5 years since I arrived for the first time

Now its officially over 5 years since I arrived to the "Central Kingdom" (5 years and 3 days to be exact). I still remember how me and Niko drove to the Helsinki airport a rainy and cold September morning taking a connective flight from London Heathrow. At Heathrow I remember the waiter in TGI Fridays who became pisst off because we didn't tip him (service was bad and food soso)

We arrived jetlaggd to Shanghai Pudong airport and my bag was gone. It took ages to report it because their english was very limited and I didn't even know where I was going to stay. I was getting worried that the people who were going to meet us would have left since we were hours late. After a lot of hazzle, little sleep for the last 16 hours and scorching hot airport where almost all people seemed to smoke we got out and the people from our school (Shanghai Finance University) greeted us and we drove to the dorm/hotel we were to stay in. The room was small and I had a few cockroaches in my room. Still remember one I caught in the toilet and named Gregor from Kafka's book. It died after 4 days without air, food or water. No wonder there are so many of them, they seem to survive no matter what.

So many things have happened to me after that day. I've seen and done more than I could ever have imagined. If you would have told me all the things that would follow the next 5 years I would probably not have believed you. Met so many interesting, funny, weird, dumb, great, wise and friendly people all over the world. Thank you all for being there for me when I needed help, when I was lost, when I had no idea what to do, was out of money, giving me advice, telling me stories, teaching me new things and made me understand the world better.

Now when I look back at all these things I know that the best choice I ever did was to come and explore the world. And if YOU ever considering in doing something different with your life or changing a new place to live, DO IT. Do not wonder too much because then it will never happen. There are always new opportunities and adventures waiting for you if you are willing to do so.

I noticed that I've grown apart from some of the people home and that every time I visit Finland people seem to have forgotten that I'm there. Always need to go through all the numbers and call around if I want to see someone.

My internet home has had some major problems, can only upload photos on 1 computer and that's REALLY slow. Last week I travelled about 7000 km around in China to different places. Will make a lot of entrys as soon as I get all photos edited and uploaded!

This has really been a roller-coaster ride! Let's see where the next loop or turn takes me!