Mini Holiday to Joensuu, My Birthday and Sleepless Nights

My preparations for a long train trip :) 

Two weeks ago I went to see my sister in Joensuu. It was my first time going there and now I'm so jealous of my sister who gets to live there and enjoy the beautiful scenery everyday. Even though Joensuu (on Finnish scale) is a big city it didn't feel like it at all while walking around. Which would be perfect for me since I'm not a city girl. I prefer smaller towns where the traffic isn't so heavy and people don't seem to be busy 24/7.

But anyway I got there on Thursday afternoon and we went to meet our great aunt that also lives in there. It was my first time meeting her and yet she seemed so happy having me as her guest which made me feel a bit ashamed of myself. I am the type of person who doesn't bother to keep in contact with others. All my friends know this already but...I really should learn to visit my relatives more often. It's not like I don't like gatherings and everything. I just feel like it'll be a bother if I go for a visit or even just call to chat with them.

I could have not asked for better weather to take a walk

The colors! <3

It doesn't even look like its' autumn

Water is like a mirror :)

Anyhow, on Friday we were supposed to go see the "night life" of Joensuu but we both were feeling under the weather so we stayed home watching Into The Woods. The movie was alright but I guess I was expecting something else... I think it was lacking something,...I'm not sure what but something seemed to be missing.

In Finland we have this "Pizza Friday" thing (in Finnish Pizza Perjantai)
So naturally we decided on pizza for dinner ;)

This year my birthday just went by. I mean the Tuesday is not the best day to celebrate one's birthday because everyone is busy with work/studies.
     I just kept doing everything else except schoolwork which probably was the worst decision. I've been postponing several things and it's been quite stressful me. Even the weather turned all gloomy like it is usually during the September in Finland.
     There are some projects I simply need to get done but it's up to me when I decide to start working on them and that's probably the worst thing that can happen to me. I always keep procrastinating till the last minute - even though I know it will definitely not help.
     In addition to that I can't deal with the stress because I really can't see it coming. But when I think about most of people are like that.
    It's going to be stressful year but it hopefully is worth it. If everything goes well next year I'll be going to South Korea as an exchange student. I'm already SO excited but at the same time I'm really worried about whether everything's going to work out or not. All I can do now is to study hard and get good grades and go through the application process for the university's exchange program.


Last week, however, was the worst in a long time. Like any other Monday I went to my Korean class and after that to study in the library. Nothing out of ordinary happened until afternoon when I went to my parents house. As soon as I got in my dad told that we needed to leave asap to the hospital for some further checkups the local doctors weren't able to conduct in the polyclinic.
    Originally, the tests were ordered just to make sure there wasn't anything serious going on with my dad who had been complaining that his arm wasn't working properly. But the reason behind all that turned out to be that my dad had had a small stroke. In the worst case my dad would have been dead for more than a week by now and this thought has been lingering my mind ever since Monday. All the sleepless nights have subsided for now that my dad's back at home but I'll definitely won't be able to stop worrying.

Sorry to bother you with these worries but I had to write my thoughts down. Next time I'll write about something cheerful. ^^'