For new readers

Hello new Facebook people!

If this is your first time visiting my blog, then welcome! If it isn’t, then welcome back. This is my blog about my exchange year in Sapporo, Japan – an adventure I’m sure you will enjoy as I’m bound to experience some socially awkward situations, cultural differences and difficulties, as well as wonders and weirdness of the land of the rising sun – and I’m planning to blog all about it!

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I haven’t linked this blog to my Facebook before purely because I thought to myself: who the heck would want to read about my applying process and paper wars, unless they’re going through it as well? I’m sure you’re much more interested in what actually happens there, not how I got there. The blog entries tagged with ”applying process” are purely for those who might be planning on going through the same thing next year as I did this year. I’m sure they’ll need some support and someone to relate to. I sure as hell could have used some.

Therefore, as I am leaving to Japan today, I thought it was the time to let you guys know my blog exists. Feel free to comment and ask questions! I’d be happy to answer and chat all about it.

About tags and nutrilett experiment

Initially I put this blog up in order to help everyone keep a track on how I’m doing on my escapade in Japan. But, as said, this is my blog so I can write about whatever the hell I want. And as you can’t really stop me, you might as well enjoy the ride.

Hence I’ve decided that while the main-purpose of this blog remains the same as in the beginning, this blog is also going to be my personal blog about my everyday life. I know most bloggers have a certain genre with which their blog’s contents aligns with, but mine is going to be a mixture of everything I have even the slightest interest in. Because why the heck not.

I’m going to tag all of my personal posts with personal-tag. For those who are interested in the technical side of my exchange process, you can search with the tag ”applying process”. While I’m ranting about the tags, I might as well point out that I’ll use before exchange-tag for now, and you can use that if you feel like you need someone to relate in regards to pre-exchange panicking. Furthermore, if later someone is more interested in what happened when I’m actually on my exchange, you can use the tag ”exchange” or ”In Japan” or something I’ll come up with in the future. I’ll let you know when I’ll actually get there.


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I’m so fancy, I know. And see, I wasn’t lying about my Marimekko obsession! Yesterday was the graduation day here in Finland for those who graduated from high-school and my little sister was one of the lucky ones to receive the white cap (congrats, sis’!). It was a wonderful day filled with coffee and cake and pies and copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. Where – truth to be told – lies my problem (possibly also in burgers and sweet potato fries, yes, I’m wholly blaming those).

Embarrassedly enough, I’ve been gaining some weight lately. Not much but enough for my pants and shirts to feel kinda too tight. For the graduation day-outfit picture above, I had to take a gazillion of them just to find one where my arms didn’t look like tree trunks (which they did in all other photos, oh joy). Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m pretty confident and I don’t  really care what people think of me, but this whole thing has escalated into a situation where I don’t feel comfortable in my own body anymore. I feel weird. The situation isn’t absolutely terrible, of course, but it could be a little better.

Just to make things worse I’m going to Malaga, Spain on 24th of this month and I’m expected to wear a bikini. Or rather, not expected, but I’d like to wear a bikini without feeling awkward and shy and uncomfortable. It is so bothersome trying to look nonchalant while you’re actually desperately trying not to let anyone see your stomach rolls. So yeah, now that I think about it, maybe I do care a little what other people think of me but that’s how things usually are, right? We humans are social beings and being judged by others is an unfortunate side-effect of it. The main point remains though: I’d like to feel comfortable again, thank you very much.

So to put this all together… I’m doing an experiment.

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Yep, I’m going to try Nutrilett. Of course this is no replacement for healthy diet and exercise (yes, yes, I know, please don’t judge me) but I’m actually kinda curious as to if this actually works. So for the next 10 days this is what I’m going to be slurping. If I get rid of even a few kilos, I would be more than happy. However, as I’m not overweight, I need to be extra-careful not to take this too far but I think 10 days is going to be fine (the suggestion for the most effective result is a 3 week diet). I believe this is going to be interesting. Hopefully – by the end of this experiment – the only problem I’m going to be facing is this:

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Now that just cannot be helped.