Recap of My Exchange Year at ISU

ISU Campus Area

As my time on exchange here at Iowa State University winds down, it is now time to look back on the things that this truly amazing year brought along. It has been much fun to write this blog and notice that there are actually people following my blog in addition to those russian hackers that make regular visits to this site every month. And, believe it or not, in March my blog reached a benchmark of 2,000 pageviews (Thanks mom <3 ). Hurray!

 ISU Campus Area

I started to write my blog in the beginning of last August and, at first, mostly in Finnish. At that point the return date was set to be May 20, 2012, which I eventually changed to this saturday (May 5, 2012). Before coming to the US, the only places I had travelled to were the Baltic countries, and I also had never been on a plane.

The school year started with an orientation week where I also met most of my international friends. As expected, the first thing I was forced to adjust to was the food. I wrote in Finnish about the food shock that I had to encounter (: 

Small gym in the dorm

Walking around the campus and getting to know people and places was everyone's first priority during the first two weeks of the school year. I made a lot of new friends while also finding my second home, Beyer Hall and State Gym. Especially for the Fall semester Beyer Hall was the place where I would spend most of my spare time by playing basketball and working out.

My second home - State Gym

My first trip to anywhere in the US was a visit to Iowa State Fair. Last week I went through the videos I recorded during the Fair trip and it's funny how many people, with whom I would later on become good friends, were on that same trip but whom I didn't know at the time. A few weeks after the Iowa State Fair I also went for another (shopping) trip to Jordan Creek Mall. There I would get my first chance to try the original cheesecake by the Cheesecake Factory. I can tell you, the cheesecake, it's unbelievably good!

Minneapolis Road Trip

In the early September we went for a road trip to Minneapolis with a group of eight exchange students that would later be the core group of another trip to Miami in late November. In Minneapolis we got to see a little bit of the downtown, Mississippi river, the NBA, MLB and NFL stadiums as well as the night life of the city. For a novice traveler like me, arriving in Minneapolis and seeing an actual skyline for the first time, was an unforgettable moment. Although, there were many more impressive skylines to come on my way.

Cyclones vs Hawkeyes

Later that month I would go to see a long-awaited college football game, a rivalry between Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones. This game was to be one of the highlights of a pretty successful NCAA football season for Iowa State Cyclones that would end it's season with the greatest game for decades when it beat #2 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in late November. Too bad, however, that I was already in Miami when the Buckeyes were in town (;  Anyway, during the Fall Semester I went for a total of three football games and had the chance to experience the incredible atmosphere like no other that the game days here in the United States have. It is definitely something that we, Finnish people, could learn a lot from. If you ever have a chance to attend to any NCAA football or basketball game I urge you to go. It something you shouldn't miss!

@ Badlands

The most brutal road-trip I was part of has to be the trip to Mount Rushmore in mid October. Ten hours of driving in both directions in one weekend was absolutely worth it, but there's no denying that all the driving was... well, brutal. Nevertheless, seeing famous monuments such as Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, as well as Badlands National Park, was mind-blasting and tons of fun! Thanks to the Singaporean and Malaysian road warriors that made the road trip possible!

In the end of October it was time for a traditional American holiday, Halloween. Obviously, it was appropriate to find a costume for Halloween parties, so, I was feverishly looking for something to wear but had a hard time of finding anything. It was easier said than done but eventually, almost in the last minute of course, I managed to find a proper costume. From Walmart I found a nice fairy costume with a pair of wings and a nice headband that would be the foundation of my sweet fairy costume. However, it turned out to be quite difficult to get the fairy wings on since they were actually a dog's costume. Ultimately I was able to get the wings on, and with the help of Red Bull and maybe something else, even fly for a moment that night!

Thanksgiving Break -Chicago

In November we headed out for another road trip with almost the same line-up as we had in Minneapolis. This time we had more time for travelling since it was also Thanksgiving Break from school. The first weekend we stayed in Chicago and after two days there took a plane to Miami and South Beach! The weather in Miami was just perfect, neither hot nor cold and almost no rain, and we took a full advantage of it by spending most of the time by the beach and swimming in the ocean! I also had my birthday while we were in Miami and obviously it was a B-Day that is going to be hard to beat anytime in the near future :D 

Good friends, South Beach, Sun = neverforget!

Chinese Restaurant either in LA or SF :D

Next in turn was the longest road-trip I would be doing in the US, the California Road Trip, which took place during the winter break. In our group we had ten people and seven different nationalities represented ( from Taiwan, South-Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Spain, France and Finland). The greatest advantage of having such a multicultural group was that there's always someone who could use their mother tongue if knowing English just wasn't enough for some reason. The road trip included four cities: Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in three weeks. There are so many great memories from California Road Trip that I recommend you to read all the parts I wrote about it to my blog. Some of the highlights of that trip were the Casinos in Las Vegas, Coronado Island in San Diego, Hollywood and Lakers game in Los Angeles and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, just to name a few. ...By far the craziest road-trip I've ever made in a way that how much we travelled during those three weeks (:

In spring I finally had a chance to go for Iowa State Cyclones men's basketball games. I was lucky since the two games I went to were arguably the best games of the season: vs. Kansas State Wildcats and Kansas Jayhawks, which actually made it all the way to the NCAA finals this year. In the Cyclones team we had one potential NBA draft pick who, not surprisingly, declared himself for this years draft that is to be held on June 28.

Spring Break Trip - Philadelphia

After having travelled already through California and to Chicago and Miami, there were only three must-see places for me in the US that I had to visit before the year would wind down: New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC. On the most recent trip that took place during the Spring Break we had a group of three where Finnish people, surprisingly, were a majority. In New York we basically spent time only in Manhattan but still, thanks to a hectic schedule, had just enought time to see almost all the most popular attractions, for example Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building and so on. After New York on our way to Washington DC we quickly stopped at Philadelphia for five hours. The visit turned out to be priceless because I finally achieved a long-time dream of mine: Run the Rocky Steps at Philadelphia Museum of Art!!! There's now one thing less in my bucket list for sure ;D In Washington DC we spent one whole day for seeing all the famous monuments and buildings like the White House, the Lincoln Monument, the Washington Monument and Pentagon.

After Spring Break Trip there was six weeks left of this semester, which now is in its final week. In only a couple of days I will be flying back home and leaving Ames, Iowa and the United States. At least for now. This year has taught me a lot about different cultures and people as I've made friends with so many great people from different backgrounds. It is possible that I might come back to the US someday, and this year has given me lots of reasons to think about the possibility of coming back, but right now my focus is on this moment and these few days that I still have (time) to spend with my friends here in Ames.

Thanks to all the people that were part of this amazing year, we sure had fun and lots of great memories!

And, for all my people back home, can't wait to see you guys again!