Only one feeling consumes my thoughts as my alarm painstakingly awakes me at 6:30 am. That feeling can be best described as a haze of uneasiness that clouds your judgments or a weird tingling sensation in the pit of your stomach. You may be asking yourself, “What in the world is this girl about to do?” Well, just sit tight because I will walk you through the reasons behind my unnecessary feeling of panic. But before I can do that I need to take you back, about 8 months back. That was the first time I traveled abroad since being in Finland.

Well, using the phrase “traveling abroad” may be a little bit of a stretch because by abroad I mean the 60 mile trip to Tallinn, Estonia. I’m sorry, the 96 kilometer trip to Tallinn, Estonia**** (I’ll discuss my frustrations with the differing measurement metrics later on). Anyways, during my first season a couple girls on the team decided to make the trip to Tallinn for shopping and some fun on our off day. I remember being super excited because I was still getting to know a lot of the girls on the team so I thought this would be a fun memorable experience. For those of you who don’t know, the trip to Tallinn requires a short-ish boat trip being that Estonia and Finland are separated by water. In saying so, the boat leaves Helsinki kind of early, which makes for an early morning wake up call. So let me set the current scene for you: It’s 7am and I am nervously waiting for my bus that is taking me to the train station in Helsinki. There, one of my teammates, Ellu (Elina Salmi), is already waiting for me so we can take the tram together to the boat terminal. 10 minutes pass, no bus. 15 minutes pass, still no bus. Finally after waiting for what seemed like an eternity at my bus stop I come to find out that the bus I was intending on taking just decides this morning of all days not to show up. Eventually I hopped on another bus and arrive in Helsinki at the time that I was supposed to be boarding the boat. At this point sweat is dripping in every place possible and all I can think is that I am fulfilling every stereotype imaginable about a 22 year old American girl. Luck was on our side that morning though, as Ellu and I hauled a** running to the nearly departed boat.

Now, fast forward to about a week ago as I was preparing to go to Estonia once again. At this point I hope you can somewhat understand why this trip brings a certain level anxiety and increased heart rate to my body. But to my dismay this morning seems to be going smoothly, I even leave myself a couple of spare minutes as I am leaving my apartment. Just for giggles I decide to check my backpack as I am about to get to the train station and believe it or not I discover that I did not bring my credit card. Not so sweet nostalgic feelings from last year come flooding in. So I sprint back to my apartment checking every coat/pants pocket in sight. Time seems to be flying by, frustrations at an all time high and eventually I have to decide that I will just not be eating or drinking all day in my trip to Estonia. Flustered to say the least, I leave my apartment once again in a dead sprint to the train station. And who would of thought, as I reach for my travel card, low and behold is my credit card. Nonetheless, Vilma, Olga and I made it to the boat this time safe and sound even with my minor mishap.

While on the trip a couple of things were made pretty clear to me with the help of Vilma (Väisänen) and Olga (Ahtinen). One, it’s stupid that the United States has its own measurement for just about everything. Whether its temperature (Fahrenheit), distance (inches, feet, yards, miles), time and even cooking (teaspoons, cups) the US beats to it’s own drum in comparison to Europe. Not really sure the reasons behind this but it’s a daily source of confusion for sure. I will never fully get a grasp on the two C’s, Celsius and Centimeters. Second, shopping is not my strength. Vilma on the other had is a shopping/fashion guru. Good to know that I have someone to let me know whether my outfit is acceptable or not. Third, and most importantly, it was brought to my attention that some people have a fear of birds. Walking through the streets in Tallin, a city that is directly on the water, there are birds literally everywhere. But honestly, have you ever heard of this? I can understand being afraid of dogs…maybe even cats. But birds, really? Well I may have lied a little when I mentioned some people being afraid of birds because I was really referring to one person, (cough cough) Olga. Besides dodging every bird that happened to stop remotely close to us I’d say our trip abroad was a success!

– Rief