Back in Eugene

So I'm back here now, in Eugene. Spring term starts the day after tomorrow. I would rather vacation a little longer, but what can you do. I just bought the books for spring term. They cost 200 dollars! I don't understand why they have to cost so much here. I have now spent almost 400 dollars on books for the two terms here. I don't think I've used that much money for books the whole time in university in Finland. Oh yeah, I got the final grades for the three courses I had in the winter term. I got an A+ in Spanish, A in Languages of the World and A+ in 2nd Language Teaching. Must say, I did quite well. :) Too bad those grades don't count for anything when I go back to Finland. But nonetheless, I am now a straight A student here. Yeay for me.

So about my trip. We arrived in Vancouver, Canada, on Friday last week. The plane ride went ok. As you might expect the security checks were quite annoying. I got through easily, but Nina and Salla were checked quite thoroughly. They were taken away from the line and all their bags were checked by the people there. I had to wait for them quite a while. When we arrived in Vancoucer it was raining a lot. We went by bus to downtown Vancouver. The bus conductor let us go without paying, because we only had twenty dollar bills (Canadian dollars) and no coins. All the busses in Vancouver only took coins, since they have these machines in the busses. The conductor has nothing to do with them. But luckily he was so nice as to let the poor tourists go free. We walked to the hotel from where we stopped and got very wet on the way. The next day it rained a lot as well. But after that it was actually quite nice out. The sun was shining, but it was still quite cold. We saw lots of nice places. Vancouver is really a very beautiful place. Not like those American cities. There is a lot of very nice parks and nature there, even though it is a big city. Nina is in this club called the Hospitality Club. And through that this guy showed us around Vancouver in his car. He was very nice. One thing that was quite funny is that his mother is from Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada. It's the place I've always wanted to go to. He said I really should since it's a beautiful place. And some day I will. The only bad thing that happened there was that I got an allergic reaction to my new liquid makeup (=meikkivoide). That has never happened to me before. First I noticed my face getting a little dry, but I thought it was because of the hotel room (it was quite dusty) and the weather. On Monday evening I looked at my face after coming back to the hotel and washing my face and it was all red and blotchy. On Tuesday I woke up and my face hurt a lot and it looked awful. I went to a pharmacy in Vancouver to get something for it. I must say, they did not help me much. Luckily, I had with me some old cream I had gotten for a rash, I mixed it with another cream and then hoped for the best. It actually worked. Now my face seems to be ok. But boy did it hurt for a couple of days. I was in such a bad mood for a while. And Nina and Salla didn't understand my bad mood, because they had no idea how much it really hurt. But I didn't let it ruin my vacation. By Thursday it was ok, just quite dry. And now it almost back to normal. I must say that I had no idea I could be allergic to makeup. So far I've only been allergic to some foods and animals. But apparently I can. Must be more careful from now on... again.

On Tuesday we went from Vancouver to Seattle by bus, it took about four hours. We went straight to the hotel, which was almost right next to the Space Needle. Seattle wasn't as nice as Vancouver. There was almost no green in the downtown area, unlike in Vancouver. But it was nice to see Seattle. And it only rained on the first day we were there. The other days it was sunny and quite warm. We went up to the Space Needle one day and also got to know the downtown area. We also went up to the highest building in Seattle. It was very high. And then a friend of Nina's showed us other areas of Seattle, since he had a car. And what is really nice about Seattle is the mountains. You could see them on a nice day and boy were they beautiful. I must say that we were lucky with the weather. We went to the two most rainy cities and got mostly sunshine. The people in Seattle were so amazed. Apparently it is very odd to have three consecutive days with no rain and only sunshine. We left Seattle yesterday (Friday) and came back here to Eugene by bus. It took us about seven hours. It was a long trip but much cheaper than going by plane again.

So that was my trip. I would tell you more, but I'm just too tired to. But all in all it was a very nice trip. I saw a lot of new things and the cities were really nice. I'm glad we went. But I must say that it's nice to be back here now. Vacationing is quite tiresome if you do it too long a time. Oh yeah, I have now been here three months. Time does fly here.