Weekend

Yes I was really busy last week and quite busy this week too even though I've been ill all the time haha. Anyways last weekend I had 2 county matches which were a bit further away. One of them was in Glasgow, Scotland and the other one somewhere in England haha honestly don't remember where but about 2h drive upwards from Birmingham. The nights we stayed at a hotel in Carlisle and sorry to say that I didn't take any photos of the hotel but I did take some during the trip. I took them with my camera because as you know someone stole my phone and haven't got a new one yet but my dad has bought me one already from Finland and he'll send it to me as soon as he gets it.

On Friday evening at 7.40pm the coach and some players came and picked me up from home. And then it started.. The 3h long drive to Carlisle to our hotel. Well I don't really mind travelling so it wasn't that and let's say that company was quite good too haha. I even slept a bit during that 3 hours but when we finally got to the hotel I was really tired so I went almost straight to bed.

On Saturday morning we had a nice lie in and we had to wake up at somewhere around 10am. Then we went to eat some breakfast, packed our stuff and headed towards Glasgow. The drive was only about 1,5h which wasn't bad at all. We played 15 matches and I played in 4 of them. And I didn't win any of them.. But I hadn't done any sports in a week because I was ill so I think I have a reason to blame that. But all the matches were really close and I can just say that I was unlucky that day. We lost to Glasgow 8-7.

The hall that we played in in Scotland

After our matches we showered and went to Glasgow's centre. They had a German market over there too but apparently it wasn't as big as the one in Birmingham. We walked trough the city centre and it kind of already felt like it was Christmas because all of the lights and the decorations. They really do start Christmas early over here in UK. Not that I really mind because I love Christmas (:

After we had walked a while we went to a restaurant and I ate some kind of chicken enchilladas (not actually sure how to write it..). I had a massive headache pretty much during the whole evening and that's why I just wanted to get to the hotel as soon as possible but otherwise it was a nice day in Scotland.

After the meal we went back to our cars and drove all the way back to our hotel. Everyone especially me were tired but luckily some of the other players gave me some tablets and water so I felt a bit better and sleeping in the car also helped with my headache. And when we got to Carlisle I packed all my stuff and went pretty much straight to bed because I knew that we had an early morning next day.

 



 

On Sunday I woke up around 8.30am which really isn't super early but it's still too early.. I didn't really have time to eat breakfast properly so I just grabbed some food with me and then we had a 2h drive to the other place where we played. Before we went to the hall we went and bought some food and went also to costa. This time I played way better than I did in Glasgow. Or at least I won all of my matches. So I played 4 matches and won all of them and if I remember right we won 10-5 or something like that against that team. I was really tired and stiff during and after those matches so I was just really happy to go home and rest.

 

 

 

As you can see the weather is unpredictable..

 

After the matches we showered and started to drive home and it took about 2h again. I had a really nice weekend and I really enjoyed seeing other places in the UK. I hope I get more these kind of chances. Well I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and enjoy your next one too!

 

-Hanna xx



11/11/2014

Okay so yesterday night something happened and I thought that I could tell here what happened too so someone who doesn't use facebook could see this too. So basically my phone was stolen which means that there's no reason to call, text, whatsapp or anything like that to me. Also I don't know when I'll get a new phone but we'll see..

So just wanted to tell you that and now that I've done that I could tell you a bit what I've been doing over here too. Two weeks ago we had our half term which is basically a weeks holiday. Now that I think about it doesn't really feel like I did anything special during that week but don't really mind haha. Then after that week I've had 1 week of college too but now I'll just tell you about the half term.

Soo as I said I didn't really do much during half term, just went shopping a couple times and on Friday we had an exchange student thing and on Saturday I went to my friend's halloween party. I can't really put any photos over here because as you know haven't got my phone.. But I'll try to remember and tell you some things anyway.

Friday: We had an exchange student day and we went to Snowdome which is basically a big centre where you can do some winter sports and they also have: a big gym, spa, swimming pools, fitness centre and can't really remeber anything else. Snowdome is in Tamworth so we had to take a traint to get there. We met at New Street Station in Birmingham in the morning with some of the exchange students and we went together by train. During that day I went to Zumba, gym and then after all that sweating we went to the spa. It was a nice day and we didn't really have to pay anything except for our lunch which wasn't expensive either. It is really weird to just suddenly start speaking Finnish but after that day it felt pretty normal again. I'm happy that there are quite many exchange students here near Birmingham so we can meet up and chat about everything that has happened.

