Liverpool

Hiyaah everyoneee! I know again it's been quite a long time since last time but I'm hereeee again! So this time I went to Liverpool with another Finnish exchange student Peppi and after that I went and stayed overnight at hers. This happened a while ago so might be that some of the information is a bit wrong buuut I'll tell you what I remember :)

So the day started quite early again. Somewhere around 8-9am our train left from Birmingham New Street towards Liverpool which meant that we both woke up around 6-7am. Before going in to the train we bought some food and we also found that they sell glasses of wine at Marks & Spencer's. That is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen :D Well I've seen quite a lot of weird things in England so I can just add that in to the list. Anyways the train journey was actually shorter than I remembered and it went quite fast which is always good.

When we arrived to Liverpool the weather was really nice and warm except it was a bit windy as always in England. As soon as we got there we started to walk around the centre and check all the shops that they had. I really liked the way how most of the shops were on one big street and then they had a couple of buildings with more shops inside them. The day was really hot so I had to buy another top because I was wearing a long sleeve shirt so it became quite hot after a while.

 

What we did during the day was basically: enjoying the sun and sitting outside eating ice cream, walking around Liverpool centre and going to the harbour, eating tacos for dinner and taking a lot of photos. We also visited the F.R.I.E.N.D.S inspired cafe and even though I don't really watch the tv show it was nice to go there and see what it was like.

 

 

Anyway that was our trip to Liverpool and I had a really fun day! Hope you all had a nice Monday :)

-Hanna xx

06/04/2015

I know most of my blog posts are about what I have done or something like that. Even though I do really think that this year definitely has its perks it also has some downsides, at least for me. I'm not saying that I'd rather be home right now and live my normal life because I like the fact that my life in England is quite different to my normal life in Finland. But I've noticed some things that probably other exchange students have noticed or will notice in the future. Might not be the exact same ones because I'm spending my year in England but some of them might be the same.

The food culture is quite different in England. I am used to eating quite healthy so that you get everything you actually need from it like proteins, vitamins, energy etc. but over here it isn't quite the same. Yes, I do know that I can do something about it and I am trying my best but the food is still not the same as in Finland. I'm not used to it. I feel like I don't have energy to do anything especially training or badminton and one of the reasons for that might be English food.

I've never been good with different foods and knowing what is good and what is bad in a way. Of course I do know that chicken has protein and it's good and vegetables are good fast food is crap but that's basically what everyone knows. I have never really watched properly what I eat because that seemed to be working okay in Finland. Now I just feel a bit lost because I'm so use to having all those "good things" in our fridge that it feels weird when they are not there. And I'm definitely not blaming anyone who buys the food in this house because it's not their fault. I'm just use to different things. So remember if you are thinking of being an exchange student the food might be totally different in the other country.

I have also noticed that my motivation for badminton hasn't been the same compared to when I was in Finland. In Finland I use to train like 9-10 times a week and then I had a lot more tournaments than I do over here. Usually when people don't have tournaments they think that it's the perfect time to improve everything that you need to before the next tournament. In a way I think that as well but the fact that I have played only 2 proper tournaments since last May doesn't really motivate me..

I don't train because I like training, I train because I like winning. I want to win which motivates me to actually train and make the effort to get better. Since I can't really compete over here and won't get the chance to win (except those matches that we play at training) I don't really have my motivation to train. I enjoy playing badminton though and I've got a chance to play some tournaments before I go to Finland which I think is great. Maybe I will get my motivation back somehow.

And the last, quite a big, thing that I've noticed while I've been in England is that in the end you don't really seem to be in contact with your friends from your own country. You don't really know what is going on with their lives because they don't tell you things like they use to unless you ask them. And they don't really seem to care what you do over here or then they are just wondering why you are not interested in them. I'm not accusing anyone not at all. I have just noticed that many people don't really make the effort to talk, to care. I mean even if I don't send the message first it doesn't mean that you can't. I have heard that some people have been wondering why I haven't been talking to them or said anything (not saying names) about how it is going over here. But I don't actually know if you are interested in what I do over here.

 I'm just saying that even though I might not be the one who contacts you all the time you are still a part of my life. I do want to talk with you, I want you to tell me how things are going over there, I also like if you ask questions like what have I been up to. You don't have to think that if I don't contact you, I'm not interested. Maybe I just have a feeling like you wouldn't be.

Yea, this post was a bit different to the other ones that I've posted but I felt like I needed to get it all out. And if you are a future exchange student or you'd want to be one one day don't give up on your dream just because I said these things. As I said I wouldn't change this year in to anything. I've learned so much, met a lot of amazing people and I've got to visit so many amazing cities and places. There will always be struggles in everything you do and exchange year is an perfect example. Not everything's gonna be perfect all the time, you'll get your good and your bad days cause after all this is life just like the one you live in your home country. Just remember to make most of it while you can.

-Hanna xx