End of the chapter

Return

Well, it’s been a blast, but everything has to end at some point (couldn’t figure out anymore ways to extend my stay and to be serious I had to get back to continue my Master’s thesis). I spent the whole weekend traveling back home. I began by driving 7 hours from Grand Junction to Las Vegas on Saturday morning/afternoon. I got to the Airport quite early and spend the extra time watching Lahti World Cup. From there I had a 10-hour flight to Stockholm. Then after a couple of hour wait a short flight to Tampere. In conclusion I started this travel 8am Saturday morning (Colorado time) and stepped inside my parents’ house at 6pm Sunday evening (Finland time).

Now that I’ve been back a couple of days I feel that the transition hasn’t been too difficult. There are some minor things, like door handles feeling more solid and coffee mugs seeming lighter and smaller (yea, I know these are weird examples). But I’m guessing that after I’ve met my family and all my close friends, my thoughts wander back to Colorado.

Everything packed. That’s pretty much all I had for the past half a year.

 

Final weeks

There was still quite a lot between my last post and my return. First of all I got to see some new places when I was traveling with the ski team to competitions. On the first weekend of February the races were held in Crested Butte, Colorado. Beautiful place more famous for it’s great Alpine skiing than Nordic skiing. On Saturday there was a long-distance freestyle race called Alley Loop loppet, which was also open to recreational athletes and citizens and the main point for them was fun (most of them were wearing costumes). The coolest thing was that part of the track was made on the Main Street. In this race I was helping the team by doing ski testing and giving them feeds. The next day there was a 5k classic race in which I also participated myself. Once again I got to experience that you can’t recover in altitude. Following the biggest uphill on the course there was a long (like 1k) downhill section. The final kilometer to the finish line was brutal when none of the lactic acid produced during the climb was removed during the downhill. But at least this was the first distance race in altitude in which I was able to push myself to the limit.

Our accommodation for the weekend

Ski track going through the Main Street

And the same sight the next day

Everything ready for the feeds

My expression here at the finishing straight tells about the pain (photographer David James)

The next weekend I got to visit Wyoming for the first time. This time it was first 5k classic with team start (meaning each college team started as a group in 1-minute intervals) on Saturday and 21k freestyle mass start on Sunday. As on the previous weekend I only raced the short classic race but this time my job was to pace other team members to get best possible result. And on Sunday I was again in the service crew to do the feeds and split times. 

This van has become quite familiar

   
The next thing isn’t just related to the last weeks. Before I broke my collarbone I got into climbing. So since New Year we have been going climbing every Wednesday evening (since there is Student night meaning half price (6 bucks)). By doing it regularly you can notice progress fairly quickly since it’s about abilities one doesn’t utilize in anything else (quite unique technique and grip strength). So during the first time I was able to do maybe two or three demanding (for my level at that point) climbs before my arms were done. Last Wednesday is was climbing for about four hours and even during the final hour I was able to climb more difficult routes than my “fresh” climbs during the first times. The way the vertical climbing (that’s what the number 5 at the beginning means) rating works is that higher number is more difficult route (5.7 really easy, 5.15 something totally impossible) and the sub ratings increase in demand in alphabetical order (B is more difficult than A, and so on) (climbing ratings explained: http://outdoorswithdave.com/climbing/climbing-ratings). At the beginning I was barely able to do one 5.9 and last Wednesday I did three 5.11s and at two 5.10Ds in addition to some 5.10As, Bs and Cs. 

Quite awesome climbing gym

   
Funny thing was that the closest National Park to Grand Junction was the one I visited the last. I also wanted to do one long bike ride before I leave so little bit over a week ago the weather began to warm up and I rode to Colorado National Monument with my Norwegian friend from the cycling team. The loop was about 60 miles long (or that’s what I did, my friend rode like 20 miles more) and included some 1200 meters of vertical ascent. I was completely exhausted after the ride, which wasn’t that surprising since I hadn’t been doing any riding and I had way too little energy and water with me. Nevertheless besides being a cool workout the landscape was definitely worth the suffering at the end.

The road was pretty awesome!

Just one of the spectacular views!

It was actually quite weird to return to Finnish winter. As I mentioned the weather began to warm up a couple of weeks ago. During our bike ride it was between 5 and 10 Celsius, but the past week it was like summer. The temperature hit over 20 Celsius on most of the days and on my last day in Grand Junction I was having a beer on the patio in t-shirt with a friend (obviously you can buy beer at the bar on campus at noon on normal week day). So now I have to get used to winter weather. Again.

The last couple of days I spent trying to meet all my friends and say goodbye to everyone. Even though I can’t say I’m sentimental type it’s quite difficult to bid farewell to close friends that you possibly never see again. Obviously I trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’ve been inviting everyone to visit Finland if they ever have a chance. And I certainly hope that I can visit Colorado again in (near) future. It’s an awesome place with awesome people!

Thoughts about the experience

I believe some of the most common reasons for doing a student exchange are to improve language skills, experience new culture and meet new people.

I feel like haven’t actually learned that many new words or improved my grammar and I still make simple errors both in writing as well as speaking. But the biggest improvement has probably been that I’m more comfortable of using English in various different situations. Hopefully I’ll have enough opportunities to use English and that way keep up my skills.

Experiencing a new culture can have so many different dimensions from local foods and people’s personality to campus structure and different environment and landscape. I’m happy about the way I was able to experience this aspect by trying new things, traveling around the country and meeting people with very different background. You can always think that you could have done and seen more, but I feel it’s better to enjoy the memory of the things you were able to do than to regret things you didn’t have a chance to do.

Finally I think it doesn’t matter how many new and awesome places you see or how many different things you get to experience, but ultimately it all comes down to the people you get to see the places and experience the things with. Quite a few people asked during my last couple of weeks that what I’m going to miss most of all. My answer was without hesitation the people. I thank all you who have taken me to experience new stuff, helped me when I needed something or just had a conversation or two with me in the dining hall. It’s been a pleasure to meet you all.

Thanks for everything guys! You are all great!

Thanks for everything guys! You are all great! (photographer David James)

 

On the other hand the past half a year went by really fast but on the other hand it feels that I’ve known all you guys and lived in Grand Junction way longer.

Farewell Colorado! For now…