Saturday: On Saturday I had my friend's halloween party. I went there at 3pm and when I got there we started to get ready. I was suppose to be a creepy doll/puppet but because I didn't find any dress that a doll would wear and I found a superwoman costume instead so I was kind of like a superwoman puppet  zombie if you can call it that haha. It took quite a long while to get everything ready and I had bought white contact lenses which were really hard to put in my eyes and it was the first time so it took like forever. But maybe it'll get easier after a while..?

Anyway after we'd got ourselves ready the guests started to come in and my friend's mom had made really good food so we ate that and just talked and did everything that you do in those kind of things. My friend's little brother was also there and we took him and his friends on a small trick or treat round which was the first time for me because I hadn't ever done it before. I was there for quite a while and then I took a taxi home because it was the easiest and fastest way to get back. I had a really fun night though.

So that's pretty much it.. There isn't really anything interesting happening in my life right now. Just college, training and seeing friends. After this week I might have more to tell because on Thursday we have our first college gig and on Friday-Sunday I'll go to Scotland and northern England but I'll tell you more about that later. Hope everyone had a good Monday and enjoy the rest of the week!

-Hanna xx

Phone life

Because I haven't had any photos in the last two posts I decided to show some now. Enjoy!

 

1. Starbucks (; 2. Just a little evening picnic 3. & 4. A lake that's near my house <3

1. & 2. & 3. At the lake again (: 4. Onesie day<3

1. & 2. Best people in the world<3 3. Magic water :o 4. My buspass card!

1. Chocolate! Didn't know that there actually is that chocolate :o2. Something from Denmark (: 3. From a plane 4. At the airport in Copenhagen coming back to England

-Hanna xx

2 months

Yay! 2 months gone and still alive. Today I had a day off and I went for a 2h walk outside because couldn't figure anything else to do haha. I would've had training too but my wrist is hurting quite a lot (again...) so I thought that I would keep a day off. After that I have just been chatting with friends and skyping with a Finnish friend and soon will Facetime with another one. But now that I had extra time and it's half term so we have no college or homework I thought that I could write about something and I've decided that the thing that I'm going to write about is the things that are different over here if you compare to Finland.

Normal English person eats only 3 times a day. Yes, this is really weird for me because in Finland I use to eat 5 times a day.. They don't have proper lunch over here or like an evening snack so they only eat breakfast, snack and dinner.

Snacks are really unhealthy. Okay I did know this before I came to England but still it's one of the differences. Ofc you can buy healthy snacks but they are more rare over here than in Finland. Usually over here they eat chocolate bars, crisps or cookies.

People don't keep heating on in their houses all the time. In Finland our heating is pretty much on all the time and it's the same with badminton halls.

Their bags for crisps always contains smaller bags so they don't have one big bag they have several smaller ones. In Finland we always have one bag and it's big if you compare to those 30g bags that they have here.

You can never predict the weather. It can just suddenly start raining and after 10min it can be sunny again. For example we had some kind of hurricane on last week's Tuesday..

You have a photo of yourself in your buspass. In Finland it's just a buspass no photos.

Most of the people over here speak only English. If I compare to Finland its really different.. Because in Finland we do study many languages and for example I study 5 languages including Finnish.

Most of the people have never been abroad. Don't know what's with this but I do find it weird because I've been to at least 17 countries.

It is normal that there are spiders in your house. And it's normal if they are not the smallest ones...

English people drive on the different side of the road. Yes you know that but I'm still looking both ways because I get confused where the car is suppose to come from..

Well there are some things that came to my mind that I find a bit weird or different haha. There are probably more things but can't remember any more right now. So I hope you liked it and have a nice week everyone!

-Hanna xx

P.S. Peter Clegg is awesome!!xxx

19/10/2014

I was suppose to write something over here last Tuesday but couldn't really figure out what.. Because for me my days are pretty much the same except for the details that might change. So I'm sorry that I don't write here so often but it's mainly because I don't know what to write about so if you have any ideas just tell me because it would make my life so much easier haha. Well anyway I could tell you a bit more about my badminton over here then.

