Paris, My Home City for the Next Nine Months

Bonjour! After spending two months in Alaska and a few weeks back home in Finland, I am now in Paris, doing my Erasmus exchange and learning the French language. So far, I have only been studying the French bureaucracy by personal experience: how you first need to have a bank account to get a cell phone contract, and to get a bank account, you need an address and a document to prove that you live there. Also at the university, I have been queuing for hours to different offices to do my 'inscription administrative' and 'inscription pédagogique' (enrollment for courses). Sometimes they close the office and tell you to come back the next day. I will definitely learn a lot of patience here! Actually, I already have: this week I noticed that I do not get so irritated anymore. "C'est normal!" (It's normal) seems to be the answer to everything that does not work. The enrollment - at least of the Erasmus students - is done on paper, not online, and people at the university want to meet you personally in their offices instead of replying to your emails. The trick to survival is to be active, hang around at the university, talk to other people... That is how I accidentally found out that I have a tutor! He is really nice and helpful, he even speaks some Finnish!

As inspiring as it is to be in Paris, it sometimes gets quite exhausting. Everything is new and I have to find out how things work and how to navigate in this metropolis. I have felt uncertain, insecure, frustrated... But I just cannot regret coming here because Paris is sooooooo beautiful! And once I get into routines, life will be much easier. I thought I hated routines but now I seem to miss them...

I was lucky to find a reasonably priced and beautiful room in Montmartre, an area preferred by artists and famous for the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and Moulin Rouge. I felt good about the place so I decided to take the room even though it was only for two months and then I have to find a new home. I am actually living in the living room, but my flat mate, a 26-year-old Dutch girl, is so nice that I have adapted very well and do not really mind the lack of privacy. Photos of my room:

And this is how my street looks like:

Last weekend, when I had hardly settled to Paris, I traveled to Milan to see my boyfriend who was there on a business trip. First date (during my Erasmus time) in Milan, not bad! I had not booked any flights and was unable to figure out how to buy a ticket to a night train, so I was very happy to find a shared ride through Covoiturage.fr. The drive through Switzerland was beautiful, but long. But I got to Milan and met my boyfriend. I had booked us a small apartment through Airbnb. It was the first time I used the website and I can say everything went fine. Asser and I spent our time by sleeping late, eating well, walking through the fashion streets and visiting Duomo, the cathedral church of Milan:

...and the beautiful shopping mall called Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II:

Back in Paris, I needed one day to recover from traveling back from Italy in the night train. And then I have gone through the chaos of signing up for courses. Tuesday evening, there was an event called Vogue Fashion Night Out. I did not participate but decided to check it out as a tourist, so on my way home, I walked through the street rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, cited (according to Wikipedia) as being one of the most fashionable streets in the world, thanks to the presence of virtually every major global fashion house. Unfortunately it was raining, as it - based on my short experience - often does here. I felt sorry for the finely dressed people queuing to the stores... http://fashionsnightout.vogue.fr/ Oh, I must also tell you about Vélib', a bicycle sharing system run by the Paris Town Hall! There are stations all around the city, you take a bike, ride it where ever you need to go and leave it at another station. It's great! (Or well, nothing is perfect: sometimes the stations are empty when you need to get a bike, or full when you need to return one.) At first, I got lost several times - which is sometimes nice, but not when you are in a hurry! Now I have learned to take the boulevards - they have bicycle lanes and make navigating easier. Yes, in this mosaic of small streets I have sometimes missed the boring but clear American grid plan of Anchorage, Alaska, with its A, B, C etc. streets!

Yesterday, I visited The Louvre with another Erasmus student. It is such an enormous museum! Of course, we went to see Mona Lisa. But in the internet you find better photos of it than the one I took, so instead, I chose you the photo above showing the crowd that had come to see the famous painting. And here's just a picture of another young woman that appealed to me:

Tomorrow, I finally start my studies, which will be keeping me very busy... I came here to study and really learn to speak French, not to party... But at least tomorrow evening, I will drop by (for the third time!) at the CouchSurfing Weekly Meeting to say hi to my new friends.

