to sooth my aching heart...

Okay, now I'm officially back home. Like, I've been in Finland for a week, but yesterday I finally drove back to my hometown Joensuu, planning to stay here until the job in South Karelia begins in a few weeks.

Yesterday was a perfect day for my little roadtrip, and I truly enjoyed driving alone those 4 hours from South to North Karelia. A tank full of gas, badass music, beautiful weather and open road - what's there not to like?

Also, before I took off from Luumäki, I decorated my car a little:

I bought the dreamcatcher from Cameron Trading Post in the US, and now it hangs there, always reminding me about the best weeks of my life (so far, of course). When you see my roadtrip photos, you'll notice that I stole the idea of our trek leader Art, who had a dreamcatcher hanging from the rearview mirror in his van.

Overall, I'm still confused about being back in Finland, and it's not a pleasant feeling at all. It's like... I feel like I should be constantly doing something, but at the same time it's hard to get started and I cannot concentrate on anything. I seriously look forward going back to work - life will be much simpler when I just get up 6AM, go to work, come home, cook, chill out for a few hours and go to bed 9PM to start it all over again the next day. Routines do good to me, no matter how much I generally despise uneventful and predictable life. Basically I feel like right now I'm stuck in some sort of in-between mental state - my mind is still going over and over again everything in America, but physically I'm in Finland, and it makes me confused (not to mention highly annoyed and annoying). It's surprisingly hard to come home sometimes, you know.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not whining (or maybe I am, but I shouldn't) - all this just tells us how much I enjoyed my month in the US, and how absolutely fantastic time I had. After travelling, it's always a good thing if you're sad to be back!

Anyway, I'm not feeling too great mentally right now, so I've allowed myself to sooth my aching heart by reminding myself that life isn't over, and there's plenty of great plans in the horizon! Summer is just around the corner, and eventhough I'll be working all summer, there will still be time to do some cool stuff, and then I'll have my autumn vacation...

• Maybe Silje could come to South Karelia for a weekend - we could hang out in Lappeenranta and maybe stay in that famous castle hotel in Imatra! I've wanted to stay there ever since we did a class trip there when I was in the 1st grade in elementary school!
• I've promised to take Miia and her son to MoominWorld this summer... I never had a chance to go there when I was a kid, so I assume all three of us will have a great time! ;-)
• We've been planning to go for a cruise with Sanni & Yenni, maybe to Vyborg (Russia). Everytime I've met Sanni & Yenni in Finland, we've met in Helsinki, but the cruises to Vyborg leave from Lappeenranta, and it would be great to show the girls "my city" as well.
• I miss my roadtrip room mate Caroline so much that I think I need to book flights to Switzerland as soon as we both have some time off! We need to meet so we could plan our Finland roadtrip, not to mention our greatest dream about driving Route 66 in the USA...
• ...and I'm sure I'll come up with some crazy/great/funny plans with Abby as well. Last year we were in Austria, and earlier Abby said that this year she won't have money for travelling, but after seeing my USA photos it seemed she was having second thoughts about not travelling somewhere this year as well... Maybe we'll manage to organize some little holiday with her as well!
• I recently turned 26, which means I only have 4 years left to travel with Work & Travel visa in Australia, which means I really need to start thinking about it...

This kind of stuff I've been thinking recently - simply to make myself feel better, because as it is right now, my life feels so unbelievably lame. Like I've told everyone, my roadtrip didn't cure my wanderlust, it just made it so much worse! So... we'll see.


Today I spent the day running from shop to shop, looking for a new laptop, but didn't find anything I would have liked. I'm pretty specific about what I'm looking for: has to be small, has to be red, has to be Acer - and today all I found was boring black laptops, so no-no for a new laptop today. The old one still works, but it is indeed getting old, and I rather buy a new one while this one is still working. So, basically I'm not in a hurry to get a new laptop, but I bet you know how annoying it is when you're sure you'd get something bought from the first shop you enter, but end up running through 5 stores, and still don't find what you were looking for... yeah, ANNOYING!

To make my day even more annoying, my spring allergies are KILLING me! I didn't remember my allergies get so much worse in North Karelia, so I wasn't taking the meds until this morning (when I woke up with a headache, my eyes nearly swollen shut and my breath wheezing like I was on the edge of an asthma attack)... UGH, not funny at all. It'll pass, but still it's highly annoying. Antihistamines make me groggy, but it cannot be helped right now - it's like New Mexico all over again - I need to choose between breathing problems or feeling like a zombie, and I think I'll go with the zombie.

BUT when I was heading back home from downtown, I saw the most beautiful Chevrolet at the parking lot! You know like, kind of beautiful I felt like I would have liked to sit next to it and wait for the owner just to tell him/her what a beautiful car it is. It was a Camaro, and I think it was from the 70s, dark blue... Yeah, nowadays I'm simply obsessed with Chevrolets. HA, but at least I've changed my mind a little about my dream car (used to be 1967 Chevy Impala, "of course") ...I think what I'd like to have, is a black 1985 Chevy Impala, for the following reasons:

+ 1967 Impalas are rare because they've all been bought by (other) obsessed Supernatural fans
+ I noticed 80s Impalas were still beautiful cars,  they became boring in the 90s
+ I was born in -86, but Impalas weren't manufactured between 1986-1993, so 85 model it is
+  1985 car won't  be that old = maintaining & getting parts etc. wouldn't be so difficult
+ 80s Impalas aren't that expensive because (once again) they aren't so rare.
+ I still want an Impala because, after all, I am an obsessed Supernatural fan

SO - and this is also part of trying-to-make-myself-feel-better operation - I've decided that one day I will be driving something like this...

1985 Chevrolet Impala

...as soon as I'm back in Luumäki, I'll go to my bank and open a new saving account for this beauty! I know people make fun of me and my "crazy" dreams but hey - what ever rocks my boat, right? It might take years to save up enough money, and maybe when I have the money, I don't even want the car anymore, but so what? If saving money for it makes me happy now, I'm going to do it. I'll get a car or a nice pile of cash in the end - it's a win-win situation.

In the end I stopped at S-Market to buy some apple pie to cheer myself up. And... I don't know. Like I said, it feels like my mind is still in America, and I was kind of lost in my thoughts in the shop. So, this lady comes up to me and asks if I'm looking for something. And with bright eyes I said "Yeah, I was wondering if you have any apple pie left" xD ...okay, didn't sound funny at all written down here but the following is the point of this anecdote: I was in Finland, the lady asked me in Finnish, and I answered in English! I was absolutely mortified! xD It was just weird... oh well, then I stuttered in Finnish that I wanted apple pie, and got it. THE END.

ready for some APPLE PIE LIFE!

yours truly-

PS: I just want to let you know that I am working on my USA roadtrip blog, but I want it to be perfect, and it's going to take some time, it's going to be looooooooong and I want to post it all at once to get rid of it... I came up with this brilliant idea of creating a backup blog for myself, writing the roadtrip stories there and then linking them to this official blog of mine - that way I can show you all the photos I want with out messing up this blog! Okay, the explation was messy, but I'm pretty sure my plan about a backup blog is going to work out great, you'll see ;-)