Days in Finland

I have come to realize that Finland is by far Europe's best kept secret.

Tomorrow is my last day in Scandinavia and I can honestly this is one of the most beautiful and wonderful places I have ever been!

Last Friday afternoon the sun was shining brightly and I just couldn't stay inside, so I ran outside in my t-shirt and shorts and ventured into Finland's nature on my own. I went back down to the lake in Sanni's neighborhood to take just a couple of pictures, but then I discovered a path leading into the woods nearby and I just couldn't resist-- curiosity got the best of me. Thinking to myself "I'm just going to see what is up this one hill," I took my camera and went up the path to a view that took my breath away. Of course I couldn't stop there, I had to see what was around the next corner too! So I kept going, snapping pictures along the way with the icy breeze cooling my skin and the golden sun warming it. I discovered a dirt path that led to a smooth stone hidden behind leafy tree branches and took off my flip flops to dip my toes in the cold, sapphire lake. Watching sea gulls dance on the water, seeing bikers ride by in the distance, and listening to the water lap against the stone was utterly peaceful. Eventually, though, the restlessness to discover more forced me off of my seat of contentment and back into the forest for further exploration. I kept wanting to see what was up the next hill or around the next corner and at one point I even found myself standing in the middle of a field of Queen Anne's Lace. Running down a dirt path leading off of the main trail I tried to see how far I could go into the trees before I was in the middle of nowhere. What finally convinced me to turn around and head back out of the forest was the realization that I had told Lauren and Sanni I would be gone for about five minutes and they may think I was lost, as well as an undesired meeting with a hill of crawling black ants and a bee that decided he wanted to hang out with me and spin in circles around my head.

It is hard to fully describe just how beautiful this afternoon and my venture into the forests was, but here are just a few pictures that will attempt to do some justice to it:

My view from around the first bend

My view from the stone by the water

Dipping my toes in :)

Gorgeous, golden sunshine

The creek running through the forest

Field of Queen Anne's Lace

The path I followed around the lake

A piece of the beautiful afternoon

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere :)

Later that night, the three of us girls left for the Mid-Summer Party at the Summer Cottage of one of Sanni's friends! This was one of the craziest and most fun things I have EVER experienced! Europe. Is. Awesome. As soon as we arrived Sanni's Finnish friends began coming up to the terrace to introduce themselves; they were excited to "meet the Americans." Before long they had swept Lauren and I into the Sauna for the ultimate Finnish experience of suffocating yourself in a pool of sweat and then leaping into the freezing Baltic Sea to cool off again. At one point they even cut a bundle of Birch tree branches and everyone hit each other with them-- Lauren and I thought this was a joke but apparently it's quite traditional in Finland! We sweat in the sauna, swam in the sea, enjoyed cider and grilled chicken on the terrace, watched the Euro Cup game inside, ate chocolate, chatted (a lot of it was in Finnish but several of them still made a great effort to talk to Lauren and me!) and then about 20 exhausted Finns (plus 2 pooped Americans) sprawled out in the loft upstairs for a night (well, more like morning) of sleep.

Us girls went home the next afternoon to shower and get some decent sleep, then went back for more Mid-Summer fun that night! It was crazy, it was fun, and it was so absolutely totally and completely and INCREDIBLY Finnish :) I loved every bit of it!!!

The dock where we jumped into the Baltic Sea

A view of the sauna from the dock

Just a few of the Finns and the Americans...good times :)

Representin' America!!

 Alright my battery is about to die again so I will have to share the adventures of the cruise to Stockholm, Sweden for another day as well as the weekend at the wonderful Hoikkala summer cottage!!

Tomorrow Lauren flies back to America and Sanni and I will explore more of Finland's amazing capital, Helsinki. On Friday I'll be in London, and it will be time for the adventures to start all over again!

A Picture is worth a Thousand Words

I have 14% battery life left on my laptop and found out I can't plug my charger into the wall with my adapter here, so pictures are going to tell the story tonight because that's the fastest way!

Mid-Summer Holiday starts tomorrow and Lauren and I are going with Sanni to one of her friend's summer cottages, so it will be a few days before you hear from me again! But for now, enjoy! :)

About to go biking into Rauma!

My first Euros! Woo hoo!!

A Finnish bakery in downtown, historic Rauma!!! Look at all the noms... :D

Lauren and Sanni in historic Rauma!

