Time Flies Bye...

It is ridiculous, really. This whole program, since December 2006, has gone so fast. A little too fast, perhaps. It's funny to think about actually going back to finland in a couple of weeks. And sad, too. I t
hink Sapporo, and my friends I made here, really grew on me. I feel at home. I feel at home with the bright dawns and early dusks, the energetic, bustling scene in the commercial district, the all-you-can-drink soirées in various izakayas, the extremely annoying routine of getting up for 8.45 classes three to five times a week, getting bentoo for lunch, marusei or starbucks coffee.. So, it feels weird, leaving this set of routines, not to mention my friends, behind me. And as nice as it feels to think about meeting my old friends in Finland again, it makes me wonder how well I will get used to my old home, even with all the old, familiar routines? Of course, having my friends there helps, and school, and work.. It's a comforting thought to have all these nice things waiting for me there when i get back. Yet somewhere in the back of my mind, I feel this strange feeling, a certain unrestful feeling. I feel I won't be living in my old city for long, or my country. That feeling is nothing new, but I feel it more now, of course, going back home. I have no intention to move back to Japan, though. Don't get me wrong, I like the country in many ways, but I just do not see myself living in this type of "group-oriented" (Word to Stapleton!) society. I will be back though, probably many times, and I am interested in improving my Japanese and some day maybe do translation work in Japanese..But that's later. My sight is set on Europe, probably Germany or France, though I am not excluding any options, I am not that well informed yet. But time will tell, I bet it'll be cool, wherever I end up. These last couple of months went by extremely fast. First, in early June, Anna and Matias came here. It was a very nice week, and it was probably nice for them to get a break from all the studying and working. Also, it was a good excuse for me to take it easy at school here too, and forget about homework for a while. We mostly just walked around Sapporo, seeing funny shops and nice parks and such. A shopping vacation while trying to keep it as low-end as possible. We actually managed to find nice things for both, though to my sister's surprise, she was too skinny even for Asian standards. Anyhow, it was fun Thanks you two:) I'll see you soon:) Right after my sister and Matias departed, my girlfriend arrived here. To put it short, we had 18 amazing days here. There's no other way to explain it. Ng goi, lui pang yau:) The first few days, we walked around Sapporo, shopping and sight-seeing. We made salad, and ate it in the university park almost every day. We cooked a lot too. Very nice, just living together, doing normal, everyday things. We also managed to travel a little, going to Furano to see lavender, and other flower fields. The trip was very nice, even if we missed one train by three minutes, and we ended up coming back home almost three hours later.. But if we hadn't missed that train, we wouldn't have found a nice soba-noodle restaurant where we had a delicious, BIG, meal. Another trip we did was to Otaru, the small port town 30 minutes away from Sapporo by train. The weather was amazing, and the pictures we took on the Ungadoori-canal were so beautiful the background looks fake:D We enjoyed every single moment so much, it was hard to say goodbye on July 4th. I miss everything we did together here, and it took a while to get used to being without my better half.. But it's ok, I'm going back to 852 in October:) Can't wait! -Which brings us to the topic of returning to Finland. I am feeling much better now about going back home. First of all, seeing my old friends and family. Secondly, having a job and a steady income again really eases my mind. But most importantly, I am happy about having the exit door in sight again; going back to Hong Kong and seeing my Colina:) Peace, I'm out like Shinzo Abe.