Pitkä tie

I wanted to sleep on this flight in order to reduce jet lag but there was this thing called lunch being served and the smell of spinach wafting through the cabin pretty much turned off all of my desire to sleep. No, that's not quite true.

Random needs to kill phone airtime led to ruminations with DLS about seeing how fast I could drink an overpriced beer, while talking on the phone (20 minutes?). This has left me with that stupid headache that won't go away.

Aww the kids on the flight get an Aku Ankka (Donald Duck) comic book and a sticker album; that's so unfair :P

Pitempi tie (darn irregular adjectives!)

Everything going in and out of Heathrow was delayed by at least half an hour because of Dubya being around. Boo. And they sure make you walk in Heathrow - putting together waiting the extra half hour to land, getting off the plane, going through to the right terminal, security, and walking all the way to the other side, my whole two-hour layover was gone and I wasn't even queued up at the gate when boarding started. Then we sat on the plane for 45 min before we went anywhere.

P.S. You can't fly to the US anymore without them wanting to know exactly where you are staying.

The Finnish guy next to me on the other flight made a funny comment that the "most beautiful phrase" in Finnish ought not to be that la-la-la one, but "kahvi on valmista" because that's more culturally significant. I even managed to order my drinks in Finnish just because I could (and what, they asked me in Finnish so I'm just reciprocating in my nervous, stuttery way).

Well, time to fill out these customs and immigration cards. I'm a little shocked to have spent ~$500 on stuff, but about $100 of that is 22% tax. Okay, I'm not actually surprised. But there is so much, so much that money can't buy... the people, the atmosphere... anyway if that's the case, I've spent ~800€ total and a lot of that, besides stuff, was on transportation, because even food doesn't have to be expensive (it is) if you don't want it to be. Let's see. I don't have all of my tickets right here with me, but I will look them up and fill this in later:

hki -> jkl (bus): 41,50
jkl -> tre (bus/train): 11,60 (student fare)
tre -> jkl (bus): 9,10 (student fare)
jkl -> tku (train): 42,40
tku (Kupittaa) -> hki (train): 26,90
around hki + espoo (local transit): (3,80 x 6) + (2,00 x 1) = 24,80

and I gave gemigemi and K a card game (retails for 20€ there) as well as 20€ for putting up with me and cooking for me, and driving me to the airport cuz gas is o_o. Feels like a pittance.

and I spent almost 85€ on music! I warned everyone it was going to happen, and I really didn't want it to. I'll be honest here and admit that I really overpaid for some of these things.

P.S. DO buy stuff at the airport. It WILL actually cost less. In Finland, anyway, they're NOT trying to rip you off. Thing is, non-EU citizens can only get back some taxes on purchases over 40€, and even then, only something like 5% of said tax.

But has it not been long enough that it is time to pay my dues? This money went to free tuition and 2,35€ student meals. Yes, even full-time international students pay no tuition at Jyväskylä, though that may change in the future.