Swinging in historic Rauma ;)

Playing on the playground across from the nightclub where Sanni used to work ;D

The 500 year old Lutheran Church in Rauma!

Sanni's lovely mother cooking a nommy-licious dinner :D

Salad, bread and cheese, carrots and potatoes, and DELICIOUS smoked salmon...just your typical Finnish dinner ;)

Desert of coffee and chocolate ice cream!

At the restaurant by the Baltic Sea!

Now Sanni is the one driving ME around!!

The sun at 8:30 p.m....

Sanni and her Finnish friends at the restaurant!

Aaand the sun at 9:30 p.m. ;)

Greetings from across the sea!

So I'm sitting on the floor of the Hoikkala house right now with Sanni and Lauren by my side and the sun still in the sky at 11:00 p.m.-- right where it is going to stay for the next several days!

That's right, I made it to Rauma, Finland! And although my body is still trying to figure out what in the world is going on and why it hasn't eaten or slept properly at all, the pure excitement of being in Europe is keeping me from laying my head on a pillow and closing my eyes to this new world they have only just begun to see.

Leavin' Amurica!

Every moment starting from when I hugged my parents goodbye at the Memphis airport yesterday (was that only yesterday?) to typing on my computer right now has been permanently engraved on my mind as some of the most exciting and surreal moments of my life. And most of what I have done so far is spend hours and hours and hours in airports, on airplanes, and in cars! But I can still see my mom jumping up and down and waving at me as I turned the corner towards my gate in the airport and waved goodbye one last time, and I can still remember what it felt like to walk through the doors of the Helsinki airport and feel the air of a new country hit my face. I can remember bouncing down the halls of every airport, and I'm pretty sure everybody who saw the ridiculous grin I walked around with all day long thought I was high.

Well, I was. High on life! I won't go through all the grueling details of tedious airline travel, but the trip over the Atlantic was certainly one of the most unreal things I have ever experienced. I was squished into the back of the plane in the middle seat of the middle aisle, and had two retired British men on either side of me. They had been visiting the States to sit at the Atlanta airport and record the numbers written on the side of airplanes for every incoming and outgoing flight they saw. (People can certainly make a hobby out of anything!) I had a great time getting to know them though-- they had a wonderful sense of humor and made my 7 hour and 45 minute trip considerably less lonely. As bodily sustenance on the plane I was served prepackaged lasagna, a stale roll, a wilting salad but a "gourmet" triangle of cheese (at least they have their priorities straight!) for dinner, and in the "morning" was I was woken up with a breakfast of creamy, blueberry yogurt, a buttery croissant, and orange juice. I don't know if it could actually be called morning, though, since night only lasted about 3 hours, which I also think is how long I slept but I really have absolutely no idea.

First glimpse of England!

All I know is that by the end of the longest 7 hours and 45 minutes of my life I wasn't sure if my bottom was still attached to my body since I couldn't really feel it, but I almost cried for joy when I looked out the window and caught my first glimpse of England. Now I really couldn't stop smiling and kept saying over and over again, "I'm in Europe! I'm in Europe!" Upon landing in Manchester I was whisked through the airport to wait for my final flight to Helsinki and I met a fellow American, college-aged girl traveling to Europe to visit friends. She had been on the inbound flight from Chicago with me and I am so grateful for her, because once we ended up at the Finnair gate where nobody was speaking English we were able to console each other in our cluelessness ;) On the flight to Helsinki I sat by a very nice man who shared his Salmon bagel with me-- he claimed he was full and couldn't eat the whole thing, but I think he really just fell sorry for me because I didn't have any Euros to buy food with and he could tell I was positively starving.

After another restless 2 and a half hours, I had finally made it to Helsinki, Finland. I rushed through the airport, grinning from ear to ear, and breezed through Passport control. When the officer picked up his stamp and left his mark in my Passport with it I just about died of joy.

I have my first stamp in my Passport. The first of many more to come!

After making it safely through the gate I rushed down to the baggage claim where a small, blonde girl wearing glasses was sitting on top of a suitcase and leaning against the wall across a room full of people from me. As soon as we realized who the other was she jumped up and we both ran towards each other, laughing and ending up in a huge embrace. The international sisters Michelle and Sanni had finally been reunited!

"Sisters" reunited!

