Town Touring

I've been enjoying the landscapes here in New Zealand. I seem to not get enough of the mountains. I love waking up in the mornings knowing that the first thing I see is a beautiful row of mountains. Because it's winter there are some snow tops which are incredibly gorgeous.

Uudessa-Seelannissa on toistaiseksi mielestäni parasta ollut maisemat. Vuoristosta etenkin en tunne saavani tarpeeksi. On ihanaa herätä aamulla, kun tietää, että ensimmäinen asia, jonka näkee silmät avatessaan on henkeä salpaavan kaunis vuorijono. Täällä on nyt talvi, jonka vuoksi muutamia huippuja peittää lumi.

Even the mountains are ultimately the best thing about the environment here I like the neighbourhood with its houses almost as much. The suburban areas in Finland aren't really suburb, I don't even know what to call them. Anyway, here I feel like I'm walking in American movies or Lorde's music videos. Someone asked me about the roads in Finland, if they're the same as in here. I answered no but I couldn't explain the difference. Cheesy to say but you have to see it your self.

Vaikka vuoristo on ehdoton suosikkini ympäristöstä puhuttaessa, olen silti ihastunut myös naapurustoon taloineen. Lähiöalueet Suomessa eivät ole oikeita lähiöitä. En edes tiedä millä nimellä niitä kutsuisi. Täällä kävellessäni tunnen olevani amerikkalaisessa elokuvassa tai Lorden musiikkivideolla. Joku kysyi minulta Suomen teistä ja josko ne ovat samanlaisia kuin täällä. Vastaukseni oli kieltävä, mutten osannut selittää, mitä eroja hahmotin näiden välillä. Sen vain tietää, kun sen näkee.

The good thing about Levin is its size. Not too big since I'm used to live in half-rural-half-urban area but not too small, meaning that we have shops and several places to spend your free time. My host brother's wife took me to local grocery store one day. The store was huge and they had 10 products to each one we had in Finland. They honestly had pretty much everything.

Hyvä puoli Levinissä on sen koko. Kaupunki ei ole liian iso minulle, joka olen tottunut asumaan puoliksi maalla, puoliksi kaupungissa. Levin ei myöskään ole liian pieni, eli täältä löytyy kauppoja ja useampi paikka vapaa-ajan kulutukseen. Host-veljeni vaimo vei minut yhtenä päivänä paikalliseen ruokakauppaan. Kauppa oli valtava ja jokaista Suomesta löytyvää tuotetta kohtaan löytyi 10 eri variaatiota. Täältä löytyy tosissaan ihan melkein kaikkea.

Lately I've been doing some walking in the town. This evening I packed my hand bag and headed to town. I didn't have a plan what would I do in the centre once I get there. Fate or what ever eased my decision since the grocery store was the only shop still open. So, I decided to take my time and went through to whole store. I spent maybe half an hour and then finally purchasing one bar of pink chocolate, chocolate chip cupcake, hairspray and juicy fruit -gum. 

Olen viimeaikoina tehnyt melko pitkiäkin kävelylenkkejä ympäri kaupunkia. Tänä iltapäivänä pakkasin käsilaukkuni ja lähdin keskustaa kohti. Minulla ei ollut minkään laista suunnitelmaa, mitä keskustaan päästyäni tekisin. Onneksi kohtalo tai jotain helpotti päätöksen tekoa, sillä vain tämä yksi kauppa oli auki. Päätin ottaa aikani ja käydä perusteellisesti läpi jokaisen hyllyn ruokakaupassa. Kulutin puolisen tuntia tutkaillen erilaisia tuotteita ja lopuksi päädyin kassalla vaaleanpunaisen sulkaan, suklaahippumuffinssin, hiuslakan ja purkkapaketin kera.

I guess I had a lot of fun just discovering a lot of new stuff in the store. I've enjoyed my walks here and I think it has been the best way to see and photograph the town. 

Uskon, että minulla oli todella hauskaa löytäessäni aivan uusia ruokatuotteita sun muuta. Olen nauttinut kävelyistäni täällä ja omasta mielestäni ne ovat olleet paras tapa nähdä ja valokuvata kaupunkia.

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Arriving to New Zealand + mixed feelings

I waited a year and a half this moment. I'm an exchange student here and now and I couldn't be more confused. It feels rather bittersweet. I've read so much information, so many blogs and god knows what else. Still I have a feeling I don't know what I'm doing. It's been great since I arrived but I feel like I'm running a circle and I don't know if I'm running to the right direction. 

Right, now when we've gone through the heart-part let's move to the brain-part. It's been great, as I said. My host siblings have been taking me everywhere and it has been a blast. I've been to Wellington and Wanganui, Palmerston North. I've took a part in home blessing, couple of birthdays and a concert. I've been here for one and half weeks but it feels rather a couple months which means, I think, I've settled down pretty well.

