I think this is love

Confession time! I can't say that I know what it's like to be in love with another person, but I can say with utmost certainty that I am in love with this city. Lincoln has turned out to be everything I expected and slightly more. I came into England thinking that it would rain all day and night because that's the weather in Finland right now and everybody knows England is super duper rainy--even rainier than Finland.

Well, turns out I should've packed way more t-shirts and skirts, because it's been so hot and sunny this past week that I've got a tan and every day has felt like my skin would just melt off and drip slowly into the Brayford.

Luckily, I'm still alive though. My skin is still on my bones, and all is going well.

I know how doors work now, I can cross the road without dying (knock on wood for me please), and I can get to the university without being ten minutes late for sooo many reasons.

It's all coming together.

The sun's not shining anymore. It started raining barely minutes after I got home today, so that was a huge blessing (your girl here did not bring an umbrella or jacket, because it's been SO HOT the past week!).

I don't know what else to say. People here are wonderful. Everyone's so sweet and helpful and kind. I don't feel lonely or like I'm struggling much with anything that could easily be fixed with a little bit of outside help. Often I don't even need to ask, because so often somebody's already there lending a hand or giving advice or just smiling at my confused face.

It's confusing to move across the sea, let me tell you. Normal, little things confuse me all the time. And sometimes people say stuff to me in English and I have no idea what they're saying.

But I'll be patient with myself, just like everyone around me is.

It's all fine.

Because I am in love with Lincoln.

Thoughts while traveling to Lincoln

I had a very disastrous journey from London to Lincoln, but now you can enjoy my confused random thoughts and perhaps have a laugh or two (because that's what audiences are for: to laugh at you when you're miserable. I'm joking. I'm not miserable. Just exhausted).

"People are wearing shorts?!?" said out loud and then instantly regretted.

I wish I could speak like an englishgirl. But my 'american' accent gives me away as a foreigner, and that makes people explain everything a bit slower. And I'm forgiven for the silly, sometimes stupid "foreigner" mistakes I make. So I guess I'm ok with being an american for now.

People are wearing skirts and sandals and is that a swimming pool full of splashing kids??!?

Crap it's hoooottt.

I get the shorts now. I wish I was wearing a skirt and sandals. And a hat to shield my head from the heaaaattt. What is the sun doing here?? It's autumn!!?

People around me really disapprove of my luggage.

Somebody just said it's too cold to wear something (I could hear what). I'd take that something any day. Forget about the bags causing my arms to fall off--I'm going to die from a heat stroke.

Oh it feels so good to finally be able to sit down and breathe.

And whoop, I'm up again. (Wondering if my arms are actually literally going to fall off soon)

I am totally blessed to be here and I should stop complaining. But now my back hurts!

I want to sleep.

But I have no keys so I have no home, which really means that I'll have nowhere to sleep tonight.

But everything always works out. I just know it. At least that's what I try to convince myself.

I'm not even in Lincoln yet. I need to worry about getting to Lincoln first, and then I can worry about where I can rest.

i just thought this was funny

Oh, English people are so nice!

People keep helping me with my luggage and I'm super grateful. I must look like a little stupid kid with these huuuge suitcases next to me. Well, almost true. I've got the arm muscles of a baby.

English kids are like Danish kids. They just randomly smile at you. I don't see many kids in Finland doing that... I wonder why. It's so nice to have someone to remind you that instead of sulking because it's hot and everything hurts, you could be sulking with a smile on your face.

Feltham is the absolute worst place in England. Everything goes wrong in Feltham. Don't ever go there. Don't ever try to find a bus stop there. You're going to start swearing and wishing you were dead. One final warning. Don't ever go to Feltham. It sucks.

A lot of the time when people want to be helpful and come talk to me, I have no idea what they're saying. I know they're speaking English, but I just stand there dumbfounded and repeat "sorry" until they slow down so much that it sounds like they're talking to a baby. Culturally, in England, I guess that's accurate. So I don't mind.

Thaaaaannnkkkkk gooooooooddddneeess for AC on buses!! Holy moly oh my goodness my life has been blessed by the divine power of cool air in my face. It's a wonderful thing, truly.

I need to pull it together and start getting used to the left side traffic or one of these days I'm going to get hit by a car.

I'll miss the smell of pines in the rain. Wonder how Lincoln smells in the rain....

Well, great. My cheeks and lips and my nose tingle and burn a bit. Did I really get a sunburn already? I truly belong to the great, cold, dark North where the sun never shines, don't I? This is ridiculous.

Is it just me, or does somebody else also feel like their teeth are sharper against their tongue when they're hungry?