My Last Days in Alaska and Coming Home

I guess the theme of this blog update about the last days of my trip in Alaska will be 'last'. Last hike, last pancake breakfast, last shopping; at REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.) - my favorite store! - and at Octopus Ink, a small designer store and a new discovery for me (http://octopusinkclothing.bigcartel.com/). I wanted to spend the last few days of my two-month Alaska adventure in Anchorage, so I drove there from Homer on Friday. My friend Sage and I had planned to go on an afternoon hike, but because of the rainy weather we canceled it. I still went to say hi to Sage. Her mother invited me to stay for dinner, and I ended up spending my last nights in their unofficial guest room in the basement. The couch was so soft and comfortable that it was hard to get up Saturday morning... But I had to, as Sage and I had agreed to have brunch at Sack's Café (http://www.sackscafe.com/sacks/), one of the best restaurants in town, and also Sage's work place for the moment. Saturday evening, I did my last hike on the mountains surrounding Anchorage.

A view of Anchorage from the top of Rendezvous Peak:

On Sunday, I had a cultural day: I visited Anchorage Museum and went to a house concert. The museum visit improved my knowledge about Alaskan history and Native Peoples, and I also enjoyed seeing a photo exhibition called Portrait Alaska by Clark James Mishler. The house concert took place at a house where I had been couchsurfing before going to Homer. There was some delicious food, familiar faces, and good music played by Curtis Irie and Sam Densmore.

Sunday night, the circle was complete. When I first arrived in Alaska two months ago, on a Sunday night, Sage took me to Spenard Roadhouse (http://www.spenardroadhouse.com/) to eat. Now we went there again, on my last night, this time with her parents.

My hiking boots started falling apart some weeks ago. With shoe glue and duct tape, I managed to make them last till the end of my trip. But I left them in Alaska, it was time to get rid of them.

My car, the little Toyota Corolla, was a bit scary at the beginning of my trip: the steering wheel was rattling and the 'check engine' light was on. But the car lasted till the end of my trip! Asser and I had the tires balanced, which helped with the rattling, and we kept adding oil every time we filled up the car. Anyhow, I left the car in Alaska, because it actually belongs to my amazing friend Sage! I am so grateful to her; having a car made traveling around the state so much easier!

Now I am back in my home country, Finland, with all the good memories from Alaska. In two months, I saw and experienced a lot! But when I look at the map, I realize that I hardly saw a tenth of Alaska - so huge is the state, with vast areas inaccessible by car. Coming home felt good, especially because my boyfriend surprised me by coming to the airport with a bouquet of flowers, and my family was so happy to see me. My 2-year-old niece cried out with a clear child's voice, with a happy smile on her face, "Tuula!" and jumped to hug me.

Another Week at Mossy's Seaside Farm

Another week at Mossy Kilcher's Seaside Farm has gone by. I have been working a lot, keeping the place very tidy. Doing my job well and working hard is so natural for me, having grown up in a country with Lutheran work ethic and as a child of assiduous farmer parents. After giving my all, it was rather easy to get a day off when I wanted to join some people from Seaside Farm for a boat tour to Seldovia, a village at the mouth of Kachemak Bay. On the way to Seldovia, Rainbow Tours took us around Gull Island seabird rookery, home to 15,000 seabirds, and I could finally see a puffin! In addition, we saw lots of sea otters.

In Seldovia, I walked the short Otterbahn trail. The trail itself was nothing very special, but it felt sooooooo good to breathe some fresh air - I think I have been breathing so much dust when cleaning the cabins and rooms! It was equally good to escape for a while all the "Tuula, today I was hoping that maybe you could help me with this"...

Having only three hours for exploring Seldovia first sounded like a very short time but Seldovia is such a small place (only 300 people) that it was enough. Before the boat left back to Homer, I still had time to go and see the historical area with some houses on stilts. They actually reminded me of my stay at a hostel in Chile in 2010 (http://mundodetuula.blogspot.com/2010/05/hitchhiking-boat-trip-new-travel-mates.html).

Even though I said I have been working hard - which I have - the truth is that I can sleep until nine in the morning, talk with the guests in between work, take my time choosing the matching sheets, and a few times, when I have finished cleaning a beach cabin, I have done a short walk on the beach.