So I have badminton training session 4 times a week, which is not that much compared to my amount in Finland which was about 9-10 times a week. I train at the University of Birmingham, which is like 20min by one train and like 5-10min by foot after that. Most of the players are Uni students but there are also people who do not study at the Uni including me. Even though I don't have badminton sessions that much I try to do something everyday, like go to the gym, go for a run etc. because I want to keep my condition good. We do have a gym at the college but it's not that big and it doesn't have that many different machines so it might be that I'll get a gym membership from somewhere else for the year.

Then about the tournaments. There is one problem in this area because I can't stay overnight anywhere unless it's with my college, host family or sports team/club and because if I would want to go to some tournaments I would probably go with my friends and their family but I can't.. So I can't really play many tournaments over here, at least not those where I have to stay overnight. If the tournament is close, so that I can get home for the night, it's okay. As some of you know I have played 2 tournaments in England and last weekend I was in Denmark in Danish Junior Cup. I did pretty well in the two English tournaments but the Danish wasn't that good. In Denmark we tried the new scoring system and for me it was really weird and couldn't really get the hang of it but it was the first tournament with that new scoring so hopefully the next one will go better.

 So for anyone who isn't really that into badminton, the old scoring system is that you have to win 2 sets and they were to 21 points and if both of the players won a set so that the sets were 1-1, they played a third set, which was the one that solved the winner. Now the scoring system that they are testing is that you have to win 3 sets and you play to 11 points so you can win 3-0, 4-1 or 5-2. Also in the old scoring system if the score is 20-20 you have to win 22-20, 23-21, 24-22 etc. up to 30 but if the score is 29-29 the one who wins the next point wins the whole set. In the new scoring system if the score is 10-10 the one who wins the next point wins the set. Okay I tried to explain that as well as I could and I hope you understood something haha but the reason why it was so weird for me was because for me the set ended too quickly.

Even though I can't play that many tournaments over here, I'm playing in a county and I'm playing some Ladies 1st Team matches at the Uni sometimes. So usually the county matches are on Sundays and they are like club matches that we play against other clubs. Sometimes they are near and sometimes they are further away. For example there is one in Glasgow on 16th of November but we'll see if I can go there because it's an overnight stay. I haven't played any county matches just yet but my first one is next Sunday so I can tell you more about that then. I have played one Uni match and it was last Thursday. It was only doubles and I played 3 of them and won every single one so that went pretty well.

I really don't know what else I could tell you right now but if something comes to my mind I 'll try to write it here when I have time. Also if you have any questions you can always leave a comment or ask me in fb or in person. This was quite a long post and it has no photos on it but I hope you enjoyed it. Now I will continue chilling and soon I have a sports massage. Finally! So I hope you had a nice weekend everyone and enjoy your Sunday!

-Hanna xx

1 month

Okay I've decided to write everything in English because it's so much easier when I don't have to write in two languages and most of you understand English so you can read this or if not just watch the pictures. Okay so now it's been a month since I came here and it still feels a bit weird to think that I'll be here for 10 months.. But starting to get comfortable over here and everything starts to feel familiar.

So during this last month I have started my new college, started to train badminton at the university of Birmingham and made bunch of new friends and been to some competitions too. So I have had time to explore this city and get to know this place. I don't really know what to write about so I thought that I could just put some photos over here and tell more about them. And it's always nicer to watch photos than to read this boring text right? So anyway I'll let you enjoy the photos now and have a great week!

-Hanna xx

 

1. Last photo before leaving Finland! 2. Because we just had to get

starbucks from the airport 3. Birmingham 4. Peppi's breakfast and that cheese haha

 

 

1.&2. First time in Nandos 3. Just breakfast 4. My college's course program

 

1. My new room <3 2. The view from my window 3.&4. Birmingham city

from library's roof

 

1. Lunch! 2. Best sweets ever! 3. Apparently they do potatoes in the microwave

over here..? 4. My ID card

 

1. My morning a week before my college started 2. Blondies from Finland<3 3. My host 

moms sons lovely children<3 4. My new time table

 

1. Because it's more fun to travel in a 2 level bus 2. Outfit for one day

3. College café 4. Waiting for train that takes me to university

 

1. One of my host moms grand children made me this (:

2. I was at a childs bday party 3. donut (: 4. Because Dumbo

is simply the best!



1. Bday starbucks (; 2. Bday selfie 3. Some presents from host family

4. Chocolate as a present from the badminton crew that I train with

1. Candy floss at college 2. BATH! 3. First competition in England and

runner up in doubles 4. First fish & chips meal

1. Had the best dessert ever with the best company<3 2. Banana pancakes 3. Photo from my second competition in England, singles final 4. I found the best vintage shop ever!!