My family's amazing. My siblings here are all adults already and all except one have their own families. I'm so grateful I have been able to spent time with them. The whole family is pretty big, quite the same as my natural family in Finland with all my aunties and uncles and cousins and grandparents. The way we spend time with family in Finland differs a lot to the way the do here in New Zealand. Kiwis have more celebrations which most of the family tries to attend. The celebrations aren't exactly big or fancy but easy-going and a nice way to see the family. I guess it's easier here, because the offspring doesn't move that far from childhood home. In Finland when kids grow up they leave their hometown for some other city, sometimes quite far away.

Scroll down to this post to watch my travel journal on video. Enjoy + don't forget to subscribe to my new channel KatKettu on youtube :)

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Tuusula 2014 || Feelings before exchange

Good night folks! Or morning, or something. It’s 1.37 am and I’m spending my last night at home. I’m sitting in our living room’s blue sofa, listening some emotional music and writing about my feelings about this whole wow-I-am-an-exchange-student thing.

I’ve never before planned a blog post. Now I’m having a real paper with some notes right next to me. Now you can really tell I’m trying really hard doing a proper post.

As I told, it’s my last night at home. Actually now it’s also the date of my departure which means I have about 19 hour left to stand on the ground of our brilliant country. It’s amazing to leave, see the world but it’s also really confusing because by the time I’ll be back here I’m gonna be 18 years old, practically an adult, which I definitely am not. Not yet.

It hasn’t been rosy, I have to admit, but it definitely has not been all bad. For example, I’ve panicked which is a wonderful thing to me. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned about this anywhere else but I can’t stress or panic about absolutely anything. No I’m again inside that bubble where I can’t feel nothing. I’m neither scared nor excited. It’s nice, I mean it’s awesome to be calm now when I actually need to be calm.

So now I have a year left being a child, learning the world. Actually I have my whole life to do all that, but for now I feel like my freedom’s gonna limit to half when I come back. I’ve been put through some really hard stuff, mainly first world decisions so really nothing. It’s been a total pain to try to decide which macbook sleeve or suitcase I want to have or packing with the principle of the shopaholic ”do I need this?”. Besides, the whole understanding-thing has been really hard. Sometimes I do understand, some other times I don’t. I mean, how can you prepare yourself to a one-year trip. I tried, didn’t really succeed.

By the times I haven’t been thinking about my feelings I’ve been packing and planning the airport-stuff. It’s actually been pushing me to do lost of stuff I wouldn’t have done otherwise. While packing I’ve been, of course, searching for lots of stuff and actually found some, almost all. I found that little adapter which came with this macbook, I’ve found my jacket and my shorts. This is awesome because if I didn’t leave I probably wouldn’t found these things. Other pro in this situation must be the fact that I’ve made a wonderful friend with who I can do puzzles with.

There’s lots to learn and I’m gonna be open to all. One thing I’ve learned already: everything’s gonna be all right.

I’m gonna see you all probably on this weekend when I’m starting my vlogging thing on my new youtube channel (which you can check out and maybe subscribe to here). I’m gonna vlog our journey from Helsinki to Palmerston North and after that you’ll have the front seats to the exchange student’s life.

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kesäkuu tähän asti / june so far

Hei taas! Suomen kielen ei parane antaa ruostua, sillä se selvästi näkyy heti (tätäkin lausetta sai työstää iät ja ajat). Kesäkuu on alkanut mukavasti ja samaa mallia hurahtanut jo melkein puoleen väliin. Aloitin heti toinen päivä kesätyöt Ylellä, ja siellä olen istunut maanantaista perjantaihin, kuusi tuntia per päivä. Valittaa en voi, enkä edes halua. Olen päässyt tutustumaan muihin kesätyöntekijöihin sekä oman kanavani (YleX) eri tiimeihin. Eilen muuten kahdelta ja kolmelta oli gallup à la Kat Jälki-istunto-nimisessä ohjelmassa.

Tähän mennessä olen saanut tehdä galluppeja ja taustatyötä eri ohjelmia varten. Eilen kävin Korkeasaaressa haastattelemassa porukkaa samoin kuin edellisellä viikolla päärautatieasemalla. Nyt alkaa pikkuhiljaa arvostus galluppien kerääjiä kohtaan nousta - on nimittäin oikeasti hankalaa ja raastavaa duunia. Toisaalta päällepäin jää sitäkin ihanampi onnistumisen tunne, jos edes yksi ihminen vaivautuu vastaamaan.

Yksi asia, josta on mainittava ihan erikseen, on ruoka. Ylellä on monta eri ravintolaa/kanttiinia, joissa jokaisessa on tullut syötyä erinomaisesti. Kouluruokaan tottuneelle ja sitä odottaneelle tämä gurmee tuli mahtavana yllätyksenä, jolle on hip-hip-hurraata huudeltu jo useampaan otteeseen.

