Last Entry

I'm finally back home.

Leaving Iowa City wasn't that easy. And by that I mean, that the flights were cancelled. It was so foggy that you couldn't see 2m ahead of you. So I slept the night at Cedar Rapids airport. I was so pissed off and disappointed not to see Tarmo that day. The night wasn't that bad, I made a nest from my luggages and slept a bit. The next morning there was a bus going to Chicago at 10 am so I took that. I had already rescheuled my flight for that day to Nashville. So I went to the airport and was really excited, finally I could see my baby! But no! 20 min before the flight was supposed to leave, it was cancelled. There was no flights to Nashville available for that weekend. So I got a flight to New York and slept the next night in there as it was no point going to a hotel for few hours. They also lost my luggagges, but that was only good thing as I was supposed to leave them to Nashville anyway.
So the next morning I left to our hostel and found out that there was no room left and they're going to transfer us to their daughter hostel but Tarmo needs to be there too before they can do that. So I left to the airport to wait Tarmo. And FINALLY we met! I thought that I had cried more but eventually it felt so natural to be with him. As if he'd been there the whole time :)

So we left to the hostel, got transferred to a better hostel and spent our Christmas in NYC. It was fun and nice and beautiful. After that we left to Nashville, rent a car and drove two days. We also visited The Smoky Mountains! I also met the professor in Vanderbilt and we spent one day in his labs. I was sick on New Year's eve, so I didn't celebrate, but it was OK, as we had time to rest. Finally we left back to Finland on Friday, all our flights were on time (except the last flight was 15 min late). We were two days at our parents house (slept most of the time and visited my friend who had a beautiful baby girl!) and finally yesterday we came back home! It felt sooooo GOOD (in Bruce Almighty style) to sleep in my own bed, under my own blanket, with my love.

Finally back home!

I'm still very tired, very jetlagged, wake up 2 am and can't sleep after that. Luckily we have some time to adjust back to this rythm.

Now that I look back the Fall I spent in Iowa City, I'm really glad that I left there. This experience gave me a lot self confidence, I never thought that I'd ever dare to travel after two nights in airports in NYC metro, alone. I also met many many wonderful people, visited beautiful places and had so much fun! I always knew that the time wouldn't be that easy all the time but most of the problems were still quite unexpected. This was my dream, and it was worth it. I won't do it again but I wouldn't want to miss this experience either. If I didn't have life so strongly in Finland, I maybe would've stayed longer. Everyone who wonders if exchange would be nice, DO IT! It really is worth it. It was a dream come true.