Block 1 --> Block 2

I'm done with exams for 2015! Had my last exam for the first block today. This exam block was on the courses we have been doing for the past 7 weeks - so I had an exam on  Law and Legal Skills, oral exam in English and a vocabulary test for English as well. I was lucky and had the LLS exam last week, so I didn't need to stress about that for long. Monday I had my oral exam and then today the vocab exam. The vocab exam today was multiple choice and one of the easiest exams I've ever had. The exam was digital so we got to know the result straight away and I passed with a good grade. We also got to know the oral exam grade an hour after the exam and passed that also with a good grade. The only thing keeping me from a week vacation in January is the pending grade of the LLS exam. They have 10 days time to correct it and 7 have already passed, so soon I'll know.

There is extra motivation here to pass (and with good grades) as we do not have vacations. However the exams are scheduled so that resits are always the last week of the next exam block (at least in my program). So this technically means that if you pass with good grades and don't need to resit then you are free for a week.

New courses are starting Monday and I'm super existed about them. I have Criminal law and Private law next block. In addition to this I'll have Dutch courses twice a week. Hopefully, I'll get to understand spoken Dutch, I get some written Dutch as there are some similarities with Norwegian and Swedish. I'm hoping that this block more knowledge from past weeks will be useful, as this block we were only introduced to the different fields of law and not much from previous weeks was applicable.

In addition to the schoolwork I do here I also have free time, which I spend with friends here. I have started to get to know more and more people and formed a friend group within law students. Also I'm hoping to get to know more people through the Student Association, NEXUS, I am an active member of. At least this far everyone I've met has been really nice and I've had interesting conversations. My committee is really nice and I get a long really well with all of them, which is a great bonus. Of course I also have friends from the house (or my kitchen to be more specific). Thanks to all of these connections I have formed here, I rarely miss home.

Today was the first time in a really long time that I missed home or more specifically our cabin in Ruka. I was watching Katsomo, Finnish TV-channels online site, and during one show they had an advertisement for Ruka and their catchphrase Lumen jäljet johtaa Rukalle (The path of snow leads to Ruka). This made me want to go so badly skiing and to see proper winter. The last days here have been really foggy and it was a nice change yesterday and today morning that we had a clear sky.

At the moment I find my situation somehow extremely strange that I want to go to Finland to enjoy the snow, while I am listening to proper country music while sitting at my desk in the Netherlands looking outside into the dark and rainy evening. I guess this is what my life is going to be, always desiring to be somewhere else, but still extremely content with life. 

Week 2 of unilife

Last week was a lot of fun! 

This includes all of the school stuff. Our topic of the week as constitutional law, which I find extremely interesting as it gives a good insight to the society. Also the concepts of Trias Politica and fundamental rights are something I really enjoyed. This week seems to be a complete opposite! We're doing administrative law, which is so boring. It's basically all about decisions and orders related to issues such as building permits, student support applications, licence to sell food etc. And then the things related to objecting those. On top of all of this I also have a presentation for English on Friday. At least I got to choose my own topic for that. My presentation will be on the UN Convention on the Rights of persons with disabilities and focusing on Finland's lack of ratification. The presentation is mostly done, just need to practice it anymore. We also have our first IT assignment this week. I already did it to the extent that I could. The UN website for looking up a couple of questions was down. (Not surprised to be honest)

Last weekend was spent in the field of law. Saturday was spent at the library trying to understand Administrative Law and answering our assignment questions for Wednesday. Still have to put some effort into it tomorrow morning. The reason why I was at the library is that our internet was down for the second weekend in a row. Now it's luckily back up again, but we can only use cable at the moment. I'm just happy at the moment that I get internet on some device in my room.

Sunday was spent at the Hague. They had doors open to many different international judicial institutions. I visited the International Criminal Court and got a good understanding of how they operate etc. I was also supposed to visit the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia), but we were coming too late, so just visited the lobby and saw the building. Definitely I will visit the Open Days next year as well, to see the ICTY and perhaps the ICJ (which was already booked full when I chose my visiting places). 