Once Lauren arrived we were all treated to a much needed snack from Starbucks by Sanni's very kind and friendly father and then we piled into the car for the three hour trip back to Rauma. I stared out the window at this brand new country whizzing past my eyes for as long as I could before drifting off to sleep, and when we arrived at the Hoikkala house Sanni's mother had a wonderful spread of fruit, vegetables, bread, tea and juice waiting for us. We chowed down on an evening snack, took a walk around the lake and through the woods of Sanni's neighborhood, and now...now, I should probably go to bed ;)

Goodnight!

I can't believe I'm in Europe :) :) :) This really is a dream come true.

The Eve of a New Tomorrow

I don't really know what to say right now, except that this feels completely unreal. I'm relaxing at my grandparent's house in Tupelo, Mississippi lingering on the eve of my European adventures, and it's hard to believe that tomorrow is the day everything begins. When I wake up tomorrow morning I'll eat my one, or two, but probably three bowls of cereal like I do every other normal morning of my life, and then hop in the car to ride with my parents up to Memphis, Tennessee.

At 2:20 p.m. I'll tighten my backpack straps, take a deep breath, and roll my suitcase down the tunnel onto the plane that will take me first to Chicago, Illinois, then to Manchester, England, and finally to Helsinki, Finland.

I have been waiting for this moment for so long that there's no way anyone is going to be able convince me this is actually happening until my bottom is hovering hundreds of miles over the Atlantic ocean.

Yesterday I was packing until 1:00 in the morning with my music blaring and five cups of coffee I had guzzled throughout the day to keep me going, and by the end of it all I had miraculously fit a modest amount of clothing into two suitcases-- one for checked baggage and one for carry-on-- with room to spare. I had danced around the room the other day after learning that British Airways lets passengers check one bag that weighs up to 51 lbs for free, so when my suitcase clocked out at 46 lbs this morning I felt positively triumphant. It's full of scarves, sweaters, jackets, pants, skirts, shoes and shirts that can be mixed and matched in any number of combinations, so I should be good to go for 40 days. Not only that, but by beginning my trip with the two shop-o-holics Lauren and Sanni I'm sure I'll be able to add to my wardrobe if needed!

And on a side note, I learned today that I have won a study abroad scholarship I had applied for! *victory dance*

Okay. Alright. I've got this! I've checked in online, picked out my seats, and printed out my boarding passes.

So...are we ready to go?

We're ready to go.

1 day. Well, less than 24 hours now.

This final song I am going to post is another one that has gotten me through many grueling evenings of studying when I wanted to take a brief break to dream of what was ahead of me this summer. Don't worry, unlike the Suomi video from the previous post this is a song I actually enjoy and can listen to without laughing up a lung.

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Alice makes the statement "I can't go back to yesterday-- I was a different person then."

Alice and I are about to have a whole lot in common.

It's gonna be a New Tomorrow :)

Moi! (That means, Hello!)

I have realized that I have yet to explain exactly where in Europe I will be at this time next week, why I will be there, what I will be doing, and who I will be seeing.

For a brief warm-up, I am going to share this music video that I happened upon one day while using the magical land of YouTube to procrastinate on my homework. It is called Suomi, which is the Finnish word for Finland-- the country I will be living it up in before I know it! (Please know that this is probably the most ridiculous song I have ever heard in my life, and if you make it all the way through the video without dying you're a better (wo)man than I am ;D)

Alright, so now that you all have that stuck in your heads and are hopefully laughing as hysterically as I am, it's time to get serious ;)

When I was a senior in high school my family welcomed someone into our family who changed my life forever and filled my senior year with fun, wild, and wonderful memories. In the spirit of adventure my family decided to host an international exchange student, not having the slightest clue what it would bring. Luckily for us it brought bubbly Sanni Hoikkala; a friendly, laughing, fun-loving girl who became my Finnish sister for nine months and who brought all kinds of excitement not only to our home, but to all of Madison! Sanni dived headfirst into enjoying every American high school experience-- from pep rallies and football games to homecoming and prom to Halloween parties and New Orleans Spring Break trips to the beach vacations and amusement parks... the list goes on! She even gave my family a great excuse to head out West at Christmas time and enjoy some California sunshine for a week. Of course during her time in America Sanni helped to fuel my curiosity for the world around me and bury the seed desire for travel even deeper into my heart. I always told her that one day I was going to go to Finland and see what life was like on her side of the ocean. I still remember when we were killing time in Chick-fil-a while waiting to see a 9:45 p.m. showing of Dear John, and as we ate our ice cream we talked about everything we would do and everyone I would meet when I went to Finland one day.