In addition to all the farm animals and guest lodges, Mossy also has a raspberry patch. The berries are ripe now and they are so yummy!! I have helped with weeding the patch, or clearing the organic raspberry jungle, as I would jokingly call the last corner where nobody else had yet worked. Saturday evening, I went to clear it for an hour. But an hour became four hours as I just could not stop. Porcupine is an animal that I had never seen before this trip. They look cute and funny but could destroy Mossy's raspberry patch if they got inside the fence. That is why, one evening Mossy and I had quite a mission: we had to catch this intruder who had climbed to a tree (they are so slow and clumsy, but still they climb trees!) and transport it far away from the farm.

Yesterday, Mossy and I drove to the end of East End Road, about ten miles away from Seaside Farm. It was such a beautiful ride with stunning views over Kachemak Bay! We also visited two old homesteads, which was very interesting. One of them was the place where Mossy grew up. Her parents were artistic and educated people, idealists from Switzerland who came to Alaska in the 1940's in search of a more simple and self-sufficient way of life.

Now the time has come to leave this most beautiful place. I will go to Anchorage for the weekend and fly out on Monday. But I love the view from Seaside Farm so much that I am seriously considering coming back next summer.

"You never really leave a place you love. Part of it you take with you, leaving a part of you behind."

Dream Job at the Seaside Farm

A month ago, I wrote in this blog that I might come back to the Seaside Farm (http://www.seasidealaska.com) in Homer. So, here I am! I have been here exactly for a week now and am planning to stay for another ten days or so. It feels nice to stay in one place and have my own room after traveling around so much. I am working for a couple of hours per day and get free accommodation in return. The first day, I got to do some weeding, one of my favorite tasks! And I became so greedy - not for money but for the result! I just could not stop because I kept finding more weeds all the time. According to Mossy, the lovely old lady who owns the place, me and my friends were the most dedicated workers she has ever had. Because I grew up on a farm and have some experience with animals, although very limited, I was brave enough to go and work on a meadow with a bull, cow and calf. My new CouchSurfer friends from Poland weeded another field. I was a bit afraid of the bull, too, but it was such a moving scene when I saw the bull gently licking a side of the cow, and the calf was lying in the grass close to its parents.

At the moment, I am mainly cleaning rooms, cabins and the hostel, and helping customers to check in. There is not much to say about the cleaning work; I hate the dust and enjoy making beds that have sheets and pillow cases with matching colors and patterns. The textiles with flowers look so romantic in the old house (which is even a bit run down) and cute little cabins. Every time I walk down to clean the two beach cabins, I realize that I am in love with this place. Behind the sea, there are majestic mountains and a glacier.

Before coming here, I imagined I would have plenty of time to do my own things, such as write a school report, find an apartment in Paris for next winter, and read books. But all the time, such interesting people come to stay here that I cannot just go to my room and be alone. This is my dream job - I get to talk with people and practice my language skills. Mossy said that everybody likes me: the customers say that "the girl" is so adorable. I wonder how long you have to work at a hostel before you get tired of meeting new people all the time. Anyhow, it was my second day here when a truly fascinating Swiss family arrived: Dario and Sabine Schwörer have been sailing around the world and climbing the highest peaks for twelve years, but what is more, they have had four children along the way!! This, if anything, proves that it is possible to travel with children. Anything is possible if you really want to do it and work hard enough to make it possible! (Sounds like the American dream..?) The family also goes to schools to teach about environmental issues. More about their life and mission on their webpage: http://toptotop.org/.

It was the Swiss Independence Day on August 1, and the family wanted to celebrate it with a campfire. In the following photo, you can see two volunteers who work on the boat and some of the children of the Schwörer family:

Then we had two Canadian motorcyclists with whom I could practice my French and who gave me a lot of halibut after going on a fishing trip. Mmmmm, what a delicious dinner!

Last night, an Australian band called Red Stone Sinners stayed at our lodge. Their accent was awesome! They had a gig in a local pub, and I went to see it. At the bar, I also met Mossy's old class mate from decades ago (not the man in the front, but the one with long hair). Small town, everybody knows each other...

Hiking to Glaciers

Last weekend, my friend Sage, her dog Bhodi, and I set off for our epic adventure in Hatcher Pass, one of Sage's favorite places in Alaska. We hiked almost to the end of the Gold Mint Trail, following a little river...

...and found a nice spot to camp. Unfortunately, it was still foggy in the morning. The clouds and fog kept coming and going.