My runner up trophy from the second competition

 

My parents bday gift for me (:

30.8.

Jep jep elikkä nyt on siis eka postaus Englannin puolelta. Oon jo päässy tänne taloon ja siitä selitän vähän myöhemmin mut eka kerron vähän soft landing campistä mikä meillä siis oli Birminghamissa to 28.8.- la 30.8. eli se kesti 2 kokonaista päivää.

Lento lähti 06.45 aamulla Suomen aikaa eli lentokentällä piti olla viiden aikoihin. Siellä sitte tapasin muita vaihtareita, jotka tuli samalla lennolla mun kanssa. Siellä sitten säädettiin kaikki mitä piti tehdä ja kun laukkujen painoraja oli 23kg nii mun toine laukku oli 22,7kg ja toinen 22,8kg joten aika hyvin olin laskelmoinu nää asiat. Sitte baggage dropin jälkeen mentiin turvatarkastuksesta ja viimeset hyvästit tutuille ja se oli menoa sit! Lennettiin siis eka Kööpenhaminaan ja sitte sieltä toisella lennolla Birminghamin lentokentälle. Birminghamissa meitä oli vastassa country manager ja se keräs meidät kaikki kokoon ja mentiin odottamaan semmoselle kahvila alueelle, jossa syötiin kevyt lounas kun odoteltiin muista maista tulevia vaihtareita. Vaihtareita meidän leirillä oli siis Saksasta, Tanskasta, Suomesta ja yks tyttö Ruotsista. Nää kaikki on sijotettu Birminghamin alueelle eli meidän leirillä oli vaan niitä nuoria, jotka tulevat asumaan tässä Biminghamin läheisyydessä nää 9-10kk.

Ekana päivänä eli torstaina mentiin eka hotellille ja kun ei vielä saatu huoneita lähdettiin pienelle Birmingham kiertueelle eli meille näytettiin vähän paikkoja. Kierroksen jälkeen mentiin hotellille ja vietiin kamat huoneisiin ja saatiin levätä hetki. Se oli tosi hyvä, koska kaikki oli ihan kuolleita kun oltiin herätty joskus 4 aikoihin aamulla. Lepäämisen jälkeen mentiin syömään kiinalaiseen, missä meille oli varattu pöytä ja siellä oli tosi paljon erilaisia jälkiruokia! No sitten ku oltiin siellä syöty mahamme täyteen lähettiin takasin hotellille ja siellä mentiin melkeen heti nukkumaan, koska väsymys taas iski ja nukuttiinki sitten sikeesti aika moni varmaan koko yö.

Perjantaina sitten herättiin hyvin levänneinä ja suunnattiin aamupalalle. Aamupalan jälkeen meillä oli pieni luento kaikesta tähän vaihtarivuoteen liittyen. Eipä siellä välttämättä kauheesti mitään uutta tietoa tullut, mutta olihan kaikki hyvä käydä läpi kertauksen vuoksi. Sen jälkeen alko vapaa-aika!!! Mikä tarkotti, että shoppailu täältä tullaan! Käytiin siis kaupoissa ja kauppakeskuksessa nimeltä bullring. Vaikka meillä oli 4 tuntia aikaa ei me ehitty käydä kun ehkä 4-5 kaupassa, koska ne kaikki oli toooooosi isoja. Shoppailun jälkeen mentiin syömään ja sieltä mentiin kattomaan leffa nimeltä Lucy. Oli vähän omituinen, mutta silti aika hyvä. Sen jälkeen taas hotellille ja sen päivän ohjelma loppu siihen. Sitten vaan panikoitiin perheisiin menoa ja pakkailtiin kamoja aamun lähtöä varten. Mentiin taas aika aikasin nukkumaan ja mielessä pyöri vaan seuraava päivä ja jännitys.