Guess what? Only 2 short years later all of those aspirations discussed over a couple of Ice Dream cones in a small town, Mississippi fast-food joint are about to be lived out. I will be arriving in Finland just in time for the Mid-Summer Holiday-- a four day weekend when the sun never sets and the Finns go out to their cottages to celebrate the summer and the warmth. (As anyone who is aware of where Finland lies in the hemisphere, these are two very rare things in this part of the world!) One of my dearest friends from Madison, Lauren Thompson, will be there to experience life in Scandinavia with me. When my wobbly, jet-lag infused legs stumble off of the plane in Helsinki, Finland I will see my Finnish sister Sanni again for the first time since May 30th, 2010. And we will pick up on our adventures together right where we left off.

3 more days.
That's it.
And then my life will never be the same. 

Pirates and the Good Life

One week from today.

Every time my brain thinks, "One week from today," my belly does a little somersault and every nerve in my body kinda goes bezerk for a second.

Then I calm down, get my mind back in the present...

And my brain says, "Hey, Michelle, ONE WEEK!" and all is lost again.

I would have run around the neighborhood about twenty times to get all my energy out, but since it was raining all morning I lit a candle, sat on the couch, and finished reading the second half of Treasure Island instead. Although I must admit I wasn't always 100% engaged in it and probably would have enjoyed it more if I were a 12 year old boy, by the end of it I decided Jim Hawkins is a pretty cool little kid. He struck out on an adventure and ended up encountering pirates and rescuing a ship of which he declared himself captain and uncovering buried treasure...it all makes me even more curious to see what will happen to me on my adventure! ;) Really, though, I like Long John Silver the best. Maybe because he kind of reminds me of Captain Jack Sparrow. No, he is not the handsome, mysterious and intriguing Johnny Depp; one of his legs is wooden and he is described as having a face like a ham. But he is pretty much looking out for number one the whole time-- himself-- and will be on whichever "side" (good or evil) he needs to be on to get the best results. (Ring any Pirates of the Caribbean bells?) Not exactly admirable I guess, but deep down you can tell he has a good heart. I think he really does like young, innocent Jim and in the end would do whatever it takes to protect him. Of course this is all speculation on my behalf-- I would have to ask Robert Louis Stevenson to find out for sure. But since Silver comes out all right in the end I think Stevenson had a soft spot for the wily pirate too.

Its also interesting to think that a lot of our common conceptions about pirates-- such as wooden legs, parrots on the shoulders, "x marks the spot", etc. -- originated with Treasure Island. Now all that's left is to go to Greenwich to see where Jim Hawkins set sail on the Hispaniola and to Scotland to see where Robert Louis Stevenson lived and wrote! All my life I have dreamed of stepping into a storybook...I can't believe this dream is about to come true :)

To celebrate my "One Week From Today" mile-marker, I am going to include a music video for a OneRepublic song that I have always associated with this trip. Just think about the first line, "Woke up in London yesterday, found myself in the city near Piccadilly..." and you can see why I love to listen to it so much :)

Oh, this has gotta be the good life!

One week, which means 7 days, or 168 hours, also known as 10,080 minutes, which is 604,800 seconds... :)

Feeling European

Just as I was sitting down to conjure up my new blog post feeling hot, tired, hungry and frazzled after returning from a 3 hour shopping trip, my mom walks into my room holding a bag from The Shoe Department.

"You may not like these," she says with a hesitant smile, "but I thought they looked European." 

First of all, I should clarify that I have been searching tirelessly for the perfect pair of shoes to wear around the streets of London for weeks now. I knew I didn't want flats because they are notoriously blister-prone, and I knew I didn't want flip flops because they are hard to keep on and generally uncomfortable for walking. Not only that, but once flip flops get wet they tend to go kaput. (Anyone who has ever found themselves barefoot because that little thong between your toes on your flip flops snapped while you were sloshing through a puddle will understand what I mean by this.) I thought boots might be a good option, but I've been told by more than one person that they may be a little over-kill; it might not be Mississippi, but it still isn't THAT cold in London. Therefore, being cursed with the indecisive bug as I am, T minus 8 days away from leaving for the grand continent of Europe I still had not settled on a pair of shoes to tromp around in.  