Now a bit more of rewriting notes from today's lecture and then off to bed!  

photos of my life in the netherlands

Houseboats from next to my house 

This and 2 other cats are always on the street during daytime 

There is public transport in Groningen, but I have never tried it as everything is so close by bike

Vismarkt - the fish market! I really need to go and buy somethings from here 

It is a very flat country. From the bike trip that we took to the coast 

The seal nursery we visited in Pieterburn

Amsterdam

Rijksmuseum 

Anne Frank Museum

More photos can be seen from my Instagram anniinakananen

Groningen Life

Where to start writing about the past 3 months of my life? 

Maybe I should just explain the past 3 weeks. That's also a lot of stuff. 

On Tuesday 25/8, I woke up early and took the morning flight to Amsterdam (via Helsinki) and around 1 pm I was already in my new home. No this new home is not in Amsterdam, but a 2 hour train ride away in Groningen. 

The reason for my moving is that in July when the IB results came I knew that I was accepted in to the University of Groningen to study International and European Law. I have been going to lectures and working groups now for a week and have met really interesting people. The lecturers seem to be really good and also explain issues in an understandable way. My week consists of a lecture on Monday afternoon (2 hours) on Law and Legal Skills: the Dutch Example, followed by an 1 hour workshop on starting my academic career. Tuesdays are off, but I spend them doing the assignments for the rest of the week. Tuesdays consist of two tutorials/working groups for English and Law. Thursdays are pretty chill, I only have a two hour working group on IT for lawyers. Fridays are again English and Legal Skills tutorials. 

Even though school has started I have had the pleasure of exploring the city and country to some extent. During the first week (even before uni started for me) I took part in an Introduction Week meant for international students. There I got to know some really awesome people and am so happy that I took part. The week consisted of everything from a sports day to parties and tours in the city. I really recommend taking part in these introduction weeks as you get to know people from other faculties. My group was really nice and I have met them a couple of times after the Introduction Week ended. Yesterday we took the train to Amsterdam and spent the whole day there. 

Something I was shocked about in Amsterdam is that they do not have student discounts for students. It is the first time that I have encountered this. I would have wanted to visit more museums in the city, but felt that around 20 euros for entrance into the van Gogh Museum is too much. In the end we ended up going to visit the Anne Frank House. The visit to the museum was really touching and an emotional experience. Especially as I have read (parts) of the book. I knew to what to expect, but still the house, the rooms, the interviews and all were more depressing and harder to encounter than I expected. I had a constant feeling in the house that I am not worth walking these stairs and being in these rooms as I have been so fortunate to have had freedom for all of my life. 

On a more cheerful note the Saturday last week (5/9) I took a bike ride to the coast with some people from my house. The trip took us the whole day, but was totally worth it. We biked around 70 km all together during the day. The weather on the way to Pieterburn was horrible; it was raining, really windy and cold. However during our lunch break the sun came out and after that we didn't need our rainjackets for the rest of the day. At Pieterburn we visited a seal nursery and from there we continued to the coast and saw Waddenzee. The coast was very naturalistic, in the sense that to reach the ocean we would have had to walk through a swamp. Some actually did, but I decided to stay back at the areas with grass. Another first time experience was biking in the middle of sheep during that trip. The sheep did not react in anyway when 9 people biked near by them. As expected we got one flat tire during the trip, but luckily that person got back to Groningen by train. 

The house has had some problems in the past days. Internet has been down, as the main problem. I actually was forced to go and study in the library on Saturday, as I had not downloaded the necessary reading materials and court cases for this weeks assignments. It was not that bad at the library, I will probably be spending quite a lot of time there. In general my room is okay, not the best one available in the Student Houses, but am not complaining too much. At least I have my own room where I can escape from people, unlike at RCN. 