My neck hurts from gawking out the window so much. But DAAAYYMMM it’s gorgeous.

xx

Em

Momentarily Homeless

Panic. It's time to panic.

Imagine this: you are on the airplane to England. No, don't imagine it. It's happening right now. Just look out the window.

I know! I said it first: time to panic!

This lil kitten wanted to come with me to England, and I wish I could've taken her :(

I woke up at 3am today, whereafter I spent two hours in the backseat of the car, staring at dark clouds and the slightly yellow motor way lights and a round-as-cheese moon floating past us (me, dad, mom) as Hallelujah played. (Side note: Hallelujah didn't play for the entirety of those two hours. We also listened to the Gladiator soundtrack (Hans Zimmer, aw yeah), The Rock soundtrack (Hans Zimmeeeeerrr aaaww yeeaah), the Shrek soundtrack, Swedish Schlager, 2008 greatest hits, and president Uchtdorf talks.)

Before waking up at 3am to pack my two ginormous suitcases into my family's car, I spent two weeks (well, technically one week, because I spent one of them in Copenhagen) at my family's house, sleeping behind the couch (on a bed, I'm not a peasant) and left the place looking like the aftermath of an apocalypse. The Emiliocalypse.

And boy do I regret not causing more of a havoc. Maybe to the dismay of my parents, but I wish I would've made my presence better known. I wish I would've gone on adventures in the woods with my little sisters, dared them to take one last spontaneous swim in the lake, baked way more cookies and accidentally ruining somebody's shirt while making some sort of grandiose and overly ambitious crafts project. I wish I would've told them crazy bedtime stories every night and walked them to school every day. I regret that I didn't spend every. freaking. second. being present and making memories.

Finland from the airplane

I have some sweet moments to treasure thought.

I remember going for a jog with my youngest little sister. I slowed down a little but she kept up with me all the way, and I was so proud of her. Then we ran laps around the running track at the sports center, and it started raining. She chased seagulls off the dock, and we sat on the edge, dipping our feet and splashing ourselves with freezing water.

splish splosh

I remember taking a Sunday walk with dad and the three youngest of my sisters. We walked by the edge of the lake, wet our shoes (at least some of us did. Clearly the most intelligent ones, let me tell you. With a strong sense of adventure sprinkled on top), and went to the sports center to do some long jumping (and fill our wet shoes with sand). And as if that wasn't enough, we still went to two different playgrounds after that, found an apple tree which we ate some super sour apples from, and didn't return home to eat mud cake and ice cream until the sun was starting to set.

England from the airplane

I remember baking chocolate chip cookies with the youngest sister on the same evening that I returned from Copenhagen. She didn't spill flour everywhere or crack the eggs on the tabletop. She did everything perfectly, like Cookie Santa's perfect little helper. That used to not usually be the case, and to be honest, it used to cause a lot more harm when she would be in the kitchen. But she's always been so cute that it doesn't matter... But now! Now she's so helpful and kind and sweet and talented and clever... And cute as ever!

Soon all my little girls will be all grown up and brave, and too cool to wake me up with cuddles and kisses and candy under my pillow.

So maybe it isn't completely my fault that I regret not doing more with my sisters. Maybe they have just grown up so much and they have more important things to do than follow me around all the time, as they did when they were little. Littler.

Either I'm going to break both my wrists or get super ripped

I've certainly grown up a lot. I don't know when it happened. But a child wouldn't be allowed to board a plane to England alone, and with a one-way ticket that she paid for all by herself and two ginormous suitcases that she filled all by herself with all her most important belongings that she's bought all by herself no less.

Seems like doing stuff all by oneself is just something we do in order to grow.

And that's why I am on this plane to England. Alone.

Aaaallll byyyyy myyyyyseeeeelf

Please join the journey.

I'll update this blog hopefully on a weekly basis with my thoughts, life lessons and pictures of all the wondrous things I find on this one-year adventure in Lincoln, England.

I hope you've enjoyed these last ponderings from my pre-Lincoln self. See you around!

Finland

Since I was a kid I’ve always been sort of a little forest fairy or nymph. I spent the first few years of my life in Finland, the second half of my childhood in Sweden, and now that I’ve gotten to do a bit of traveling, I couldn’t be happier to have got to grow up in the north.

So many moments getting lost and found in the woods, magic discovered in hidden ponds and adventures made in wet swamps, on steep cliffs and misty fields.

My nationality is something I’ve always kinda thought about a lot, and never really been able to pinpoint what I am. What I should answer when someone asks me where I’m from. Here and there? Is that good enough of an answer? Being a bilingual dual citizen and culturally confused kid, I’ve spent a lot of my life wondering who I really am, and what country I really belong to. Because even though technically it’s just a word on a passport or ID, it still matters and means a lot to us.

