First Time Nervous!

I'm kind of flipping out here actually. Finland is literally less than 24 hours (k.. don't account for timezones please) away. I FINALLY got an email reply from one of the tutors - someone's picking me up along with the keys to my apartment, yosh!

I think this is a mixed bag of feelings right now of everything from nervous to anxiety. Aaaaah! Everything's packed and ready to go - I just want to hop on the plane now and get the luggage check in done. D: My trip to Helsinki will consist of the following two stops.

Vancouver to Toronto, flight time ~ 4.5 hours, layover time ~ 1.75 hours
Toronto to Reykjavik, flight time ~ 5 hours, layover time ~ 1.75 hours
Reykjavik to Helsinki, flight time ~ 3.5 hours

Total trip time including layovers: ~ 16.5 hours, spanning ten time zones. Wee!

Sleep awaits me, then a flight early tomorrow morning. I'll try to update again in Toronto.

Night-Time Drive in the States

Wee!

Currently in the States in Everett. The experience was kind of interesting. Speed limits are higher in the States than I'm used to. During the day, I can easily adjust the speed just because .. well, I can see properly. At night time, not so much since the highways aren't lit very well. When I'm going uphill, it feels like I'm about to take off on a runway, LOL.

We're gonna go outlet shopping tomorrow at Woodburne and then on Sunday we'll come back to Everett/Seattle and the 202 outlet, probably buy a bit more. We stayed at 202 to shop for a bit and I found these ridiculous W52L32 pants. Pics or gtfo? That will have to wait.

More to write tomorrow! Sleep awaits me.

First Haircut at Home

Eeek. Dano gave me a haircut today and it looks decent, actually. Of course no pics, but people will see me soon enough. D: Off to Seattle/Portland! Update when I get home.

Visit to Ceilis Pub, Vancouver

Nice pub to hang out at with some friends. We went to celebrate end of semester and to farewell me to Finland. Beer specials and fish+chips were awesome, $5 each! Keiths was the usual affair, but their fish and chips were mediocre at best. Kensington Fish and Chips offers much nicer fish albeit at a higher price. We also had nachos which turned out to be excellent. Good stories were shared, and overall a very good night to be with friends.

Finland is soon...... Getting really excited and nervous too.

Visit to Elephant Walk Pub

I went to Elephant Walk pub today. Great atmosphere! It was also my first time going to a pub with some friends on steam. Wings night was awesome - $4/pound of wings. I had two pounds myself, then the five of us shared three pitchers of beer. Had good laughs, good times. I think I'll stick to pubs over clubs. Clubs are just.... too much dancing. Do not want.

I'm also done packing for Finland despite me needing to go the States on Friday to purchase more stuff. I don't even know what I'll be buying, but I'll buy!...some stuff.

First Lego Build in 10 years

First!

My sister went to LA the last week and got me back an AWESOME lego technic kit. Didn't know lego was so cool now, they give you multiple choices per model build! That's lego adapting to consumer needs right there.

Finland!

Alright - time to start thinking of Finland! So far the list of electronics to pack really isn't much.

1) Laptop
2) Charger for my camera

Anything else I could be missing? I've gotta start thinking hard about what I need to bring, packing my suitcase.. This is all kind of surreal to me. I haven't been away from home for an extended period of time by myself. Everyone I talk to says it'll be an amazing experience, and I trust them. I'm just concerned on how prepared I am for it.

This long haul of school's finally done. Another thing I can check off on my list, I suppose.

Stress Relief

This.

Good bye, Ruby on Rails!

August 12, 00:00:00.

That was the last encounter I had with Ruby on Rails. Though my time with it was short, I cannot help but appreciate its capabilities. There's a reason this thing's so damned hot in the tech scene - now I know why. This class was truly an amazing experience. I'd encourage anyone who takes Computing Science to do at least one upper division course in agile web development.

This makes 1/3. 2/3 and 3/3 will occur on Monday, August 16. Once that's done, I'll be free to push and pursue all Finnish things! I'm very excited. I just got an email from my tutor group (Why this sound like North all over again??) and some of the activities they have planned out are pretty cool. I may be visiting Stockholm (Sweden) if time permits! Bahaha, D: Exciting times these are...

Playing Ball Hockey is very tiring. It is also one of the more fun sports I've played - better than basketball for me. It was the first time I played pickup ball hockey, its quite a bit different than high school hockey! In the end, the team I was on won two of three games we had. D:

Oh Helsinki, about a month away from now. I really gotta start cleaning up my room and handling pre-leaving things. I'll be gone for four months... longest amount of time away from home! I hope to learn many new things, learn to be independent.. and of course, see Europe! It sucks that I'm in Helsinki because cheap flights rarely connect there -- its so 'off the chart' in relation to where Europe is. I'll still travel lots though! Fun fact: Did you know it takes me a short train ride to get the Russia?

I'll be visiting many countries. I'm most excited for Switzerland right now - not because of the high cost, but because I'll be able to visit CERN! Or at least, I hope when I visit, the tours will still be running! France is also going to be very interesting.. but now I'm not 100% sure whether or not I'll be able to visit all the places I want to go to! I'm also thinking Prague just to EXPLORE the city. Maybe Budapest too! Too many choices, so little time.. I must return to Europe again after I graduate!

Speaking of graduations, four more courses left for me and two more semesters of coop. I guess I'll be seeking for Spring 2011.. and if that doesn't go through, then just one semester and I'll graduate!