But I loved the shoes my mom picked out as soon as I saw them. They are jellypop, gladiator style, metallic colored sandals and size 11-- THANK GOODNESS. Because let me just tell you, finding a pair of size 11 shoes on the shelf in a store is like finding a chocolate chip in a bowl of peas. It just doesn't happen. Right away I tried on the navy blue, chiffon skirt and floral scarf I had bought at Forever 21 last weekend with the new sandals and a white tucked-in shirt, accessorized it with a black belt, long white necklace, and my sister's black leather jacket (hey thanks for leaving behind a whole jackpot of clothes in your closet, Marie!) and modeled it for my parents, feeling awfully European of course. Perhaps I look like a complete and total American tourist, but at least I feel slightly more prepared to hit the streets of London.

During my own laborious shopping trip today, the one in which I returned from feeling hot, tired, hungry and frazzled, I bought some final odds and ends I will be taking with me to Europe:

Shampoo and conditioner? Check.

Body wash? Check.

Baby powder (for greasy hair)? Check.

Make-up? Check.

Alarm clock?? Double Check.

New, full bottle of Miss Dior "Cherie" perfume? Check :)

From the essentials to the not-so-essential-but-sure-is-nice-to-have, my preparations to go abroad for 40 days are finally coming together. It really does feel like this might actually be truly about to happen.

8 days. Bring it on. :)

 

Pictorial Preview!

My reading list for the trip! It's going to be very hard, that's for sure ;) Oh, but Treasure Island is missing!

I've got my map, letter of entry, International Student Identity Card and Passport-- I'm ready to go!

Just the Predictable Part

Earlier this week, I received my syllabus for the Classics of Children's British Literature class I will be taking in London. 

I almost died of happiness.

And I spent the next hour filling EVERYTHING in on my calendar, researching the places we will be going to online, and formulating how I would very wisely spend my free time so as not to waste a single moment! 

Here is just an itty bitty preview of what my month will look like:

• On the first full day I am in London, June 30th, I will take a walk around London with History professor and London native Dr. Ruth Percy to the River Thames, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street, the Horse Guard’s Parade, Buckingham Palace, St. James Palace and Trafalgar Square.
• On the second full day I am there, I will attend church at St. Paul's Cathedral. Now how many people can say they have done that? ;)
• During my first full week in London classes begin, and I will go to a banquet at King's College London, go to the Museum of London, visit Kensington Gardens, take a boat trip to Greenwich, go to Dover Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Bath. That's just part of the syllabus-- I still have many free afternoons and evenings to explore London on my own. 
• During my second full week in London, I will go to Oxford to have lunch at a famous pub where the Inklings (a.k.a. my heroes C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien) would meet, visit Magdalen College, and take a behind-the-scenes tour of Christ Church (where I will climb the Hogwarts staircase). Also while in Oxford I will go to the pub where Thomas Hardy is said to have spent most his time writing :) 
• Still part of the same week....I GO TO THE HUNDRED ACRE WOODS! And play Pooh Sticks on Pooh Bridge, and get a tour of Ashdown Forest (the Hundred Acre Woods) by Dr. Ann Thwaite, A. A. Milne’s biographer! And then go to Pooh Corner! May I just say, this is the point where I pretty much pass out from joy ;) 
• The next week, my class departs for Edinburgh, Scotland! During our four days in Edinburgh, we will be staying in an old palace, Dalkeith House. Throughout our time there we will go to the Lake District, Windemere, Hawkshed, Near Sawrey, William Wordsworth's grave, and the beautiful Royal Mile where we will visit the Museum of Childhood and the Writer's Museum. We also have our own free time, during which I fully intend to visit Edinburgh Castle :D
• The same week, Mini-Break starts and I head out to Poland! I will fly to Wroclaw and meet up with Pawel, my third cousin, and he will show me around the city, take me to Lubiaz to meet the rest of my distant relatives, and then I will go with him and his sister to Lubikowo to meet his aunt and uncle at their chalet, and on Monday they'll drive me to Germany so that I can catch a plane back to London! 
• During my final week there I will go to the British Library, meet famous BBC author Brian Sibley, take a final exam (yuck) and board a boat on the River Thames to watch the fireworks explode over the city of London during the opening ceremony of the Olympics :) :) No big deal, of course ;)  

And those are just the highlights of my British Studies experience! I can't wait to see what happens as I start filling in all of the blanks and let my European experience unfold before me in the most wonderful but unpredictable way.