If you're a bit more of a "citizen of the world" instead of feeling a strong sense of belonging towards one country in specific, nationality can be tricky. 

But when I swim in Finnish lakes in the golden evenings, run through Finnish woods in the foggy mornings, light candles on Finnish cemeteries around the cold, harsh Christmas times… I feel like yeah, this is who I am.  I am really Finnish, and I feel like I am home.

It’s like a tangible magical dust floating in the air.

Finnishness is something I can feel on my skin.

It’s the light on summer nights when the sun doesn’t set. It’s the raindrops on your face when you leave your umbrella at home because there’s no way it will suddenly start raining when the sky looks so clear (but this is Finland we’re talking about, so you should know better and always be prepared!). It’s the chilly breeze in the autumn. It’s the frost biting your cheeks, and it’s the wet pine branches slapping against your body when you take a brisk morning walk in the forest.

Finnish people value honesty, silence, responsibility, cleanness, calm, loyalty, security and determination.

I love how our nature and the beautiful, peaceful landscapes around us are a constant reminder and expression of all those values.

That’s the kind of Finnishness I want to be a part of.

You Should Travel Solo

Running out of money? Do the hobo thing and sleep on the floor at the airport!

The first time I ever traveled to another country alone was last autumn, when I went to Stockholm alone after Golden Days to meet some family. Yeah, technically I wasn't alone all the time because my relatives live there and they took care of me, but it was still pretty nerve-wracking. I was super scared.

So you can only imagine how scared I was the past week when I went to Copenhagen alone.

Well, again, technically I wasn't alone because I met some friends and old acquaintances who kept me company and who I could go to if I had a problem.

But I still spent the majority of time on my own. With myself. Inside my own head.

For a week. Can you even imagine what that's like?

Now I truly understand what it means to be your own best friend. I'm not my own best friend yet, I'm not saying that.

But I'm saying that I wish I had been, because it's hard to spend 24/7 alone with someone you despise :D

So lesson number one when traveling solo: be your own friend, be compassionate towards yourself, be patient with yourself, allow yourself to mess up and fix it, listen to your body, listen to your mind, make sure to get the rest, the hydration and the nutrition you need. If you're traveling solo, you have nobody else.

It's hard, but if you don't take care of yourself, then you can't travel solo.

If you want to save money, plan everything in detail beforehand. I'm not much of a planner, so I didn't really plan, but I could've maybe saved on bus/train/metro tickets if I had. Also do your research on how to save money in the particular city you're traveling to, like where to shop for food, what restaurants are worth it, if it's possible that you could get any discounts and so on.

It's super exhilarating to travel with only a backpack, alone, wandering around like a vagabond and finding places you never knew. Being spontaneous and all that. I know. I like that too. But planning is also worth trying. Your wallet will thank you :)

Something I did a lot to stay spontaneous and adventurous was to just pick a random street and keep walking until I found something interesting. Then again, I've already seen all of Copenhagen's most touristy attractions, so this was a super fun way to find those hidden gems that nobody knows about. Funny looking trees, big snails, cute doors, old churches...

But I recommend trying this even if you're traveling to a place you've never been before.

When it comes to food, snack throughout the day. Maybe it's just because I'm always snacking and rarely actually eat "real food", but I found this very helpful. If you never allow yourself to become really hungry, you won't waste money on expensive food (but then again, maybe you want to try some fancy restaurant, and then I'd maybe advise you to not snack as much to save money, and space in your tummy).

As I walked around town, I would keep a bag of snack carrots in my backpack, have an apple every now and then, and try to eat one real meal every day (but some days I didn't...). But with Denmark's whole smørrebrød (sandwich) culture, I think it was just fine.

A perfect travel food I've found is nachos and guacamole. It's the best. I don't know why. But it's what me and my sister ate in Copenhagen a month ago, and it's what I ate the past week. Super healthy, I know, but it's amazing after you've eaten too many sweet carrots or nougat croissants...

Picnics every day, yay!

My every meal was honestly a picnic, lol

Just stay safe and have fun.

If you have any questions, send me a dm on instagram and I'll help ya out :))

Now enjoy some more pictures:

Piling rocks at this place has become a tradition now

How to speak to swans: make kissy noises at them and they'll come suuuper close to you! I don't know if it's only me, but every time I do this, swans just swarm around me xD

Look at this huuge snail!

I made lots of new friends when sitting and reading a book on a bench :)