Another place that I have been spending quite a lot of time recently is the Sports facilities. We have a student sports organization called ACLO and you can get a membership there and also a gym card for like (120 euros per year for both of the items). I've mostly been going to the gym, but tried a spinning class for the first time (here) on Friday. The only downside is that it's located at Zernike-campus (6 km from my home) and all of my classes are at the center campus (2-3 km). Luckily I have to wait only a week and they'll open a new location that is closer to me. 

Anyways life here is going fine and have not regretted my choice of university yet!

P.S. I'll do another post in a couple of days containing photos from the trips and the city!

Work, Work, Work...Travel...Study

The title sums pretty much up my past and future life this summer. After giving myself 2 days of freedom after finishing the last final exam, I started to work as a cashier at a local supermarket. The store chain is the same as last year, but a different store. So the work is exactly the same as last year. This year the difference is just that the store is much larger... I've really enjoyed the job, but I could never do it for the rest of my life. Its a good motivator to remember to study hard in the future.

About that then, I have conditional offers for university from 4 different universities at the moment. I've confirmed to go to Rijksuniversiteit Groningen to study LLB International and European Law for 3 years if I get my conditional offer on Monday. The offer is 30 IB points so I'll devastated if I don't make it. The degree felt the most interesting for me. As said Monday is the day that can change my life for the next 3 years to come. I finally get my IB results --- guess who is freaking out hear. Doesn't help at all that I've seen two dreams associated with the results. One in which I didn't pass English and Chemistry. The other dream was that I didn't receive a grade for Finnish Lit, but instead for Music...Those of you who know me well, can guess that the grade wasn't good. If I see the words DIPLOMA AWARDED on Monday, but not the 30 points then I'll have University of Maastricht as a back up choice.

Another thing to wait is the fact that I have 4 shifts left of my summer job. This is because in a week I'll be stressing about what to pack with me. We'll be travelling to the US for 3 weeks and some days. This trip is a mega gift for all in our family; dad turned 50 last year, mom turns this year and I turn 20 + my graduation present (fingers crossed)... Destinations include New York (11.7-16.7), Vancouver (Canada 16.7-20.7.), Seattle (20.7) and then down to San Diego (29.7.-3.8) including all in between.  If you have any tips on does and do not's comments are open.

What am I waiting most from the trip? How much do I remember about San Diego and how will my image of the town change. Also granted shopping and food are v-e-r-y tempting. I'm sure there'll at least be a massive blog post about the trip once I'm back in Finland. Also meeting a few people after a long time is a nice addition to the trip.

Words of an atypical IB graduate

This moment should have happened one year ago. This moment should have not happened in the comfort of my own room in Finland. This moment should have been spent with some of the most wonderful people on this planet earth. Well this moment happened a week ago, this moment happened in Oulu not in Flekke and this moment was spent with some other magnificent people.

The moment I am talking about is the celebration of my last IB exam. The last word for the IB was written on Friday the 15^th May 2015 at approximately 14:30. It was for a History SL exam. I wasn’t even supposed to write that exam if everything went like planned. The last exam was supposed to be Global Politics HL paper 2. 

Well life doesn’t always go as planned. 

Things happen and one must react to these things. 

I reacted on 3.10.2013 by leaving UWCRCN. The reasons are numerous, but the main reason was to get my health back. I felt like this could be done best at home. 

On that day I decided I would return to the Finnish School system and forget any dream of an international education and career. I have to be grateful for the principle of my current school for questioning my leave from the IB. I decided to give one more try. And I made it. 

After studying bits and pieces of over 10 IB courses and taking one extra year to complete the IB, I am done with the exams. Although I do not know the results, I feel confident in my exams and of passing them. Regardless of the diploma points, I am proud of overcoming obstacles I didn’t ever anticipate to face when accepting my scholarship. 

This is to thank all of you who have supported me in anyway and anywhere. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the help and without you I wouldn’t be writing this today. You know who you are.