Goodbye Vaasa

My mom and Rachel shared my last day in Vaasa with me, a beautiful sunny day. I took them to the city center where there was a cheesy market complete with a bounce house, booths selling the same cheaply made clothing, and local bakeries tempting people with their delicious smelling pastries and Finnish rye bread. We then visited the Ostrobothnia Museum, which tells the stories of this region and of the archipelago. The archipelago--the thousands of islands right off the coast of Vaasa--are really unique. The area was named an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006, and the land actually continues to rise almost 1 cm every year. Truly a geological anomaly in my book. Anyway, my mom and Rach helped me see this city that I've come to call home one last time. The bright blue sky contrasted the sadness in my heart to leave this place.

I had already said goodbye to my classmates a couple days before when we all met at Novia to collect our final transcripts and letters of confirmation to send to our home universities.  The day before that I hosted a farewell dinner at my apartment, so it has felt like I've been saying goodbyes all week. Squeezing 18 people into my apartment was really fun, as was feeding them!

The time I've spent in Finland has been incredible. I have learned a great deal about myself and others. I've gotten to work on an amazing project that will hopefully benefit the waste management companies in Ostrobothnia which could in turn help produce some sustainable solutions for the region. I've gotten to see amazing things that I never in a million years thought I would get to see. I am incredibly fortunate to have this experience, and it will always be a part of me.

Tomorrow my mom, Rachel, and I are leaving for our end of semester vacation. I anticipate that I'll add a couple more posts to this blog about those destinations. In the meantime though, thank you, whoever you are, for reading this. You've been a part of my journey and I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

I'll miss the sunniest city in Finland!

Farewell dinner

 "You get a strange feeling when you leave a place, like you'll not only miss the people you love, but you miss the person you are at this time and place because you'll never be this way ever again." -Azar Nafasi