Hello there. The June has started nicely and by this time it's almost the middle of it. I started my summer job at Yle on the second of June and now I've been sitting there from Monday to Friday six hours per day. I can't complain, although I don't even want to. I've had a possibility to get to know not only the other summer employees but also my broadcasting channel's (YleX) teams. By the way, yesterday I featured with my straw poll in Jälki-istunto (eng. detention), one of our shows. 

Until now I've made a couple straw polls and done some researching for different shows. Yesterday I visited the Korkeasaari Zoo to interview some people as I did the previous week at the central railway station. I'm giving all my respect to those who do straw polls - it's freaking hard.

One thing I want to mention here in its own paragraph is food. Yle has quite many restaurants/canteens which all serve delicious meals. I'm pretty used to school lunches as, I think, the other summer employees are too.  I kind of expected to have that same gray stuff I always eat at school. The reality turned out to be way better. I've actually been hip-hip-hooraying when I see the menus.

Kävin pitkästä aikaa tallilla viikko takaperin. Tuli törmäiltyä niin turvallisiin kuin nenällisiin ystäviin, joita en ole ehtinyt näkemään sitten viime Joulun. Puoli vuotta on mennyt nopeasti, mutta sitäkin nopeammin on mennyt koko vuosi. Vuosi ratsastamatta on ollut erilainen, muttei huono. Tallille on ikävä enää harvoin, mutten otaksu sitä huonoksi asiaksi. Heppavuodet ovat omalta osaltani nyt pussissa. Toisaalta Levinissä (kaupunkini Uudessa Seelannissa) on laukkaradat (race course), mikä tarkoittaa, että tulee varmati kerran ratsastettua vaihdossa. 

I went to stable a week ago after a long, long time. I reunited with many horse and human friends which I hadn't seen after... what, Christmas! This half year has run like a racer, but still the speed of this whole year took the victory. It's been a year without horses but it hasn't been a bad year, no. I miss stable and horses quite rarely nowadays but, myself, I don't consider it as a bad thing. I'm done with riding but not with horses. On the other hand in Levin (my hometown in New Zealand) they have a race course which means I going to do some riding during exchange. 

Olin viime maanantaina kuvailemassa kavereitani, vanhaa ryhmääni. Porukalla sattui olemaan hyppytunti, minkä ansiosta pääsin testailemaan kuvaamista vähän korkeammalla tasolla. Hyppykuvista muutama onnistui, mikä oli yli omien odotusteni. Kokeilin aikalailla laidasta laitaan kaikkea ja huomasin hyppykierroksen jälkeen, että kannattaa tarkentaa vähäsen liian eteen. Näin sain hevosen pään tarkaksi. Vielä täytyy hioa tekniikoita, jotta saisi koko kropan skarpiksi. Mikäli jollakulla on vinkkejä tähän, olisi niitä mukava lukea kommenteista :)

So, last Monday I was photographing my friends' riding lesson. They happened to have a course jumping lesson so I got to train my photographing skills on the next level. Some of the jumping pics succeeded, some didn't. Anyway, I was happy to the result. I tested different set-ups with my camera and after a few rounds of jumping I noticed I had to focus my camera a bit too forward. This is how I got the horse's head focused. I still have to train... a lot so if someone has good tips, please, leave a comment :)


Muutoin kesäkuu on vierähtänyt juhliessa syntymäpäiviä ja läksiäisiä. Seitsemäntoista kesää on täynnä ja seuraava tulee vietettyä tuolla kaukana. Lisäksi iltapäivisin olen viettänyt laatuaikaa äidin kanssa. On käyty ostoksilla ja syömässä, mutta myös istutettu kukkia sun muuta. Vaikka on kiireistä ollut, on kesä silti ihana. 

Video on kuvattu viiemviikolla, älkääpi ihmetelkö :)

Otherwise I've spent June celebrating my departure and 17th birthday. I've also spent some evenings with my mom shopping, having a dinner and doing some gardening. Even though it's been busy it's still been summer and summer's always lovely.

The video is filmed last week so don't be confused :)

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Karma?

Karma is a thing nowadays, I think. I once saw this cool recycling-karma pic which inspired me for a long time.

Lately I've noticed that the stuff I do leaves marks and my future is actually depended on those acts. It's normal and that is how it should go. Still, there are some scenes which aren't related to each other in any way and I feel they are connected. You know what I mean, right? It's karma.

I am Christian but I don't believe in God every single day. I think I still can't live without believing in anything supernormal. It just depends on the day: sometimes it is God, the other it might be Harry Potter. Often this "supernormal" thing to me is karma.

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