Despite the bad visibility, we decided to go exploring. We wanted to see a glacier but did not find the right path and ended up climbing over a field of boulders. There were just rocks everywhere! Sage thought they were beutiful, but to me, it was mostly annoying and frustrating.

On Sunday, our last day out there, the sun was shining and the sky was finally clear. We got up early, packed our camp and hiked back to where we had been the previous day. This time, everything was so clear, so obvious. It was so easy to hike up to the lake that we had tried to find the previous day.

From the lake, we continued to Mint Glacier. It was really awesome to go walking on the glacier!

We also swam in a lake. But then it was time to head back because we still had eight miles (13km) to walk to the parking lot where we had left our car. The wildflowers along the trail were so beautiful and made it an enjoyable hike even though I was getting tired. There was so much fireweed that the meadows and mountain sides were all pink.

Back in Anchorage, I had everything one could hope for after a hiking trip: a cold beer, a warm shower, and to crown all, Sage's friend made us dinner. I did not have much time to relax after the trip because the following day I had to do my laundry and organize everything for the next adventure that I started in the evening: camping in Seward and a day hike to Harding Ice Field. I had already seen Exit Glacier with Asser but I had not seen the ice field so I decided to do the hike on my way down south to Homer. To make it more fun and to share the gas costs, I posted a message in the Anchorage group on the Couchsurfing web page and got my car full of people.

Hiking and biking in Anchorage

After Asser had left, I stayed in Anchorage, waiting for the next weekend, when my friend Sage was going to have three days off from work and we had decided to go somewhere together.

Above: Typical pedestrian in Anchorage?

On Monday, I borrowed a bicycle and did the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. I saw six moose along the way!!

On Tuesday, I hiked to Williwaw Lakes:

...and the Ballpark:

Yesterday, I did a day hike to Rabbit Lakes:

Sometimes, when you couchsurf, you get to stay at such beautiful and cozy homes as this (photo below). I have very much enjoyed my stay here, being hosted by an easy-going, sociable and active guy who seems to have visitors all the time. There are friends coming and going... Nice people & good practice for my English!

Fairbanks to Anchorage, Last Days with Asser

So, where were we? Oh, at the hostel in Fairbanks, having dinner with a group that was actually a good representation of America: a guy from Texas; a girl with Mexican origins; an ex-soldier who had been to Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places, and said he loves the gun laws in Alaska; a Korean guy who had lived in the US over ten years; and a few other people. Samuel from Texas made me realize that the Americans think of education as an investment - you spend $200.000 on yourself, for your future. Sounds like a lot of money to me, coming from Finland where you get many things for free. Or can you imagine e.g. spending $30.000 to giving birth?! Samuel still cherished the idea of the American freedom, the equal opportunity, meaning that if you have an idea, you can make it happen and even the poorest people can get rich. He said he has been attacked twice in Houston, so nowadays he carries a gun to protect himself and anyone with him. With great interest, we also listened to him tell us what it was like to stay in Houston when a hurricane hit the city. The guy from South Korea also cherished the freedom in America: the freedom of speech. He had just recently moved to Alaska, bought a house, and turned it into a hostel. He had a plant with big leaves growing in his backyard - it was rhubarb - and he was so astonished when I told him it is edible and made some jam for a cake we had for dessert.

The following day, Asser and I had to start driving towards Anchorage as Asser was going to return to Finland in two days. On the way, we saw part of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline:

And then we had these gorgeous views on Glenn Highway:

In the middle of the night, tired after driving all day, we luckily found a campsite in Palmer and stayed overnight there. The next day, we drove through Hatcher Pass and visited Independence Mine, the preserved ruins of a once bustling mining camp:

In the evening (last Saturday - sorry, I'm a bit slow with this blog!), we had dinner at my friend Sage's place. Then it was time to say goodbye to Asser and take him to the airport. It was a magical moment: the sun was setting and it painted the mountains behind Anchorage in beautiful shades of pink and we hugged each other full of happiness after such amazing three weeks of traveling together. This certainly gives us hope for the winter, when I will be studying in Paris and Asser will be working in Finland. I will now be staying another month in Alaska and then a few weeks in Finland before moving to Paris. Asser and I also traveled together last year after Christmas, when we had only just met. That time, the trip together did not go so well... I suppose it is easier and more enjoyable when you know the other person well.