Natalie From America

Before I dive into this post, I wanted to take a minute to thank those of you who have either reached out to me wishing me well on my move here or taken a minute to open my blog and read it. It has meant a lot to me to feel supported 4,000 miles away. When I started this blog, I started it with the intention of keeping family and friends in the loop with regular updates and include some nice pictures. What I've come to find, is a world of interconnectedness, of people interested in travel, of genuine people who want the best for me and have lended me a helping hand. It has given me so much  reassurance that I have made a great decision coming to Finland, and  I'm truly so grateful. This week I spent time with my mom who visited a country other than Greece, in Europe, for the first time! We explored Helsinki, Tampere, and Valkeakoski together and I was able to navigate surprisingly well.  We walked the piers, caught a boat ride, and enjoyed fresh se...

Thursday July 19, 2018 (Finland time) Alright guys... I made it! For approximately 45 minutes during my 24 hour travel experience, I didn't think I was going to be able to say that. But I'm here, reporting semi-live in Valkeakoski, Finland at 6:30am local time. I've been up since 4:00am, but it's cool because I have talked to about 4 family members already this morning. Let me back track for a minute to address my travel day. Apparently, one-way tickets to Europe can be extremely expensive. So... the easiest (and cheapest) way for me to travel was to go from Chicago to London-Gatwick to Stockholm to Helsinki. Yes, it sucked, thank you for asking. I left Chicago about 1 hour and 30 minutes delayed, and that obviously gave me major, sweaty, anxiety. By the time I got to London, I had approximately 30 minutes to get to my gate. So basically I was running around like a chicken in the airport, sprinting to customs, full on sweating. Come to find out, the customs line loo...

Hi all, First of all, if you're reading this, I appreciate whatever brought you here. Whether it be curiosity, support, or something else - I'm excited to be sharing this new adventure I'm about to take and I'm happy you're here. I never thought I would air out my life, so to speak, but here we are. I figured this journey is something worth documenting. As some may know, I'm a little less than 2 weeks away from embarking on a move to Finland. And of course the questions come up: Why Finland, what's there? What does your boyfriend do? If you want to know the answer to the latter, you can read all about David's journey here . Truthfully, I can't think of a better time to experience something like this. I've never lived abroad, I've traveled abroad, but living is a whole new experience.  While this decision doesn't come lightly, it does come with excitement, gratitude, and some apprehension (but that's a post for a different day.) ...