9 more days! 

A Lesson on the Essentials

On Wednesday, I drove down to Hattiesburg for a British Studies pre-departure orientation at Southern Miss. Let's just say that by the end of it my head was pounding with all of the information attempting to sink into my pour, frazzled brain but my heart was also pounding with unbearable excitement. Can I just go ahead and board the plane and leave tomorrow, please? ;)

The orientation was full of bagoodles of extremely important information. Probably the most important thing I learned was that if I plug my American hairdryer into a European outlet it will explode. If it explodes the power will go out on my entire block, and all of the Brits will be mad at me. Needless to say I was a Target buying a dual-voltage hairdryer the next day, because I don't want any angry Brits. 

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the MOST important thing. I was also handed my International Student Identity Card which will provide me with discounts from all over the world, and an entry letter that will assure the people of the UK that I have come to their country for the sole purpose of taking a class and having a wonderful time. I was instructed on how to transfer my Jeffersons and Lincolns into Euros and Pound Sterlings, told what to pack and what not to pack (after hearing the story of a student missing the bus to The Hundred Acre Woods because he was depending on his cell phone alarm instead of a real alarm clock I know what the first thing going in my suitcase is going to be), was informed that the weather may be either cold and rainy or warm and rainy but its hard to say which one it will be (okay, so that was pretty un-helpful), and was assured that upon arrival I would be handed a map with explicit directions on how to get to the grocery store from my official residence of the month, Kings College (whew!).

As of now, my plan is to never waste time sleeping because on don't want to miss a second of my time in London, and to live off of peanut butter and cheese sandwiches so that I can save all my money for things such as going to the theater or museums. Do you think that will get me through four weeks? ;) Well, I suppose I don't really think so either, but it never hurts to dream! One thing is for sure, I'm buying a nice, large jar of peanut butter and sticking it in my suitcase-- right next to the alarm clock. I've heard peanut butter isn't as popular over there which is truly unfathomable to me. You just wait and see, by the time I leave Europe I will have every European eating peanut butter and cheese sandwiches and they will all love me for it. In fact, they will be begging me to come back and open up my own sandwich shop in Europe. Problem of "What am I going to do when I grow up?" = solved. Cha ching! :)

Only 10 more days and it all begins. The countdown is on!

The Journey Begins

Well it’s time to jump on the blogging bandwagon, so to speak, and to begin chronicling what I have a pretty good feeling will turn out to be the summer of a lifetime. So many incredible things are about to happen that I refuse to let them become wisps of a faded memory drifting through my mind. I intend to take every memory, every experience, every adventure, and chisel them into immortality through the written word. Sounds a little bit intense for a blog, I know, but I’m not leaving anything to chance when it comes to a summer I have dreamed of and anticipated for years.

It has been my goal to go on the journey that will soon begin ever since I was fourteen years old and saw the “London Calling” pamphlet in the Office of International Programs at Southern Miss. Since the first moment I hugged that pamphlet to my chest six years ago I have had a goal that has driven me to become every bit of who I am today. I was driven to start working summer jobs in high school and to put all of my earnings into a savings account, to repeatedly take the ACT in order to get the score I needed for a grant from the state, to attend The University of Southern Mississippi because of the outstanding Study Abroad programs offered there, and to acquire an outside job once in college on top of my 19+ hour semesters in order to continue saving my money. I was even driven to finally declare my major in the subject I have always loved—English—and now all the years of working, hoping, and anticipating have culminated in the reality of studying abroad in London. The dream isn’t just a pamphlet in my hands anymore—it’s a passport, a plane ticket, and a reality with my name on it. 

I have filled up five journals cover to cover in my lifetime, but this is sure to be my greatest journal yet. It is the first electronic journal I have ever kept, and for the first time ever outsiders are being allowed into the mind of Michelle. Scary? For you, probably. Exhilarating? Well, let us hope so.  On June 19^th I board a plane for Helsinki, Finland and by the evening of June 20^th my feet will finally be touching European soil. From there I will go to London, Bath, Canterbury, Scotland, Poland, and quite possibly Sweden and Germany. So buckle up tight and welcome to the journey, folks.

Europe, here I come!