La aamuna meidät siis haki jokaisen oma host vanhempi hotellilta. Siellä sitten hyvästeltiin vähäks aikaa kaikki kaverit ja lähdettiin kohti uutta kotia. Tää koti on just tyypillinen englantilainen talo, kapeet portaat ja suurin osa lattiasta on kokolattiamattoa. Mulla on tosi iso huone, josta oon tosi innoissani, koska Suomessa mun huone on oikeestaan aika koppi :D Täällä on paljon tilaa tehdä kaikkea ja muutenkin tää on tosi kiva ympäristö missä asutaan. En oo nähny kauheesti täällä vaaleaihoisia ihmisiä ja tää onki jotain aasialaista aluetta vaikka eniten täällä näkyy tummia ihmisiä. Se eroaa siis jotenkin siitä paikasta, missä asun Suomessa ja mä kyllä tykkään tästä. Kaikki tarpeellinen on kävelymatkan päässä ja hyvät juna-ja bussiyhteydet keskustaan ja muualle. Lopussa vielä vähän kuvia (ei kyllä paljoa, mutta toivottavasti kelpaa..) Birminghamin keskustasta ja mun huoneesta.

Eli tässä nyt eilen kierreltiin vähän ruokakauppoja ja tänään sitten ollaan käyty ostaa mulle kaikki mitä tarttin elikkä shampoot ja tälläset jutut. Oltiin myös tänään yhdellä mun host äitin pojista kylässä ja mennään sinne noin tunnin päästä vielä päivälliselle. Eipä tässä vielä oo oikein muuta tullut tehtyä, mutta eiköhän tässä sitten lisää postausta tuu kun oon tehny jotain kiinnostavaa. Toivottavasti teillä oli hauska viikonloppu kaikilla ja mukavaa tulevaa viikkoa!

-Hanna

So this is the first post that I've written from England. I am already at my new home and I will tell more about that later but first I will tell about the soft landing camp that we had in Birmingham on thu 28th- sat 30th of august.

Our flight left at 6.45am finnish time so we had to be at the airport at 5am. There I met other finnish exchange students who came with the same flight as I did. There was a weight limit (don't know what it is in english but something like that I guess..) for baggage and it was 23kg and my other bag was 22,7kg and the other was 22,8kg so I think I did pretty good with packing haha. After baggage drop we had to go trough the security check and say the last goodbyes and it the it all started! First we flew to Copenhagen and from there with another plane to Birmingham airport. There was a country manager waiting for us at the airport of Birmingham and she gathered us around and we went to a café place to eat a light lunch and wait for the other exchange students to come. There were people fron 4 different countries at the camp; Finland, Germany, Denmark and one girl from Sweden. All these youngsters are placed in the Birmingham area so there were only those young people at our camp who are going to live in the Birmingham area for the next 9-10 months.

On the first day (thursday) we first went to the hotel and because our rooms weren't ready we went for a tour trough Birmingham so they showed us around. After the tour we went back to the hotel and took our stuff to our rooms and we got finally some rest. It was really good because everyone were so dead because we'd been waken up at 4am. After a good rest we went eating to a chinese restaurant. They had booked us a table and there were so many good looking desserts! Well when we had finished eating as much as we could we went back to the hotel and almost straight to bed because we became tired again and we (or at least most of us) slept really well the whole night.

On friday we woke up after a really well slept night and we went to eat some breakfast. After breakfast we had a lesson about all the things that this exchange year involves. There wasn't really that much new information but it was good to go trough everything just so that we remember it all well. After that our free time started!!! Which meant that shopping here we come! So we went to shops and a big mall called bullring. Even though we had 4 hours time we only had time to go to about 4-5 shops because they all were soooooooo big. After shopping we went eating and straight from there we went to watch a movie called Lucy. It was a bit weird but good. After that back to the hotel and the program of that day ended. Then we just paniced about going to our families and packed our things for the morning. Again we went pretty early to bed and we could only think about the next day and excitement.

On Saturday morning our host parent(s) picked us up from the hotel. We said goodbye to our new friends for a while and we headed to our new homes. This house that I'm living in is a typical english home, thin staircases and most of the floor is carpeting. I have a really big room which I'm really excited about because in Finland my room is really small :D There are lots of space to do everything and this is a nice neighbourhood that I'm living in. I haven't really seen so much white people over here and this is an asian area but most of the people that I have seen are black. So it is a bit different than my neighbourhood in Finland but I like it. Everything that you need is close so you can walk and I have great train and bus connections to the centre and everywhere else. You'll see some pictures (not many though but I hope they are enough..) in the end and they are from the Birmingham city centre and my room.

So yesterday we went to some grocery stores and today we bought everything that I was missing like shampoo and that kind of stuff. We were also visiting my host moms sons house today and we are going there for a dinner in an hour. I don't think I have anything else to tell right now but there will be more texts when I have done something interesting. So I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend and have a great next week!

-Hanna