well what else have happened here. I've gotten new French friends and I'm really happy to practise my French with someone. After 3 weeks of courses I can now write my notes and listen to the professor at the same time without lifting my head to see what the professor is writing. I was so happy when I realized that! Also I've started to use new French words more and even when I'm not sure of the right word it usually comes to my mind. I still have problems with conjugation but I'll learn I'm sure of it.

I'm still wating for my ImagineR card for metro.. I'm paying them starting from October (this month!) so I'm wating to see it soon. Although I know that French system is slover than a dead snail I really hope to get my card so that I can go to work and to stores whenever I need to without paying extra!

 Oh yeah that reminds me: I got a job :) I'm a babysitter for a French family and I'm teaching English to the children. I'm taking care for an adorable 1-year-old boy and his 4-year-old sister. It's a bit of a trouble to travel there because it takes 50nminutes by metro and a buss but it's totally worth it. I didn't like children at all when I came here and now I'm taking care of them. I knew exchange changes people but this is so unbeliavable!

And then to things we have done with my friends: we visited "Spectacle : Defacto présente Le Petit Prince" meaning a show of the story of Little Prince with lights, pyrotechnics and fireworks (24.09.2011). Oh my God what a show it was! The story was told in French so I didn't get every word but I could keep track of the plot. The pictures were reflected on a side of a building in metro station La Défense. I included a link of the show from Youtube if someone is interested to see some parts :) There are also pictures included if you look the beginning of the text.

Le Jardin du château de Versailles

 The following day from the spectacle of Little Prince (and after only 4 hours of sleep..) we visited Le Jardin du château de Versailles with Erasmus students. Our intention was to go inside the castle but we ended up wondering around the garden and seeing Domaine de Marie-Antoinette. We saw like 1/5 of the garden it was so huge! It was nothing breath-taking but it was beautifull. We are going to visit the castle some other day. It was Sunday so the lines were awfull. Pictures from the garden are included around this text.

Domaine de Marie-Antoinette

Domaine de Marie-Antoinette

 Tomorrow I'm going to keep my first Finnish course to one professor who wants to learn Finnish. I find it really weird that someone wants to learn Finnish.. It's not exactly too usefull. But in return he is going to teach me French so I'm happy about that. I need help with my prononciation and there are also so many words to learn. I always tend to forget the genre of the words and the whole sentence is ruined if you have feminine and masculine stuff incorrectly in there..

 Speaking of languages I took up German. My German courses are on Thursday from 5.30pm to 07.30pm making Thusday officially my favorite day of the week with 11 hours of lectures. By the time German starts my brain is hurting from all the French I've heard that day and I should learn morea languages. Of course I'm starting with the beginners course so all the stuff is really easy. Actually sometimes I have to think if the teacher is speaking German or French because I understand both so well that I can't make the difference! :D

I'm still wating from my CAF (local housing allowance) on top of ImagineR. I thought getting it would be really hard but actually there was a generator in the interenet that filled the papers for you. But at least I got all my bank stuff in order. I got two bank cards and a cheque book from BNP Paribas. It's like I've gone 30 years back in time because now I can use cheques.

I think today I reached the ultimate Frenchness: when making notes I started writing Finnish with accent marks :D Also sometimes when I speak with my mom on Skype I start to answer her sentences in French without realizing.

I end this lovely little writing thanking MikGo for correcting my mistakes in spelling! His name is link to his blog (in Finnish). Thank you, it's nice to know that there is at least one person reading this! ^^

// Riikka helped me with mistakes in spelling. Thank you!